Author: Scott Berkun

Our friends at Seattle Town Hall have a nice doubleheader next week on Wed. January 9th.  If you buy tickets to either talk you get entry for the other.

at 6pm: William Janeway, an active venture-capitalist for decades leading the Warburg Pincus Technology Investment team (which sounds impressive but I’ve never heard of), will be talking about his new book Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy, an examination of the triad of government, finance and entrepreneurs. He thinks in triads and wears a bow-tie: what more could you want? Tickets here.

at 7:30pm: popular business writer Daniel Pink offers a fresh look at sales and persuasion, showing how economic forces have changed how people approach convincing each other to do things, in his new book To Sell Is Human, a title that either makes you cringe, or gleeful at the prospect of the sales that await in your friendships – Please go and tell me my cynicism is unfounded! Tickets here.

Also coming soon at Town Hall:

• Jan. 14, James Weatherall discusses The Physics of Wall Street (or: Predicting the Unpredictable). Apparently he also likes cats. Tickets.
• Jan 21, Oliver Burkeman: The Positive Power of Negative Thinking – advocates a “negative path” to happiness by embracing failure, pessimism, insecurity, and uncertainty, a perfectly timed talk for Seattle in January. Tickets.

Our friends at Town Hall have a special offer for the Ignite Community. Tickets are 50% off  for a great talk by one of the most controversal figures in intellectual circles today: Nassim Nicholas Taleb. He’s in town promoting his new book AntiFragile. He’s the author of the bestsellers The Black Swan and Fooled By Randomness. If you’ve read his books, which I have, he is sure to entertain, as his sizable ego and intellect take no prisoners in his critiques of politicians, executives, enemies and our species at large.

When: Wednesday, December 12, 2012, 7:30 – 9:00pm

To get your special Ignite discount, buy tickets and use the code: ignite on the checkout screen (4 tickets max at discount).

Here’s more about the lecture:

Called “the hottest thinker in the world” byThe Sunday Times of London, the always-provocative (and often-hilarious) Nassim Nicholas Taleb outlines the fragile world we live in—and how and why we should become more “antifragile.” What Taleb calls the antifragile actually benefits from shocks and stressors (just as human bones get stronger when subjected to stress and tension); this, he says, makes uncertainty not only desirable, but necessary. Posing a revolutionary message (“There is no stability without volatility, and what is not antifragile will perish.”), the author of The Black Swan and the new Antifragile explains how we can gain from disorder and chaos while being protected from fragilities and adverse events. Presented by Town Hall and University Book Store as part of The Seattle Science Lectures, sponsored by Microsoft. Series media sponsorship provided by KPLU.

Advance tickets are $5 at www.townhallseattle.org or 888/377-4510 and at the door beginning at 6:30 pm. Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street.

This Thursday (11/8) at 6:30pm is Ignite 18 – we’re thrilled to bring you another great show. If you’ve never been before, or have missed a few, this is a great one to come check out.

Here are ten amazing reasons to come to Ignite 18:

1. We are at Town Hall, an awesome new venue with a fantastic bar (cash)
2. Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn will be a speaker (and yes, he’ll be in the Ignite format)
3. It will be livestreamed, so the back of your head might end up being broadcast around the world!
4. If you’re a healthy cheapskate, we’ll teach you how to build your own standing desk
5. CommonCraft founder Lee Leefver will teach you how to explain things
6. Dr. Shelly Farnham will share why you should hate Facebook
7. Alex Alviar will explain why being deaf is a SUPERPOWER
8. Learn about life from a SURVIVOR of the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting
9. It’s our 18th ignite, a number cleanly divisible by 6, 3, or 9! WOOT!
10. Shauna Casey, VP of Decide, will confront her fear of public speaking LIVE
11. There will be 8 more amazing talks that will blow your mind
12. If you come early you will play an interactive game that will make you love your life
13. We’re so excited we forgot how to count
14. We promise not to say the words: election, ballot, pundit or poll

You will hate  yourself if you don’t come. Go here to buy tickets.

Doors open at 6:30pm. Talks start at 8:00pm.