The Wallstrip Edge - by Howard Lindzon

The WallStrip Edge by Howard Lindzon emphasizes the importance of understanding trends to make money, specifically how to buy and sell stock in our shrinking world.

Trends are very important to those of us in the information profession and any book that helps one identify secrets to discovering new trends is a most worthwhile read for the information professional.

Information specialists often identify trends, report trends, research trends, predict trends, and create them! Trends are born, reborn, end, and die.

Lindzon reviews past trends and suggests how we might easily view trends in a business, sector, or country. He reviews popular web sites, blogs, and browsers for trend tracking, and includes the new roles of social networking. Lindzon's book is centered on stocks but the information he provides is not limited to the stock market as Lindzon is a student of the study of human nature, society, the global economy, the importance of networks, our past, and our future.

Lindzon suggests we continuously quick scan technology, headlines on the web, and "hot buttons" to keep us in the loop and up-to-date.

The book is easy and fun to read. Lindzon includes a "To-Do List" at the end of each chapter for our review. Lindzon reviews the importance of doing our "homework" in any endeavor.

Lindzon echoes the importance and power of information and includes information as the first in his list of everlasting trends. He states that "information is the most important everlasting trend because information gives people power."

Lindzon's four categories of everlasting trends include:

1. Information
2. Vices
3. War & Defense
4. Health, Wellness & Vanity

I hope that my husband will turn off the television (as Lindzon suggests) and read this inspiring book that I found in the "new nonfiction section" of our public library.

Howard Linzon's web site Wallstrip.com states it is "where pop culture meets stock culture."

The Long Tail by Chris Anderson

If you are ready for optimism about our world and the future of business, read and reread The Long Tail, by Chris Anderson. Anderson's book was recommended to me as a must read by my entrepreneurial mentor, Dr. William R. Sharp.

Anderson's work is the result of two years of research, interviews, and includes much analysis of the relatively new companies building on the concept of the "long tail".

What is the "long tail"?

Using Anderson's insight, the "long tail" is infinite, unlimited, unrestricted, abundant, "choice" and much more.

The book is relevant for those of us specializing in the dynamic field of research and information gathering, as well as those working in other business sectors.

Anderson includes insights into our internet-based economies, emphasizes the explosion of choices as a result of a digital world, and sums up how the future differs from the past in the subtitle of the book:

"Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More"

Fun Book to Read by a Behavioral Economist

After many decades, my adviser from The Ohio State University remains my mentor in my work as an independent information specialist and owner of Rosa S. Raskin & Associates, LLC. He recently suggested I read two books. I could not put the book entitled Predictably Irrational authored by Dan Ariely down until I finished reading it.

Ariely is an MIT behavioral economist, holds the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Behavioral Economics, that has conducted many studies regarding how we make decisions. Ariely became interested in the field while a severely burned patient enduring much pain.

His pearls of wisdom include experiments where he illustrates that given three choices, most people take the second choice, that most things are relative, that first decisions turn to long-term habits, and one of my favorites, the value of offering something for "free".

Ariely describes how the realization that we are predictably irrational is a first step in improving our decision making. Ariely uses experiments to illustrate general principles. Some of his research is humorous, a pleasant surprise from a researcher from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, and the book is fun to read.

Ariely's web site related to the book is www.predictablyirrational.com

I highly recommend this book to the consumer, to business owners like me, and to anyone wanting to understand human behavior in regard to the hidden forces that influence our decisions.

In our current economic climate, I consider this engaging and entertaining book a must read!