Q: Why did the porn site put MyBlogLog widgets on their pages?

A: So you could see all the people that came before you.

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I think this is an amazing graph, because its not just about getting users, but getting each user to find more and more utility in your site month over month.  Users can be obtained, but there's no substitute for this kind of single user growth in activity.

via Brad Kellett's Twitter Graphs.

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I just got this e-mail from Fresh Direct, my online grocery delivery service:

• The government spent money to go after people who came to this country to work boxing my food in a warehouse.
• Now those people will be unemployed.
• The warehouse will be short staffed and so I'll get worse quality service.
• Delivery fees will likely have to go up in the future because, without "illegal" workers, the labor pool is smaller and therefore wages need to go up.

Why do we even have any rules on who's allowed to work anyway?  How is it possible that we aren't better off as a society with free movement of labor?  If the best qualified or hardest working people get the best positions, isn't that a good thing?

Just out of curiousity, I checked out Presidential Candidate immigration policies.  Seems like they all have some kind of bone to pick, but that Obama has the most liberal one, including amnesty for existing workers.

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My college notebooks are pretty consistant...  pages and pages of a lesson title across the top of the page, and then... nothing.  All blank.  Page after page.  No notes.

In fact, I rarely ever take notes.  If I'm on an informational phonecall doing research, that's one thing, but for most meetings, don't expect to see a pen and paper in my hand.  It's just not the most effective way for me to retain knowledge.

Does that mean I don't care what you have to say?  Hardly!  It means I'm really listening intently, and completely focused on not just recording what you're talking about, but actually trying to understand it... seeing the forest, not just counting trees.  I'm trying to build a system of understanding in my head that not only helps me put the facts you're giving me into context, but will help me filter and interpret new facts that will be sure to come down the pipeline going forward--all based on what I'm learning from you.

And that's the most important thing for me.  We suffer from information overload.  I don't need more information... I need context and filters.  I need you to help me build a method and system for understanding what I need to understand... not more lists.  Because if I record your list, I'm sure to get another list from someone else, and see a list online, and before I know it, I have a list of everything--a universal set.  That won't do be any good.

I used to laugh when teachers would put up new math problems in class and call on someone in class to answer.  Those students would immediately go flipping through their notes.  Sorry, this isn't a problem you've seen before.  This is something entirely new that you're expected to answer given what you've LEARNED. 

You're not synthesizing!    You don't have this particular problem in your notes.  You're expected to actually think about it, and for many people, that doesn't happen through notetaking, but they're all taught to do that.  Take notes.  That's the way we all learn, right?

A lot of times, if I've been talking to someone and they're taking notes, I stop them.  The kinds of things you often take notes about can be looked up, while actual understanding isn't easily recalled.  This is especially the case in a hyperconnected, hyperpublished world, where all my brain needs to remember is that you mentioned a "search guy at New York Times" and it will take me two seconds to look up his information on LinkedIn and remember the name. 

If you didn't see the forest the first time, you're hardly going to be able to piece together the whole thing from the three trees you took notes on... and that's usually what notes wind up being:  A piecemeal, incomplete account of information completely without context.  Often times, this information often becomes self reinforcing and you can get led down a wrong path from it.  For example, if you're an entrepreneur and we're having a conversation about fundraising, I might rattle off a few of the kinds of angels I know that might invest in your company given what little I know about it, but maybe I don't really know enough.  You write these names down and then follow up by asking me for introductions to these people.  My assumption is that you've done your homework and figured out whether these folks are a good fit for your business.  Your assumption, however, was that I fully understood the nature of your business and suggested the best three angels for you. 

On the other hand, if there was some consistency in why I was naming particular angels, and you understood enough of that to ask a question like, "Are you naming those guys because they're all in NYC or they're all likely to do deals in the music space, because I don't plan on keeping the company here" then we can narrow down exactly who might be a good fit.  If you're just sitting there recording everything I say, you might miss that. 

Of course, everyone learns and listens differently.  Alex is a notetaker.  He's got a nice leatherbound book where he furiously records notes, thoughts, lists, etc.  That works for him.  Brad works the same way and he's extremely organized about it.  I often wondered if it was about creating a physical reference to go back to or helping to commit important facts to memory--or whether it was something completely different...  some kind of internal blog of thoughts born from the meeting itself.   Fred, however, I've never seen take a pad to a meeting.  He learns by interacting, by poking holes, poking bears...  He's a tinkerer.  He'll never remember the three companies you said you were in contract with, but he'll think more about why those companies are a good fit for you.  The next time you talk to him, he'll name you six companies you should try to do deals with--the three companies you already gave him and the three that are next highest on your list that you never ever mentioned.  

