This is seriously the worst Hans Gruber impression ever, and the dialogue they wrote for him was even worse... but Jamie Gumm saves it.

"Trust me I'm the all time wrongest tree to bark up..."

Yesterday, my blog turned five.

I'm not really inclined to write much about that...  I've got too much work to do today.

And, I suppose that's somewhat fitting.  This is me working.  You want to look back on it?  Knock yourself out.  It's all here.  Me?  I'm looking forward.  I have stuff to do. 

I'm not going to write about how much my blog has given me or who I've met because of it.  If you're blogging with any kind of consistancy and effort, you know what I'm talking about.  If you're not blogging, then the rest of us are inclined to think that either a) you do not want feedback on your thoughts, b) you do not think your thinking needs practice or c) you do not think you have any thoughts worth sharing.  In any case, we're not inclined to chase you down to force you into it. 

It's 2009 and if you don't get it by now, the world is passing you by.

I will, however, leave you with three lessons that I hope, in my five years of blogging, that you've learned from me by now:

1) You do not know everything and neither do I, so open communication makes us all smarter.

2) There are a lot of people out there who are working hard on awesome things.  There are a lot of other people out there talking about other people who are working hard on awesome things, talking about awesome things in general, and tagging themselves on the 8,000 pictures they took of themselves during social media drinkups and tweetups.  These latter people are to be avoided.  Strive to seek out those are are actually changing the world--leave no stone unturned.

3) You can't please everyone... so the best you can do is be a lightning rod for those likeminded people that you do see eye to eye with, and poke bears and rattle cages around the rest of them. 

Ok, back to work...

"If the intent is to help homeowners, then foreclosure is undoubtedly the best solution. Household balance sheets have been destroyed by taking on too much debt via the purchase of inflated assets. With so little savings, a household with negative equity almost implies negative net worth. Walking away from the mortgage immediately repairs the balance sheet. Credit may be damaged, but homeowners can rebuild it. And by renting something they can afford, instead of the McMansion they cannot, homeowners are most likely to have some money left over each month that they can save toward a down payment on a house they can eventually afford."

Why Be a Nation of Mortgage Slaves? - WSJ.com

Incorrectly valuing assets--that's basically what this financial collapse comes down to. All the stuff we thought we had--our houses, mortgages, and all the wacky financial derivatives we layered on top of them--turned out to not be worth that much.

Now that prices have fallen off a cliff, investors are out searching for undervalued assets. There's one asset out there that few people are talking about that is severely undervalued in a bad economy--and its the one thing that has the most potential to get you through 2009 in one piece.

Your body.

It's actually the only asset we ever truly own. Our ownership of most of our other stuff is pretty tenuous--and often highly leveraged, making it a missed payment away from being taken away. Your body, on the other hand, is always yours. In fact, the government even prevents you from selling it.

It is the physical instrument by which we carry out everything that flows through our various digital lifestreams--it is the source of the lifestreams.

This really hit home for me when I found out that a friend of mine and fellow entrepreneur, Tim Marman, told me that he has cancer--fortunately a highly curable form, but still... It made me realize how much I have invested in and depend on my body to carry me through the day--and how much my employees and investors are riding on it, too.

That's why, if there's any one thing I think we need to focus more on over the next year--it's taking care of our physical selves. We're going to need those few extra minutes of lucid thinking a day and that extra spring in our step when we're trying to make a flight to a customer. We can't afford extra sick days, financially and just in terms of meeting ever increasing professional expectations.

Does that mean we all need to run a five minute mile? No, but how about trying to break a 10 minute mile...or just get out and walk a mile?  Unplug and treat your lungs to some fresh air--and maybe have a new idea or two while you're away from the screen.

Additionally, I'm stunned to see anyone--let alone relatively smart people who should know better--smoke nowadays.  To me, taking investor money from people who invested in you and smoking is like taking their money to buy a server and just kicking it once a day...maybe after lunch.  You are an asset just as much as the machines are--and there are much more effective ways of destressing that don't make you smell like you've been eating matches all day. 

For those of you who think that self abuse is part of the deal--no sleep and Ramen make startup happy--start reassessing not only whether or not this is truly sustainable--but how, in ways you might not realize, you're actually doing more harm to your startup than good.  Fuzzy thinking, bad first impressions, missed appointments--when you act like you are duct taped together, then your company appears duct taped together and, not surprisingly, duct tape will be the only think you can afford.

