August 2009
83 posts
Looking out, looking in. →
A hot, languid day train from Bulgaria to Romania, (Veliko Tarnovo to Bucharest via Ruse); as uneventful, in a good way, as a night train from Turkey to Bulgaria.
Looking out, looking…
Split, Rila Monastery, Bulgaria →
Since I’ve already demonstrated my love for randomness, more about Ferris Bueller…
Split, Rila Monastery, Bulgaria
From a Bill Simmons ESPN.com reader mailbag column:
Q: In light of…
Watchkareem:
Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation
A compelling talk by a passionate speaker. Dan talks about examples of the work my friend Traci over at Worldblu has been supporting. Basically, building companies that capitalize on peoples’ desire to *want* to contribute to something greater than themselves, and giving them the control to do so. Those, my friends, are the principles...
“Direct-to-fan offerings is more than a platform. It’s an actual business...”
– Major Record Labels Sorta, Maybe Embracing Direct-To-Fan Projects | Techdirt
An introvert, in the wild. →
Introverts live differently than extroverts. Not surprisingly, they also travel differently. Trust me, I know.
Peeking, Istanbul, Turkey
Sophia Dembling, Confessions of an Introverted…
Reality Reflected, Istanbul, Turkey →
The more I travel, the less I expect, the less I seek, the more I find. (Twitter)
Reality Reflected, Galata Bridge, Istanbul, Turkey
Creating the means to match the spirit (How to... →
Responding to a request to outline the logistics of a nomadic life beyond the small matter of what to pack.
Gated, Istanbul, Turkey
A question via email in response to How to Pack for…
“In every aspect of your business (and personal life) try to allow others to...”
– New Rules for the New Economy (via heyitsnoah) (via jayparkinsonmd)
It should be obvious by now that I agree wholeheartedly.
“Basically [Tyler Cowen] agreed that financial innovation can cause problems, but...”
– A Perspective on Financial Innovation « The Baseline Scenario
“Given its track record with other institutional innovations such as acquisitions...”
– Reshaping Cisco: The world according to Chambers | The Economist
How, exactly?
Instead of going back to a structure based on lines of business, it has developed an elaborate system of committees made up of managers from different functions. The job of most of these groups is to tackle new...
“Been consistently enjoying Kevin Kelly’s serialized excerpts from New Rules for...”
– Snarkmarket: The New Rules Still Apply
“There’s an old English proverb about how if you are careful with your pennies,...”
– A Bhutan government official with the tourism office, quoted by Chris Guillebeau, The Art of Nonconformity » Video Update: Cost and Value in Bhutan
“when you don’t create things, you become defined by your tastes rather than...”
– _why (via hiten) (via kareem)
Game design, the secret to reconstructing... →
Seriously, games.
Chris Messina, Losing my religion:
I will say this: I’m an advocate for open source and open standards because I believe that open ecosystems — i.e. those with low barriers to entry (low startup costs; low friction to launch; public infrastructure for sustaining productivity) — are essential for competition at the level of user experience.
It may seem paradoxical, but open...
4 tags
Sailing on Dry Land →
A bit of rambling, images with less than a thousand words adding to the half-thoughts, half-stories and half-conversations.
Rebecca Willis in Sailing on Dry Land, citing Meriweather Lewis about a portage in Montana:
… the winds are sometimes so strong in these plains that the men informed me that they hoisted a sail in the canoe and it had driven her along on the truck wheels. This is really...
Ideas for conversations (at SXSW and beyond) →
Highlighting a couple SXSW panel suggestions I found interesting.
First off, I’ll admit I didn’t go to many panels or core conversations at SXSW 2009 (although I did go to mine, obviously). Second off, I tend to choose panels where I knew little about the subject, taking advantage of the diverse set of subject matter leaders that SXSW brings to Austin every year (skip to 5:20 in this video...
Illuminating, Rila Monastery, Bulgaria →
Illuminating, Rila Monastery, Bulgaria
Returning to my comment on A Freemium Life, a bit that has been running through my thoughts a lot lately…
1) The great potential in giving away our knowledge, value and time is to create connections and opportunities that we had not considered, or targeted, or comprehended. Connections and networks have always been and will always be the most valuable way...
“Path to purchase helps to understand the interplay between consumer preferences,...”
– A comment by Joel Rubinson on Path to Purchase // NoahBrier.com
“Lately I’ve found myself rationalizing situations and justifying decisions...”
– Me.
“Facebook content is too good for ads to work.”
– Why The Aversion to the Low Hanging Fruits?- The SiliconANGLE
Or, put differently, The things people do with Facebook make ads irrelevant.
“[YouTube’s Partnership Program] is thus an attempt to get the UGC videos...”
