chris
Daddy’s little Dexter
Drawing with Win is always a serendipitous adventure. We work together like Warhol and Basquiat, with me coloring inside the lines and her deconstructing contemporary cultural icons. Here’s her latest work, and I think her best. I call it “Sheriff Lecter”: If you ask Win what her favorite color is, she’ll tell you purple. But [...]
How to game KickStarter
KickStarter‘s cool but I feel like I see too many projects hit their funding numbers at the last minute of the pledge window. Call me a cynic, but after thinking about this on the train one morning, I devised this scheme for getting “free” money for your project. Start your project the old-fashioned way: gather [...]
So sayeth Ms. Gags
I used to walk down the street like I was a fucking star. I want people to walk around delusional about how great they can be – and then to fight so hard for it every day that the lie becomes the truth. All that ever holds somebody back, I think, is fear. For a [...]
Stuff I’m reading – Sept 10
“The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” – Chinese Proverb Here’s stuff that tickled me brain this week: Andy Cranberry referenced this article as an argument for the prodmans’ continued existence. Contrast with Posterous founder’s article about the last thing a product needs is a [...]
Neurological definition of “flow”
From this Newsweek article (about halfway through): During improvisation, the highly trained music majors used their brains in a way the nonmusicians could not: they deactivated their right-temporoparietal junction. Normally, the r-TPJ reads incoming stimuli, sorting the stream for relevance. By turning that off, the musicians blocked out all distraction. They hit an extra gear [...]
The secret to success is many inexpensive failures
This is a video of Frans Johansson’s presentation at the 99% Conference, titled “The Secret Truth About Executing Great Ideas”. I have his book, The Medici Effect, sitting on my nightstand, next in line. He makes some great points here about what I’d call disposable decisions, or “strong beliefs, loosely held.” Notes: Most successful innovators [...]
Less stuff, more relationships and experiences
This weekend I read 2 interesting articles from the NYTimes that relate to our vision for the new commercial community we’re building at OpenSky: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/business/08proto.html It’s too bad the good folks at Daily Grommet don’t know of anyone else in their space, given that OpenSky is creating a Daily Grommet in every niche, for every [...]
The $25,000 web page
Here’s how Yaro Starak, internet marketing royalty, sets the stage to collect $25,000 simply by talking to 5 people. I occasionally enjoy Yaro’s blog and email newsletter for their clear demonstrations of direct marketing tactics. Most recently, Yaro pitched his forthcoming “Elite Entrepreneur Coaching Program” on this page. When it works, he’ll collect $25,000 by [...]
35 tips for writing for the web
During a meeting today someone said “writing for the web is easy, just use proper English!” Sadly, we all shook our heads and replied that no, writing for the web often means breaking the rules that you’ve learned through so many grammar lessons and style guides. Below are some rules for better web and interface [...]
More Kathy Sierra
A few more Kathy Sierra links, because you should have more Sierra in your brain: A video of Kathy Sierra at Carsonified 2008 – How to grow and nurture your community Notes from a presentation by Kathy Sierra in 2008 – Storyboarding for nonfiction