Nice interview with Josh “Shake” Schachter about
Nice interview with Josh “Shake” Schachter about del.icio.us. “I would not say [that I am an] entrepreneur - the enterprise of the thing was always dragged along by the thing itself.”
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kottke.org posts about business
It’s a done deal…Disney is buying
It’s a done deal…Disney is buying Pixar. This bums me out in a lot of different ways. The big winner? Apple Computer.
A brief history of Pixar. “Even with
A brief history of Pixar. “Even with the animation group generating income Pixar was still a money pit. That was about to change. Disney had decided they were willing to give a computer-animated movie a shot.”
The Man Who Said No to Wal-Mart. “
The Man Who Said No to Wal-Mart. “He looked into a future of supplying lawn mowers and snow blowers to Wal-Mart and saw a whirlpool of lower prices, collapsing profitability, offshore manufacturing, and the gradual but irresistible corrosion of the very qualities for which Snapper was known. Jim Wier looked into the future and saw a death spiral.”
Random House, the publisher of James Frey’s
Random House, the publisher of James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces, is offering refunds to folks who bought the book. Wow, this situation is getting out of hand in a hurry for Mr. Frey. And speaking of out of control, the kottke.org thread about Frey is going fast, furious, hot, and heated. Not sure where all the participants came from, but they sure are energetic.
Edward Jay Epstein examines where it all
Edward Jay Epstein examines where it all went wrong for Blockbuster Video. Blockbuster had an opportunity to have rental pricing for DVDs like they did with video, but they turned the deal down and the studios priced DVDs for retail instead and have been minting money with that scheme ever since.
In addition to the James Frey thing,
In addition to the James Frey thing, we’ve got people digging into the identity of the secretive writer JT LeRoy (a denial). And True Hoop’s Henry Abbott is trying to figure out who William Wesley is…a powerful NBA figure who came out of nowhere and appears to not have a job or any direct influence on anyone or anything but goes to fights with Michael Jordan and has LeBron James on speed dial.
Anil Dash offers a list of dos
Anil Dash offers a list of dos and don’ts for beating the iPod and iTunes.
What business are movie theaters in? The
What business are movie theaters in? The fast-food business, the advertising business, or the movie exhibition business? All three, but they take the movie exhibition business the least seriously.
A long list of business buzz words
A long list of business buzz words compiled from a short time on the job for a big-box retailer. If we don’t boil the ocean, concentrate on the big rocks, and avoid getting thrown under the bus, our surge to streamline is a whole other type of animal and at the end of the day, we’ll all be on the same page.
In an era when players are so
In an era when players are so much bigger, stronger, faster, and richer than the rest of us, it’s getting harder for fans to really connect with pro sports teams.
Intel is retiring the “Intel Inside” saying/
Intel is retiring the “Intel Inside” saying/logo and is getting a new company logo as well…no more of the familiar “dropped e” logo. Now they’ll look like everyone else.
More and more, shoppers are judging books
More and more, shoppers are judging books by their covers. “Studies show that a book on a three-for-two table has about one and a half seconds to catch a reader’s eye.”
Pepsi’s market cap surpassed Coca-Cola’s last week
Pepsi’s market cap surpassed Coca-Cola’s last week for the first time ever. The secret to their success? Diversifying into other snacks (Frito-Lay) and beverages (Tropicana and Gatorade).
King Kong gets a slow start at
King Kong gets a slow start at the box office. This is kind of amazing to me…except for the length, Kong is almost a perfect movie for audiences to go see in the theater.
Shipping upgrades
This may just be the Nyquil hangover talking, but I’ve an idea. UPS, FedEx, USPS, and DHL should offer in-transit upgrades for package shipping[1]. I’m having something shipped and I realize that I would like it to arrive sooner than it is scheduled for. With computerized systems, they know exactly where that package is in their shipping system…it seems simple in theory to pluck it from its current route and get it going faster. The upgrade would probably come at premium price and not be a true upgrade in some cases[2], but it would be a useful (and potentially lucrative) feature.
[1] It’s possible that this is already possible. In the grand tradition of weblogs, no real research has been done.
