February 2009
30 posts
tracks:
Nina Simone - Rich Girl
pica:
...
“When you have a big hammer, everything looks like a nail.”
– A very smart friend, 2/26/08
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The Kindle Swindle? Really?
I am a bit puzzled by Authors Guild President Roy Blount Jr.’s op-ed piece in the NYTimes today. He is up in arms over the Kindle 2’s new text-to-speech feature, defending the Authors Guild claim that it violates authors and publishers audio rights because they are not specifically compensated for them.
While this may be technically true given current IP laws (disclaimer: I...
Brooklyn’s New Culinary Movement →
zachklein:
Despite my want to live somewhere rural, I tolerate the mess and grime of my Brooklyn neighborhood because I know that there is something special happening right now, something fleeting: the creation of a habitat that phenomally fosters creativity and innovation unlike anywhere else in the world. Of all places to live, I feel especially certain that Brooklyn right now is one of most...
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Always Act From a Position of Strength
Nielsen and LRG released their latest media consumption reports yesterday, with some very encouraging results for the traditional media business.
The money stat from the Nielsen Q4 report:
The average American watches more than 151 hours of TV per month, an all-time high.
The key conclusion drawn in the LRG study:
The impact [of online viewing] on traditional TV viewing and multi-channel...
“If you look back to 2008, [Fed chairman Ben] Bernanke was so far off it’s...”
– Legenary investor Michael Steinhardt, Washingtonpost.com, 2/22/09
“Naming things is evolutionary, it’s how the brain organizes, files,...”
– Adam Hanft, Making the Stimulus Sexy - The Daily Beast, 2/21/09
Names are too often taken for granted. The right name is crtitically important to forming the identity of any product, service, piece of legislation, etc. Choose it wisely.
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Beirut, The Concubine
Beirut’s new album,...
Are Bonuses Evil
ecsiegal:
I was having a conversation about executive pay a couple weeks ago. Everyone is out to get the big bad wall street execs. That’s fine. They overwork me anyway and technically I think now I actually work for the government. Notwithstanding, cutting executive pay, or capping it for that matter, is not as simple as people say. Granted the people I were speaking to didn’t want to hear...
“He ordered like 20 dollars worth of food and he left me a 160 dollar tip. Then...”
– Waiter referring to The_Real_Shaq, A foot and a half: Finally, A Use for Twitter, 2/19/09
Want Content? "Pick One"
rickyv:
A meeting with the super smart Avner Ronen of Boxee yesterday, combined with reading coverage of the Pirate Bay trial and the 30 Rock “McFlurrygate” has got me thinking on overdrive about the future of video content. In a conversation last night with my buddy Aaron, we came up with a simple rule called “Pick One.” While certainly not groundbreaking, it’s an easy way to think about the...
“The Brand Collective. It’s the new secret sauce.”
– Adam Hanft, Millions Downloaded vs. Billions Sold: Apple’s New Brand Collective Changes the McDonald’s Game — Huff Po, 2/18/09
Great piece from my friend Adam Hanft on the importance of open platforms, from a marketer’s perspective. I’m left dreaming of the...
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Is The Long Tail Too Long?
Martin Peers made an important and often ignored point in his piece on online advertising in yesterday’s WSJ. Weakness in the online ad market, specifically display advertising, is not simply a current demand issue. Rather, we have a fundamental oversupply problem in the market that is only going to get worse.
As web publishing continues to be democratized, the same happens to web ad...
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Chromatics, Running Up That Hill
This weekend I...
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Kindle Anticipation & Ambivalence
I ordered the new Kindle 2 this week, and I’m super psyched about it. Being on the move so much, it should make my reading life a lot easier. I’m especially excited to see how the speech to text feature works.
But one thing still gives me pause. Call me old school, but I am a serious lover of the book form factor. I simply adore books — how they look, what they represent,...
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Thinking Differently
My friend Jeremy Philips penned a timely review in today’s WSJ of Steve Knopper’s new book, Appetite for Self-Destruction. The book chronicles the precipitous decline of the once mighty music business.
Jeremy sums up the music industry’s grievous error and the subject of the book’s investigation pretty succinctly:
The music industry’s big mistake was trying to...
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The "ARoid" Lesson
Watching the recent “ARoid” situation unfold has me sick to my stomach. Not so much as a Yankee fan or even over his use of steroids. What bothers me so much is that we let him do it. Baseball let him do it.
The MLB Players Association has gotten out of hand. Rather than a body that protects players from mistreatment by powerful, wealthy team owners, they have become just the...
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The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Stay Alive
Been...
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The Importance of Great Leadership
Chris Anderson’s piece in this weekend’s WSJ, The Economics of Giving it Away, has sparked a lot of digital conversation over the past few days.
As I’ve stated previously on this blog, I fundamentally agree with Chris’ notion that in order for online businesses to create big profitable companies they will have to start charging for great (making them great is not trivial...
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"A bad job at a great place"
rickyv:
I’ve been giving this advice to graduates who ask me for help with career stuff, though Sam just put it pretty succinctly.
It’s reblog Ricky day at mokoyfman.com! This is a really important point for young folks trying to figure out what to do. Taking a lesser job at a great organization is the best way to get one’s career going in the right direction.
There are two main...
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