There is a simple formula I use when determining how much money a startup should spend on display advertising in its first year. First, I take whatever budget they had arrived at through careful modeling of estimated traffic, revenue goals and sundry and then I proceed to multiply it by zero. The result is the new budget.

It was a Friday afternoon and I was sitting in a surprisingly comfortable chair in a set of offices tucked away on the ground floor of a Major Hotel Chain. I was gripping one of those tiny bottles of water they give out when they are not really interested in seeing you hydrated but do want to offer you something to show they care. In front of me was a friendly looking man in a Hawaiian shirt, grinning from ear to ear and rattling off the wonders of timeshare ownership. I’d slept 5 hours in the last two days, and while my eyes said I was listening intently to the benefits of this “no lose” offer, a part of me was wondering how I had ended up here.

Other than writing pithy blog posts and tweeting, a big part of what I do to pay the rent is consult. Over the years I’ve become a lot better at it and have, through trial an error, gathered a few nuggets of wisdom that have helped me become not quite as awful at my job. The following is yet another part of my Living in the 21st Century series, this time dedicated to shedding a little light on how consultants can fail. At one time or another I’ve done (or seen) most of these things, which is why it gives me such great joy to shine a spotlight on them.

Without further ado, you know you have a bad consultant when:

As a part of Living in the 21st Century I wanted to take a closer look at small businesses. I’m not talking about freelancers and independent contractors right now, I’m talking about your friendly neighborhood “startup.” The type of business that brings together a small group of clever people to tackle some hard problem, and runs into all the issues inherent in that task. The following are a few truths I’ve learned while working with them.

As a part of my Living In The 21st Century series, I wanted to take a closer look at some of the issues I’ve found from working inside and speaking with large businesses. These problems are so universal you have to wonder whether it’s individual organizations or the culture of large business itself that causes them. As always, this manifesto is not exhaustive but it is certainly comprehensive.

Today the artist, writer and ever entertaining thinker of thoughts Ophelia Chong shares with us another story of living with technology.

The Droid con-nected to the Verizon, The iPad connected to the Wifi, The powerbook connected to the network, The iPod connected to the earphone, The landline connected to the bundle, The keyboard connected to the bluetooth, The Kindle connected to the 3G.

I’ve spent more than my share of time staring at the problem of living effectively in the digital age we find ourselves in. In that time a few core ideas keep popping up, basic concepts that I think will become the foundations on which the next stage of our economy is built. The following are 49 points that I believe make up the basis of this new system, while the list is by no means exhaustive I do believe that it is comprehensive.

Interesting bit of news for the communicator trying to decide whether a deluge or words or a careful turn of phrase will be more persuasive.

The answer, according to researchers, is that it depends. This study shows that when someone is already apt to agree with you the more slowly you speak the more often they get a chance to agree and the more persuasive you come off.

Father of Behavioral Economics Richard Thaler asks Edge contributors what long-held scientific beliefs were later proved to be flat wrong. He follows this by asking why they were held for so long in the first place.