I hear so many “You should do this for business…just give me 50%,” But as Seth says, it’s all about execution, not ideas.
Archive for January, 2007 Page 2 of 5
It’s strange. When I was in school, the last thing I wanted to do was read and/or take notes, but now I seldom ever read anything (newspaper, books, even websites) without taking notes. So I was pretty pumped to find this site earlier:
It has an amazing selection of notes from a big list of books. Now I’ll look here first before taking notes on a book, and simply add my own notes to the existing outline.
Something I’ve talked with my friend Lee about extensively is the somewhat dangerous tunnel vision that goes on around here in the web/tech world. People seem to dismiss “old school,” companies as the has-beens of the economy. I swear I hear more about Digg supposedly being worth $60M, Facebook being worth well over $1B, or Delicious supposedly being sold for $30M than I’d like. These are not economic power houses as some seem to believe. Now don’t get me wrong, they are fantastic numbers for the investors and founders because these are low cost businesses to build/operate , but to portray any of these guys as new “players,” in the economy is laughable. Everyday, there are far bigger companies executing on 10, 20, or even 100 times the scale. Let’s not forget about the true leaders.
Think about that, and then think about just how much panache WalMart has compared to google: Zero.I get this impression everyday, and I’ve come up with an answer: I
am online everyday, and looks like always reading the same sites (a
little bit of herd mentality, I guess).I was reading someone talking about how “Google is the 3rd computer era” and he made some snarky comments about IBM.
You know, IBM? That small 100 year old company with 80 billion in revenues last year? Yeah, that one.
And when I read about how Paul Graham got ~$40 million from his
“lisp startup” or the off-hours delicious got ~$30 million with “social
tagging bookmark WEB TWO POINT WOW” and people go NUTS on this, like if
it’s epitome of business, I just remember IBM makes daily deals of $200
million dollars.Is it cool? Does it have free soda, candies and massages?
No. But do they know how to make money? You bet. And it’s damn hard to
make what IBM does too. If you play a video game from the next
generation, you own them that :p
(we had our first snow yesterday, this is Washington Sq. Park with some snow above)
Just found this posting on the accuweather blog that basically says the new weather pattern bringing cold to really the whole US, along with an active southern jet (which typically controls the moisture flow) and above normal sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic off the coast of New England, all point to a monster, if not historic snow storm coming to the eastern seaboard over the next 3-5 weeks…As I’ve said, Feb historically is a fantastic month for snow in NYC, so this pattern change is perfect time. I’m very excited as it all seems to be falling into place. As they say over the Accuweather blog about the possibility of a big storm, “the pattern is right for a big storm in the east….Just where and when is the question.”
I’m excited.
UPDATE:
It appears “the storm,” could be coming around the 30th of January based on long term model projections. Despite the extremely warm early winter warmth, I think it’s safe to say that New York will probably come close to the 40 inches of snow for the season that has been average over the last 3-5 years. With that said, I’m looking very closely at the contracts trading on tradesportsfor New York City snowfall. I feel pretty confident a big storm is coming, which would make these low trading contract skyrocket (especially for 20, 30, and 40 inches even if these target amounts aren’t reached). Those are very interesting to watch. If you want to make some money (if gambling weren’t illegal in the US) that would be a good place to look.
A world wide drop in Oil consumption in 06? Wow, even though it’s small it represents some hope for the future of alternative fuels. High prices, do change people’s consumption habits.
Paul Kedrosky’s Infectious Greed: Newsflash: Markets Work, Even in Oil
Not sure if I agree with this, but if this is true, Apple will do pretty well with the iPhone when they begin selling it in June
I’m definitely in the crowd oohing and ahhing over last week’s release of the Apple iPhone, but I’ve been shocked by the sheer number of nerd complainers across the blogs lately. I keep hearing the same complaints…touch screen bad, closed platform very bad, no third party apps, way too expensive, etc…The truth is the avg joe could care less about “closed platform,” or lack of “3rd party apps.” Most people are really blown away from what they’ve seen of the phone, and I would imagine that Apple won’t have a problem selling it. Bloggers are sometimes too techy for their own good, failing to realize the (and the people Apple REALLY cares about) masses could care less about all that junk above. Charlie says it best:
They didn’t care about iHandcuffs, third party apps or whether or not they are locking themselves into Apple.
The fact is… Apple’s products are such a vast improvement in overall consumer experience that most users will be more than satisfied. All the technobloggers are bitching about the lack of openness.
My 2nd favorite response to tech complaints was an Engadget comment (I don’t usually read them, there are always too many) posted by a guy named Russel. He posted a response to this comment:
Apparently none of you guys realize how bad of an idea a touch-screen
is on a phone. I foresee some pretty obvious and pretty major problems here.
I’ll be keeping my Samsung A707, thanks. It’s smaller, it’s got a protected screen, and it’s got proper buttons. And it’s got all the same features otherwise. (Oh, but it doesn’t run a bloatware OS that was never designed for a phone.)
Color me massively disappointed.
And this is what Jeff said back in 1984:
“Apparently none of you guys realize how bad of an idea a mouse is for a computer. I foresee some pretty obvious and pretty major problems here.
I’ll be keeping my Commadore 64, thanks. It’s cheaper, it’s got Lotus 1-2-3, and it’s got a command line operating system. And it’s got more software. (Oh, but it doesn’t run a bloatware “Graphic user interface” that eats all the processing power.)
Color me massively disappointed.”
And this is what he said in 2001
“Apparently none of you guys realize how bad of an idea a clickwheel is for a mp3 player. I foresee some pretty obvious and pretty major problems here.
I’ll be keeping my Diamond Rio, thanks. It’s cheaper, it’s got all my music on it, and it’s got a better battery. And it’s smaller. (Oh, but it doesn’t run a bloatware GUI that eats all the battery power.) Color me massively disappointed.”
Will you never learn?
There’s a reason why people like Jeff aren’t running consumer product companies like Apple. They lack the ability to see beyond the tech side of things into what the average consumer really wants. Steve Jobs, on the other hand, is a genius at this.
My friend Andrew had a good post up (not sure why I just spotted it) on Jan 1st offering advice for people hoping to make progress in the new year. He is talking about creating profitable web properties, which he’s very good at, but I really think this approach is true for just about anything anyone of us sets out to do.
Here is my #1 secret tip for 2007. If you have an idea for a web site, find a way to make that site live within hours — not days — not weeks — and most certainly, not months.
I think people tend to over complicate things, waiting for just the perfect moment before acting, instead of moving forward. It’s so much easier to talk yourself out of making a move because you don’t have this, you are waiting on that, or you are waiting on this person. Are you really? Or are you just stalling? Stop talking about doing it, stop waiting for the perfect conditions, and start acting. Remember, it’s about progress not perfection. (talking to myself as well)
One of my favorite blogs, Paul Kedrosky’s Infections Greed has a post today on a new company called WeatherBill.
WeatherBill is:
In effect, a tool to allow people to create their own weather-related
short- and long-term insurance policies — and it will appeal to a
broad swath of companies whose business are weather-affected.
It appears to essentially be a marketplace where people can first evaluate what bad weather costs them in terms of sales, then they can purchase short or long term insurance plans to cover themselves from these losses going forward. On the other side it gives investors the opportunity to own these contracts or create their own that businesses can purchase. It appears it may definitely take some work to build up an efficient market, but I believe that the rapidly changing and increasingly sporadic weather makes a service like this definitely worth watching.
The power of portability…Giving consumers freedom to go where they want with equal access to the services they want has given rise to atm networks and cell phones. What else?
