May 2012
7 posts
2 tags
A Short Collection of 2012 Commencement Speeches
Commencement speeches are something I’ve always enjoyed. Since many schools just went through a cycle of them, here are a few from Peter King’s MMQB column on May 21st, 2012:
Dom Capers, Green Bay defensive coordinator, University of Mount Union (Ohio)
It’s been 40 years since I was sitting out there, like you, wondering what was next in my life. … Last weekend, we held...
The Social Media Landscape
SOCIAL LUMAscape
View more presentations from Terence Kawaja
1 tag
Principles of User Interface Design →
Great read about what makes for good design.
1 tag
1 tag
10 Mistakes First Time Entrepreneurs Make
View more presentations from Anders Fredriksson
1 tag
1 tag
2 tags
“And there will be failures. Andrew, there will be times during practice when you...”
– Nate Jackson’s letter to this year’s top NFL draft picks. (via brycedotvc)
April 2012
3 posts
1 tag
Lumia 900, a Beautiful Phone From Nokia and... →
The smartest thing Microsoft & Nokia are doing is that they’re not aiming to be better than the iPhone, just different.
The Lumia 900’s form factor is different: the bulging glass; the casing. Microsoft’s Metro interface is different: the flipable tiles; the live social feeds.
You can’t beat Apple’s iPhone by trying to be better than them at their own game....
March 2012
5 posts
1 tag
1 tag
1 tag
2 tags
1 tag
February 2012
9 posts
1 tag
30 Clever Logos With Hidden Messages →
Very creative. Definitely saw a few that I didn’t know about.
1 tag
Establish a Mood with Typography →
Some great tips and examples in this one.
3 tags
2 tags
David Ogilvy's Internal Memo: “How to Write”
The better you write, the higher you go in Ogilvy & Mather. People who think well, write well. Woolly minded people write woolly memos, woolly letters and woolly speeches. Good writing is not a natural gift. You have to learn to write well.
Here are 10 hints:
Read the Roman-Raphaelson book on writing. Read it three times.
Write the way you talk. Naturally.
Use short words, short sentences...
1 tag
And Then, Suddenly, It Works →
parislemon:
Chris Dixon:
An idea getting tried over and over tends to be a positive signal (which is one reason that competition is overrated). It’s very easy when you spend lots of time around startups to get cynical. You could tweet and blog predictions that every new startup will fail and how the ideas are derivative and you’d be right 95% of the time. The hard part – and what matters for...
1 tag
“Amazon clearly views products like the Kindle Fire as a loss-leader to keep...”
– “Think Profit.” | TechCrunch
2 tags
It's Tough to Compete with Simple
lilly:
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, has been racing around my...
January 2012
7 posts
1 tag
15 things successful CEOs want you to know
Daniel Ek, CEO, Spotify
Figure out what the top five most important stuff is, focus relentlessly on that and keep iterating. Less is more.
Dennis Crowley, CEO, FourSquare
Don’t let people tell you your ideas won’t work. If you have a hunch that something will work, go build it. Ignore the haters.
Sarah Prevette, Founder, Sprouter
Just do it. Get it out there, absorb the feedback, adjust...
2 tags
2 tags
2 tags
“We have a greater capacity to change the world today than the kings and...”
– Do Great Things | TechCrunch
2 tags
1 tag
History of the Yelp Logo [pic]
[Via Jason Putorti]
1 tag
“I hate losing. I hate it even more than I love winning. And there’s a...”
– Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) in Moneyball
December 2011
16 posts
2 tags
Dear Mitt, Bazinga! -Sincerely, Barack
Some political zingers are gold. Here’s a clever one from the Obama team:
Mitt Romney’s son thinks President Obama should release his birth certificate. Guess he doesn’t have one of our mugs? OFA.BO/N13uCf
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) December 30, 2011
With the link leading to…
Genius! And Bazinga!
1 tag
“SOPA and PIPA are the effective equivalent of blowing up every road, bridge, and...”
– What is SOPA and how does it work? The Stop Online Piracy Act explained | The Verge
The explanation that’s made most sense to me so far… “SOPA for Dummies”, if you will.
2 tags
Want to Solve ER Overload? Give People Money...
Ran into an interesting post today re: Emergency Room overload
Emergency departments nationwide are being overwhelmed by the non-emergent, and doctors in general are asked to treat what doesn’t need treatment…
At a time when we have an unprecedented obsession with health – Dr. Oz, The Doctors, Oprah and a host of daytime talk shows make the smallest issues seem like apocalyptic pandemics –...
3 tags
WatchIf you’re interested in “branding,” this is an excellent (x10) video on how to think about it.
freendy:
Beautiful and very simple session about brand by Joe Bezdek, Co-Founder of FatPencil and DivX
3 tags
What the World’s Biggest Websites Looked Like at... →
2 tags
How bad do you want it?
I don’t usually follow the ‘inspirational talk/books’ craze, but this is one of the better ones I’ve seen. Watch it. It will wake you up.
1 tag
If it's not a hit, switch!
1 tag
12 Incredible Lessons for Entrepreneurs from Bill...
Bill Gross is a monster entrepreneur who has founded over 100 companies, a number of them worth billions of dollars.
Here are some lessons he passed on at Le Web:
1. Market power rules: You are subject to market forces. This is your context. If you want to be successful, look for markets that are taking off. Tap markets already taking off and it will be “like running a race with wind at your...
1 tag
“If you owe the bank $100, that’s your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million,...”
– John Paul Getty (via andyswan)
2 tags
Twitter Stole Ontario's Tagline! #YoursToDiscover
Twitter just launched a great new interface today — everything looks faster and simpler. You can find a great video of it here and on http://fly.twitter.com/
If you’re watching the video, you’ll notice the tagline at the end: “Yours to discover.”
Feels like home to me :)
1 tag
7 Successful Tech Pivots: The Reason to 'Just...
“Just start” is one of the best pieces of advice I’ve received, and one I repeat often to aspiring entrepreneurs.
In most cases, the idea that one starts with won’t be the same one they succeed with; and the sooner you start, the sooner you can iterate and find the idea that sticks.
Here are 7 successful startups that started off by doing something different, then turned...
1 tag
Competition? Get your blinders on and start...
andyswan:
That’s Secretariat winning the Belmont. Notice the blinders….notice the eyes. Forward.
With a startup, you shouldn’t have competition.
You should be filling an unserved niche…and then working to EXPAND that niche, with you as its dominant player.
Once you’ve established that you are truly entering an untapped or non-existant niche, the word “competition” is meaningless to you.
...
2 tags
Nostradamus' Last Words [Spoiler: He was right]
(Source: Last Words of 20 Extremely Influential People)
1 tag
An Infographic About [Cliche'd] Infographics
Not as cool as a coffee table book about coffee tables, but still pretty #meta
(Source: Fast Company)
1 tag
My Kind of House
It would be inefficient to recreate the wheel
“Winning is important but continuing to play is more important than that. And...”
– Seth Godin: Four stages of the game
November 2011
22 posts
1 tag
TIME Magazine Covers: U.S. vs Rest of the World
Sometimes pictures say more than a thousand words. This collection is all we need to illustrate just how distorted our view might be compared to the rest of the world’s.
(via I Love Charts)
1 tag
“What’s the one-word description of your business? That’s right: just...”
– Forget Your Elevator Pitch — What’s Your Dumbwaiter Pitch? - Umair Haque - Harvard Business Review
saif:
Interesting exercise to really hone in on your value proposition. At first attempt, I’d say Visibli’s one-word is: understanding. Understanding your social content;...
