Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche on experience

"No one can draw more out of things, books included, than he already knows. A man has no ears for that to which experience has given him no access."

Minnie Driver was recently quoted as being sick of sitting on the boards of charitable organizations and going to lunches. "I wanted to do something," added Driver, "not just talk about it." So in January, she traveled to Thailand and Cambodia with Oxfam. "I've read a ton," says Driver (in rural Cambodia), "but it isn't until you speak to people that you begin to understand their lives."

And that's what bothers me a bit about books and blogs. They may provide a lot of great questions and some relevant examples, but please don't expect to find the answers. The answers are in the complicated, messy lives of your audience. So log off, get out of your Aeron, and take some of your customers and/or employees to lunch. You just might learn something.