Mike Lewis

I listened to this podcast (This Week in Venture Capital) about a company focusing on organizing a students debt and loans. More than the company, the stats really stuck out for me.  Here they some and what they mean:

Student debt is HUGE. Student debt over last 10 years has doubled to a trillion dollars.  Here’ the breakdown:

People can’t get jobs still. 50% of people graduating from University are unemployed or underemployed

It’s not just poor, it’s a lot of people. 2/3 of all students graduating in 2008 took on debt

It’s a problem that isn’t being solved. Of the 2008 grads that took on debt only 22% of these are current (aka up to speed on their payments)
It’s not just young people anymore. 34% of all outstanding debt in US is held by people 40 years or older

This is fundamental problem in America and it’s impacting everyone at all ages and areas.  I feel like it should get great attention and be a bigger part of the “what’s wrong with America” conversation.

Luckily, the changes in the education system will cause more schools with more affordable opportunities to emerge.  Kahn Academy U can’t come fast enough apparently.

I’m just happy that someone is keeping track of this.  However, i wish it wasn’t money raised but revenues or net revenue or something like that. I know it’s harder to capture, but it sends a better message. 

The Vikings announced a while ago that they would build a new stadium, but just this week they revealed what it’d look like – and whoa is it beautiful.   The new stadium will be one of the advanced, state-of-the-art facilities in the world.  Some highlights: 

Clear is the new retractable: 
There is no retractable roof, but it will be made entirely of cutting edge materials and glass that will make the roof and the sides clear. There will also be five clear pivoting doors that will be the largest in the world of their kind:

Versatility
This will be the most versatile sports facility in the US, capable of hosting Final Fours, World Cup or MLS soccer, concerts, baseball, or Super Bowls. It will seat 65,000, expandable to 73,000 for the Super Bowl.

Total Baller
This is probably the coolest stadium I’ve ever seen. The innovation with the largest pivoting glass doors in the world, to the largest clear roof in the world and the first on a stadium in the nation, to the bowl that is level with the street as you walk in, to the modern lines and glass ceiling just combines well and works

Totally awesome.

About 10 months ago, I watched this video on Kickstarter and was really intrigued about the thought of having a watch send me updates from my iPhone.

I put some money down in May 2012 and waited.  And waited. And waited.  It just so happens that I wasn’t the only one who wanted this.  The guys at Pebble raised over $10 million for their watch.  They then got started mass producing the watches which proved to be harder than they thought.  That said, last month I finally received my watch – almost 11 months after I backed the project. 

What do I think?  Well, it’s pretty fun to get text messages to your watch so you don’t have to pick up your phone each time you hear a buzz.  It’s much more convenient to just glance at your watch.  On the other hand, I don’t care too much for the custom watch faces.  They are cool but lose their novelty in about 10 minutes.  They are getting more apps ready to work with it but at the moment the watch doesn’t do much other than send me texts and tell the time.  Also, because of the bluetooth connection, it sucks battery life down on your phone.  I found that i had to charge both the watch and the phone all the time which was pretty inconvenient.  I read that Runkeeper integration just launched, so i’ll be checking that out and it might make the watch a must-have for a run, (but i doubt it because i’ll already be looking at my phone for tunes). 

Apple, Google and others have been rumored of building a watch – and Sony just made one (see image below).  I’m a huge fan of wearable computing, but after playing with the Pebble for a while, I think that it’d be a big mistake.  These devices aren’t game-changing the way that the iPhone, iPad or even Google Glass is.  They are just an extension of your phone’s connectivity.   Don’t do it guys.  It’s just not worth it.  I could see regular watch makers building in connectivity to iPhone and Android’s in the future.  That seems to make more sense. 

I got this email from a friend of mine who works in the newspaper business.  It’s tough times for those folk and it’s only going to get worse. I thought his email was a good look at what’s actually happening.  Here it is:

I can now check off “fired” from my bucket list. That’s right, after four years as a features reporter at the New York Daily News, I have been canned. No surprise. It was a long time in the making. Five months, to be exact. But the swiftness and finality of the act still threw me for a loop.The day after my arch-nemesis – a fashion editor whose idea of a good article is “50 purses under $50″ – became my fifth managing editor, she called me into a side office and told me, “This isn’t working out. We’re terminating your employment here effective immediately.”

I wanted to tell her she was an awful manager, a poor editor and a vile individual. But all I said was, “OK,” before my buddy, the janitor, apologetically led me out of the building and left me standing on Sixth Ave. No exit interview. No parting gift. Not even a shot of whiskey.

I couldn’t help but try to do the math. 723 articles, 63 celebrity interviews, 106 Best of New York columns, three editor-in-chiefs, five managing editors and countless sleepless nights added up to nothing more than standing on Avenue of the Americas with a handful of crumpled papers, two half-filled legal pads and a cup of cold coffee.

So I started walking. I guess I was looking for a bar, but before I could find one (it’s tougher than you think to find a good bar in midtown) I walked pastValducci’s Pizza Truck on 51st and 5th Ave. And right there on the side of the truck was a huge, laminated copy of an article I wrote that named Valducci’s as one of the best Sicilian slices in New York.

The math suddenly became much clearer. My articles weren’t about lifting my spirits, but those of the people I wrote about. Sure, my articles were no longer valued by my editor at the newspaper, who didn’t care about a pizza pies unless Lindsay Lohan threw them up, but it certainly meant a lot to small business owners like the Vallerio family of Staten Island, who have been slinging pies since 1999. I didn’t let down the newspaper. The newspaper let down the readers. Honestly, would you rather discover the best place in NYC to find a Sicilian slice or read about how Britney Spears forgot to wear underwear and showed the world her Sicilian slice?

Anyway, I think the lesson here is that sometimes you go looking for a drink but instead find some perspective. I’ll be okay. The newspaper, well, that’s a different story. In the meantime, if you hear of a gig for a decent writer, shoot me a line.

The good news is that companies are hiring up ex-journalists like hot cakes to help run their content marketing departments so folks like this won’t be on the street for long. 

I loved Roger Ebert.  Not just his writings, but everything he did as a journalist and movie lover.  I read his reviews, his books, his twitter stream and his newsletter.  If I watched a film and loved it, i would then immediately read Ebert’s review to see if he loved it too.  He had a great way of thinking about  a film and describing why it worked and why it didn’t that went beyond his “thumbs up” rating. Each review was more essay than review and that gave us a glimpse into the mind of Ebert as much as it did the quality of the film.  

I always loved this quote from Ebert that he wrote in his book where he talks about the tediousness of watching movies every day and the shift to DVD’s and Video-On-Demand: 

What I miss though, is the wonder.  People my age can remember walking into a movie palace where the ceiling was far overhead, and balconies and mezzanines reached away into the shadows.  We remember the sound of a thousand people laughing at once.  And screens the size of billboards, so every seat in the house was a good seat.  “I lost it at the movies,” Pauline Kael said, and we all knew just what she meant. 

When you go to the movies every day, it sometimes seems as if the movies are more mediocre than ever, more craven and cowardly, more skillfully manufactured to pander to the lowest tastes instead of educating them.  Then you see something absolutely miraculous, and on your way out you look distracted, as if you had just experienced some kind of a vision. 

That is what we all love about movies.  I know that feeling of walking out of a theater after just having my socks knocked off.  That happened to me in a New Hampshire theater for “Saving Private Ryan” or as a teenager with “Pulp Fiction.”  That feeling of being blown away is just incredible and what sustained Ebert.

His passing left a big hole in the film world for me.  There are great critics like AO Scott, but I don’t know anyone else who can make me see a film differently or appreciate a film the way Ebert did.  He will be greatly missed.

Finally, I ask you, my readers, do you know of anyone who I should turn to now? 

My mom sent over this video over the weekend and it is great.  You’ve probably seen it.  If not, it’s a good reminder that sometimes you need to stop what you’re doing and remember to have a little fun every now and again.

If you were given 1% of a company, which one would you take between Quora and Foursquare?

I asked this question two years ago (in 2011) and was pro-foursquare. I then re-asked a year ago when Foursquare was really crushing it and was the darling of the industry. Now, reports have come out that they were unable to raise another round at a higher valuation, were forced to do convertible debt, and only did $2 million in revenue last year.  So, the shine is rubbing off.  Would I still choose them over Quora?  The answer is ‘yes’ although it has less to do with Foursquare and more to do with Quora.

Lately, i’ve become really down on anything advertising-supported.  Basically, i think that business model is in the tanks and is only going to get worse.  Nobody clicks on ads on the web and the rates are in constant decline.  If you’re planning on building a business around it, you better have massive scale – and even then you’d be better off selling something else.

Foursquare could be the next Yelp, and while that’s a disappointment for some, I see that a rosier future than where Quora is headed.  Although i have to say that the margin is much smaller today than it was 1 and 2 years ago when we last did this poll.

I’m a huge fan of self-driving cars.  Google’s effort to make a car that drives itself is pretty awesome. If you have read about them, read the Wired article here.  Just think of all the time and productivity you would earn if you could have a car drive you everywhere.  For all the minutes you’re in a car, you could now be doing something else.  It’ll be found time.  It’s glorious.

Because of my enthusiasm, I made a bet a few weeks ago here at work.  I’m betting that a self-driving car will be available for me to purchase before 3/1/2023.

Some details:

• The car has to be on the road and legal to drive somewhere in USA
• It must cost under $150k

I’m taking the under for $200 against Keith.

As if journalists weren’t having a tough time.  Today’s cover of the New York Times is further proof that the cost-structure of journalism is crumbling.  The cover is an image of Alex Rodriquez and the photo was done from an iPhone and the Instagram app. 

Back in the day, you used to have to develop your own photos.  Then came digital photography and with that you needed to have some photoshop skills to make the photo look really professional. Now Instagram handles it all, and it looks great.  Obviously, an iPhone can’t handle a lot of circumstances, but now lots of people have the skills needed to make beautiful shots that are worthy of the cover of a newspaper. 

Chuck Klosterman has a great phrase about Billy Joel. He says that on a scale of white to black, where white is the lamest someone could be and where black is the coolest person in the world, Billy Joel is orange. He’s cool the way your grandpa is cool. That’s why this clip is so awesome.

Here’s a clip of Billy Joel and Vanderville University taking a request from a young kid in the crowd. He could’ve said no. Could have said that he just didn’t have time. But he indulges the kids. And he really let it go. Listen to the crowd when he puts his sunglasses on – you can see the Old Billy come alive. He’s up for the challenge.  

I love Billy Joel. I was have. I recently listened to the podcast about him where he talked with Alec Baldwin about his career.

I was wondering why Billy had been married three times. He’d always nailed everything – his music, his image, he always did everything the way you wanted to. Why did he fail so miserably at his relationships?  He talks about how when he’s in the middle of an album he can’t turn “it” off. He thinks about every chord and lyric of every song, every second of the day, and he thinks you have to be like that because it’s art and he must get it right. But. As a result his relationships have all suffered and he was never really be there for other people.

Anyway these are two great clips. Definitely watch the video if you have a few minutes. If you have a little bit longer them listen to the podcasts it’s a great one too.

I also like what the music writer/pundit Lefsetz said about the clip: 

Billy does these college shows. Where he tells his story. Can’t make as much money as he does in an arena, but it’s much more fulfilling, it’s different. And at this small show, he knocks it so far out of the park you become a fan, even if you weren’t one before.

Billy Joel… Wasn’t he supposed to be a joke?

Don’t pay attention to the press. Hang around long enough and you outlive the critics. Don’t forget Led Zeppelin was panned by “Rolling Stone.” And we can’t even remember who wrote the review.

College kids are not supposed to care, they’re not supposed to know. But listen to them ooh and ahh in this clip. That’s what’s great about being young, the moment is the most important. It’s all about the now. Which is why we revere the youth, they’re untainted by experience, they don’t know what they don’t know, and they can let go.

Normally, “New York State Of Mind” is about poignancy. But in this case, it’s like being at Yankee Stadium, Billy is truly playing to the last row, and he has each and every person in the palm of his hand.

And he does Sinatra and acknowledges it.

And the longer he goes on, the more you realize that Elton gets all the accolades, but his old piano-dueling partner is the one who’s still got the pipes. You realize that Billy is an American, one of us.

Last week i said the words about Hunter, 

The little guy sleeps!  Yes, he seems to be good at his sleeping. He doesn’t like going to sleep but once he’s there he crushes it from 6-8pm to 6am.  It’s a beautiful thing. 

I spoke WAY too early.  Since then the little guy has been regularly waking up at 3am and crying his face off until we feed him.  Um, yeah, that’s not so fun.  My bad, internet gods, i promise not to do it again. 

Ok people, my sister’s post inspired me. Here are my current thoughts about the whole baby situation.

The little guy sleeps!  Yes, he seems to be good at his sleeping. He doesn’t like going to sleep but once he’s there he crushes it from 6-8pm to 6am.  It’s a beautiful thing. 

Ever since i was 18, i’ve become really good at not hanging out at my house. I loved to meet people for drinks, go to concerts, parties, dinners, etc.. I used to never go home. I never cooked.  Seriously.  When Diane moved into my apartment in LA, i still had the shrinkwrap casing on my oven. I had literally never used it.  Why do i mention all this?  Well, the little guy goes down every night at 6pm and once that happens we are tethered to our home. Every night. We have to be there.  And while it’s really great that the little guy sleeps, it’s really weird to have to be inside our home all night every night.  I have not developed my hang-out-at-home skills. Any suggestions?  

My commute sucks. It’s never really bothered me before but that’s because i was leaving at 7 or 8pm and could cruise sans traffic.  Now that the little guy goes down early, i’m trying to get home early and have a new appreciation for why rush hour exists. There went 1-2 hours of my life every day. 

I have a new respect for Pixar movies.  We just watched Finding Nemo last night and now i’ve seen the Madagascar film a few more times.  Those are legit films. 

My baby is just getting cuter.  He’s non-stop smiles.  It’s pretty awesome. 

And hanging out with Uncle Mckenzie. 

What’s the future of tv network or service?  It’s probably a subscription service that:

1. Has exclusive content
2. Is available on all the devices you own (TV set, mobile devices, iPad, etc.)
3. Has a library of great content – both old television shows and movies
4. Offers on-demand viewing of all it

Who’s leading the effort here? It seems to be HBO and Netflix.  Netflix is great for #2, #3, #4 whereas HBO is great for #1 and #3.  It seems to be a race for HBO to get on more devices and for Netflix to get more exclusive shows. 

Diane and I just watched the entire season of House of Cards and loved it.  We plowed through all 13 episodes in two weeks.  That’s how we watch most shows (on-demand) and not in HBO’s weekly format.  It’s only a matter of time before they all go that way. 

For me, I’m putting my money on Netflix.  First off, because it’s not part of Time Warner which seems to be stuck in the ways of the past.  Second, because Netflix has been pretty aggressive on all fronts and their winning here seems more likely than HBO figuring out the web and devices. 

Thoughts?

I had the pleasure of working closely with Steve Case the Revolution gang back in the Qloud days.  I can tell you first-hand that he is the real deal. He made an appearance yesterday in the Senate and spoke about immigration.  Here are some of his statements.  All pretty interesting: 

1. “Today, 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies in the United States were started by immigrants or the children of immigrants, employing 10 million people across the globe and doing $4 trillion in revenue. Of the 10 most valuable brands globally, seven of them come from American companies founded by immigrants or their children. In the past 15 years, immigrants founded one quarter of U.S. venture-backed public companies.” [Source]

2. “Statistics show that immigrants are almost twice as likely as US-born workers to start a  company. Between 1995 and 2005, half of Silicon Valley startups had an immigrant founder. In 2005 alone, those businesses achieved $52 billion in sales supporting 400,000 jobs. In 2011, more than three-quarters of the patents filed at the top ten patent-producing US schools had an immigrant inventor. Of the 1,600 computer science PhD graduates from our universities in 2010, 60 percent were foreign students.” [Source]

3. “The mistake that opponents of immigration reform make is believing that our society and economic growth are zero sum. They are not. More talented immigrants joining the American family does not equate to fewer jobs, it equates to more jobs.”

4. “It is not the case that an increase in foreign talent will increase unemployment for native workers. Studies show that from 2000 to 2007, every 100 additional foreign-born workers in STEM fields created 262 additional employment positions for native US workers.” [Source]

5. “Every year, arbitrary immigration caps force approximately one-third of the 50,000 foreign-born STEM graduates from our universities to leave the country. After earning a Masters or PhD from universities such as Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, and MIT, these talented men and women move to competitor nations and launch businesses abroad that compete with our workers here at home. If our military had a similar policy we would train soldiers, sailors, and pilots at West Point, the Naval Academy, and the Air Force Academy with world-class battlefield skills, only to send them away to join the militaries of foreign nations.”

6. “What was once the secret sauce of our economic advantage – a strong entrepreneurial economy that rewards risk, disruption and innovation – is being replicated aggressively around the world. A few decades ago we lost ground in the manufacturing sector when we failed to respond aggressively to global competition. We cannot afford to do the same when it comes to the entrepreneurial sector.”

7. “History teaches us that the most open and inclusive societies tend to be the most successful: Spain in the early 1400s pioneering navigation and global trade; Italy in the 1500s advancing science and learning. But no country has benefited more from immigration than the United States. We began as a startup founded by immigrant settlers who left a difficult situation to build a better life. What distinguishes us is that we have always been a magnet for risk-taking men and women from across the world hoping to start businesses, innovate, and contribute. That is part of our DNA. It is why in the 20th century we created more wealth, opportunity, and economic growth than any other nation.

