Published by Mario May 21st, 2007
in Doing and People who Do Things.
There’s a new book out by one of The Department of Doing’s favourite people - Bob Sutton. Professor Sutton was co-writer of “The Knowing-Doing Gap”, a must-read for any aspirant doers. His latest is “The No Asshole Rule” and it focuses on the real damage done to businesses by the many tyrants, bullies and plain ol’ kitchen variety assholes (or arseholes, as Kiwis, Brits and Aussies tend to prefer).
You can link to Bob Sutton’s site here, for more detail on the book.
At The Department of Doing, we’ve always had an aversion to such people, as the second of our founding Directives of Doing makes clear: “Be honest with yourself and with others. We want The Department of Doing to be ethical, honest and open. We have learned by experience that business is more productive, more creative and more fun when people trust and respect each other. We have spent too many years working in big companies (and small) which run on fear, paranoia and deceit to want to do it all over again.”
Amen to that. Having worked with some utter thugs over the years I do wonder what makes them want to inflict such harm on others. Bob’s book sounds like it might contain some answers, so I’ll be putting it on my Birthday list.
A culmination of the work in progress across the planet for centuries, the encyclopedia for life is in ‘doing mode’ and set to become reality later this year.
“Ultimately, the Encyclopedia of Life will provide an online database for all 1.8 million species now known to live on Earth. When completed, http://www.eol.org will serve as a global biodiversity tool, providing scientists, policymakers, students, and citizens information they need to discover and protect the planet and encourage learning and conservation.”
This is a true product of doing following E.O. Wilson’s TED Prize Wish. We know so little about nature, he says, that we’re still discovering tiny organisms indispensable to life; yet we’re still steadily destroying nature. His wish was to work together on the Encyclopedia of Life, a web-based compendium of data from scientists and amateurs on every aspect of the biosphere.
His wish has been brought to life with thanks to funding commitments led by the MacArthur Foundation. This is what TED is all about.
And speaking of which, take a moment to watch read or listen to the ideas on the TED website.
There might be something you can do.
