All About Kindle: What you need to know before buying one (+ hacks)

KindleCan you imagine carrying a suitcase full of books when you travel? We don’t think so. So, we want you to know everything about Kindle so you are more practical at these times.

As much as physical books have not completely disappeared, reading has become much more practical after the emergence of e-readers. Amazon’s Kindle is still the best known of all. Launched in 2007, the device has become indispensable for avid readers. With several versions available in the market, it can be a bit difficult to choose without first making some research.

For this matter, we make it easy for you and we prepare this complete guide with everything you need to know before you buy a Kindle!

Why side with Kindle?

In the era of tablet popularization, having an e-reader seems unnecessary. In fact, everything depends on your needs and goal. Tablets are functional for various actions, including for readings, but the Kindle ends up taking advantages over in other characteristics.

  • For those who enjoy spending hours reading, the battery of the Kindle is much longer. It can last for more than a month. You will not have problems, for example, in that longer flight you need to stop reading because the battery of the device died;
  • Everything on the Kindle is fit for reading, from the size and weight to one of the main features: the internal light;
  • Screen illumination. The illumination and colors of an e-reader are made for reading and are usually kinder to the eyes, avoiding the eye fatigue in longer uses. If you want to read in the open and very bright with a tablet is almost impossible.

You’ll find many other functions of the Kindle. See the tips of this video:

Now that you’ve discovered a little more of what is a Kindle, we want to present the models that are available in the market.

What is the best Kindle? Know the Kindle models

Amazon now offers 4 different Kindle models. At this time we want you to know everything about Kindle, knowing each one of them is essential. The reading power, durability, and functions differ slightly from one another.

Prices range from $ 299.00 to $ 1,149.00 and in addition to being available on Amazon’s website, the Kindle can be purchased at other major stores such as Ponto Frio and Walmart.

Screen size, storage capacity, and Wifi access are features present in all four models. Some other features change and we want to highlight them below.

Kindle – R$299

Amazon’s simpler model is no disappointing. Among the main characteristics, we’ve highlighted:

  • The device does not have a screen illumination, looking like real paper;
  • The battery of this model is one of the most durable;
  • The screen is touch sensitive;
  • It weighs only 161g.

Kindle Paperwhite R$ 479

Paperwhite hacks:

  • Paperwhite has a unique function free 3G;
  • It’s the heaviest model, with 217g in the 3G version;
  • The internal light has 4 LEDs;
  • The device has dimensions of 169 x 117 x 9.1 mm;
  • It has the differential that is the resolution of 300 ppi, against 167 of the New Kindle.

Kindle modelsKindle Voyage R$899

The Voyage version also comes with exclusive features:

  • It has more LEDs than Paperwhite – there are 6 light sources;
  • It is equipped with automatic lighting, which changes according to the environment;
  • To flip pages, it has the technology PagePress – just press the edge of the device to change.

Novo Kindle Oasis – R$1.149

The most expensive model of the four, the Kindle Oasis also has the most powerful battery plus other features:

  • The internal illumination is performed by 10 LED;
  • Has buttons to make it easier to change pages;
  • Its weight is 20% lower than the Voyage, with 131g;

Now that you’ve heard everything about Kindle, you need to consider, beyond the price range, what your needs really are. Don’t have access to WiFi networks often and will need the 3G connectivity function? Buy a Paperwhite. Want the lightest model possible? Choose Oasis.

For anyone you choose, be sure to buy a cover to protect your purchase. Only the Kindle Oasis already comes with one, but it is possible to purchase Kindle covers from the Amazon store.

Increase battery life

With a Kindle, you won’t need to keep the device plugged in or recharging constantly. As we mentioned before, the battery life of the device can be up to one month, depending on your reading frequency.

If you, for example, read 30 minutes a day, with the brightness at level 10 – for those devices with a bright screen – and with the internet turned off, the duration can reach 8 weeks.

Background lighting is not available on your Kindle. Newer versions of the other models have brought the lighting at the top of the screen, instead of being behind, which further avoids eye fatigue.

Supported formats and how to convert files

When you buy an e-book from the Amazon store, it already comes perfectly formatted for the Kindle. Within the site itself, you can send directly to the Kindle, without the need to connect the USB cable.

For those who already have books in other formats and want to view them in the e-reader, Kindle supports files of type .mobi, .prc, .txt, and .tpz. If your texts are in .epub or .pdf format, for example, you need to convert them.

The best program currently to do this is Caliber. In addition to the conversions, it is an e-book manager that works with almost all formats and for all available e-readers.

The program even offers a cloud library that you can access from anywhere, plus the ability to download articles from the web and turn them into an e-book.

Other ways to transfer files

In addition to buying Kindle eBooks in the Amazon store and transfer them with Caliber, you can download the texts to your Kindle with the USB cable or directly from the Amazon library.

But something that not everyone knows is that when your registration on Amazon is created an email from your Kindle. You can send files to this email and they are added to the library automatically. To find out which one is yours, click here.

The email also allows download from other platforms. 12Minutos has a library of microbooks that can also be read from your Kindle.

Free Library and Kindle Unlimited

Amazon still offers an affiliate club, Kindle Unlimited, where you pay only $ 20 a month and have access to a variety of titles, including free ones. In addition to this club, the site already has a free e-book collection for you to start putting together your Kindle library.

If you haven’t already checked out the free Amazon store listing, take a look there and you’re sure to find some amazing works. Works such as The Crowdfunding Bible by Scott Steinberg and How to Work for Yourself by Brian Cohen, all these can be read without paying anything.

There you also find works on the best-selling list at very low prices. For example The Daily Entrepreneur, S. J. Scott, for only R$ 1.99 and Master Focus, I. C. Robledo, for R$ 5.99.

Bonuses: Kindle hacks

Comics and manga

One of the advantages of Kindle is being able to view image files, such as manga and comics. Who is a fan should know that the Kindle is almost the same size of physical issues and its color also favors the artwork?

You can still optimize the experience with a program called Mangle. It formats the manga and comic files, in which you have to name each image to organize on the Kindle.

Custom screen saver

To customize your screen saver, you will have to unlock your Kindle. Some websites offer instructions for this, such as EbookBR. After doing this, you can select the screen saver you want. If you want to choose one, we suggest the Kindle Blog Wallpaper.

Kindle easter eggs

Do you think you’ve found out everything about Kindle? This tip just a few knows.

If you are reading a very dense book and need to relax a bit, the Kindle has some hidden games. In the main screen, press ALT+SHIFT+M and after opening the first game press G to load the other.

Read articles from the internet on Kindle, there are lots of amazing Kindle books

Caliber offers this option, as we talked about before, but the Kindle itself also has a function to read articles from the internet.

Go to Menu -> Experimental -> Web browser and place the link to the article you want to upload.

Reading will probably be better than reading on your phone, with images disrupting page loading.

All About Kindle

So, what did you think about everything you just learned about Kindle? Do you know how to buy Kindle? Any questions? Leave your comment!

And now, how about checking out a guide on how to find good books to read?

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The Barefoot Executive PDF Summary

The Barefoot Executive PDFThe Ultimate Manual for Being Your Own Boss & Achieving Financial Freedom

Don’t you want to be able to just once go to work in your pajamas?

What about if that is your life?

Carrie Wilkerson teaches you how you can become “The Barefoot Executive.”

(Which, having founded a company by the same name, she quite literally is.)

Who Should Read “The Barefoot Executive”? And Why?

Do you like your job?

Can you imagine yourself doing it for the next decade or half a century?

If so, then – congratulations!

You’re one of the fortunate few people on this planet who’ve managed to become their own executives!

Because we just can’t imagine someone who’s not his own boss – and who, consequently, has to adhere to schedules, deadlines, inflexible work hours, etc. – content enough to not yearn for a different future.

Carrie Wilkerson’s “The Barefoot Executive” is a book about these yearners, the less fortunate ones.

Those who want to do something other than what they’re currently doing.

So, basically, it’s about you.

Carrie WilkersonAbout Carrie Wilkerson

Carrie Wilkerson is a bestselling author, consultant, and sought-after keynote speaker.

Named by “Forbes” a top small business influencer, Wilkerson has been featured on both Fox Business News and CNN and has consulted many Fortune 500 companies, including Google.

“The Barefoot Executive” is her only book so far.

Find out more at http://carriewilkerson.com/

“The Barefoot Executive PDF Summary”

Even though it shares the title, this book has nothing to do with the 1971 live-action Disney movie starring the young Kurt Russell and a very smart TV-loving chimp.

However, it may have everything to do with the brightness of your future and your wellbeing, since Carrie Wilkerson’s goal – as stated in the Introduction is

…to give you hope and to take you through the process of investigating your options and your skill sets to create the financial freedom and work life that you’ve perhaps only dreamed of until now.

Ignore the naysayers and avoid the status quo.

So, in other words, Carrie’s vision of your future is one in which you can go to work without socks – or even pants – and one in which you can have the flexibility to join your daughter on an all-day field trip whenever you like – without asking for permissions and without any consequences.