But that advantage is slipping away. As the economies of developing countries mature rapidly it is no longer the easy choice to settle in the United States. There are now increasingly attractive opportunities abroad. We must improve the environment for entrepreneurship to thrive. Now is the time to work together and pass comprehensive reform that fixes our high-skilled immigration system.”

Back in 2008, Qloud got acquired by BuzzMedia and Toby and I were assigned to running the product and engineering divisions of the company.  Buzz owned at the time around 50 blogs around music and celebrities such as Stereogum and TheSuperficial. I wasn’t that familiar with many of the blogs, but i quickly realized that some of them were really good and pretty funny.  

Probably my favorite of the bunch was a blog called WWTDD which stands for “What Would Tyler Durden Do” which is named after the main character in Flight Club.  The site is not what you would call an example of journalistic excellence. He would post a picture of a celebrity – often a very good looking woman – and usually make fun of her.  The difference here is that he’d do it in a really funny and clever way.  He did this all day, every day, 365 days a year.  It was sort of incredible. 

I’m writing about this because the writer of WWTDD wrote a blog post yesterday that the days of doing what he does are over. He doesn’t think it works anymore.  He writes: 

When I wrote Superficial and then co-created Tyler, there were like 3 other sites (Pink is the new Blog, Perez, called Page 666 at the time, and Defamer). Now every dickhead who’s ever gotten an “LOL” on a message board thinks he can write a website, and almost every single one follows that exact model that I created.

And it does not work anymore. It simply does not. It’s 2013 and that old shit is not good enough. I know what to do and I have been begging to change things. It’s frustrating, and I apologize to people who read the page as I got more and more bored and annoyed.

Unfortunately he doesn’t say what the new model is but he implies that it’s coming. I really quite curious. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. 

Read this post this morning by a former editor of the Chicago Times.  He writes: 

Several years ago, the Washington Post convened a series of focus groups to learn why most individuals under the age of 45 did not subscribe to the newspaper. It’s not that people didn’t like the Post, reported the American Journalism Review in an article describing the research project in 2005. The problem was that the respondents – many of whom happily consumed news on digital devices – drew the line at piles of old newspapers cluttering up their lives.  According to a Post executive quoted by the AJR, more than one respondent declared: “I don’t want that hulking thing in my house.” 

Totally true. I don’t want the actual paper showing up every day and creating another task for me to do.  I’d rather just read it somewhere and then forget about it.   A few other facts listed that i thought were interesting:

• Print newspaper readership ranged from 16% of forty-somethings to only 6% of those in their twenties (survey by Pew).  By contrast, Pew found that 30% of Americans aged 50-64 and 48% of those over the age of 65 had read a newspaper on the prior day.
• Pew found that only 29% of the American population read a newspaper in 2012, as compared with 56% in 1991 – the first time researchers asked the question.

The newspaper is totally dead.  People like me and my age are not reading it at all. The USA Today given to me at the hotel is totally ignored.  This is part of a general trend of things we like as stated by Mary Meeker in this 2012 report.  Such as: 

• We don’t want to own CDs, haul around books, buy cars, carry cash, or do our own chores  
• We will use smartphones to buy, borrow or steal media
• We will rent shared cars at home or book shared rooms when traveling
• We will hire people to buy groceries or cut the grass
• We will use apps from Starbuck’s and Target to pay for lattes or redeem coupons.  
• We prefer short-term gigs that allow us to arrange work around ours lives, rather than arrange their lives around our work. 

This isn’t 100% true for everyone, but it’s not not far off

I have to say that the new Quentin Tarantino film “Django Unchained” is gory, funny, smart and thoroughly enjoyable.  That said, i’ve had people recently complain that it’s not very good.  To those people, i would just say that you need to remember that QT is the guy who brought you “Reservoir Dogs” and “Pulp Fiction” – two other films with extreme violence (i.e. the ear-cutting scene or the gimp scene). So, if you’re expecting a nice little action drama about racism, you’ve got the wrong film.    

Some things I liked about it:

• QT loves his dialogue and he also loves his Christoph Waltz. Putting the two together is like chocolate and peanut butter or milkshakes and Mike Lewis – it makes for some delightful scenes.  The way that Waltz is able to dig really deep holes and then pull himself out with his Austrian accent is pretty great.  Just like the climax of “Kill Bill” was a conversation between The Bride and Bill, the best scenes in DU are actually the verbal confrontations and not the blood spattering.  
• Samuel L. Jackson plays Stephen, the head slave at the plantation. In all respects, he considers himself white and to see his turn of racism is quite something.  His betrayal of Django and Broomhilde was probably the most hateful action in the film.
• There is a lot of violence.  As Ebert says, “When QT begins a movie, I believe, his destination is to aim over the top. The top itself will not do.”  And he definitely gets there in this film.

With both the violence, the rasicm and the comedy, you really don’t ever know what you’re going to get when watching a Taratino film, which in itself is a gift. 

Some good Reelist links about the film:

• Tarantino brings one character from Pulp Fiction back into Django.  You’ll be surprised who it is. 
• Producer Harvey Weinstein saying how he screwed up in promoting the film. He also said he royally messed up with “The Master”
• A talk by the producer on how the film got made

My mom’s mom, Edith Pescatello, is 91 years old and a total badass.  Let me just start by saying that is so awesome that she now has her own commercial on GNC.  They found her on the street in NYC and asked her to do this.  It’s pretty cool:

Great work Baba!

Just discovered this video (thanks Justin) and have to say it’s amazing.  These are video clips done by a group called Bad Lip Reading where they match the words of the person to different words.  They’ve done the NLF, Twilight, Obama and more.  Here’s the NFL video: 

This past weekend i saw three films nominated for best picture – “Lincoln,” “Zero Dark Thirty” and “Django Unchained.”

I liked ZD30 the best, followed closely by Django with Lincoln a way distant third.

Zero Dark Thirty is sort of an incredible film.  It’s definitely nothing like the other CIA film “Argo” – that film is much more standard Hollywood entertainment.  This film feels like it has a point – it has something to say.

My favorite part of the film is how it depicts sacrifice. In a selfish world where kids growing up want to be a rock stars, want to get more followers on Facebook, and smart college graduates are all headed to investment banks to try to figure out how to make more and more money, it’s almost refreshing to see a film where the central character puts her entire life above herself.

“Do you have a boyfriend? Do have have any friends at all?”

It’s so true that the people who truly end up making a difference in the world do it by dedicating their life to their craft. There a great interview with Billy Joel where he talks about his failed marriages.  He says that the problem is that once he starts working on an album, he can’t get it out of his head during the day. It’s there during the day, at night, while he sleeps, all the time.  Everything else takes a back seat till that album is done. His marriages just fell apart because of it.

That’s what’s great about ZD30. You have a group of people willing to take on that sacrifice. They are willing to get shot and blown up for their cause.  It might not work, but at least they’re willing to do try to do it, all day, every day in a country that hates us being there.

The scene with the head of the CIA,

“I noticed you’ve been working with us since high school.  Can you tell me what else you’ve done for us?”

“Nothing. I’ve done nothing else.”

Yep, that’s commitment.

I knew how the story ends when i entered the theater but it’s one thing to see Obama give a press conference and another to be on the ground, going into a house with night-vision goggles. That’s some serious tension.

This just vaulted above “Silver Linings Playbook” as my favorite film of the year.

PS: As for the torture – i don’t know what the big deal is.  First off, the scenes are not that brutal (have you see “Django”?).  Second, it’s not clear whether the torture did any good to getting Bin Laden.  How can you claim the film is promoting torture? Have you even seen it?  Come on.

We had a great year in 2012 and here’s a video of it. We wish everyone a great 2013 and hope to spend lots of time with you all.

Lots of love from Mike, Diane and Hunter (4 months old)

PS: If you like the song in the video, it’s a great Phoenix cover and you can get here.

Christian Ponder was pretty awful for a two-month stretch this year, but with 4 games left, the Vikes had to run the table.  At that moment, a funny thing happened. While Adrian Peterson continued going absolutely nuts against opposing defenses and Minnesota’s defense continued to step up their game, Christian Ponder got better. How much better? ESPN.com blogger Kevin Seifert puts it into perspective.

But after a disastrous Week 13 performance against the Packers, Ponder quietly turned himself around and had the NFL’s second-best QBR (86.8) over the final four games of the season, trailing only Peyton Manning. Over the second half of the season, Ponder’s QBR on third down — measuring not only passes but also his scrambles — was the league’s second best.

Yep, second best QB after Peyton Manning. I’ll take that.

I just saw “This is 40″ last night on a double-date with my sister and TheBoss. I was hesitant going in because many critics have crushed Judd Apatow’s latest film calling it a sloppy, overlong, self-indulgent mess.

I felt differently though. I found it to be brutally honest and to go for uneasy truths over quick payoffs.  And this is the way comedy seems to be headed now.  The film feels less like “Knocked Up” and more like a 2.5 hour episode of “Louie.”

There’s a quote in Flavorwire from comedian Mike Birbiglia about how this trend is emerging, 

“I’d like to think that we’re part of a comedy movement right now that’s moving away from observational comedy and into something that’s more personal and real. But it’s just one person’s opinion — it’s what I prefer because I feel like it has more heart to it. It’s got more teeth. And I feel like in some ways it’s a response to the Seinfeldian era of comedy, which was observational to a point of brilliance. I mean, Seinfeld did it so well, and there were so many mimeographs of that style, and then at a certain point, those mimeographs became so boring … It’s actually more difficult to just tell your story, and tell it honestly, and admit that you’re wrong about things in a way that’s entertaining.”

I can definitely see this happening. It’s in the Louis CK specials and in Lena Dunham‘s “Girls.”  It’s a cool trend and I like where we’re headed. 

I don’t really listen to entire albums anymore but it’s still fun to look at which albums were my favorite for the past year.  I tend to split my time listening to iTunes/iPod and the service Rdio.  Luckily, both of them send my play counts to Last.fm so my profile can tell me all about my listening habits this past year. 

1. Divine Fits – A Thing Called Divine Fits 
2. Mumford & Sons – Babel
3. Jack White – Blunderbuss
4. Alabama Shakes – Boys & Girls
5. Band of Horses – Mirage Rock

All of them are great.  Divine Fits dominated my running playlist for a while with “For Your Heart” and “Would That Not Be Nice” being my two favorite songs.  The two songs from Alabama Shakes (“I Ain’t The Same” and “Hold On“) were probably my two favorite tunes of the year.  Mumford was good for just all occasions, and this song, “Trash Tongue Talker” from Jack White is just great.

You can find the mp3′s for these and more of my favorite tunes at iLikeThisSong.com where I post a new great tune every week or so. 

What songs were your favorite this year?bal

I wrote a post about 4 months ago about the iPhone5 and what I thought about it.  This was before i had purchased it or even used it.  

I have now been using my iPhone 5 for over 3 months and really love it. It’s a nice upgrade over the 4. I like the thinner size, the bigger screen, the faster processor, and the super awesome camera.   All things considered, it’s pretty damn sweet.  I even have been using Siri in the car to play music and send quick text messages.

There’s a lot of buzz around Apple maps being terrible and some android phones being better.  For me, Apple maps have been great although i just installed Google Maps and found that to be even better.  I’m sure some Android phones are better or at least come close to the iPhone, but at this point, they are all basically the same.  We’re so far past regular cell phones that are just phones that we’re all winners.  These smartphones are just ridiculous in what they can do.  Quibbling over megapixels, LTE coverage, the number of apps, and features such as turn-by-turn is such a great problem to have. 

Good one:

Hostess Bakery plants shut down last Friday, the result of a union strike idling some 18,000 workers.  The federal government will hire most or all of these displaced employees.  Meaning….

The State Department will hire the Twinkies, the Secret Service the Ho Hos, the generals will sleep with the Cupcakes, and all the Ding Dongs are going to Congress.

Thanks to Mac and Rob Braunohler for the joke – also for pointing me to the funny John Stewart comments about it.   Here’s Mr. Steward, doing his thing:

I last did a report about life with Hunter when I was 3 weeks in.  Since then, I’ve learned a few more things.

Getting up in the middle of the night repeatedly can make a man (and mom) batshit crazy.  For us (and most people), the getting up in the middle of the night to feed the child never stops and is totally exhausting.  Diane and I are taking turns who gets up for the main feeding in the middle of the night.  We found that if the same person keeps doing it, that person becomes not so fun to hang out with.  We’ll see how this new experiment goes.

Grandparents are great to have around.  There was a time where I didn’t really want to have my parents around. I had control of my life and an occasional check-in was all that was needed.  Those days are over.  I desperately want them here as much as possible.  In fact, i’ll take anyone who is willing to sit down and do a feeding of our baby. They are bringing the gift of free hands and the ability for us to do necessary tasks.  I never thought there’d be a time where i just wouldn’t be able to find the time to pay a bill.  Crazy town.

I’m also amazed on how I have basically no more free time. When I come home from work, I hangout with Hunter although I’ve realized that if Hunter is in my arms, everything’s cool.  If Hunter is anywhere else (except Diane’s arms) there’s a problem and some fussiness and crying.  So that means I’ve got a baby in my hands from when I get home until I go to bed.  Is it possible to do anything else once a baby is in your hands?  Not at all.  I basically wash hours and hours down the toilet with that kid in my hands. Every day.

If the above is true, how am I writing this?  I’m on a plane headed to the east coast for work.  Thankfully, my in-laws are back home helping out as much as they can. I realize that i’m kind of screwing over my wife by making this trip, but i also need to do my job.  Being an entrepreneur is also hard work. Kapost needs the foot to remain on the pedal, and I’m trying to juggle that pedal with my baby.  I heard someone say today that being an entrepreneur allows for him to “sleep like a baby – where I wake up every 3 hours crying.” and I can really relate to that now.

The election is over and we can get on with our lives.  For me, living in Colorado meant that our television stations were nothing but ads either telling us that Romney was a bastard or that Obama was incompetent.  I know people who believe those messages and I don’t want to really talk about whether they’re right or wrong. It’s just exhausting.

I loved watching my Twitter feed on election night. I have to say that for live, unpredictable events like disasters, elections, and sports, – twitter really shines.  That said, i was also really impressed with the coverage on television.  The big board on CNN was way more informative with actual stats than any other medium. They knew where things were going down, when they were happening, and why. Twitter was snarky and fun but TV was actually helpful.

The big winner to me for this election was Nate Silver.  If you don’t know Nate, and I didn’t until a little it ago, he’s a guy who first gained recognition for developing a system for forecasting the performance of professional baseball players.  One day he woke up and wanted to the same for politicians.  Last election in 2008, he built FiveThirtyEight.com (538 is the total number of electoral votes out there) and used his crazy smart algorithms to predict, with really cool charts, who would win.  When the final votes came in, he correctly predicted the winner of 49 of the 50 state and all 35 Senate races that year.  Way closer than almost every one else.  

Remember the scene in Moneyball when all the old scouts were telling Jonah Hill and Brad Pitt that they were crazy, and the scouts needed to be able to see a player to evaluate him?  That’s pretty much exactly what happened with Nate after that. Most of the political pundits started to rant about how nobody could predict elections using analytics alone.  They were and are totally wrong – it was funny to see.

This election, the NYTImes hired Nate to run his 538 analysis in its own little section of the NYTimes.  I started following it during the week before the election and found it fascinating.  I continued to watch this posts and analysis all election night and, surprise surprise, he was pretty much exactly right again.  Among my friends, Nate Silver is the big winner of this election.  Moneyball all over again.

David Brooks, one of the better columnists out there was interviewed by Alec Baldwin a few months ago on the Here’s the Thing podcast.  It’s a really interesting interview.  The entire thing is here but below is my favorite 4 minutes of the interview is where he talks about the book he wrote and why it’s so important to choose a good spouse. 

The first few seconds of this clip below is about his book is about why kids drop out of high school. He found in his research that you can tell in the first 18 months of kid’s life whether they will or not.  Apparently, kids who can form attachments at an early age can form emotional attachments with teachers and peers later in life and they’ll generally be okay.  If you can’t, life if very frustrating. 

The second part of this short clip he shares some of his thoughts on marriage.  I found it interesting to hear that he goes around and tells people, “If you have a great career and a crappy marriage, you’ll be miserable. If you have a crappy career and a great marriage, you’ll be happy.”  I like the thought of that.  If this is true, then all the courses you should take in college should be about who you should marry.  

He then talks more about happiness and makes the point that money only correlates a little to happiness and that studies have shown that, of people who are happy, they have a good marriage and that the happiness gain of a good marriage is equal to that of doubling your income. 

This may be why I was so willing to quit my job in 2009 – because I was about to get married.

I hang out with some pretty cool people at work.  And, i’ve got some great people to go home to too. I capture a lot of moments on Instagram (which i love) and have lately been trying out Snapjoy (Boulder company) and Picturelife as possible places to replace my Flickr as my online photo storage.  

