I Hate People...But It's Nothing Personal

Hating Heinousness

2010-02-19T10:39:46-08:00

Besides what words of wisdom you might find on this blog or in our I Hate People! business book, there is plenty of other useful info out on the web to help you deal with those implacable office oafs. You just need to know where to look. Someone who knows her stuff when it comes to tangling with troublesome teammates is Nicole Williams, author of the bestselling Wildly Sophisticated: A Bold New Attitude for Career Success and Earn What You’re Worth, as well as the more recent Girl On Top. This week she posted some handy hints over on HumanResourcesIQ.com...

Hating Rubber Bands

2010-02-17T08:48:22-08:00

Sure, this video is a few years old. And it's scripted, as an ad for a stationery chain store. It's still kind of funny, safe for work, and a good way to spend 34 seconds to yourself.

Hating Details (or "The Snore-closure")

2010-02-15T08:12:26-08:00

Bank of America — already dressed down in this space for bad decisions, mismanagement and conduct unbecoming a major financial institution — has now perfected the "snore-closure". That's when a bank forecloses on a house that they don't even have a stake in. Just ask Charlie and Maria Cardosa of Spring Hill, Florida, about it. Accoding to news reports, Charlie says that he shot his life's savings — about $140 grand — in 2005 to pay cash for the three-bedroom house with a pool. He and his wife live in New Bedford, Mass., and were renting the house out to...

Guest Post: Eight Soloist Secrets About Side Projects

2010-02-09T03:00:00-08:00

I’m a big fan of the whole Soloist concept. Anytime you branch out and do your own thing unencumbered is a good time. Couple that with a bunch of Soloists getting together to form an Ensemble and, to me, that just oozes creativity and innovation. As a refresher, a Soloist is a highly creative type who can invent and build stuff. She relies on a group of liked-minded individuals for support, ideas and inspiration — her Ensemble. The Soloist thrives on solving novel problems and hates the corporate drones (or Sheeple) that get in her way. One thing I realized...

Hating is Beautiful in Silicon Valley

2010-02-08T03:00:00-08:00

Breaking myths is a time honored way to inspire hate, as the international communications consultant Elisabetta Ghisini (and head of Verba International) just discovered when she blogged about our book for the top Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera. Elisabetta wrote that I Hate People! (or Io Odio La Gente, the title of our Italian edition), “is also a social phenomenon, it demystifies the myth of teamwork and shreds to pieces the perception that working as a group is more productive.” This was not well received by certain Italians. Ghisini (author of Communicating the American Way) added fuel to the fire...

Hard to Hate What You Don't Have

2010-01-27T14:57:47-08:00

Have you seen Apple's new iPad? It was just announced today, with all of the usual Steve Jobs hoopla. Looks like an iPhone on steroids. Some of the functionality you can see in videos online is pretty awesome — like pages flipping when you read an ebook, for instance. For all it's inherent Appleness, however, the question hovers: "Do I need this thing?" Of course, three years ago I didn't "need" my iPhone. 26 years ago, I didn't "need" my first Macintosh computer. Now, of course, I can't imagine getting through the day very well without them. (Of course, I...

Bury Books, Inspire Reading

2010-01-22T09:05:32-08:00

Innovation is a funny thing. To break through you often have to muster the courage and insight to let go of what you know and cherish. Take books, for instance. The last few years publishers, booksellers and educators have bemoaned the sorry state of publishing and reading. Publishers in particular have complained that computers, cell phones and television have stolen the time and interest of readers. The truth is that it’s time to bury books. New York publishers and floundering bookstore chains have contributed mightily to the demise of books in America. Herds of publishers have focused on celebrity books...

Hire McGwire, Bury Bonds

2010-01-15T06:30:12-08:00

What's the moral of Mark McGwire's decade-late, half-baked steroids confession? White sluggers who juice get jobs, black all-time home run kings get indicted and run out of the game. The larger storyline in Major League Baseball's long running freak show has been largely ignored. Mark McGwire, the former home run monster with the Oakland A's and later the St. Louis Cardinals, boasting Popeye-sized arms and eye-popping homers, has gotten a very different ride by baseball officials, the government and the media than his erstwhile San Francisco Giants neighbor, Barry Bonds. It's a black and white issue. McGwire's steroid-jacked and record-breaking...