Also, when I meet someone for the first time, to me, it's about relationship building, not one way downloading. People aren't information stores to be downloaded.  In my mind, and for the way I work, they're applications to be interacted with.  I'd rather build a relationship with you where I understand your interests, your market, your ideas--what you bring to the table-- nd you learn the same about me, see how passionate I am, etc...  just two people talking shop and getting to know each other.  It's all about leaving markers for me.  I'll mark in my head what kinds of information I can rely on you for later, but not necessarily the details of what information that was, because I want to make it a great conversation so that we want to chat again. 

To be honest, if this is a one shot deal and I have to quickly get from you what I can because you don't have the interest in continuing this, I'm really not interested.  There are so many people out there with great experience that I believe you can get a lot further by focusing on the ones that like you, believe in you, and share your vision. 

At the end of the day, we all have different styles and different methods of dealing with information that work for us.  It's a bad move to interpret someone else's style in the context of your own and make assumptions about what it means.  I don't have a notepad.  I'm not good with notes.  I find them distracting, they never really get processed and organized--they're not going to do either of us any good, so trust me, you don't want me taking them.  I'll do the extra research immediately after a meeting to recreate a good portion of the lists you mentioned by connecting, tagging, discovering, etc. in exchange for being able to see the bigger picture behind what you were talking about.  If you can do both, great.

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• Atheist Headstone on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
  (tags: athiest photo)

I'm going to write a series of posts on what I'm hoping 2008 will bring in different topic areas, and I'll start with politics.  After all, when you say "2008", the first thing people think of is the presidential election.

Just once, I want to vote in an election with a candidate I can really get behind--someone with a proven track record of accomplishment and moreover, the ability to bring people together.  Right now, I watch the political debates and I just feel bad about where this country is going and who's taking us there.

We're too busy talking about immigration and the military and we're ignoring issues like education and healthcare.  We're debating whether or not immigrants should get drivers licenses and we've going a generation of kids in our schools that are falling woefully behind their peers in other countries.  Why?  Because candidates pander to bitesized issues people can have kneejerk reactions to.  Solving the education problem in this country is too hard--its a complex issue, and so is healthcare.  Most of the current candidates don't have comprehensive healthcare plans...  why bother?  Most of us wouldn't understand the economic or coverage impacts anyway.  But we do understand big walls between us and Mexico.  Is there really anyone out there whose life would be significantly improved by a big wall?  No, but we can sure have an opinion about it.  That's what we're going to wind up voting for...  big walls and licenses.

And why the f are we still on the electoral college?  That's got to go away.  My votes don't even count directly.  Some democracy.

Did anyone notice Bush just vetoed an Iraq spending bill?  Um... wait.. if he doesn't support this thing anymore, what are we still doing there? 

I'm still waiting for Mike Bloomberg to run, but the longer this goes, the more I feel like I'm going to get left at the alter.  We need someone out there who is willing to rise above the infighting around getting nominated by our two parties...someone who just speaks their mind.  I want someone who speaks about finding real solutions and has real priorities that make sense. 

I'm usually pretty optimistic about life, but we're running out of years where we can continue with "America as usual".  We're a land of entitlement now.  I see it in the kids I teach.  Few of them know what real work means--what it's like to really challenge themselves, because they never had to.  We have a generation of kids that is having stuff handed to them and they think the real world is going to be like that.  It's also the same kids that are getting our best educations available.  Full support, no hunger.

In fact, we're doing a pretty nice job of coddling these days.  Can't pay your mortgage?  It's ok...  we'll keep your rates low... lower than the rates of financially responsible people who signed up for fixed rate mortgages on houses they could afford. 

Someone call you a bad name?  Don't worry... we'll get them fired.  You don't have to stand up for yourself.  Screw free speech, because bad words hurt. 

We're nitpicking about what words which people can say, and meanwhile we're choking our planet to death.  We're the last industrialized nation not to sign the Kyoto Treaty.   I have to be honest.. I don't even know what's in the Kyoto Treaty, but I do know it's an effort to treat the environment better and every single other country thinks its a good idea.  It would be one thing if there was some competing treaty and then I'd have to compare the two side by side, but since we don't seem to have any answers of our own, it seems pretty ignorant to just stand here with our arms crossed and be the last holdout.  More screwy priorities.