Recently though, I’ve come to the realization that it’s not enough. I want to capture more photos and more of my life. Lots of cool stuff is happening every day, both at work and at home that are just passing by.  I want to capture those too. So, you can imagine my happiness when i discovered a little gadget called Memoto.  What is it? It’s a little square that’ll snap a photo of wherever you are and whatever you’re doing every 30 seconds.  This is a 5 MP camera in a tiny little device.  That’s 4 GB of photos i’ll be capturing every day.  Now we’re talking.   Here’s a little video of the device:

I backed the project on Kickstarter so i don’t actually have the device but i ail soon and then you’ll all be jealous. 

One other things i’ve been using lately: Strava.  This used to be an app that tracks the crap out of your bike rides.  But, they’ve now added running tracking in there.  Before i stumbled upon Strava, I tested out RunKepper and MapMyRun and liked Runkeeper the best of those two, but after using Strava just a few times, i can tell that it’s better than both of them. 

This election is nasty. I don’t really like the message coming out of both camps.  But, i see their respective points.  Here’s what I’d like to do. I’d like to list what i like and don’t like about each candidate.

Romney: Pros

• Wants to shrink government in many ways. Less regulation, less agencies, less spending all over the place. I love this. I totally agree.  Our government is way too large and does way too many things.  We should push lots of it back to the states if possible and just stop it in other places.
• Wants to reduce the deficit and get back to being fiscal conservative.

Romney: Cons

• Women. Abortion and birth control.  I feel that women should have access to both and I don’t like any candidate who shoots to make abortion illegal, who wants to elect Supreme Court justices who are against it, or one who feels like birth control is a bad thing in America.  This is just so far away from my way of thinking.
• Wars. I want to be involved in as few wars as possible.  If i was a politician, i’d propose a strategy called “not my problem” and do everything i can to support the UN but would do almost nothing independently.  I’d do everything i can to not start new engagements.  Romney’s plan is basically the opposite of this.  He wants the US to re-assert themselves. He wants to increase government spending in defense.  I prefer we decrease it.
• Heath Care.  Obamacare is a massive piece of legislation. It has lots of rules and has govenment telling a lot of people what to do.  I don’t necessarily like that.  However, every single person i’ve talked to who works in health care says that without Obamacare, we’re in a much bigger mess.  Prior to Obamacare, we were footing the bill for any non-insured person to get treatment in ER’s.  Is Obamacare perfect? No. Is there a better alternative on the table?  No. Is repealing Obamacare a good thing? Not from where i sit.  Romney seems against it because (a) it was proposed by the opposing party; (b) he’d prefer, in a perfect world, it was done by states.  So, he’s little the perfect be the enemy of the good.
• Social Welfare. We have a lot of poor people in our country and i don’t think we can just ignore them and tell them to get jobs and do better. It’s our responsibility as a nation to handle their plight in a decent way. I’m not exactly what that is, but I’m pretty sure that Romney will do nothing to make their lives better except try to help the country as a whole and hope that the country then will solve this problem for him. His lack of empathy (see his 47% video) really doesn’t want me to have this man as our next President.

Obama Pros

• Foreign Policy. I like how he’s bringing troops home. I like how he got Bin Laden. I like in general how he’s representing America to other countries.  He’s not arrogant and is respectful.
• Personality.  I have to admit, i think he’s a pretty cool dude. This shouldn’t matter, but i just want to state it.  He seems quite relatable. He’s into sports, pop culture and seems to understand the world that I live in.
• Energy policy. I like that he’s so in to new energy. I’m into it too.  On the flip side, I actually wish he’d stop with the loans to new energy companies, but I like that he’s not just handing cash and favors over to the oil companies.  They’re doing fine without our government’s help.
• Stabilizing the ship.  In 2008, we were in a shit sandwich (520k jobs being lost a month, 1.2 million in 4 months), now we’re not (growing 120k a month). I’m happy for that turnaround, and in general, i do feel like the economy is getting better and recovering. It’s not as fast as everyone would hope, but but, we’re not headed in the wrong direction.

Obama Cons

• Big Government. He seems fine to increase the size of the government. Government has increased dramatically under his term. His response on how he’s going to fix the economy is to hire more teachers. I like teachers, but that doesn’t seem like the right answer.  I want the government smaller and i think he’s moving us in the wrong direction.
• Deficit. National debt from 00′, ’04,’08, and ’11 is (in trillions): 0.5, 0.7, 1.0, and 1.4 (source).  That is just too much.  I think Obama believes that it’s ok to run a yearly deficit the size that it is. I’m okay with some national debt, but i’d like it to be smaller, i’d like a plan to pay down our debt, and i don’t want us ever running a yearly deficit. That i think is irresponsible. I believe that Obama says he wants to balance the budget and pay down debt because it’s popular to say, but I don’t actually think he’ll really do anything to bring it down.
• Change. I used to think that he’d bring more transparency and transformational ideas to government.  I thought he’d change how the President interacts with the public.  I have been disappointed. I still think he’s got the good ideas, but I don’t think he’s had the balls in the past to do them.  Maybe this could happen in a second term when he’s not worried about re-election, but i’ve been disappointed thus far.

As you can see, there aren’t that many pro’s for Omaba but there a lot of cons for Romney.  That’s pretty much where i stand.  Here’s how I’m leaning for the remaining few weeks until the election:

What Romney has to do to win my vote

Romney needs to make me actually believe that he’s not a dooche and won’t just say whatever he needs to say to get elected.  I honestly don’t believe anything coming out of his mouth. I’d like to want to vote for him so we can reduce the size government, but I have no idea where his loyalties lie. I have no reason to believe that it is with people we can trust and instead I feel that it’s with the 1% who will be happy to pad their coffers and let the rest of the country (99%) go to hell.

What Obama would have to do to lose my vote

He has to keep acting like he doesn’t care about the economy, the deficit or what’s going in America.  He’s giving those issues lip service, but i’m not hearing anything that makes me believe.  I hate that he answers most questions with “I want to hire teachers.”  Right now I haven’t heard one thing out of his mouth that makes me want to vote for him other than that he’s not Mitt Romney – which is a pretty good point.

PS: the world “Romney-con” and “Obama-con” are pretty fun to say. Just pointing that out.

Well, Hunter came into the world three weeks ago.  A few people have asked how it’s going.  Here are some initial thoughts:

There are some new experiences. Here’s one. Never in my life have ever not been able to go to sleep when i’m tired.  If i’m really tired at the end of a day and something comes up, i’ve always (if I’m really tired) been abel to push that item off till  the morning or do some small action to appease it enough where i can still go to bed.  Even in college, i’d take short power naps when i got really tired in the middle of the night. I’ve never been forced to stay awake, ever.  Until now. Not being able to go to sleep because a baby is just crying its face off is a new experience and it’s quite painful.

I’m surprised how much i can quiet the screaming by just picking him up and bouncing.  It’s like magic and it feels great.

As the dad, I’m not that useful. Hunter wants to eat and sleep. When he wakes, he wants to eat right away. There’s not much i can do there.  I’m not really that useful. The burden of childrearing right now is so much heavier on the mom and other than moving to bottle-feeding as fast as possible, there’s not much the dad can do. That is a surprise.

I’m really happy I don’t own a dog.  I have no idea how i could take care of something else.  On that note, our cats seem to know exactly when Hunter has fallen asleep and use that exact moment as their cue to start a meow storm.  It’s just maddening.

Since i’m not that helpful on the food front, I try to change all the diapers and do all the swaddling. The amount of poop is really quite small and painless.  Hunter’s stomach can only hold 4 oz. so it’s not bad at all.  Also smell-free.  So there’s that.  My dad has a technique when shopping for clothes for other people.  He walks into a store and just makes a beeline to a salesperson and then freely admits that he knows nothing and needs their help.  I’ve seen him do this dozens of times and, strangely, it usually results in some pretty good presents. This is the exact technique I used in the hospital to learn how to change diapers and swaddle. I went right into the nursery and gathered the nurses around and asked them to teach me everything they know.  Well, apparently neither swaddling nor diaper changing is that hard.  That said, i’m still a master at it.

We’re now in a routine of not knowing what our routine is.  Sometimes he sleeps 5 hours at a time, sometimes only 45 minutes. We never know which makes planning tough.  It also means I have no idea if the day ahead is going to be a great one for Diane or a disaster.  I’m starting to understand the ups and downs of the chart i wrote about a few weeks ago.

When he’s wide awake, his arms start flailing and i swear he’s flashing gangster signs.  He’s got cute little hands and they are so tense.  it’s pretty cute.  Check it out:

That’s where we are now.  I’m sure in two weeks we’ll be in a different spot.  Just like i wrote a few weeks ago, it’s really frickin’ fun and I’m totally enjoying the little guy.

Life has gotten pretty complex. Especially in hospitals. I just read this New Yorker article and found it really fascinating.  It’s about a genius doctor that got obsessed with process and devices a checklist that is saving hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of lives.  If it is so useful for them, just think of how else it could be useful.

The article also shares a pretty cool ancedote about the B-17 bomber and how it was the first plane that required a checklist on takeoff and landing.  He writes:

On October 30, 1935, at Wright Air Field in Dayton, Ohio, the U.S. Army Air Corps held a flight competition for airplane manufacturers vying to build its next-generation long-range bomber. It wasn’t supposed to be much of a competition. In early evaluations, the Boeing Corporation’s gleaming aluminum-alloy Model 299 had trounced the designs of Martin and Douglas. Boeing’s plane could carry five times as many bombs as the Army had requested; it could fly faster than previous bombers, and almost twice as far. The flight “competition,” according to the military historian Phillip Meilinger, was regarded as a mere formality. The Army planned to order at least sixty-five of the aircraft.

A small crowd of Army brass and manufacturing executives watched as the Model 299 test plane taxied onto the runway. It was sleek and impressive, with a hundred-and-three-foot wingspan and four engines jutting out from the wings, rather than the usual two. The plane roared down the tarmac, lifted off smoothly, and climbed sharply to three hundred feet. Then it stalled, turned on one wing, and crashed in a fiery explosion. Two of the five crew members died, including the pilot, Major Ployer P. Hill.

An investigation revealed that nothing mechanical had gone wrong. The crash had been due to “pilot error,” the report said. Substantially more complex than previous aircraft, the new plane required the pilot to attend to the four engines, a retractable landing gear, new wing flaps, electric trim tabs that needed adjustment to maintain control at different airspeeds, and constant-speed propellers whose pitch had to be regulated with hydraulic controls, among other features. While doing all this, Hill had forgotten to release a new locking mechanism on the elevator and rudder controls. The Boeing model was deemed, as a newspaper put it, “too much airplane for one man to fly.” The Army Air Corps declared Douglas’s smaller design the winner. Boeing nearly went bankrupt.

Still, the Army purchased a few aircraft from Boeing as test planes, and some insiders remained convinced that the aircraft was flyable. So a group of test pilots got together and considered what to do.

They could have required Model 299 pilots to undergo more training. But it was hard to imagine having more experience and expertise than Major Hill, who had been the U.S. Army Air Corps’ chief of flight testing. Instead, they came up with an ingeniously simple approach: they created a pilot’s checklist, with step-by-step checks for takeoff, flight, landing, and taxiing. Its mere existence indicated how far aeronautics had advanced. In the early years of flight, getting an aircraft into the air might have been nerve-racking, but it was hardly complex. Using a checklist for takeoff would no more have occurred to a pilot than to a driver backing a car out of the garage. But this new plane was too complicated to be left to the memory of any pilot, however expert.

With the checklist in hand, the pilots went on to fly the Model 299 a total of 1.8 million miles without one accident. The Army ultimately ordered almost thirteen thousand of the aircraft, which it dubbed the B-17. And, because flying the behemoth was now possible, the Army gained a decisive air advantage in the Second World War which enabled its devastating bombing campaign across Nazi Germany.

If a new drug were as effective at saving lives as Peter Pronovost’s checklist, there would be a nationwide marketing campaign urging doctors to use it. The article talks about how simple checklists reduced infections in ICU’s from 14% to zero in 12 months.  It’s a great article and makes me think that I could use a few more simple checklists at my work.

We had a big change in the Lewhouse family this week.  On Monday afternoon at 5:25, we welcomed Hunter Lewis into the world. He’s definitely keeping us busy and now that we figured out how to actually get food into him. We’re rolling – at least so we think.  If you’re interested, you can read below for a timeline log of the actual birth and how it went down.

Here we go:

• 12:30am – we are sleeping.
• 2:18am – Diane wakes up with some belly pains and starts logging contractions.  She photographs herself:
• 2:40 – Diane wakes up Mike. Man, it’s early.  We know we need to get to a point when the contractions are 5 minutes apart or less and at that point, we go to the hospital.  Timing these first contractions, they are 2 to 3 minutes apart.  Hmmm, something is not quite right. But we just keep recording them.
• 3:22 – I am now awake, and am a believer.  I tweet it out. This will get me in trouble later.
• 330-7am: Strangely, the contractions are getting farther apart.  Yeah, that wasn’t covered in our class.  We lay in the bed and sleep between contractions. As you can imagine, it’s not that exciting, yet really exciting which means we want to go to sleep because we’re exhausted yet want to stay awake.  Sort of strange.
• 7:30: We see some blood that gets us both a little spooked so we call the doctor who (understandably) says to just go to the hospital.
• 7:30-845 – We meet our awesome nurse, named Jill who’s been there for 13 years.  We just chillin’ in our room and listening to jack johnson.  It’s pretty relaxed and fun.
• 845 –  Diane’s already at 5cm dilated and there’s barely any pain happening. For those of you who have never had a baby, the name of the game is trying to get your cervix to be 10cm dilated.  Once you get to 10cm, then you start pushing.  Up until 10, there’s just pain as your body tries to get there.   We’re at 5 and the nurse staff is pretty impressed.  Apparently, at this stage the woman is usually breathing very heavily and is in a lot of pain.
• 9:15-30: Diane jumped in the jacuzzi bath and relaxed for a while.  Jill came in and checked the baby’s heartbeat while in the bath.  The technology in the hospital is pretty ridiculous. While I appreciate that the baby heart monitors are waterproof, it feels totally unnecessary.  I would have been just fine if she told diane to just bring her belly out of the water.
• 9:30: Diane sees a text message from her friends Kiki and Carol Stern about how they are thinking of her.  She gets pissed at me for alerting the entire world about our private situation.  I now remember my 3am tweet.  Oh well.
• 10am: Diane’s friend Kiki calls and they talk for a while.  Diane learns that Kiki didn’t actually see my tweet and it was pure coincidence.  It should also be noted that Diane then texted back and forth with Carol and learned that she also was just texting good wishes to Diane by pure coincidence.
• 10:45 – jill came in and checked and we’re now at 6cm.  We’re on the right path.  She asks if we want to have someone break the water so we can speed up.  We elect to wait a bit.
• 11:20 – Diane’s out of the tub and the pants are back on.  She is bouncing on the ball again while we watch some Youtube clips and jam to some tunes.
• 12:40 – Our doctor, the great Dr. Bevan, comes in and is shocked to see how comfortable Diane is.  She said that most people at 6cm are in serious pain and huffing and puffing.  She wants to speed things up and move things along so she grabs a long stick and manually breaks her water.  We are sort of nervous about it but it happened.  Here we go.  No turning back now.
• 1:20 – Diane is jumping back in the tub to hang out
• 2:00 – Diane’s out of tub and heading out for a little walk around.  The action is intense now.  Diane can barely talk.
• 2:05-3: Ok, that was wishful thinking. We find ourselves in a pretty dark place.  Diane is having basically continuous contractions and they are so intense that she can’t see straight.  Then the full-body shakes start rocking her.  She’s shaking so bad that the bed is making noise.  And it doesn’t stop.  We do a little breathing game (thanks Coynes) to help breathe through the pain but there are no breaks between contractions, and things are looking bleak.  We surrender birthing gods.  You win.
• 3:10-3:30 – We call for the epidural.  Dr. David Pius rolls in and we get Diane sitting up. We have to wait for a momentary pause in the shakes for him to stick some needles into her spine.  I put my face 2 inches from hers.  Looking into her eyes, we just concentrate on each other and she is, at the same time, hurting from the contractions and scared about the needles going into her back.  I hate needles too.  It’s scary. i can definitely tell that all the fun we were having a few hours ago is gone for good.
• 3:30-4: Something happened.  The world i was living in a few moments ago has changed.  The lights are put down, the blinds are pulled and it’s dark in our room.  D’s asleep. i feel like we’re on an intermission.   Nevermind that there’s still a baby in her belly making it’s way out.  I order some food.
• 4:20 – Jill comes back and puts in a catheter.  She checks and Diane’s now at 9.5cm.  We’re almost there.  The shakes are still happening but because Diane’s spine is blocked there’s no longer any pain.  That’s pretty amazing.
• 5:05 – Jill comes in and checks again.  We are basically there.  I will never forget what she says next.  She leans over to me and says, “ok, mike.  Grab a leg.  Diane, start pushing.”  I always expected a big team of people would make this happen.  Instead it’s just the three of us.  I hold the left leg.  Jill the right.  We see a contraction coming and Diane pushes with all her might like a champ.   She does a ten second push and does this 4 times during each contraction.  It’s exhausting.
• 5:15pm – After only a few pushes, even from the outside of Diane, you can see the baby moving down her body.  I’m down below “the line.”  It’s fascinating.  Jill and I can see the head.
• 5:15 – Upon seeing the head, Jill rushes out to get our doctor – Dr. Leslie Bevan.  It’s happening!
• 5:25 – The Doctor is now here.  She tells Diane to start pushing again.  Diane brings the guy a little closer on each push. The head is half out and then Bevan tells D to just do a little mini push.  In one swoop, here he is!  On the last push, the doctor tells Diane to open her eyes and when she does Diane gets the first view of the cutest little baby boy.  We both are in awe and have tears in our eyes.  The guy looks amazing and he’s already making some super cute dragony crying noises.  Looking at each other and then back down to Hunter who is laying on Diane’s chest, we immediately know that it was all worth it. Here is how he sounds:
• 5:45 – the nurses in the room now all tell us that he seems like the perfect baby.  I’m sure they tell everyone that, but for once they got it exactly right.  He is amazing and we’re planning on loving the shit out of this little guy.

