Episode #73: Business Lessons from A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol (Dover Thrift Editions)

$2.25

By Charles Dickens

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On this episode, Ron and Ed explore the business lessons from one of the most recognized and beloved stories shared during the holidays, Charles Dickens’ novella, A Christmas Carol. While many of you know the story and seen one or more of the adaptations, many fewer of you have read the original work which, like most of Dickens, an absolute joy to read and has much to say about business practices.

“It is so good,” says Ron, “that you want to read it more slowly to savor it, like a fine wine.”

Ed is also a long time fan as is his daughter as you can see from this video clip.

Episode #72 - Free-Rider Friday - December 2015

Ed's Topics

Sent in from our listener, Hector Garcia: Netflix's paid maternity leave, along with a clip from John Oliver's show on the topic, and a TED talk that also makes the case for paid maternity leave.

Texas bans Teledoc App. Here's a Cato Institute podcast that discusses.

IBM Watson Trend App, which highlights tech, toys, and health.

"Netflix Should Ditch its Unlimited Vacation Policy," from the Huffington Post.

Manhattan DA Pushes for Lawful Backdoor Into Encrypted Phones, from NBC News.

Ron's Topics

Harvard Blog Post, "To Get More Creative, Become Less Productive."

From The Economist, "The heirs of Al Capone," discussing Meth labs v alcohol, and a classic "Bootleggers and Baptists" alliance whereby meth labs might argue for reinstating Prohibition!

The Wall Street Journal article, "Winning the Right to Save Your Own Life," by Darcy Olsen, President of the Goldwater Institute, on right-to-try laws passed by 24 states, giving terminally ill patients access to drugs.

From The Economist "Keep calm and click on: Google Books in court," discussing how a group of authors lost the case to prohibit Google Books from digitizing books because it violated copyright laws.

We also discussed Bitcoin's Blockchain technology, which some folks believe is revolutionary technology in the same way as double-entry bookkeeping. The Economist writes: "Simply put, it is a machine for creating trust."

See "The trust machine," and "The great chain of being sure about things," from The Economist, October 31, 2015,

Episode #71 - Best Business Books of 2015

Ed's Choice

Humans Are Underrated: What High Achievers Know That Brilliant Machines Never Will

$16.63

By Geoff Colvin

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Humans Are Underrated: What High Achievers Know That Brilliant Machines Never Will, by Geoff Colvin.

"Figuring out what computers will never do is an exceedingly perilous route to determining how humans can remain valuable."

Better strategy is to ask: "What are the activities that we humans, driven by our deepest nature or by the realities of daily life, will simply insist be performed by other humans, regardless of what computers can do.?"

Honorable Mentions

Uncontainable: How Passion, Commitment, and Conscious Capitalism Built a Business Where Everyone Thrives, by Kip Tindell.

A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas, by Warren Berger.

Uncommon Sense, Common Nonsense, by Jules Goddard and Tony Eccles.

We interviewed Jules Goddard on the January 16, 2015 show.

Ron' Choice

The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts

$24.98

By Richard Susskind, Daniel Susskind

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The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts, by Richard and Daniel Susskind.

"This book is about the professions and the systems and people that will replace them. Technology will be the main driver of this change. ...in the long run, we will neither need or want professionals to work in the way that they did in the twentieth century and before. We are advancing into a post-professional society."

We are interviewing Daniel Susskind on the show, which will run on January 8, 2016.

During the conversation Ed mentioned that his son's baseball team (10U) uses an application called GameChanger. In addition to scoring the game and tracking stats as well as performance trends, the system produces a story about each game which is Powered by Narrative Science, a company mention in the book. 

Here is a sample of one story:

Hudson Z's effort not enough to carry the Royals past the Cardinals, 4-3 

Hudson Z. held up his end of the bargain, but he couldn't guide the Royals past the Cardinals as the Royals lost 4-3 in four innings on Thursday. 

The Cardinals had no answer for Hudson, who kept runners off the basepaths in his appearance. The Cardinals managed just one hit off of Z, who allowed no earned runs, walked none and struck out none during his 1 1/3 innings of work. 

The Royals jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first. The Royals attack began with a single from Ethan M. The Royals then tacked on more runs when Narit C scored on an RBI single by M. 

The Cardinals stayed on top until the final out after taking the lead in the second, scoring four runs on an error and three singles.

Honorable Mentions

The Great Ulcer War, by William S. Hughes, M.D.

13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do, by Amy Morin.

Leadership BS: Fixing Workplaces and Careers One Truth at a Time, by Jeffrey Pfeiffer.

The Forgotten Depression: 1921: The Crash That Cured Itself, James Grant.

Sage Contest Winner

Bust Out!: Ignite Your Inner Entrepreneur

$20.00

By David Cohen

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The winner of the Sage Small Business of the Year Contest, in Canada, was David Cohen, Author, speaker, coach, lover of jazz, coffee bars, good conversation and baseball.

We interview David at the bottom of the hour.

Learn more about David at Theboomerbusinesscoach.com.