So before you get freaked out over competitor on TechCrunch or writing a marketing plan for the first time in your life, start with priority one--your physical self... and move outward from there.  Look at yourself in the mirror.  Forget about whether your nose is too big or you're losing your hair--just assess whether or not you look well taken care of.  Are you putting as much care into yourself as you are into server optimization?  Sleep well, eat right, exercise, and then try to change the world with AJAX and APIs--don't put the cart before the horse.  

What's one thing that you can do over the next year to optimize your own physical self?

From the comments section:

middledigit.net | jonathan hopkins » Blog Archive » Snuggie - the blanket with sleeves!

One Response to Snuggie - the blanket with sleeves!

1. January 1st, 2009 at 2:33 am Jennifer Says: Both the SLANKET and the SNUGGIE are guilty of stealing this idea from the owners and original inventors of the FREEDOM BLANKET, Sean & Jennifer Iannuzzi. The FREEDOM BLANKET was out long before these two companies! The Slanket actually purchased a FREEDOM BLANKET months before they started up their business. AND the Snuggie is an EXACT copy of a FREEDOM BLANKET! Now, my question is&Is it fair these two companies are making millions off of someone elses idea that they STOLE?

2. January 27th, 2009 at 5:05 pm Charlie Says: @jennifer The answer is, if they didnt patent it, then yes. Even with a patent, w/o good marketing execution and branding, an idea is nothing. Do you think the Iannuzzis are the first one to sit under a blanket and wish they could stick there hands out? No way. Im sure there are lots of people who have cut holes in their blankets, too. The Snuggie wasnt the first one out, and I guess neither was the Slanket, but they deserve their millions for awesome marketing. I googled Freedom Blanket& first link was a complaint that the Freedom Blanket never arrived. IMO, Sean and Jennifer dont deserve a dime b/c they clearly have no idea how to run a business.

If there are any extremes about my personality, it's my lack of social tolerance.  I don't mean about people's backgrounds or lifestyle choices--I mean personalities and actions.  If I don't want to be somewhere or don't want to be around someone, I have less tolerance than anyone I know for putting up with people I don't particularly care for. 

And that often means I tend to make bigger deals over things that other people don't see the harm in--particularly in relation to the NY tech community.  I'll call out people that I think are self-interested and I don't feel the need to "network" with anyone because I think they can do something for me.  I just try to spend time with people that I actually like, respect, find interesting--which is why I'm never surprised when people compliment me on who I know.  I get a lot of "Hey, I met so and so... they're really great..."  

Yeah... um... that's why I'm friends with them--not because I think they can do something for me.

I'd rather spend the majority of my time with people who have the right motivations and intentions and that I just really really like.  Life's just too short and there's not enough time to feel overly socially obligated to be "friends" with everyone--even the people you feel so-so about.

Contrast my near unwillingness to bite the networking bullet with people I don't care for with my willingness to help--to bend over backwards for--the people I do care about, and you'll get what I imagine to be very contrasting opinions of me depending on who you ask.  Just about everyday, I get at least one instance of someone thanking me for my help or for being nice, and at least one instance of someone saying I'm being mean, grouchy, or unfriendly.  Time and time again, I've been willing to help out entrepreneurs who take the time to actually get to know me, build a relationship, or whose efforts I actually have some relevant knowledge about.

This is how I want it.  It's because I agree with Ayn Rand when she said, "[T]he person who loves everybody and feels at home everywhere is the true hater of mankind. He expects nothing of men, so no form of depravity can outrage him." 

I really love a good number of amazing people in my life, but love and admiration has no meaning if you really think everyone is great in their own way.  Sorry, some people are just taking up space--a net negative on their environment.  Some are dangerous, and others are just distractions and time sinks.  Because of this, I very actively seek out great people to spend my time with, and actively weed out, call out, and refuse to engage with those that add little, no, or negative value.

It's like the a long/short hedge fund.  If you really want to go long on some people--build relationships, engage, spend more time on--then why won't people go short, and cut people off.

Too many of my friends get caught up with people they'd rather avoid, but don't want to make waves or cause trouble.  We're so obsessed with trying not to hurt people's feelings that we're willing to spend disproportionate amounts of time on people that drag us down or just sideways, but definitely not boost us up.  This happens in relationships all the time...and we think there's no cost, until we realize all of the other people, like family, and activities, that we could have otherwise spent time on instead of someone that doesn't make your life more fantastic with every second you spend with them.  It's like TechCrunch.  How many people feel like they have to read it, even though they don't have the least bit of respect for the behavior of the guy behind it? 