(side note: it was not as easy as you’d think keeping track of the time.  I’m thankful for the Google Drive app on my iphone and to Diane for allowing me to keep pulling out my phone and computer during the whole day)

Maybe just one of the best commercials of anything.  I love the 80′s chase music:

Thanks to Julian Kesner for being a fine gentleman and person for passing this along.

I’ve always loved ligers – half lion half tiger, so you can imagine my excitement when I heard that they have now successfully mated a lion with a liger to make, yep, a liliger.  Check it out:

At the Kapost office yesterday, about half the company was glued to live-blogging of the iPhone 5 announcement.  What we saw was only a blog but watching it was quite a show.  A few things stood out for me:

 It’s all about the LTE.  Most people don’t realize what LTE is and what it means.  Forgot the ads you see for 4G right now – those are lies.  What most people are getting as 4G isn’t really 4G. LTE is wireless internet that is 20-50x faster.  Once you get it, you won’t need to upgrade for speed for a long time.  It’s like going from a bike to a motorcycle.  Sure, in the future you can get a faster motorcycle, but the major upgrade has happened.  (more info on LTE here)

The magic of Apple.  Only two companies make money in the mobile phone business: Apple and Samsung.  You could read that as Apple and the people who are best at copying Apple.  Apple make money because they convince us to buy something that we didn’t know we need.  The iPhone 5 is really just the same phone, but they go out of their way to show us how it is both the same and something totally different.  It’s thinner (ooohhh), it’s faster (aaaahhhh) and has more and better bells and whistles than ever before (applause).  I don’t know of any other company that asks and gets an hour of my time for them to explain to my why i should buy their product.

Desktop to Mobile.  The transition from computing being a desktop/laptop world to a mobile world is totally complete.  The graphics on the iPhone 5 now rival console gaming units.  There was a demo of a race car game and the rearview mirror on the car was showing accurate graphics.  At this point, the phone is literally just a smaller computer. Sure, not everyone has a smartphone yet, but they will and it will be a fascinating world when companies start taking advantage of the fact that everyone in the world is carrying out a crapload of computing power in their pocket.

I’m still rocking the iPhone 4 and plan on preordering a new phone at midnight on the 14th.  In fact, everyone I know who has a 4 or older is planning on upgrading to the 5.  Are you?

Note: I wrote this post on Kapost but thought I’d republish here as lots of people, especially those who read this blog, don’t really know what I do or what Kapost does.  Here’s an attempt to explain.

The term “content marketing” has been hot in 2012 and is often heralded as the best new marketing tactic.

“Sure, there are still other ways to get in front of your target audience, but content marketing is proving to be an indispensable tool to complement traditional communications strategies,” writes Brian Aitken, director of new media for the Foundation for Economic Education, on CNN’s iReport.

Nevertheless, there is some confusion among marketers as to what, exactly, content marketing is. I believe that is due to the presence of two types of content marketing in the context of today’s digital marketing field. The purpose of this post is to explain the differences between the two, which are represented here using two distinct, albeit connected, funnels. The objectives of both are to increase website users and, ultimately, sales. But how they accomplish those objectives is what makes them unique.

The Nurturing Funnel

First, let’s look at the funnel of a traditional sales cycle, which we’ll call the Nurturing Funnel. In this funnel, leads are nurtured into opportunities until the sale is closed. Closing them is hard work, and content most certainly helps do this. In the Nurturing Funnel, the focus of the content is trained on a service or product, assisting the sales team in moving leads down the funnel.

In this funnel, we know who the leads are, likely because a salesperson or another member of the organization brought them into it using any number of traditional tactics. The content produced in this funnel is an asset of product marketing; it’s primarily concerned with products and/or services, commonly delivered in the format of white papers, e-books, pricing sheets, testimonials, etc.

The Nurturing Funnel, Revised

Content marketing of a different kind has transformed the Nurturing Funnel by adding another category to the top of this funnel, pre-lead. These potential customers are called “suspects” and start out as anonymous consumers who are attracted to you based on content that does not tout your services or products specifically. Suspects sit atop leads in the revised Nurturing Funnel:

The Content Funnel

The second funnel, which is new to many marketers, is the Content Funnel. It is concerned with the methods of earning and attracting the suspects added to the upgraded Nurturing Funnel. The activity in this funnel is more akin to publishing than marketing and sales. Content attracts suspects into this funnel by speaking to their interests, curiosities, etc. The Content Funnel is all about building a sustainable audience with content that builds their trust in your authority. The funnel shows how to achieve this.

Here, marketers must generate ideas, produce content, promote that content (through social channels), and generate links from external sites. (To learn more about each step, check out this snappy infographic and read this post about how to create a Content Marketing Machine.)

The more compelling the content, the more successful companies are at attracting an audience—filling this funnel with potential leads. The Content Funnel is crucial, as more and more web users conduct research online, offering smart organizations increasing potential to identify leads they may not otherwise.

Connecting the Funnels

The Nurturing and Content funnels are often managed by different groups of marketers within one organization, yet both fall under the “content marketing” umbrella.

Most businesses have produced content for the purposes of product marketing and conducting activity within the traditional Nurturing Funnel. Now, a pioneering group of organizations are embracing their roles as publishers, upgrading their Nurturing Funnels by adopting the kind of content marketing that dominates within the Content Funnel. American Express’ OpenForum, L’Oreal’s Makeup.com, and AT&T’s Networking Exchange Blog are just a few great examples.

In a world where more purchasing research is done online, why not begin your relationships with your customers sooner? Done well, the content marketing that focuses on them will only strengthen rapport and trust in the content marketing that’s focused on you. Graphics provided by Tara Lerias.

This is just a crazy video.  Here’s a momma lion at a zoo just trying to destroy a kid dressed as a zebra. Just think how fast this kid would get mauled if that glass wasn’t there.  Thanks to @houseofwood for the link.

Simulacrum -  an insubstantial form or semblance of something. Example: a unicorn

The musician Beck this week announced a release a new album and he did it was really inventive way.  He released it only as a big book of sheet music.  Thus, it will only be played by other musicians.  Thousands of bands will have their own version of his album.   Really cool.

Most days I’m pretty excited. Some days I knock things over.  You could say I’m quite like this goat: 

As many of you probably know, there’s a new member to the Lewhouse family joining us in September.  For the past 7 months, we’ve been getting ready in all the typical ways: buying a crib, reading about the development, deciding on birthing and breast feeding strategies.  I’ve also been getting mentally prepared for a dramatic change in my lifestyle.  

One recent TED video recently caught my eye.  The video, which is great, is about all the myths around children.  One chart in particular stood out.  It charts marital satisfaction over the course of your life.  One thing I immediately noticed is that the height of satisfaction – where you are most happy throughout your entire life – is right before you have your first child. Then things plummet: 

Looking at Diane’s belly and then back at this chart as I watched this video on my iPad made immediately made me feel as if i was sprinting towards a cliff.  Thankfully, the folks in the video dig into that chart a little more.  There’s more to it than just that one line.  The reality of the situation is that in our lives, we have control over our actions and what will make us happy.  After adolescence, where we’re not really in control of our ourselves and surroundings, we grown in happiness because we are able to control what we do  – and we do less of what we know we dislike and more of what we know we like.  This is especially true for me these days I generally avoid anything where I know i’ll be uncomfortable or possibly have a good time, such as heavy metal concerts. 

We become masters of doing what we like in our 30′s – especially if you don’t have kids.  What the next chart shows are the emotional highs and lows one feels at various stages in their life.  You can see that we have big highs and lows as teenagers and then they gradually shrink as we get a handle on the world.  Then you have a kid.  And the highs and lows become monstrous.

From what i’ve heard this is true. I hear stories of how amazing it is, and i also hear stories of how tiring and bad it gets.  I’m expecting both are true  I’m expecting to be shaken out of my lovely comfort tree into some madness. I’m expect to hate it at times, but i’m also expecting for some of the biggest highs i’ve ever felt.  I’m ready for it.  Just two more months to go. 

This morning I took a ride up Sunshine Canyon in Boulder.  We stopped half way up and we looked around and took a little poll about who was on the trip.  We had 4 Techstars companies represented (Orbotix, Kapost, Everlater, and PivotDesk), one VC (Hwy12), and one Techstars mentor (Jamie).  

While biking 6 miles straight up, and in between deep breaths, we talked about building product faster to meet demand (Dave from PivotDesk), growing revenue (Mark from Hwy12), and how to correctly build a financial model for a an early stage company (Nate and Natty from Everlater).  If you’re wondering how work in Boulder happens or how the tech community interacts, I’d say this was a pretty perfect example.  

Oh, and the views aren’t bad either….

You can see the damage from the fire from 2 years ago still: 
 

I re-posted an interview last week that I did for KillerStartups.  That one was all about Kapost.  Here’s the 2nd half of that interview that’s more personal stuff.  I never get a chance to write about this stuff on Loo.me so i thought i’d share. 

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What is your favorite tech tool?

I personally love basalmiq. I getting into wireframing a lot these days. What i love about it is that it allows me to get thoughts out of my head. I was never a great artist, and now I don’t have to be.

What’s your “man, I wish I would have thought of that” startup and why?

(I’ve written about this on Loo.me before here)

Nobody is really doing the startup that I’m waiting for yet.  I want a startup to launch a service that will record everything I do.  Not just API’s into Foursquare but allow me to import email, telephone and credit card info. I want all my digital files indexed by person I did it with and where I was at the time (person and location). I don’t remember phone numbers anymore due to my cell phone and I want to stop remembering conversations, meetings and what I ordered.  The companies Evernote andTimehop are getting close but they aren’t quite there yet. I really can’t wait for this service. I had this idea since 2005. To me, it’s inevitable that it’ll happen someday. 

Are you a Mac, Windows or Linux kind of guy?

I love the idea of Linux, but I love the usability and power of the Mac more.  At this point, I’m a big fanboy with iPhone, iPad, Macbook Air and AppleTV.  In 2012, that’s a great place to be.

3 people we should follow on Twitter?

1. Michael Arrington- and you should read his blog. He is one of the few people who legitimately has something to say and substance beyond the headline. I usually always enjoy his posts.

2. Fred Wilson- Although he’s widely known, I still think he has a great grasp of web products – how they work, why they succeed and where they are going. Very few investors or entrepreneurs can articulate trends, thoughts and findings very well, but he does a great job – and he does it every day.

3. John Borthwick - He doesn’t blog or tweet much, but I admire what he’s doing at Betaworks. It’s sort of the old-school studio model where you have a group of talented folks and you churn out product. People used to do this with albums and films, and he’s doing it with web companies. I think it’s great. Anthony Batt (@djabatt) had the same idea 10 years ago and he’s just now starting to do it at Ashton Kutcher’s company.

A 4th for fun… 

4. Bill Simmons- I’m a big listener/reader of his. To me, publishing and media is changing pretty rapidly. The old school had traditional journalists that are objective and do research to gather stats and then report them. On the other end of the spectrum, there are bloggers who are entirely subjective and shout out their opinions without any facts. There is a middle ground emerging of opinionated folks who have been given access previously only provided to journalists and they can message both an opinion and well-researched facts. Bill is a pioneer there and his insights into sports are great.

The other day, I gave an interview about Kapost to KillerStartups and i realized that i have a lot more to say than i thought i would.  I’m going to republish some of it here.

First, I haven’t talked much about Kapost on this blog, so i’m going to republish those questions first.  Here they are:

What’s kapost all about and what makes it stand out from the competition?

Kapost is a content marketing platform. Many businesses are spending less money on ads and more money on creating their own content. The idea behind that is that you can spend $5k a month in search ads and have a spot at the top of a search results page, or you can spend $5k a month creating content and have links in the search results page. These links are more authentic and over time much more effective. But, as a result, you have many businesses becoming publishers and creating a lot of content. What Kapost does is manage that content for them and provide insight into which content is working. Similar to how a CRM like Salesforce helps a sales team organize and evaluate performance from a formalized business process, Kapost helps a marketing or publishing team organize themselves and eventuate how they are doing from a content perspective.

Tell us a little about where you’re coming from.

I graduated Dartmouth College with a degree in Computer Science. I then started my career briefly as a computer programmer for Sun Microsystems. After a very brief stint there, I joined AOL. My first gig was working directly for their CTO, Bill Raduchel. That was probably the best job any 22 year-old could have.  Being a fly on the wall in top-level meetings at a company like AOL at that time was fascinating. Eventually, I became a program manager and managed many of their digital media products such as Video@AOL, which was the largest streaming video service in the world that that time.

How was Kapost hatched, and what really sparked the inspiration?

Kapost was originally a service for media companies. We had a hypothesis that the current structure inside media companies had to change. We had first-hand experience after Toby (CEO / co-founder of Kapost) and I sold our last company to a publishing network.

Biggest startup surprise (good or bad) so far?

As I mentioned before, we were selling to media companies. The biggest and best surprise we’ve had is that the practice of content marketing emerged and instead of having a product to sell to only media companies, our product could now be sold to anyone who is a content marketer. And anyone can be a content marketer from brand to agency. So the scope of our business turned out to be much bigger than we had originally thought.

One thing you would have done differently?

On one hand, I wish we would have gotten to the point we are now sooner – the point where we’re selling to marketers instead of media companies. However, if we hadn’t spent two years talking and learning from the biggest and best media companies in the world, we wouldn’t understand publishing as well as we do.  It’s because of this knowledge that our software works great. As much as I wish we had, I’m not sure we could have sped up the process.

What is Kapost’s success sweet spot?

Content Marketing is exploding right now and Kapost is by far the best, most powerful and most widely used software out there to manage your content marketing operation. In some ways, we are doing for content marketing what BuddyMedia did for Facebook marketing.  But, right now content marketing is probably only 5% of the size that it will be in the future, maybe less. What we define as success today is not what we believe will be success in 2, 5 or 10 years. We at Kapost believe we are sitting on top of a huge opportunity.

Do you have any interesting team morale-building/stress-busting techniques?

We do a company retreat in the mountains every year with every employee and their spouse or significant other and families. In general, we have a great culture where we all love coming into work every day. We have a philosophy in our company where we take our work very seriously and want to perform at the highest level, but we shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously where we can’t enjoy what we’re doing and joke around.

We also do a lot of collaborative DJ’ing on Turntable.fm.

I saw the film Prometheus this past weekend, which is a Ridley Scott-directed prequel to the film Alien and I really liked  it.

Here’s what I liked specifically:

The Visuals 

The film just looks amazing.  Granted, I saw it in IMAX but it looked like it was made for the IMAX screen.  Just the first couple of a scenes when they are going over the landscape of Iceland/Greenland was incredible.   It was less of the tricks you see in big films and more of the awe you got from Avatar.  No matter if you liked the film or not, it was just so *lush* in its appearance.

The Monster Scenes

First, I have a pet peeve that I hate it when aliens walk on two legs and have two eyes – and look a lot like humans.  Nature is so vast that I seriously doubt that aliens in another solar system would look like us.  So, i was happy to see that these aliens pretty unusual.  Second, the scenes of the aliens attacking Dr. Shaw, the abortion, and the snake-like alien going after the geologists were incredible scenes.  Plenty of films use $200 million dollars creating crap (looking at you Battleship and John Carter) but the money is well spent here as those scenes scared the crap out of me.  They are probably the best scary monster scenes I’ve seen in the past 20 years. No matter what you think of the film and the plot holes, you have to admire that scene of taking the alien out of the belly is a great nod to the original Alien’s chest-busting scene and just incredibly entertaining.

The Sci-Fi Plots

On one hand there are way too many open questions remaining. That is kind of annoying.  On the other hand, I appreciate them going right after the big questions in good ways.  The origin of the human race defined by the guy in the first scene is an interesting take. Also, the quest for answers doesn’t remove faith but almost places more importance on it.  The David character seemed like a much more interesting HAL.  There was also the really cool auto-surgery machine.  Then you have the biology of the aliens.  Not to mention the thought that the Engineers wanted to kill the humans for their treatment of one of their own, who happened to be Jesus Christ (yep, they alluded to that and Ridley Scott confirms that’s one of the reasons). These kind of sci-fi films really get me.  I love the conversation that is generated from them.

Note: i also loved the little red scouts that mapped out the entire cave.  Those things are money and I wished they really existed.

While I love the ideas, i kind of hated the plot. I saw that the writer of this script is the same guy who wrote Lost and it has all the same elements of lots of sub-plots, too many unanswered questions and just being overly confused.  I hated that about Lost and it is my biggest complaint of this film.  Why did David give the goo to Charlie? Why did he take a canister? Why did he want to smuggle the alien inside Shaw back to Earth? Too many holes for me (but i didn’t let that get in the way of the rest of the film).   Speaking of too many holes, this video summerizes every question you could have about the movie into a short few minutes.  Apparently it was 30 minutes previously.  I love this video

The Casting

Noomi Raplace seems right in place with Sigourney Weaver from the original as a badass heroine. But it is Michael Fassbender’s show. He was incredible as an android and was by far the most interesting character on the ship. You never knew if he was good, bad, merely a servant, or just curious.

