The Three Things, Edition 38

Welcome to the 38th edition of The Three Things, the weekly update of three links, podcasts, videos, or books you can’t miss from Michael Schechter (Honora, A Better Mess), Howie Goldfarb (Blue Star Strategic Marketing), and me!

For those of you new to this series, The Three Things arrives in your inbox on Sunday mornings (unless you don’t suscribe, but that can easily be fixed if you hurry over and enter your email address or add to your RSS feed) so you have some extra time to spend perusing the obscure content we’ve curated for you (and one another) before your week begins and deadlines, meetings, and work takes over.

This week we have thoughts on organization, choice vs. economics, and Funyuns.

The Key Habits of Organization: Zenhabits

Michael on Organization. Even though productivity has become a buzzword, I’m still a big believer in the power of understanding the way you work. For some, like Gini, a piece of paper is all that’s needed. For others, such as myself, a fairly robust and comprehensive suite of applications and tactics are involved. It doesn’t matter what you do, but I do think it matters you’ve taken stock at one point or another and have at least determined that you’re happy with the way that you work.

If you’re unsure where to get started or what to think about, this recent article from Leo Babauta does a great job of laying out the basic elements and benefits of creating a trusted system for yourself. If you’re yet to do this for yourself, this is a great place to start.

The Emerging Brand Battle

Howie on Choice vs. Economics. This is a fascinating evolution in the world. I bet most people can name the countries most world brands come from. Because they are few. We are used to seeing ‘made in…..’ in many places that don’t have world brands. But seems that is changing. I have wondered how many brands do we need to have to offer best value and selection? Take cars. To me there are too many cars that are “me too.” Do we need 200 variants of the family sedan? Don’t we already have to many? Or airlines. I have flown all the domestic airlines. None stand out. Wouldn’t five or six world airlines be enough? What do you think?

Booker T. Jones Takes A Quiz On Funyuns

Gini on Funyuns. As my rides get longer and longer between Friday and Sunday, I’ve started listening to podcasts, books on Audible, and more podcasts. Yesterday morning I got caught up with Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me! and loved this interview with Booker T. Jones. The entire episode is worth listening to because he talks about how he drove 400 miles every Friday – during college – to sing with the great musicians of their time…”before they were famous.” But, if you don’t have 45 minutes to spare, this section where they ask him questions about Funyuns is great.

Now it’s your turn. Is there a podcast, video, book, or article you think we need to see?