And she shares this vision in five main parts.

The first part is titled “The Myth Breakers,” and it consists of two chapters: “Job Security, Tenure, Retirement, and Other Fairy Tales” and “Why You Must Own a Business.”

As evidenced by the tiles themselves, these chapters set the tone for Carrie Wilkerson’s main investigation, i.e., the why before the how of becoming your own executive.

Needless to add, as far as Wilkerson is concerned, you’re living in some century past if you still believe that securing a 9-to-5 job for the long run is the only way you can live your life, or that you can retire inspired and live happily ever after on your social security pension only!

It’s never been easier than today to start your own business, so you’re missing the opportunity of your life if you don’t at least try that!

But how should you start?

Well, by not making one of “The Three Big Mistakes” which is how the second chapter of Wilkerson’s book is titled.

The mistakes are chasing someone else’s dream, chasing too many rabbits, and chasing dollars.

Wilkerson’s point here is that you shouldn’t try to be the next anyone because that way you risk detaching your own business from your real desires and dreams, ultimately falling down the same rabbit hole you were trying to climb up from.

In other words: if you don’t work the job you want, create the one you’ve always dreamed about!

Not the one which books say will most probably work, or the one which self-help authors claim will get you the most money.

As Simon Sinek so convincingly argued a while back, there’s only one place from which you should start building your company: its why.

Part three, “The Methods,” is where Wilkerson moves from the why to the how, or, in other words, from motivation to action.

Here she explains what the right mindset of success is and how personalizing a business means taking massive action.

However, actually masterminding it will probably mean doing at least one of two things: finding a good mentor and doing serious research.

After all, even the greatest of sportsmen can’t maximize their talents without a proper mentor – so, don’t act self-important and do find one.

The fourth part of the book – titled “The Models” – covers (quite fittingly) six different business models from which you can choose to develop your business practically from scratch.

The models discussed here are service based (i.e., the one based on using your skill set), expertise-based (coaching and consulting), knowledge-based (information marketing), goods-based (commerce or direct sales), and referral-based (commission or affiliate marketing).

The sixth model is not actually a business model in itself but a combination of the other, since, once you have at least one model firmly planted, nothing’s stopping you from progressing to multiple streams of income.

The fifth and final part of the book, “The Marketplace” is all about positioning and finding your right audience.

It tries to answer questions such as “who wants what you have?” “where will they find you?” and “where will you find them?” while also sharing some ideas to income and discussing how you can effectively build your audience.

Scattered throughout Wilkerson’s book, you’ll find many practical advises and case studies – “Barefoot Action Steps” and “Barefoot Case Studies” – in addition to numerous links to supplemental videos which should further help you understand Wilkerson’s message.

Which, ultimately, is really simple but extraordinarily powerful: if you don’t like your life, you can easily fix it.

Just remodel yourself:

Key Lessons from “The Barefoot Executive”

1.      Shatter the Myths of the Past Century – and Become Your Own Boss
2.      The Three Big Mistakes You Should Never Make
3.      The Five Business Models You Should Research

Shatter the Myths of the Past Century – and Become Your Own Boss

There are many unsubstantiated and/or obsolete myths which, unfortunately, have decided your life for you.

Some of the most frightening ones are the Myth of Job Security, the Myth of Tenure, and the Myth of Retirement.

These are all remnants of a past world which has nothing to do with the dynamic you-can-do-it-yourself age in which we’re currently living.

So, forget about them.

Start your own business and write some new myths for the new generations.

The Three Big Mistakes You Should Never Make

There are three big mistakes you should never make if (or, rather, when) planning to start your own business.

The first one should be an obvious one – but people do it much too often so that we can ignore it: chasing other people’s dreams. The point is to build your life around your very own.

The second one is chasing too many rabbits – because that way you probably won’t catch a single one.

Chasing dollars is the third one.

Money should always be just means to an end, not the end itself.

The Five Business Models You Should Research

Probably the most important part of “The Barefoot Executive” is the fourth one: “The Models.”

Here you’ll find five different business models you should research and the ways you can employ them and link them to your very own business.

These are service-based, expertise-based, knowledge-based, goods-based, and referral-based.

Finally, the sixth model is a combination of these, i.e., multiple streams of revenue.

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“The Barefoot Executive Quotes”

Why do you want to start a business? Why are you reading this book? Click To Tweet

The ‘why’ behind the money, the ‘why’ behind how you are changing people, the ‘why’ behind what you do is what you are really focused on. Click To Tweet

You are never going to work really hard just to have a lot of money. Click To Tweet

What motivates us is what the money can do or the cause it can support or the choices that money allows us to have. Click To Tweet

Take action, absolutely – but also keep learning and growing. Don’t ever be finished. Click To Tweet

Our Critical Review

If you want to find a one-for-all working formula on how to start a business and become a filthy rich person, “The Barefoot Executive” is not the book for you.

However, it can do you one better: it offers a comprehensive overview of the possibilities ahead of you while sharing with you all the motivation and inspiration you’ll ever need to finally get the courage to start of your own business.

Funny and stimulating, “The Barefoot Executive” is certainly one of the places where you should start pursuing your dream career.

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We Were Eight Years in Power PDF Summary

We Were Eight Years in Power PDFAn American Tragedy

Barack Obama was an American president from 2008 to 2016.

And Ta-Nehisi Coates chronicles the period in his remarkable collection of essays “We Were Eight Years in Power.”

Who Should Read “We Were Eight Years in Power”? And Why?

If you are interested in learning how deeply white supremacy and racism are rooted in American history, you should read this book.

Read it even more carefully if you are not: you should be.

Ta-Nehisi CoatesAbout Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi Coates is an American essayist, journalist, and comic book writer.

A national correspondent for “The Atlantic,” he has also worked for “The Village Voice” and “Time” and contributed to numerous publications.

He has written three more books: “Asphalt Sketches,” “The Beautiful Struggle,” and “Between the World and Me.”

“We Were Eight Years in Power PDF Summary”

“We Were Eight Years in Power” is a collection of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ essays published during Barack Obama’s presidency in “The Atlantic” magazine.

There’s one essay for every year from 2008 to 2016 (framed between an Introduction and an Epilogue and interspersed with personal notes), and you can read each of them online.

We’ve even provided all the links!

Enjoy!

First Year: ‘This Is How We Lost to the White Man’

Following the numerous sexual assault allegations and his recent conviction on three counts, Bill Cosby is certainly not someone whose words anybody would take at face value today.

However, this wasn’t the case back in 2004 when he was still one of the most popular and beloved black figures in the world.

In May 2004, during an NAACP ceremony in Washington D. C., the comedian gave a speech – infamously dubbed “the Pound Cake speech” – in which he was highly critical of the black community in the United States, attacking black Americans for – among other things – giving their children African names.

Twelve years later, in 2016, he reiterated this, even claiming that racism is no excuse for black Americans to fail and end up in prison.

Needless to say, Cosby is missing the point altogether, mixing reasons with consequences, and, unfortunately, giving white racists something to talk about.

Second Year: American Girl

After Barack Obama came to power, Ta-Nehisi Coates got an assignment to do a profile on the new president’s wife, Michelle.

From the interview with her, he learned that hers is the conventional narrative.

Namely, she lived in an all but cocooned childhood, during which she was never very aware of her blackness; after all, she grew up on the South Side of Chicago, where being black was very normal.

However, this all changed when Michelle went to Princeton, where she majored in sociology and minored in African-American studies, but where, more importantly, she first realized that the society all but naturally expected from her to assume a somewhat different identity and distance herself from her blackness.

Now, that, unfortunately, is an all too familiar experience for every African-American living in the U.S.

Third Year: Why Do So Few Blacks Study the Civil War?

For black people, white supremacy is deeply rooted within American history – a history in which their role is completely ignored.

For example, the Civil War is taught in glorying terms at American schools, even though it is nothing more but evidence that America’s economic prosperity rested for a century on the bare shoulders of black slaves.

And that

Civil War is a story for white people—acted out by white people, on white people’s terms—in which blacks feature strictly as stock characters and props. We are invited to listen, but never to truly join the narrative, for to speak as the slave would, to say that we are as happy for the Civil War as most Americans are for the Revolutionary War, is to rupture the narrative.

In other words, say what you will, but for the black people, the Civil War cannot be “a horrible tragedy” of failed negotiations between the North and the South.

It can only be someone else’s history.

Fourth Year: The Legacy of Malcolm X

Malcolm X is a controversial, difficult-to-pin-down figure in American history, deemed a criminal by some, a martyr by others.

Either way, from the point of view of an African American, he is certainly one of the greatest and most influential people who have ever lived.

In fact, according to Coates, he is responsible for shaping the consciousness of black Americans more than anyone else.

Before he started asking questions such as “who taught you to hate the color of your skin?” and “who taught you to hate your own kind?” phrases such as “black is beautiful” were unimaginable.

Unsurprisingly, Malcolm X influenced the views of Barack Obama himself, with whom he also shares some aspects of his biography.

Fifth Year: Fear of a Black President

Before Barack Obama, “black president” was all but an oxymoron.

