The Diary
of
Anne Ku

15 September 2000 Friday raining cats and dogs

E-COMMERCE GUIDE

Never hesitant to meet a challenge or say no to an invitation, I committed myself to writing a guide about e-commerce.

My sister calls it "deficiency motivation." I am motivated by what I haven't done before.

I believe that the process makes the product. By doing it, I learn it. One can never learn enough by reading, but if you're forced to write it, then you'll learn. I learned this from modelling. No, not the cat walk, but mathematical or computer modelling. To create a model, you need to know the problem very well. To create a guide, I need to know the subject.

My usual approach is to find out everything about the subject. Read about it. Ask experts. Sink my teeth into it. This path will keep diverging until I feel a tremendous need to pull it together. Then come order, organisation, and moving bits around until it starts to converge again.

Writing a synthesis requires, first of all, analysis. Until I can guide myself through this maze, I won't be able to guide others.

Can't wait to start this project!

YESTERDAY

TOMORROW

Recent book reviews:

B2B Exchanges

The Idiot's Guide to e-Commerce

Web Navigation: Designing the User Experience