People in this country need to realize that we're all on the same side...  to learn to accept differences of opinion and work together in spite of them.  Pro-life?  Pro-choice?  Gay marriage?  If we don't learn how to work together, we can forget about being a competitive, productive partner in the world economy and political scene.  I'd like a candidate that understands that, and brings people together to accomplish real advancement--putting structures in place that will help us over the long term, not win monthly popularity votes.  It's not Hilary Clinton.  It's not Rudy Giuliani.  Barak?  I dunno...  Mitt?  Meh.  Ron Paul?  Eek.

Somebody...  show me something... anything.  I'm tired of America as usual.

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• gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards": so what's all this new marketing stuff, anyway?
  (tags: marketing)
• A Slice of Time - December 2007
  (tags: music)
• www.kilsy.com
  (tags: music)

Saturday night I went to go see Ozzy Osbourne and Rob Zombie at the Garden.  It was a pretty good show and certainly the most animated I've ever seen Ozzy.  Clearly there are some invisible cattle prods going on there.  

Seeing Ozzy wasn't so much about the performance as it was just being able to get to see him, so I'm giving him a lot of leeway on the quality there.  Whatever energy he lacked, the crowd certainly made up for.

Rob Zombie, however, was an animal.  Here's a clip of one of my favorite songs, "Dragula":

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I caught this band Kilsy on TV last night...  so I checked out their site this morning. Admittedly, I don't know too much about indie music, so must of the stuff I listen to, if purchased, would like the pockets of music publishers, not the band.  That's why I'd rather actually go to show to be supportive instead.  But that wasn't the case here, so I decided to buy some tracks. Headed over to their MySpace page first:

Yeah, um, not so much.   

Ok, how about this PayPlay thing?

No, thanks.  I don't want to register or join anything...  I just want to buy music.

Hmm...  I wonder if they have a last.fm page.

They do.

That led me to Amazon, where the album was actually cheaper..  a 1-click buy... until....

Jeezus... No wonder they've only got 103 total plays on Last.fm. Folks, you gotta make your stuff easier to get.   Are you even making any money from online album sales??    Seems it would be easier to just give the stuff away and play more and bigger venues.

I wound up downloading the Amazon thing, but I don't trust it.  I think its watching me.

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Joe Sheehan from Baseball Analysts writes this great piece about keeping the ball on the ground.  He notes two things:

"...What was a little surprising to me is how the groundball percentage of every pitch decreases at almost the same rate with increasing height."

And that sinkers have a "...huge advantage... in generating grounders compared to any other pitch. "

Best part about a sinker?  It won't wreck a young arm, because you don't twist your wrist.  Here's how Jake Westbrook does it.

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Who invested?  Who joined the board?  Find out here.

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Thanks Marc!

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There, I said it.

Apple just "came to an agreement" with Nick from the ThinkSecret blog--you know, the one that a 13 year old started in 1998 about Apple product rumors.  He wound up getting one too many rumors (truths) out before Apple was ready to make it public, so they sued him.  They settled... meaning that Apple will drop the suit and Nick will shut the site down.

Remember... this is a guy who liked Apple so much he started a website dedicated to the company. 

They shut him down... a college student.

What is it going to take from this company for people to stop drinking the Apple kool-aid?  Seriously, folks, its just another company.  Let's take an inventory:

iPod...  They charge people a license to make products for it... like those iPod home stereo things.  Plus, they insist on selling drm music.  "Don't blame us, blame the record companies."  Yeah, because I'm sure the record companies wouldn't budge if the company that has a near monopoly on online music distribution decided they wouldn't sell DRM music anymore.  Oh, and you can't replace the battery on your own without voiding the warranty...  and video Ipod screens... yeah..   do I need to go on?

iPhone...   One carrier gets an exclusive deal.   People build apps for it and then Apple crushes the apps in an upgrade.  Screen?  Cracks.  Battery.  Can't replace it.

Safari...   The browser caching problem means that it will display the version of your site that it sees fit, not as it sits on your server. 

I own an iPod and that's the only Apple product I use.  I had no urge to own an iPhone.  Hey, Windows products may suck, but at least Microsoft doesn't tease me and make me think they're my friend.  By the way, how many of you know someone (maybe you) whose iPhone has cracked already.  I think I'll buy a Zune or something next time. 