In fact, as Coates reminds us, “the comedian Dave Chappelle joked that the first black president would need a ‘Vice President Santiago’ —because the only thing that would ensure his life in the White House was a Hispanic president-in-waiting.”

Fortunately, the United States did elect a black president – twice.

Unfortunately, this instilled some new energy in white supremacist movements which didn’t miss an opportunity to blame Obama for being racist toward white people on the few occasions – the fewest in history, in fact – when he addressed the issue of injustice (such as the shooting of Trayvon Martin).

Ultimately, this resulted in bringing Donald Trump to the White House.

Sixth Year: The Case for Reparations

This essay is probably Ta-Nehisi Coates’ most famous one.

It argues for reparations for the African-Americans as a way to repay them for the racial atrocities they had to endure during the past.

We don’t need to list them to understand that Coates’ proposition isn’t outlandish as it may seem at first.

We just need to tell you this: white American wealth is founded on black slavery.

And the blacks have seen nothing of it for centuries, two in three of them being deemed ineligible even for social security as late as the Great Depression.

Seventh Year: The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration

As we’ve told you before, there’s a New Jim Crow in town, and it is called mass incarceration.

Simply put, there are more prisoners in the United States than in any country in the world – and most of them are blacks.

For example, one in ten black males between the ages of 20 and 40 were imprisoned back in 2002, when only one in one hundred white males was incarcerated.

Needless to add, that’s statistically impossible.

And it needs to be mended right away.

Eighth Year: My President Was Black

Ta-Nehisi Coates is a member of a proud generation of African Americans who are able to say that, for eight years, their president was black.

However, they must also be aware of the fact that they the United States is still not a post-racial country.

Being a child of a Kenyan man and a white American woman, Barack Obama was able to bridge the differences between the races by exuding an unwavering sense of optimism for the future.

However, the very fact that he was succeeded by Donald Trump may be a somewhat ominous sign.

Key Lessons from “We Were Eight Years in Power”

1.      The Fear of the Good Negro Government
2.      Barack Obama Was a Bridge – and Yet…
3.      White Supremacy Was Reborn – Out of Black Presidency

The Fear of the Good Negro Government

If there was one thing that South Carolina feared more than bad Negro government,” wrote Du Bois once, “it was good Negro government.

Why?

Because while good negroes are great in “the unthreatening abstract” (think “The Cosby Show,” for example), in reality, they question the entire American history and the very foundations of the United States.

Barack Obama Was a Bridge – and Yet…

A son of a Kenyan man and an American woman raised in a white family, on paper, Barack Obama was the perfect bridge capable of linking all races.

And yet – when he left office, half of the opposition country (including U.S.’s current president) didn’t even believe he was an American.

That’s not a good sign.

White Supremacy Was Reborn – Out of Black Presidency

Even if Barack Obama’s presidency was merely symbolic, it was used as a tool for infusing white supremacy and racist views with new energy.

And, unfortunately, that’s how Trump came to power.

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“We Were Eight Years in Power Quotes”

Racism is not merely a simplistic hatred. It is, more often, broad sympathy toward some and broader skepticism toward others. Click To Tweet

Every Trump voter is certainly not a white supremacist, just as every white person in the Jim Crow South was not a white supremacist. But every Trump voter felt it was acceptable to hand the fate of the country over to one. Click To Tweet

I don’t ever want to forget that resistance must be its own reward, since resistance, at least within the lifespan of the resistors, almost always fails. Click To Tweet

I had not been prepared for the simple charm of watching someone you love grow. Click To Tweet

The warlords of history are still kicking our heads in, and no one, not our fathers, not our Gods, is coming to save us. Click To Tweet

Our Critical Review

“We Were Eight Years in Power” is – to quote one review – brilliant, relevant and powerful.

After all, it wasn’t one of Time’s top 10 non-fiction books of 2017 without a strong reason!

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Reset PDF Summary – Ellen Pao

Reset PDFMy Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change

If you’re living in the States, you’ve probably heard many things about the Pao v. Kleiner Perkins 2015 case.

Here’s your chance to hear it from the horse’s mouth:

“Reset” is the work of none other but Ellen Pao herself.

Who Should Read “Reset”? And Why?

If you are a woman and you feel that you have experienced some form of sexual harassment at work – read this book right away.

It has inspired many to come out with their stories; it should inspire you as well.

And the future of whole humanity depends on that fact.

We’re not exaggerating.

Ellen PaoAbout Ellen Pao

Ellen Pao is an American investor and activist, the co-founder of the diversity consulting organization Project Interlude.

After her gender discrimination suit against Kleiner Perkins made her a celebrity and earned her a reputation as a champion for women rights, she has focused her efforts on making the problems women face at work more widely known.

“Reset,” a book chronicling her battle against Kleiner Perkins, is part of this campaign.

“Reset PDF Summary”

Discrimination is a thing of the past, right?

Well, that’s exactly what Ellen Pao, the middle child of three daughters born to Chinese immigrants in New Jersey, believed as well.

After all, she had the fortune of being born in the Land of the Free, the one country in the world in which vertical mobility is firmly rooted in the reality of people’s day-to-day activities, the nation which prides itself in being the leader of the democratic world.

So, when Ellen Pao graduated from Harvard Law School in 1994, she believed that her sought-after future is there for the taking.

Nothing could stop her.

However, her outlook changed the minute she got a job as a corporate lawyer at the renowned New York City law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore.

The first thing Ellen Pao noticed was not a good thing: sexual discrimination.

So deeply embedded in the workplace that even those suffering from it weren’t able to notice it.

For example, one of her colleagues – an African-American female – was constantly mistaken for a paralegal or an administrative assistant, despite the fact that she was dressed like neither.

Even worse: the culture of the firm was so obviously a male-dominated one that one time, the head of the department organized a visit to a strip club!

Naturally, the only people who were allowed to come were her male coworkers – resulting in her and her female colleagues missing out on the opportunity to get to know their boss on a more personal level.

Now, is that fair?

If you think not – then, brace yourself: it gets even worse from here.

After finishing her two-year MBA at Harvard Business School, Pao started working as chief of staff at the well-known venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

The result?

Some more discrimination.

For example, on a business trip to New York, Pao – the only woman there – had to endure her colleagues talking about the hotness of a potential future member of the company’s board (Marissa Mayer), because, obviously, that’s an important quality to have if you want to succeed.

Then, the conversation moved even more doggedly in that direction, as the men started bragging about meeting the famous porn star Jenna Jameson, finally culminating in a night out for which Pao didn’t receive an invitation.

Once again, she was left out.

Her only fault?

Being a woman.

But that’s not the end.

The “boys club” philosophy of Kleiner resulted in the company even ignoring some of her advises, like, for example, her pitch for Twitter in the early days of the company when she even arranged a meeting with the company’s then-CEO, Jack Dorsey.

However, after a male junior partner had made the same pitch four years later, Kleiner agreed to invest, hailing the male partner as a genius and completely disregarding Pao’s offer, made when Twitter’s value was lower by 400 percent!

Things escalated when Ellen Pao started seeing her coworker Ajit Nazre.

She believed Nazre had separated from his wife when she began dating him, but once she found out he was lying, Pao terminated their relationship.

This did not go well with Nazre, who started intentionally misleading Pao, excluding her not only from important meetings but also from as important email threads.

Pao complained of Nazre’s misconduct to her managing partner, Ray Lane, but Lane wasn’t interested in listening to her since he was much closer to Nazre due to the “boys club” philosophy which allowed for Ray and Ajit to bond over the many male-only events and dinners they had attended together.

When Nazre was promoted, Pao’s circumstances worsened even further, since he now started writing negative reviews about her!

Ellen filed numerous complaints, but this only resulted in Kleiner’s HR consultant telling her to stop complaining.

The situation became so unbearable that Pao was thinking of leaving the company – even though she liked the job.

However, while confiding to Trae Vassallo, a fellow junior partner – also a female – Pao learned that she wasn’t the only one with the same problem.

Namely, Ajir Nazre had sexually harassed Trae Vassallo as well, tricking her into going with him on a fake business trip during which he tried to force himself upon her.

Now, the women got a serious case against Nazre, and this led to him finally leaving the firm.

The battle was won.

The war had just begun.

Its supposed culmination: Pao v. Kleiner Perkins, a landmark trial which became a cause célèbre after it got the attention of the media.

The final verdict arrived on March 27, 2015.

And according to it, Ellen Pao lost the case.

However, as it turned out, it was merely a slight hitch on the road to equality.

Because Pao’s case inspired many women around the world with similar experience to start sharing their stories.

The #IWasRapedToo hashtag, the Chia Hong v. Facebook and Tina Huang v Twitter trials, Katie Moussouris suit against Microsoft – these are all part of Ellen Pao’s legacy.

In fact, reporters started calling the sudden surge of women complaining against gender discrimination, quite appropriately, the Pao Effect.

