Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Feel free to take this because I`ve just run out of minutes in my day.

I want someone who reads books and gives me the cheat sheet. So instead of 200 pages of book, I get a 2-page paper that says "HEY! DO THIS!" You know, like the cliff notes version for every good advice book out there.

Anyone else feel like this? Even though the advice would help me, I just don`t have the TIME.

Buy a week`s worth of the Wall Street Journal. Pay close attention to the advertisements.

What does this get me? Companies that do this, the answers, or the cliff notes versions? 

Yeah, that`s why I like to RSS all my stuff. 

I`ve often thought that there`s a money-making business in an audio version of the popular magazines and news-weeklies. There`s also the audio version of daily newspapers, but they`d have to do it themselves.

I think the concept of podcasts is addressing this, but it could be a new line of business as well for someone. Take Business Week, generate a licensing agreement, then not only record it as a podcast series, but also provide a "synopsis" or Reader`s Digest version. Put the podcasts and descriptions on a Web site, and charge per download.

How many executives are on a plane for hours, don`t want to use their laptop, and would enjoy "reading" Forbes via podcast? Not only that, but they could either download the complete magazine, or the summary version.

Funny you should mention that. I`m trying to figure out how to incorporate it on a regular basis. It`s some pretty sophisticated copywriting, to be able to reduce a 1,000 word article to no more than 8 words.

`Course, this comes up against Cookiemonster`s concision hegemony.

Consider "Romeo & Juliet."

The problem lies in where to draw the line between the pleasure of reading more, versus the need to gather information quickly. Of course that depends partly on the quality of the writing. I enjoy listening to the Wall Street Journal report on the radio because it expands on the original article, generating questions to ask or pursue, and adds value with secondary references. But I`m not in a rush, either.

Cliff Notes are useful for people who wish to believe they don`t have the time to savor the details. But isn`t that part of what feels so "rushed" about life in today`s world? We`re already seeing a major increase in really bad spelling, partly due to text-messaging and IMs, and the techno-shorthand being used.

Well ... I have a 1yo.

I don`t want the techno shorthand ... I actually want like an outline format of the major  points. That is what I end up making for myself anyway when reading something that is nonfiction or self -help and I need to remember the major points later  for use in my business.

A good analogy, as I am a programmer, is the reference in the back of the book. I don`t think I`ve actually read any programming book cover to cover. What I do is use the reference section and in the index to pull out the important parts. I don`t need a million examples spanning 20 pages - what I need is the 5 lines with the syntax of this particular function.

So what I need is people to write bullet points for me. It`s still a good idea.

I was the kind of person who could skip the course and read the book anyway. Why sit there for a semester when you can read the book in a week?

LOL! I have a fabulous idea for a cooking class. Since a roast chicken is going to sit in the oven for an hour, why not put a brownie mix inside, and bake them both at the same time? It would save lots of time, be far more efficient, and everything`s going to end up in the same stomach anyway. :-D

[url=http://www.audible.com/adbl/site/audibleSearch/anonCategory.jsp?oid=-26610&N=467&BV_UseBVCookie=Yes]Audible.com[/url] does this to some extent. I`ve never listened to audio journals, so I don`t know if it`s abridged or full version (with books they often give you the option of either), but they say they have over 1600 magazines and newspapers available. They have a subscription model or a pay-per-use model as well...

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