Lean Development

Make something that just works

Third Eye Blind

is possibly my favorite band.

Maybe it's because I've been listening to 3eb since I was a kid twelve something years ago, but I'd like to think its more than that. I think it's their sound I've gotten to love -it's so San Francisco.

I saw a 3eb show at Providence last week and they weren't quite what they use to be (new band members). I'll settle for a record I can listen to over and over again.

Social Games

are part ingenious part scam.

Social games and virtual goods are designed to click and whirrrr consumer behavior out of us. My appreciation for them is awe because they are designed right down to its core essence -pushing our behavioral buttons. Those are some lean digital bits being pushed back and forth to make a business out of.

Maybe I'll take back what I said about social games being a scam. Games do provide some value.

Focus

Every so often I find myself a victim of not being focused enough.

I do, however, think I am better at it than some of my peers. I've come to notice lately a few friends having trouble with career focus. One year is this, next year is that. It's like playing in the sand. I say go lead a path you want to live.

Having a long-term perspective of focus is so important.

El Ten Eleven

Dammit I missed them last week at the Middle East.

Ebay

has now officially been milked dry by its executives. With such ridiculous fees, sellers no longer have much or any incentive to sell on their site. Somehow somewhere Ebay executives decided it deserves a bigger cut on each transaction. I think they hired too many MBAs.

The cost of posting something online is near-free, I anticipate Ebay will be upset by a startup in the future. The web has now matured to a point where we now have dinosaurs like Ebay, AOL, and Yahoo on the verge of extinction.

living dreams

The critics despise
I've never wondered out here
But we ride and we ride
Its two safe sides
You don't want to be caught in line
There is something out here
I can touch it some days
My idols tell me its true
Dues to pay, one life to live
Don't hold back don't save

The Airbourne Toxic Event

Be who you want to Be

I think people too often get dragged up with the rest of life and forget to aspire to their dreams. After all, we only live once. The missed opportunity cost of not chasing after our end-goals is too costly.

We're all going to die someday anyways. I would rather die trying.

13wins is in the deadpool

The news ain't all that bad though. The soul of 13wins has been kept alive and is still burning bright. I've taken many lessons from it, and have been working on a new project over the past 2 months.

For a long time, I've always felt "stealth startups" were ridiculous. As founder, you should always be talking about your project and preaching it to everyone you see -its the whole point.

But this time around, I'm going to keep this new project close to me until it's "ready".

Cool

PIXELS by PATRICK JEAN.

MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

Top 25 Social Games April 2010

Dark Side of the Moon in 8bit

While its still fresh on my mind iPad Review

The iPad is truly a media consumption device.


It is superb for books, videos, and games. It is only mediocre for email and web browsing. The reason is because it's too difficult to type while holding it up with your hand. In fact, I find the device too heavy to hold up for a period of time altogether (both one hand and two hands).

I've been an Android user for the past year and I think some of the advantages of that operating system have really stuck with me. Hello? Running apps in the background? I can't multitask and do IM on the iPad. No multitasking on a smartphone is fine, but probably not for a tablet.

All the current iPad apps also suck. Though, they will probably improve significantly over the next half year.

All in all, the iPad is not for me. I give it 5.5/10 today, the potential to move up to 8-9/10 in a year or two is very possible.

THESIS: Management Innovations at Outstanding Information Technology Companies and Implications for China

ABSTRACT

Over the past few decades, information technology has fundamentally changed the way we work as a society. Managers often forget that management itself also needs to change along with our evolving society. It is an opportunity, particularly, overlooked by manager’s in China amidst rapid industrialization and the birth of a new generation of Chinese with transformed values. In this thesis, we will analyze five companies: Google, Zappos, Netflix, Alibaba, and W.L Gore for their recent successes in management innovation. Our goal is to distill a core set of principles we can learn from to recommend to venture entrepreneurs and managers looking to operate in China.

If you are bothered to read the entire thesis

YES! My thesis is done!

Desktop Screenshot April 2nd 2010

I haven't forgotten about my 1 2 post about starting a desktop screenshot art revolution (Is this Art?).

Anybody else interested in this contact me; I will remind you to save and send me a copy of your screenshot. One day we will hold an art exhibition with these pieces.

OS Change :)

Photoshop CS5

It wasn't so long since I was talking about CS4. But look at this!! Image processing for the win.

Outsource Brad

I started a new blog a few weeks ago. It still needs work (as usual), but its a way of hedging my entrepreneur bet a little bit.

Outsource Brad

I don't have the time to keep it "alive" right now. But I figured I'd get it up and out there earlier so it will be indexed by web crawlers (and on my way to building my SEO). The plan is to dedicate a few hours to it every week once I graduate.

It's an interesting proposition. I've never written a "professional blog" for "work". And as many of you know, it does take real dedication to keep writing and writing. The majority of blogs out there become "stale" after the first few posts.

not reflection of my opinion

i just find the expression hilarious

Neon Trees - Habits

this is all we need in the future

1. Smartphone

2. Tablet

3. Cloud Computing

Interesting Online Business Models of 2010

1. Woot - This online retailer takes the unique approach of only selling a single product each day. Around each daily product is a dedicated conversation stream, live commentary and a detailed description. By focusing on a single product, not only do they add a layer of conversation and description to the product, but they also give their users the perception that each daily deal is special and only available for a limited time. This focus allows them to add urgency to their site and convert browsers to buyers quickly. While you may not be able to convert your entire business to just selling one product at a time, this model may be the next evolution of the long-standing "deal of the day" model that many businesses have used at one time or another in the past.

2. Groupon - How much would you lower your standard prices if I could guarantee you 100 customers? Or how about 1,000? The premise behind Groupon is to offer customers "collective buying power" - which essentially means that you can offer a great deal and it will only kick in if a set number of consumers take you up on it. Go on the site and you will see deals sorted by region and many of them have been redeemed by thousands of people. What Groupon shows you is that sometimes you CAN actually count on volume to compensate for lowering your prices. The nicest thing about the site is that instead of trying to recreate this model on your own site, you can add a special offer for your business to Groupon.

3. Hotwire - By now most people are familiar with the new auction based pricing model that Priceline introduced into the travel industry. Letting consumers set the price for what they are willing to pay was a revolution in the travel industry at the time when Priceline was introduced. Hotwire used the slightly adapted model of offering exact prices, but not letting you know the details of what you booked until after you pay. If you have your own eretail site, this model can be a good way to get rid of excess inventory in a different and more fun way.

4. Blippy - If you don't live your life in social media, the idea behind Blippy will likely confuse you. It is a social site that lets people automatically share the latest things they have purchased (and how much they paid for them) by linking the site to a single credit card. This level of transparency and sharing may seem crazy to many people, but the site represents a social experiment that points to an interesting opportunity for businesses whose customers may be used to sharing every small detail of their lives. It may be an outlier in this list of business models as they admittedly don’t have a revenue model for the site as yet – but the shift in what people are willing to share online is the real trend worth watching.

5. Dubli - This site offers some of the most creative pricing models you can find online - and models that have not yet been duplicated across many others sites. The first is what they call a "reverse auction" where products have a starting price and you use credits that you purchase on the site to reveal the current price. Each time a member of the site uses a credit to reveal the price, the price goes lower until someone decides to make the purchase. The second model is based on a "unique price auction" which means you need to have the lowest bid that no one else chooses to have in order to win.

- Rohit Bhargava. Author, Influential Marketing

interesting movie trailers