Jonsi – Around Us
Jonsi is the lead for Sigur Ros. This is an acoustic version of a song from his debut record Go
Month: April 2010
The first step is creating a foundation of self-reliance: a survival dance of integrity that allows you to be in the world in a good way—a way that is psychologically sustaining, economically adequate, socially responsible, and environmentally sound. Cultivating right livelihood, as the Buddhists call it, is essential training and foundation for your soul work
The Monster In Your Head » The Gift of the Survival Dance
I’m so glad I follow @jerrycolonna to find his posts like this one.
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes – Up From Below
There are two types of startup ideas: those that grow organically out of your own life, and those that you decide, from afar, are going to be necessary to some class of users other than you. Apple was the first type. Apple happened because Steve Wozniak wanted a computer. Unlike most people who wanted computers, he could design one, so he did. And since lots of other people wanted the same thing, Apple was able to sell enough of them to get the company rolling. They still rely on this principle today, incidentally. The iPhone is the phone Steve Jobs wants
Paul Graham – Organic Startup Ideas
Quick thoughts after day 1 at Chirp
I was at Chirp, Twitter’s developer conference, yesterday in San Francisco.
First, let me say I fully recognize the tireless effort the folks at Twitter put into making such a great event. It showed in so many ways.
The team announced a number of things like some metrics and the new ad platform.
It was great to meet so many developers at once and in one place like that. The diversity of applications and creativity was inspiring. And so was the energy level.
I’m most excited about where the platform is going and all of the new capabilities of the platform, namely Places, Annotations, User Streams and @anywhere. These are all important things that will give developers a more exciting canvas to build highly differentiated applications and richer user experiences.
We have a number of portfolio companies that build stuff on the Twitter API. I’m looking forward to see what they will come up next.
I’m also looking forward to investing in new startups that have a vision for new apps based on Annotations. So drop me a line if that’s what you are doing!
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone on stage at Chirp today.
In short, “resonance” is Twitter’s quality score, its measure of whether an ad is useful (Google uses clicks on ads in a similar fashion). That Twitter is including this feature is, to my mind, crucial – it means advertisers have to add to the conversation that is Twitter, or face losing their ability to insert commercial messaging into the Twitter stream.
Ask first before rushing to judgement
Last night was like any other night.
After a day at the office I got into my car and drove home. I got on the the Mass Pike near Copley Square and 100 yards later a SUV from the left lane came across two lanes hit me on the left side and drove me into the wall of the underpass.
The driver of the SUV came out of her car and said “what the hell were you thinking?!”
That wasn’t the exact response I was expecting but I was still trying to get my bearings. So I said, “I’m not sure what you are talking about. I just entered the highway when you came across a few lanes and nailed me”.
She then went on to say how she saw a dark blue car (mine is black) cut her off and she was forced to make a sharp left turn to avoid hitting that car. By the time the police arrived, the owner of the “blue car” actually called into the state police and took responsibility for causing the accident.
After all of this was cleared up the SUV owner apologized and thanked me for staying so calm throughout the whole thing. I said no worries, glad she was okay and I was okay. She was clearly upset and shaken by the whole thing and in many ways I don’t blame her.
* * *
As the tow truck brought me and my car home I was thinking about people I know that forget to ask first and started spouting off statements as if they are fact without inquiring first. A classic example are folks that judge consumer products without trying them first. I don’t get that move at all.
Another example could be a board member that comes to a meeting with a point of view before getting the update from management. Or it comes from an employee that is annoyed with company decisions but never took the time to understand the rationale behind the decision.
So, as I looked at my broken car in the driveway this morning I am reminded a) be thankful and b) ask questions first before rushing to judgement
The Kooks – California
Heading to SF this morning for a few days. (original by Mason Jennings).