For many years, I have goofed on my brother-in-law for his sports-betting hobby (habit? addiction? Hmmm). My argument is that beat reporters, columnists, and ex-players, i.e. those with direct access to locker rooms and insider info, are often at best breakeven predictors of game outcomes when picking against the spread. If they’re at .500 +/-, surely some schmo who lives…
Clean-Up on Aisle 9
Two-thirds of the way into The Secret Life of Groceries, Benjamin Lorr confesses, “in my quest to understand the grocery industry, I became so turned around, so confused by the multiple layers of motivation and complicity, that I needed… someone to explain my role in it all as a consumer to me.” This from a guy who spent five years…
Wall Street Comeuppance
You (okay, I) pick up a book like The Antisocial Network for the yuks. What’s better than getting the dirt on a hedge fund that lost billions of dollars in a virtual flash to a bunch of self-described degenerates on Reddit who helped orchestrate the GameStop short squeeze? David vs. Goliath, Main Street vs. Wall Street, gamers vs. bros as…
Lemme Tell Ya a Story
“We’ve lost track of what a good story is,” writes Kindra Hall in her outstanding book Stories That Stick. Hall recognizes that the concept of storytelling in business is widely accepted, popular, and has even achieved buzzworthy status in the stuffiest of boardrooms, but for it to be transformative the goal must be bigger than simply attempting to get customers…
Coulda Woulda Shoulda
One can always find good information when looking hard enough. A shame to say that I had to comb Two Beats Ahead multiple times for such wisdom. First, it’s an unfocused mess as authors Panos Panay & Michael Hendrix apparently couldn’t decide between writing a business book about innovation or a collection of not-so-humble brags about their own careers, so…