May 2012
21 posts
Computers = Trucks
A couple of years ago at D8, Steve Jobs said on stage something like this: computers as we know them won’t go away, but they won’t be used nearly as much. They’ll be like trucks: most people don’t drive around in them all the time, but they’ll use them for special purposes, to get particular types of work done.
I haven’t always agreed with Jobs, and...
When I run out of things to ask during an...
runningastartup:
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the people to gather wood, divide the...”
– -Antoine De Saint-Exupery,
author of The Little Prince
(via trevorloy)
April 2012
33 posts
“Finish each day and be done with it; you have done what you could. Some blunders...”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson (via trevorloy)
“And there will be failures. Andrew, there will be times during practice when you...”
– Nate Jackson’s letter to this year’s top NFL draft picks. (via brycedotvc)
Living in Multiple Futures
Maybe the neatest, and most ineffable, characteristic of founders is that they can see the future. Or rather, they can see the way that they want the world to be, and they’re motivated to make the world look like that. (Brings to mind Alan Kay’s famous quote: “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”)
The very best entrepreneurs can not only see how they want...
After I speak on a panel, I'm like
runningastartup:
"Because that's where the money is."
I’m pretty obsessed with mobile & tablet these days. It feels like we’re reinventing so much of the world, so quickly — it’s just an amazing time of transformation.
And I’ve finally come around to what Steve Jobs said a couple of years ago at D: computers as we know them — with keyboards & monitors, whether they’re laptop or desktop — will...
“Our world is less and less about the single pieces of intellectual property and...”
– Joi (via brycedotvc)
1 tag
IVF
N.B.: this post might be in the “too much information” category for some of you. If so, just click on to the next thing.
I’ve been meaning to write this post for months, but haven’t been able to get it done. Partly because it’s been such a busy year, but partly too because I’m not really sure what to say.
Nonetheless, I think it’s important to write, so...
1 tag
“Just keep playing, no matter how weird it gets.”
– kind of a great life lesson too, no?
Bob Dylan, to Levon Helm and The Band before their first concert together. (via davehyndman)
On Audio Interfaces
Over the last few months, and especially since the launch of the iPhone 4s and Siri, I’ve been seeing more and more products pitching and building interfaces that are almost wholly in the audio domain — that is, voice controlled experiences.
The logic goes something like this: we talk all the time — it’s our natural mode of interaction with people, so our interactions with...
Augmented Paper - Matt Gemmell →
Excellent article on touch interfaces, great categorizations of iOS (skeuomorphic, mainly), Windows Metro (pure digital — and somewhat offputting, I find, which surprises me), and Android (rooted in the desktop, with all of the pros and cons of that approach).
What I really like, though, is where he’s leading with the article, which is none of those poles of interaction, but something...
What Amazon's ebook strategy means - Charlie's... →
Really interesting writeup by Charlie Stross on Amazon’s ebook strategy, their dominance as broker between publisher & consumer at present, and why it means that publishers should move away from DRM. Essentially, he’s arguing that DRM is platform-tied, and giving the platform owner too much power.
I think the other option they could move down is an industry standard sort of DRM as...
Fat head and long tail
Have been noodling around with a concept over the last few days that Google has always been a “long tail” company, helping individuals find the specific-to-them bits of info they need whereas Facebook (and Twitter and Tumblr, etc) are essentially “fat head” companies, providing resonance around the most popular and trending information - fundamentally a social dynamic.
...
The Media Map: Who's Reading What And Where... →
I find this map hilarious. It’s a map of which publications are most influential in which states. Some are predictable: NYT in northeast corridor, Fox News in Texas. But some are so on the nose that it’s just laughable. Check NPR. And what the most influential in Wisconsin & Minnesota is. Hilarious.
Dammit.
I was frustrated tonight with something that made me write something careless. Which ignited an intense back & forth that I think is somewhat better now, and will lead to a more substantial and useful conversation I think.
But I was so focused on it that I was a crappy dad. Didn’t pay enough attention to SPL.
Nights with SPL are fleeting and ephemeral. He’s 6 now, soon to be 7....
LOVE the Spotify integration with Tumblr. Amazing.
“It was only later that I realized the value of being bored was actually pretty...”
– Clay Shirky - How Will We Read (via bijan)
