Why breakfast meetings?

I’m a big fan of early morning breakfast meetings, typically scheduling 3-4 a week with other entrepreneurs, clients, advisers, colleagues and investors (although I try to avoid meetings on Monday).

For the most part, it’s quality time.

People often ask: why breakfast? Ten reasons:

1. The conversation is better (better listening, better perception, better thinking)
2. I get to ride my bike down the Hudson early in the morning
3. The one-on-one social interaction is a great way to kick-start the day…
4. … and build meaningful relationships
5. I can arrive early to start reading the newspapers, pretending I’m on vacation for 20 minutes…

IBC recommends | 37signals contact & project management software

I’m following a handful of blogs closely these days and one of them is Signal vs. Noise by 37signals. 37signals is a new-school software outfit offering a handful of excellent web-based tools, most of which are designed for small business use. They blog at Signal vs. Noise to talk about new products, stay in touch with their customers/community, and share their views on business, design and working smarter.

I highly recommend the Signal vs. Noise blog as well as the two 37signals products that I’m currently using. The first is “Highrise”, which is a web-based contact management system. The second is “Basecamp” which handles project management. Both are powerful, affordable, well-designed and easy-to-use platforms for start-ups and small companies, especially those with remote/disparate teams.

Hands-free typing with MacSpeech Dictate

Hello readers. Believe it or not, I am writing this post without typing! Yes, I am testing some new voice recognition software (MacSpeech Dictate, $199 at Tekserve) that I bought today as part of my campaign to reduce the pain in my hands (carpal tunnel syndrome). So far, so good. It’s quite a feeling to be writing a blog post without typing, feet up on the desk, cold beer on hand, character after character appearing on the screen in front of you. And thus far, no mistakes!

Tips for fighting carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS)

Anyone out there have carpal?

My hands/wrists/arms have been stiffening up like banchees since I started this blog!

I mentioned it to my doctor but he kind of glossed over it…

So I’ve been DIY’ing online to see what might be causing this, and how I might cure it (it’s actually quite painful on some days and has started to interfere with my work).

According to the New York Times’s Health Guide (which is a great resource):

“Carpal tunnel syndrome is compression of the median nerve at the wrist, which may result in numbness, tingling, weakness, or muscle damage in the hand and fingers.”

Carpal is caused by repetitive handwork over long periods, and can be exacerbated by stress, bad posture, etc.

l’m guessing my symptoms stem from all this blogging as I’m not handling a heavy jack-hammer or anything like that, at least not on a regular basis.

Richard Florida, “creative class” expert, calls for density vs. sprawl

Interesting POV from Richard Florida (author of the seminal work, The Rise of the Creative Class) in today’s WSJ re: the need for density to spur innovation:

“Nearly every expert on the subject agrees that innovation and productivity are driven by density. For the better part of a century, we’ve subsidized suburbanization. That stimulated consumption of cars and appliances, which drove the industrial economy and allowed families to buy affordable homes. But it also diffused the density that is increasingly required for innovation and growth. Of course, every place does not have to be like Tokyo or Manhattan. Silicon Valley-style density would probably be sufficient. We can still have suburbs, but our economic policy has to start to encourage density, not sprawl.”

I would like to do a Q&A with Mr. Florida here soon about innovation, density, sustainability… let’s see if we can swing that.

Boosting and smoothing your energy supply

How often do you think about managing your energy supply?

If you’re like me (until recently), probably not that often. Energy is what’s left after I’ve tackled my To Do list, that grand master of life, going up and down with a vengeance.

When my energy’s depleted, I work some more, take a vacation, “charge my battery”, then return to work to repeat the charge/expend cycle all over again.

This is a horrible way to live, I’m finding out…