Archive for 2014

“I am sorry for how you feel” vs “I am sorry for how I made you feel.” One pushes the person away, the other pulls the person closer.

The internet advertising industry has only one entity to blame for browser-based ad blockers. Can we take a guess who it is?

My cats are insisting that I get a new standing desk so that they can have the chairs.

If the only value you add to the transaction is working as a gatekeeper, eventually, someone is going to tear down the walls on either side of you, and the flood of transactions that people want to participate in will wash around you. The only people trying to go through the gate after that happens,…

There is no worse sin you can commit in modern America than to be both offensive and funny.

Creating the future, because that is the best way to predict it! Not sure if someone else said that and I am unknowingly plagiarising it.

Many VCs and investment funds specialise in funding only racial minorities or female entrepreneurs. I wonder, if an investment fund popped up with a mission statement that read “We only fund middle-class white males” whether it would be decried as being racist or sexist. If you can change the gender, or the race, or the…

Late night coding session. Absolutely wrecked. Spent an hour looking for a missing brace in a Gradle file. I conclude that it is never a dull moment when converting an Ant project to Gradle.

When your organization is spending more money on advertising than it is spending on marketing, that is the point when your products are no longer worth talking about simply because they are no longer unique or remarkable or interesting.

Challenge yourself every day, because if you don’t, others will.

Paraphrasing “Whiners never quit and quitters shouldn’t whine”. OK, it sounded better in my head.

Fixing another dead WordPress site. When will you people learn!? Auto-update is not your friend!

Friend: “I’m thinking of switching to Windows Phone, should I do it?” Me: “We need to have *that* talk.”

Woah! Someone managed to write a bunch of spam that got past my filters. I am mad and I am impressed! You haven’t made me want to buy your product, interact or engage with you. You have committed the greatest sin possible, you have caused me to waste time.

Today you have the ability to connect with almost anyone in the business world, but it doesn’t mean that you should.

Insurance, health care and higher education in America are not bought. They are sold. Which explains why all three are industries are so fucked up.

Looking fruitlessly for that safe harbour to sail away from. P.S. Exceptionally obscure pun in the title.

Corporations like to spend big dollars on big advertising campaigns, because it makes them feel secure. Would a $10,000 marketing campaign for Coca Cola move the needle for them? Probably not. But it would give people something to talk about.

Never negotiate by email. We all (most of us?) understand that email lacks tone, nuance, body language, is open to interpretation, and so much more. We may think that what we are laying out in an email sounds perfectly reasonable. We made our point, clearly, succinctly and politely. And then the other person blows up.…

Let me get this straight… YYou want me to drive 80 miles. Each way. In L.A. traffic. To sign an NDA. Just so you can tell me about your project.