June 21st, 2010
Often we get so wrapped up in what we’re doing that we’re not actually in what we’re doing anymore. Logistics, analysis, preparation, planning, future possibilities all take us out of the moment. I forgot all of this until I had some sushi.
Sushi isn’t just a food, it’s a ritual. The chef must take all the different parts – rice, fish, seaweed, vegetable, etc – and craft it into a roll that has cohesive shape and consistency. The fashioning of the food isn’t the zen-like part for you; eating it is.
If you shove any type of food down your throat, especially sushi, you’re missing savoring each and every taste. Food, like life, isn’t meant to be consumed just for survival. They’re both most enjoyable when you take the time to really relish every moment of the experience.
There’s a ritualistic nature about sushi that you just can’t replicate with other food. After the chef creates your roll then your journey begins. First fill your small dish with shoyu (soy sauce). Then spread wasabi on your sushi. Next add gari (ginger) to the top of each piece. Finally dip each piece into the shoyu and eat it.
The beauty of this ritual is that it takes time to create the final product before you’re ready to consume it. You become closer to the chef as you put your time and energy into creating your meal. Since this isn’t an instant situation it gives you cause for pause to really be in the moment with yourself.
Some might say that it’s important to relect upon your day – and I would agree with them – but this moment isn’t a place to do so. Reflecting upon your day and actually being in the moment are two different things. You should devote time to both and not confuse one for the other because they’re both as equally important.
When you take the time to be with yourself and truly experience life as it’s happening you get a much richer experience than if your mind is elsewhere. The past has passed and the future is beyond us. The present is a present that is pre sent. Savor it like the gift that it is.
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June 18th, 2010
When a feature is adopted by everyone it’s no longer a feature. This is how it will be for social, location and rewards. Technological innovation is not taking a trending topic and applying it to your project. Innovation is when you see the trend before it even exists and create that trend.
Making anything social at this point isn’t innovative; it’s a part of the product. Pretty soon the same will go for location and rewards. Let’s go one step further – if you make your product based solely on the above features then you’re shooting for the middle.
If you’re not adding social features to your new app then you’re behind the times. People expect your new thing to include social features. If you’re creating a location based service (LBS) application then rewards of some sort are a given. In fact, if you can’t greatly improve on the current market leaders then you shouldn’t be making a LBS app.
Innovation doesn’t come from reiteration. It comes from iteration. Case in point: Friendster. Friendster got to the social network game early but didn’t iterate often enough. When they were having bandwidth troubles & couldn’t scale fast enough people jumped ship for Myspace, who took advantage of Friendster’s woes.
Now Friendster’s co-founder has a new project called Place Pop. It’s an LBS with a rewards structure – that’s it. The badge system isn’t even compelling enough to compete with the top contenders. You can earn bronze, silver, gold and platinum badges based on your checkins.
In order to beat the market leader your product needs to be more compelling. You need to have a better product with more features put together in a new and innovative way. If you’re not doing that then you’re creating an ‘also ran as’.
The lesson we can learn here is this:
timing + planning + improvement = success
Pretty soon everything will be social, include location and give you rewards. As more and more companies include these features the public expects every product to have them. It’s up to you as an innovative entrepreneur to look beyond the horizon to what is next.
What do people need? What will they need? These are some of the questions you should be asking yourself when creating. If you’re just going to a competitor then you’re only going to rise to the middle. If you don’t care about making people’s lives better then how are they supposed to care about your product?
Tags: entrepreneur, Friendster, LBS, Place Pop, rewards, social media
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April 29th, 2010
I’m 30. April 29th 2010 was my 30th birthday. To me and many people that’s a major life crossover. Traditionally on my birthday I reflect on my life by myself by sitting under the cherry blossoms at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (it’s a beautiful tradition that I just happened upon one year).
As much as we should reflect on our lives past present and future on the day we were born we should be reflecting on it everyday. Doing this once a year is the equivalent to the new years resolution. That’s why I’m happy to say on my birthday I didn’t have to reflect and reposition my life. I just relaxed.
We can get so caught up in our day to day of doing that we forget about being. Just remember, your life is ending one minute at a time. Are you spending it doing what you truly want to be doing?
Life is interesting when you compare two different points in time. Last year on my birthday I was reading Ayn Rand’s ‘The Fountainhead’ at the gardens. This year I’m reading ‘Programming In Objective-C’. Sometimes the more things change the more they stay the same. While I’m still reading something at the gardens today I’m actively pursuing something instead of passively consuming something.
We only have limited amounts of moments to make our existence better each day. We can do anything we want to do as long as we put our minds to it. I decided that I wanted to create a tech product so I sought out like minds and found a cofounder and two developers. We’re all currently working on it and looking forward to telling the world in a couple of months or so when it’s ready.
My one takeaway about reflecting on my life at a major milestone – make sure you’re happy with what you’re doing and that you’re on the path to achieving the goals you want to be achieving. You can do anything you believe you can do (within the laws of nature of course). You’ll be much more effective if you’re passionate and believe in what you’re doing – I know I am.
