The concept of laissez-faire is usually associated with the Republican ideal of “letting things be and don’t intervene.” Does this ideal really work? Well, after about five years of practice, I actually have some feedback on this. I went through a divorce in 2004 and so from that year on, I see my son on the weekends, primarily. So, during the week, he is with his mom and occasionally I help with test or quiz reviews, but that is it. Essentially, my son is under the authority of my ex-wife, who has done a good job raising him. So, the best that I can do to influence my son is through laissez-faire. In other words, all I can do is give him instructions and tell him that my instructions are for his benefit. If he fails to follow these instructions, then he is the one that will suffer. He is not punished for not following my instructions. Rather, he experiences the direct consequences of studying or not-studying, for example. I have seen my son mature quickly and I notice how he really listens to me now, especially after this five year period.

The business world is the same. We cannot micromanage each other. It simply does not work. People get upset and feel invaded. Rather, we need to work in a collaborative manner and offer positive guidance and instructions for others who share our path, whether it be in school or at work. If someone chooses not to heed positive advice, then he or she will bear the consequences of this good information. Like the old expression goes – you can lead a horse to water but cannot make him drink. Such is the mystery of life, progress, and working with others. Politically, I am a Democrat because I believe the U.S. needs a government to police corruption which could undermine entire industries and markets and I believe that all Americans deserve accessible health care of some kind. However, from the standpoint of work and how businesses operate, laissez-faire does work. So, friends and readers who are Republicans, I am giving you all this one concession.

Dad, if you are reading this post, this one is for you

Dear Readers:

I usually do not do this here at Great Documents, but I would like to mention a great product that I saw on the Internet the other day. It is a website that features Spider Design Office Chairs. Now, this is really cool. In fact, these chairs look extremely comfortable and also seem to be quite affordable.

I am currently in the midst of a move and will eventually want to get myself a nice chair for my computer desk. So, I am seriously considering buying a chair from this website. Most computer nerds (like me) spend many, many hours in front of the computer reading, coding, typing, researching, communicating and more. So, why not treat yourself to a chair that will save your back and neck from unnecessary strain? Indeed, there are some things that are good investments. A quality chair for your computer desk is one, for sure.

Click here to visit the Spider Office Chairs website.

Wishing you all a productive and rewarding work-week.

Stay in the positive

Keith

Since the ancient times of the Old Testament of the Bible (e.g. several thousand years ago) and more specifically since the times of the Tower of Babel, man moved from one language and culture into many languages and many cultures. As a result, there are hundreds of languages and dialects across the globe. I lived in Brazil for more than five years, and in Brazil alone there are several different dialects alone of Brazilian Portuguese. So, what to say of the entire planet. In fact, it is overwhelming when you think about it. So, how do we deal with this proliferation of verbal and cultural expression? Some say translation, but I disagree.

Rather, I say interpretation.

If life was as simple as plugging words in a Google or Bing translator, then that would be amazing. It would also be amazing if other myths of our younger days were true. Unfortunately, things are a bit more complex than they might seem at the surface. To put it simple: the art of working with multiple languages and cultures is not translation – it is interpretation. When I hear something said in English, I cannot express it perfectly the same way in Portuguese. This is because Portuguese is a purely Latin language and the way you think is different.

So, today’s post is in honor of all hard working Interpreters out there. It takes many years of study to be able to work as an interpreter and successfully assimilate ideas, words, and cultural archetypes into ways that different cultures and languages can similarly understand. Keep up the great work

In Chapter Nine of Brad & Deb Schepp’s great book How To Find a Job on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Other Social Networks, the well-known social network MySpace is presented. Similar to their presentations of Facebook and Twitter, Brad & Deb inform us that you can also network on MySpace successfully and not just that, you can network above and beyond just the social level. You can actually look for a job using the MySpace platform, however you need to learn as much as you can about MySpace and then apply this knowledge to the job search process.

MySpace is not quite a popular as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. However, it still appeals to different people for different reasons, and so that is why this social network is still alive and well. MySpace offers its members unique opportunities to advertise and create interesting designs for their pages, and if you can apply this creativity, you just might be able to share this creativity with someone who either is looking to hire or who knows of someone else who is looking for a person with the creativity you have chosen to display on MySpace.

I am not all that familiar with MySpace since I only started working with Social Networking as of 2007. So, at this time, networks like StumbleUpon and Facebook were already well established, not to mention LinkedIn. In short, MySpace cannot be overlooked. When you are looking for a job or business opportunities, you need to consider all viable paths. Brad & Deb essentially are saying in this chapter “don’t forget MySpace”. This is a good suggestion, especially if you feel you have done your best already at LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

All The Best,

Keith

Click here to visit Brad & Deb Online (book authors)
Click here to visit Pinny Cohen Online (book recommendation)

A friend of mine (Mr. Dennis Chu) from the newly created Google Buzz is the webmaster and innovator of a new website called Goofy2 Dot Com. I recently joined this site, and it is definitely interesting.

