January 2009
16 posts
The American Dream Will Evolve
I like to identify patterns and trends. Right now the biggest challenge is to understand what is happening with the world economy. The most simplistic way of looking at this is to say that the trend is down until it turns up again. Fairly intuitive one would think but still there are folks that keep insisting on buying assets as they are declining in value, hoping that we have found a bottom.
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Gaming the social network system to grow users
Sarah Lacy writes about how companies are abusing the viral capabilities of the social networking platform to grow users ahead of quality in her latest BusinessWeek column. It’s a relevant subject and she’s making a great point.
Making your application viral is every entrepreneurs dream: it’s free, fast and effective. But there is something to be said for Google’s motto...
Speaker
I’m excited about getting requests for speaker engagements across Europe this spring. The demand for knowledge about the web, social media, communities et cetera seems to be huge. I’d like to make sure that my contributions and stories are relevant and actionable to the audience. Not just the regular web 2.0 clichés.
Things
It’s hard to find a simply to-do list / task manager; a tool that keeps track of all the things that *needs* to get done. That was until Things was released, a superb iPhone app ($1.99) that is so simple to use that it makes me think: Why didn’t I figure this out.
It’s clearly designed for a human as opposed to many other more complex tools. It’s just add task, categorize...
No real estate recovery on the horizon
The S&P/Case-Schiller is down +38% (Nov ‘08) for San Francisco since May 2006, the foreclosures are hitting new highs, housing inventory is still rising and unemployment is skyrocketing. Adding to this first signs of deflation and San Francisco rental prices falling for the first time in years.
The real estate brokers are screaming about killer deals and once-in-a-lifetime...
Sweden’s Fix for Banks: Nationalize Them →
Where to next?
If you could travel anywhere in the world where would you go? I’ve found that I’m struggling with this pleasant challenge. You look at life and realize that it passes by so damn quickly. One of these days I’ll be 80 years old and when looking back at my life what do I want to see? Which places should I’ve visited? Bolivia, Cape Town, Sicily, Beirut…
Be a traveler, not a tourist
For plenty a folks traveling means holiday, white sneakers, 28-inch rollers and fanny packs. It’s when you get to leave your ho-hum suburban life to explore the world w/o changing perspective. It’s safe, it’s expected and it’s… damn boring.
We have all run into those loud, obnoxious and ignorant tourists (and just not Americans) that refuse to let go of their own...
My New Year's Resolution
Simplicity. Balance. Quality.