Mindframe

Hey, remember BlackBerry? In this day and age, it's basically the smartphone equivalent of asking about digital watches or portable CD players. So it may be hard to remember that less than a decade ago, BlackBerry phones were at the technological forefront, a staple of the busy, the important, and the with-it. People joked about their BlackBerry addictions to the point where "CrackBerry" was Webster Dictionary's 2006 Word of the Year. In 2009, Fortune magazine named RIM, the makers of BlackBerry, as the fastest growing company in the world. Today, you may still know a BlackBerry user, but it's probably that eccentric friend who won't throw away their video cassettes in case the VCR makes a comeback. Have you ever wondered what happened? Probably not. But hey, now that I brought it up, aren't you curious? RIM's 1999 BlackBerry was revolutionary. In a time when cellphones weren't good for much beyond making calls, here was a palm-sized P...

Imagine a job where you have total freedom in how you spend your time—no meetings, no supervisors giving you pointless busywork, and no managers breathing down your neck. Imagine being totally free from company politics but having the ready respect and support of all your co-workers, and spending each and every work day devoting all your energy to a project you believe in so much, you're willing and able to get every detail perfect. In 1993, 27-year-old engineer Ron Avitzur found himself in just such a position. He was happily putting in long hours on developing a cutting-edge graphing software for Apple: a program that created beautiful 3D renderings of math equations. It was his dream project. There was just one small problem: Avitzur wasn't technically allowed in the building. The project had been canceled in August, and Avitzur had been let go. But he wasn't going to let such minor details as no longer being employed by Apple stop him. "I was frustrated by...

Today's blog post comes to you in epistolary form. A few days ago, I received an e-mail from the Burger King corporation entitled, "What Do You Love Most About Burger King's New Fall Menu?"  A thought-provoking question deserved a comprehensive answer. This was my response: Dear Burger King, Wow, what do I love most about your new fall menu? That’s a tough one, but let me give it a shot. First, before I gush over what you’re rolling out for autumn (can’t wait for those pumpkin spice cheeseburgers!), let me tell you what I love about Burger King in general. As you know, burgers are actually small hunks of flesh that have been removed from unsuspecting cows (no worries, I’m told they’re almost always dead at that point), ground up, processed, and reconstituted into patty form. Some people (and, I suspect, most cows) find that whole meat hacking business distasteful, but here is the genius of your marketing department. You took this bit of messy necessity...

There are a couple of things you can go to the bank on: Any major city with a sports team is going to hit up its populace to fund a new and improved stadium. Everything causes cancer, including sitting in sunlight. And a calorie is the holy measurement that determines whether or not you’ll fit into your skinny jeans. You know that 3500 calories always add up to a pound, and a couple extra pounds add up to an uncomfortably tight waistband. I suppose we could call this Jeans Theory if we want to get technical. Hold on to your calorie horses, says Jonathan Bailor in The Calorie Myth: How to Eat More, Exercise less, Lose Weight, and Live Better . Armed with an impressive array of clinical studies done at Harvard, Stanford, and many other prestigious learning institutions, Bailor is prepared to turn the idea of a calorie on its tiny little head. Did you know? Eating fewer calories does not necessarily cause long-term fat loss.  Eating more calories does not necessarily ...