April 2012
35 posts
4 tags
3 tags
The Importance of 100% Focus On Your Best Idea →
Entrepreneurs, are by their very nature, idea people. The hardest thing for any startup is focus and deciding what not to do. This is doubly true of the founders.
3 tags
WatchThis is a brilliant sketch by Ellen. Pure genius.
You Posted That On Facebook? (The Ellen Show) (by Telepictures)
Sorry that only those in the US can watch it. If you’re outside the US, go download TunnelBear so you can watch US clips like this.
3 tags
6 tags
Raise Your Klout Score By Criticizing Klout
Since moving to the UK two things have happened to drop my Klout score by ~10 points over the course of 9 months.
Moving to the UK moved me 8 hours ahead of my “network” back in the States. This has lead to fewer RT’s and replies, two important metrics for Klout.
I’ve started posting less frequently in order to be more thoughtful and add more value with what I do...
8 tags
Staying Creative By Staying Off My Computer
I’ve noticed something over the last few years. The more my job relies on being creative and coming up with ideas, the less time I spend on my computer. If you know me you know I have a childish bent. My desk is littered with LEGO, Star Wars and Nerf but I also spend a significant amount of time writing, outlining and mind mapping in my Moleskine or with Post-it notes.
When I am on my...
6 tags
The Post Social Age: Book Review: Reality Is... →
postsocialus:
Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is a super important book. It’s excellently written and ties together so many current trends around work, life, education and society that I think anyone would benefit from reading at least the first 1/3 of the book. The examples and specific conclusions about gaming may not...
4 tags
How To Unlink LinkedIn Connections
If you’re like me you have been pretty liberal with who you link to on LinkedIn. I love LinkedIn and use it probably everyday but now that the service is starting to get more and more use it’s finally starting to attract spammers. I don’t think it get’s many fake account spammers like Twitter or Tumblr but it’s getting lots of pushy, spammy sales people.
Until...
3 tags
“Being a geek is all about your own personal level of enthusiasm, not how your...”
– The Mary Sue defines what it means to be a geek, a beautiful definition that falls (un)surprisingly close to what it means to find purpose and do what you love.
(↬ It’s Okay To Be Smart)
9 tags
Social Media Dashboard Pro Tip
If you’re like me and you’re always trying to find ways to streamline your social media workflow here’s my latest pro tip.
Use HootSuite. If you’re still using TweetDeck or Seesmic or something else, stop. Switch to HootSuite, it’s great for so much more than Twitter. I won’t go into all the reasons here.
Once you set up HootSuite go to their app store and...
3 tags
4 tags
“Some people can train themselves to pay extra attention to things that are...”
– The fact is the human brain is capable of multitasking and I believe in another decade the numbers will be far higher than 2.5%
What Cocktail Parties Teach Us - WSJ.com
5 tags
Nando's Advertising Get's Them In A Food Fight
To my American friends, unless you’re in the DC area you don’t have a Nando’s near you. And that a sad thing. Not only is Nando’s absolutely delicious, they have really clever advertising. Here’s an example of the kind of stuff they do:
First the real ad
Then Nando’s jacked the ad
Then the food fight
I’d love to see Nando’s accept the...
4 tags
Gen X Doesn't Want Your Pity.
Gen X has always been that small little group of slackers sandwiched between the selfish Baby Boomers and the self-entitled Generation Y.
But when I read articles like this: Gen X Hits Another Bump in the Road
Here’s the bad news for Gen X: at each point thus far, you’ve drawn a pretty short straw. Your timing — at least in the context of contemporary generations, and through no...
3 tags
2 tags
4 tags
2 tags
Quit your job and take a leap of faith →
Wise words from a man I admire deeply.
2 tags
Not On Pinterest
I’m not on Pinterest. I’m on Instagram, Path, Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, Quora, Flickr, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Posterous, YouTube, Soundcloud, Google+, Goodreads, Diigo, and several other services I can’t think of at the moment.
It’s been my job for the last 7 years to consult with clients on the use of social media. It’s been my job to be one of the first people to sign up for, use and...
4 tags
Google’s Next Big Buy →
Remember when we used to talk about and be excited for Google’s next big product innovation? It seems like 2012 is the year that Google quit innovating new products and started buying. Google+ will likely be the last (major) product Google rolls out.
I don’t say this as a slam against Google. There comes a time when companies just get too big and true innovation often isn’t...
2 tags
“Reading fiction is important. It is a vital means of imagining a life other than...”
– Ann Patchett, And the Winner of the Pulitzer Isn’t (via underpaidgenius)
2 tags
Being Patient →
There is one trait that I’ve gained over the last several years and that’s patience. It hasn’t come easily and sometimes I end up acting patient even when I’m not because I know that not being (or acting) patient will do more damage than being impatient.
That’s why I loved this quote about Steve Jobs:
He learned the value of patience and the ability to feign it...
4 tags
Wondering What Tags You Follow?
Across various networks you have the ability to follow “tags.” It really started with blogs (okay technically it started with the Internet itself but let’s limit our scope) and then with bookmarking services and then was quickly adopted by Twitter with the hashtag. The hashtag and tagging have carried over into many popular services like Tumblr, Instagram and Google+ but...
1 tag
Pivot in 5... 4... 3... →
2 tags
Amazon Acquires Rights to James Bond Books →
This is an interesting move. Is it the exclusive rights? I wonder if snapping up well established titles is a way of making B&N and other outlets to carry Amazon published books?
3 tags
South African entrepreneurs are punk rock →
Here’s my first of many (or at least several) guest posts on Memeburn.
Memeburn is a great blog that if you’re interested in emerging markets and social media, you should be reading.
6 tags
Gaming Things Done
Many of you know (if you know me) that I have my own little GTD/Moleskine fetish. I’m not an organized person so I need lots of help. To accomplish this, I’ve hacked the GTD methodology in order to make it work for me.
Lately I’ve been reading Jane McGonical’s Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. In it she shares an experience...
1 tag
Listening To The Freaks And Geeks →
I’ve long said if you want to know where fashion and music are going to be in 3-5 years, go hang out with the hardcore skateboarders. When I owned my skateboard shop (8 years ago) is where I first heard about Friendster and why MySpace was so much better. It’s where I saw kids with the first gen iPod. And it’s where I was told by multiple clothing vendors that skinny jeans were...
1 tag
“It isn’t normal to know what we want. It is a rare and difficult psychological...”
– Psychologist Abraham Maslow
2 tags
Dear Instagram, When I asked you to please get a... →
Hilariously written article though.
3 tags
Moving From the States to London
My family and I made the move from Seattle to London just over 9 months now. Lately I’ve been asked for advice by several friends in the States, who are thinking about making the same move. To save myself sending the same email over and over, I’m going to post my recommendations here and I’ll update it as I have new advice.
First and foremost go get Watching the English: The...
4 tags
Reading Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams My rating: 3 of 5 stars I have a dark confession to make: this is my first Doug Adams book. While all my friends were devouring The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy I was going through a strange period of contrarianism. Instead of being influenced by what all my friends were doing, I was doing the opposite of all my friends....
“Hell is a place where nothing connects with nothing.”
– T. S. Eliot, Introduction to Dante’s Inferno (via leigh)
In Anticipation
With the recent news of Twitter’s acquisition of Posterous, I am fully expecting the service to be shutdown, or at the very least to be neglected to the point of frustration and obsolescence. I’m hoping that they live up to their promise and allow a way for people export their blog so I can move my current personal blog over to Tumblr.
In the meantime I’m setting up this Tumblr and will at least...
