The Leap

President Bush's Reading Contest

Bush Is a Book Lover by Karl Rove was published in the opinion section of the Wall Street Journal on Friday, December 26th. This is a pretty amazing piece covering the book reading contest President Bush had with Karl Rove over the past couple of years. I’ll let you read it for yourself to get all the details but here are a couple of high lights. In 2006 Karl Rove beats President Bush 110 books to 95. In 2007 Karl read 76 to the Presidents 51 while in 2008 Karl won yet again, 64 to the 40. He obviously highlights that President Bush is much busier than he is and that is the only reason he was able to win. The list of books that the President read was impressive which consisted of 60% non-fiction and mostly history, biographies, and books on current events. Some noteworthy books many people here probably have read would be Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals, and biographies on, Lincoln, Mao, Andrew Carnegie, Mark Twain, Babe Ruth, and LBJ. One is left understanding the President places a high importance on reading and is a voracious reader himself. I have heard many times that all great leaders must be readers. Once you study any of the great leaders in history you see this is one characteristic they all have in common. I am curious if anyone here has read more than 110 books in a year. What is your goal for 2009? What was the best book or books you read this past year? Happy New Year!

Newspaper Adaptation

Pew Survey Confirms What We All Know: Net Beats Newspapers As A Source For News

This report shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.  The Chicago Tribune filed for bankruptcy on December 8th.  The Detroit Free Press is now only printing papers a couple days a week.  All newspapers around the country are being affected.  Some are transforming the way they do business, others are not.  The question is will the public panic and demand a government bailout of this sector like we have done with our other sectors or will we let the market run its course and let the newspapers make smart fiscal and transformational changes. It is obvious the public enjoys getting instant access to news updates online.  Many newspapers have already adapted and are enjoying great success.  I get my Wall Street Journal delivered everyday in newspaper form but also have an online subscription so I can access their news and reporting when I am traveling anywhere in the world.  I think we are less likely to see people demand bailouts of this sector because everyone is already using and enjoying the benefits of the transformation of this industry right now.  I believe if we allowed our other industries time to transform we would see the same benefits.  However, saving them with bailout dollars only lets them keep operating the way they always have and we miss out on the new adaptations that everyone would enjoy.  What are your thoughts?

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Is Washington Trying to Kill Entrepreneurship?

Today in the Wall Street Journal Michael S. Malone wrote a great opinion piece titled Washington Is Killing Silicon Valley. He highlights the massive job creation in the US over the past decade in the tech sector and how new Washington regulations like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act that was to prevent another Enron has done nothing but hinder risk taking and entrepreneurship in the one sector that the US is currently leading the world in. I support proper oversight to prevent another Enron type disaster but we should be careful not to kill off other aspects of our economy in the process.  This is an excellent article and when applied to Thomas Friedman's best selling book The World Is Flat one walks away a bit perplexed and worried. One of Mr. Friedman's points is that the US needs to remain dominate in the tech sector where we are the world leaders.  Friedman makes a case that as the world caught up with us in this last century in manufacturing but we stayed one step ahead by moving ahead to be the world leader in the technology.   Mr. Malone makes a case that our Washington leaders in their infinite wisdom and continued mismanagement of this country might be putting that at risk.

Seth Godin speaks on idea diffusion...how do you make your idea SPREAD?