January 2012
34 posts
It's Tough to Compete with Simple
Yesterday we met with a very talented entrepreneur who said this:
“It’s tough to compete with simple.”
He was talking about their product and how hard they’re working to make some basic human needs & expressions as simple as possible — and how if you can crack that nut, it’s very, very hard for anyone else to compete.
This idea, and how he expressed it,...
Sleepless, but good
I find I’m having a tough time sleeping lately. I’ve always had trouble staying asleep — it’s something I’ve struggled with my whole life, lately — chalk it up to my (mild) apnea, or my overactive worrying brain, or whatever.
But lately I find, like tonight, I wake up at 2 or 3 or 4 am because I’ve got so much I’m thinking about, so much I want to...
Wonderful piece on why software takes so much...
MIke Wolfe’s got a ton of amazing writing on Quora, but this piece on why software development always runs long is probably my favorite. Mike is an amazing guy with a ton of experience building software and startups. He’s a guy to listen to. You should really go read the whole thing, but here’s my favorite bit of the analogy:
“My friend says, well, we’ve gone 40...
Bijan Sabet: Weekly All Hands Meeting →
Nice post from Bijan on the value of Weekly All Hands meetings — I totally agree with the value of these, had them at both Mozilla and Reactivity, and loved them, even though they could be tough at times!
At Mozilla we had these every week on Mondays — we would have lunch brought in for everyone at noon, then we’d spend as much or as little time as we needed talking. Sometimes...
Seven Lessons from SOPA/PIPA/Megaupload and Four... →
Incredible must-read piece on where go from here, post SOPA/PIPA/Megaupload, by the very very smart Yochai Benkler.
Quixotism & Code for America
Quixotic is one of my favorite words. (It’s also one of my partner Reid’s favorite words, and is actually his Twitter handle.)
It came up today when during our board meeting for Code for America we got to spend a little time with the 2012 Fellows, before they hop on planes to go visit their cities for the year. They asked us to say a few words about why we each got involved on the...
The Florida State of Play - NYTimes.com →
This Republican primary is taking some crazy, crazy turns at this point. For Romney’s legal tax returns to dominate the headlines above what are essentially charges of lobbying (for Freddie Mac) and ethics violations (related to stepping down from the House) by Newt seems like total clown school to me. I’m not complaining, but the GOP has some pretty fundamental issues to clean up,...
“Those who count on quote ‘Hollywood’ for support need to understand that this...”
– MPAA head (and former U.S. Senator) Chris Dodd speaking to Fox News (as noted by Hillicon Valley).
I mean, he actually said this.
In one soundbite, he’s both threatening any and all U.S. politicians and implying that they’re corruptible. It’s a statement that so egregious, it’s hard to think of...
“I feel confident that sooner rather than later, the American people will come to...”
– Andrew Sullivan’s latest, a couple paragraphs after he calls liberals “deluded.”
Yet I remain less interested in us finishing what we started, and more interested in Obama beginning what he has yet to start. Or better, still less interested. From the Nation, two years ago:
Yet a year into the...
“Merry
Sunday, 25 December 2011
Late last night, inspecting Santa’s...”
– Daring Fireball: Merry
I haven’t been reading Daring Fireball too much lately, but found this at Christmas (am just cleaning up my Read It Later queue now.)
This is one of the simplest, most perfect expressions of how I feel myself now with SPL at 6 and a half. It’s a special feeling...
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Tips for Entrepreneurs from a First Year VC
[Cross posting this (with better image!) from PandoDaily where I published this as a guest post.]
A close friend of mine likes to joke about how entrepreneurs & operators who become venture capitalists are “trading in their blue light sabers for red ones” – it’s a funny analogy…naturally, comparing investors to Sith Lords seems to fit pretty well some days.
But the benefit of switching...
Yelping with Cormac: Chevy's Fresh Mex →
Yelping with Cormac takes on the troubling rise of 4Square mayoral murders.
yelpingwithcormac:
Palo Alto, CA
Cormac M. | Author | Lost in the chaparral, NM
Two stars.
The Sheriff stood over a table cleaved cleanly in two. Around him wellheeled young people lay newly dead. What do you have there deputy, he said.
Deputy Stevens leaned over the ruined bar and looked behind it. I got...
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41
Thanks to everyone for the thoughts on my 41st birthday yesterday! I really (& sincerely) enjoyed seeing the stream of notifications on my phone throughout the day — each one a small note, but reminding me of times we’ve worked & played together, all around the world, and in may different contexts.
As an event, 41 is not exactly a major milestone. But it was a very nice...
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Some followup thoughts on my SOPA post
The best thing about writing for me is that it helps me figure out what I really think about things. And one of the very best things about doing it on the web is that others can collaborate, disagree, tweak, suggest, and generally help think through things even better. So after a couple of days of Friday’s SOPA post rolling around in my head, I think I have a tighter point of view now that I...
“Mayor Lee on the new Code for America civic accelerator: “San Francisco is...”
– Code for America opens ‘civic accelerator’ in S.F.
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What's bothering me about the SOPA "discussion"
There are 3 things that have really been bothering me about how the SOPA/PIPA discussion has been going so far.
it’s not a discussion at all — it’s people calling each other names.
it’s highly likely to have a result that is unhelpful at best, and insanely destructive at worst
we’re building a completely worthless/bad roadmap for how to deal with technology policy...
Rembert Explains the '80s: Bosom Buddies -... →
This is the best blogging series ever conceived, on Grantland naturally. 24 year old guy deconstructs the 80s, amazing cultural artifact by amazing cultural artifact.
This one is Bosom Buddies, one of the staples of my childhood television-watching existence. (Along with Hogan’s Heroes, and, when I was a little younger, Gilligan’s Island.) Amazing & hilarious 80s-era Tom Hanks.
...
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Being Ned Flanders: On Mustaches
Wearing a mustache is a tough gig. Also hilarious, although I think people may not always totally get the joke…
A few years back, some of the Mozilla folks started doing NSID (no shaving in December) — it was a funny thing to do, especially for all hands meetings where you’d see a bunch of guys who had never really let their facial hair grow out — and the results were...
My birthday is next week, and just got a very funny short email from my nearly 90 year old granddad, who’s a Georgia Tech alum+fan and apparently caught our game last night. Still cracks me up:
“Johnny: 41 years is a mountain to climb and you made it in style. Have located a certified fg kicker with a glorious past. where do i send him? we need one also but we are giving up football...
Yelping with Cormac: Chipotle Mexican Grill →
yelpingwithcormac:
SOMA - San Francisco, CA
Cormac M. | Author | Lost in the chaparral, NM
Three stars.
See that false burrito. See it swaddled in tinfoil on the desk in the bowels of that great tower, a bundle of meat and sauce in a place long ago ceded to silicone and copper. The stooped man eating that peasant…
LOVE Yelping with Cormac, and excited he’s now reviewed...
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