Key Lessons from “Reset”

1.      Gender Discrimination Is a Real Thing
2.      Ellen Pao’s Role in Gamergate
3.      Project Interlude

Gender Discrimination Is a Real Thing

We can discuss the reasons as much as you want to, but it’s an undeniable fact that men earn more and women earn less.

And, as Ellen Pao found out working for few exceptionally powerful and influential American firms, this is merely the beginning.

Because women also have many fewer opportunities to change the disparity for the very simple reason that companies tend a “boys club” culture, which includes all-male events, strip clubs, and female-objectifying discussions.

In a nutshell – if you want to succeed as a woman – you better become a man.

Ellen Pao’s Role in Gamergate

In 2014, journalist Eron Gjoni published “thezoepost” in which he detailed his relationship with Zoë Quinn, an American video game developer and programmer.

The content of the post resulted in Zoe being the constant victim of doxing, in addition to receiving numerous rape and death threats.

One of the platforms on which this was happening was Reddit, of which Ellen Pao was a CEO at the moment.

Appalled by the incident, In 2015, Ellen Pao “banned revenge porn and unsolicited nudes” on Reddit, resulting in many similar websites (including Facebook) embracing the zero-tolerance policy.

Project Interlude

After losing the case against Kleiner, Ellen Pao felt that it would be wrong to let all the support she had during the time go to waste.

So she gathered other women in executive positions, and, together with Erica Joy Baker (former Google engineer), Tracy Chou (former Pinterest engineer) and Brianna Wu (diversity advocate), she co-founded Project Interlude.

Its goal: giving CEOs useful advice on diversifying.

Its status: an award-winning non-profit organization.

Fully in line with the motto of “Reset,” this wonderful Toni Morrison’s quote:

If you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.

So, go Pao!

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“Reset Quotes”

If you get an opportunity that someone offers you, take it. Click To Tweet

There are so many times that being a woman of color counts against you. If it ever gives you an advantage, don't feel guilty about it. Click To Tweet

There was some awareness back then about hidden gender bias, particularly because of research like the famous ‘Howard and Heidi’ study. Click To Tweet

If you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else. (Via Toni Morrison) Click To Tweet

More than ever, I believe that most people are ready to face the issue of diversity in tech. Click To Tweet

Our Critical Review

Shortlisted for the 2017 “Financial Times” and “McKinsey” Business Book of the Year Award, “Reset” is the best – even though at times, a bit too subjective – account you’ll find out there of the Pao v. Kleiner Perkins case which effectively blew open a conversation about the status of women.

Relatable (yes, even if you are a man) and brave, “Reset” serves as both a lesson in awareness and a rallying cry for equality.

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Leading Professionals PDF Summary

Leading Professionals PDFPower, Politics, and Prima Donnas

Power and politics are not like fire and water – they are like flames and charcoal. If you get into the water, you’ll get wet.

What we are trying to say is – many people fail to recognize the signs which indicate a foreseeable reality.

Leaders’ job is to anticipate everything and instruct others on how to steer the wheel.

Who Should Read “Leading Professionals”? And Why?

Leading Professionals is an applicable book that is written for the sake of newcomers and those eager to expand their knowledge in the realm of leadership. In other words, it’s perfect for individuals who are willing to dig up the mysteries of proper management.

We sincerely urge you to join Laura’s cause and abide by her paradoxical principles which may take your abilities to the next level. Pay attention and heed the warnings!

About Laura Empson

Laura EmpsonLaura Empson is an author, the Director of the Centre for Professional Service Firm and a senior researcher at Harvard Law School.

She spent more than 2 decades conducting various researches and case studies on professionalism and leadership.

“Leading Professionals PDF Summary”

Leading professionals ought to provide directions for other decision-makers, lawyers, managers, consultants but that isn’t a straightforward process.

Perhaps, avoiding the word – difficult would be the best because such claim can be misconstrued by those who divide matters into two categories: complicated and easy.

Having authority is one thing, knowing when and how to apply it, is an entirely enigmatic momentum. Why? – Because, professionals within an organization tend to possess distinctive features, which can jeopardize the communication in all layers.

In a democratic society, where opinions differ, enacting strict rules which control the behavior of those involved in the process is virtually impossible. Consensus as a tool starts to kick in; this organizational instrument sparks ideas and prompts people to commit themselves to the task, and come to an agreement with others if that’s necessary.

Without such outlooks and horizons, you can’t be regarded as a professional. It’s critical to be open-minded and willing to put the company’s interests above the personal gain. In efforts to align personal and professional goals, people lose their sense of self, so you don’t need to force any rapid conclusion.

According to Laura Empson, professional institutions or companies have to deal with two evidently energetic professionals:

  • Extensive autonomy – Professionals who would do anything to be in charge of their own operations and have an aversion towards monitoring and supervision.
  • Contingent authority – These group of professionals doesn’t mind having support from other leaders and rely on their partners.

Influencing and the ability to ask for better terms is becoming an integral part of the art of “Making Deals.” Leaders who can’t cope with pressure; can’t be labeled as goal-oriented professionals. In hopes of designing the perfect system that stimulates consensus, companies often change their internal policies.  

The standard procedures existing in every professional firm, give rise to a phenomenon named – plural leadership. As the name implies, it refers to a tricky situation that signifies how partnership develops into a new form of a joint command.

To put it briefly, this new form of authority takes the initiative to confront conventional and hierarchical decision-making and places emphasis on professional change.

Acting with such audacity takes more than just courage. The professional firms must be backed by all executives and those willing to invest in helping the management to solve complex organizational issues. All things said, leaders fly in the faces of 10 paradoxes:

  1. “Autonomy and control” – It’s no secret that professionals love and appreciate autonomy. Nonetheless, those higher in the chain of command must at least supervise their activities, and finding the right balance is key. These professionals must be given a choice to willing accept a certain level of control for better organizational execution.
  2. “Reluctance and ambition” – If you intend to lead and guide other members of the organization, you must not become one of those overly-ambitious leaders.
  3. “Political and apolitical leadership” – Often times, professional organizations have political elements in their decision-making. Leaders need to possess specific skills, such as be able to talk smoothly and maintain influential craftiness to subside a storm within the ranks.
  4. “Individual and collective interests” – In general, professionals in any company must protect their authority, but on the other side, they should take into account the interests of their partners. Nurturing these connections is vital for maintaining the stability of the organization.
  5. “Harmony and conflict” – If your employees are deprived of a harmonious environment – productivity and efficiency will suffer. To avoid quarrels and growing tensions, leaders need to put themselves in the shoes of others to understand their perspective.
    Putting those tense feelings aside can give the organization the upper hand to withstand the competitiveness of the market.
  6. “Insecurity and confidence” – Nobody likes insecure individuals! As a leader, you are obligated to help your co-workers and associates to build up that self-esteem and rise to the occasion.
  7. “Commercial and professional priorities” – In some companies, a group of professionals may be in charge of large operations. These senior managers are inclined to agree that commercial profits are vital for maintaining the functionality of the company.
  8. “Centralized power and distributed leadership” – There’s more than just physical evolution because a professional firm can also evolve in all matters. Power can swing from one executive to the other; departments may receive higher autonomy, and so forth. Leadership also can be distributed to various executives who showcased their readiness to carry out the operations.  
  9. “Active and passive leadership” – Indeed, many great leaders act as observers. Their expertise and years of experience grant them the privilege of being spectators, who take drastic measures only in a given situation. Sometimes doing nothing, is in fact, doing everything. This is a great paradox that only a small group of leaders can digest. The proactive form is typical for the majority of managers, but that’s not the only practical approach.
  10. “Ambiguity and clarity” – In theory, leaders are duty-bound to aid their base of disciples/followers/members/partners in times of trouble. This is especially true for matters that extend far beyond their level of competence. Ambiguous behavior is one of the most baffling paradox, and leaders in any professional firm must outline a plan to deal with such audacity.

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“Leading Professionals Quotes”

Senior professionals may choose to delegate authority to their elected leaders but reserve the right to undermine or remove them. Click To Tweet The assumption is that professionals who understand their clients’ business will be well qualified to lead their own. This inference is…no more than a good guess. Click To Tweet Political behavior among professionals… is not inherently wrong; it is an organizational fact of life. Click To Tweet Strong relationships between individual professionals and their clients are essential to the successful sale and delivery of professional services. Click To Tweet In a professional organization, the so-called greater good is simply the interests of the collective as defined by its leaders at a particular point in time. Click To Tweet

Our Critical Review

We rarely say this, but it seems like leadership in years to come will gradually transform from proactive into passive shape.

Genuine behavior inspired by the right and accurate information will serve as a tool for making that happen. This book is undoubtedly ahead of its time, and probably we will witness these changes in the foreseeable future.

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Top of Mind PDF Summary – John Hall

Top of Mind PDFUse Content to Unleash Your Influence and Engage Those Who Matter to You

Have some of your customers ever said to you: “I was just thinking of you”?

John Hall says that it’s vital.

Because being and staying “Top of Mind” with your customers is a prerequisite if you want to succeed in today’s dynamic world of marketing and business.

Who Should Read “Top of Mind”? And Why?

