Doug Theis Leave your comfort zone.

Editor’s Note: This guest post is written by Nir Eyal (@nireyal) and Katy Fike, PhD (@innovate50). Katy is a gerontologist and partner at Innovate50 while Nir is a founder of two startups and blogs about technology and behavior design at nirandfar.com.

As web watchers, entrepreneurs, and investors search for the next big thing, they’d be wise to focus on innovations that can be easily adopted by technology novices. A recent string of companies, including Groupon and Pinterest, have found success outside the early-adopter digerati by building products simple enough to be used by just about anyone.

Designing with tech novices in mind can mean the difference between staying niche and going mainstream. Here are three principles for designing software for people Silicon Valley too often disparagingly calls “normals.”

1. What’s it for?

Don’t tell them “how it works” or “what it is” and certainly don’t tell them how wonderful your company is. Just tell them in big, uncluttered, blatantly obvious terms what your service is for. Novice users need to know when your service would be useful in their lives.

Take a look at Twitter’s homepage for new users. It says simply, “Welcome to Twitter. Find out what’s happening, right now, with the people and organizations you care about.” Same story at Facebook. “Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life.” Brilliant! Now the tech novice knows, in no uncertain terms, when and why these sites would be useful. Twitter is for knowing what’s happening and Facebook is for connecting and sharing.

More of the TechCrunch post from Nir Eyal and Katy Fike

Feeling like a failure in business? If you’re frustrated and overwhelmed, use this method to go from an F to an A++.

Being in business for yourself is anything but predictable. For some entrepreneurs, the ups and downs lead to many sleepless nights which are spent digging for the answer; the one magic button that will produce miracles.

Sometimes racking your brain for the answer can generate results, but typically it creates nothing more than a headache. What I’m about to suggest for those of you in this predicament may seem counter-intuitive, but if I could go so far as offer a money-back guarantee on this I would! Here it is: accept your circumstances, appreciate what you have, and adjust the way you think.

That’s right, it’s that simple. It’s what I call the A++ Method: Accept, Appreciate, and Adjust. The simple A++ reminders can make your life so much easier, and get rid of those nighttime headaches. Recently I had the opportunity to see these three steps put into action in a way I’ve never before witnessed.

More of the Inc.com post from Marla Tabaka

As with the beginning of almost every year we have a number of commentators and pundits proclaiming what the “new normal” is.

We’re told that the old normal was the government strove to keep unemployment below 5% and that the “new normal” is going to be to try to keep unemployment below 7%.

We’re told that the old normal in the auto industry was to try to increase the miles per gallon on a manufacturer’s fleet by selling enough high mileage units to raise the fleet average, and the “new normal” is no longer trying to sell large numbers of high mileage internal combustion engines but to sell hybrids and alternative energy vehicles.

In sales we’re told that the old normal was cold calling, face-to-face meetings with prospects and clients, and using salespeople to find, connect with, and sell prospects, and the “new normal” is that salespeople are an outdated and costly luxury and are, at best, nothing more than an archaic relic of the past that companies just haven’t come to the realization are no longer needed.

Many, including myself, find it amusing to read the “new normal” predictions knowing that for the most part they are nothing more than someone’s attempt to be relevant and gain some attention.

More of the Sales and Sales Management Blog post from Paul McCord

Simon Sinek is the author of “Start With Why”, a book that explains the theory behind finding your passion and how that passion helps us become effective leaders that can inspire change.

Sinek delivered a compelling TED Talk, using the success of the Wright Brothers as an example of the power of passion. You see, we often believe that success comes from perfect market conditions, a gifted team and plenty of capital. Sometimes we can get caught in the “they were at the right place at the right time” mindset to explain others’ success.

But, Sinek explains, there is grounded research to prove otherwise. Take, for example, the Wright Brothers. They didn’t have any money. They didn’t have a specialized team. And they certainly weren’t in the right place at the right time–not only did they not have the means to make that happen, but they were also too busy concentrating on their passion, which was the pursuit of powered man flight.

