Author: michael
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am eating breakfast in a Portland, Maine diner.
There are several “Best of Maine” and “Best of Portland” framed awards on the back wall. One problem: The most recent award is from 2016. And so even though our experience has been terrific, when I see a 10-year gap like that, my first thought isn’t, “These guys are great.” It’s, “Have they gone downhill?”…
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am reading a book about specialization.
The book — Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, by David Epstein — makes the point that (surprise, surprise) “generalists triumph in a specialized world.” It caught my attention because I’ve long been stressing the opposite: the importance, for solo professionals in particular, of having a niche, focusing your efforts, blah, blah. What I’m realizing,…
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backed up all my email.
I was trying to get AI (Claude) to complete a multistep task that required searching through my past correspondence. At one point, it asked permission to “read, write, and delete” emails. I declined. The last thing I need is for Claude to “accidentally” delete ALL my history. (If it did, I’m sure it would respond to my frantic complaint…
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asked a simple question.
Someone called me (I know, nobody ever uses the phone anymore) looking for some email newsletter help. At one point, as I always do, I asked: Why do you have a newsletter? Long silence…. That’s a problem. And not just for newsletters. Before spending time, money, and effort on marketing tactics, you should at least have a semi-coherent…
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am reading a book called Alchemy.
The full title is, Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don’t Make Sense, by Rory Sutherland. A lot of things that are true in marketing don’t make sense, and this book is both entertaining and filled with real-life examples – examples you can apply in your own business. At one point (page 174, if you must…