Invaluable advice: 11 steps to a better brain. I'm just waiting to hear that Modafinil is becoming standard issue at all the major investment banks.

Personal Productivity | Leadership and Management

Thomas Weber of the Wall Street Journal writes today about Backpack, a joint web-based to-do list. He also mentions several personal productivity blogs, along the same lines as Brain Food, and many of them inspired in part by Getting Things Done. These are worth checking out: - Lifehacker - 43 Folders - To-Done!

Personal Productivity

We are seeking interns this summer/fall who would like to work on the marketing campaign for our new book, The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online, and for our resource website, TheVirtualHandshake.com.

This is ideal for a college or MBA student interested in a full-time or part-time internship this summer/fall, working from wherever you like.

Ideally, you are based in either New York or Houston. Here's the elevator pitch:

In Summer 2005, the American Management Association will release The Virtual Handshake. This is the first mass market book on building business relationships online, and specifically social software.

Extensive information on the book, including a blog and detailed site guide, is at www.TheVirtualHandshake.com . In particular, the book discusses such companies as LinkedIn, Ecademy, Ryze, Skype, Tribe.net, Craigslist, Friendster, Myspace, TheFaceBook, and so on.

Our publisher, the American Management Association, is a global not-for-profit, membership-based association that provides a full range of management development and educational services to individuals, companies and government agencies worldwide, including 486 of the Fortune 500 companies.

BENEFITS TO YOU

 + Learn about blogs, social networking sites, and social software in general.

 + Learn about viral marketing, public relations, and the publishing industry.

 + Work with many thought leaders/industry leaders in social software.

+ Build a powerful personal network. + Significant creative input and flexibility .

+ Very positive references (if merited).

+ Opportunity to work with mentoring-oriented authors.

+ Contribute and grow up to and beyond the level of your abilities.

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES

+ Learn about blogs, social software, and online social networks and how businesspeople are using these new technologies + Contribute to the marketing plan for the book.

+ Contact bloggers and recruit them to review the book and participate in our affiliate program.

+ Contact newspapers/ magazines and recruit them to review the book.

+ Network with opinion leaders.

QUALIFICATIONS

+ Experience with blogs, the publishing industry, internet marketing, and online social networks highly desirable. + Excitement about being part of the team producing an innovative book.

+ Highly motivated self-starter who has sales/client relationship experience, and a track record of continuous self-improvement, high achievement, and aggressiveness.

+ Strong interpersonal communication skills, adept writing, editing, and presentation skills.

+ Poised, professional demeanor.

INCLUDE WITH DETAILED RESUME

+ Dates/hours of availability during the summer./fall + Evidence of writing/communication/editing skills, including writing samples (e.g., articles you have written for a mass market, non-academic audience)

+ Location. You can do all of the work on this project remotely. However, if you are in the New York or Houston area, that is very preferable.

COMPENSATION

+ Through the Amazon affiliate program. Please see http://thevirtualhandshake.com/affiliate-amazon.htm . HOW TO APPLY Contact via e-mail only; do not call.

 Save your resume in Microsoft Word format with the name “Last Name_First Name_Year.doc", e.g., “Smith_John_2004.doc".

Please make sure that you include all of the information that we request above, or we will not be able to consider your application. Please send resume and cover letter to TMaster(at)Teten.com with “Book Marketing" and your name in the subject line. For example, write “Book Marketing–Smith John".

Career Acceleration | Social Software

Are you interested in s-e-x? Would you say that publicly?

There are at least a few Silicon Valley executives who readily admit this in their profiles on social network site Tribe.net, or demonstrate it by the tribes of which they are members.

While some people are comfortable with a seamless blend of their business and personal lives, most people have some kind of boundaries between these aspects of their lives, a sort of faceted identity, as danah boyd calls it.

 In our latest FastCompany.com column, Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places, we take a look at three dominant categories of networks: social networks, knowledge networks, and business networks.

 While these rarely exist in isolation, any given community tends to have one dominant mode. Recognizing and respecting the dominant mode within a given group will make the group more receptive to your participation, and ultimately make you more effective in your interaction with the group. Read more...

Leadership and Management | Personal Productivity | Social Software

From the New York Times, in an article on why and how active people burn so many calories than the inactive:

At meetings, [Dr. Levine] stands instead of sitting. Talking on the telephone, he paces around. In his office he has a treadmill in place of a desk. ... "My computer is stationed over the treadmill," he said. "I work at 0.7 miles an hour." A stand-up desk might seem simpler, but he prefers the treadmill. ... "Walking at work, first of all it's addictive," he said. "It's terribly good fun. I actually feel happier, particularly in the afternoon. You might think you come home exhausted, but you don't. You come home energized." For him, the treadmill has eliminated the afternoon slump, when a lot of people feel sleepy and crave candy bars or caffeine.

