February 2012
4 posts
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Born or Raised In the U.S., Why Are Entrepreneurs... →
It’s funny, the story really doesn’t address the question with a well defined answer but it doesn’t really matter. The beauty of the story is the amount of hustle by the Korean-Americans & internationally minded Korean nationals trying to reconquer the old-school Chaebol powered Korea.
If it means sleeping on a futon next to your desk for a year to win then so be it....
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“SOME parents give their children cakes. A few give them cake shops. The hot...”
– Bakers and chaebol in South Korea: Let them eat cake | The Economist
This in a nutshell defines Korea’s chaebol problem.
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“The Asian woman speaking in this video would be no different than him having a...”
– — The Rev. Charles Williams II of Detroit’s King Solomon Baptist church
Pete Hoekstra Ad Draws More Criticism, Called ‘Really, Really Dumb’
Pretty much dead on.
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Facebook Files for an I.P.O. - NYTimes.com →
And a new era begins. The publicly traded social networking company.
January 2012
4 posts
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How Samuel Palmisano of I.B.M. Stayed a Step Ahead... →
IBM is at an entirely different level than what people would assume. Totally closer to an Apple or Amazon than a Microsoft or Yahoo.
4 reasons:
This column is a glimpse of the thinking behind some of the major steps I.B.M. has taken under Mr. Palmisano’s leadership, based on two recent interviews with him.
He says his guiding framework boils down to four questions:
• “Why would someone...
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The Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful... →
Pretty much ego, hubris, vanity, hype & the lack of imagination.
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The Downside of Obvious
It occurs to me at the beginning of 2012 that the most obvious business decisions in 2011 are the decisions that needed the most scrutiny and thoughtful analysis. Coming up with a disruptive web product or a business idea can’t be obvious nor can it be simple; they should be both brutally ridiculed and as Fred Wilson notes, mocked and misunderstood.
My lesson from 2011 is the obvious...
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December 2011
2 posts
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“Shift the dynamic of business away from gaming the expectations market and back...”
– The Dumbest Idea In The World: Maximizing Shareholder Value - Forbes
A nice goal for everyone in 2012.
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WatchThe Economist’s Special Report on Games. Read the whole thing but here are some why you should read it highlights:
Gaming is a $50+ billion industry
It’s filled with tech people
They’ve already figured out what everyone else hasn’t
November 2011
4 posts
2 tags
6 Things Jeff Bezos Knew Back in 1997 That Made... →
Total gems. All of them.
In my opinion, with Jobs now gone, Bezos is the best CEO in the world. How he’s built the company into an e-commerce juggernaut over the last 15 years is utterly amazing — especially when you consider he was in his early 30s and an ex-quant from D.E. Shaw when he moved out to Seattle and started the company.
Couldn’t agree more.
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Why is so much of Silicon Valley obsessed with... →
Some elegant answers but this part nails it:
1. People’s lives are improved by fun apps and games, in the same way they are by movies, music, food, and books. We don’t usually ask why people waste time in those fields. Kirsten Dunst is never asked why she makes movies instead of working on gene therapy. Nor do we suggest that we stop making movies because we already have plenty of...
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Apple's Approach to Advertising
I thought it could best be summed up with these two articles. Read both full articles but for the lazy:
Daring Fireball: The Just-Buy-Our-Devices Model
I see Apple “monetizing” Siri simply as a way to sell more devices — more iPhones now, more iPads (and who knows, maybe Macs?) in the future. Siri could be the interface to future products, like tiny little Nano-sized devices, or home...
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Forget Gen Y, just call us Gen Mobile →
VentureBeat
This has a nice ring to it doesn’t it?
October 2011
4 posts
1 tag
Luck Is Just the Spark for Business Giants -... →
“Luck favors the persistent, but you can persist only if you survive.”
Jim Collins
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“Again, it’s important to stress that Amazon’s gadget model is the opposite of...”
– Why Amazon Is Happy to Burn Money on the Kindle Fire - Peter Kafka - Media - AllThingsD
This is the way to be bold.
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“Over the last month 66,560,159 people have played the Sims Social on Facebook....”
– Sims Social Is an Astonishing Success on Facebook - NYTimes.com
This is pretty much the future.
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Obsession
I’ve obsessively followed Apple since I first got to play with the Macintosh LC II at Old Trail with Mac OS 7 in 1992. I was 9 years old.
Since then, I’ve had 16 iPhones (some broke, not my fault), Dells, built my own PCs, bought the iBook, 12” Powerbook, the Mac G4 Cube and now I’m writing this on the MacBook 11” Air which I would argue to be the single greatest...
