Link Roundup for 14 March 2012

Four things that summarize how I’m trying to live now.

• Leonard A. Schlesinger, Charles F. Kiefer, and Paul B. Brown talk about being able to turn an obstacle into an asset.
• Ira Glass on fighting through the gap between your good taste and work with a lot of potential.
• Kathryn Schulz explains what being wrong really means.
• And in the single most important talk I’ve seen in the last year, Dave Morris explains improv is a process and what the seven principles that underlie it are. (Key line: “Listening is the willingness to change.”

Link Roundup for 7 March 2012

Time to burn down the backlog of “things I’ve read that I think other people should, too.” The one thing these five pieces have in common is that they’re longer than my usual link roundup fare.

• Evan Hugh details the bizarre life story of sea monkey inventor Harold von Braunhut.
• Michael MacCambridge annotates Gay Talese’s classic Esquire profile of Joe DiMaggio.
• Joe Nocera interviews Sheila Bair, chair of FDIC during the financial crisis of 2008.
• Ernest B. Furgurson lays out Sir Winston Churchill’s alternate history of Confederate victory in the American Civil War.
• And Kathleen McAuliffe explains how your cat is making you crazy. (Mine is doing it by trying to walk on the keyboard while I’m typing this.)

Link Roundup for 12 February 2012

I’ve been sitting on a bunch of improv and storytelling links for a while… and now it’s time to share them.

• Marco Tempest calls himself a “techno-illusionist.” In this pair of short videos, you’ll see he’s quite a storyteller as well.
• Aparna Rao (along with her partner Soren Pors) creates visual art that tells jokes.
• Charlie Todd explains his experiences with Improv Everywhere and the importance of the shared experience of absurdity.
• Brian Raftery walks us through the early history of the Upright Citizens Brigade.
• Alex Lamb — who had I had the good fortune to meet at the AIN Bay Area Conference in 2010 — has a trio of posts on an archetype-based long-form improv format he create.
• My college friend Peter Rogers, who takes amazing notes on these kinds of things, recently attended five improv workshops and posted what he learned.

Link Roundup for 27 December 2011

Like everyone else, I’m clearing out some of my year-end links.

• Team2X brings us Jedi Ninjas.
• Seth Godin says “Don’t bother having a meeting if you’re not there to change or make a decision right now.”
• Susan Schorn (who also writes one of my favorite regular columns) answers questions about jingle bells.
• Ryan Macklin reminds us to just start something.

Link Roundup for 15 December 2011

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, so I figured I was due.

• Raymond Chen explains the importance of including the “rumors and gossip” agenda item.
• Dan Pink — illustrated by the talented folks at RSA Animate — lays out the fundamentals of his book Drive (which I just finished reading).
• Speaking of visualizing information, Randall Munroe gives us Money.
• Sam Adams recounts the curious history of a classic Muppets earworm.
• Chris Hardwick, in a excerpt from his upcoming book, offers self-help for nerds.
• And finally, Jenyne Butterfly presents one of the most athletic feats I’ve ever seen.