FedEx was started in 1971 The first email was sent in 1971 The Pony Express began in 1860, ceased operations just 2 days after… …the transcontinental telegraph was completed in 1861
Author Archives: Garrick van Buren
Neopunk Tech Projects
There was a time when the internet was mostly silly technology experiments. Where that it worked at all was the win. All the projects were primarily for delight of the creator and delight for others. There was no advertising. No polish. Simply a neopunk aesthetic of “let’s just do it, it’ll be fun.” As the …
Two AI Bots Discussing My Work
I loaded a substantial sample my writing into Google’s Notebook LM and pressed the button to make a short podcast between to AI bots. Yes, it’s absolutely bizarre to hear bots discuss how amazing kubb is (among other things). Along the way, I also asked the Notebook what the three most controversial themes of my …
The Return of Doggerland?
For reference: Doggerland @ Wikipedia “this story is of a time beyond the memory of man, before the beginning of history, a time when one might have walked dryshod from France to England.” In 1897 H.G. Wells set his book “A Story of the Stone Age”, Humans, hunter-gathering Neanderthals, lived in Doggerland 10,000BC – 7,500BC. …
For Starters Substack
Right now, I’m working on a series, called ‘For Starters – The important stuff early-stage entrepreneurs too often leave until it’s too late’ it’s over at Substack, cuz I want to better understand the benefits of their distribution model.
The Product Equation
Only Finding the Non-Obvious Matters
“The better you understand context, the more likely you will see how easily you can be missing out on it.” Tyler Cowen, “Context is that which is scarce” Magnus Neilsson‘s “Nordic Cookbook” is one of my favorite books, primarily for how it opens: “If you follow the recipes to the dot as printed in the …
GWAR’s Tiny Desk Concert
Forty years after their creation GWAR played an NPR Tiny Desk Concert. If you need a reminder to really, intensely, focus on who you are and what you want to contribute to the world, no matter how seemingly weird and tasteless it may seem to others – this is that reminder.
ATTN Entrepreneurs: Customers Won’t Wait
Everyone has a rich and busy life, and each day we all have a lot on our minds, including persistent frustrations. Over time, we either resolve the frustration through some sufficiently satisfactory solutions or we simply accept it as a “that’s just how it is.” Suddenly, a solution is no longer required. Entrepreneurs are racing …
Making Time
(or On the Founder-Idea Obsession) There have been a handful of times, less than 20 across my entire life, where I’ve been obsessed with an idea. Yes, unhealthily obsessed. So obsessed I have temporarily neglected other obligations including my own health. Obsessed where I steal every possible moment to slip into the obsession. I’ve regularly …