They weren’t chasing success for the sake of success, which was, according to Sinek, the case for Samuel Pierpont Langley. Langley was on a quest to succeed at powered man flight–he wanted to be first, famous and rich. He had plenty of capital and a large, influential and educated team. He was always in the right place at the right time because The New York Times followed him wherever he went, hoping to capture a historic moment.

More of the Personal Branding Blog post from Wendy Brache

Over at the Atlantic, Alexis Madrigal has an exceptionally good post with an exceptionally good title: “The Triumph of Kodakery.” Inspired by the sad news that Eastman Kodak may be on the verge of bankruptcy, he points out that the dream the company was built on–making photography so effortless that it’s everywhere, and enjoyed by everybody–is hardly in trouble. It’s just that its purest expression today is the camera phone, not a Kodak camera that takes Kodak film that’s processed by a Kodak lab.

The dream originated in the brain of the gentleman in the above photo, George Eastman (1854-1932). He was the founder of Eastman Kodak, and he didn’t just start one of the most important companies in the history of consumer technology products. He played as important a role as anyone in inventing the idea of consumer technology products.

Even more than such other pioneering technologist-entrepreneurs as Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, and Henry Ford, Eastman seems astoundingly contemporary. If he showed up in Silicon Valley today, he’d be right at home. (Actually, he might have as good a shot as anyone at fixing what ails Kodak.)

A few of the things that make Eastman so cool, and his accomplishments so timeless:

More of the Technologizer post from Harry McCracken

Most of us have something to pitch. You may be pitching your startup to a VC to secure funding. Or perhaps you’re pitching your product or service to potential customers. Whether you are pitching your case to a jury, your hypothesis for a research grant, yourself for a new job, or your best friend for a date with that cute guy, a simple rule applies: The better the pitch, the better the results.

As a venture capitalist, I hear pitches every day. In this highly competitive environment, a strong pitch can be the difference-maker between securing millions in funding and completely missing the mark.

There are many obvious cliché moves: Give a firm handshake, communicate with passion, make strong eye contact, and try to relate with your audience. Yet there are approaches I see constantly that sabotage an otherwise good pitch. To significantly improve your batting average, avoid these disaster moves when pitching just about anything:

1) THE GREAT GATSBY: Grandiose braggarts may entertain at cocktail parties, but they rarely win the battle of the pitch. Keep it authentic and real. Your startup with 11 beta customers isn’t a billion-dollar company just yet. Think big, but stay humble. After hearing a pitch where the daring hero outperforms Groupon and Apple in their second year with trillions of revenue and six billion customers, I’m ready for a shower instead of a closing dinner.

More of the Fast Company article from Josh Linkner

New research shows using hands-free devices while on the road may not be safer than texting or talking in your vehicle after all.

Hands-free phones impair driving You may be aware of the dangers of driving and texting, using mobile apps, or talking with a handset. But did you know that just talking–even on a hands-free device, such as a Bluetooth headset–is too distracting for most drivers?

New research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety suggests that talking on a phone, whether you’re using a handset or a hands-free device, is just too distracting.

“There is a large body of evidence showing that talking on a phone, whether handheld or hands-free, impairs driving and increases your risk of having a crash,” says Anne McCartt, senior vice president for research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, according to the Associated Press.

More of the itbusiness.ca article from Sarah Jacobsson Purewal

One of the “Getting Things Done” principles is “Mind like water.” I believe David Allen got the idea from martial arts training. Mind like water is the idea of reacting just enough to an input. A large stone thrown into the water creates large ripples. A small stone creates small ripples. And after each, the water eventually returns to to a calm state.

The idea is to get things off your mind and into a system so you can achieve this mind like water state. One of my major goals at work is to automate more next year to spend less time spinning and more time winning. Systems will play a key role in achieving the calmness I seek.