Dave’s Rants

Last Summer I came across Change This. Since I came across it I’ve been a regular visitor to the site. I regularly find fascinating articles (’manifestos’) these are among the most interesting things I find online. In the most recent update two in particular caught my eye.

The first was ‘The Personal MBA’. I had seen some of the content of this before i.e. The Reading List but it was nice to be reminded of it and some of the extra information was fascinating, such as the statistics of whether or not it’s worth doing an MBA. I’d be very interested in checking out some of the books listed.

Another excellent manifesto I read this week was “The Hypomanic American”. This is an interesting look at the American psyche but another point is that having read it I believe I suffer from Hypomania. Just look at the ’symptoms’

• He is filled with energy.
• He is loaded with ideas.
• He is driven, restless, and unable to keep still.
• He channels his energy into the achievement of wildly grand ambitions.
• He often works on little sleep.
• He feels brilliant, special, chosen, perhaps even destined to change the world.
• He can be euphoric.
• He becomes easily irritated by minor obstacles.
• He is a risk taker.
• He overspends in both his business and personal life.
• He acts out sexually.
• He sometimes acts impulsively, with poor judgement, in ways that can have painful consequences.
• He is fast-talking.
• He is witty and gregarious.

Way too many of these resonate with me!! I’ll have to get the book and find out more!

So I recommend you check out Change This. Also if you are interested in the personal MBA you’ll probably be interested in the material you can find on MIT’s OpenCourseWare. On the OCW site you can access much of the course material from the MIT Sloan School of Management. So if you were like me in college and didn’t study business you can now do it for free.