dave's journal: My reading list

October 11, 2004

Zachronyms by David Zach

For those of you who didn't know it, I have a book. Not your typical futuristic, gee whiz sort of book you'd expect from a futurist, but a simple, funny book that helps you look at the here and now from a few new directions.

I'm convinced that a good sense of humor is the most important strategic skill you can develop. If you don't believe that, then consider an old Jewish saying that goes "If you want to get God to laugh, then tell him about your plans." Make all the plans you want, but always know that your plans may lead you to someplace unexpected.

The book is entitled Zachronyms, so named by a local reporter, and grew out of my demographic research work at Northwestern Mutual Life. Demographic reports can be a bit dry, so I decided to improve them, without permission, by adding those funny lifestyle acronyms that were so popular back in the 1980s. (There's a clear reason why I'm doing the work I do and not still at the Mothership.) People kept asking me to put them in a list; that list got faxed around (this was pre-email) and it started getting great press and even global attention.

A copy of that list is available in the Handouts section of my website.

I started getting new ones sent to me from as far away as England. Even Timothy Leary sent me some. (During his very late night phone call I asked him if he was THE Timothy Leary, and he replied, "I don't know." That proves it was him.) After collecting hundreds of them, I published them in a book back in 1998 and use it primarily as a reward for good and bad behavior in my audiences as well as a fund raiser for the likes of the American Red Cross and various client charitable foundations. Audiences seem to like the book as they typically start to interact more when they know that might get them a copy.

If you didn't get a chance to act up in my audience, you can still get one by going to amazon.com. The link to amazon is below, where, gosh, you can buy used copies of my book for as little as 61 cents! Now you can buy them for all your friends too! For those of you who would be happy with just with an eBook version, check the Download section of my website.


Posted by dmzach at 10:05 AM

dave's journal: My reading list

January 06, 2004

IEEE Spectrum Forecasts

In the latest issue of a Spectrum Online you'll find their special report: 2004 TECHNOLOGY FORECAST & REVIEW. These are no ordinary geeks, these people have engineering degrees.

Posted by dmzach at 07:19 PM

dave's journal: My reading list

October 19, 2003

Strange News for Strange Times



Well, as I'm staying in Buck's condo while here in New York City, it makes a lot of sense for me to tell you about his new book that's being released next week. It's an easy book for me to promote because it's so funny and insightful. Buck has one of the best jobs on the planet investigating everything from Michael Jackson's flirtation with Judaism, to a guy who legally changed his name to GOD (and later threatened to sue Buck for taking his name in vain...) and even interviewed the developer of prosthetic testicles for the guilty owners of dogs whom they, well, got guilt because of what they did to their dogs.

Weird? You bet it is, but if you want to find trends early, you do need to look on those edges of society and see what's trying to push their way in. Thankfully, most of the fringe stays there or quickly fades away, but there are other parts of that edge that give you hints of what will be mainstream soon enough. All that weird stuff that you now see as part of the mainstream today had to start someplace and somebody has to report it. Once you read Buck Wolf's take on it, you'll know he's the right one for it.

For the past five years, part of Buck's job is to investigate the fringes of culture, in a column called News You Might Have Missed for abcnews.com. Click here for a link to his complete archive of articles. While there, you might want to also check out his write up of my book in one of his early columns, Dinkwads, Doggie Rogaine & Dining With Jesus.

Posted by dmzach at 05:54 PM

dave's journal: My reading list

October 11, 2003

In Ruins by Christopher Woodward



Anyone who thinks the future is going to be a success, should also know that it might well be a failure. Like so many others, we too may fall. In Ruins, a collection of essays by Christopher Woodward, explores a diversity of history that does question our popular assumption that our own progress will win out over time. Time will tell. What time has told us so far is that no one and no civilization lives forever.

My favorite anecdote in the book describes the Coliseum. In the centuries after Rome's fall, the Coliseum became refilled with life. One botanist in 1855 cataloged 420 species of plants all living there. People lived in the ruin too, including a famous hermit (how disappointing for him!). For centuries it had inspired artists and lovers. Starting in 1874, they started removing the dirt and the plants and of course, the hermit. After that it was no longer romantic, it was an artifact. It may have still fascinated, but it no longer inspired. What is it about us that wants our ruins to be romantic?

Click on the link above to take you to amazon.com to read other reviews.

Posted by dmzach at 09:22 PM

dave's journal: My reading list

The Substance of Style


Posted by dmzach at 06:37 PM

dave's journal: My reading list

October 07, 2003

Adbusters

www.adbusters.org

When I read Adbusters, I disagree with about 75% of it. The other 25% is important and embarrassing as they point to all the contradictions of living in late-term capitalism and long-term globalism.

An appropriate quote to define their efforts:
"You can never get enough of what you really don't need."
Eric Hoffer

Posted by dmzach at 10:23 PM

dave's journal: My reading list

Powells Books Reviews

www.powells.com

A favorite site. Sign up for their free review-a-day service. For those of you like me who can't possibly read all the books people think you should read, now you can have lots of reviews you also don't have time to read...

Posted by dmzach at 10:12 PM

dave's journal: My reading list

Opinion Journal

www.opinionjournal.com

The editorial features and additions from the Wall Street Journal.

Posted by dmzach at 10:00 PM

dave's journal: My reading list

Fast Company

www.fastcompany.com

For fast companies and the people who love them. All about living and working in times that are not so fast any more. I've grown skeptical about a mag devoted to corporate speed, but still willing to give it a perusal from time to time.

Posted by dmzach at 09:53 PM

dave's journal: My reading list

Wired

www.wired.com

How to be cool, geekish and successful all in one.

Posted by dmzach at 09:47 PM | Comments (0)

dave's journal: My reading list

The Utne Reader

www.utne.com

They like to call themselves the best of the alternative press. Well, it's the best if you're firmly on the left. On the other hand, most trends start on the fringes and work their way to the center or fall into the trash bin of history. Sometimes they live on in some commune or on a fashionable university.

It's a good, if biased source for trend watching.

Posted by dmzach at 09:44 PM

dave's journal: My reading list

Technology Review

http://www.technologyreview.com/index.asp

www.technologyreview.com

Posted by dmzach at 09:34 PM

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