“Dave Gray is productive. This man puts out more graphics in more media than a graffiti tagger with a hardware store full of paint. Besides inventing his own visual language (you do that in your spare time, right?), Dave has written a book, taught class in the physical world, started a visual thinking school, and landed a spot in the Top 10 popular lenses at Seth Godin’s Squidoo project. Dave was kind enough to give me an interview recently, and there’s lots to cover.”

“In my presentations, I may have several slides which feature a quote from a famous (sometimes not so famous) individual in the field. The quote may be a springboard into the topic or serve as support or reinforcement for the particular point I’m making… Like everything else, quotations work best when not over done. Too many quotes or quotes which are too long may bog down your presentation. And of course, if your quote is inaccurate or completely irrelevant to your point, it may undermine your efforts in a big way.”

“Memo to Microsoft: you’ve got people doing some amazing things over there. If you could just get the hell out of the way, the world might change for the better. Risk-aversion is the single biggest innovation killer, and of course it’s not just Microsoft that’s been infected. Taking risks is… risky. But if not taking risks is even riskier, then WTF?”

“2005’s shenanigans, skulduggery and just plain stupidity…”

“The best advice for having a bad manager is to seek other employment. Don’t undervalue your happiness: it’s impossible to be happy if you work directly for someone you can’t stand. It may be difficult to find another job, but if you are willing to make compromises in other areas (salary, position, project, location, etc.) it will certainly be possible. Being happy and underpaid is a much better way to spend a life than unhappy and anything else.”

“The central mistake new managers make is egoism. On the surface, the change is all about you: you’ve been promoted, you have a new job title, you have a new office. Perhaps you’ve been waiting for this change for some time, while watching peers or friends get promotions, and now finally you feel you’ve received the respect you’ve earned. Congratulations! But be warned: how or why you became a manager has little to do with doing the job well.”

“Have you ever had the experience of looking back on your week with the sinking feeling that you didn’t get as much done as you’d hoped? … Keep a detailed time log. The first step to better managing your time is to find out how you’re currently spending your time. Keeping a time log is a very effective way to do this, and after trying it for just one day, you’ll immediately gain a tremendous amount of insight into where your time is actually going.”

“SCORE’s 1,200 email counselors are ready to assist you. Counseling is: *Confidential-Counselors abide by a code of ethics and honor confidentiality; *Fast-Ask questions 24/7; get answers in 48 hours. Receive advice straight to your email; *Free-Offered free-of-charge, as a public service; *Essential to your success-SCORE success stories & testimonials show how SCORE advice helps businesses succeed; Available to all U.S. citizens & green card holders. You will view a list of counselors’ names, along with a brief description of their expertise. Choose a counselor that best matches your business needs and provide a detailed description of your question or issue. Enter keywords in the space below and, if desired, narrow your search for a SCORE business counselor by state. Then, click on Find Counselor to search for SCORE counselors.”

A funny take on one’s life, presented as an annual report for a business may look.

“Waiting in line recently at my local coffeehouse — an establishment as renowned for its leisurely service as for its place in San Francisco history — I was blown away by the absolute arrogance of a young woman standing two or three places ahead of me.”

“A lot of people ask me where they can get good-quality images, so I thought it would be good to have one post that I could bookmark and send out to people. I mentioned before that I use iStockphoto.com the most (as well as more expensive sites — though I do that much less now — and high-quality photo discs from Japan). A few people gave links to their favorite free or inexpensive sites as well. Below, then, are links to both inexpensive sites and sites offering free images in searchable databases (but check terms of use). The quality ranges from ‘excellent’ to ‘not too bad.’”

“I had a meeting last week where an entrepreneur insisted on showing me a demo first. He was scrambling around asking for wireless keys and looking for ethernet jacks, while I sat there and tried to engage him in conversation. He lost my interest right then and there. As I started to think more about it, I thought it would be helpful to share some of my thoughts on how to make the first VC pitch a better experience for all participants.”

“When I started public speaking in about 1986, I was deathly afraid of public speaking–for one thing, working for the division run by Steve Jobs was hugely intimidating: How could you possibly compete with Steve? It’s taken me twenty years to get comfortable at it. I hope that many of you are are called upon to give speeches–it’s the closest thing to being a professional athlete that many of us will achieve. The purpose of this blog entry is to help you give great speeches.”

“What other arguments can be made to allocate time and budget for design activities? Unfortunately, there is no single easy-to-compile metric that can tell this story for you. Here are some things you can measure to help you communicate why investing in design is good for your company in the long run.”

“Do you believe, as someone somewhere perhaps does, that meetings, meetings, meetings, followed by more meetings are altogether a good thing? If so, Alexandra Luong and Steven G Rogelberg think you should think again. In a newly published study, they say: ‘We propose that despite the fact that meetings may help to achieve work-related goals, having too many meetings and spending too much time in meetings per day may have negative effects on the individual.’”