– YouTube, Ad Money and the myth of the Long Tail - broadstuff
“The more we look at the marketing strategies adopted by the modern manufacturers...”
– Blind Taste / Robin Goldstein» Blog Archive » More on bicycle prices: but what about the common people? (via sleuth)
“The real difficulty in my mind is how do we justify opaque knowledge? How does...”
– From a comment I left on a post I’ve been returning to lately, A Freemium Life | Unstructured Thoughts by Taylor Davidson
“I am a completely macro, big idea type of guy. I tend to bounce like a pinball,...”
– Ryan Booth, WhatBox?
I know the feeling, and the need, all too well.
“There are different species of laziness: Eastern and Western. The Eastern style...”
– Sogyal Rinpoche, via Caterina: Being Lazy by doing too much (via zachklein)
Twitter, Photography and PDN PhotoPlus (and your... →
Photographers use Twitter? Really? Yes. And here’s your chance to participate, share, learn and potentially be featured with examples of strategies and tactics that detail how you use Twitter to drive your photography business.
Details on the event It’s official: October 22 at PDN PhotoPlus Expo in NYC, Seshu Badrinath, Jim Goldstein, Jack Hollingsworth, Rosh Sillars and I will discuss the...
“Online tipping may have a future, but it is not the basis of an online revenue...”
– A comment by Crosbie Fitch on ProjectVRM Blog » Appreciating TipJoy
Still a lot to unpack in regards to TipJoy, Continegency Market, EmanciPay, social network payment platforms and the separation (or integration) between the value proposition and the enabling system. Thoughts?
The difficulty in translating and valuing... →
Increasing the surface area of a conversation, tracking through thoughts about valuing, measuring and delivering knowledge.
Tom Martin, How much is knowledge worth?:
All of this to say, I’ve been thinking what is knowledge worth? Both in terms of acquisition of knowledge but maybe more importantly in the selling of knowledge, which is kind of what many of us do. And I guess along those lines,...
“Single point of failure, conversely single point of success. It’s a very...”
– Comment by David Crow on StartupCFO: Single point of failure
And yet, it’s the most common model, right?
“The [Rila] monastery is believed to have been founded by a hermit, John of Rila,...”
– Rila Monastery, Bulgaria
Where I’ll be staying Saturday night. Not the cave, but the monastery.
(hopefully.)
Ari Gold, Entrepreneur Agents and Markets in Ideas... →
Profiting from inefficiencies in markets with high transaction costs; a reminder that value is created at the edges but captured at the hubs.
Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Ari Gold for Entrepreneurs?
Do you think there’s a need for young entrepreneurs to have an agent/manager? In Hollywood, the agent finds the work with the major studios, and the manager makes the deal for the talent. That’s the...
“Reality is negotiable.” —Tim Ferriss”
– 22 Inspirational Quotes for Living the Rockstar Life | Thrilling Heroics
“We’re gearing up to launch a new feature which makes Twitter truly...”
–
Twitter Blog: Location, Location, Location
This is going to be awesome.
(via bijan)
Imagine the opportunities for developers? Brilliant. Think Dodgeball or Google Latitude, but with context.
3 tags
One night on a train from Istanbul to Sofia →
Snippets from an overnight train ride on the Bosphorus Express from Istanbul, Turkey to Sofia, Bulgaria on my current little jaunt.
Waiting, Istanbul, Turkey
The relief of being on the train segueing into the nervousness of the journey, waiting for the Bosphorus Express to depart Istanbul’s Sirkeci Station, deep in the Golden Horn of Istanbul.
Expectant, Istanbul, Turkey
Sirkeci Station was...
“I say turn your health into a social game like Foursquare. Check in when you...”
– Dr. Jay Parkinson commenting on Health Populi’s “People without a connection to a primary care doctor don’t proactively manage health” via johncarney: kylebunch: heyitsnoah editorlisa dpstyles
If I were in the consultancy creation business, and I’m not, I’d name my company “Game Mechanics and Social...
“In America, financial, political and military power still resides in the same...”
– BBC - Digital Revolution Blog: Internet freedom and Digital Revolution? Grow up.
“5. Show Up. … You have to show up! And you have to show up ready to be...”
– 6 Tips to Make the Universe Bend In Your Favor - The Causemopolitan
“what’s happening in the entertainment industry is nothing but a precursor...”
– It’s Not Just The Entertainment Industry Facing An Economic Upheaval | Techdirt
“I’ve been a content Jet Blue passenger for several years flying the AUS ->...”
– Jet Blue’s Strategy Behind the All You Can Jet Pass | The Strategy Blog | The Strategy Blog, Edited by Will Dearman
Also see How to Book an Awesome Travel Itinerary, about how Will booked his travel using the Jet Blue Pass.
