June 2013
6 posts
“Assume for a moment that some of these measures really have helped make our persons and property safer—are they worth it? Where and when was the public debate on whether they’re worth it? Was there no such debate because we’re not capable of having or demanding one? Why not? Have we actually become so selfish and scared that we don’t even want to consider whether some things trump safety? What kind of future does that augur?”
—David Foster Wallace (via theatlantic)
“I just want to say after hearing about the work you are doing I think you are all amazing. You give me hope that there are people out there who want to do something or the good of America. You give me hope that here might be a world for my daughter.”
— Eric N., post on Code for America’s Facebook wall (via codeforamerica)
“Making mistakes is the key to making progress. Of course there are times when it is really important not to make any mistakes — ask any sugeon or airline pilot. But it is less widely appreciated that there are also times when making mistakes is the only way to go. Many of the students who arrive at very competitive universities pride themselves in not making mistakes — after all, that’s how they’ve come so much farther than their classmates, or so they have been led to believe. I often find that I have to encourage them to cultivate the habit of making mistakes, the best learning opportunities of all. They get “writer’s block” and waste hours forlornly wandering back and fourth on the starting line. “Blurt it out!” I urge them. Then they have something on the page to work with.”
—Daniel Dennett. 2013.
(Title: Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking.)
(Title: Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking.)
May 2013
14 posts
“Our systematic effort to dismantle terrorist organizations must continue,” Mr. Obama said. “But this war, like all wars, must end. That’s what history advises. It’s what our democracy demands.”
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I hope that Obama & the administration, plus future administrations can live up to this sentiment. Perpetual war, perpetual fear, perpetual conflict, perpetual violence — these are all changing us much for the worse.
It’s almost unbelievable to think that 9/11 was a dozen years ago now, and it’s both so easy and so tricky to really tell how we’ve changed in reaction. It’s cost us a lot.
MessageMe
Early (!) this morning, MessageMe put up a new post on their blog describing their user growth in the first couple of months of release, and their new $10M financing round that we led, with participation from their other existing investors from the seed round, including True Ventures, First Round Capital, Google Ventures, Resolute.vc and others.
We were fortunate to participate in that seed round through our Discovery Fund, so have gotten to know Arjun & Justin & the team over a longer period of time than usual, and have been blown away by how committed they are to building great products & a great company.
Their goal is to help revolutionize the way we communicate in our world of always on, always present, always connected devices. You know, NBD.
I love the team, and I love the product (go get it!) — as you use the product, the first realization you’ll have is that it’s fast. Really fast. Just try it.
The next thing you’ll start to realize — or the next thing I realized — is that it’s just incredibly useful, and thoughtful in the way it’s built. My wife & I use instant location sharing all the time — a couple of taps, and we know where each other is.
But the really enduring thing for me so far is how much fun it is. Taking a few seconds to think about a song or an image to send can often communicate way better than many sentences could.
We’re living in an incredible time of change technologically & socially. The ways in which we communicate are all changing, too. What I love about the way that MessageMe has started, right out of the gate, is how natural and fluid what they’ve built is, and how it feels like an extension of the in person, pen & pencil, or digital communications we’ve had for years, but moved into this ubiquitous realm of mobile.
And as they wrote in their post, others seem to be liking it a lot, too. A million users in their first 10 days; 5 million in the first 75. Processing 1,500 notifications/second now. It’s an amazing start.
But it’s just a start, and that’s clear from everything the team has done and has plans to do — lots to come! We’re very happy to be involved and working with the company on building something groundbreaking.
In the meantime, try out the app & see what you think!
“It’s about moments in life that are great but don’t last. They don’t go on, but you always have the memory and they have an effect on you. That’s what I was thinking about.”
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Lost in Translation is really one of my favorite movies of all times. So, so good. So, so true.
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Sofia Coppola on Lost In Translation
(via stoweboyd)
“Think globally, hack locally.”
—Code for America Brigade (via codeforamerica)