If you’ve spent some time in the world of marketing, you may think that you already know everything there’s to know; however, if you’re long enough – you must be aware that marketing is an ever-changing field in which the nuances matter and in which self-development is a prerequisite.

“Top of Mind” is for both novices and veteran marketers: it introduces the former to the new rules of marketing and some basic content marketing secrets, and it helps the latter understand how marketing has evolved from persuasion and selling to trust and lending a helping hand. 

John HallAbout John Hall

John Hall is the founder and CEO of Influence & Co., a content marketing agency which was ranked No. 72 on Forbes’ list of most promising companies in America in 2014, and No. 239 on Inc.’s similar list the very same year.

John Hall himself was recognized as one of the Business Journals’ Top 100 Visionaries, and two years later he received the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Best Emerging Company.

One of the most powerful people in media whom you’ve never met,” John Hall has so far authored only one book, “Top of Mind.

“Top of Mind PDF Summary”

The Internet managed to change so many things that people born few decades before it feel as if strangers in the world of the 21st century.

And we’re not going to say anything new if we tell you that the Internet profoundly altered the world of marketing as well, bringing new rules and revolutionary ways to increase your sales.

However, John Hall argues that with the advent of the Internet, the most important thing that changed isn’t the field itself, but the mindset of the customer.

And in an almost counter-intuitive way!

And marketers and marketing companies aren’t keeping up with this since they fail to acknowledge the revolution!

What are we talking about?

Well, you see, just a while ago – and by while we mean merely two or three decades ago – marketers could have ignored the Internet altogether.

But then, the first dot-com companies started making money, and the more perceptive advertisers started taking notes.

Some time passed, the millennials took the world by storm, and few people realized a painful truth: The Internet hasn’t merely changed some of the rules of the marketing game; it has changed the game altogether.

Namely, the 21st century meant that for the first time in history, customers were able to get all the info they like and need via the Internet.

And this didn’t only pertain to products and prices, but to reviews and expert opinions as well.

The big question:

So, what were all these salespeople supposed to do?

The startling answer:

Nothing.

They were obsolete.

They are obsolete.

And that’s a good thing.

Because, John Hall argues, it means that Selling 101 has morphed into Altruism 101.

Namely, since today’s customers are not passive – and are, even more, suspicious of salespeople who don’t ask for permission to invade their privacy – your job isn’t any more that of a marketing rep, but the far more humble and noble of being a friend.

Customers today don’t like to buy from people who are intrusive and persuasive.

Sure, you can trick them once or twice, but the minute they find out – and, trust us, these relentlessly displeased millennials will – you’ll lose them for eternity.

Them and about a million other people who’ll find out about it the very next second – on every social network in existence!

So, instead of tricking them – earn their trust.

Being authentic, honest and truthful is your best promotion, because if your customers trust you, then you will be the first thing that comes to their minds in case they need your goods or services.

This is what being top of mind means.

And what should be your objective if you want to be a successful company in the world of today:

Authenticity is the foundation of your relationship with your audience. But for the relationship to flourish, it’s not enough to simply be authentic; you also have to deliver tangible value.

To get to your customers’ “top of mind,” you need to earn their approval.

How?

The very same way you would get the approval of people you’d like to be your friends.

By expressing genuine concern about their likes and dislikes, by establishing a type of communication between you two that’s based on mutual trust and commitment.

Most importantly, by helping your customers from time to time without seeking any compensation.

Let us rephrase that:

How would you feel about a company who suddenly presents you with a high-quality product you really need for no charge whatsoever?

Wouldn’t you feel almost obliged to buy the next product of that company once it arrives on the market?

Exactly!

Keep this up for the long haul, and you’ve reached your objective: you will be uppermost in the minds of your customers, and they’ll think of you first in case they need something you provide.

John Hall neatly zips the process in a simple formula:

Trust” plus “consistency” leads to “opportunity.

To strengthen the relationship with your buyers, use relevant content which – remember Simon Sinek? – should always start with your company’s why.

People are suckers for core purposes.

The rest is merely decorum.

Key Lessons from “Top of Mind”

1.      Salespeople? Who Needs Salespeople?
2.      Trust Plus Consistency Equals Opportunity
3.      Content Marketing’s Best Practices

Salespeople? Who Needs Salespeople?

Maybe you haven’t noticed so far, but in the age of the Internet, salespeople – the good old Ziglar type – have become a thing of the past.

How so?

Well, because of a change in the mindset of the customers.

Your buyers are now capable of finding everything they want to know about your products online, rendering them much more powerful and much less susceptible to being tricked or persuaded to buy something.

The only way you can do that today is by earning their trust and becoming their friend.

And, thus, placing yourself at the top of their minds!

Trust Plus Consistency Equals Opportunity

It’s not easy to gain someone else’s trust.

If it was, you would have much more friends than you have now.

And when you want to sell something to someone, it’s even more difficult.

So, start by doing something extraordinary for the marketing world – don’t take advantage of your buyers, but lend them a helping hand.

We never thought we’d say this, but it seems that in the 21st century, Kant’s second formulation of the categorical imperative can’t ring any truer: “Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end.”

Do this in a more consistent manner – and you’ll be granted with an opportunity.

Not to sell your products.

But to have them bought.

Content Marketing’s Best Practices

A good way to promote yourself in an age where earning the trust of your customers is an imperative is by using strategically developed – but always honest – content.

If you’re new in the business, follow these few steps:

#1. Set the right goals and document your strategy: and always start with a why.
#2. Focus on ideas which attract people: and seek guidance on how to do this.
#3. Commit to the process of content creation: and make it as enjoyable as it can be for your team.
#4. Find a way to distribute your content well: and make sure to update the methods continually.

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“Top of Mind Quotes”

Helping others when you have the ability, being yourself and doing it all with consistency are normal human behaviors. Click To Tweet

Content won’t generate an overnight spike in sales. That should never be the goal because that’s not how content works. Click To Tweet

Like helpfulness, authentic likability is a practice. It can’t be forced, but it can be developed through everyday thoughts and actions. Click To Tweet

Trust manifests itself on a spectrum. The degree to which you trust someone determines how far out you’ll stick your neck for her. Click To Tweet

Even the most thoughtful act of kindness will not generate long-term top-of-mind status if it’s a one-off. Click To Tweet

Our Critical Review

As Al Ries and Jack Trout noted in their 1981 classic “Positioning” (which we didn’t hesitate to include in our list of top marketing books in history), “positioning is not what you do to a product: positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospect.”

“Top of Mind” shares some tips and tricks which may help you emerge victorious from this battle for your mind.

And according to John Hall, once that happens, you’ve won the marketing war.

You want to have this book as an ally: it’s smart, practical and thorough.

An excellent resource!

 

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Scientific Advertising PDF Summary

Scientific Advertising PDFAdvertising isn’t an art.

It’s science.

And Claude C. Hopkins set the foundations of “Scientific Advertising“ a century ago.

Ignore him at your peril.

Who Should Read “Scientific Advertising”? And Why?

We have a great way to answer this question.

It’s a claim by none other than David Ogilvy, the father of advertising:

Nobody should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this book seven times. It changed the course of my life.

Claude C. HopkinsAbout Claude C. Hopkins

Claude C. Hopkins was an advertising pioneer, widely considered one of the foremost figures in the history of marketing.

After a long advertising career, in 1923, Hopkins published “Scientific Advertising,” the foundation of direct marketing.

Four years later, he wrote his autobiography, “My Life in Advertising.”

He died in 1932.

“Scientific Advertising PDF Summary”

Claude C. Hopkins?

Now, where have you heard that name?

Because it sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

If you answered this question with a “yes,” but you still can’t put your finger on where exactly you’ve heard of Hopkins, we may be able to help: you’ve probably either read Charles Duhigg’s “The Power of Habit” or are a regular reader of our blog and have happened upon its summary.

According to Duhigg, Hopkins is the reason why you brush your teeth.

Or, to be more specific, Hopkins is the guy who created such a successful advertising campaign for Pepsodent, that in a decade, the number of Americans brushing their teeth increased tenfold!

Well, in “Scientific Advertising” he uncovers how he did it – and how you can do it as well.

And even though this fairly short book was written almost a century ago and is merely 10,000 words long, many of its messages are still as relevant today as in 1923!

Don’t believe us?

Well, read it for yourself here!

Or, just read ahead: we’ll go over the main points!

First of all, according to Claude C. Hopkins, must never forget that advertising is salesmanship. “Ads are not written to entertain,” writes Hopkins. “Measure them by salesmen’s standards, not by amusement standards.”

In other words, it’s pointless to make a funny ad which entertains people if it doesn’t call them to action.

If you are an advertiser, consider yourself a salesman as well. The only difference is in the degree: advertising is multiplied salesmanship.

Consequently:

There is one simple way to answer many advertising questions. Ask yourself, “Would it help a salesman sell the goods?” “Would it help me sell them if I met a buyer in person?”

A fair answer to those questions avoids countless mistakes. But when one tries to show off, or does things merely to please himself, he is little likely to strike a chord which leads people to spend money.