[2] If you’re two days into waiting for a 5-7 day ground shipment from UPS and want it the next day, it may take a bit to get it from a semi in the middle of Montana onto a plane to Miami, i.e. not truly next-day.
Surowiecki on the sorry state of the
Surowiecki on the sorry state of the US patent system. “Since the [USPTO] is funded by patent fees, as opposed to getting its budget from Washington, it has a financial incentive to process applications as quickly, rather than as diligently, as possible.”
The Dayton Daily “News” has a full-page
The Dayton Daily “News” has a full-page advertisement for King Kong right on the front page of the paper. That’s why they call it a journalism business, I guess.
The advantages of being in the weeds
eGullet recently interviewed author Michael Ruhlman and he had this to say about what he liked about working in a professional kitchen:
You can’t lie in a kitchen — that’s what I like most about it. You’re either ready or you’re not, you’re either clean or you’re a mess. You’re either good or you’re bad. You can’t lie. If you lie, it’s obvious. If your food’s not ready, then it’s not ready. If you’re in the weeds, its clear to everybody — you can’t say that you aren’t. So I love that aspect of it. I love the immediacy of it, the vitality of it.
I’ve worked in a number of different places over the years and the ones I ended up liking the least were the places that allowed people (myself included) to hide. Some companies just have way too many people for the amount of available work. Other times, particular employees have a certain status within the organization that allows them to determine their own schedules and projects. Deadlines are often malleable, meaning that work can pushed off. Inexperienced or nontechnical managers might not have a clue how long a task should take a programmer…budgeting 2 weeks for a six-hour task that seems hard buys one a lot of blog-surfing time. Companies with coasting employees are everything a kitchen isn’t; they just feel slow, wasteful, lifeless, and eventually they suck the life out of you too.
If you want to sell your web
If you want to sell your web startup, don’t take that much money from VCs or bootstrap the whole thing yourself. Too much money invested means that no one wants to buy your company for what your VCs require you to sell it for…especially if your business has limited prospects to begin with.
Seven key principles that Google uses to
Seven key principles that Google uses to make their employees more effective. “At Google, the role of the manager is that of an aggregator of viewpoints, not the dictator of decisions.”
Why are rental cars American cars? Why
Why are rental cars American cars? Why don’t rental car companies use the superior Japanese product?
Six Apart’s response to several weeks of
Six Apart’s response to several weeks of server slugishness was fantastic…they asked each customer how they wanted to be compensated based on how much the server downtime affected them and their site. You don’t see the honor system much in business these days.
A business book on teamwork called The
A business book on teamwork called The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (excerpt) has gained a following among pro football coaches and players.
There’s a Charles Darwin exhibition at the
There’s a Charles Darwin exhibition at the Natural History Museum in NYC through May 2006. A tidbit not reported in the US press: the exhibition failed to attract corporate sponsorship because “American companies are anxious not to take sides in the heated debate between scientists and fundamentalist Christians over the theory of evolution”. Pussies.
Update: This letter sent into TMN throws some doubt on the whole lack of corporate sponsorship angle. (thx, chris)
Bakeoff! A Gladwell article from back in
Bakeoff! A Gladwell article from back in September on a project that used different team methodologies to attempt to create the perfect cookie: an open source approach, an approach based on extreme programming, and a traditional hierarchical team. You may be surprised which team won.
Surowiecki on the differences between Europeans and
Surowiecki on the differences between Europeans and Americans when it comes to work. “But since more people work in America, and since they work so many more hours, Americans create more wealth. In effect, Americans trade their productivity for more money, while Europeans trade it for more leisure.”
Stupid phrase that I’m sure will catch
Stupid phrase that I’m sure will catch on because the TV and print media that propagates such things is brainless: Cyber Monday. “The Monday after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, when online retailers reportedly experience a surge in purchases” because everyone is back at their speedy internet connections (sans family) at work.
Update: “Cyber Monday” was created by shop.org, an organization of online retailers, as a marketing promotion. It’s only the 12th biggest online shopping day of the year. (thx randy and minuk)
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