Umair on strategy and creativity: In a world where strategy is a commodity, creativity becomes the vital factor from which value flows. When everyone can think strategically about everything, the locus of value creation shifts from out-thinking everyone to out-creating them. The prime mover of value creation becomes putting the ability to create (goods, services, […]
July 13, 2006
Nine Lives Is Nine Too Many
If the Internet turns into this, then I’m switching it off. Please, god, no.
July 11, 2006
Examples of Categories
Art: Leonard Cohen and Sonny Rollins on live TV. (Thanks Jon.) Commerce: Do Patents Encourage or Stifle Innovation? Culture: On media elitism and the “derivative” myth Technology: On playing with my Holux GPS unit… Cool: Velcro Being Pulled Apart
July 9, 2006
Make Something People Want
I hesitate to point to every Paul Graham essay that comes along, but these links are useful for future research. Excerpts: The idea of building something popular then figuring out how to make money from it was born in the Bubble. It sounds irresponsible, but it works. Requiring founders to have a carefully worked out […]
July 1, 2006
Nano-Enabled Advances
Email from Amazon alerted me to this new book: Nanotechnology Applications And Markets, by Lawrence Gasman, $79. Discover nanotech opportunities the smart way with the first “down to business” market analysis that separates commercial reality from hype and gives you the tools you need to forecast nanotech’s impact on any company. This professional-level book spotlights […]
June 28, 2006
Internet Economics 2006
Would you like to tune into a wavelength describing state-of-the-art Internet business models? If so, Jason Calacanis has what you want. You see, Battelle’s model is predicated on Rafat and Om deciding to stay in phase two or keep their relationship with Federated in phase three–which they are obviously not willing to do. That’s why […]
June 25, 2006
Truly Making a Difference
Dave Pollard often gives detailed and passionate voice for my intuitive and information-overloaded thoughts. Today is no different. So progressives need to acknowledge that, unless they devote most of their time and energy to activities other than electing and lobbying politicians, they will continue to accomplish nothing. Indeed, they will accomplish less than nothing, since […]
June 22, 2006
Finally, an Innovation in Newspapers
Great idea from Guardian called G24: …which allows readers to download and print out a rolling version of the newspaper that is updated every 15 minutes. G24 is an eight- to 12-page PDF covering either general news, international news, economics, sport or media stories. The new product is aimed at the lunchtime and evening commuter […]
June 12, 2006
Making Money on the Internet (cont.)
Video blogging is hot. Robert Scoble is leaving Microsoft for PodTech.net (whose servers are so overloaded they can’t even load a homepage). And then, he mentions this: Yesterday I was talking with Amanda Congdon, one of the co-founders of Rocketboom. Her videoblog is now seeing about 300,000 viewers a day. That’s, what, a year or […]
June 6, 2006
Tufte’s “Beautiful Evidence” About to Ship
Very interesting thread on complex bookmaking. Start around March 9 to pick up the recent info. He’s self-published 1.2 million books since 1983, and the detail with which he prints these books is unbelievable. Highlights from the link above: * We await a test printing of some of our color tints (e.g., hows does 2% […]
May 31, 2006
Nature Abhors a Vacuum
Fast Company on changing your behavior: If you want to change something in your life, it’s common to try to stop the behaviors you don’t like. While this certainly seems logical, it seldom works. The reason is simple – it unintentionally creates a vacuum where the old behaviors used to be. And since nature hates […]
May 23, 2006
Nike+iPod
Amazing advance in product sophistication. Apple partners with Nike on a blockbuster idea. Buy special (Nike) running shoes with a sensor in the footbed. The wireless sensor talks with a small receiver pluged into the dock connector of the (Apple) iPod. A special version of software takes over the display, and adds voice feedback cues […]
May 20, 2006
They Call It A Brand
In contrast to privacy and civil rights, US consumerism continues to be healthy. Friday saw the opening of a 20,000 sq. ft. Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. It’s open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The entrance is a remarkable glass cube, which you enter to descend down to the underground […]
May 19, 2006
What Filmmakers Do For Fun
Here’s a novel idea: Make a film, and charge people $1 to be listed as a producer. The result is a one-second film with 90 minutes of credits. THE 1 SECOND FILM is a 70mm non-profit collaborative film bringing thousands of diverse people around the world together to create film history: ‘The biggest shortest film […]
May 14, 2006
Flying Carpet
Great idea: This project consists of an aerial view of the Sacramento River that is woven into a carpet for the floor of a pedestrian bridge connecting the terminal to the parking garage. This image represents approximately 50 miles of the Sacramento River starting just outside of Colusa, California and ending about 6 miles south […]
May 11, 2006
I [Heart] My Clients
I have the best clients in the world. I just agreed to a large project for the summer that I had initially turned down (wherein I would participate but not lead) because the client wanted me to lead it so much they moved their deadline to fit my existing commitments. There are a lot of […]
May 7, 2006
We Put On Gloves and Dug In
Lynne and I went for a walk down the road today. Ran into neighbor S., who, like Lynne, is a massage therapist. S: I went to a two-day cadaver workshop last month! L: Oh, excellent! S: There were about a dozen of us. There were four cadavers, two up, two down, cut wide open. We […]
May 5, 2006
Opening Space for Ourselves and Each Other
Chris Corrigan posts some (great) current thinking on the Four Practices of Open Space. I hope he and Michael actually do get a book written about their experiences. Spending three days with them was life-changing, in many subtle but persistent ways. One example: staying in touch with Ashley, and thus seeing posts like this.
May 2, 2006
A Downside of Email Marketing [#000001 in a series]
I just got an email from Netflix that began: Netflix is proud to announce the opening of its new and improved Previously Viewed DVD store! Good idea, I thought. Sell off the low-traffic movies. So I clicked over to check out the new section. Looks just like Netflix, you browse, you search, you rate. Nice. […]