The Marketing

This is an R-rated film with no major stars (at least none that most people have heard of) and people were dying to see it.  I give most of the credit to the absolutely kick-ass trailers that were put out.  They were truly a pleasure to watch.

These are all the things that come to mind when i think back to the film.  I’d be curious to hear what you thought.  My guess is that you either agree completely with me or thought the plot holes were just too much to overlook.

I ran the Boulder 10k this weekend, called the BoulderBoulder, with my sister and Diane and it was just a fantastic time.  I’ve run a few races in my day and they are all pretty similar, but some things that make the BoulderBoulder a unique running experience.

#5 The costumes.  Lots of people dress up and they look fantastic.  We’re talking tigers, bears, superheros and belly dancers.  The spirit is infectious and i’m already thinking of my costume for next year.

#4 Great food and drink along the way.  I had some of the best ribs served to me ever on the run.  There were also marshmallows, popsicles, bacon, burgers, and plenty of drinks.

#3 The amount of people. There were 60k people running this thing.  That’s the largest 10k in the US.  It was quite an experience.

#2 The stadium entrance.  As you come into the stadium, there are tens of thousands of people cheering you on.  I wasn’t running for time but I still couldn’t help be be inspired by the crowd.  I had to spread my wings and fly into the finish line.  I just had to.

#1 Sister and Diane. I love hanging with my family and there are not two other people I’d rather spend a day in the sun with than my wife and my sister.  Those gals know how to have a great time and are so fun to be around.  I’m a lucky guy.

PS: you have to give it up to Diane for walking a 10k when 5 months pregnant. It did not look comfortable yet she had a smile plastered on her face all day.  Big props.

I was reading BusinessWeek and there was a good interview with Cisco’s John Chambers 

Companies that don’t change get left behind. Since I became CEO [in 1995], 87 percent of the companies in the Fortune 500 are off the list. What that says is that companies that don’t reinvent themselves will be left behind.

Wow. I love that. You see this all over the place.  The companies that will be killing it in 10 years probably don’t even exist yet.  They say that each person today will have 8 careers by the time they are 65.  The world changes pretty fast now. It’s exciting. 

I got to quite a bit of live music shows.  I try to see my favorite acts whenever they roll through Colorado.  I just went to Coachella and in the past year i’ve seen Mumford, The National, Wilco, Andrew Bird, Shins, Radiohead, Childish Gambino, Band of Horses and others.  I like these shows but they are also frustrating.  I increasingly find that rock bands do nothing more than just play the songs from their album, in a way that sounds just like the tracks on the album and i leave the venue wonder why I went.

I began to think back to why people used to go to shows.  In the past, i could imagine that music represented more than it does today. It represented a movement. The Rolling Stones and Elvis were a powerhouse that were more than just great songs.  Or, i could see how an artist’s lyrics (such as Bob Dylan’s) were so meaningful that their concert was more akin to a speech or a rally.   None of these are happening in indie rock today.

However, i do see this stuff happening with the electronic music scene.  Two things are different. First, now that music is digital, the instruments of today are the computer and that’s resulting in brand new music that is truly different than anything that’s come previously.  Second, the concerts where this is played are extremely social.  The DJ’s aren’t just playing music for an audience, the audience is involved. Very involved.  As my friend JT said this weekend after hearing Swedish House Mafia, “it feels like the DJ’s are conductors.”

Also, these electronic artists don’t need major labels.  They are proficient in interacting and promoting online.  If fact, most of them don’t even release albums in the traditional sense.

It feels to me that this electronic music scene is the future. Bob Lefsetz agrees with me.  I just hope i’m not too much of a dinosaur to enjoy it.

This is a pretty great story.  A worker in Iowa was checking Reddit and saw that someone posted a question, 

Could I destroy the entire Roman Empire during the reign of Augustus if I traveled back in time with a modern U.S. Marine infantry battalion or MEU [Marine Expeditionary Unit]? 

He immediately posted a response and began it with a narrative of what that actual experience must be like.  His response got such a positive response that he wrote another, and then another.  The story he concocted was so awesome that he got signed by an agent and got a deal to turn it all into a Hollywood film.  

It’s a great story and even more interesting because it shows how modern-day publishing is changing.  I think Reddit and Digg are much more similar to future newspapers than the Washington Post or New York Times.  If we’re getting all our information on the internet, it makes sense for it to be an interactive medium we’re reading.  It also proves that “the masses” (i.e. some guy in Iowa) is just as capable of generating quality content as a journalist.  

  
I listened this morning to a podcast where Steve Jobs was interviewed at the All Things D conference. He talked (around 45 min mark) about the post-PC world. I thought it was a pretty interesting analogy He states:

When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks because that’s what you needed on the farm.  As vehicles started to be used in urban centers, and as America started to move into those urban centers, cars got more popular and innovations like automatic transmissions, power steering and things you didn’t care about in a truck started to become paramount in cars. Today, maybe 1 in 25 or 1 in 30 vehicles is a truck where it used to be 100%.  PC’s are going to be like trucks. They will still be around and provide a lot of value but they will be used by 1 out of X people. 

This transformation will make some people uneasy.  People from the PC world, like you and me becasue PC’s have taken us a long way. It’s brilliant.  We talk about the post-PC era but when it really starts to happen, i think it’s uncomfortable for a lot of people. Because it’s change.  A lot of vested interests will change. Things will be different.  I think we’re embarked on that.  Is it the iPad? Who knows?  Will it happen next year, 5 years from now, 7 years from now? Who knows? But we’re headed there.

The post-PC world is interesting. I find myself doing more and more on my iPhone and i can see a day where i don’t bring my laptop with me on trips anymore as the iPad and a keyboard will be plenty. 
 

Some videos are just too good to not share here.  This is a real business and a great ad.  Well done sirs. 

I recently finished Roger Ebert’s memoir, called “Life Itself.”  I really liked it.  I’ve always liked Ebert and his movie reviews.  He claims he writes every review with the thought of “be honest of what you saw and how you felt when you saw it.”  Somehow, in the process of doing so, his reviews were more than just a barometer of whether or not a film was good, but an interesting article itself. To this day, I always read the first and last paragraph of Ebert’s review before I see a film, and the rest of it after I see it.  He’s the only must-read critic that I know of.  

His book is a full reflection of his life. He covers everything – his childhood in Illinois, his job as a newspaperman, alcoholism, being a film critic, education, his romances, his relationships with actors and directors, and his views on religion and the greater cosmos.  Lots of thoughts are shared in a very frank and honest way, and it makes for an interesting read.  Ebert and I come from different generations but we share a passion for film and for pondering “the truth” and I appreciated leaning about how he’s developed his perspective as I could see a little bit of myself in him. 

I normally don’t just repost stuff, but my cousin Sara sent me this story and I found it amazingly awesome.  Enjoy:

——————————–

IN WHICH I FIX MY GIRLFRIEND’S GRANDPARENTS’ WIFI AND AM HAILED AS A CONQUERING HERO.

BY MIKE LACHER

Lo, in the twilight days of the second year of the second decade of the third millennium did a great darkness descend over the wireless internet connectivity of the people of 276 Ferndale Street in the North-Central lands of Iowa. For many years, the gentlefolk of these lands basked in a wireless network overflowing with speed and ample internet, flowing like a river into their Compaq Presario. Many happy days did the people spend checking Hotmail and reading USAToday.com.

But then one gray morning did Internet Explorer 6 no longer load The Google. Refresh was clicked, again and again, but still did Internet Explorer 6 not load The Google. Perhaps The Google was broken, the people thought, but then The Yahoo too did not load. Nor did Hotmail. Nor USAToday.com. The land was thrown into panic. Internet Explorer 6 was minimized then maximized. The Compaq Presario was unplugged then plugged back in. The old mouse was brought out and plugged in beside the new mouse. Still, The Google did not load.

Some in the kingdom thought the cause of the darkness must be the Router. Little was known of the Router, legend told it had been installed behind the recliner long ago by a shadowy organization known as Comcast. Others in the kingdom believed it was brought by a distant cousin many feasts ago. Concluding the trouble must lie deep within the microchips, the people of 276 Fernadale Street did despair and resign themselves to defeat.

But with the dawn of the feast of Christmas did a beacon of hope manifest itself upon the inky horizon. Riding in upon a teal Ford Focus came a great warrior, a suitor of the gentlefolks’ granddaughter. Word had spread through the kingdom that this warrior worked with computers and perhaps even knew the true nature of the Router.

The people did beseech the warrior to aid them. They were a simple people, capable only of rewarding him with gratitude and a larger-than-normal serving of Jell-O salad. The warrior considered the possible battles before him. While others may have shirked the duties, forcing the good people of Ferndale Street to prostrate themselves before the tyrants of Comcast, Linksys, and Geek Squad, the warrior could not chill his heart to these depths. He accepted the quest and strode bravely across the beige shag carpet of the living room.

Deep, deep behind the recliner did the warrior crawl, over great mountains of National Geographic magazines and deep chasms ofTV Guides. At last he reached a gnarled thicket of cords, a terrifying knot of gray and white and black and blue threatening to ensnare all who ventured further. The warrior charged ahead. Weaker men would have lost their minds in the madness: telephone cords plugged into Ethernet jacks, AC adapters plugged into phone jacks, a lone VGA cable wrapped in a firm knot around an Ethernet cord. But the warrior bested the thicket, ripping away the vestigial cords and swiftly untangling the deadly trap.

And at last the warrior arrived at the Router. It was a dusty black box with an array of shimmering green lights, blinking on and off, as if to taunt him to come any further. The warrior swiftly maneuvered to the rear of the router and verified what he had feared, what he had heard whispered in his ear from spirits beyond: all the cords were securely in place.

The warrior closed his eyes, summoning the power of his ancestors, long departed but watchful still. And then with the echoing beep of his digital watch, he moved with deadly speed, wrapping his battle-hardened hands around the power cord at the back of the Router.

Gripping it tightly, he pulled with all his force, dislodging the cord from the Router. The heavens roared. The earth wailed. The green lights turned off. Silently the warrior counted. One. Two. Three. And just as swiftly, the warrior plugged the cord back into the router. Great crashes of blood-red lightning boomed overhead. Murders of crows blackened the skies. The Power light came on solid green. The seas rolled. The WLAN light blinked on. The forests ignited. A dark fog rolled over the land and suddenly all was silent. The warrior stared at the Internet light, waiting, waiting. And then, as the world around him seemed all but dead, the Internet light began to blink.

The warrior darted out back over the mountains of National Geographic magazines and made haste to the Compaq Presario. He woke up Windows XP from sleep mode and deftly defeated twelve notifications to update Norton AntiVirus. With a resounding click he opened Internet Explorer 6 and gazed deep into its depths, past the Yahoo toolbar, the MSN toolbar, the Ask.com toolbar, and the AOL toolbar. And then did he see, at long last, that The Google did load.

And so the good people of the kingdom were delighted and did heap laurels and Jell-O salad at the warrior’s feet, for now again they could have their Hotmail as the wireless internet did flow freely to their Compaq Presario. The warrior ate his Jell-O salad, thanked the gentlefolk, and then went to the basement because the TiVo was doing something weird with the VCR.

This is a Budweiser ad created for Canada to play during the SuperBowl, but only in Canada. I’m not sure why it’s on there, but it’s one of my favorite ads i’ve seen in a while.   I love it. 

It’s a rec hockey game where Budweiser takes over and surprises the players.  It’s pretty awesome:

With a new year (i know we’re a month old already) I’ve been wondering more about what the future holds.  I have a few thoughts i’d like to share and get your thoughts.  They are some prediction of the technology space.  Here they go: 

More and More Social Networks. 
I wrote in 2007 when Facebook released “The Platform” that they would take over the web.  Their product updates since then have great and as a result, they’ve been killing it for years and been gobbling up users (approaching 1 Billion now).  However, this year I saw more and more social networks emerge. You have Path, Instagram, Foursquare, FoodSpotting and others. It’s easy for me to see now that in the future everyone will be on Facebook but that’s not where everyone will share.  It will be fragmented.  Depending on what you share (Food, Books, Photos, etc.), you may be someplace else and sharing with a smaller group.  Facebook will continue to be a huge company but their days of being the only game in town are numbered. Social is now not a facebook-only feature. Everyone has it.  The future is more about what your social activity revolves around.  I’ve started to tell people that “facebook is a fad” and it’s old news.  That’s not entirely true but it’s more true now than ever. 

The Future of Local Publishing 
More and more people are trying to get into local publishing.  The local newspaper has seen its classifieds, sports, world news and national news all get marginalized by other outlets (TV, internet, twitter, etc.).  All that’s left is local.  I used to be bullish on Patch, but that’s waning as i don’t see them innovating and it seems to be too big and too expensive an operation at each location.  That may change though.  With that said, here’s my prediction for what wins in a local community:  

You have a site, this could be a WordPress site or Tumblr or whatever.  It’s managed by one to three super-engaged people who are not pulling a salary (or a minimal one).  They do two things.  First, they curate all the news from papers, blogs and other local sites that are reporting in their community. Second, they accept via twitter and their site submissions of links and news.  They curate both of them and then spit it out back to their followers on their site and on Facebook and Twitter.  This becomes the best real-time source of news.  

This works because it is impossible for one source to aggregate all the information themselves (what newspapers used to do) but it is all being covered by other people who are willing to share.  The new local publisher is a connector of local interests to other web sites.  I could see this being just a twitter feed or a Tumblr blog.  Whatever the destination is, it’s heavily conversational and constantly curated. 

Just some predictions i have.  Would love to hear your thoughts. 

With the new year, i’m going to try to do some more things.  Here’s what i have in mind: 

Read More. I hit a reading rut in 2011 where i went a few months without finishing a book. This was for good reasons (i was pretty busy doing actual work), but I want to get back to reading a book a month. I’m already on a good path as i’m busting out Ebert’s memoir and also Lean Startup and i’m really enjoying both. 

Exercise More. I used to exercise every day and lately i’ve been finding myself at only 2 or 3 times a week.  I want to give crossfit a go and stay at 4 times a week for the entire year.  Some other goals are: biking to and from Boulder from Denver twice a month in the summer.  And, possibly, doing a triathlon if I can get back in the pool.  

Eating Better.   I still have horrible eating habits.  I eat portions way too large and i eat stuff that’s just not good for me (ahem, Domino’s pizza).  I haven’t been able to do smaller portions.  I think cooking will help this (see next).  

Cook More.  My goal is to cook at least once a month in 2012 (twelve times total).  I had the same goal in 2011 and failed miserably with only about 4 or 5 cooking attempts.  I’m looking forward to Liz’s blog (one that is going to tell me exactly what to make) helping me out here.  Hopefully I’ll be a master chef by the end of the year. 

These are my lifestyle goals for 2012.  You have any you’re doing that i’m missing? 

I wrote a post 9 months ago about whether FourSquare or Quora were going to break out as great companies. Many in the office chose Quora and i chose FourSquare. I didn’t know anything at the time, but i just had a hunch.

I’m still not correct.  Quora is doing really well still but more and more people are recognizing Foursquare as a pioneer.  In fact, yesterday, Anil Dash wrote a great post about why it’s such a compelling company, stating:

[Foursquare] has blossomed into truly impressive execution: Foursquare is the one startup that’s doing the most remarkable job of any company out there in product strategy and product creation.

He sites these 6 main points as to why:

1. Core platform
2. Reliable iteration
3. Technical competence
4. Design innovation
5. Thoughtful business model
6. Meaningful API’s

It’s a good read, check it out.

Some things i’ll remember about 2011:

Steve Jobs’ Death & Legacy. As Esquire says…

No one ever died the way Steve Jobs died. Other people have died of cancer. Other people have died in the public eye.  But no one has ever died with the inexorable logic of their mortality feeding into a logic of expectation that they themselves created and aroused.

Reading about Steve Jobs in 2011 was a terrific experience.  He inspired me to take my passion in products to the next level.  He was truly a special individual and will be missed.

Mavericks vs. Heat. The stage was set: a team of underdogs who lost to the Heat in 2006 vs. a team of selfish divas. Down 2-1 and nearly 3-1, the scappy Mavs fought back and took the title in the most exciting NBA Finals I’ve ever seen.

Iraq Ends & Osama Bin Laden is Killed.  More and more our involvement in the Middle East is winding down.  All troops in Iraq were brought home this year and the death of Osama Bin Laden, to me, marked the beginning of the end of our crazy experiences over there.

My Crazy Travel.  For 2011, i was on the road for 26 weekends.  That’s up from 21 in 2010 and pretty much every other weekend for the year.

The Japan Earthquake.  The impact was incredible.  The entire world saw it on YouTube. It was the first natural disaster i watched dozens of videos of.  The world keeps getting smaller and smaller.

Crazy Politics.  Gabrielle Giffords getting shot. Michelle Bachman saying some ridiculous stuff.  Herman Cain being a frontrunner for a brief period.  Rick Perry forgetting the third item.  Ron Paul being Ron Paul. It’s all a prelude to an interesting 2012.