Click here to check out Goofy2

This website is a social/open instant messenger that enables users to stay in real-time connection with groups, rather than individuals as they do with Microsoft Network (MSN). Goofy2 is a real-time network that allows people to get connected in real-time with each other, establish and grow their real-time network in an easy way. It also allows people to create robot users on Goofy2. The Goofy2 website provides an API and Robot API for independent developers to create applications.

What you can do with Goofy2:

You can use Goofy2 as a tool to have a group connected in real-time. The size of a group is unlimited if you can handle all the updates and messages. Anyone’s updates will be presented to all the rest in a connected group of people. The number of people may vary from two to two million (so, not really a limit there). You can share updates, conversations, messages on Goofy2 with the very simple-to-use and intuitive IM-like User Interface (UI).

Goofy2 API:

Finally, Goofy2 provides an Application Programming Interface (API), on which interesting developers can build apps that they find useful and fun. Here is the URL for developers:

http://code.google.com/p/goofy2-api/w/list

All The Best,

Keith

Thanks to a good personal friend of mine, Mr. Yuri Belous, the e-book called The Seven Heavens of Success (that I composed about a month ago) is now available in the Russian language. Yuri is the creator and innovator behind the great typing software called Rapid Typing, and he will be releasing Version 3.0 of this program soon. I’ll keep you posted on this. So, for all my readers and subscribers whose native language is Russian, today is your day. Enjoy this new translated version. Many Thanks, Yuri!

Click here to read the Seven Heavens of Success in Russian.

All The Best,

Keith

For those of you who have taken to the new Google Buzz platform, great. Now, as you can imagine, content is going to accumulate pretty fast on this platform. So, a search engine ultimately will be needed to find a specific post, so that you don’t have to go page-by-page into Buzz history to find the post you want to re-read.

There is a brand new search engine that has emerged recently just for this purpose.

It is called BUZZZY.

Check it out and please do let me know your feelings on this new search engine for the Google Buzz platform. Thanks

Click here to check out BUZZZY.

All The Best,

Keith

In the eighth chapter of Brad & Deb Schepp’s book “How to Find a Job on LinkedIn”, the website Twitter is presented. In fact, Brad & Deb tell us that “it is easy to dismiss Twitter as nothing more than just a way to fritter away your time to no good end. If you do this, you will make a mistake that could delay the successful end to your job search or cut off a steady stream of new business (p.169).”

This is so true.

Like mentioned in the previous chapter which presented Facebook, chapter eight reveals that Twitter is also a viable place to search for work and discover it. Remember, say Brad & Deb, that you are always asking the perennial Twitter question “what are you doing?” And, so, of course you can say “updating my resume and profile at Dice Dot Com” or “confirming a job interview for tomorrow morning”. So, when people read this, they will essentially “get your drift” that you are actively looking for employment or business opportunities.

Twitter describes itself as a service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: “what are you doing?”. So, in this microblogging platform, you do not need to write a whole blog post. Rather, you simply need to summarize your activities at that current moment. At one point last year, several actors and actresses had acquired more than one million Twitter subscribers. So, if actress Demi Moore tweeted to tell the world her plans for that day, instantly, all subscribers would be “in the know” as if they were right there with her. The same is true for you. As you build a subscriber base, you can tell these individuals what you are doing and more specifically, that you are actively pursuing work opportunities.

What this means, of course, is that subscribers who empathize with your cause will contribute information that will be helpful, normally. This is the magic of social networking. People who know of specific opportunities will help you out and will become active participants as helpers. Isn’t that great. Perhaps if Twitter was around in 1990 when I went on more than 50 job interviews for an entry-level computer programming job in Boston, then that job search would have been easier! For sure. So, create a nice and professional looking page at Twitter using their basic templates and tweet away. Your chances of producing leads and helpful information is just as good at Twitter as it would be at Facebook, and could even be considered on par with LinkedIn.

All The Best,

Keith

Visit Brad & Deb Online
Visit Pinny Cohen Online
Visit Twitter Online

There is a new & cool website on the Internet called Voizle Dot Com. Essentially, this website has been created so that you don’t have to pass on lengthy URLs to your friends and family, regardless of whether you are chatting via IM (instant messenger) or simply exchanging e-mails. All you need to do is enter the original (and usually long) URL in the top text-box (see image above). Then click on the Create button and a new and shorter URL is created using the voizle domain.

Here is an example for you.

Original URL:

http://health.msn.com/blogs/defy-your-age-post.aspx?post=1641996

Voizle New and Shorter URL (you can pass on to others):

http://u.voizle.com/jx7me

All The Best,

Keith

Essentially, there are nine (9) sister projects of the great Wikipedia project & website. They are all free information sources created to help you with different sorts of information consultation. They, like Wikipedia, are part of the Wikimedia Foundation.

They are as follows (with hyperlinks for you to visit)…

COMMONS

META-WIKI

All The Best,

Keith