September 2009
76 posts
“Thinking through making is about revealing the unknown unknowns.”
– about making things (28 July 2006, Interconnected)
“Much more important than working hard is knowing how to find the right thing to...”
– Caterina.net: Working hard is overrated [Via SwissMiss]
“The UK has become the first major economy where advertisers spend more on...”
– Internet overtakes television to become biggest advertising sector in the UK | Media | The Guardian
One important thing to note about this fact: Of that number 60 percent is search and 22 percent is classified. That means the web has taken over the market once reserved for the newspaper industry,...
Global Bank Holiday →
A few weeks ago there was a New Yorker article that chronicled the eight days leading up to and after the collapse of Lehman Brothers (as usual they’ve decided to only offer the abstract to non-subscribers unfortunately). Since I mentioned my penchant for process stories, it should come as no surprise that I quite enjoyed this one. The highlight, though, might have been this quote from a...
Telling the Story of Process →
George Packer makes a very interesting point about Obama’s press strategy, which shies away from stories that explain the political process. Packer writes that people in the administration “say…
“Money creates a sort of friction. In the digital economy, magical things can...”
– I generally don’t care for what Godin has to say, but he makes a good point here (maybe not a good point, but one that isn’t made often enough). Metafilter does this brilliantly: It costs $5 to be a member, which is not enough that anyone can’t join, but high enough that it keeps...
“Getting excited that your iPhone has MMS is like getting excited that your...”
– Soup (via kylebunch)
I’d only add “in the glovebox” to the end of that sentence.
“37signals is now a $100 billion dollar company, according to a group of...”
– Also see this and this.
PRESS RELEASE: 37SIGNALS VALUATION TOPS $100 BILLION AFTER BOLD VC INVESTMENT - (37signals)
Overconfidence →
A few times over the last few months I have talked about overconfidence and wondered how so many people could think they’re above average. Well, it turns out (or at least some scientists are arguing) it’s a good evolutionary strategy:
In fact, if the potential reward is at least twice as great as the cost of competing, then overconfidence is the best strategy. In fact, overconfidence...
“Whether you are JayZ trying to get folk to bounce or the bloke at the end of row...”
– Me & JayZ and Anna - Herd - the hidden truth about who we are
Five Worthless Stars →
YouTube explains something I always suspected: The vast majority of videos that are rated are given five stars. (This is by no means a shocking piece of news, more that it proves out what we all suspected.)
Seems like when it comes to ratings it’s pretty much all or nothing. Great videos prompt action; anything less prompts indifference. Thus, the ratings system is primarily being used as a...
Maximizing Your Ability to Learn →
Back in August, Adam Rasheed, a propulsion specialist from GE’s Global Research Center came down and spent a week with us. Anyway, he’s just posted some of his observations which I thought I’d share:
One thing is that a lot of the folks I met are involved in something based off the internet, and their medium is information. This is pretty fascinating environment. Because the...
“And it punctuated a drive that announced Jay Cutler to the Chicago Bears and the...”
– It’s pretty exciting to be a Bears fan right now … (I know we’ve only won one game, but still, we have a quarterback who can actually make plays.)
The Drive of the Game - Da’ Bears Blog
“He [Frank Gehry] is a guy whose mouth is bigger than his brain. [laughs] I don’t...”
– Luigi Colani on Frank Gehry (in the question before when he was asked about what he thought about Gehry his answer was just “I will kick his ass.”).
Luigi Colani - Interview Magazine
How Is Our Era Unique? →
I often find myself arguing that for all the change we’re seeing in the world at the moment, most of it is really just incremental. Communication speed, for instance, has been increasing at a pretty rapid clip for awhile now and the rise of self-publishing of the last five years is an extension of the camcorder (YouTube is the internet’s America’s Funniest Home Videos).
Anyway,...
Everything is Peachy →
All of this talk about us coming out of the recession is making me really uncomfortable. It’s not that I don’t want to see the country recover, however, I can’t help but feel as though the trope of…
“The public seriously overestimates the fraction of the federal budget spent on...”
– When to ignore public opinion | Free exchange | Economist.com
WatchVideo in a magazine. Interesting.
2009 Fall Preview Video - CBS and Pepsi Max video ad to run in Entertainment Weekly - CBS.com [Via Leila]
“Twitter seems to have quadrupled in value over the course of just a few months:...”
– Wowzas. I’m sure I’m behind on this news, but $1 billion seems like a lot of money … What, did everyone clean out their sofas over the last few weeks?