My One Year Wedding Anniversary.  Diane and I got away and went to the middle of nowhere (in Puget Sound) and it was a fantastic break.  We hope to do it every year.

Coming up next, some predictions for the new year and things i’m determined to change in 2012…

I recently listened to an interesting podcast interview of Chris Rock.  One phrase he mentioned was that George W. Bush was the first “Cable-Channel President.” What he meant by this is that you used to have candidates and presidents that attempted to appeal to the entire country – similar to Network television – but now you have presidents and candidates that try to appeal only to their audience – like Cable channels – and don’t care about nationwide approval.  

This is an interesting concept, because if you try to appeal to everyone – like a Network show – you tend to appear successful or correct only a fraction of the time to most voters, but if you focus on a niche, you’ll be loved by some and strongly disliked by everyone else.  The highs are higher but the lows are lower.  

You can definitely see this play out in American politics today.  Instead of trying to appeal to everyone and find a middle ground, candidates simply talk to their niche and alienate everyone else.  In most categories such as music, film, education, etc. I love this as it allows me to find exactly what resonates with me, but when you’re trying to run a country, i don’t think it works.   

I just finished the Steve Jobs book and it was probably one of the most enjoyable books i’ve read in a long long time. I might say the past 10 years.  Here’s why:

Steve Jobs really cared about his products, deeply.  He had an intuitive feel for what the consumer wanted, and what he wanted.  He truly wanted his products to be close to art.   Even though very few in the industry believed him, even after the Macintosh had been around for over 10 years, he continued to hold on to this belief.  Each button, CD tray, color, and line was important to him. There’s a great passage in the book when he found out that the CD-ROM drive of a Mac was a tray instead a slot and it brought him to tears.

It was also fascinating to hear about the infant PC industry.  I had no idea how the PC industry started. I knew there was Apple and i knew there were was IBM but i didn’t understand how it emerged.  The narrative of the hobbyists building the board in garages makes sense to me, and i now understand.

I also didn’t understand how Jobs could get kicked out of his own company by a CEO and board that he selected.  But, after reading the story, i’m surprised he didn’t get kicked out sooner.   To hear of his return and his path back towards success was riveting.  Just a great story.  I highly recommend this book to anyone who’s enjoys Apple even a little bit.  Most people didn’t revere Jobs that much when he was alive (except, obviously the fanboys) but looking back at his accomplishments and commitment to excellence and innovation, we have to place him in the pantheon of business and product innovators.
I do think the world is a better place for having him here and i wish more people followed his path and held on to their dreams and reached for the stars.  It’s a great thing when it happens and actually works.

I went a great man-date with Julian last week and saw “Like Crazy” which stars Felicty Jones and Anton Yelchin as two college students who fall in love.  It’s not a rom-com but rather a romance.  Here are some thoughts…

The film is a very realistic portrayal of 20′s romance.  Anyone who has ever been in a long distance relationship in their 20′s will relate to this film.  You feel high on the relationship one second and then it drags and disappears.

Great use and progression of cell phone technology. Finally we see the impact texting can have on a character.  It always bothers me that this doesn’t happen more in movies. Also, the technology was pretty accurate – from the clamshell to the iPhone, it was some very realistic mobile movie footage.

That Chair. This is the actual chair (below) which was on display at the Arclight. In the film, it made me think that only in LA could you sell a really unconformatable chair for lots of money and have it as your business.  That’s why he could never move to London.  The Brits wouldn’t stand for expensive uncomfortable furniture.

How about Jennifer Lawrence!  She was given a small part as the backup girlfriend, but man did she sell it.  So well, in fact, that i think she stole most of those scenes and I think she did too good of a job.  You can tell that she’s going to be a star.

Let’s talk about the end.  Do they stay together? I think so. Felicity Jones was always way more into Anton than the other way around.  She approached him and left him a note on his car.  She suggested they get married.  And at the end, she came over to LA and has no plans of going nowhere.  Throughout their relationship, Anton was not one to rock the boat.  Thus, i think he’ll stick with it and they’ll come back around.  I’m optimistic for them.

Finally, i also got hold of the note that Felicty writes him in the beginning.  It’s below.

I just had an interesting breakfast with Tom Higley which i try to do once a month but ends up being about every other.  He sat down this morning and said, have you seen the movie “Moneyball” and then we got into a very interesting talk about what that film means in today’s world.  Here’s a few thoughts we had.

Aaron Sorkin can take any story and make it interesting.  He took a horrible book about Facebook (Accidental Millionaires) and wrote a fantastic and Oscar-winning script for The Social Network, and here he took a stats-filled non-fiction book about baseball and made an interesting movie.
The story of the Oakland A’s is not as simple as it was told.  They did not just find high on-base percentage players and ride that to a successful season.  No sir.  One thing that always beats good hitting is good pitching and there’s no mention of pitching in this entire movie. Why? Because it didn’t fit the narrative. Was their staff good? Hell, yes. The had a trio called “The Big Three” of Barry Zito, Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder.  Zito was their ace.  He went 23-5 and won the Cy Young award that year.   Mulder won 19 games, and Hudson led the league in shutouts.  That seems pretty relevant to me – you might want to mention it.

Brad Pitt is a true movie star.  You know who the movie stars are in this world when a person can get a movie like this made.  It was a non-fiction book about baseball stats without a romance or female interest anywhere to be seen.  Yet it still got funded and made.  That’s the power of Brad Pitt.

If the film The Social Network announced the arrival of the social aspect of the web, then Moneyball announced the arrival of Big Data.  More than anything, the internet is being built on a stack of stats.  There A/B testing, the Lean Startup movement, and other strategies that are incorporating data into everyday company life.  Tom mentioned to me the difference between Zynga and Entertainment Arts (EA).  Video games were once made, and still are (i.e. Call of Duty) as franchises were you spent hundreds of millions of dollars to make a game and then hope people play it.  Zynga is a company that gets a group of 5 developers together, creates a game, then uses tests and data to see if it catches on.  If it does, it continues, and if it doesn’t, they kill it.  They are riding that strategy to an IPO that values them at $20 billion (with a ‘b’).

Data has changed the game industry, the advertising industry, and many others.  Data is telling us what’s important and what isn’t.  That’s a very 2011 attribute and I can’t think of a better way to express it than through Moneyball.

Oh, by the way, i think that – as a movie – the film is somewhat overrated and only a 7 out of 10.

I’ve got the mp3′s of the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson and i’ve been listening on my daily commute for the past few weeks. So far, i’m 25% through the book and loving it. Here’s what i like about the book so far.

• Describing the social, music, and industry scene of Silicon Valley in the late 60′s and early 70′s is fascinating. The confluence of hippies, technology and drugs must have been amazing.
• The hobbyist movement around electrical engineering. What people thought of computers and how the PC emerged from microprocessors and silicon. It’s so hard now, in a world where there’s a computer on every shelf, to imagine how people didn’t logically think of the PC.
• Steve Jobs vs. Woz. It was an interesting partnership and highlights how you need different people with different talents to get a business off the ground.

A few people asked me this week how keep track of things i need to get things done.  So, let me tell you.

First, I keep an ongoing Task list. I have a big list and then i have a line in that list that i put each day of the things i want to accomplish that day.  This way i can move things up and down that list.  I actually have two lists – a personal list and a work list. I find that it’s helpful to keep them separate as i try to accomplish the work list when i’m at work and then when i leave, i consider my time to get those tasks done as over.  Then i’m on personal time.  It’s helpful to keep them separate.  How do i keep these tasks? I use Google Tasks.  It’s nicely tied into both my email and my calendar.  Also, there’s an app (I use GooTasks) that synch with the Gmail version so i can grab tasks when i’m on the go.

Second, i have a “one-touch” policy.  I’m not sure who told me about this but the idea is that you should touch things only once.  If you can read, process and reply all at one time, it’s better than filing to do later.  I do this with physical mail and i also try to do it with email.  I’m not as good as some, but i’ve found that the more you do this, the more you get done. My business partner Toby is actually a master of this.

Third, i subscribe to the “Daily Inches” mantra of consistency. This is best expressed in the Al Pacino speech in “Any Given Sunday” (listen to it here). The idea is that if you really want to make big changes – this could be your life, your work or whatever – the best way is to make progress daily.  You don’t ahve to do it all at once, but just make a little progress every day and you’ll get there.  For instance, if you want to increase your arm strength in the gym, you don’t want to go on a weekend and try to lift weights for 20 hours straight.  No, it’s better to work out a little bit each day for an extended period of time.  Make a little progress, every day.

There it is.  My three easy steps to getting things done – Lewis-style.  Most of it is common sense, but thought i’d share.  Tasks, one-touch, and daily inches.   What is your philosophy for getting things done?

If you haven’t noticed, there’s a new movement on the web to animate GIF, but to only animate them a little bit and to do it in a way to make them appear 3D.  I’m really loving it.  Take a look at the Steve Z image below and tell me you don’t like it.  I dare you. 

I’ve been reading all the news about Steve Jobs’ death these past few days. It’s one of the few stories that i can’t get enough of.  Because of all the articles, i didn’t want to post anything about it and be just another post about a topic that everyone knows about.  But i’m going to anyway.  I’m going to post for myself and because i think it’s important to write about people that impact you.

Steve Jobs was a hero of mine.  Not in a childish Superman-y way, but in a real day-to-day way. I spend my days discussing, inventing, reviewing and managing the production of online products.  This is what i do.  Every day.  Lots of people do this.  I’m friends with hundreds of them. Steve Jobs also did this.  But Steve did it differently. He was able to make products that came directly from his imagination and make them real.  This is something that is amazingly hard to do.

I also admire him as an entrepreneur.  He had a passion and a vision that was rare.  He envisioned 30 years ago a world where hardware and software met.  A world where the public can get excited about technology, where technology achieves cult status.  He got fired for thinking this way.  Seriously, read this article.  This thinking got him canned.  The CEO who replaced him said this of Steve’s thinking in the 80′s,

But Steve was thinking about something entirely different. He felt that the computer was going to change the world and it it was going to become what he called “the bicycle for the mind.” It would enable individuals to have this incredible capability that they never dreamed of before.

He got fired and regrouped.  Talk about a 2nd act.  First Pixar and then NEXT and then back to Apple.  His passion and focus made him successful every step of the way.  You can’t be an entrepreneur and not be inspired by his story.

I remember the first time i put the iPhone in my hand and used it. I was sitting at the Washington Nations game with Drew Mowery.  He had one and showed me.  Using it was like a window into the future.  That’s a rare feeling to have. It happened over 4 years ago and i still remember it.  I feel lucky to have been alive when he was around and building products.

As an innovator and as an entrepreneur, I’ll miss Steve Jobs.

Last weekend, I did a doubler at the local cineplex (with D, Jules and Abbie) of Moneyball and 50/50.  We were thinking Moneyball was going to be a our big “oh wow” movie but I was shocked when i left the theater totally floored by 50/50 instead.

50/50 is yet another cancer movie and i was expecting a tearjerker along the lines of Stepmom, A Sweet November, My Sister’s Keeper, or Life as a House.  These are good films but none of them would be tops of my end of the year list.

50/50 is different.  Unlike most films like this, it’s a comedy and its mix of earnetness and comedy makes it a special film.  The story of the real-life writer of the film who is a comedy writer is a great one to learn about, but even if you don’t know that, this is a film worth putting on your list.

Some thoughts i had about this movie:

• Its amazing how well Bryce Dallas Howard plays a total emotionless bitch.  She’s nailed that role both here and The Help.  I hope she had another side to her.
• I never understood how Anna Kendrick could be a movie star.  ”Up in the Air” was good but didn’t make me think she could be a star.  But now i do.  She was great.
• Skelator, the dog, is amazing.  Great call by the filmmakers on putting in an ugly yet adorable dog.

The film year is not over yet and actually most of the good movies haven’t even been released yet, so it’s easy to put this one at the top.   Another one at the top is the MMA film “Warrior” which is one of the most action-packed and exciting movies about forgiveness that i’ve ever seen.  Don’t mistake it for an action flick.  Make sure to check it out – you won’t be sorry.

Over the past two years, I’ve found that Colorado and Denver in particular to be filled with really nice folks.  The interactions here remind me of my childhood in Minnesota where you get a heavy dose of “Minnesota Nice” in each conversation.  While people here aren’t quite that nice, they are still extraordinarily friendly.

My first month here, i got pulled over by a Denver cop for rolling through a stop sign.  He asked me why i did it and i replied that i was lost and looking at my iPhone map.  Instead of looking at me like a moron (which i am) and writing out a ticket, he instead asked me for the address of where i was going, jumped into his car, pulled up along side me and said, “follow me, i know where it is.”  Yep, that really happened.

Today i saw these photos below of mailboxes in and around Denver. I thought they were pretty cute and a good example of the vibe you can get from this city.   Enjoy:

I hear a lot these days about job creation and growth and the economy.  I really do worry about people who have have been out of job for over a year.  Not working is totally destructive to a persons self-confidence and self-worth (not to mention bank account) and anyone out of the workforce for extended periods of time are in a really bad place. 

It seems that there are two recessions going on:  (1) the usually cyclical one and (2) the loss of factory jobs to the internet and overseas workers.   #1 will return, but #2 is gone forever for the US.  It’s not coming back.

Instead we should focus on the future.  I read a good post today by Seth Godin where he writes about this very topic.  He states:

When everyone has a laptop and connection to the world, then everyone owns a factory. Instead of coming together physically, we have the ability to come together virtually, to earn attention, to connect labor and resources, to deliver value.

Stressful? Of course it is. No one is trained in how to do this, in how to initiate, to visualize, to solve interesting problems and then deliver. Some see the new work as a hodgepodge of little projects, a pale imitation of a ‘real’ job. Others realize that this is a platform for a kind of art, a far more level playing field in which owning a factory isn’t a birthright for a tiny minority but something that hundreds of millions of people have the chance to do.

Gears are going to be shifted regardless. In one direction is lowered expectations and plenty of burger flipping. In the other is a race to the top, in which individuals who are awaiting instructions begin to give them instead.

The future feels a lot more like marketing–it’s impromptu, it’s based on innovation and inspiration, and it involves connections between and among people–and a lot less like factory work, in which you do what you did yesterday, but faster and cheaper.

This means we may need to change our expecations, change our training and change how we engage with the future. Still, it’s better than fighting for a status quo that is no longer. The good news is clear: every forever recession is followed by a lifetime of growth from the next thing…

Job creation is a false idol. The future is about gigs and assets and art and an ever-shifting series of partnerships and projects. It will change the fabric of our society along the way. No one is demanding that we like the change, but the sooner we see it and set out to become an irreplaceable linchpin, the faster the pain will fade, as we get down to the work that needs to be (and now can be) done.

This revolution is at least as big as the last one, and the last one changed everything.

 I like that. Let’s move forward rather than trying to bring back the past. 

When there’s something serious on the line, that’s when players try their hardest – and THAT is definitely the best time to be watching sports.  

You see it in the NBA playoffs, in March Madness and you’re seeting it now in the last few games of the MLB season.  Two teams – the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Rays – are battling for the wild card spot.  Last night, they were tied with 2 games left.  They both won by 1 run last night to keep it tied with 1 final game left.   Both those games were tight with tension.  Both teams lettign it all hang out.  Let me share some things that happened last night (posted here in ESPN): 

So, all of this happened on Tuesday in two games in the American League, where all that’s at stake is a playoff spot, one team trying to avoid a colossal collapse, the other team trying to prove that small-market franchises can slay the wealthy dragon, maybe an MVP award, and the pain and suffering of an entire Nation:

• A triple play. It may end up as the most important triple play in major league history.
• A rookie catcher, in the biggest game of the season, making his first career start behind the plate in the majors.
• That catcher — Boston’s Ryan Lavarnway, only the third Yale player drafted since 1965 to reach the big leagues — throwing out a baserunner trying to steal third base and then hitting a three-run home run, the first of his career. And then hitting his second career home run.
• An intentional walk … to bring Alex Rodriguez to the plate.
• The Red Sox hitting a guy cleanup who has never started in the cleanup position before.
• Nick Swisher doubling off the center-field wall, but Mark Teixeira not scoring from second base on the play.
• Jacoby Ellsbury showing why he may be the AL’s Most Valuable Player with another clutch home run.
• Adam Jones, fouling off pitch after pitch from Jonathan Papelbon with the tying run at second base in the bottom of the ninth, Orioles fans standing like they had a playoff berth on the line.
• Matt Joyce, Matt Joyce, Matt Joyce. You made Tampa Bay fans very happy.

Like i said, I love it when sports matter.  These things happen. 
 

Over here at Kapost, we talk to a lot of publishers and people creating content.  These are all sorts of people such as large known publishers, college newspapers, small company blogs and mommy blogs.

We noticed one obvious trend and one not so obvious one.

The obvious trend is that traditional journalism is struggling.  Companies that rely on their content to generate traffic for ad revenue are hurting.  They aren’t getting enough money for their content so they are doing all they can to get leaner and meaner.

The not so obvious trend is that many companies who are not content-based companies are hiring more and more journalists for themselves. They are doing so to populate their blog.  This is a marketing tactic and one that is pretty effective and becoming more and more popular.  This is a large emerging segment and, in my opinion, is the future of content.