Social media magnifies the cumulative effect of this exponentially.  If you're following over 500 people on Twitter, how many amazing people are you not paying enough attention too?  The incremental effort it takes to pay attention to the least additive 20% of your network could add up to a weekly or monthly extra phonecall or personal email to the most amazing people in your life--and that could make a huge difference in your most important relationships. 

If you're running groups and communities, focusing on aggregate numbers versus quality, signal to noise, or engagement can bring down the whole network.  You don't need 100 people to show up to your Meetup--20 fantastic and extremely relevant people will do.  Part of the equation here that makes this work is that word of mouth has never been so fast and so cheap, so what you really want is a strong initial signal, because it will indeed get magnified, and received by right folks in a hyperconnected world. 

2009 is going to need to be a year of focus for people--to spend their limited resources on the things that matter most of them.  I hope that people realize that their time and emotions are some of the most precious resources they have, and that they become a little more discerning about how they spend them.

"Heart disease, diabetes, prostate cancer, breast cancer and obesity account for 75% of health-care costs, and yet these are largely preventable and even reversible by changing diet and lifestyle."

Deepak Chopra et. al.: 'Alternative' Medicine Is Mainstream - WSJ.com

"Try to frown on a waverunner..."

Here's the reality.  There are a lot of people out of work right now, and there will be more.  Unless you have some kind of technical skill, like brain surgery, web development or you can do some kind of theoretical math that no one else can, chances are there's someone out there more qualified than you or who went to a better school than you do--probably a quite few people in fact. 

The idea that you're going to get a job by dusting off your resume and uploading it to Monster is a pipe dream.  Even worse is trying to apply to the few job ads out there. 

Job ads are like crack.  Applying to each one is like getting a little hit.  It feels good that you're doing something, but ultimately they don't get you anywhere.  I once posted 12 positions for a company and got back 3,000 resumes.   The odds are not in your favor.

But if you apply to enough, someone will certainly see your resume and respond, no? 

Go ahead--apply to all of them.  That's what everyone else is doing--and half of all resumes that get sent to companies, maybe more, never ever get looked at by anyone.  There might not even be a real job behind that ad.  While you're at it, you might as well play the lottery.  At least someone wins the lottery, eventually.

If all you have is a resume, you're toast.  Your resume isn't special and it's not the best one.

Welcome to trying to get a job in the middle of a recession.

Oh, and e-mailing it around to all your friends?  If you look up "wreaks of desperation" in the dictionary, you'll see a page with an attached resume.  When I get unsolicited resumes from people I barely know in my inbox, I feel like I want to treat it like someone just handed me their dirty socks.  "Umm...  ew...  I know a good place for this..."

The problem with that is that the chances that someone you know is looking for your resume is so slim--plus asking them to send it around is kind of like asking them to spam people.  No one asked for your resume, so why are you sending it around?   Instead, take the time to figure out what it is your friends do, target the ones in areas you want to work in, and ask to chat with them on the phone or buy them coffee.  THEN, follow up with a resume, IF they ask for it.  That shows you know how to treat people like people, not like e-mail addresses, and you can go the extra mile to market something--yourself.  If you just blindly e-mail a bunch of people and expect a positive response, am I to assume this is how you'll act on that sales job a recommend you for?

Wake up.

You need to treat this job search like you seriously want the job--and that's going to take a different approach, some serious get off your ass effort and a little bit of time.

First off, let's be clear.  I get that you need to pay your rent and you need a job yesterday.  That's no excuse for approaching your job search like a mindless lemming--rushing to jump over the same cliff as everyone else who is out of a job.

Do what you need to do to take care of your financial priorities.  This is why it's good to have a few months savings built up.  If not, you need sure up your finances.  Immediately cut unnecessary expenses, but be careful not to cut too much--especially not the kinds of things that will de-stress you or get you out of the house everyday.  So, if you're choosing between cable and the gym...you might want to go without the tube for a while.  Sitting idly on the couch will not get you a job and will most likely make you feel bad about your situation after a while.  Besides, most of your favorite shows are available on the web for free now anyway.