September 2011
2 posts
3 tags
Moneyball for tech startups – SplatF →
And what it comes down to, from the mouth of Fred Wilson no less:
“We have not been able to quantify it. We haven’t even tried. Although I am sure someone could do it and they might be very successful with it.
To us, the ideal founding team is one supremely talented product oriented founder and one, two, or three strong developers, and nothing else. The supremely talented product oriented...
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“Out of 100 people, 1% will create the content, 10% will curate the content, and...”
– A VC: The Logged Out User (continued)
Positively perfect.
August 2011
6 posts
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“But that’s the nature of unforeseeable growth: you cannot foresee what will...”
– HP’s decade-long departure | asymco
Iterate and die. Invent to die another day.
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Dunkin' Donuts Opens Shop in Sims' Universe -... →
For the next six months, the coffee and pastries sold by Dunkin’ Donuts will be featured in the Sims Social Facebook game to be introduced on facebook.com by Electronic Arts. Financial terms of the deal are not being disclosed.
…
The Dunkin’ Donuts agency, Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos in Boston, was the creative steward of the Sims Social in-game integration as well as handling...
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Kevin Systrom, Instagram - Mike Krieger, Instagram... →
Fantastic talk.
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Ask HN: What do you do on the weekends? →
Pick your side.
July 2011
6 posts
1 tag
A VC: 30/10/10 →
30% of the registered users or number of downloads (if its a mobile app) will use the service each month
10% of the registered users or number of downloads (if its a mobile app) will use the service each day
the max number of concurrent users of a real-time service will be 10% of the number of daily users
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Computing as we've known it is over. (Reminder...
Just a quick thought.
Asymco has a nice writeup inspired by Apple’s new iPad ad that talks about skyrocketing iPad sales but the ad from Apple really nails the beginning of the end for computing as we’ve known it.
There are no tech specs, no MHz, no RAM. It’s entirely about what people want to do with the things they buy. This keyboard for example, as my hands lumber across...
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“The “dopamine squirt” they get from receiving messages…”
– Schumpeter: Too much information | The Economist
A bit cynical but it’s at least from academia. Of course, this is also the crux of social media.
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“Razorfish’s Paul Gelb: Mobile Ad Spend Will Overtake TV”
– Mobile Ad Spend Will Overtake TV, Says Razorfish’s Gelb at IAB Conference | Adweek
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“The luckiest people in the business world are those who hold all three elements...”
– Why Some People Have All the Luck - Anthony Tjan - Harvard Business Review
Let’s make our own luck.
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A VC: Why I'm Rooting For Google+ →
I’m not necessarily rooting for Google+ but I would agree there are some large gaps in the market for social networks.
June 2011
4 posts
1 tag
“Several years ago, Hyundai made no secret that it hoped to become the...”
– Once a Global Also-Ran, Hyundai Zooms Forward - WSJ.com
What does being #1 mean any more?
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“We are stubborn on vision. We are flexible on details…. We don’t give up on...”
– Jeff Bezos
Amazon ‘willing to be misunderstood for long periods of time’ - GeekWire
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“Nintendo and Apple stand alone at the top in finding new ways for consumer...”
– Nintendo Unveils Its Video Game Successor to the Wii - NYTimes.com
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Working With Lady Gaga to Bridge Music and... →
Behind Lady Gaga Inc. The marketing machine powered by her monsters is brilliant.
May 2011
2 posts
1 tag
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I believe we're living in one of the most...
Nice essay for those who believe.
The Smartphone is the Computer | brian s hall
April 2011
6 posts
3 tags
Watch
This is pretty much how magazines have been put together for the past 20 years. Pagemaker/Indesign, proofing, moving stuff around, printing, proofing, re-designing, proofing again and printing until the deadline drops.
What will it look like to layout the same content but for an iPad using everything that an iPad offers on a weekly basis? I’m convinced no one has invented this process...
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“Every media company should be afraid of Flipboard.”
– Flipboard: Threat and Opportunity | Monday Note
Nailed it.
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“I’m looking for somebody who has a positive attitude and is confident...”
– David Kelley on Designing Curious Employees | Fast Company
Pretty much the crux of the information economy. For the movers and the shakers it’s achieving the ideal balance isn’t it?
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WatchI like where EA is at and I like where EA is going. This is some nice leadership from EA’s CEO John Riccitiello.
March 2011
6 posts
3 tags
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How Google Is Evolving Into a Media Company -... →
A nicely written article that states the obvious once the facts are laid on the table. I’d say it says a lot about the lack of direction at Google and the nebulous (Microsoft like) approach to solving no inherent problem whatsoever.
That’s a ton of money made from the same thing that made money 10 years ago. And that’s a problem.
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