My partner Toby wrote a great piece about this that was published today about this topic.  He goes even deeper and gives some good samples of why hiring journalists for non-content companies work and why it doesn’t for ad-supported folks.   He compares Fitness Magazine with the company Weight Watchers.  Both produce high volumes of content about dieting and exercise for essentially the same audience.  He concludes:

Fitness likely generates around a $6.50 effective CPM for the ads that it runs, a blended rate for its direct-sold and remnant inventory that is consistent with industry averages. Assuming that three ads are run on each page and that the average visitor visits five pages, Fitness would have an ARPU of about $0.10.

Weight Watchers, on the other hand, does not run ads, but tries to convert visitors into becoming paying customers. Given its $194 price point and a conservative 2 percent conversion assumption, the ARPU for Weight Watchers is $4. What we see here is a 40X ARPU difference between the media publisher and the content marketer.

This is a big difference.  People follow the money, and the money now is in content for marketing and not content for revenue.   That’s the future.

…when you open up a menu at a bar (Bunny’s) and you can order Walleye Fingers.

On another note, I didn’t know that the bar Bunnys in St. Louis Park got its name because the owner needed a sign and the sign maker had a spare sign with the name “Bunny’s” on it.  So he got it for cheap and that became the name of the bar.  Funny.

AOL released their earnings last week and the market did a collective vomit-in-their-mouth over the results and their market cap dropped by one third.

Lots of the criticism came from AOL’s expenses in producing content and skepticism that they will ever make enough money on the content they are producing.  It also came out that they are spending $160 million a year on Patch which equals about $150k a year on each site.  One analyst (Robert Peck at Quasar Capita) said about AOL, ”If you sell lemonade for $1 and it costs $800 to make it, that’s not a great business.”

Personally, I think AOL should continue to focus and pursue Patch. What’s their alternative?  Since Tim Armstrong has taken over, AOL has gone down the path of being an online content company.  That’s their strategy.  To abandon it would mean to become something completely different – something they have no vision or focus on.  Web companies don’t succeed and don’t create value by copying existing incumbents. They do it by innovating and building new distinct and unique offerings.  A hyperlocal site that covers and reports local news, that has local advertising and other deals tied in will exist.  The world is asking for it. AOL is uniquely positioned to build and provide it.  The newspaper is dead, and in 10 years online/mobile outlets are going to be the primary way news is found and read.

Of course, there is a question of whether they are structuring it correctly.  $150,000 a year seems steep for each site.  Could they do it more efficiently? I’m sure they can.  And, even people working there are admitting that their current attemps at revenue have been bad. But to call for them to stop doing it is just dumb.  I’m bullish and still believe in Patch and i think it’s a bold and interesting strategy for AOL and their only chance of being a relevant company in the web space.  I hope they make it work.

I’m a big NBA fan.  Each year i get excited to see how the MN Timberwolves do and i’m especially excited this year.

The only way to become great in the NBA is through the draft.  It’s the only way to get the true superstar and you need the true superstar to win a championship.  You have no idea when you draft Dwanye Wade or Kobe Bryant if they are going to be All-NBA or out of the league in 5 years.  Some players fizzle, some grow to superstardom – you never know.  But one thing you do know is that if a player becomes an elite player, the Timberwolves will NEVER get them unless they already had them.

This year i’m especially excited because we have two new rookies that could be the next players that set the league on fire.  They are Ricky Rubio and Derrick Williams.

Both were drafted high (Rubio at 5, Williams at 2) and both were touted to be one of the best in their class.  How they will actually perform, nobody knows.  But i’m pretty frickin’ pumped to see Rubio leading fast breaks with Williams and Wes Johnson on one wing and Kevin Love trailing for 3′s and rebounds.

Check out this video. Just a few years ago people were talking about Greg Oden as one of of the best draft picks in recent memory.  The number two pick – Kevin Durant – was considered risky.  Well, here’s a video of him taken yesterday when he went absolutely insane.  I’m hoping some of that similar draft luck comes to the T-Wolves.

I get tired of remembering and also tired of writing.

My new desire is to just speak stuff and have it appear.  Twitter was easier than blogging but talking is even easier than that.

Henry James dictated his novels to his secretaries and it seemed to work out ok for him.  I was always hesitant of voice recognition but it’s now so good in fact that I just dictated this entire blog post via the Dragon app on my iPhone. It was a total joy.  I’m able to talk at 300 words a minute but I can only type and 50. It’s actually a no-brainer and I’m now wishing there’s a version of Dragon I can just leave running all day and have a text archives of my conversations in the office. I want everything I talk about be captured.

The web is already filled with tons of useless babble – and it’s about to be filled with a lot more of it. 

I have a new love in the office and it’s called Turntable.fm.  If you haven’t heard about this web application, it’s a website where you can go and play music.  Except it’s not just you playing music, it’s a table where you and up to 4 other friends each rotate playing music.  So, you play a song, then your friend, then another friend and then back to you (if only 3 people in the room).  If you’ve in an office where music playing is public or you want to get music suggestions from friends, this is the perfect application.

There have been a million music applications built in the past 5 years, so the question is: why is turntable successful where the other ones weren’t. Here’s why:

1. It’s inherently social.  The internet is a different medium.  It’s not TV, it’s not print and it’s not a stereo.  It’s wrong to try to recreate any of those (although people try all the time).  It’s a new medium and it’s key characteristic is that it’s an interactive place.  What was a Zagat’s book became Yelp. What was an encylopedia became Wikipedia. Items that embrace the crowd work.  This is what Turntable has done.  It’s embracing other people and making that it’s key characteristic.
2. Music discovery.  There’s a circle of music consumption that we used to pitch at Qloud that goes, (1) you buy a song, (2) you play a song, (3) you find a new song and then go back to step 1.   With iTunes, Amazon and many others, the markets in Steps 1 and 2 are pretty mature. However, the discovery piece is still wide open.  Pandora is doing a good job there but there’s still not a dominant service that will tell you what your friends want to hear.  We did a pretty good job at Qloud and it’s one of the reasons we got to 25 million monthly uniques but it’s still a problem on the web.  Ask your friend how they find out about new music and most will say that they don’t.

Sure there are other reasons why it works (huge catalog of music and it’s free) but i believe the two above are the main reasons.  It should also be noted that just because it’s popular, doesn’t mean that it’s going to be lucrative.  In my opinion, a music startup is still a bad idea. If you don’t believe me, ask Imeem and iLike – both of which had tens of millions of users – how they made out (Imeem sold for $1MM after raising 25MM and iLIke sold for $15MM after raising $16MM).

I thought this was a good graphic of how some companies are organized. Cool little diagram. Thanks to MacL3 for it.

There’s a program that has only 10 minute-long episodes that’s on only at midnight once a week on the channel Adult Swim.  It may be random, but man is it glorious.  I challenge you not to love this show.  Check out this quick episode:

The show is created by Rob Corddry – who most of you know from Comedy Central – and the storyline centers on the staff of Childrens Hospital, a hospital for children, named after a doctor named Arthur Childrens. The hospital sporadically (and usually without reason) is mentioned as being located within Brazil, despite making virtually no effort to conceal that the series is shot in Los Angeles, California. Corddry is part of an amazing ensemble cast portraying the doctors, which includes Rob Hubel, Ken Marino (Party Down), Megan Mullaly (also from Party Down), Malin Akerman, Henry Winkler and many other commedians you probably know such as Michael Cera who does the intercom annoucements in the hospital.

The show is now in it’s third season.  I personally think the 3rd season has been the funniest so i would jump directly there if you can.  Enjoy my friends.  It’s aways such a treat to find such awesomeness.

You can read all over the internet how hard it is to build a company from scratch.  There’s customer development which leads to product/market fit which leads to revenue which leads to profitability.  And that’s only if everything goes right.  It’s a challenge.

The analogy i always have in my head is a walk in the woods.  When you start a business, it’s like walking through a dense jungle.  You have a machete, hacking your way through the brush, and talking to whoever you can, trying to find a path.  Once you get a product and a sense of direction, you find a path, the walk becomes a little bit easier but, as they say, you’re not out of the woods.

As you talk to more customers and continue to develop your product, that path becomes wider and eventually turns into a dirt road.  Improving the sales and dev process plus hiring more help turns that road into a paved road and eventually, if everything goes right, it becomes a highway.

Each step of the way is exciting.  Right now at Kapost we’ve built a path and we’re working hard to turn that into a road.  It’s hard and challenging but it’s also damn fun.  We have a great team of folks and the daily progress we’re making is impressive.

Last week I spoke at the NYC Hacks/Hackers conference which was a pretty great gettogether of journalists and technology folks. I spoke about all the editorial tools that Kapost provides and got a pretty good response.

One other company that was there was a company called Narrative Science and they sort of blew my mind. This company takes formatted data – think of a baseball box score or census results – and algorithmically turns that data into a news story. So, a boxscore that used to just be 9 innings with numbers in it becomes this:

Michigan held off Iowa for a 7-5 win on Saturday. The Hawkeyes (16-21) were unable to overcome a four-run sixth inning deficit. The Hawkeyes clawed back in the eighth inning, putting up one run.

Whoa.

They are doing 1000 stories a week, and now that they have the template for baseball nailed, they are going into census data, crime information and other avenues that typically just produce data. It’s only a matter of time before SkyNet appears.

Granted i was only in Austin for 2 days of the South by Soutwest festival, but here’s my take on it.

SXSW has now become a Spring Break for nerds. Similar to if you went to Daytona Beach for a real spring break and how you’d get sick of tequila and dance music, people at SXSW get overdosed of Apps, Twitter and the words “social” and “media”. With so many people shouting in your face, it had to tell what anyone is saying.

That said, here are some highlights:

1. The group messaging apps were out in full effect.  GroupMe, Beluga and others were there.  These are fun apps.  My favorite is GroupMe and if you haven’t tried it – i recommend you do.  It’s a good way to keep in touch with people.   Here’s a good roundup of all the group messaging apps.
2. Uber Cabs were everywhere.  They were the big winners of the show.  It was impossible to attend this year’s event and not hear of Uber.    Fantastic marketing job done by them.
3. The gaming Keynote by Scavengr CEO was the talk of the weekend.  it’s nice to see a talk that’s well put-together and stimulating.  Gaming is in lots of apps, and with good reason.  If you can find the video of this, you should watch it (and tell me where it is so i can see it too).

I’ve been asked this question a bit lately.  I remember a funny Friends episode where the gang played a trivia game about how well each person knows the other friends.  The final winner-take-all question asked to the group was, “What does Chandler do for work?”  To which nobody, not even his wife, could answer.  Well, it seems that I’m the Chandler Bing of my friends.

I’m not too surprised by this as the startup that Toby, Nader and I started last year, named Kapost, has shifted (aka “pivoted”) three times in the past 18 months so I frequently end up describing my work in different ways to the same person.  I could see where the confusion comes from.   Luckily, describing my job just got a little bit easier today when we launched a new commercial describing Kapost.   What we do is build software to help Editors of websites manage their users and the content they want to publish.   Watch the commercial below to get a more fun and colorful explanation of this.

I was thinking about my life and the web the other day and talking to some friends over lunch about how I love that i’m married to a woman who enjoys the web and has intellectual curiosity about it. I was then approached by a woman in a restaurant who was eavesdropping on my conversation. She called me over and then went on for 10 minutes telling me how my love of technology is what’s making the world so horrible. How my blind devotion to electricity is polluting the lakes and ruining the planet. I’ll spare you the “conversation” but let’s just say, i left wishing she hadn’t felt a need to share and that my friends were quicker to pull me away.

So, for her and her hatred of technology, I’d like to share a quote i just read:

“When department stores had Christmas window with clockwork puppets, the world was going to pieces; when the city streets were filled with horse-drawn carriages running by bright-colored posters, you could no longer tell the real from the simulated; when people were listening to shellac 78′s and looking at color newspaper supplements, the world had become a kaleidoscope of disassociated imagery; and when the broadcast air was filled with droning black-and-white images of men in suits reading news, all of life had become indistinguishable from your fantasies of it. It was Marx, not Steve Jobs, who said that the character of modern life is that everything falls apart”

History repeats itself. The world is changing and that change frightens people and computers are thus responsible for the problems. This isn’t the case. It’s not the web making the world a worse place. Relax people.

The above quote is from a great piece in the New Yorker (thanks to Sara for sending to me) which compares the three types of people that focus on the web: the Never-Betters (probably me), The Better-Nevers (woman at restaurant) and the Ever-Wasers. All are seen as flawed in the article. The author does come to a point where every author talking about this topic does – Steve Johnson came to a similar conclusion here – where he states that the world and the self are a bit different with the web around but it’s not as radical as everyone is claiming. I like his library analogy. Reading it, I picture myself in a room with a bed in the Baker Tower library stacks and living there. He writes,

There’s a spooky sense where the Internet is just a loud and unlimited library in which we now live – as if one went to sleep every night in the college stacks, surrounded by pamphlets and polemics and possibilities. There is the sociology section, the science section, old sheet music and menus, ….It is odd and new to be living in the library; but there isn’t anything odd and new about the library.

I like that. It isn’t the Internet that’s the issue, it’s the omnipresence of it. This point is further punctuated in the book “Hamlet’s Blackberry” where the author describes that the family in the book makes a deal to have Unplugged Sunday to better themselves, and that the No Screens agreement doesn’t include television. What? It was only 20-30 years ago when all this madness towards the Internet was similarly being directed at the “boob tube”. But, as the NY’er author points out, “once you’re not everything, you can be merely something. The real demon in the machine is the tirelessness of the user.”

Yes, this I wholeheartedly agree. So, i guess if it wasn’t this one Internety thing, it’d be something else shiny and culture-altering i’d be throwing my heart and spirit into. Me – for now i’m quite happy with what we’ve got. Sorry crazy woman from the restaurant.

As a huge lover of the sitcom Seinfeld, I loved this trailer.  A great mashup of scenes to make the movie, “Jerry The Great”

The new company Ongo announced today that it’s raised $12 million from a handful of big media companies (Washington Post, NY Times, and Gannett who publishes USA Today).  The service they are offering is, according to the NY TImes article about the investment:

Ongo is for readers who peruse a variety of publications every day and want to read them all in one place. It shows articles from about 20 publications, and is in talks with dozens more.

The catch: Readers pay $6.99 a month for the service, while most of the Web sites whose articles it shows are free. In exchange, readers see no ads or cluttered pages, and can search for articles, save them and share them with friends — all from one site.

The article then has this quote from the founder, “I just don’t think my friends are as good as professional editors in finding stories for me to read.”

I don’t see any way for this company to succeed.

It will fail for two reasons:

1. Nobody is going to pay for content.  It’s free now and will remain free for most readers.  If a NY Times article one day costs money to read, that user either won’t read it and/or will find a free alternative.  There’s a surplus of free content on the web.
2. His quote, “I just don’t think my friends are as good as professional editors in finding stories for me to read,” is just wrong. I’ll grant that the Ongo service could better than going to just the NY Times, but pulling stories from 20 sites (even 100) isn’t going to be more interesting than pulling content from the millions that are out there – and my friends are doing a great job of curating them on Twitter, Paper.li, or in Google Reader.

On that last point, the key to web publishing is to harness the power of the people.  There are so many sites on the web, and new good ones emerging every day.  Let the people find the good stuff; use the crowd as a curator. Once users submit articles, then use another level of professional Editors to showcase the best of the crowd’s submissions. That’s what sites BuzzFeed and Gawker are doing. That’s the future, not putting up a Paywall.

This underscores the main problem with web publishing, and that’s that the traditional publishing model doesn’t work for the web.  The NY Times, The Washington Post and Gannett are stuck in a 1999 publishing scheme.  There’s a quote from Barry Diller from IAC in 2009 where he talks about web content, saying, “It is not free, and is not going to be.  Users just need to get back into the habit of doing so [paying for content] online” and then Rupert Murdoch of News Corp agrees with him, saying,  “Web users will have to pay for what they watch and use.”

Clay Shirky did a great job of interpreting these quotes.  His interpretation of what the large media companies are trying to say:

Web users will have to pay for what they watch and use, or else we will have to stop making content in the costly and complex way we have grown accustomed to making it. And we don’t know how to do that.

That is exactly right.  They don’t know how to change their model to adjust for the web economics.  You need less on staff writers, more freelancers, you need more articles, and more depth.  There exists sites that are making great content with this alternative business model, they are SB Nation, Seeking Alpha, Gawker, Breaking Media, The Huffington Post, and others.  It’s just sad to see Ongo’s investment today to create a $12 million dollar bandaid for large media.

** Writer’s note:  My new company, Kapost, is driving this new publishing model.  We make it easy for Editors to manage writers and content so they CAN create content cost effectively.

Say what you will about Apple’s product and their company culture.  They can be closed (vs. Google’s “open”) and the company can be arrogant, but you have to admire how successful they are right now.  Their domination of the consumer electronics industry is just staggering.  Never before in my life have i seen a company firing on all cylinders like this.  It truly something to witness.

Let me give you some facts from their latest earning’s call this week.

• The first astonishing statistic, is that Apple’s revenue grew 71% in the past year.  Large companies like Apple’s just don’t grow 70% year over year.  Apple is now on a revenue run-rate of more than $100 billion a year.  Just as amazing, it is expecting to grow another 60%+ in the first quarter of this year.

All their products are crushing it.