Hell, they don't even buy anyone.  Google may be the borg and Microsoft may be evil, but at least they spend a few bucks from the coffers filling the pockets of entrepreneurs once in a while.

Yeah... Apple makes beautiful things... that break... and that hurt you when they violate you with them. 

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Because if you are, you saw the first drafts of the look and feel of our real front end design.

And some ideas around our logo.

And, if that doesn't entertain you enough, the world's most boring web TV:  Our live webcam.

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Over the last couple of weeks, I've had the same conversation with three different startups.  They were all started by businesspeople and they were frustrated over the fact that they couldn't find a great tech person to build their dream into a reality.

So I asked them if they were willing to actually make it a partnership and give them an equal share of the business.

They all balked.  Didn't even hesitate.  No way.

Well, if I was a tech guy capable of building your application, then I wouldn't work with you either.   Good luck, buddy.

One of the reasons people work at startups to begin with is because they feel like their work will be a lot more rewarding versus working in a big company.  If their work isn't highly valued by the people that start the business, then what's the point of even working for a startup?  No one's going to join a business team as the CTO for a 5% stake in the company or if your first thought is, "I don't want to give that much away."

I've never had that thought, when it comes to making offers to people, of "That's too much to give away."   (My angels have talked me down to reasonable numbers, not to worry...)  But, I'm always thinking, for the right person, that this person makes my business worth that much more... so why wouldn't I give away more equity?  If anything, it's the financing rounds you need to be careful about giving up equity on, not people costs (within reason).

The right CTO can make all the difference.  It's not just getting the site built...  it's making sure the site scales appropriately, and in a cost effective way, too.  A partner is going to care about not overbuying hardware, because his or her stake is tied to how much cash is left in the bank.  They're going to spend the late nights solving some untraceable bug and not charge you by the hour for it.  A contract lead developer?  Meh.

And best of all, they're not going to walk away right when you need them the most... at least, not if they're properly incentivized.  I can't tell you how many times I've heard of nightmare scenarios of contract developers that not only flake out, but maliciously break code or leave startups in a jam.  It's fine to do some outsourcing, but if you don't have a founding partner who can build, I think you're up a creek. 

And if you don't realize that it takes more than just a business idea and a little cash to make a successful business, I'd have no interest in coming to work for you if I was a CTO or even just a great developer. 

If you find the person who can not only build your idea, be committed to it for the long haul, and that you can get along with, give 'em an equal share (with proper vesting, of course... 1 year cliff...).   Trust me that you'll thank me later.

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• evhead: Will it fly? How to Evaluate a New Product Idea
  (tags: ideas products)

"Our architecture is also based on a reliable template - lightweight caching reverse proxys in front, proxying to the heavier app servers, which in turn are driven by the databases. We will aim for a shared-nothing architecture - decouple everything, push the state out to the client, compress, minify, and cache the static content, eventually pushing it out to a CDN."

I made a last minute trip up to Boston to go see Mere (@ptrain) because we hadn't seen each other in a while. We weren't planning on seeing each other after Christmas and we were both insanely busy, but I made time to go up anyway.

So, when she brought up the fact that I wasn't doing some of the little things, like asking her how her day was enough or wishing her good luck on her finals, I was kind of thrown. In typical male fashion, my first response was, "But I drove all the way up here!" and "But you don't even care about your grades...you're not going to law school...you don't need the ranking!"

I totally didn't get it... not until I compared it to my own experience with our angels, who are pretty good at this kind of thing. A week or two ago, Pete and Josh just "checked in" to see how we were... not to pressure us, but just to see if there was anything they could do for us and just to catch up. When the Silicon Alley list came out, I got a note from Fred saying that he was more excited that I got on it than being on it himself.

Little emails...they just take two seconds to write, but sometimes they feel just as important as any money we got from these folks, introduction they could make, or strategy they could advise on.

When you're in any kind of relationship, be it dating or an investment, its easy to mark time with big events--board meetings, anniversaries, vacations, launches... but what does the relationship feed on in between? Neither startup life, or, in my case, long distance relationship life, is easy. Sometimes you need a little quick fix to keep you going... cheap love.

I'm generally no good at cheap love in relationships. It feels too easy... a text message, a rote "How was your day?" I'm a big things kinda guy, but now I get it. You just want a ping every now and then just to let you know that the other person is still out there, still thinking about you, and still excited to be part of this relationship.

Send your significant other or angel investment some cheap love today!