The gym, however, can be a place to meet people and an excuse to get out of the house.  You need to get out there and meet lots of people, and looking refreshed and healthy goes a long way.  Get some sleep while you're at it, too... But don't sleep in--hit the sack early.  If you're sleeping in and not getting out of the house until noon, you're missing out on hours of potential job searching and networking time.

As for finances, don't be afraid to take paid work on a temporary basis wherever you can get it, even it's part time or not in your field--as long as you don't take your eye off the ball when it comes to really trying to get a job you want, in your field.  Despite the urgency of your situation, you can set your career back years if you take the wrong job just because you have to, and then give up looking for something else.  You should always be looking for better opportunities.  If you need to tap into savings, sell some extra stuff or move into a smaller place (or get a roommate) do what you can to ease your current financial situation--because being stuck in a hard financial spot can throw on a lot of pressure that will make getting a job (like being cool, calm, and collected on an interview) more difficult.

Ok, now for actually getting a job.  Let's think about supply and demand in this market.  Right now, companies have the ability to get just about anyone they want--so the question is, "Why would someone want me?"  You're probably not going to pick up some new skill between now and your next potential job interview, so the reality is that whatever skills and experience you have is what you're going into battle with.

So what else is there?

How about reputation?  Put yourself in the shoes of the person hiring.  You've probably been around a hire or had to hire someone yourself.  What's the first thing people do when they want to hire someone?  They go to their immediate network of trusted connections and see if there's anyone who might be a fit.  This happens even before they dive into the resume pile of people who are out of work--which isn't a very appealing task for most employers.

So the key is getting your name out there, far and wide, so that when that question goes out, you immediately come to mind.   How do you make sure that key people associate your name with the position you want?

Here are a few ways... and you should try all of them:

1) Be a leader among people just like you.  So you're out of work, or maybe you're just stuck at a cruddy job and you're looking to move up or chance paths.  Maybe you're interested in a hard to get into profession.  Either way, there are lots of people out there just like you, and if you can't just flat out beat them with your resume--then lead them.  You should get active in whatever professional society is relevant to your field.  Professional societies are always looking for more active members, especially if they can help out with events.  If there isn't a professional society, then start a Meetup.  Get other people with similar interests together in one place, and then reach out to experienced professionals to invite as speakers--or just to come to your networking events.  A friend of mine created a group for professionals interested in digital media as it relates to museums and cultural institutions, and in less than a month, it has nearly 100 members already.  What this does is not only places her in the mind of 100 industry professionals as an up and comer and community leader, but also when it comes to interviewing for jobs in this space, she has this unique feather in her cap.  She can say that she runs the Meetup for the very same professionals a company is looking to hire!

2) Informational interviews.  No, this doesn't mean going around asking people to hire you.  It means thinking of this job search as an excuse to get to know a lot of professionals.  If you're out of work, you should be meeting with, at minimum, three people a day for purely informational purposes--to learn about the different areas of your interest.  Don't go into a job interview not knowing exactly what's going on in a field.  Go in having talked to a dozen people over the last week about exactly what's needed for success and how the industry is changing.  Again, that shows interest, ambition, and it looks so much better than the person who can only say they've just been applying to a lot of jobs when asked, "What have you been doing?"   With each interview, ask the person for one or two recommendations of who else to talk to.  Never ever try to push your resume on someone... if they hear of something for you, they'll ask.  Resumes put pressure on people that they need to have an immediate job for you, versus just having a conversation. 

3) Keep your digital presence fresh, interesting, and up to date.  Be where people are online.   I told an out of work friend that she should start a blog about the tools she's using to organize herself online, since she needs to get organized to get her job search moving, and she's looking to be an interactive media producer--a position that demands a lot of organization.  She told me that she needs a job now, and doesn't have time to start a blog.   This is really short sighted, because what happens on the off chance that someone actually does find her resume and immediately googles her name.  Would she rather her smartly written organization blog be up there first, or just her Facebook profile with her silly profile picture--making her look like one of millions of other faces and resumes.  Whenever you get in contact with someone, be it asking for a job or an informational interview, they're going to check you out online, so you need to make sure you have a solid digital presence.  This can accomplish many things for you:

- It makes you seem more savvy than others who don't use these tools.

