Obama Presidency News » from

Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries

admin — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 12:39:40 +0000

Amazon Exclusive: A Q&A with Author Peter Sims Q: What is a "little bet"? A: A little bet is a low-risk action taken to discover, develop, and test an idea. So, for instance, Chris Rock develops new comedy routines by making little bets with small audiences, while Amazonâ��s CEO Jeff Bezos makes small bets to identify opportunities in new markets. Little bets are at the center of an approach to get to the right idea described in the book that any of us can learn without getting stymied by perfectionism, risk-aversion, or excessive planning. Q: How is this approach different from and better than the typical way most people do something new? A: Weâ��re taught from an early age to use certain procedures and rules to analyze and solve problems, such as for math or chemistry. Weâ��re asked, whatâ��s the correct answer, right? Thereâ��s an emphasis on minimizing errors. These types of skills serve us extremely well, especially when we have enough information to put into a formula or plan. But what happens when we donâ��t even know what problems weâ��re trying to solve? It happens a lot. Thatâ��s the situation the U.S. Army has had to face when confronting Middle Eastern insurgents. In situations like these, engaging in discovery and making little bets is a way to complement more linear, procedural thinking. Q: What research did you do for this book and what did you set out to discover? A: I wanted to find out what went on behind the scenes of some of the great achievements and innovations we witness. Most of them werenâ��t the epiphanies of geniuses, but instead the result of masters of a specific type of experimentation. To find out the common elements of their experimental approach, I reviewed empirical and neuroscience research about creativity and innovation, and interviewed or observed dozens of people about their approach, including Army counterinsurgency strategists, architect Frank Gehry, agile software development teams, stand-up comedians, entrepreneurs who had self-financed billion dollar businesses, the rapidly growing field of design thinking, and musicians like John Legend, as well as executives inside a range of organizations such as Amazon, Pixar, Procter & Gamble, Google, 3M, General Motors, and Hewlett Packard. Q: What about big bets? Why do you focus on little bets? A: We all want to make big bets. Thatâ��s a Silicon Valley mantra. Be bold. Go big. But I think ingenious ideas are over-rated and that people routinely bet big on ideas that arenâ��t solving the right problems. Just as Pixar storytellers must make thousands of little bets to develop a movie script, Hewlett Packard cofounder Bill Hewlett said HP needed to make 100 small bets on products to identify six that could be breakthroughs. So, little bets are for learning about problems and opportunities while big bets are for capitalizing upon them. Q:Why is it more important than ever to master a "little bets" approach? A: We live in especially uncertain and rapidly changing, yet risk-averse times that make it easy to get stuck. Little bets provide an antidote. Take Twitter. It originated out of little bets made inside Odeo, a podcasting company that was going nowhere. After asking employees for suggestions about what the company should do, Odeo founder Evan Williams gave Jack Dorsey two weeks to develop a prototype for his short messaging idea. Twitter was soon born. The same is true for all of us. Unlike previous generations, people now change jobs every few years and, according to researchers, will even switch careers up to six or seven times over a lifetime. Thatâ��s a very different world than previous generations. Little bets must become a way to see whatâ��s around the next corner, lest we stagnate. Q: What surprised you most in what you found? A: One of the things that constantly surprised me was how many similar approaches and methods spanned across the vastly different fields. Story developers at Pixar, Army General H.R. McMaster, a counterinsurgency expert, and Frank Gehry use the same basic methods and of course make lots of little bets. They even use similar language and vocabulary â�� like "using constraints" or "reframing problems"â�� but they all learned their approaches through their experiences, not in school. General McMaster may have said it best when he said that the parallels between these very different experts were "eerie." Q: What companies are best at little bets? A: Amazon, Pixar, Apple, and to a lesser extent Toyota, 3M, and Google have little bets infused into their cultural DNA. Steve Jobs has evangelized about the benefits of the approach described in Little Bets more than any other CEO, while little bets are a way of life at Amazon, whether the company is expanding into new markets or improving internal processes. And, I wrote a lot about Pixar because itâ��s the closest thing to a constant learning organization using little bets around today. But any company or team can make use of little bets. Procter & Gamble is an example of a more risk-averse organization that is working to build a culture of little bets. Q:Whatâ��s the first step any of us can start taking tomorrow to start benefitting from a little bets approach? A: Commit to making a little bet. It doesnâ��t matter on what. Look for interesting problems and work toward larger aspirations. Maybe itâ��s going to be a presentation about starting a new nonprofit. Or maybe itâ��s trying a different approach for a work meeting. Once you get into the habit of making little bets, they can constantly open up new possibilities that just might lead to something big.

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

admin — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 20:41:07 +0000

In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his fatherâ��a figure he knows more as a myth than as a manâ��has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odysseyâ��first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his motherâ��s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his fatherâ��s life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance. Pictured in lefthand photograph on cover: Habiba Akumu Hussein and Barack Obama, Sr. (President Obama's paternal grandmother and his father as a young boy). Pictured in righthand photograph on cover: Stanley Dunham and Ann Dunham (President Obama's maternal grandfather and his mother as a young girl).

