4 ms·
I had this thought a few months ago. I decided to read every Nebula / Hugo winner. I would also add, listening to good comedy albums and playing board / video
by mcu 18y ago
I had this thought a few months ago. I decided to read every Nebula / Hugo winner. I would also add, listening to good comedy albums and playing board / video games often.
I worked at a company where the President loved, Loved, LOVED pop business books. He hopped on every trend, told Seth Godin's stories as if they were his own (has a purple cow w\ the company logo, etc), and even tried to create a style of management based on Survivor.
When "seeking" knowledge he looked away from rigorous research and observation to the Amazon top lists.
I've never seen unhappier employees.
- amichail 18y agoDo you really need to read entire sci-fi novels to extract whatever cool ideas they may have? In terms of getting ideas for startups, 99% of a novel is probably irrelevant and it might be better to have a resource that just gives you the 1% that matters.
- mcu 18y agoYou, my friend, have completely missed the point. Any given idea in sci-fi (are they going to make us refer to it as syfy now?) may or may not be particularly useful in and of itself. Most ideas is sci-fi are completely impractical anyway, so why fret about it? Art / literature / music / what have you are not resources that can be mined. You can't freebase Heinlein (though I like the thought) or take a bump of Ernst. Follow your interests, experience works as a whole, and don't expect to be changed. I would argue that the difference between sci-fi and pop business is that few people truly enjoy business books (not to mention the fact that most business books have a shelf-life of 12 minutes.) They read them because they believe that they will put them on the path to, well, I don't know what. True there's wisdom to be had out there, but, you usually can't buy it for $19.99+S/H, regardless of genre. You can read "Time Enough For Love" or just the "Notebooks of Lazarus Long." You can drink wine with your friends or dash your brains out with 190-proof Everclear. The value is in the experience, not the proof. 1) Live life. 2) Don't be a douche. 3) Stop thinking about money. 4) Be genuinely interested in what you do. 5) Profit.
- mcu 18y agohttp://www.bobgod.com/lazaruslong.html http://www.bobgod.com/lazaruslong.html "Yield to temptation; it may not pass your way again."
- holygoat 18y agoContext is important.
- amichail 18y agoBut how much context is necessary?
- aaronasterling 18y agothat sounds like that show "the office" gone wrong. i'd hang myself