B U S I N E S S

&

E N T R E P R E N E U R S H I P

New York Citys Silicon

FREEDOM TO

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BOOKS

DEFINE

IT

People have
always complained
about language
changing, Simon
says, and jargon
and acronyms
can sometimes be
useful. Yet far too
frequently people
will throw out an
acronym without
defining it.

MESSAGE NOT RECEIVED: WHY BUSINESS

COMMUNICATION IS BROKEN AND HOW TO FIX IT
BAD COMMUNICATIONESPECIALLY JARGON-FILLED EMAILS AND
CORPORATE MEMOSIS DRAGGING BUSINESS DOWN, PHIL SIMON WRITES.

BOOKS

S I M O N P H OTO B Y P H I L L I P C . S U N K E L I V

Phil Simon says that he wasnt

always a great communicator, but hes spent a long time
trying to improve. Though his
background is in technology,
he's evolved into an author and
speaker, and has written seven
books about business, technology and communication.

MEDIA: BUSINESS & ENTREPRENEURSHIP

It's easy to blame

tech companies for
all the digital noise
that surrounds
us, but we are
responsible for how
we use technology
and how we
communicate,
Simon writes. We
are not conscripted
to update our
Facebook statuses,
tweet and
+1 something.

MAKE

Alley is an East Coast tech

hub, and GarysGuide is
your roadmap to it. The
GarysGuide website and
newsletter, founded by
tech afficionado Gary
Sharma, track trending
topics in tech,
conferences, demo days
and networking events.

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Media

Q: Why is this argument relevant now?

A: All of this technology and data doesnt mean a hill of beans if
people dont understand it. I could live with the fact that people
use jargon or that the average employee receives 120 to 150
emails in any given day, but people are using more jargon and
the number of emails people receive is increasing at 15 percent
per year. Something has to give.

Q: Where does jargon come from?

A: Many management types try to make management seem

more scientific. So they bastardize wordsoptics and

synergies and alignmentsthat are just nonsense. If youre
paying a consultant $300 an hour, you want it to sound
scientific. But management is not a true scienceits a social
science or a discipline.

Q: So whats your goal?

A: Theres no guide in there. I cant say, After seven emails its
time to pick up the phone, or, If its about a strategy decision
you should never emailits not like that. I want people to
think about how they communicate.
WILEY, $35, 272 PAGES

DIGITAL GOLD:
BITCOIN AND THE
INSIDE STORY OF
THE MISFITS AND
MILLIONAIRES
TRYING TO
REINVENT MONEY
By Nathaniel Popper

Popper, a New York

Times reporter, digs into
the murky history of
bitcoin with concise
technological
explanations and deep
reporting about the often
secretive people behind
bitcoin's creation and
propagation. The Tea
Party, Occupy Wall Street,
and WikiLeaks... were
united in their goal of
taking power back from
the privileged elite and
giving it to individuals,
Popper writes. Bitcoin
provided an apparent
technological solution to
these desires.
HARPERCOLLINS, $27.99,
398 PAGES

WEBSITES

OPENCORPORATES

A lot of information
about companies
where theyre registered,
who owns them, whos
on the boardis available
in public databases.
But which database?
OpenCorporates tracks
these databases and
allows users to search
for companies and
people in one place.
FREE,
OPENCORPORATES.COM

WORTH.COM

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