Tags: 30th birthday, advice, ayn rand, brooklyn, brooklyn botanic garden, cherry blossoms, cofounder, core values, crossover, developers, existence, feelings, fountainhead, laws of nature, life, milestone, nature of course, new years resolution, programming in objective c, takeaway, tradition
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April 26th, 2010
Relationships are built over time from first encounter to the present. I emphasize “built” because to build something you must put active effort in with your own two hands. When building something you must put the proper energy into laying the foundation and constructing the supporting framework.
While many people may intrinsically understand this they forget one thing: you can’t just build a house and forget about it. A house needs upkeep just like relationships do. That’s where many people assume they still have the same relationship when in fact it has changed over time.
Everything thrives and deteriorates in the right conditions, physical or not. Relationships are special because humans act as a magnifying glass to amplify the situation. In this way they’re even more fragile that rare tempermental flowers. Flowers can and will thrive once again next season. Once damaged, human relationships can be beyond the point of no return because of hard feelings.
So how do we assume relationships? Think of people you have affinities to and for some reason or another communications lapse. Now picture this: the only time now that one person contacts the other is for a favor. To the other person it could come across over time that the contactor is just using the contacted. At first this communication is welcomed and the contacted will go out of their way to help their long lost friend.
Relationships take work from both parties, individual or business. Before you ask anything of anyone else ask them about themselves. Even if you’ve let your house deteriorate for a while just doing a little housekeeping before you decide to have a huge party makes the biggest of difference when it’s all said and done.
Tags: first encounter, hard feelings, human relationships, laying the foundation, long lost friend
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April 8th, 2010
You may not need an Apple iPad right now or think you’ll need it this year but mark my words, you will need it in one year. People aren’t quite sure what they do with it and to them I say wait and see. Time and early adopters will show you its many uses and how it fits into your life.
The iPad is definitely a pure consumption product, right now. As time goes on we will see more and more apps that are full-featured utilities. These will end up augmenting your day to day routines as you find yourself wanting to spend more time on such a compelling device.
Apple does an amazing thing for the computing industry and consumers in general. It sets the pace and tells you not what you want but what you will want. Apple creates demand and then effectively supplies it. A different way of doing things but Apple’s old motto is Think Differently.
They aren’t without their detractors. I definitely hear what detractors are saying. Yes the iPad doesn’t have a camera, video camera or support flash amongst other things. I also see that Apple is incremental with their firmware and hardware updates. This is to essentially milk as much money out of you as possible and keep you in the renewable consumption game. Essentially there’s no difference between the first iPhone and the latest iPhone if you really think about it.
My friend Carl put it keenly in a comment he made on my last post. Apple isn’t revolutionary; they’re evolutionary. Modernism has been going on since the 50′s. Nothing new here. They just took someone else’s style and applied it to their industry. Great artists steal.
Carl also had another great point that goes back to why you’ll need an iPad in a year. The major news services are essentially providing free advertising for the iPad, further fueling the feeding frenzy and stoking the fires of consumers. All this talk will drive you into an Apple store, you’ll play with the iPad, then you’ll want it. Even if you don’t understand or don’t want it right now you’re still curious and you’ll eventually come into contact with it. Call it the Puppy Effect.
As far as why you’ll really need an iPad a year down the road goes back to my previous point about how Apple sets the pace. Competitors may have had tablet pc’s before the iPad just like they had mp3 players before the iPod. What Apple does is to signal to consumers and competitors that a certain type of product is now a part of your life.
What will end up happening a year down the road is that consumers will have found all the little ways that the iPad makes their lives easier and better. Competitors will start creating competing products in droves to fuel the market even more. Technology and non-technology product creators will start creating accessories. Designers will start molding their creations to fit the iPad. Thus the iPad will become a part of your world one way or another.
You may not need an iPad a year or two years from now. What will eventually happen is that technology will advance so much that physical keyboards will become a thing of the past and the iPad will seem like a logical choice. If you think Apple doesn’t have plans on your entire life you’re dead wrong. If you think Apple isn’t already a part of your whole life then you’re sadly mistaken.
Tags: Apple, early adopters, feeding frenzy, iPad, stoking the fires
Posted in analysis, featured, life, media, technology | 4 Comments »
April 4th, 2010
Science fiction helps us to dream beyond today. This can be both good and bad. Good in that it gets ideas flowing that may have some practical applications towards today. Bad in that it allows many to stay in a far off place with too many high minded ideas that can’t be created for a while if not ever.
Science fiction is dangerous, for everyone. It’s dangerous for do nothing laggards and those who would get rich off of monotony. It’s dangerous for society, for the thoughts it brings can be life changing and earth shattering. It’s dangerous for everyone because eventually it will coopt your job your paycheck your life and force you to adapt to new circumstances.
At one point space rockets and underwater submarine ships were a thing of a wild man’s imagination yet Jules Verne had the foresight to envision one of them. While far fetched science fiction plays a huge role in revolutionizing our lives I’m more interested in the science fiction that blends reality with possible actionable results in the near future. I like to call this science faction.
