A few quotes that I highlighted along the way:

“The era of one-size-fits-all is ending, and in its place is something new, a market of multitudes.”

“The great thing about broadcast is that it can bring one show to millions of people with unmatchable efficiency. But it can’t do the opposite — bring a million shows to one person each. Yet that is exactly what the Internet does so well.”

“Seen broadly, it’s clear that the story of the Long Tail is really about the economics of abundance — what happens when the bottlenecks that stand between supply and demand in our culture start to disappear and everything becomes available to everyone.”

Mini-connoisseurs … mass customization

Definitely worth the read.

• a sound and consistent pre-shot routine
• playing one shot at a time, staying in the present – it amazes me still how much golf and life are alike!

While he’s lead a pretty darn interesting life, it just didn’t read well for me. What I got out of this book (or the first 100 pages that I read) -

• work your ass off
• you will make plenty of mistakes and bad decisions, just keep on trudging ahead and don’t be afraid to screw up. be sure to learn from your mistakes!

Anyhow, I decided to read this book (given from a friend as a holiday gift to my wife) to see if I could relate to the teen generation of today.  I’m all about user experience in my business and in my perceptions of everyday life, and I wanted to get a glimpse into the mind of today’s high schooler.  To my surprise, I was able to relate quite a bit. I guess going into it, I underestimated the mental and emotional capacities of someone that age (at least I was pretty simple during those times in my life).  Now I realize that kids these days are a lot smarter than I was back in the day.

I really enjoyed the two main characters, Bella & Edward.  It was a believable love story, except for the vampire part (they’re not real, right?). The author made being a vampire sound pretty fun. Anyways…

We’ll probably see a lot of vamps for Halloween this year. Of course, now I want to watch Twilight the movie.

Seth writes in a very matter of fact style. This book reads like he is simply stating facts about what works and what doesn’t work for marketing a new company since the Internet came onto the scene. There were a ton of nuggets throughout this book, a few that stood out to me are listed below. This is definitely one of those books that goes on the “keeper” shelf to be flipped through for bits of wisdom over the next decade.

I look forward to reading more of his work. What really appeals to me about Meatball is that his points make sense after you think about them. It’s just a matter of taking an honest look at your business environment (which has changed for just about every business since the Internet came around) and adapting in the most logical ways possible. Very good stuff, and it makes very good sense. But it’s difficult to change — old habits die hard — even though our business environment and customers in general have changed dramatically.

1. The 4 Hour Work Week – anxious to read this one…
2. The Man from Earth
3. Good to Great
4. Built to Last
5. The Art of War
6. Richest Man in Babylon
7. Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki

Any suggestions?

Done:

1. Valley Boy by Tom Perkins (07/01/09)
2. Golf is a Game of Confidence by Dr. Bob Rotella (5/23/09)
3. Meatball Sundae by Seth Godin (02/23/09)

I’ve noticed that just about every smart person I know seems to read a lot. Personally, I hardly ever read and was never much of a reader growing up. So, this is an attempt to read more regularly.

If you have a book recommendation, let me know!