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

admin — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 22:54:54 +0000

Nine years before the Senate campaign that made him one of the most influential and compelling voices in American politics, Barack Obama published this lyrical, unsentimental, and powerfully affecting memoir, which became a #1 New York Times bestseller when it was reissued in 2004. Dreams from My Father tells the story of Obama’s struggle to understand the forces that shaped him as the son of a black African father and white American mother—a struggle that takes him from the American heartland to the ancestral home of his great-aunt in the tiny African village of Alego. Obama opens his story in New York, where he hears that his father—a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man—has died in a car accident. The news triggers

Sale Price:$17.72

Fed Up!: Our Fight to Save America from Washington

admin — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 15:29:29 +0000

Now, do not misunderstand me, America is great.But we are fed up with being over-taxed and over-regulated. We are tired of being told how much salt to put on our food, what kind of cars we can drive, what kinds of guns we can own, what kind of prayers we are allowed to say and where we can say them, what we are allowed to do to elect political candidates, what kind of energy we can use, what doctor we can see. What kind of nation are we becoming? I fear it's the very kind the Colonists fought against.But perhaps most of all, we are fed up because deep down we know how great America has always been, how many great things the people do in spite of their government, and how great the nation can be in the future if government will just get out of the way.Our fight is clear. We must step up and retake the reins of our government from a Washington establishment that has abused our trust. We must empower states to fight for our beliefs, elect only leaders who are on our team, set out to remind our fellow Americans why liberty is guaranteed in the Constitution, and take concrete steps to take back our country. The American people have never sat idle when liberty's trumpet sounds the call to battle-and today that battle is for the soul of America.

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

admin — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 23:28:00 +0000

Sale Price:$13.12

Dreams From My Father By President Obama I221

admin — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 18:06:28 +0000

eBay Auctions

TIME FOR KIDS: PRESIDENT OBAMA 2009 SPECIAL EDITION-NEW

US $3.99 (0 Bid)
End Date: Saturday Aug-27-2011 11:25:17 PDT
Bid now | Add to watch list

Dreams from My Father by President Obama I221

US $6.99
End Date: Saturday Aug-27-2011 11:46:54 PDT
Buy It Now for only: US $6.99
Buy it now | Add to watch list

Deals And Discounts

President Obama Stop Stealing From Our Children: Sign

admin — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 18:06:24 +0000

eBay Auctions

RARE '08 OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT RALLY HAND FAN 2 SIDED

US $7.99 (0 Bid)
End Date: Sunday Jul-10-2011 11:21:19 PDT
Bid now | Add to watch list

President Obama Stop Stealing From Our Children: Sign

US $6.00
End Date: Sunday Jul-10-2011 11:27:26 PDT
Buy It Now for only: US $6.00
Buy it now | Add to watch list

Deals And Discounts

Baby Safety Monitors

Oh baby …… President Obama

admin — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 03:20:17 +0000

President Obama

President Obama comforts a crying baby. No, no, not a Professional Leftie - a real baby.

Who Killed the Constitution?: The Federal Government vs. American Liberty from World War I to Barack Obama

admin — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 09:55:42 +0000

Think itâ��s just judges who are trampling on the Constitution? Think again.The fact is that government officials long ago rejected the idea that the Constitution possesses a fixed meaning limiting the U.S. governmentâ��s power. Going right to the scenes of the crimes, bestselling authors Thomas E. Woods Jr. and Kevin R. C. Gutzman dissect twelve of the most egregious assaults on the Constitution.In Who Killed the Constitution? Woods and Gutzman:â�¢ REVEAL the federal governmentâ��s â��great gold robberyâ��â��the flagrant assault on the Constitution you never heard about in history classâ�¢ DESTROY the phony case for presidential war powerâ�¢ EXPOSE how the federal government has actively discriminated to end . . . discriminationWho Killed the Constitution? is a rallying cry for Americans outraged by a government run amok and a warning to take heed before we lose the liberties we are truly entitled to.â��If you want to know why the federal government regulates the air you breathe, the water you drink, and the words you speak, read Who Killed the Constitution? . . . When the history of these unfree times is written, Tom Woodsâ��s and Kevin Gutzmanâ��s fearless work will be recognized as the standard against which all others are measured.â��â��Judge Andrew Napolitano, Fox News senior judicial analyst and bestselling author of The Constitution in Exileâ��Itâ��s about time someone shouted out that the emperor has no clothes.â��â��Kirkpatrick Sale, director of the Middlebury Institute and author of Human Scale

We Ain’t What We Ought To Be: The Black Freedom Struggle from Emancipation to Obama

admin — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 19:35:19 +0000

In this exciting revisionist history, Stephen Tuck traces the black freedom struggle in all its diversity, from the first years of freedom during the Civil War to President Obamaâ��s inauguration. As it moves from popular culture to high politics, from the Deep South to New England, the West Coast, and abroad, Tuck weaves gripping stories of ordinary black peopleâ��as well as celebrated figuresâ��into the sweep of racial protest and social change. The drama unfolds from an armed march of longshoremen in postâ��Civil War Baltimore to Booker T. Washingtonâ��s founding of Tuskegee Institute; from the race riots following Jack Johnsonâ��s â��fight of the centuryâ�� to Rosa Parksâ�� refusal to move to the back of a Montgomery bus; and from the rise of hip hop to the journey of a black Louisiana grandmother to plead with the Tokyo directors of a multinational company to stop the dumping of toxic waste near her home. We Ainâ��t What We Ought To Be rejects the traditional narrative that identifies the Southern non-violent civil rights movement as the focal point of the black freedom struggle. Instead, it explores the dynamic relationships between those seeking new freedoms and those looking to preserve racial hierarchies, and between grassroots activists and national leaders. As Tuck shows, strategies were ultimately contingent on the power of activists to protest amidst shifting economic and political circumstances in the U.S. and abroad. This book captures an extraordinary journey that speaks to all Americansâ��both past and future. (20091123)