September 2019 Yesterday, I thought about how I used to be excited at the thought of getting something new – a new toy, a new game, a new bike, a new TV…. a new car. “Why,” I thought, “am I nervously sitting here – worried, anxious – waiting for my new computer?” The answer is…
Category: Business
Cape Cod will be very different in 50 years
November 2018 I have seen the future of Cape Cod, and I bet it’s not what you think. But first, some history: Years ago, one of the “futurists” writing at the time said that the economic history of the United States could be written in three words, “Farmer, Laborer, Clerk.” We started out as an…
Be good to your employees and your employees will be good to you
October, 2018 A century before Amazon used on-line sales to revolutionize how Americans bought things, becoming the new 500-pound gorilla in retail sales, Sears Roebuck used its 700-page printed catalog to do the same thing. Anyone could buy almost anything from the Sears catalog and have it delivered directly to their home – including a…
Riding the radio waves
November 2017 While I was at Brown University, the only thing I did outside of classes, studying and working in the library was work at the college radio station, WBRU. I learned more about politics and business at WBRU – a closed circuit station that broadcast only on campus – than in any of my…
My best selling books
October 2017 Back in the early 70’s, an art director friend (Marty Riskin) told me that a company he did work for, having made a lot of money doing calendars and books featuring a nude fat woman thy caked ”Bridget”, was looking for someone to do “dirty” crosswords. My friend knew I had learned about…