This is a fascinating, albeit difficult to read book, subtitled, “Christopher Columbus, His Son, and the Quest to Build the World’s Greatest Library.” It is, in fact, a biography of Hernando Colon, the illegitimate son of Christopher Columbus. (Colon is the Spanish form of the name. Columbus is Latin. The Italian version is Columbo.) The […]
Author Archive | david lightfoot
Book Review: Rare Earth
The holiday time of year, for some reason, causes me to reflect on the Big Picture. By that I mean, the Really Big Picture subjects. In the fall of 2018, I had a blog titled, “Are We Alone in the Universe?” This blog was mostly about the Drake Equation and speculation about the chance for […]
This Time of Year
This time of year, we businesspeople are typically working on next year’s budget and year-end tax planning. During December 2020, most of us are adding Covid concerns and PPP Loan Forgiveness to our usual year-end list. Let’s briefly talk about each of these items. Budgets While Covid brought a whole new world for many, and […]
Book Review: Careful—A User’s Guide to Our Injury-Prone Minds
This the third of three book reviews on the general topic of human fallibility. The first two were The Invisible Gorilla and Why We Make Mistakes. This book, Careful—A User’s Guide to Our Injury-Prone Minds was written by Steve Casner, a psychologist, technologist and helicopter pilot. His work is taking an interdisciplinary approach to injury […]
Book Review: Why We Make Mistakes
This is the second of three book reviews, with the books having in common the topic of human fallibility. In my last blog, I reviewed The Invisible Gorilla. This review is on Why We Make Mistakes. The third and final review will be on the simply titled Careful. Why We Make Mistakes Why We Make […]
Book Review: The Invisible Gorilla–How Our Intuitions Deceive Us
This is the first of a three book reviews, of books on the topic of human fallibility. These three books were recommended to me by my friend, Mi Ae Lipe, who is a traffic safely advocate and expert. The first book, and the subject of this review, is The Invisible Gorilla. The next will be […]
Dashboards—Terrific Tool or the Latest Fashion?
The answer to the question posed in the title is a bit of both. With any business trend or fashion, there is always something of substance and value, and a tendency to overdo it, because, after all, we need to sell books, seminars, and consulting services. Dashboards began in the 1970s as businesses began using […]
Book Review: The Business Writer’s Handbook
Bidnes Cummunication is sooo impotent, it is literally won of the most impotent tings eye cann commiserate to you! Your judged ever day by you’re writin & oral communications. Literally. “It is sooo important that that I cant overemphasize it enuf”. The interwebs havent improoved this stuff any; and dont git me goin on twutter!!! […]
Book Review: Win Forever—Live, Work and Play Like a Champion, By Pete Carroll with Yogi Roth
I’m not a big sports fan and I’m certainly not a fan of athletes as heroes. But I’ve been intrigued by Pete Carroll of the Seahawks. I read that he views his job as making everyone in the Seahawks organization the best they can be. That’s how I view the job of any business manager. […]
Main Street Loans for Small Businesses and Middle Market Companies
While the Payroll Protection Program (PPP) loans have gotten lots of publicity, lost in the shuffle is another new loan program from the federal government meant to help during the pandemic. It is called the Main Street Lending Program (MSLP). While the Small Business Administration has long made available a variety of loan programs and […]