Karm City

Culture rot

Thu, 17 May 2012 13:47:00 -0400

Sometimes when I’m winding down for the day, I’ll stream a TV show on my iPad. One of my favorites: the original Twilight Zone. Watching an episode recently unearthed an interesting perspective.

In one Twilight Zone episode, the main character goes back in time fifteen years and grapples with the cultural differences. The story starts in the year 1959. After a few minutes, and eye-rolling (though impressive at the time) special effects, the man somehow finds himself in 1941. Of course, the viewer is expected to immediately know this by the change in clothing style of the characters. If my grandpa were viewing the show, he’d surely have noticed immediately.

For me, it was impossible to discern between 1959 and 1941 by image alone. Women wore short skirts in the 40s and long skirts in the 50s? Could have fooled me! This viewer expectation by the Twilight Zone creators completely unraveled the plot for me. It transitioned from an engrossing story to a caricature of the old days.

A more recent example: In the pilot episode of the TV show Wings, several scenes rely completely on jokes about Noriega, a Panamanian soldier who was notorious in the late-eighties and mid-nineties. This time-sensitive subject has almost no context today, and it’s been a mere fifteen years.

Fifty years from now, how much of today’s culture will be misinterpreted, or misunderstood due to lack of context?

Could this same phenomenon have resulted in an inherent misunderstanding of the constitution? Of shakespeare? Of the bible?

Maurice Sendak on life, dying, and the intelligence of children

Tue, 08 May 2012 12:05:31 -0400

Maurice Sendak on life, dying, and the intelligence of children:

Maurice Sendak’s interview on Fresh Air back in January. By far one of the most humble and visceral discussions I’ve ever heard. There aren’t many people out there who looked at the world like Sendak.

The real point of a business plan

Mon, 07 May 2012 14:38:00 -0400

Lots of startups hit the scene with the impression that creating a business plan is a waste of time; just an exercise to appease potential investors, like filing provisional patents and signing NDAs. “Come up with the idea and strategy first, then make the business plan” right?

What isn’t shared often enough is the true value of a business plan: the process of creating it. If you’re going to come up with an idea and define the strategy, you owe it to the idea to go through the process of developing a business plan. It forces every potential issue to be confronted head-on, leading to a much more well-rounded strategy.

No business plan has ever been 100% accurate, nor should it. That’s not the point. The creation process helps you digest exactly what your requirements, dependencies and risks are before you waste time barking up the wrong tree. If you’ve done your job, every move your company makes will be intuitively linked to a bigger picture.

A good business plan isn’t something that should be made once and forgotten, either. Redoing a business plan from scratch every year is a great way to process what you’ve learned and use it to move forward productively. You may even realize what you thought you were making turned out to be something completely different.

The best framework for figuring out how your idea is going to work, and how you’re going to grow a business, is sitting right in front of you.

Instead, the startup scene is going in the opposite direction. Y Combinator recently announced their weird “No Idea” initiative: funding entrepreneurs who don’t yet have an idea. In their words, “if the only thing holding you back from starting a startup is not having an idea for one, now nothing is holding you back.”

The logic: if they fund a person, that person will then come up with an idea, then create an all-star team to execute on the idea, which then generates tons of profit, which then exits.

I get it. Investing in the team, not the idea. The problem is, it’s taking something that is already risky and making it even riskier. I guess Y Combinator isn’t disappointed enough in their sub-average 8% company exits.

Plus, correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t you need to have an idea to be an entrepreneur?

"The only reason you should be an entrepreneur is because that’s the only way the idea will come into..."

Fri, 04 May 2012 09:32:12 -0400

“The only reason you should be an entrepreneur is because that’s the only way the idea will come into the world”

- Dustin Moskovitz: Y Combinator’s “No Idea” Round Bad for Silicon Valley | PandoDaily (via davemorin)

"After a race, the hot water that pours over my head and down my back eases the aches from the day. I..."

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:30:19 -0400

“After a race, the hot water that pours over my head and down my back eases the aches from the day. I look as if I am wearing my cycling clothing in the shower, so thoroughly am I marked by grime on the skin that had been exposed on my legs, arms, neck, and face. With a washcloth, I scrub the thick, black gunk from my body, starting with my face. When I reach my legs, I once again feel the effort of the race. The muscles, empty, stripped of glycogen and of water, cry out. The veins pulsate against the washcloth. My legs are destroyed.

