Category: General

There are a small number of NFL games I watch each season. Sunday’s Vikings vs. Packers game always makes the list. Sitting in the comfort of my own home – just a couple miles from where this down-to-the-wire game was played – my mind wondered how engaged I was in the game.

I sketched out this scale:

1. Reading about the game
2. Writing about the game
3. Listening to commentary on the game
4. Watching the game on television
5. Commentating on the game
6. Changing your clothes for the game
7. Betting on the game
8. Watching from the stands
9. Watching from the bench
10. Refereeing the game
11. Coaching the game
12. Playing the game
13. Being the ball

(I’m a 4. Even my son’s a 6.)

Notice the further down the scale we go, the fewer the number of people participating and the greater their participation.

Seems consistent with the 1% power law behind Wikipedia.

“So build something that you use all the time, and, unless you’re really weird and different from everyone else, you’ve got a potential winner.” – Tim Bray.

If para-athletes continue to innovate and set records like this – space technology knees and backflipping wheelchairs – it’ll be their games, not their fully-able-bodied counterparts’, that will be the more inspiring viewing.

(thanks to Boing Boing for the pointers)

I’ve been thinking about information – ‘news’ if you will – quite a bit lately – in the context of other things we ‘consume’ – beverages.

Obviously, the ‘wine’ side is more attractive (at least to mildly-lactose-intolerant me). Cullect and its ‘Important Rank‘ is built on the ‘wine’ side.

Note: I consider this a half-formed post.
To Do: figure out if/how this ties into Matt’s Newless.org project.

We’ve been introduced to a number of crazy characters this election season; Joe Sixpack, Hockey Mom, Senator Government, and Joe the Plumber.

Signs of Jumping the Shark #18:
“Introduction of new characters to revive interest, particularly young, cute children who are clearly intended to replace regulars who once were but have grown up.”

“In the nightmarish near-future, galloping bureaucracy and increasing social decay have produced a society where man can be condemned to death simply for working as a plumber without a license. – Adam-Troy Castro“

“Startups are all about launching things that are not ready for prime time—because startups don’t live in prime time. You can always rush to make something ready if people like it. Except when you can’t.” – Evan William, Founder of Blogger.com, Twitter.com

In March 2007 (18 months ago), I wrote the following 2 sentences – thinking there might be an interesting short story in behind them. A kind of eco-post-apocalyptic-new-world-esque thing. The contemporary version of re-visiting the grandparents’ abandon, run-down farm in Iowa.

“Future world where ex-urbs are re-claimed by the government and turned back into farmland to feed American citizens and supply the nation’s energy. The story’s from the perspective of someone watching their parents McMansion, on a cul-de-sac, being demo’d to make room for a soy bean field.”

That initial scene stuck with me, longing to find a reason for these changes to be possible and necessary.

ELSEWHERE:

“The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature.” – By Tom Leonard in Flint, Michigan , Telegraph UK

Mass foreclosure with the federal government picking up the tab seems like a good fit.

Driving back from WI this weekend, the car had alerted us a number of times we were running low on fuel.

We didn’t stop.

Until we reached the station closest to home (albeit one a few cents higher than the one we passed a few minutes earlier).

The car has a 14 gallon tank. 14 hundredths of a gallon remained.

“I told you we’d get home, I didn’t say it’d be pretty.”

I think some variation of this story has been told a thousand times this past week and will be told a thousand times more over the next 6 months.

“Skydeck is now focusing on building features that it can charge for, instead of free services that attract users but not revenue.” – Brad Stone, New York Times

Thank [your-preferred-deity-here].

You know I have a pet peeve with ‘businesses’ where the metric of success doesn’t start with a $. Perhaps Web 2.0 will end the same way as the ‘first version’ – a huge shake-out wiping places with funny names off the web because they simply weren’t sustainable.

Though, I believe now is different for 1 major reason – $$$. Or more precisely – $. The amount of money, time, energy, effort to maintain a modestly successful (or even not at all successful) project is small. Miniscule. Be-your-own-VC-small.

Add a little ad-revenue atop (not my preferred method, but it works for others I know) that and expenses are covered. Actually transform ‘users’ into customers – priceless. And well positioned for sunnier times. Fun-damentals.