- It gives you an opportunity to write and share thoughts that can't be captured on just a resume--like a portfolio for a knowledge worker.  If you were a photographer, you'd unquestionably have an online portfolio available, so as someone being hired for your sharp business mind or what have you, where's your portfolio?  Your thoughts and options about your industry, or just about the tools you're learning about, represent an interesting aspect of you that a resume won't adequately put on display.

- It makes you more searchable.  If you use the right keywords, your blog will get a lot of search traffic after a while--and someone searching for an expert on organizing political communities might find your "How to organize a group of politically active people" post, if that's what you're interesting in.

It's also important to make sure your LinkedIn profile is up to date, and you've got your real life network on there.   Here's a post about getting started on LinkedIn.  LinkedIn is a great rainy day fund for people.  Use it to seek out informational interviews, find out if you have connections at places you're applying, and see what companies and what professionals are in your space.

A great listening tool (and publishing, if you feel like sharing) to see what professionals are talking about in your area is Twitter.  Twitter is a social network where people share shortform status updates, like where they're going or what they're reading, etc.  Knowing that there's a media exec on Twitter going to a particular event when you know you want to work at that company can be a significant advantage in the job search.  Tools like Mr Tweet can and Twitter search can help you figure out who to follow.

Want other ideas?

How about starting a project--the kind you want to get paid to do--on your own.  If you want someone to pay you to work for their advertising company, how about offering up some of your best thinking around brands and advertising to a startup--or a startup a day on your blog.  By writing up short case studies of what you think certain companies and brands should do, you'll have a good shot at attracting their attention.  Or, if nothing else, you can work on some of these case studies with people you want to do informational interviews with.  I once told a guy who wanted to be an information architect to start wireframing how Twitter would sign up groups of people at a time, and then publishing that on his blog for feedback. 

A project could be managing a fake portfolio of stocks on UpDown, but taking it very seriously and publishing your results and analysis.  It would make for a great discussion with a real portfolio manager--certainly better than, "So how did you get your job?"

At the end of the day, a job search needs to be active, and you need to be using all of the innovative tools possible to help you get what you want.  If all you're doing is sending your resume around via e-mail attachment, well, expect to get a good job...  in 1998. 

Where the f is Carmen Sandiego?

Minesweeper the movie... "Calm down.. it's never the first one!"

[rydog] hi:)

ceonyc  hey... who's this?

[rydog] are you a computer:$?

ceonyc Yes, I am!
Are you?

[rydog] are you joking:L
[rydog] i cant tell if your joking or not:s?

ceonyc I know many jokes.
Shall I tell you one?

[rydog] please..

ceonyc Knock knock...

[rydog] who's there?

ceonyc Some dumbass who can't figure out that this is a blog written by an actual human.

Over the weekend, I checked out the American Museum of Natural History's ice rink.  It's well situated on West 81st street, up on a 2nd story plaza area.

I was so surprised how few people were out on the "ice", until I realized it wasn't ice at all.

Now, to be fair, there was a little sign up at ticket counter that said that the surface was synthetic and sustainable.  I was thinking, "Umm... sure... whatever... as long as I can slide on it, who cares?  Make it from tofu for all I care."

Unfortunately, you can't slide on it... at all--certainly not with a pair of rental skates.  It's completely unskatable--unless you have roller skakes.  Hell, it's the only rink in the world where you could outskate someone by running with sneakers.  The surface is a hard plastic.  Apparently, a check of Twitter (which I should have done in the first place) reveals that I wasn't the only one who felt this way.

rmangi: "Polar Rink at AMNH - beautiful. Synthetic ice - Like skating on a plastic cutting board."

Even the CNN travel reporter couldn't get going on it:

"It took a lot of leg strength to push myself a few inches, and I couldn't dig my blades in to get a stronger push. To be fair, I've never been the most graceful skater, but looking around, I noticed that no one else was either. Even experienced skaters felt their skills tested."

Hey, I'm all for sustainability, but if you're not going to even recreate a bare minimum of the ice experience, why bother?  In fact, it would have been better as a roller rink... same surface, but with wheels.  I couldn't slide at all, and there was so much friction that I nearly fell over a few times--and I can actually skate! 

I didn't ask for my $10 back, because it's a museum, so I considered it a donation, but I was off the "ice" in 10 minutes. 

The only person who could manage any skating whatsoever was a museum employee who had real skates with sharp blades.  I imagine whatever company set this up for the museum demoed the ice with real skates, not the rental ones given out to the general public. 