Why?

Because people are mostly selfish.

Ignoring this fact is a serious advertising mistake.

You are not making an ad to have fun; you’re making it to make sure that you give your customers the important information about your product and list your advantages.

Don’t think you can fool people in the long run: they can be coaxed, Hopkins says, but not driven. “Whatever they do they do to please themselves.”

Don’t ever forget that.

Also, don’t ever forget the power of headlines and images.

Use them both to pick out the right people, to attract the attention of the people you actually want to be your customers.

Because, ultimately, what you have can only interest a certain number of people and it will interest them for only a certain number of reasons.

Research the latter and address the former.

If you’re in a crowd and you want to get the attention of a certain person, the first thing you say is “Hey there, Bill Jones, I’ve got something to tell you.”

Well, the same holds true for your ads as well.

Which leads us to an extremely important aspect of advertising: being specific.

Generalities are never the way to go.

Saying that you are “best in the world” or that you have “lowest prices in existence” is expected – and is the worst thing you can do if you want to get someone’s attention.

Phrases such as these suggest both that you are no different from the rest of the bunch and that you have a tendency to exaggerate and couldn’t care less about the truth.

On the other hand, “a man who makes a specific claim is either telling the truth or a lie.” And that, in itself, earns the trust of your customers.

Advertising generalities are like saying “How do you do?” when you have no intention of inquiring about one’s health; asking something along the lines “Does your stomach feel better today?” is infinitely better!

It expresses genuine concern and relevant knowledge.

And people value those things.

However, what they value much more is the product itself.

Which means samples are of prime importance.

However expensive,” Hopkins notes, “they usually form the cheapest selling method.

Of course, not by themselves alone – they must be part of a complete story, an element of a mental impression, an essential fragment of the atmosphere surrounding them.

That’s why:

Give samples to interested people only. Give them only to people who exhibit that interest by some effort. Give them only to people whom you have told your story. First create an atmosphere of respect, a desire, an expectation. When people are in that mood, your sample will usually confirm the qualities you claim.

Key Lessons from “Scientific Advertising”

1.      Advertising Is Salesmanship – and Salesmanship Is All About Human Psychology
2.      Stand Out by Being Specific – Not by Negative Advertising
3.      In Advertising, You Need a Strategy, a Story, and a Good Name

Advertising Is Salesmanship – and Salesmanship Is All About Human Psychology

If you want to be a good advertiser, there’s nothing more important than understanding that you are basically just a salesman – times thousand.

The only purpose of advertising is to make sales,” emphasizes Hopkins. And, consequently, “its principles are the principles of salesmanship.

Which means – you need to root your advertising strategy into the very nature of what it means to be a human.

Fortunately, says Hopkins:

Human nature is perpetual. In most respects, it is the same today as in the time of Caesar. So the principles of psychology are fixed and enduring. You will never need to unlearn what you learn about them.

What does this mean in practice?

Well, for example, that “curiosity is one of the strongest human incentives” and that, at least for the extravagant Americans, “cheapness is not a strong appeal.”

Also, it means that “people judge largely by price” – so don’t ever forget that!

Stand Out by Being Specific – Not by Negative Advertising

If you want to make an impression, it’s important that you stand out.

And if you want to do that, don’t even think for a moment that you’ll get by on phrases such as “the best in town” or “the cheapest in the world.”

Impressions are made by those who dare to be different and unique, those who have found a way to make each of their customers feel as if an individual, an exceptional human being.

And those who are distinctive – but in an admirable way.

For example, studies have shown that negative advertising is never good: attacking a rival makes you look selfish and unfair.

So, show beauty, not homeliness; health, not sickness. “Don’t show the wrinkles you propose to remove, but the face as it will appear. Your customers know all about the wrinkles.”

In Advertising, You Need a Strategy, a Story, and a Good Name

Advertising,” writes Hopkins, “is much like war, minus the venom.

In other words, you must have some skill and knowledge, and a lot of training and experience.

Also: you must have the right equipment, the proper ammunition, and enough intelligence and data on your competitors.

An important part of your winning strategy should be your story – the why of your business. People tend to buy specific products much less than stories: the core purpose of your company may be your most important product.

Which also means that you need to spend a lot of time thinking of a good name – both for your company and your subsequent products (think of the “i” of Apple’s advertising strategy).

A good name means a good foundation in itself. “Some names,” claims Hopkins, “have become the chief factors in success. Some have lost for their originators four-fifths of the trade they developed.”

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“Scientific Advertising Quotes”

Advertising is salesmanship. Its principles are the principles of salesmanship. Click To Tweet

The competent advertising man must understand psychology. The more he knows about it the better. Click To Tweet

Literary qualifications have no more to do with (advertising) than oratory has with salesmanship. One must be able to express himself briefly, clearly, and convincingly, just as a salesman must. Click To Tweet

An ad-writer, to have a chance at success, must gain full information on his subject … Perhaps in many volumes he will find few facts to use. But some one fact may be the keynote of success. Click To Tweet

The product itself should be its own best salesman. Not the product alone, but the product plus a mental impression, and atmosphere, which you place around it. Click To Tweet

Our Critical Review

“Scientific Advertising” only missed the cut of our top marketing booklist by an inch.

And that should tell you what we think about this book more than any adjective.

We’ll use one, nevertheless:

Timeless.

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Snow Crash PDF Summary

Snow Crash PDFSometimes, these novels bring about change in behavior and spark intuitiveness.

It’s unusual for a science fiction novel to present the future so accurately. Nonetheless, Neal had the vision to impart a new perspective regarding the irregularities that penetrate deeper and deeper into every layer of the society.

We try to bring the essential moments of this novel in a nutshell, but that’s not an easy task!

We leave you with the judging notion.

Who Should Read “Snow Crash”? And Why?

Snow Crash was written in 1992 and can be categorized as a science fiction novel with an incredible storyline.

Readers from all over the world will find how meticulously this novel actually is – in terms of predicting the human reactions to technological progression. Indeed, we believe that fiction lovers should add this book to their reading-list – sooner rather than later.

Neal Stephenson Biography

Neal StephensonNeal Stephenson can be regarded as one of America’s greatest modern novelists, and game designer who thoroughly express his science-fiction orientation.

So far, he wrote around 15 novels and several other fictional projects.

Plot

As one may assume, Neal Stephenson, focuses on many spheres such as computer science, religion, nationality, culture, language, etc.

The author takes the role of futurologist, who has insights into the future; which at first glance seem like both distant and related to the actual happenings.

In the 21st century, 1% of the people control approximately ½ or 50% of the global wealth. The same fate reoccurs in the novel, and the distribution of resources represents a big problem for the community.

Language remains the only concept standing in the midst of confusion; a beacon of hope – something that can balance the scales.

All people have religions. It’s like we have religion receptors built into our brain cells or something, and we’ll latch onto anything that’ll fill that niche for us.

The storyline revolves around the incentives of a Los Angeles pizza delivery guy named – Hiro Protagonist. Los Angeles as the largest city in the state of California – acts as an independent area, which is controlled by a group of wealthy businessmen.

Hiro has a tough time with his social life and works as a pizza guy to reduce that aversion. One day, the restaurant receives an order, and they send Hiro to deliver pizza to American Mobsters. Before hitting the road, it’s vital to mention that he is a highly skilled hacker and swordsman.

One routine day, Hiro runs into a Y.T. – which stands for Yours Truly. This skateboarding courier sure does infuse a dose of freshness into the delivery guy’s life.

Shit, if I took time out to have an opinion about everything, I wouldn’t get any work done.

They decide to embark on a joint adventure and escape to Hong Kong. They lay eyes on small cybernetic security devices also known as Rat Things, which help Hiro to complete his order more efficiently.

That marks the beginning of a new partnership. They begin to act as small intelligence gathering organization, that is profit-oriented. At first, they are the extended hand of CIC (the merger of the CIA and Library of Congress) and the Metaverse which is a “close relative” to the Internet.

Users on Metaverse are exposed to a new drug; recognized by its popular name Snow Crash. Hiro same as the other persons are offered to taste the drugs.

Da5id, one of Hiro’s friends, induces system crash while looking at the binary code, containing various naked avatars.

On top of that, Da5id has brain damage, which further hinders his performance. Afterward, Hiro bumps into Juanita who gives him some files and then suddenly vanishes leaving no trace.

Yours Truly gets involved in a project launched and monitored by Uncle Enzo – Mafia Boss with strong connections. Y.T. takes a glance at classified intelligence collected by Juanita and transferred over to Hiro.

They discover a dangerous and alarming truth – The Sumerian Language was used for brain-programming and adjusted to help the priests to control the masses.

Fortunately, there is an antidote that can block the magical power of these controlling words. The God Enki somehow managed to create a counter-virus that is able to put a stop on the brain-processing and the development of new language branches.

The Biblical story of the Tower of Babel is the symbol of defiance, which explains why God made or created so many languages.

As the plot starts to heat up, L. Bob Rife comes to the stage – a renowned media tycoon who starts collecting artifacts originating from Sumerian culture. He intends to wreck control over the population, by examining the drugs.