The App ecosystem is now deployed across all products.  Buying an app on Mac App Store goes to iPod and to iPhone. It’s all related and working nicely.   Look at these stats:

• Mac sales grew 23% in a market that grew only 3%.  This is 8x the market rate.
• iPods remain at 70% of the market
• iTunes is now a $4 billion dollar a year business with nobody even coming close.  Users are now renting and purchasing over 400,000 TV episodes and over 150,000 movies per day.
• iPads already account for 7% of all PC’s shipped
• The retails stores are now a $16 billion a year business and revenue grew 95% last year.
• The Mac App Store just launched and sold 1 million apps the first day

The competition is nowhere.  Google Android tablets have an OS (Honeycomb) which isn’t fully speced and hasn’t launched yet anywhere.  That means as Apple rolls out v2 of the iPad which millions of apps, the closest competitor has yet to fully launch v1.   The Android phone OS will definitely be the dominant player in the market.  Every phone will use it because there are zero alternatives.  But Google nor the handset makers won’t cash on its success anywhere close to how Apple’s cashing in on the iPhone.  The iPhone supply can’t meet demand.  It can’t meet demand so there’s no reason to think that Apple is scared of competition there.

Is Microsoft supposed to be king of Enterprise?  iPhone and iPad have now penetrated the enterprise and taking names (over 80% penetration of Fortune 100).  Where’s the competition?.  If I was MS or RIM, i’d be very very worried.

This is before they’ve had any success integrating in all their latest acquisitions.  These are Lala (subscription cloud-based music service), Quattro (mobile advertising), Siri (killer voice recognition), and Poly9 (maps and 3D).  These, especially the Quattro, could open entire new markets for them although it remains to be seen how that plays out.

So, Apple is cruising and margins for the company as a whole is are almost 40% so while i can see others catch up (Google, Samsung), there’s no way they will actually challenge the freight-train that is Apple.

I didn’t post this last year but it has stayed with me.  It’s a great speech by CEO/Founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos.  It’s the commencement speech to Princeton’s Class of 2010, delivered on May 30, 2010.   Choices are incredibly important and now, at the beginning of 2011, it’s good to step back and think about what choices we’ll make this upcoming year.  Here’s to you and me, building a great story also.  Read on….

As a kid, I spent my summers with my grandparents on their ranch in Texas. I helped fix windmills, vaccinate cattle, and do other chores. We also watched soap operas every afternoon, especially “Days of our Lives.” My grandparents belonged to a Caravan Club, a group of Airstream trailer owners who travel together around the U.S. and Canada. And every few summers, we’d join the caravan. We’d hitch up the Airstream trailer to my grandfather’s car, and off we’d go, in a line with 300 other Airstream adventurers. I loved and worshipped my grandparents and I really looked forward to these trips. On one particular trip, I was about 10 years old. I was rolling around in the big bench seat in the back of the car. My grandfather was driving. And my grandmother had the passenger seat. She smoked throughout these trips, and I hated the smell.

At that age, I’d take any excuse to make estimates and do minor arithmetic. I’d calculate our gas mileage — figure out useless statistics on things like grocery spending. I’d been hearing an ad campaign about smoking. I can’t remember the details, but basically the ad said, every puff of a cigarette takes some number of minutes off of your life: I think it might have been two minutes per puff. At any rate, I decided to do the math for my grandmother. I estimated the number of cigarettes per days, estimated the number of puffs per cigarette and so on. When I was satisfied that I’d come up with a reasonable number, I poked my head into the front of the car, tapped my grandmother on the shoulder, and proudly proclaimed, “At two minutes per puff, you’ve taken nine years off your life!”

I have a vivid memory of what happened, and it was not what I expected. I expected to be applauded for my cleverness and arithmetic skills. “Jeff, you’re so smart. You had to have made some tricky estimates, figure out the number of minutes in a year and do some division.” That’s not what happened. Instead, my grandmother burst into tears. I sat in the backseat and did not know what to do. While my grandmother sat crying, my grandfather, who had been driving in silence, pulled over onto the shoulder of the highway. He got out of the car and came around and opened my door and waited for me to follow. Was I in trouble? My grandfather was a highly intelligent, quiet man. He had never said a harsh word to me, and maybe this was to be the first time? Or maybe he would ask that I get back in the car and apologize to my grandmother. I had no experience in this realm with my grandparents and no way to gauge what the consequences might be. We stopped beside the trailer. My grandfather looked at me, and after a bit of silence, he gently and calmly said, “Jeff, one day you’ll understand that it’s harder to be kind than clever.”

What I want to talk to you about today is the difference between gifts and choices. Cleverness is a gift, kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy — they’re given after all. Choices can be hard. You can seduce yourself with your gifts if you’re not careful, and if you do, it’ll probably be to the detriment of your choices.

This is a group with many gifts. I’m sure one of your gifts is the gift of a smart and capable brain. I’m confident that’s the case because admission is competitive and if there weren’t some signs that you’re clever, the dean of admission wouldn’t have let you in.

Your smarts will come in handy because you will travel in a land of marvels. We humans — plodding as we are — will astonish ourselves. We’ll invent ways to generate clean energy and a lot of it. Atom by atom, we’ll assemble tiny machines that will enter cell walls and make repairs. This month comes the extraordinary but also inevitable news that we’ve synthesized life. In the coming years, we’ll not only synthesize it, but we’ll engineer it to specifications. I believe you’ll even see us understand the human brain. Jules Verne, Mark Twain, Galileo, Newton — all the curious from the ages would have wanted to be alive most of all right now. As a civilization, we will have so many gifts, just as you as individuals have so many individual gifts as you sit before me.

How will you use these gifts? And will you take pride in your gifts or pride in your choices?

I got the idea to start Amazon 16 years ago. I came across the fact that Web usage was growing at 2,300 percent per year. I’d never seen or heard of anything that grew that fast, and the idea of building an online bookstore with millions of titles — something that simply couldn’t exist in the physical world — was very exciting to me. I had just turned 30 years old, and I’d been married for a year. I told my wife MacKenzie that I wanted to quit my job and go do this crazy thing that probably wouldn’t work since most startups don’t, and I wasn’t sure what would happen after that. MacKenzie (also a Princeton grad and sitting here in the second row) told me I should go for it. As a young boy, I’d been a garage inventor. I’d invented an automatic gate closer out of cement-filled tires, a solar cooker that didn’t work very well out of an umbrella and tinfoil, baking-pan alarms to entrap my siblings. I’d always wanted to be an inventor, and she wanted me to follow my passion.

I was working at a financial firm in New York City with a bunch of very smart people, and I had a brilliant boss that I much admired. I went to my boss and told him I wanted to start a company selling books on the Internet. He took me on a long walk in Central Park, listened carefully to me, and finally said, “That sounds like a really good idea, but it would be an even better idea for someone who didn’t already have a good job.” That logic made some sense to me, and he convinced me to think about it for 48 hours before making a final decision. Seen in that light, it really was a difficult choice, but ultimately, I decided I had to give it a shot. I didn’t think I’d regret trying and failing. And I suspected I would always be haunted by a decision to not try at all. After much consideration, I took the less safe path to follow my passion, and I’m proud of that choice.

Tomorrow, in a very real sense, your life — the life you author from scratch on your own — begins.

How will you use your gifts? What choices will you make?

Will inertia be your guide, or will you follow your passions?

Will you follow dogma, or will you be original?

Will you choose a life of ease, or a life of service and adventure?

Will you wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions?

Will you bluff it out when you’re wrong, or will you apologize?

Will you guard your heart against rejection, or will you act when you fall in love?

Will you play it safe, or will you be a little bit swashbuckling?

When it’s tough, will you give up, or will you be relentless?

Will you be a cynic, or will you be a builder?

Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be kind?

I will hazard a prediction. When you are 80 years old, and in a quiet moment of reflection narrating for only yourself the most personal version of your life story, the telling that will be most compact and meaningful will be the series of choices you have made. In the end, we are our choices. Build yourself a great story. Thank you and good luck!

I’ve noticed over the past year or so that the number of friends of mine who blog is decreasing.  I’m seeing less posts.  To me this is because Twitter and Facebook have taken all their thoughts.  The “I love Tron!” thoughts are now going into status messages and not into blog posts.  Which, to me, is fine.

But there’s actually been an increase in long-form posts i’m seeing.  The blogs i’m reading are full of actual articles of great stuff.  It’s great to get the “I love Tron” type comments on to Facebook and Twitter so the blog can hold longer form of actual thoughts and analysis.

I recently read a great article by Clive Thompson about just this topic.  His theory is that something more complex and interesting is actually happening.  He says, “The torrent of short-form thinking is actually a catalyst for more long-form meditation.”  He states, “We talk a lot, then we dive deep.”

I totally agree.  I put lots of links and crap into Twitter and then when I actually have something to say, like now, I go to the blog to put it down on paper.   I’m not the only one.  Popular blogger Anil Dash writes, “I save the little stuff for Twitter and blog only when I have something big to say.”  Clive’s article supports this by saying that one survey found that the most popular blog posts today are the longest ones, 1,600 words on average.

So, keep on Tweeting, Tumblring and Facebooking, but don’t forget to share your deeper more interesting thoughts.  Those are the ones I love.

I’ve seen it before.  It happened with Twitter and with MySpace.  Sometimes there’s a confluence of media attention and star power that makes a website just explode – and that is about to happen to Quora.

If you haven’t heard of this website, enjoy this moment in time. It’s probably the last moment you won’t hear or read someone talk about this great new Q&A site that’s emerged.   By the end of 2011, Quora will be seen as one of the breakout hits.

Now, i have nothing against the site. In fact, i think it’s a great service that’s been implemented wonderfully.  It has great UX and frontend design.  It’s truly collaborative.  Mix that in with some great content and great users and you’ve got a good little site.

I also do think that it represents a step forward towards how content will appear on the web.   Wikipedia is great but it is hard for regular people to edit can contribute.  The Quora site is easy to use and amassing some great content.   The web is built for interactivitity and Quora is one of the most interactive content sites around.  This is its niche.

I like it.  I’m just preparing for the onslaught of media attention that’s about to happen over the next 12 months.

When you click on the Movies app on your iPhone, you get this popup advertisement:

The only way to get past it without being taken to the Living Social site is to click “I Hate Cupcakes”

Sure, it’s cheating and misleading, but I’m guessing the click-through rates for this one is off the charts.  Who doesn’t loves cupcakes?

Next Three Days is a new film with Russel Crowe and Elizabeth Banks. It’s also written and directed by Paul Haggis who won Oscars for Crash (writer/director) and Million Dollar Baby (writer).

I really liked this film. Imagine your wife is wrongly imprisoned and your life just falls apart. That’s what happens here. Russell Crowe can’t handle it and decides he’s going to bust his wife out. He doesn’t know how but he’s going to do it. The movie does a good job of showing how he plots the job as well as how he has to change psychologically. Mentally, he has to do things he never thought possible. The film is a good look at how how a man can change given the right motivation.

Some people thought it had a dragging/slow middle half. I actually liked it as they showed Russell methodically going through each step. Haggis diliberately did this and in an interview he says.

that’s what the great films from the 40s through the 70s did; they took the time to invest in the characters and everyone when I was making this movie said, ‘Oh, it’s got to go fast. It’s got to go fast. Things have to happen.’ I said, ‘No they don’t. Sorry, it’s not the film we’re making.’ This is a film that’s going to get you to invest in these characters and care so when they run, you’re going to care that they’re running and when they jump into a car, you’re going to care that it starts and it’s not just one thriller after another that you sit back and go, ‘Oh, cool. Look at that CG.’ No, I want to be inside the character. I want you to sweat when this character’s sweating. So that’s what I was hoping to accomplish.

For me he definitely succeeded in this task. The end was one of the most nerve-racking 30 minutes of film I’ve seen in years. Because, as Haggis says, I knew the stakes and the characters, you really feel the suspense. I definitely recommend this film. 8 out of 10

Denzel makes a predictable train movie – again. Chris Pine seems like he’s on the train trying to think of the best story he can say about his wife that we’d find even remotely interesting. He does’t succeed.

Honestly, instead of seeing this film, you should just watch the SNL parody (below). It’s the same thing but funny. Movie 4 out of 10. Parody: 9 / 10.

I’ve seen a slew of movies over the past 2 weeks (read: 6). Instead of one monster post of all of them, i’ll do a short review of one each day.

Today’s movie Burlesque. This film has a really strong beginning. The scene where Christina Aguilera’s character earns a spot in the show was well done. We really care about her and then when starts singing, it really hits home. I was sitting there thinking that this might be a modern day A Chorus Line. But no, it’s not. Around 35 minutes in, Burlesque slips into a mediocre movie, and it doesn’t really tell us anything about any of the characters. We know where Aguilera comes from but not how she learned to sing or dance or got her motivation to be a performer. Similarly, the other characters couldn’t even be called 1-demensional. I would say maybe 1/2 demensional. We got no background on any of them – even the guy Aguilera falls in love with. Apparently she likes him because he works at the same place, he had a couch she could sleep on and is good looking. That’s about all we know of him and of her criteria.

As the movie continued, I was waiting for the True Hollywood Story death spiral that always occurs to a newly crowned star – see Ray, The Runaways, and Walk the Line for film examples. That doesn’t happen here. In fact, nothing happens. While it’s refreshing that Aguilera stays the same grounded person throughout the film, it’s also boring. Also, the Cher solo needed to be cut. She didn’t hold my attention at all. I know she’s had a #1 hit in every decade since the 50′s but this isn’t her song for this decade. It sucked

All that nastiness aside, this movie isn’t as bad as you think it could be. 6 out of 10.

Nick Denton who has been on the forefront of blogging and online publishing for the past decade is shaking things up again. He’s redesigning the Gawker websites (Gizmodo, Deadspin, Gawker, Defamer, etc.) to be able to better showcase top stories, making video more prominent, and making articles easier to scan. It’s also interesting to hear what he’s learned over the years. His main point – scoops and exclusives dictate the winners. He writes in a statement he released on Gawker:

One law of media competition applies as strongly to web properties as it did to their predecessors: scoops drive audience growth. Gawker Media experienced that rule, painfully, as Harvey Levin’s TMZ eclipsed our overly bloggy Hollywood site, Defamer. TMZ’s growth was built upon three gigantic stories: Mel Gibson’s meltdown; Michael Richards’ racist outburst; and Michael Jackson’s death.

He goes on to argue that simply reposting stories that are elsewhere on the web is a broken strategy:

For that, let’s look at the biggest exclusive of all — early shots of the iPhone 4 — which made Gizmodo into a household name. That episode more than any other demonstrated the bankruptcy of the classic blog column. In order to keep video of the iPhone prototype at the top of the reverse chronological flow, Gizmodo actually stopped publishing for several hours. How ridiculous!

Another interesting move they are making is moving to more video. In the past, he explained, is that video is twice as hard to produce without twice the payoff. Also, they felt that this was the differentiated skill of TV networks/ However, it’s now changed for them as making videos are easier and they are finding that TV companies are just as entrenched in legacy formats and methods with video as they have been for text. As he says, “Gawker bloggers, once they’re as familiar with iMovie as with cut-and-paste, can beat them.”

The new site looks more like ESPN Sportscenter and PTI than a typical blog like Techcrunch.  And that’s the point.  Put the big story front and center and the rest to the side.  It remains to be seen though that whether catering to the scoop and the new non-familiar user will alienate the daily reader, which is their bread and butter.   Personally, I like the move.  Even if it doesn’t work, I admire companies that are trying new tactics and innovating.  Denton’s been right in the past and if anyone knows online publishing and readership behaviors it’s him – so I’d guess that this is the correct move.

Diane Young by Vampire Weekend   (download here) (Buy from Amazon)
I’m totally addicted to this song.  I wasn’t so pumped on it at first, but little by little it has crawled into my skin and i find myself singing it all the time.  I hope you like it. 

Fight by Ben Kweller      (download here)
This song was on my playlist all throughout 2008.  I just reheard it recently and remembered how much I liked it.

One Girl / One Guy by !!!     (download here) (Buy from Amazon)
I like the music of this song way more than the lyrics, but it sure is funky.  Put it on your running mix and you’ll go a tad faster.

When I Was Your Man by Bruno Mars
If I was 16 years old and just broke up with my girlfriend, this is the song i’d be listening to over and over again. I’m not 16 but i’ve still managed to listen to this track quite a few times. Nicely done Bruno. (download here) (Buy from Amazon)

 
Hot Like Sauce by Pretty Lights
This is a pretty good jam introduced to me by TLerias.  Good workout tune.  (download here) (Buy from Amazon)

I’m Going Down by Vampire Weekend
A good cover of the Bruce Springsteen classic.  This was the ending song of a Girls episode in season 2.  That said, it’s still a pretty sweet cover. (download here)

 
Will You Love Me by Matthew E. White
This is one of the smoothest songs I’ve heard in a while.  It’s sort of a first-dance song at a wedding.  Love it.  (download here) (Buy from Amazon)

   
Weather in My Head by Donald Fagen (download here) (Buy from Amazon)

Good tune that came out the end of last year. It totally reminded me of Steely Dan, which makes sense because I just found out that Donal Fagen is the former lead singer of the band.

Emmylou by First Aid Kit     (download here) (Buy from Amazon)
Just a chill song to start out your week.  This was released last year but i’m just now coming around to it. 

Default by Django Django (download here) (Buy from Amazon)
This song was just recently discovered by me and just rocks.  Good for a bouncy morning.