The CNN story said that some kind of spray lubricates the ice.  Apparently, it needs a lot more lube.  Perhaps they should inquire here.

Some of the worst thinking you can have is incremental thinking--where you go down one path, get stopped by something major, and then do some kind of hacky workaround to get to what you think is your end goal.  Often times, what you wind up with us half a plan or product, and half garbage.   If you don't use roadblocks as opportunities to reexamine the model and first principals from the beginning, then there's a good chance your'e going to wind up with a lot of wasted effort.

I've encountered that several times.  It's so tempting to not want to start from scratch--to see if you can try and mold what you have into the answer, even though you know what needs to be the solution.

Like a lot of other theories, it seems, you can find this in both relationships and technology.  How many times in a bad relationship do people just try and fix one superficial thing--the squeeky wheel as it were--when the extent of their problems start with the fact that they never should have went on date number two. 

It happens in technology all the time--especially when it comes to confusing design problems for technology problems.   When you hear someone say that they can't make a certain technology do something, it's just as often a design problem that started with the very first conception of the idea than it has anything to do that X technology can't scale or doesn't work with Y or whatever.

So, next time you're taking advice, and you're deciding between someone telling you, "We can fix that" versus "That's effed... you need to tear all that out and start from scratch", maybe you shouldn't dismiss the latter so quickly to save a buck or save your sunk cost.

more music charts

I've decided to do a triathelon. Training (swim practice, rather) will commence tomorrow apparently, as I seem to have signed up for a 5 mile run. Admittedly, I thought it was a 5k when I agreed to do it, but that's fine. I've done 6 before. Plus, since I'm running with a girl, you know I'll run until my kneecaps bleed.

I really need to clean my apartment.

Tomorrow night I'll look to continue my tradition of playing pool on Thanksgiving. We finish holidays pretty early in my house. One year I called my friend and we were both like, "Whatcha up to? Nothing." He asked if I wanted to do something...I wasn't entirely sure if that was actually allowed. Do people go out? On Thanksgiving...after famiily leaves? We went to the local pool hall and it was packed. Appparently we weren't the only ones with this idea.

Man that kid has a lot of metal in his mouth. His girl is pretty cute, though. I guess she's a value investor.

Kilsy on my iPod. I wish they toured more...or wrote more. I love this girl's voice.

I can't wait for Zog floor hockey. I never really skated well enough to play ice hockey, but I'm a pretty decent goalie on foot. I guess that's kind of lame.

Woman across from me dropped her scarf on the subway car floor. She shook it out as she picked it up...you know, as if crumbs were the only think contaminating that surface.

Links 1-2-3...

Someone sent me something recently. It was really fantastic. I like getting unexpected stuff.

Path 101 conversation on Chatterous this morning...  Jen, Alex and I were all in the office, and Hilary was working remotely today.  Tell me we're not a fun bunch to work with...

[ 10/23/08 11:09 ] alex lines says:

whoah, business mullett

[ 10/23/08 11:09 ] alex lines says:

in the wild!

[ 10/23/08 11:10 ] Hilary says:

photo?

[ 10/23/08 11:10 ] alex lines says:

hmm, if he comes back by I'll try to snap one but it could be dangerous

[ 10/23/08 11:11 ] Hilary says:

heh

[ 10/23/08 11:12 ] Jen Oslislo says:

what does one do if a mullet is provoked into attack?

[ 10/23/08 11:12 ] alex lines says:

judicious use of scissors can sometimes work

[ 10/23/08 11:12 ] ceonyc says:

Don't run

[ 10/23/08 11:12 ] ceonyc says:

they can smell fear

[ 10/23/08 11:12 ] ceonyc says:

lie still

[ 10/23/08 11:13 ] Jen Oslislo says:

climb a tree?

[ 10/23/08 11:13 ] Jen Oslislo says:

ah

[ 10/23/08 11:13 ] ceonyc says:

Are you kidding?

[ 10/23/08 11:13 ] alex lines says:

or start playing "I'm proud to be an american" and they'll be forced to stand still and salute as you make your getaway

[ 10/23/08 11:13 ] ceonyc says:

Mullets can climb trees!

[ 10/23/08 11:13 ] ceonyc says:

They're expert climbers.

[ 10/23/08 11:13 ] Jen Oslislo says:

haha

[ 10/23/08 11:13 ] Jen Oslislo says:

can they swim?

