Over the course of the last year I’ve been sorting out many things to do with my work, my voracious appetite for reading, my broader interests and how I manage my time. Having a second baby around the place has effected many changes (more on this later) but amidst the turbulence there’s been a bunch of blogs that have given me immense inspiration, intellectual and spiritual stimulation and a few laughs along the way.
Having compiled the list it’s a fair reflection of many of my personal and professional interests – business and innovation, creativity, design, marketing, personal exploration/productivity and technology.
Here the regulars that I read most days or at least once or twice a week via RSS:
Probably the first blog I ever read and still amongst the most enjoyable for it’s freerange mix of art, politics, culture, design, science, wacky products and whatever else tickles the authors’ fancies.
A great source of personal inspiration – always asking life questions and giving some great perspectives and further sources for investigation.
Probably one of the best blogs of all. On my first visit I read all of Hugh’s How to Be Creative and just about every other post. I also had the pleasure of sharing a bottle of scotch with him on a very long journey back from a social media conference in Cambridge last year. Nice bloke with immense talents.
The author of A Whole New Mind: How to thrive in the conceptual age doesn’t blog in great detail, but does follow up on the themes in his great book.
I think I arrived at Fred Wilson’s blog via Gapingvoid and have enjoyed the mix of insight into what’s hot in the US online world and Fred’s commentary on (mostly indie) music. Our taste is very similar.
Another blogger I met at the Our Social World conference in September 2005. Johnnie writes about interventions in business, marketing, branding and authenticity. We’ve subsequently met up and there’s many shared interests and perspectives, such as Brad Blanton’s Radical Honesty which we’d both just read when we met.
In the Bubble: Designing in a complex world was one of the most visionary books I read last year from arguably one of the most serious and sane designers on the planet. I love his polemics on international development amongst his wide and freerange interests. I must go to a Doors of Perception conference one day.
Getting Real was a highlight of last year. All about making stuff that needs to be made. These guys have inspired a generation of web2.0 types, me included. They’ve also made the leap from a bunch of service-focused web designers to that of a product company with lots of customers. Respect indeed.
A writer with fantastic style and fluency on a wide range of topics around designing software products. Always interesting, humane and often provides splendid illustrations that summarise complex concepts. Amongst my favourites are her posts on Manager 2.0 and Neo-Marketing last year.
I’ve been on the journey with my good friend and colleague Antony since he started writing Open. He’s a visionary in social media and I salute his commitment and insight and belief in the positive power of the medium.
I’ve also watched the emergence of this blog by one of my favourite business writers. He’s so succinct and remarkably generous with his insight. I think I’ve probably read most of his posts as he has wisdom in spades.
As one of the authors of the now seminal Push to Pull paper, I’ve found his insight and clarity wonderfully authoritative on emerging trends as business strategies.
I like the punchy style, honesty and openness of this blog. I always get the sense that Tara loves what she does.
A great source of life-hacks, including this recent recap on a previous gem – Getting Things Done: Recap for ‘07 – all about ways and means of putting into practice David Allen’s ideas from Getting Things Done:The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. Has many great productivity tips for Mac users too.
Relatively new to this one, but full of great examples of social media in practise – good and bad.
The source of hot and new web companies and applications.
Right, next step in the evolution of this blog is to create a blogroll with the above.
