I've been working on long-term projects which have stopped me starting some new projects.
Should I start the new ones anyway? No. I agree with Johanna Rothman here: put your priority into finishing projects if you can before you start new ones.
Her list method makes sense and helps sort out what you need to do next to take that almost-finished project to the next step before you start something else.
Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior has been getting good reviews.
An age-old question that small business owners face all the time is, “Why do intelligent people make stupid choices?” Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior
HBS has published a Working Paper by Chugh, Milkman, and Bazerman on How Can Decision Making Be Improved?
They pose the problem as follows:
If we all behaved optimally, costs and benefits would always be accurately weighed, impatience would not exist, gains would never be foregone in order to spite others, no relevant information would ever be overlooked, and moral behavior would always be aligned with moral attitudes. Unfortunately, we have little understanding of how to help people overcome their many biases and behave optimally.
The article discusses System 1 and System 2 thinking and how we can move from one to the other.
System 1 refers to our intuitive system, which is typically fast, automatic, effortless, implicit, and emotional. System 2 refers to reasoning that is slower, conscious, effortful, explicit, and logical.
Any new business has to satisfy a need (or convince customers there is a need to be filled). It can answer that question: Why doesn't somebody do something about that?
Paul Graham has written about Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund.
And here are 10 Totally Stupid Online Business Ideas That Made Someone Rich.
The Secrets to Successful Strategy Execution from Harvard Business Review points out that implementation depends largely on 2 factors:
Booz has also published an interesting Organization Effectiveness Simulator.
The Wall Street Journal lists 15 Entrepreneur Blogs Worth Reading.
I'dd add the following:
The Australia 2020 summit has issued its initial report.
Although there is doubt about whether the delegates were representative and whether they were the "best and brightest" the report contains a snapshot of contemporary Australian views which the Government will consider.
UPDATE: David Marr comments on the process.
UPDATE: Final Report
The Statistical Yearbook for Asia and the Pacific is produced by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), to provide a detailed picture of the major economic, social and environmental trends in Asia and the Pacific. Findings in this year’s edition include increased urban poverty, that energy consumption grew at a pace unequalled elsewhere and increased motorization is improving mobility.
This interview with Google's engineering director gives some insight into how the company maintains its creative culture and innovative operations.