[ 10/23/08 11:13 ] Hilary says:

hehe

[ 10/23/08 11:13 ] alex lines says:

definitely not

[ 10/23/08 11:13 ] ceonyc says:

And they "fly", too... like squirrels

[ 10/23/08 11:13 ] ceonyc says:

that's what that tail is for

[ 10/23/08 11:14 ] ceonyc says:

used as a glider

[ 10/23/08 11:14 ] alex lines says:

though they are borne along the top of the water on an oily slick

[ 10/23/08 11:14 ] Jen Oslislo says:

you'd think it would act as a rudder in water

[ 10/23/08 11:14 ] ceonyc says:

Yes, but they're not bouyant.

[ 10/23/08 11:14 ] ceonyc says:

Sink straight to the bottom

[ 10/23/08 11:14 ] ceonyc says:

like your ID card in the toilet.

[ 10/23/08 11:15 ] Jen Oslislo says:

do they also have an innate fear of urine?

[ 10/23/08 11:15 ] alex lines says:

it's territorial

[ 10/23/08 11:16 ] Jen Oslislo says:

interesting

[ 10/23/08 11:16 ] Jen Oslislo says:

so charlie... do you shave your head to hide your true mullet nature?

[ 10/23/08 11:16 ] ceonyc says:

No, my mullet ran off with another woman.

[ 10/23/08 11:16 ] alex lines says:

that's what I was wondering. maybe charlie's hair only grows in one shape

[ 10/23/08 11:16 ] Hilary says:

I think we've all been wanting to ask that question.

[ 10/23/08 11:16 ] Jen Oslislo says:

hahaha

[ 10/23/08 11:17 ] alex lines says:

did it run off on her head?

[ 10/23/08 11:17 ] Jen Oslislo says:

if a mullet bites you, do you grow one yourself?

[ 10/23/08 11:17 ] ceonyc says:

Yes

[ 10/23/08 11:17 ] ceonyc says:

You can only kill it with Holy Water

[ 10/23/08 11:18 ] alex lines says:

from a hairdresser's spray bottle

[ 10/23/08 11:18 ] ceonyc says:

The power of Christ compels you! The power of Christ compels you!

[ 10/23/08 11:19 ] Hilary says:

This whole conversation just gave me a vivid flashback to this show I saw once as a kid - Hell Toupee: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0511100/

[ 10/23/08 11:19 ] alex lines says:

oh it was an amazing story

[ 10/23/08 11:19 ] alex lines says:

i remember those

[ 10/23/08 11:19 ] ceonyc says:

"That story is amazing!"

[ 10/23/08 11:19 ] alex lines says:

very touching

[ 10/23/08 11:20 ] ceonyc says:

IMDB User Comments: Guilty Pleasure

[ 10/23/08 11:21 ] Hilary says:

There must be a killer mullet movie somewhere.

[ 10/23/08 11:21 ] Jen Oslislo says:

if not, yet another potential revenue stream for path101

[ 10/23/08 11:22 ] Jen Oslislo says:

we could just film alex trying to photograph the mullet

[ 10/23/08 11:22 ] ceonyc says:

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc157/whitey_cid/mullet.jpg

[ 10/23/08 11:22 ] ceonyc says:

Best. Mullet. Ever.

[ 10/23/08 11:22 ] alex lines says:

one of my favorites

[ 10/23/08 11:22 ] Jen Oslislo says:

that is a beaut

[ 10/23/08 11:22 ] alex lines says:

mccain supporter

[ 10/23/08 11:22 ] Hilary says:

And the shorts... wow.

[ 10/23/08 11:23 ] ceonyc says:

Actually, it's one of Sarah Palin's kids.

[ 10/23/08 11:23 ] ceonyc says:

Mullet Palin

[ 10/23/08 11:23 ] alex lines says:

don't you mean jorts

[ 10/23/08 11:23 ] Hilary says:

haha

[ 10/23/08 11:23 ] ceonyc says:

Great accidental product placement for safecraft.com

[ 10/23/08 11:24 ] ceonyc says:

Safecraft Safety Equipment is used by most of the top professionals in Motorsports, Automotive, Aviation, Marine and other demanding industries.

[ 10/23/08 11:24 ] Jen Oslislo says:

i can't stop looking at it

[ 10/23/08 11:24 ] ceonyc says:

Saw that one coming.

