Resume Rule of Thumb

Less than 5 years experience probably only requires a one page resume ... more than that may need two.

Joost Elffers Rule of Thumb

Success gives pricing power.

Will Rogers Rule of Thumb

Everything is changing ... people are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.

Charles Kemmon Wilson Rule of Thumb

Opportunity comes often ... it knocks as often as you have an ear trained to hear it, an eye trained to see it, a hand trained to grasp it, and a head trained to use it.

Richard Feynman Rule of Thumb

Our imagination is stretched to the utmost, not, as in fiction, to imagine things which are not really there, but just to comprehend those things which are.

Thomas Watson Rule of Thumb

I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.

The Creativity SCAMPER Tool ...

To create a new product, apply SCAMPER to an old one ...

• Substitute
• Combine
• Adapt
• Modify, minimize, magnify
• Put to another use
• Eliminate, elaborate
• Rearrange, reverse

[Thank you, Bob Eberle]

David Baltimore Rule of Thumb

Under the most rigorously controlled conditions of pressure, temperature, volume, humidity, and other variables ... the organism will do as it damn well pleases.

Gordon Strang Rule of Thumb

Standard parts are not.

Fred Hermes Rule of Thumb

... but officer, I wasn't speeding, I was qualifying!

Betty White Rule of Thumb

If you lie to anybody on the planet, don't lie to that person reflected in the mirror ... always be able to meet your own eyes, and know that you're telling the truth.

Steve Wozniak Rule of Thumb

Know in your heart that you are a good person with good goals because that will carry over to your own self-confidence and your belief in your abilities.

Edward R. Murrow Rule of Thumb

We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty ... when the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it.

Stacy Blackman Rule of Thumb

Anyone can have a good idea, but it takes certain know-how to turn that idea into a profitable venture; entrepreneurs need a broad skill set to manage the range of tasks required for success.

Philip Crosby Rule of Thumb

Making a wrong decision is understandable ... refusing to search continually for learning is not.

Andrew Likierman Rule of Thumb

Innovation, as far as we're concerned, is one of the key drivers of everything that goes on in business ... I wouldn't have the nerve to get up in front of a group of sophisticated people and say something that didn't relate to the world that actually is.

Albert Meyer Rule of Thumb

Stock-based [executive] compensation plans are often nothing more than legalized front-running, insider trading, and stock-watering all wrapped up in one package.

John Wooden Rule of Thumb

Talent is God-given; be humble ... Fame is man-given; be thankful ... Conceit is self-given; be careful!

Lois McMaster Bujold Rule of Thumb

Ordinary people need extraordinary examples so they can say to themselves, well, if he can do *that*, I can surely do *this* ... no excuses.

Robert Swan Rule of Thumb

The challenge in the world today is not the lack of information; it is the lack of inspiration ... our job is to inspire people - to get them to believe the journey is possible - by showing them small, achievable steps.

Paul Tillich Rule of Thumb

Doubt isn't the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith.

Good Manager Tips ...

1. Be a good coach.
2. Empower your team and don't micro-manage.
3. Express interest in team members' success and personal well-being.
4. Be productive and results-oriented.
5. Be a good communicator and listen to your team.
6. Help your employees with career development.
7. Have a clear vision and strategy for the team.
8. Have key technical skills so you can advise the team.

Three manager pitfalls ...
1. Have trouble moving from individual contributor to team leader.
2. Lack a consistent approach to performance management and reviews.
3. Spend too little time managing and communicating.

[Thank you, Michelle Donovan & Prasad Setty]

Mary Poulton Rule of Thumb

Three PhD's do not a make an MBA.

Tax Day Rule of Thumb

When in doubt, deduct!

Dan Eklund Rule of Thumb

The fattest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference ... he acquired his size from too much pi.

Competitive Advantage Tip ...

Conventional wisdom says that to beat your competitors, you need to one-up them: if they have four features, you need five (or fifteen, or twenty- five) ... So what could you do instead? Do less than your competitors to beat them: Solve the simple problems and leave the hairy, difficult, nasty problems to the competition ... instead of one-upping, try one-downing ... instead of outdoing, try underdoing.

[Thank you, Jason Fried & David Hansson]

Innovation Tip ...

Innovation has a revolutionary reputation but an evolutionary reality. 

But note: Incremental change is not the same as incremental improvement. 

Workaholic Tip ...

Our culture celebrates the idea of the workaholic ... Not only is this workaholism unnecessary, it’s stupid. Working more doesn’t mean you care more or get more done. It just means you work more ... If all you do is work, you’re unlikely to have sound judgments. Your values and decision-making wind up skewed. You stop being able to decide what’s worth extra effort and what’s not.

[Thank you, Jason Fried & David Hansson]

Paul Baran Rule of Thumb

The process of technological developments is like building a cathedral. Over the course of several hundred years, new people come along and each lays down a block on top of the old foundations, each saying, ‘I built a cathedral.’ Next month another block is placed atop the previous one. Then comes along an historian who asks, ‘Well, who built the cathedral?’ Peter added some stones here, and Paul added a few more. If you are not careful you can con yourself into believing that you did the most important part. But the reality is that each contribution has to follow onto previous work. Everything is tied to everything else.

Hal Varian Rule of Thumb

Between the dawn of civilization and 2003, we only created five exabytes of data [5 thousand gigabytes]; now we’re creating that amount every two days ... by 2020, that figure is predicted to sit at 53 zettabytes (53 trillion gigabytes), an increase of 50 times. ... data is like food: we used to be calorie poor and now the problem is obesity; we used to be data poor, now the problem is data obesity!

Harold Pinter Rule of Thumb

There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false ... a thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false.

Cleanest Cities Tip ...

Olso, Kobe, Copenhagen, Adelaide, Minneapolis, Wellington, Helsinki, Ottawa, Honolulu, and Calgary.

[Thank you, CNBC]

Erma Bobeck Rule of Thumb

I am not a glutton ... I'm an explorer of foods.

Aretha Franklin Rule of Thumb

R-E-S-P-E-C-T ... find out what it means to me!

Jon Markman Rule of Thumb

If you can see a problem, then you can ignore it ... but if you aren’t sure what you see, paralysis ensues.

Mohandas Gandhi Rule of Thumb

An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.

Howard Schultz Rule of Thumb

It's not about the service, it's about the experience.

Tom Hanks Rule of Thumb

There's no crying in baseball ... it's the hard that makes it great!

Charlie Sheen Rule of Thumb

Never a trust a reporter to tell it like you want it told.

Edward R. Murrow Rule of Thumb

Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.