Snow Crash now becomes addictive opium that makes people subordinate to its effects. The Metaverse version is clearly negatively affecting the performance of hackers, primarily how they respond to the code.

Hiro realizes that it’s now a great time to locate Juanita and heads for West Coast. The mega inflation leaves most of the Asian continent in severe poorness. As a response to the crisis, a large number of refugees attempts to get into the U.S. illegally and ask for asylum.

Rife leverages the situation by indoctrinating the refugees before they set foot on U.S. soil with the new drugs Snow Crash. Y.T. connection with the Mafia Boss proves to be catastrophic, and she is taken hostage.

Hiro has little options and ends up begging Enzo to help him gain access to the Raft to save Y.T. They come to an agreement, but Yours Truly while being imprisoned falls in love with an assassin named Raven.

Before making a move, Hiro discovers that Juanita is also there and they jointly manage to locate the counter-virus read it out loud to rescue everyone from the drug.

Snow Crash Epilogue

Rife discovers what is going on and takes both Raven and Y.T. with him to attend a big Metaverse concert.

Rife intends to use the “craziness” of the gathering to present the virtual Snow Crash. Hiro tackles the threat, and Yours Truly manages to break away from these chains. 

Rife now face two obstacles: The Mafia Boss Enzo, and Rat Thing. It all ends pretty dramatically when Fido decides to infiltrate the engine of Rife’s private jet, with an intention to kill him and destroy the virus once and for all.

Hiro and Juanita decide to start over, and Y.T. makes up her mind to bury the hatchet with her mother.  

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“Snow Crash PDF Quotes”

See, the world is full of things more powerful than us. But if you know how to catch a ride, you can go places. Click To Tweet When you are wrestling for possession of a sword, the man with the handle always wins. Click To Tweet It was, of course, nothing more than sexism, the especially virulent type espoused by male techies who sincerely believe that they are too smart to be sexists. Click To Tweet I don't even want you to nod, that's how much you annoy me. Just freeze and shut up. Click To Tweet Most countries are static, all they need to do is keep having babies. But America's like this big old clanking smoking machine that just lumbers across the landscape scooping up and eating everything in sight. Click To Tweet

Our Critical Review

We genuinely believe that if you are not a hard-core fan of the science-fiction storyline, this book will not remain etched into your heart.

That being said, those who thrive on amazing stories that exalt science, bravery, and determination – will be thrilled by all the elements in it!

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On the Road PDF Summary – Jack Kerouac

On the Road PDFInterested in a ride across America?

Or four?

Well, then Join Jack Kerouac and head “On the Road.”

Who Should Read “On the Road”? And Why?

If you like to listen to Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, and “The Doors,” if you like films such as “Easy Rider” or “Paris, Texas” – well, “On the Road” is probably where they all began.

“I suppose if Jack Kerouac had never written On the Road, The Doors would never have existed,” wrote Ray Manzarek in his autobiography.

“It changed my life like it changed everyone else’s,” said Dylan.

Need we say more?

Jack KerouacJack Kerouac Biography

Jack Kerouac was an American author of French-Canadian descent, the central figure of the Beat generation.

A literary iconoclast, he is recognized for his spontaneous autobiographical prose and his interest in themes such as jazz, drugs, travel, sex, and spirituality.

“On the Road,” his most famous book, was adapted into a film in 2012.

Plot

Jack Kerouac couldn’t have chosen a better title for this one, because “On the Road” happens almost entirely, well, on the road.

And just like another novel written later (but summarized here before) – Hunter Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” – it’s never only about traveling.

It’s also about music and poetry, sex and drug use, nonconformity and crushed dreams.

Another similarity between the books: both are romans à clef.

Meaning: the characters in this book have real-life counterparts. And most of the events really took place sometime between 1947 and 1950.

In fact, the original manuscript of the book – a 120-foot scroll of tracing paper sheets cut to size and taped together (written in three weeks!) – features all the real names of the people in this book.

You get zero points for guessing who Sal Paradise, the narrator of the novel, is. Dean Moriarty, his best friend and idol, is the alter ego of Neal Cassady.

So that you are able to effortlessly add faces to the names, we present you with a photograph of the two main guys of our story; the author, Jack Kerouac, is on the right.On the Road Summary

Part One

The novel begins with Sal telling us how his outlook on life was profoundly changed once he met Dean Moriarty, a guy “tremendously excited with life.”

It didn’t take long for him to develop a certain longing for the road and the type of freedom Dean represents:

Somewhere along the line I knew there would be girls, visions, everything; somewhere along the line the pearl would be handed to me.

Inspired by Dean – once Dean leaves to his hometown of Denver – Sal decides to set out on a journey to meet up with his friends.

After taking several buses and hitchhiking along the way, he finally arrives in Denver, where, among others, he hooks up with Carlo Marx, which is Kerouac’s unsubtle designation for none other than Allan Ginsberg.

Next, he goes to San Francisco where he plans to live some time with Remi Boncoeur – an old friend of his – and his girlfriend, Lee Ann (Henri Cru and Dianne Orin). Remi finds Sal a job as a night watchman, but their relationship soon deteriorates.

And Sal hits the road again.

On the bus, he meets Terry, the “cutest little Mexican girl,” and stays with her for a while, working with her family in the cotton fields of Sabinal.

Realizing that he’s not made for that kind of work, Sal leaves Terry and goes to his Aunt’s house in Patterson, where he learns that he has just missed Dean, who had come to see him.

Part Two

Sal’s second journey begins when Dean visits him in Testament, Virginia, where Sal is celebrating Christmas with his relatives.

We learn that Dean has left his second wife, Camille (Carolyn Cassady), and their newborn, Amy, in San Francisco – which isn’t too difficult to deduce, since he shows up with another girl, Marylou (LuAnne Henderson).

Sal and Dean leave and go to New York, where they meet Carlo and where Dean wants Sal to make love to Marylou; Sal, however, declines.

Then they leave for New Orleans where they stay with Old Bull Lee (a morphine-addict) and his wife Jane, i.e., William S. Burroughs and Joan Vollmer.

After driving for some time through Texas and Arizona (stealing food and gasoline along the way), Sal, Dean, and Marylou reach San Francisco.

Once there, Dean leaves Marylou to be with his current wife, Camille.

Eventually, Dean and Sal meet up once again, until the drinking and the nightclubbing wears Sal down, and so he decides to return to New York.

Part Three

A few months later, Sal takes a bus from New York to Denver. He misses his friends, so once he receives some money, he leaves Denver for San Francisco once more.

There, Dean is futilely struggling to start a new, more domestic type of life.

He’s even less successful once Sal shows up.

So, unsurprisingly, the pregnant Camille throws Sal and Dean out. Sal invites his friend to go with him to New York; the plan is to travel to Italy afterward.

On the way to Sacramento, Sal and Dean meet a “fag,” and Dean tries to swindle some money out of him.

Eventually, after a few ecstatic discussions about “It” and “Time,” Dean and Sal end up in Denver, where Dean’s lust for young girls almost gets him shot.

To make matters even worse, Dean steals the car of a police detective, and the two realize that they need to leave Denver asap.

They get a 1947 Cadillac that needs to be brought to Chicago – and, thanks to Dean’s wild driving, they manage to reach Chicago in seventeen hours!

Needless to add, the car is not in good condition.

From Chicago, they move to Detroit where Dean expresses his hope to find his homeless father, Old Dean Moriarty.

From Detroit, they share a ride to New York, where Dean meets another girl – Inez – and gets her pregnant as well.

Part Four

In the spring of 1950, Dean is living with Inez and working as a parking lot attendant in Manhattan, drinking and smoking pot a lot.

So, basically what he was doing before – only now with a different girl.

Sal leaves him in New York and sets on this fourth and final trip alone.

Eventually, he reaches Denver, where he meets Stan Shephard.

The two plan to go to Mexico City when, suddenly, they learn that Dean has spent the last of his savings to buy a ’37 Ford Sedan.

Needless to add – he joins them.

Once they cross the border, the three have a feeling as if they are in some kind of a Beat Paradise: there’s cannabis all around, the people are friendlier, their money buys more, and the police doesn’t seem to care about anything.

And to top things off – the landscape is magnificent.

In Gregoria, they meet Victor, a local kid, who gives them drugs and leads them to a bordello. There, the three guys have sex with underage girls – and for very little money, mind you!

However, Sal gets sick with dysentery and is “delirious and unconscious.” Dean does what a Dean would do if you knew him in reality: he leaves Sal there.

For some reason, Sal has an explanation:

when I got better I realized what a rat he was, but then I had to understand the impossible complexity of his life, how he had to leave me there, sick, to get on with his wives and woes.

On the Road Epilogue

Part Five

Sal returns to New York, where he finds that Dean first married Inez and then divorced her to go back to Camille in San Francisco.

What a surprise!

(And, really, what kind of a heart does Camille have?)

Sal meets a girl named Laura – actually Joan Haverty and, for one year, Kerouac – and plans to move with her to San Francisco.