But redemption comes. Even reduced to rubble like this, as the dirt comes off, my legs in their smooth state show each ripple, every indentation carved by the lack of the fat, every bulging muscle that pushes the skin taut, every scar. They are sculptures, monuments to my love of cycling, and it is right that they should not be covered.”

- Shaving Your Legs for Cycling

Business book translator

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:20:49 -0400

There are a lot of business books out there. I’ve read a lot of great ones, but I’ve barely scratched the surface. The Library of Congress has indexed over a million business-related books. Invariably, almost all of them start out with the author qualifying themselves. In short, they want to explain why you should take their advice.

A good warning indicator that the book you’re about to read should be taken with a grain of salt is if the introduction has been obviously combed over by a marketer to embellish limited experience until it sounds like the person single-handedly invented quantitative analysis.

Here are a few examples:

“I was fortunate enough to participate in the Carl H. Lindner Honors-PLUS program, which is essentially an MBA at the undergraduate level.”

Translation: “I had a terrible GMAT score.”

“I landed a management position at a Fortune 50 company — Procter & Gamble — during my second year of college.”

Translation: “I got an internship that had the word ‘manager’ in it at Procter & Gamble.”

“Andy doesn’t have an MBA — he studied electrical engineering in college. He’s now one of the company’s top global IT managers, responsible for leading many of P&G’s largest projects.”

Translation: “You may think middle-management is for the birds, but I’m here to convince you to lower your aspirations!”

“During my first three years with the company, I participated in decisions across every part of the business process.”

Translation: “I attended meetings.”

This last one is my favorite. “I participated in decisions…” You didn’t make decisions, you participated in them. So if I had an idea and you were like, “that’s a good idea,” does that mean you participated?

Get out of the way

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 14:10:46 -0400

Horace Dediu, interviewing anyone:

So I ask you… well before I ask, I need to clarify the point that A is really more like C but to explain C, we first need to get to the root of why B even exists so the real question is, and before I ask it, I’d like to explore the notion of the alphabet and letters, do you agree, because I’d like to see this problem from the viewpoint of the listener because we know the alphabet exists and has several different versions, like in the English language, we know the alphabet to have 26 letters, but to understand why this number came to be, we need to first understand…

I appreciate Horace’s excellent business savvy and analytical commentary, but if you’re going to do a radio interview, interview.

Best video game ever made?

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 13:53:00 -0400

The objective of the game is to drive a bus from Tucson, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada in real time at a maximum speed of 45mph. The feat requires 8 hours of continuous play to complete, since the game cannot be paused.

The bus contains no passengers, contains little scenery (an occasional rock or stop sign will appear at the side of the road), and there is no traffic. The road between Tucson and Las Vegas is without exception completely straight. The bus veers to the right slightly; as a result, it is impossible to tape down a button to go do something else and have the game end properly.

If the bus veers off the road it will stall and be towed back to Tucson, also in real time. If the player makes it to Las Vegas, he will score exactly one point. The player then gets the option to make the return trip to Tucson—for another point (a decision he must make in a few seconds or the game ends).

Penn and Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors.

Facebook wants to protect its users from employers demanding access to their accounts. The company is looking to draft new laws as well as take legal action against employers.

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 13:41:23 -0400

Facebook wants to protect its users from employers demanding access to their accounts. The company is looking to draft new laws as well as take legal action against employers.:

This is why I have great faith in Facebook’s excellent company culture persisting over the years. What other organization would go to bat for their users like this? Certainly not Google.

Silent ghoti

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 16:41:00 -0400

Using the same method and reinforcing the original point, ghoti (fish) can be a silent word, where:

gh as in though;
o as in people;
t as in ballet;
i as in business

Amazing.

"In April 1986, following an attack on American soldiers in a Berlin disco, President Reagan ordered..."

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 14:56:37 -0400

“In April 1986, following an attack on American soldiers in a Berlin disco, President Reagan ordered the bombing of Muammar Qaddafi’s terrorist camps in Libya. My duty was to fly over Libya and take photos recording the damage our F-111’s had inflicted. Qaddafi had established a ‘line of death,’ a territorial marking across the Gulf of Sidra , swearing to shoot down any intruder that crossed the boundary. On the morning of April 15, I rocketed past the line at 2,125 mph.”

