What kind of a dodo bird are you and why?

True or false: If you put salt on your food before tasting it during an interview at Google, you won’t get hired. It at least used to be true, according to a couple different... Read More

The Wild Wild Web

Four signs we are headed for another dot-com bomb

By Susan Dyer Reynolds

Their investors included Benchmark Capital, Sequoia Capital, Softbank Capital, and Goldman Sachs. In under two years, the company raised nearly half a billion dollars with an initi... Read More

The Wild Wild Web

With extortion-style ad sales, Yelp is barking up the wrong tree

By Susan Dyer Reynolds

I co-host the Cooking with Ryan Scott show on KGO Radio (810 AM) Saturdays from 4 to 6 p.m., and whenever we have chefs on as guests, review website Yelp inevitably comes up, and u... Read More

Finance

Representation without taxation

By Alan Silverman

On Dec. 16, 1773, demonstrators boarded ships in Boston Harbor and threw chests of tea into the water. This was the culmination of the resistance movement against the taxation of t... Read More

Finance

All that twitters isn’t gold

By Alan Silverman

On March 10, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call — to his assistant in the adjoining room — uttering the immortal words, “Mr. Watson, come here, I w... Read More

The Wild Wild Web

Mr. Bubble, meet Twitter

By Susan Dyer Reynolds

The hysteria surrounding the recent IPO of today’s social media darling Twitter sent chills through my Silicon Valley born-and-bred bones. I worked at Apple through college a... Read More

Business

S.F. residents upbeat — wary of cost

Nearly one-third of San Franciscans say the City’s cost of living is their biggest problem today, and another 60 percent included it in their top three problems. The results ... Read More

Business

It’s time to review your Medicare coverage

By David Sayen

Medicare’s annual open enrollment period has begun, and I want to encourage everyone with Medicare to review their current health and prescription drug coverage. Open enrollm... Read More

Business

The budget cliff

There are reasons to be hopeful, and they all have to do with money

By John Zipperer

If you and your beloved wanted to celebrate your mid-October anniversary with a drink or dinner at the Cliff House, then you got a rude awakening when you pulled up to the restaura... Read More

Business

Want more profits? Create a values-driven culture for your company

By Kenneth Majer

The key to profitability is to have an aligned workforce, one where each employee has a clear sense of the company’s vision and direction and where everyone is “rowing ... Read More

Business

Strike three

By John Zipperer

If you follow Facebook feeds for any length of time, sooner or later you will read some inane political debate on the Facebook page of one of your friends or contacts. A couple mon... Read More

Business

Mid-year economic forecast

In late July, The Commonwealth Club hosted a mid-year economic review. Here the panelists discuss whether they think the current slow-growth will persist in the short-term. Michael... Read More

Socially Responsible

Futures Without Violence: Is it really possible?

Esta Soler’s three-decade network-building pays off

By Marilyn Damon Diamond

More than 30 years ago, after graduating from Simmons College in Connecticut, Esta Soler began her activist career in California. It was a time and place that would set the stage f... Read More

Technology

Texting etiquette tips for dummies and smarties

By John Zipperer

We bought Mom an iPhone last month so she will be able to communicate with us when she travels. No, this isn’t a story about a senior being technologically ignorant; she is a... Read More

Business

My surveillance problem and yours

By John Zipperer

Bay Area tech companies found themselves in some unfamiliar, muddied waters when it was reported in a British newspaper that a massive U.S. government spy program was collecting da... Read More

Business