Da Facto: At least this time she did not hit me

Thursday, February 21, 2008

At least this time she did not hit me

Different kind of post. I noticed that all of the big bloggers are name droppers. Here is my most recent brush with greatness.

I ran into Barabra Minto a couple of weeks ago. She wrote the Pyramid Principle that I recommend on the right side of the page. I met her once before, at a McKinsey Alumni event. She introduced herself by hitting me fairly hard in the arm and calling me a jerk. She thought I looked like Ricky Gervaise from the British version of The Office; Since he plays the role of a jerk, she thought it would be funny to inflict some pain on him/me. As I said to her, before you hit someone, you might want to make sure they are who you think they are. We got it all straightened out and had a laugh. Fast forward 2 years. I saw her again at a McKinsey event and re-introduced myself, related the story, etc. When I got to the looking like Ricky part of the story she said "You do look like him." At least she is consistent.

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Thinking, Fast and Slow My Phd was in Behavioral Economics and Kahneman co-invented the field. This books sums up Kahneman's observations over an almost 50 year career. Amazing, though not for the uninitiated, overveiw of how people actually make decisions. Competing on Analytics This is a great read if your organization is just starting to realize the importance of analytics as a competitive advantage.

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The book links go through my Amazon Associates account. All proceeds to go for my kids education, buy them soldering irons, lathes, drill presses, that kind of thing.