He writes Dean, who says he’s willing to come to New York and accompany the couple back to San Francisco.

Dean arrives in New York about a month early – at a time when Sal doesn’t have the money to relocate to San Francisco.

Once he hears this, Dean decides to go back alone to Camille – and that’s the last time Sal ever sees Dean.

As the novel closes, Sal sits on a riverbank under the New Jersey night sky and thinks about everything he was privileged to see, and, mostly, about Dean Moriarty.

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“On the Road PDF Quotes”

My aunt once said that the world would never find peace until men fell at their women's feet and asked for forgiveness. Click To Tweet

We agreed to love each other madly. Click To Tweet

I was halfway across America, at the dividing line between the East of my youth and the West of my future. Click To Tweet

I just won't sleep, I decided. There were so many other interesting things to do. Click To Tweet

Better to sleep in an uncomfortable bed free, than sleep in a comfortable bed unfree. Click To Tweet

Our Critical Review

“On the Road” defined a whole generation – the Beat Generation, to be more exact. And when a literary work does that, it speaks in the language of millions.

And at least as many should read it.

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A Clockwork Orange PDF Summary

A Clockwork Orange PDFMy dear malchickiwick, time for a good ol’ ultra-violent prestoopnick story  

Believe us: you’re going to have a hell of a khorosho time!

Brace yourself for Anthony Burgess’ “A Clockwork Orange.”

Who Should Read “A Clockwork Orange”? And Why?

Burgess didn’t like his most famous work, considering it “too didactic to be artistic” and describing it as “a jeu d’esprit knocked off for money.”

Most people, however, would beg to differ – especially after Kubrick’s 1971 film.

Since we are one of the latter, we always warmly recommend “A Clockwork Orange” to anyone and everyone.

Both the book and the movie.

Anthony BurgessAnthony Burgess Biography

Anthony Burgess was an English writer, linguist, and composer.

Predominantly a comic writer, he is best known for “A Clockwork Orange,” though most of the critics consider his Enderby quartet and “Earthly Powers” more deserving of the fame.

He also wrote librettos and screenplays, including one for the ultra-popular 1977 TV mini-series “Jesus of Nazareth.”

Plot

Don’t know about you, guys, but just like we can’t think of Lewis Carroll’s Alice without thinking about Disney’s Alice, Anthony Burgess’ “A Clockwork Orange” will be forever marred in our fantasy by Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 adaptation, which, in retrospect, we were just too young to watch at the tender age of 14:

But, don’t be fooled: Just like the film, the book is a masterpiece.

And it consists of three parts, seven chapters each.

Part 1: Alex’s World

In a near-future dystopian England, Alex is a 15-year-old leader of a terrifying ultra-violent gang of four.

In addition to him, the gang includes Georgie Boy, Alex’s aspiring second-in-command, Dim, a slow-witted muscleman persistently talked down by Alex, and Pete, the only one of the group who seems like he doesn’t belong fully in it.

Just like most of the teenagers in this future, the gang uses a strange dialect called Nadsat, described by Dr. Branom (you’ll meet him later) as:

Odd bits of old rhyming slang… A bit of gipsy talk, too. But most of the roots are Slav. Propaganda. Subliminal penetration.

The novel begins in the Korova Milk Bar, where the four friends – or “droogs” as they call each other – are drinking their favorite drink: milk-plus.

If you’re wondering what that plus stands for, wonder no more: milk-plus is nothing more than milk mixed with the customer’s drug of choice.

Needless to add, what follows is the regular nightly mayhem.

Once the droogs leave the bar, they assault a scholar, rob a store, beat up a beggar, and then fight with a rival gang led by Billyboy.

Afterward, they steal a car and, after some joyriding, break into an isolated cottage, inhabited by a young couple.

The husband is a writer working on a novel called “A Clockwork Orange” – that’s strange! – which Alex shreds after reading a paragraph stating the book’s main theme.

The droogs severely beat the husband and gang rape his wife before heading back to the Korova Milk Bar.

There, Dim makes a crude comment about a woman singing an operatic passage, and Alex – though a sociopath, a keen lover of classical music as well – strikes him, making known to the reader the existent strains inside the gang.

Alex goes back to his parents’ apartment and plays himself some classical music at top volume:

Oh it was gorgeousness and gorgeosity made flesh. The trombones crunched redgold under my bed, and behind my gulliver the trumpets three-wise silverflamed, and there by the door the timps rolling through my guts and out again crunched like candy thunder. Oh, it was wonder of wonders… I was in such bliss, my brothers.

We already told you that he really likes classical music, the “Lovely Ludwig Van” especially!

The next day, Alex feigns illness to his parents to stay out of school and gets an unexpected visit from P. R. Deltoid, a criminal rehabilitation worker with an assignment to keep Alex on the straight road.

Once he leaves, Alex goes to a record store where he meets two pre-teen girls. He takes them to his apartment, then drugs them and rapes them.

The next morning, his droogs rebel against his leadership, but Alex prevails, slashing Dim’s hand and fighting with Georgie.

To appease the three, he takes them to a bar and insists on following through with Georgie’s plan to burgle the home of a wealthy old woman.

However, once there, Dim strikes Alex and the gang leaves him there to be arrested by the police.

Part 2: The Ludovico Technique

The old woman dies from her injuries. Alex is tried for murder and sentenced to 14 years in prison.

In the meantime, Georgie dies as well – as Alex learns from his parents while in prison.

Two years in, and we see Alex spending his time playing religious music for the Sunday services, and reading the Bible in the meantime.

But make no mistake – he does that not for religious purposes, but because of the music and the violent passages in the Scripture.

Soon after, due to his violent behavior, he is chosen to be a lab rat, and he undergoes an experimental behavior-altering treatment dubbed the Ludovico Technique.

The Technique – co-developed by Dr. Branom and Dr. Brodsky – consists of injecting Alex with nausea-inducing drugs, while playing him graphically violent images.

The goal is to condition Alex to link them so that his body starts naturally reacting to violence with aversion.

However, the soundtrack to one of the films Alex is forced to watch includes Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony – Alex’s favorite work – and, as a side-effect, he starts hating classical music as well.

A demonstration of the effects of the Ludovico Technique follows.

A group of VIPs watches Alex as he breaks down before a bully and degrades himself before a naked young woman and the government officials can’t be happier with the results.

Determined healthy, Alex is released from prison.

Part 3: After Prison

Alex returns home, but only to find out that he’s been replaced by a lodger.

He starts wandering the streets and eventually ends up in a public library, where he attempts to find a painless method to commit suicide.

There, the old scholar whom the gang had assaulted in Part 1 recognizes him and, with the help of several friends, beats Alex up.

Two policemen come to his rescue, but – lo and behold! – they are none other than Dim and Billyboy!

Needless to add, they don’t help Alex, instead taking him outside of town and beating him up further.

Alex manages to drag himself to an isolated cottage, where he is accepted by its inhabitant, F. Alexander.

Unfortunately for Alex, that’s the writer whose wife he and his friends had raped in Part 1 – and who has since died of the injuries sustained during the rape.

Alexander doesn’t recognize Alex, but, being highly critical of the government, he is very curious of the Ludovico Technique and its effects.

In fact, he plans to use Alex as a symbol of state brutality to prevent the government from being re-elected.

However, Alex inadvertently reveals himself and, as a consequence, F. Alexander locks him up in an upper-story bedroom, where Alex is forced to listen to an endless stream of classical songs.

Unable to bear it, Alex leaps from the window.

Soon after, he wakes up in a hospital, in the presence of government officials who like to counter the bad publicity caused by Alex’s suicide attempt, by offering him a well-paying job.

After a round of tests proves to the nation that Alex is back to his old self, Alex starts daydreaming of orgies and violence.

He says:

I was cured all right.

A Clockwork Orange Epilogue

And that’s how both the movie and the American edition ends.

The original book, however, includes one more chapter.

In it, we learn that Alex has a new gang – consisting of Rick, Bully, and Lenn – but we also feel that he’s not that interested in his old lifestyle anymore.

After a chance encounter with Pete – during which he finds out that Pete is now married – Alex starts rethinking his life, planning to give up crime altogether and sublimate his destructive energies into a more creative manner.

He even expresses a desire to marry, and fear that his children may be even more violent than him.

Too anti-climactic, ha?

Most seem to share this opinion.

Which is… kinda scary?

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“A Clockwork Orange PDF Quotes”

Is it better for a man to have chosen evil than to have good imposed upon him? Click To Tweet

We can destroy what we have written, but we cannot unwrite it. Click To Tweet

When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. Click To Tweet

But what I do I do because I like to do. Click To Tweet

I see what is right and approve, but I do what is wrong. Click To Tweet

Our Critical Review

Written in only three weeks – just like Kerouac’s “On the Road” – “A Clockwork Orange” is considered one of the 100 best English-language novels ever written.

And indeed – the unconventional story, the memorable characters, and the Nadsat argot used so masterfully by Burgess, provide for a once-in-a-lifetime reading experience.

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