Felix Salmon » Blog Archive » Twitter’s billions | Blogs |
holycrapfacts:
“Chance a U.S. household that owns a Prius also owns an SUV: 1 in 3.” http://bit.ly/O5p5B
I don’t know why this surprised me as much as it did …
“Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has purchased reCAPTCHA, a company that creates automated...”
– Huh, that’s pretty interesting. Wonder how comfortable Google competitors will be in continuing to use the service. Either way, reCAPTCHA is one of the more brilliant ideas I’ve ever heard.
Google Buys reCAPTCHA To Aid Book Digitization | paidContent
“On the other hand, there’s another way to view these figures: BusinessWeek.com...”
– Felix Salmon hits the nail on the head with this paragraph.
Felix Salmon » Blog Archive » BusinessWeek datapoint of the day | Blogs |
“Now, for the economics of an industrial era, branding made sense. Interaction...”
– The Shrinking Advantage of Brands - Umair Haque
“Sometimes it’s harder to get women to come out, or contribute, or put...”
– Shout out for the “Big Business Sausagefest.” Seriously, though, more women should come. More everyone should come. It’s fun to eat pastrami, pickles and eggs at 9am (though I always get lox, onions and eggs).
Gelf Magazine Watchdog of the Underrated Woman
“In America, bubbles form because any good business idea gets funded a dozen...”
– Quick, short cupcakes!
Prepare Yourself: The Cupcake Bubble Is About To Burst
“Estimates are that 7-10% of the population are left-handed. But more than 20% of...”
– Good question. I expect the baseball one is part about the ability of a left-handed batter to more easily hit a right-handed pitcher and part myth (see: Moneyball). As for the Tennis one, I wonder … Nadal is naturally a righty and he switched to lefty for the advantage. Thoughts?
Handedness...
Brand Tags Data Mining →
Hey everyone, sorry for the interruption (and slow posting lately), just need a favor. I have to do a presentation next week about Brand Tags and I’m trying to find some interesting new data to pull and share. What sort of stuff would you want to see? How would you like to use the site? Also, any additional feature ideas are welcome. Thanks a bunch. Via: Brand Tags Data Mining //...
“We had a few complaints that the MP3s of our last record wasn’t encoded at a...”
– Dithering: Jonny Greenwood: Sasha Frere-Jones : The New Yorker
“The way I look at it, a brand only exists in the consumer’s mind. That...”
– This is the quote that inspired Brand Tags.
martinbihl.com - Who’s the Boss?
WatchJay mentioned this at Big Business Breakfast. It’s excellent. Conan + Hunter S Thompson + Whiskey + Guns. What could go wrong?
Late Night with Conan O’Brien - Hunter S. Thompson (2/17/09) - Video - NBC.com
“The web knows something, but it’s not telling us, at least not yet.”
– Seth’s Blog: Clout (via davemorin)
Godin’s argument is a bit simplistic, I think. For one, there are lots of people working on this and it’s a much more complicated question than he gives it credit. Second, the actual impact of influentials is still in question. Of course you can look...
holycrapfacts:
The IKEA Catalog is the 3rd most printed publication in the world after the Bible and Harry Potter. http://bit.ly/Q9Lzl
That’s insane.
“Children in this suburb of New York will just have to suffer being...”
– From the AP, Thursday, October 11, 1990 Principal Puts a Halt To Slap-Bracelet Fad - The New York Times
“And I think you can see that because the way innovation is described is very...”
– Science & Environment Articles | Genius Is Overrated; Incremental Advances Underappreciated | Miller-McCune Online Magazine
Vote for [Benjamin and] my SXSW panel please! Last... →
(via benjaminpalmer)
Google Domestic Trends →
For a long time I’ve wondered whether Google would start an investment arm that looked for insights in their search queries for inspiration. While they haven’t done exactly that, they did release Google Domestric Trends which tracks related searches across a number of different categories and allows you compare them to market growth. The Google Finance Blog explains:
Google Domestic...
Best Entrepreneurship/VC Tumblr Blogs
rickwebb:
Aw! What a nice thing to wake up to. Thank you! I, too, am totally going to start following the rest of these. Tumblr. The only place you can talk serious business mixed in with badass shark photos. I’ve waited for this for a long time.
While I like the list and am grateful to be included, isn’t it not such a good thing if everyone knows goes off and follows everyone...
“Data released this week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that the...”
– The article concludes: “The richer you feel, the more likely you are to give a spouse the heave-ho.” FT.com / Lex / Financial services & property - Generation ex 