Earlier this week a friend asked if I knew any 5-10 person start-ups that were doing interesting work in the productivity space. I knew a couple, but the always-full-of-opinion Twitter seemed like a good place to learn more, so I asked. The following is a selection of the surprisingly large number of start-ups that responded.… more
I take issue with the deliberately inflammatory headline that Google is to blame for destroying the workplace since open office style workplaces were around long before Google, but the topic is worth debating. I have a variety of issues regarding the open office trend. Let’s start with the fact that the folks often making the… more
Until recently, I’d never been to IKEA, mostly because of fear. I knew there would be things I wanted, but the IKEA reputation kept me away. What I heard: It’s huge It’s a maze You can’t get out in less than three hours It’s full of people. While I guess I need flat-pack design furniture… more
The Editor and I don’t argue, we discuss. We’re arguing… discussing over a glass of red wine my concern over our collective attention spans. Not just she and I, but everyone. The whole damned planet. I say, “Information just keeps getting smaller. We’re sharing our bright ideas in 140 characters now and no one is… more
Most interesting ideas come to me between 8am and 10am. This is sacred time. The day is young, I am rested, and the coffee is fresh. I spend most of this time in the car driving to work. The music is providing a creative, catalyzing ambiance to structure my thinking. I create two or three… more
The rumor that Twitter is abandoning Ruby on Rails comes as no surprise to those familiar with Twitter’s shaky uptime record and its tendency to lose its mind in increasingly impressive and creative ways. So, new platform. Fine. Saw that coming. What continues to surprise me is this: why aren’t we more pissed when Twitter… more
The whispers in the valley and in the weblog-o-sphere is the hint that we’re in the early technology bubble similar to the Internet nuttiness of the late nineties. The ideas sound familiar: – Those VCs sure are investing a lot of money in start-ups! – It’s sure getting harder to hire! – Everyone I know… more
This is the obligatory, yes, I’ve been playing Warcraft and, yes, it’s eaten a ton of my time, and, yes, I’m saving for my mount and, dear lord, telling all of you sure isn’t helping my self confidence. But I need some help. The home machine, a Dual G4, was recently upgraded to a Dual… more
Morning. I wanted to go on the record and think out loud regarding the Google + Sun announcement which is is landing in about 41 minutes… so, I gotta keep this brief. I see two scenarios here both of which don’t make much initial sense. I’m very much looking forward to being proven wrong. Scenario… more
At the first whisper of school starting, Californians lose their fucking minds during the morning commute. What was a leisurely 20 minute commute to Cupertino turns into an hour of frustration. It’s not just that a large demographic of people are suddenly on the same schedule, it’s that they’re panicking because they’re late for work.… more
