A train of thought from Dubai to business as unusual to supporting people “doing cool stuff”. Follow along.
Stretch, Mumbai, India
Dubai
A classic example of “dumb growth” and the perils of focusing on allocating rather than creating: Umair Haque, Why Dubai Defaulted — [...]
A story, and 12 seconds from a 2 hour taxi ride in Mumbai, India.
It started with a question and a misplaced assumption.
“Can I get a taxi to the airport?”
“Yes,” the hotel guard replied.
“International airport, non-AC, cheapest, yeah?”
“Yes, yes.”
And so he walks into the street with me trailing behind, pulls out [...]
I’m moving to New Orleans, Louisiana. Here’s why.
Last year didn’t turn out as I had planned. This year I stopped planning and just lived, and in doing so finally created “The Good Year” that I had envisioned for a number of years.
My simple goal was to spend a year [...]
Thinking through a venture capital investment thesis.
I traditionally think about startup and investment opportunities through broad frames, sectors and trends; but in an effort to get a bit more tactical, here is a general investment thesis:
Products and services that build markets, networks and/or communities, Focused in industries with inefficient, [...]“Economic progress doesn’t care in the slightest how much you liked how things used to be” (link), stock photography edition.
John Harrington, Microstock Creates New Markets? – No, It Devastates Existing Ones:
Stop saying “microstock creates markets” and instead try “microstock markets are devastating existing profitable markets.”
Old photo, new visit; returning to India, one hop closer to home.
Wandering, Marine Drive, Mumbai, India, Jan 2008
My last visit to India during the winter of 2007-2008 feels like it was from another life, considering what’s happened between then and [...]
Related thoughts about how individuals can create businesses by living their lives and creating meaningful, culturally resonating experiences. Marketing through living, in a way.
Starting with an old thought from Business Models and Life Models, Interconnected:Business models based on creating value and expanding the pie are more powerful than business [...]
A short story about finishing strong, from the Batu Caves outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
“Excuse me, but is it worth it, going up?”
I looked at him, obviously tired, struggling up the steps with his young child in his arms: young enough to crawl up into his arms, old enough to [...]
What I love about street stall eateries in Asian cities.
Delicacies, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
I love the street stall eateries in Asian cities.
I love the easy pace, the small bit of calm and sense of time standing still amid the bustle of the streets [...]
A presentation about “Working Nowhere and Everywhere: The Zen of Running A Virtual Studio” by Christopher Natsuume, focusing on eight tips on how to run a virtual office.
You probably already know that creating better organizational and incentive structures for collaboration and value creation is a big interest of mine; below [...]
Continuing the line of thinking about personal APIs and personal RFPs, components of the broader trend in using algorithms to aid human decision-making.
Wings, Outstretched, Margaret River Mouth, Western Australia
Continuing a line of thinking from Powering Social Search through [...]
Dreams of Horizons, Cape Leeuwin, Western Australia
Robin Sloan, The Future of Media? Bet on Events:
What if the magazine article of the future, the album of the future, and the novel of the future are all the same thing?
And what [...]
How can social search be improved? By maintaining a standardized, publicly accessible database of the information and knowledge in people’s heads, and creating an easy way to access that information. In other words, a personal API. *
Damon Horowitz on the Aardvark company blog, The Real-Time People Web, discussing [...]
The views we endure on our journeys, for the views we enjoy at our destinations.
Horizons, Home, San Francisco, California
Horizons, Abroad, Cottesloe Beach, Perth, Australia
In January I released a free financial model to help entrepreneurs model and understand the story behind their business. After a lot of interest from entrepreneurs for a simplified version of that model, today I’m releasing a streamlined version that will make it easier for entrepreneurs to start [...]
Dead Zone, Virginia, USA
I’ll be largely offline for a little bit, living an active offline life in areas with limited Internet access. Not sure how much I’ll post from Perth, Kuala Lumpur and Mumbai over the next couple weeks. But trust that [...]
Masses, Muted, New York City, NY
Daniel Roth in Wired Magazine, The Answer Factory: Fast, Disposable, and Profitable as Hell:
… To appreciate the impact Demand is poised to have on the Web, imagine a classroom where one kid raises his hand [...]
Following up from the discussion at TribeCon about the power of making yourself uncomfortable, a recent story about putting the idea into practice on a New Orleans Halloween late night extended to a morning’s flying to Houston and San Francisco.
At TribeCon 2009 in New Orleans last week I got [...]
Life, overflowing; stories, created.
Life, Overflowing, Frenchmen St., Halloween, New Orleans, Louisiana (CLICK ON PHOTO ABOVE TO VIEW LARGER)
What’s not to love about this picture?
(For friends and the curious: more photos from Voodoo Music Experience, New Orleans, Halloween [...]
A short note about how feedback loops and communication standards impact the loci of control.
Judith D. Schwartz, What Jane Jacobs Can Teach Us About the Economy:
Jane Jacobs was an advocate of decentralization; her belief that economies function on a regional, as opposed to national, level has helped spur recent [...]
The details behind the panel discussion “Making Yourself Uncomfortable” at TribeCon 2009 last week in New Orleans, LA.
Last week at the inaugural TribeCon, a conference about the power of communities, I got the chance to participate on a panel called “Make Yourself Uncomfortable: How to Rawk a New [...]
Hidden Endpoints, Central Park, New York City, NY
Mike Bonifer, Adios, Vacilar?
For a brief instant in that workshop at NYU, I let myself imagine, darkly, that maybe vacilar was no more, that maybe it had been rendered irrelevant by [...]
