jakelacaze.com

Just as the title says, not much going on lately, but I feel that I should update for the sake of it anyway.

This holiday season was very pleasant. Megan and I didn’t do anything special, but the massive snow (massive for Texas standards; it’s not like we got as much as Philadelphia recently) was a nice surprise. We spent Christmas day together. No gifts, we’re using our money to buy things we need to furnish the townhouse.

Megan’s sister and brother-in-law came into town yesterday. They brought their dogs, and Barack has been freaking out. I’m convinced: there’s no denying that he has anxiety. We need to do something for him because he freaks out whenever we leave him at the house or whenever we have company. He’s such a sweet dog, but his anxiety is torture for him. I’ve never seen this behavior in a dog, but hopefully we can do something about it.

Anyway, I hope everyone has had a pleasant holiday. And I hope you all have a Happy New Year.

Oil! by Upton Sinclair is the book that inspired the movie There Will Be Blood starring Daniel Day Lewis. I loved There Will Be Blood and so I decided to check out the book.

If you’re looking for anything related to There Will Be Blood, don’t read this book. Honestly, I’m not sure that the movie had to give credit to Oil!. There is no Daniel Plainview accompanied by his boy H. W. Instead, there are J. Arnold Ross and J. Arnold Ross, Jr., otherwise known as Bunny. And the book actually follows adult Bunny rather extensively. The lad even goes to college!

Sure, there are Paul and Eli Watkins, but Paul plays a bigger part than Eli.

And the book is much more political than There Will Be Blood. To me, the movie was more about the demise of one person, Daniel Plainview, whereas Oil! is about the corruption of capitalism and petroleum.

If you’ve also read The Jungle, then you won’t be surprised that this book is full of pro-Socialist propaganda.

The book is a simple read, yet it took me forever to finish. The subchapters are extremely short, about 2-3 pages a piece, which makes it hard to get a flow for the book. All in all, I enjoyed this book. However, I do feel this is one of those rare cases where the movie was better than the book.

So I was at Target this morning when I saw a demo display for the Sony Reader. I had heard vaguely about these new Readers, but didn’t know much about them. After watching the video for a couple of minutes, I wanted one. The only problem was that it cost $199, so I think I can wait awhile.

It’s a great concept: hundreds of books all consolidated into one gadget. You can highlight and make notes on the text. You can even use a built-in dictionary for those annoying words you can’t define.

Just buy books on an iTunes-like program, transfer them to your Reader, and you’re good to go.

I guess this proves that everything is going digital.

I’d like to thank James Gwartney, Richard L. Stroup, and Dwight R. Lee for getting together and writing Common Sense Economics: What Everyone Should Know About Wealth and Prosperity. Economics is not all that complicated, but it can seem that way. This book is not loaded with terminology and formulas for the reader to get lost in. Everything is kept simple so that you can easily follow along.

This book looks at situations both big and small (macroeconomics and microeconomics). The authors lay down some fundamentals of economics, identify sources of economic progress and the role of government, and even give some tips on how you can improve your personal economy starting today. Nothing in this book is truly revolutionary or groundbreaking. As the title suggest, it’s just good ol’ common sense.

For those who do not know, Seth Godin is the founder of Squidoo. To be honest, I do not truly understand Squidoo. It seems like a blog to me. But it’s helped to launch Seth Godin’s career, so it must be something good.

I’ve read three of Seth Godin’s books (All Marketers Are Liars, The Dip, and Meatball Sundae) and part of his e-book Unleashing the Ideavirus. I also follow his blog, which is loaded with daily tidbits of knowledge and insight.

No matter the medium, Godin’s message is consistent and clear: the business environment is changing. The way people do business is changing. Seth Godin identifies the changes, and he wants to give you all the information you need to make it in this new environment.

Traditional marketing methods are losing their effectiveness. Spending big money on extravagant television ads won’t get satisfactory results, thanks to innovations such as TiVo and DVR’s. The Goodyear blimp is now just a tradition; I doubt anyone rushes out to buy tires because of a giant balloon in the sky. Interrupting people with loud Internet ads and bombarding them with spam will only turn them off.

Today, businesses don’t go after customers. Customers go after businesses. If people want to find you, they will look for you. Your job is to make it easy for them to do so. And you have to make them care. About you. This is the challenge that businesses face today. And Godin has all the answers.

Consumers have more options than ever before. How are you going to get and, more importantly, maintain their attention?

Godin says, Give something away for free. E-books, blogs with valuable information — don’t be afraid to give away something. Think of yourself as the sample-guy at Wal-Mart on Sunday afternoons. Give until it hurts!

Be unique. Be different. Be a purple cow, something that people can’t help paying attention to. Don’t be afraid to stand out. That’s what people want now. They want something to talk about — something that doesn’t feel like word-of-mouth or promotion. They want something worth repeating. And that’s where the real challenge lies.

You can’t be afraid to lose control. You can not dictate a consumer’s every move. Instead, you’ve got to give consumers a part in building your brand. People enjoy spreading the word about something good. They like passing it on, whether it’s a link to a hilarious YouTube video, information for a great weekend getaway, or the name of some fabulous restaurant. People want to let others know. You have to make sure people talk about you, and make it as easy as possible for them to spread your message for you.

Although I love Louisiana Tech University and thank them for giving me an education and a degree, I feel that I’ve learned so much more from Seth Godin in a short amount of time.

A book I enjoyed very much…

I first heard about Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. when Seth Godin dropped a reference in his book All Marketers Are Liars. Whenever I tried to check The Tipping Point out from the public library, the book was always checked out. As I finally reserved the book online, I felt this had to be a good read. And was I right!

The Tipping Point is one of those rare books that makes you look at things differently — much like Freakonomics.

The focus of the book (how little things can make a big difference) is concerned with social epidemics: word-of-mouth epidemics, fashion epidemics, business epidemics. The stories and case studies include an interesting mix. The Tipping Point has a little bit of everything: business and marketing, psychology, sociology, parenting, and much, much more.

Some of the issues explored include drops in crime, rise in STD rates, the importance of environment vs. parental influence, and fashion explosions. The conclusions reached by in the book are anything but conventional.

The Tipping Point has something for everyone and should be required reading for the masses.