The Glance for June 21, 2010: Duggan on strategic intuition

Strategic Intuition: Flash versus Blink: An Introduction to Strategic Intuition (Chapter 1), 2007-Nov, by William Duggan

... strategic intuition becomes like a cottage you come upon in the middle of a forest. You move up close, look around the outside, and then peer through each window to see what’s inside. Each window gives you a different view of the same thing. You look in one window, then another, then another, and then at the end you find you’re inside the cottage. It all comes together in your mind. You understand strategic intuition.

We all struggle to think critically, with or without the internet

Recent arguments about whether hyperlinked online research is affecting our intelligence has left me feeling like Forrest Gump's mother—stupid is as stupid does. Any new tool, when used as a crutch instead of a lever, can be abused. Up until now, I've found the voice of reason hard to find in the media, but fortunately Steven Pinker speaks up. No form of knowledge can make us stupider unless we consume it uncritically. But thinking is such harder work than consuming!

NYTimes.com: Op-Ed - Mind Over Mass Media, 2010-Jun-10, by Steven Pinker

It’s not as if habits of deep reflection, thorough research and rigorous reasoning ever came naturally to people. They must be acquired...

Take a break and read about undiscovered treasure on the streets of NYC

This post has nothing to do with anything except the excitement of uncovering buried treasure!  The Abandoned Palace On Beekman Street « Scouting NY.

When trying to build your own web site traffic, share TO the social platforms not FROM

I'm sure that I'm oversimplifying this point, and anyone who would like to straighten me out is welcome to comment, but to build search traffic to your web site, avoid posting directly to social media sites. It does take some practice to reliably syndicate your blog posts to Facebook and Twitter, especially if you want to make the post enticing to read. If you are interested in building reputation and traffic for your web site, the content should originate there and permanently reside there.

SmartBlog On Social Media: Do Social Media Links Help Your SEO? 2010-June-2, by Rob Birgfeld

Many of the biggest social-media sites apply what’s called the “nofollow” attribute to their outgoing links. This tells the search engine robots that periodically crawl a page and report back to not follow a given link. In other words, the SEO benefits mentioned above – commonly called “link juice” – don’t transfer over. Google strictly adheres to this; Yahoo! and Bing, less so. Users can click the link and visit the target page, but the link itself will not help the site in search results. Facebook and Twitter use the nofollow attribute, as do YouTube, Digg and Flickr. ... Most of the big social-media sites don’t pass along any direct search benefit from their high ranking. ... [Except in their RSS feed format] ...

And all the major blog-hosting sites – WordPress (.com), Blogger, Tumblr, etc. — do not nofollow, or “dofollow,” if you prefer. Links from hosted blogs and self-hosted blogs, if relevant, will help rankings.

Christine Tremoulet's possible future in photojournalism. What a grasp of the picture!

First, go see:  SLGT Photo Project: QViews – Theresa Quintanilla (13/365), 2010-Jun-7, by Christine Tremoulet

For years, I've been hearing people say, 'now what is it that QViews does, again?' I'm so impressed with the photos and with Christine Tremoulet's ability to grasp my business. She really understands building relationships. I've already booked her to shoot another client under the project.

I know she enjoys wedding photography, but she could always fall back on photojournalism. We need more good business reporters in Houston.

I'm thrilled she was able to integrate that sculpture intro the picture. It's by John Garrett.

All work and no play is dull tweeting, and poor perspective

If you have a choice (and you do) in whether to work with someone who is completely work-obsessed and someone else equally competent who has outside interests, which will be more fun? Furthermore, outside interests are vital to helping us get a better perspective. When I worked with the product engineers during the early days of Compaq Computers, the least valuable assistance to the advertising agency was provided by the engineers who knew the most about the product and the least about the outside world in which it would be used.

Oh, and please look over the entire article. It not only has great insight, it's fun to read as well.

Social Media Examiner: 7 Social Media Truths You Can Ignore and Still be Successful, 2010-June-1, by Rich Brooks

In fact, my interest in zombies is so well-known that friends tweet me zombie news and I’ve even received several zombie-themed gifts at events. It seems strange, but the undead have helped build my network. While that may not lead to direct sales—Google Analytics still doesn’t list “zombies” as a traffic source—it has helped me make new connections and opened up new opportunities that have led to business. While zombies may not be your cup of tea, sharing your interests—whether it’s gardening, cooking or skydiving—will attract like-minded people to you and help build your network.