“Tour of the US Income Distribution: The red line represents a graph of family income across the population. The height of the curve at any point is the height of a stack of $100 bills equalling that income. Unless you have a very old browser you will be able to zoom. Be sure to zoom both in and out.”

“Be fast, be frugal, be right. These are the business principles that spurred Janie and Victor Tsao to transform their home-based start-up into a $500 million powerhouse that Cisco Systems just couldn’t resist buying.”

“When I listed my criteria for good teammates, I included ‘will have lunch with me on a regular basis.’ That seems to have surprised some of my readers, to say nothing of those who were apparently angered.”

“The purpose of this site is to stick it to the man by showcasing pictures people draw of their bosses.� Please feel free to submit your pictures of your boss via email (as a .jpg or .gif file)… An easy way to make a drawing on your computer is to use the ‘Paint’ program in windows, then save the file as a .JPG file. Please submit only goofy pictures that make fun, no pictures that portray harm to others.”

“How to Succeed at Getting Hired (and Lots of Ways Not To): While I write this from a new-media perspective, I have a decidedly old-world attitude about the job hunt, so my tips may help people in almost any field.”

“Westland Helicopters became awash in so many change initiatives that it had trouble getting helicopters out the door. It had trapped itself in a cycle of repetitive-change syndrome in which executives addressed problems created by one wave of creative destruction with yet another wave of creative destruction that only compounded the problem.”

“The Corporation delves into the ‘nature’ of an Institution. In law, the corporation is a ‘person.’ But what kind of person is it? Considering the odd legal fiction that deems a corporation a ‘person’ in the eyes of the law, the feature documentary employs a checklist, based on actual diagnostic criteria of the World Health Organization and DSM IV, the standard tool of psychiatrists and psychologists. What emerges is a disturbing diagnosis.”

“I’ve been going through a big pile of applications for the summer internship positions at Fog Creek Software, and, I don’t know how to say this, some of them are really, really bad. This is not to say that the applicants are stupid or unqualified, although they might be. I’m never going to find out, because when I have lots of excellent applications for only two open positions, there’s really no need to waste time interviewing people that can’t be bothered to spell the name of my company right. So here are a few hints to review, if you’re sending out rÈsumÈs.”

“It’s 2004 and you’re reading new writing on this website. Something must be terribly wrong. What year is it? Did you hit your head? Did I? Don’t worry. We writers may suffer delusions of personal grandeur, but this modest weblog is not the first step in some eventual resurrection of The Industry Standard. It’s not 1999 anymore. But there still is an Internet economy, as Google’s forthcoming IPO will remind everyone. Why not look at that economy with the Standard’s logo smiling at the top of the page?”

“What really goes on in the back rooms of car dealerships across America? What does the car salesman do when he leaves you sitting in a sales office and goes to talk with his boss? What are the tricks salespeople use to increase their profit and how can consumers protect themselves from overpaying? These were the questions we, the editors at Edmunds.com, wanted to answer for our readers… We hired Chandler Phillips, a veteran journalist, to go undercover by working at two new car dealerships in the Los Angeles area.”

“Leadership is the global obsession. Thousands of recent booksómany of them best sellers — have dissected the leadership styles of great leaders from Jesus to Jefferson. Business writers, too, have joined the frenzy. The trouble is, much of the business literature on leadership — unlike the broader literature on the subject — starts with the assumption that leaders are rational beings. In part, that’s because readers come to these business books for advice, so they get suggestions on how to imitate the conscious motivations, behaviors, and choices of role models. Advice books are hardly likely to focus heavily on leaders’ irrational side — and still less likely to suggest that the role models’ successes may even stem from their psychological frailties.”

“Job hunting? Find the right company for you. Rated by best benefits, salary, training budgets, work/life balance and stock performance.”

“Some of the best executives, such as W. James McNerney Jr. at 3M, Orin C. Smith at Starbucks, and Rose Marie Bravo at Burberry, worked hard to instill financial discipline at companies that grew even as rivals faltered. Others went to unusual lengths to inspire their employees: George David of United Technologies Corp. pays for a college education for anyone who wants one.”

“The best-managed companies cited on the following pages come from 26 different industries, but they have one factor in common: They’re all solid achievers in their respective industries. These companies exude excellence — in how they’re managed and in financial performance.”

“Frankly, Iíve always thought that publicizing the ‘best practice’ idea was simply a way to sell conference tickets and books. The problem, as I see it, is that itís not clear what it means for some practice to be ‘best’? Best at what? And by what standard? Whatís best for me might not be best for you, and so on.”