Personal Productivity

Venture capitalist Christian Mayaud, like me a follower of the Getting Things Done philosophy, posts his dream system for high-volume email management, , using technologies available today.

Social Software | Personal Productivity

The NY Times profiles legendary entertainment lawyer Bert Fields: Telling Hollywood It's Out of Order. Fields has never lost a case. My favorite part:

Even with the 35-minute commute from Malibu to his office in Century City, Mr. Fields says he still bills more hours than any of the 100 lawyers at his firm, Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman Machtinger & Kinsella, and he still returns home daily to Malibu to make lunch. A key to his efficiency is that he doesn't "do lunch," he said, nor dinner, drinks or breakfasts with clients. "I made a deal with myself many years ago that I would never socialize to get business," he said. "And I never have. Lawyers should get business because people think they're good lawyers."

Mr. Fields is truly a salesman after my own heart. Keith Ferrazzi/Tahl Raz in their book, "Never Eat Alone", emphasize the importance of getting business in large part because people like you and you are charming. Charm helps, charm counts, but Character and Competence trump mere charm every time.

General | Personal Productivity | Leadership and Management | Career Acceleration

From Mobile Pipeline, via Arieanna Foley:

Basically, the new phishing model will start with a log-in page for a public WiFi network. What you'd expect at any hotspot, really. ... Without realizing it, the user will enter personal information to the logon page, whereupon the hacker will proceed to put 45 or so viruses onto the computer. The attack is specifically targetted at business people - it will typically take place at a tradeshow, airport or conference. What can you do? Use a firewall. Use only those websites that have SSL security (watch for the logo and click on it). Try to use a VPN (virtual private network). Don't stay connected to the wireless network if you don't need to be.

Social Software | Personal Productivity

Danyel Fisher of Microsoft writes:

So you've got a spreadsheet with hierarchical data. Something like this, say, which shows how different divisions of XYZ corp are doing at sprocket, widget, and screw sales:

Unfortunately, it's kind of hard to read this. How much overhead is in Sprockets but not in one of the subdivisions? Where are the trouble spots?

This is, of course, where data visualization comes in.

This draws regions' size as the number of employees, and the color linked to profit or loss.

And now, you can just click one button in Excel to get it. More For an example of a map of the stock market with this approach, see SmartMoney's MarketMap.

General | Personal Productivity | Public Markets Investing | Securities Research

Blogging on this topic may qualify as a self-contradictory act, but here's a useful list of ways to avoid procrastination.

General | Personal Productivity

I've been quiet on this blog for the last month, because we've been completing a major redesign.

I'd welcome feedback on the completely redesigned site, Teten.com, courtesy of Jason Coward at OpenGeek.

In separate news:

 Are you interested in reading a preview copy of my forthcoming book, The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online?

If you write for a major newspaper, magazine, or other media vehicle...or if you run a blog with a significant readership...or even if you would just like to write a note about the book in your in-house corporate newsletter...then I would be happy to send you a copy.

 Or perhaps you know someone in the media who would be interested in the book? I'd be very grateful for an introduction! This will be the first mass market book about how people can become dramatically more successful by leveraging online networks: find a new job, new clients, or new business partners.

 More technically, this is the first mass market book about “social software": blogs, social networking sites, relationship capital management software, and so on.

 The CEOs of many of the leading companies in this industry have already raved about the book, including the CEOs of Military.com, Best Software, Ecademy, Cvent, Contact Network, and Ryze...not to mention Craig Newmark (founder of craigslist), Bob Cialdini (bestselling author of Influence), and Ivan Misner (Business Network International), among many others. My coauthor Scott Allen and I have submitted the 99.9%-final version of the book to our publisher, the American Management Association, and are now seeking reviewers.

 If you’re interested, please mail your name, affiliation, title, and mailing address as soon as possible to TMaster(at)Teten.com . Please note that we have only limited supplies of the bound gallies.

Extensive information about the book, including a blog and resource center, are at TheVirtualHandshake.com. If appropriate, you may also be interested in joining our Amazon affiliate program. Thank you!

Career Acceleration | General | Leadership and Management | Personal Productivity | Private Equity Investing | Public Markets Investing | Securities Research | Social Software