Posts by Scott Barstow

The question that trumps all other questions when starting out with a new idea: “What is the question you are answering?” If you can’t articulate a concise response in less...

There are times when it’s appropriate to take on new things.  Opportunities present themselves that seem like they will lead somewhere, and so time and energy is committed and spent....

After a couple of months away due to laziness, the monthly Books to Read list is back.  There are some good ones in this month’s list.  I hope you enjoy...

I write a lot on this blog about stupid things that businesses do, not so much to be critical of them but to remind all of us that every single...

A few weeks back I was having breakfast with Bruce Benedict, the proprietor and creator of Cardiphonia.  Cardiphonia is a music label in the 21st century sense of the word,...

I read this quote on Seth Godin’s blog today from Martin Luther King, Jr.  It’s tremendous, and worth repeating, especially with the circus we are about to endure in an...

I spent the week between Christmas and New Years in Tulsa, OK visiting family.  On one of the days my wife and I decided to go get some coffee (or...

A man with two clocks never knows the time. A man cannot serve two masters. These independent thoughts have in common the distraction of having two of something.  In the...

I usually pull most of the books I recommend each month from my current reading list.  Last month, however, was a particularly bad month for reading for me.  I seemed...

If you use Twitter, there is a well-kept secret about starting your tweets with @.  If the first character in your tweet is a Twitter address (e.g. @joeblow), only the...

Except, well, death. When I am in periods like I am right now, where everything is going sideways, it’s a good reminder that there are very few things that are...

I rarely delve into politics on this blog.  The reason for this is that I aim primarily for this blog to be informative and interesting, and politics is usually neither....

A few years back I went to see a Switchfoot concert at a college nearby.  At the time I knew who they were, but would not have considered myself a...

As we wind down 2011, the following is my must-read list for December.  These books are a combination of recently read and a classic that have a theme of great...

I am spending this week with family in upstate NY.  My parents have lived in the same house for close to 45 years, and I love getting up here a...

I am guilty many times of rushing to judgement about how widespread technology adoption is among the general population in the US.  I often presume that because I know about...

I have been a customer of Gmail since 2004.  Since that time, nearly all of my email has been stored with Google.  It’s something I fret about from time to...

I was listening to an interview with REM the other night on NPR.  Michael Stipe and Mike Miles were in studio, talking about closing out three decades of amazing music....