July 2008
26 posts
How to Ship Code and Influence People →
I made a simple resolution. I wanted to work on stuff that people would actually use.
If you walk the halls of Sun, AOL, HP, IBM, AOL, Cisco, Siebel, Oracle, any university, many startups, and even Google and Yahoo, you’ll find people working on stuff that isn’t going to ship. Or that if it does ship, it won’t be noticed, or won’t move the needle.
I made the same...
Al Gore Places Infant Son In Rocket To Escape... →
Where should the world spend its money to do the... →
Fascinating: Providing micronutrients — particularly vitamin A and zinc — to 80% of the 140 million or so undernourished children in the world would require a commitment of just $60 million annually, a small fraction of the billions spent each year battling terrorism or combating climate change. The economic gains from improved productivity and a lower burden on the health system would...
Obama stokes Europe's passion for America →
Siddiqui is one of the best columnists I’ve read on global politics. He also describes something I’ve been saying since I moved to the US in 2001: The U.S. presidential election may be the most undemocratic in the world. Only some 126 million vote, yet the result is felt by 6.6 billion people. Indeed, in some ways, it matters even more to non-Americans. The president is constrained...
“Bruce Wayne is a pimp and a true capitalist. He is a Billionaire industrialist...”
– Jeremy Schoemaker (via gregnews) (via superamit)
New Yorker: The open secret of success - The New... →
Toyota uses continuous improvement (“kaizen” in Japanese) to build an innovative process, rather than product. And they do it bottom-up, not top-down:Toyota implements a million new ideas a year, and most of them come from ordinary workers.
“Just pick a project that seems interesting: to master some chunk of material, or...”
–
Particletree » Inspirational Quotes on Success, Failure and Happiness
“There’s no point in having some long-term plan because a long-term plan...”
– Michael O’Leary, Ryanair CEO
How to Earn Your First Love Dollar →
working with a designer →
“I think the ultimate test for your current job is: Would you do it for free?”
– If your answer is no, you should consider what you are doing. (via tightgrip) (via gregnews)
Thinking Strategically about Search (hint:... →
If Microsoft really wanted to challenge Google, it would be better off solving the problem of next-generation branding, rethinking relationships - not simple transactions - between consumers and producers, and helping define a new basis for loyalty, trust, and love.
Internet Asshattery: Armchair Scaling Experts... →
This is the best explanation about why it’s stupid to pass blame on Blaine Cook, Rails, etc. about Twitter’s scaling issues. Comments include this: Theater critics are like eunuchs in a harem: they see it performed every night, but they’re unable to do it themselves.
Apple is faking an iPhone day one "sellout" by...
This sucks, bad Apple!
feldmania:
My brother Mark recounts this experience he had this morning at a Boston area AT&T store:: Went to the AT&T store in Waltham, Mass at 9:45 (15 minutes before it was scheduled to open according to their site). There were about 6-7 dudes in line outside and one told me that they were “out of iPhones and only taking orders for delivery in 5-7 days.” ...
WatchKids roping and attempting to ride a wild pony was the funniest event of the day - I laughed until my face hurt. wild-pony-2 - hilarious
WatchI went to the Calgary Stampede last weekend, the biggest outdoor rodeo in the world. This is the winning steer ride of the day. winning-steer-ride on Flickr
It's All Too Much →
When I left LA I sold or gave away an apartment full of stuff, except for some clothes, my laptop and camera, and a bunch of books. I packed up 8 boxes of books that I *couldn’t* give away (I gave away 8 more boxes), and stored them with a friend while I was in Buenos Aires for a couple of months. Within a week, I couldn’t remember what books I’d packed that were so important...
200 Nipples: Killer Limited Edition Tees from $1 -... →
Great idea and the copy is brilliant: We’re also offering you a piece of clothing that you’ll pretty much never see anyone else wearing at your lame very-awesome hipster parties.
Web Form Design Patterns: Sign-Up Forms →
Interesting to see the stats breakdowns, though web form best practices - determined by watching customers - would be more useful. Also see more web form design patterns here.
Fred Wilson on "The Post American World" by Fareed... →
Half of all Silicon Valley startups have one founder who is an immigrant or first-generation American. America’s potential new burst of productivity, … its ability to invent the future - all rest on immigration policies.
Watchi saw rick give this talk at Gel 2006; it’s one of the most heartwarming stories i’ve heard.
saha:
An amazing, touching, scary, personal story of how a brilliant photographer finds himself in the life of a young, half American, half Korean girl. Rick Smolan tells the story of a girl
WatchA phenomenal talk! Some choice thoughts:
It’s one of the characteristics of a leader that he not doubt for one moment the capacity of the people he’s leading to realize whatever he’s dreaming. Imagine if Martin Luther King said ‘I have a dream! But I’m not sure if they’ll be up to it…’
and
The conductor of an orchestra depends for his power on...