Is effort a myth?
Seth Godin notes that people really want to believe that effort is a myth, that success is largely due to luck. But, he says, “the thing about luck is this: we’re already lucky. We’re insanely lucky that we weren’t born during the black plague or in a country with no freedom. We’re lucky that we’ve got access to highly-leveraged tools and terrific opportunities. If we set that luck aside, though, something interesting shows up…” And what is that? It’s that, Godin continues, “effort is directly related to success. Not all the time, but as much as you would expect. Smarter, harder working, better informed and better liked people do better than other people, most of the time…”

5 Ways to Sell Social Media to Your Boss
On Mashable, guest blogger DJ Francis writes about ways to solve a common challenge in today’s world – how companies can best embrace social media: “Instead of measuring how well we are pushing our message onto potential customers, we should instead gauge our success on the number of conversations listened to, problems resolved, and useful suggestions received from the community of customers we already have. Your challenge is bringing your boss around to this worldview.”

Employees Like Mobility Despite Extra Work Hours
InternetNews’ reports on a recent study (sponsored by a mobility platform provider) that suggested that “over 50 percent of mobile workers surveyed said it would be easier to go without a car for a week than relinquish Internet access.” The survey of 300 employees at companies with 500 or more employees also found that “84 percent of workers said the top advantage to working remotely is being productive during travel time” and that “three out of four said the biggest benefit of working remotely is a flexible work schedule with nine out of 10 reporting a better work-life balance as a result.”

Clean Your Workspace – and Keep it That Way
Kevin Purdy of LifeHacker gives tips on the art of decluttering: “Whether your workspace is miles from your home or right there amongst your books and Battlestar Galactica figurines, it probably has something in common with at least a few other readers’ (and my own) – the ability to attract clutter, make important documents and objects hard to find, and, over time, become an actual impediment to getting things done.” The article goes on to offer up a few useful, if not terribly unique, tips on cleaning up one’s workspace.

The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy online
Julian Sanchez reviews two books by author and law professor Daniel Solove in Ars Technica: “Solove’s fine-grained taxonomy is an invaluable guide to thinking about the gradations and dimensions of privacy—about the variety of ways it can be violated, and the means to limit those violations without shuttering ourselves away in utter seclusion.”

Cloud Computing: Perilous Pitfall or Panacea?
Katherine Noyes dissects the pros and cons of cloud computing  in light of recent comments by open source guru Richard Stallman: “[He] came down big on cloud computing, calling it a major risk for proprietary system lock-in. Some Linux bloggers agreed wholeheartedly. Other still see some silver lining — if it’s used for sensible purposes.” Says one commentator: “Cloud computing as a concept isn’t idiocy… It’s just been extended to idiotic lengths.”

Effect of the Depression on Technology
O’Reilly Radar’s Nat Torkington lists what’s in store for technology’s near future given the turbulence in the economy: “Here’s the state of play as I see it: it is expensive and difficult to borrow and this shows no sign of change; the US debt is rising instead of falling, propelled by the Iraq War and the reliance on China for material goods unreciprocated by a reliance from China on American goods; and this adds up to difficult times for business in America for at least three years and possibly longer…”

Again! Tech That Doesn’t Work Won’t Let Us Work
Gene Marks vents his frustrations with technology, and why we should never, ever completely rely on it: “Companies that can’t do things the old-fashioned way are out of luck when their business technology falters. Need I say Palm? Skype? Word? Stuff that doesn’t work – especially business technology – is at the top of the list of things that make me angry.”

Government 2.0: NASA CoLab-oration
In his latest article on Mashable, Mark Drapeau talks about how the NASA uses Web 2.0: “Abraham Lincoln once said, ‘With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed.’ These words are no less true today, over 150 years later. But now there are many new technologies and tools available that can be used to measure and influence public opinion. One thing I have been thinking about a lot lately is how the government can use these tools to further its existing goals, and enable novel ones as well.”