Unexpected Horizons, New York City, New York
Out and about, having fun at Photo Plus Expo. Photo above from crashing a private penthouse roof deck party, creating potentially uncomfortable experiences that turn out great.
Step away from the keyboard and [...]
A short note originally written on the Insight Community (and lightly edited here) as a response to Implementing Big Ideas During A Recession, which includes a number of thought-provoking responses well worth a click and a read.
Recessions ground large organizations. Locked in groupthink and the inability for [...]
Lost again, Washington DC, USA
I’m a big believer that what you say, do and share = who you are = who you find = who you attract = who listens = who wants to share with you, help you and buy from [...]
Yes, Twitter lists are coming (already here for some, soon for others). Yes, they’re going to change things a bit. But hopefully some things will stay the same.
No, I can’t create a list yet. But when I can…
my first Lists will be “people [...]
A couple workspaces from this past week; new photos, old thoughts.
I’ve long been fascinated by how culture appropriates technology and shapes our physical environment, and lately my attention has focused on how we live and work in public.
Workspace, Luray, Virginia
Home may sound like [...]
A post is just the start of a conversation; highlighting comments from still-simmering discussions.
I write in public because it helps me learn; the process of writing forces me to develop ideas a bit clearer, and publishing these thoughts in public helps me learn from variety of people and communities.
On that [...]
As part of the Twitter Revolution panel at PDN PhotoPlus Expo in NYC on Oct 22, I’ll be sharing my thoughts about how to use Twitter to market your photography (hint: it’s more about you than your images).
As I’ve mentioned before, October 22 at PDN PhotoPlus Expo in [...]
A story about Florian Mueck and The Festival, an effort to build a pan-European social movement.
Full disclosure: I’ve known Florian since 2004 through mutual friends, I had the chance to hang with him again in Berlin a couple weeks ago and he’s bought me a couple beers over the [...]
Andrew Gerrard (@andrewgerrard) asked me at TEDxTuttle to find him an uplifting TED video. Here’s my humble submission, a talk by Bill Strickland about his life and how he built Manchester Bidwell into a world-class institute in a tough part of Pittsburgh.
You’ll notice that this is [...]
Just one of the many stories people will be sharing at TribeCon; why do you love communities?
Why I Love Communities from Taylor Davidson on Vimeo.
Why do I love communities? Honestly, I love communities because they are the only things I have.
And that’s why I’m looking forward [...]
Standing Out | San Francisco, California | Jan 2009
No meandering, dense, imperfect thoughts here today: is that a let-down or a relief?
Institutions reflect the structured, codified and aggregated views and expectations of individuals. Instead of focusing on how our institutions enslave us in shackles, how can we inject humanity into our institutions to reshape our institutions into platforms?
Imaginary Realities, Berlin, Germany, Sept [...]
Two examples of how companies are segmenting and balancing their product and marketing efforts between children and “eternal children”.
First: “Where the Wild Things Are”
Detailed by Saki Knafo in the NY Times in Bringing ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ to the Screen, the different approaches in bringing “Where the [...]
Adding a note about Foursquare to months-long thoughts about combining online and offline technologies with real-time data to help us live better lives.
Getting bigger | Sighisoara, Romania | Sept 2009
Me, Sept 2008, Online technologies will transform [...]
Traveling Obscured, Budapest, Hungary
In Budapest, Hungary…
In the summer (generally on the weekends) mostly young people go to [Margaret Island] at night to party in its terraces, or to recreate with a bottle of alcohol on a bench or on the grass [...]
Support, Budapest, Hungary
Oh, the joy of wandering a city street at night after a bit of rain; as the city dies, the light comes alive.
An improvised hike, embracing the serendipity of travel and learning to say yes; three days hiking in the Rila Mountains in Bulgaria, stories to tell other places and times.
Visiting the Rila Monastery outside Sofia, Bulgaria wasn’t in the original plan; sitting in my hostel in Sofia, I didn’t even [...]
A signal of market failure in translating opaque knowledge into impact. *
Agency Nil, describing themselves in their Twitter bio:
Will work for what it’s worth. Supply and demand says so… Agency Nil: Cheaper than freelance, better than interns.
An example of a professional services firm (in this case, advertising) using [...]
The daily quest for a peaceful place to work, part of living a nomadic life…
Morning, Sighisoara, Romania
Afternoon, Romania
Today’s workspaces; not exactly where I want to work, but I’ll make the best of what I’ve got…
Oh, how [...]
Returning to conversations about conversations, and thinking about the business models contained within the technological, cultural and business conflicts between serendipity and inefficiency.
Yes, I follow (ok, stalk) many people using the web; but in many cases following people is merely my [...]
Mixing related conversations about exclusivity and collaboration, with images from a day’s solo journey from Bucharest to Brasov, “probably the best city in the world”…
As a note to Jim Goldstein’s image of the moon over Geary Blvd in San Francisco:
Serendipity is the reward for the observant, the active [...]
A pointer to a journey worth joining…
Reflected, Together | Brasov, Romania | August 2009
Don’t skip what comes before or after this quote, but start with this: Kareem Mayan (@kareem), How I Discovered My Life’s Purpose:
I’m here [...]
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 in, Ruse, Bulgaria
Create enough friction and people will [...]
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 John Hughes death (one of my favorites of all time) I ask you this obvious question [...]
Introverts live differently than extroverts. Not surprisingly, they also travel differently. Trust me, I know.
Peeking, Istanbul, Turkey
Sophia Dembling, Confessions of an Introverted Traveler:
Introversion and extroversion are inborn traits, and the difference between them is not that one is gregarious and at ease in [...]
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