The Misfit Economy. Lessons in creativity from pirates, hackers, gangsters and other informal entrepreneurs. Alexa Clay and Kyra Maya Phillips.  2015. ISBN 9781451688825.  The two authors take a differentiated approach to change and reach into a grab bag of “misfits” who are commonly not held up to respect or as models of behavior. This  look is deeper than most as it brings out the “why’ of behaviors such as  nations like the US engaged in wide spread intellectual piracy in their early development, as China does now.   The book has gained a fair amount of social buzz as it contains controversial albeit commonplace information.  Good quote. Youth (eg ghetto, barrios, colleges etc) require love, belonging and opportunity. If they can not find it one way, they will find it in another.  I appreciated the dilemma of “do gooders” when faced with lofty goals or personal survival , too often the locals have to choose survival.   Like Eastern Europe’s booming  coal mining industry = jobs, where there have been few.  Read this book for its humanity and  pragmatism

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Don’t Be Such a Scientist. Talking substance in an age of style. Randy Olsen. 2009. ISBN  The author, a PhD in marine biology , left his professorship after 20 years to learn to be a filmmaker. In doing so he discovered the gulf between what scientists did wrto communication and what the public needed in order to understand science. Unfortunately, there are very few Carl Sagans. If you are analytical and literal minded you might enjoy this book as you experience the vast gulf between story and science.  This book is very important as the antiscience , gut feeling decisions are being made by what you would expect to be educated people .   Its an easy read that does the job quite well.

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Cover of Richard Feynman

” Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!“. Adventures of a curious character. Richard P. Feynman.  1985. ISBN 9780393316049.  Hilarious, thought provoking, bombast busting, too often right, all these things are Richard Feynman.  A physicist, Nobel prize winner, pure scientist,  drum player, artist, teacher and student of all things he will have you laughing and shaking your head at the absurdity of bureaucrats and often other scientists.  We should all aspire to his state of curiosity and skepticism.  Highly recommend this for a coast to coast airflight  read. You will never be the same.

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Buyer Personas. How to gain insight into your customers expectations, align your marketing strategies and win more business. Adelle Revella 2015. ISBN 9781118961506.  A very well considered book that provides a thorough analysis and playbook on building successful personas for your business.   .  Chapter 10 brings it together on how to help guide sales teams with buyer insights and decision  criteria to allow salespeople to do a much faster and better job of selling.   The pages are full of insights and good practice on this subject.   This is the authoritative text on the subject today and a must buy for all marketers.

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How to Be a Rockstar WordPress Designer. Chris Garrett & Leo Babauta.  2008.   A soup to nuts guide for those freelancers who wish to develop their own WordPress themes as well as how to use WordPress in a multitude of ways ( eg RSS aggregator, Music site, Design gallery, Podcasting , Social Network, Job Board, Video portal, Twitter clone, News aggregator, magazine site, and more.  For the serious web developer who wishes to really dig into the tool.