This area can easily be related to, envisioned as a possible future and people can actually put steps in place to create said creations. The more something is closer to reality the more tangible it is for someone to bring it in to reality. Movies like Minority Report and books that Cory Doctorow write all have futuristic machine elements woven into everyday life in a palatable manner. It’s not too hard for a layman to envision a not too distant future with them and the devices in it. When average everyday people can see themselves in the plot of a science faction story then it’s that much easier for your inventors to create and market similar items onto the same public.
So how does this affect us? Dreamers need to keep on dreaming and creators creating. In fact the artists – your writers, directors etc – need to team up with inventors and entrepreneurs to amplify each others messages into an augmented reality. No I’m not talking about AR. That’s unactionable playtime that the average lazy man won’t use until they fully understand it, it’s easy to use and it passes the tipping point in society.
That’s the crux of all of this. Apple works so brilliantly because they release futuristic looking devices that slightly improve on your everyday life. Apple isn’t looking to give you a hoverboard or teleportation device, although someday they may. People buy the familiar improvement. They consume the 1.1.2. They think the 3.0 is cool but push it too early and it flips big time. As much as people want to innovate their lives they still need to make your crazy contraption fit seamlessly into the rest of their boring mundane existence. If your device can’t integrate with their reality you’ve just moved yourself from science faction to science fiction to oblivion.
Tags: actionable results, machine elements, point space, science faction, space rockets
Posted in analysis, business, featured, technology | 1 Comment »
March 26th, 2010
I gave a talk at SXSW at Social Media Club Austin entitled how Social Media is Like Porn. I crowdsourced the quotes and attributed everyone who contributed. There was much more to my talk (you had to be there to truly know). Some may have been offended by the visuals included but I say this to them, social media is offensive, it doesn’t cater to everyone and if you aren’t offended then you’re consuming too much of your own dogma. Get offended, get riled up, challenge others. Social media is a discussion and a fight at times. If everything felt good all the time then we’d be drinking the kool-aid. Enough of that, on with the show:
Tags: kool aid, presentation, social media, social network, social networking
Posted in analysis, featured, social media | 1 Comment »
February 16th, 2010
Free is fiscal anarchy. Free in it’s purest form is just bad for business. Free is a poor man’s game and ultimately unsustainable.
You will rarely see free without strings attached, and that’s a good thing. You as the consumer may not directly feel the tradeoff for free but be sure that someone else will. Free for you means someone else has to pay. Free in it’s purest form means the giver has to pay.
Free is a myth. Nothing is truly free. Someone always has to pay. This is a universal law, the law of reciprocation. When you take something from one place to give it to another something must replace where the item originally was. In the physical world when an object is moved air rushes in to fill the void. The same goes for the economic world. Something must eventually fill that void.
Free* is your best friend as a businessman. See the asterisk? That denotes that something must be paid by someone somewhere in order for it to exist. Even when you give your time and energy away to a project most are looking to benefit from their increase in reputation, experience and perceived value.
As a creator of wealth it’s your duty to figure out how free* can best benefit you:
- Start writing a blog and give your knowledge away.
- Create a targeted curated online resource package for your customers that will show them your personal value to them.
- Give personalized customer service and feedback that speaks to each individual on a hypertargeted micro level.
- Give suggestions of other products, services and businesses that may be of relevance. This will also go far if you recommend local businesses or other affiliates in your network.
The free* that you can give that will ingratiate people with you isn’t stuff, it’s you. Giving things only satisfies the right now. When you give of yourself, your knowledge, you end up sharing a piece of yourself that stays with someone much much longer than the one time encounter. People want a story and they want a journey. Give that to them.
Tags: economic world, personal value, purest form, reciprocation, resource package
Posted in business, featured | 5 Comments »
February 13th, 2010
Social media is an amazing medium that has allowed businesses of all kinds to connect with customers in a direct targeted real way. While it’s great it’s not a panacea. Social media isn’t a band-aid.
Social media is only as helpful as you are. What do I mean by this? As an addition that amplifies your original business efforts and customer service it is amazing. Once it starts taking center stage over your original efforts that’s when you run into problems. That’s socialwashing.
The icing on a cake may taste amazing but if the actual cake part is horrendous no one is going to eat it regardless of how tasty the icing is. If your business operations are shoddy and your customer service is flagging there’s only so much social media can do. There’s also only a certain amount of time you have to fool people that everything is alright with your sleight of hand magic tricks.
The danger comes into play when your original supporters – your evangelists – abandon you because you become too obssessed with social media and lose sight of your most important customers needs. It’s a sad day when you as the customer realizes that you must part ways with what has come to be a good friend.
A good friend isn’t someone who ignores their friend’s basic needs and is only cares about fun. That’s a fairweather friend. That’s exactly what socialwashing is.
Tags: business efforts, business is business, fairweather friend, sleight of hand magic tricks, taking center stage
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