[ 10/23/08 11:28 ] alex lines says:

yep, that's him, businessmullet. http://www.mulletsgalore.com/classifications/01/

That's what we're doing isn't it? When we blog, we tweet, we take photos...the minute we set something to "public" (or don't change it) we secretly hope that someone gets our message... that one hundred million bottles wash up on our shore.

Do you know what your hundred million bottles look like? Is it a person? Is it a job? Is it money?

Is it anything as long as its different than what you have?

Think about what it is... Don't tell me. Just think about it, and pass this on...

I dusted off my analyst skills and crunched some data...

Since October 1, 1928, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has hit a 5 year low 28 times, including today.  Those days all clustered around three previous periods:

April 1942

May 1970

October of 1974

Even the crash of '87 didn't put us anywhere near historical 5 year lows for that period--investors were still way ahead.

If you went back put money into the market right at the close of any day that the market hit a 5 year low, here's what your returns would look like over the next year:

Average 1 year return: 36.1%

Average 3 year return: 13.3%

Even the worst cases didn't look so bad:

Minimum 1 year return: 16.5%

Minimum 3 year return: 9.1%

If I had any extra cash right now, I'd be a buyer.

I was talking to my entreprenuership class the other day and made an important discovery--a lot of them lacked for inspiration from the people around them.  A lot of us have great friends--mostly people that life just put in our laps by geography or by shared interest--and they wind up being people you share a lot of history with.

However, those aren't always the people that get your brain stirring the most.  You know what I'm talking about--when you can actually feel, even hear, that little hamster spinning away on the wheel.  Your mind races faster than you can speak, and you trip over your words as you try and get them out into a verbal blueprint of some big mental breakthrough.

Marc Andreessen once quoted Dr. James Austin on the topic of luck, and how just getting your mind going increases the chances that you stumble upon something big:

"A certain [basic] level of action "stirs up the pot", brings in random ideas that will collide and stick together in fresh combinations, lets chance operate.

Motion yields a network of new experiences which, like a sieve, filter best when in constant up-and-down, side-to-side movement..."

I have a friend that is always coming up with big and sometimes ridiculous new ideas.  Once, he was going to get an aquarium for his apartment and populate it with agressive fish--"fish that eat other fish".  He was so psyched about it.  I couldn't help but be equally excited, but also somewhat suspect about the feasability of this endeavor.  Either way, it got my mind going.

Nate has a similar effect on me, too.  He has an idea a minute.  Perhaps one day he'll settle on something, but for the moment, he remains the Wile E. Coyote of Silicon Alley--always working up blueprints for something big.  You can't help but get the wheels turning when you talk to Nate, even if you totally disagree with him, because you're going to wind up exploring the idea and learn something along the way--or take something away from it that could help you with something completely different. 

These are the kinds of people I go out of my way to spend time with.  I probably take about three meetings a week with people who have inspiring ideas completely unrelated to what I'm up to, because it's a mental workout for me.  It helps me think better and gain perspective about my own ideas--a rigorous cerebral exercise.  What I was trying to explain to my students is that, if you're going to make a living off of your creativity and innovation, you need to set your life up in such a way that you spend more time with people who inspire you to think, as opposed to just spending your time with whoever lives on your floor, or the people next to you in class.

Along the way, we've all met pretty interesting people in passing, but we don't always stop them and demand more of their time.  That's active management--making a point to be more deliberate in our scheduling, and its something we all should do more of.  When's the last time you had a really inspiring conversation with someone?  Who was it?  What did they make you think about?  How likely is it that you'll talk to them again soon?   Perhaps you should ensure that happens sooner rather than later by asking them to grab coffee or something.  My life is filled with what I call "onesies"--people not really connected to the rest of my world but that I've pulled in because my interaction with them really lights a fire for me.

Who does it for you?  Why don't you drop them a line...

Hi folks...    I'm competing in the Donors Choose Blogger Challenge.  Basically, each blogger selects a set of educational projects they'd like to encourage donations to.  These are individual teachers and the projects are usually just a couple hundred bucks--like buying supplies, visual aids, etc. 

Check out the projects I've selected.  If half my blog readers give ten bucks each, we could easily fulfill all of these projects!

But most of all, I want to raise more than TechCrunch does.  Why?  Because by reading this blog, you're just a better person.  :)