Nicholas Bate

"The Theatre Exists To Deal With Problems Of The Soul,

with the mysteries of human Life". From a marvellous book by David Mamet: 'Three Uses Of The Knife'

What Are You Reading?

Always have a business book 'on the go'. It's (if well chosen) high value inspiration. Try:

Do More Great Work by Michael Bungay Stanier. Interactive style, provocative, well-designed. Will raise your game.

Rework by Fried & Hanson. Great check-list especially if you wish to run a small, lean business.

Super Blogger Steve Clayton

reviews Stop The Busywork!

Material Witness

helps you with your choices of reading.

Stock Up on Good Thrillers for Your Commute

with Material Witness.

It's Amazing

what you can discover in an Abu Dhabi book-shop. There, at the back of a shelf: something in English. And an absolute gem: David Guterson, The Other. Marvellous: a man who can handle his prose with dexterity.

How to Read More Non-Fiction Books 7

And absorb more from that reading, too.

1. Pick up pace. Just read a little more quickly. After a couple of minutes of adjustment you'll have a new reading speed.
2. Take notes. Keep summarising (bullets/mind-maps: whatever works for you) at regular intervals.
3. Multi-book. Have several books on the go at the same time. The more diverse the better.
4. Team up. Set up a learning team: three is good who meet to share ideas and materials.
5. Seek out inspiring books which 'pull' you thorough them. Look at the reading lists of books you enjoy, provided by bloggers you read.
6. Always have a book with you. Read while waiting to board a plane.On the train. At the dentist.
7. Which three non-fiction books are you reading at the moment? 

Boost Your Reading Pile

with RealSmartNow.

Yet More Great (fiction) Holiday Reading

from Material Witness.

Summary of Ignore Everybody by Hugh MacLeod

If you’ve not yet discovered Hugh MacLeod's site you’ll have the joys of plenty of archives to explore and you’ll be able to see at work the mind behind his splendid book: Ignore Everybody. Hugh pursues many avenues and makes money at several of them; he practises what he preaches. There are many books on creativity and they tend to fall into two camps. The first is dominated by Edward de Bono and is the technique camp (Thinking Hats, po etc); these are certainly useful. The other is the ‘we are all creative‘ camp which tends often to lack substance. Hugh’s book is much more of the second camp but does what has been generally lacking in the past: he gives hard-hitting substance. Hard-hitting in that much of our concern about creativity is addressing out views of ourselves; Hugh doesn’t mess around and helps us (re-) realise that fundamental truth: the only real blocker to what we want is ourself. Hugh lightens the load by telling his own story which is a roller-coaster ride in itself. There are 40 excellent points in the book: get you own copy, mark it up and create your own cartoons. In the mean time, here’s my micro-summary. The seven point summary is my own and is not Hugh authorised nor approved. The quotes are his and the numbers refer to the relevant chapters in the book. Get it now.

MacLeod Creativity Rocks 7

1. You’re on your own. “The price of being a sheep is boredom. The price of being a Wolf is loneliness” (1,2,6,9,10,11,12,23,26,28,32);
2. Work hard. “If someone in your industry is more successful than you , it’s probably because he words harder at it than you do” (3,4,5,16,37,40);
3. Creativity is in your genes.  “go ahead and make something. Make something really special. Make something amazing that will really blow the mind of anybody who sees it.” (7, 17, 29, 31);
4. Understand ‘Sex & Money’. "the tense duality will always play centre stage. It will never be transcended" (8, 14, 16, 24, 34, 35);
5. Accept the Pain, then it cannot hurt you . “The pain of making the necessary sacrifices always hurts more than you think it’s going to….that being said, doing something seriously creative is one of the most amazing experiences one can have….(13, 25, 30);
6. Change The World. “Merit can be bought, passion can’t” (18, 38);
7. Do it your Way. “Quality isn’t job one. Being totally f*cking amazing is job one” (20, 21, 22,27, 39);