- One of my favorite stories in recent memory

ojacko: Survey Says Most People Prefer Larger Smartphone...

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 12:15:00 -0400

ojacko:

Survey Says Most People Prefer Larger Smartphone Screens. I agree. The iPhone’s screen could be a half inch bigger…

This says more about how sometimes surveys can be useless.

What people say they want is often at odds with what they actually want. Ever notice how everyone complains about Kim Kardashian? Why, then, does it make perfect business sense to plaster her face on the cover of a magazine?

On paper, a bigger screen sounds better. In practice, it’s not.

"Instead of saying “I don’t have time” try saying “it’s not a priority,” and see how that feels...."

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 20:27:05 -0400

“Instead of saying “I don’t have time” try saying “it’s not a priority,” and see how that feels. Often, that’s a perfectly adequate explanation. I have time to iron my sheets, I just don’t want to. But other things are harder. Try it: “I’m not going to edit your résumé, sweetie, because it’s not a priority.” “I don’t go to the doctor because my health is not a priority.” If these phrases don’t sit well, that’s the point. Changing our language reminds us that time is a choice. If we don’t like how we’re spending an hour, we can choose differently.”

- (via swissmiss | Change your language.)

"The lottery can be dressed much sexier than a paycheck."

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 09:47:35 -0500

“The lottery can be dressed much sexier than a paycheck.”

- Andy Stratton

"I’m worried that in all the hype, in all the “we launched our company” events, and..."

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 11:56:36 -0500

“I’m worried that in all the hype, in all the “we launched our company” events, and “we changed our name again” parties, and “we redid our website – come celebrate!” shindigs, and the SXSW parties, and the hoodies, that we’re losing sight a bit of the really hard work that is creating and building a business.”

- VCs get a face and a name. Finally.

False senses

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:01:00 -0500

To the IT security enforcers of the world that insist on a password being at least 16 characters, with 5 uppercase letters and 2 numbers and 5 special characters, expiring every 7 days, and can’t be any of the previous 300 passwords:

Ask yourself a simple question: Why? Why have these requirements?

Every single one of these arbitrary rules individually leads to a person writing their password down on a Post-It note and sticking it to their monitor for all to see.

Security through obscurity is the best form of protection, and a Post-It in plain sight is pretty much the opposite.

It doesn't matter who built your bike

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:10:00 -0500

Here’s an article that makes a big deal about the same company being behind several of the biggest cycling brands in the world.

Did you know the three cyclists on the 2008 Tour de France podium all used bikes produced in the same factory? Yes, the design and decals might have varied but there was only one manufacturer behind all three riders.

All in all, it’s an interesting read, but it puts an unwarranted emphasis on the wrong aspect of the bike production process. The writer suggests that every bike is identical with a different logo slapped on the down tube.

It’s completely wrong — like saying Apple and Samsung are the same company because both of their products are built by Foxconn.

The important difference, and why a Cervelo costs more than a Giant, is R&D. Each bicycle company has its own unique approach to a bike’s carbon layup design, frame geometry and aerodynamic characteristics. By the time the plans get to Taiwan and the manufacturing process begins, the hard work has been done and the rest can be commoditized.

Would you trust a Taiwanese manufacturer that is the name behind five of the biggest, most successful bike brands in the world, or a bespoke, one-off manufacturer in North America whose only “benefit” is a stateside end-to-end manufacturing process? Just because it’s “local” doesn’t make it better.

Like Apple, which is famous for the quality of its products, bike manufacturers should put a label on their frames that say “Designed in the USA, assembled in China”

monaux: RSVP sketch. How could I not reblog this? Stunning...

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:29:34 -0500

monaux:

RSVP sketch.

How could I not reblog this? Stunning work by my favorite creative person, Karl Kwasny.

mykecycle: Pretty close.

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 17:17:00 -0500

mykecycle:

Pretty close.

"One of the most pervasive myths of startup life is that it has to be all consuming. That unless you..."

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:30:13 -0500

“One of the most pervasive myths of startup life is that it has to be all consuming. That unless you can give your business all your thoughts and hours, you don’t deserve success. You are unworthy of the startup call.”

- 37 Signals blog