I HAZ FAIL! – Oct 20, 2010 @ 7pm
Next Wednesday – Oct 20th @ 7pm – I’ll be giving a talk on failure to the Lean Startup Circle group.
If you’re interested in how I define success and failure for the projects I so frequently talk about here join me. I’ll be discussing these projects; their opportunity, challenges, brief success, and their ultimate fatal flaw.
RSVP & more info here http://www.meetup.com/Twin-Cities-Lean-Startup-Circle
Cracked
Naturally
It seems significant that Western culture’s first word for ‘scientist’ was ‘natural philosopher’ – a phrase assuming unknown unknowns exist but doesn’t express the ambition to know them. Whereas ‘scientist’ as a term feels like there are knowns and there are unknowns, and we’re compelled to reduce the unknowns.
Minnesota’s Startup Scene in Twin Cities Business Magazine
‘Saving Innovation’ – Dan Haugen’s article on our vibrant meet-up scene and how it supports innovation & entrepreneurship was published in the October 2010 issue of Twin Cities Business Magazine.
Dan did a great job on the topic – with quotes from some of my favorite people in town as well as yours truly.
The article concludes with a nice quote from CoCoMSP‘s Don Ball that I think applies to MN’s entrepreneur culture as a whole – not just the social aspects of it.
“We don’t have to wait for some authority group or figure to tell us that we’re going to have a conference or a meeting or support group. We all have the tools to decide we’re going to do it ourselves.”
Top 9 Things I Want In a Blog Engine
- self-hosted
- easily template-able
- easily customizable
- supports email-to-post
- supports XML-RPC
- supports RSS output
- internal search engine
- an writing UI encouraging writing 200+ words at a time
- an reading UI encouraging reading 2+ essays at a time
Update 11 Oct 2010
Add these to the list;
- memorable, human-readable URL constructs
- doesn’t bias how or what I publish
If You’re Going To Accomplish One Thing Today
Stick your head out the window and yell.
Bonus: A super fun Kleptones mashup with Howard Beale [mp3]
Update 13 Oct 2010:
My favorite line from the monologue:
“You people are the real thing, we’re the illusion.”
“Remember that time you quit Twitter”
One of the Ebook Backers noticed that while the essays in the ebook (and on this blog) talk about how I zero’d out my Twitter account after a month long hiatus – but as of his reading – I was as active as ever.
Yes – as they say on The Facebooks – It’s complicated.
Since the release of #newtwitter, I’ve noticed – consistent with Twitter Corps intentions – 90% of my interaction with Twitter don’t require an account, or interaction with fellow tweakers.
Add in the reports saying a tweet’s lifespan is between 5 minutes and 1 hour Twitter is too close to screaming into the abyss for me.
@garrickvanburen has been permanently deactivated.
Update 2 Dec 2010:
In the 2+ months since I’ve deactivated my Twitter account – 3 people (out of more than 1300 followers) have noticed enough to ask me about it.
Other Qwitters:
Unanimous Support for Unlicensed White Spaces
Some ridiculous NPR story yesterday complained that the crowded nature of metropolitan airwaves prevent this from being useful to the vast majority of Americans.
The point isn’t urban America – the benefit is to rural America.
My earlier posts on the topic of opening up white spaces:
Bringing Me-dia to Rural America
In Bigger News: FCC Opens White Space & Frees iPhone
Out of context, the specific significance of this post’s title is entertainingly vague.
Take California
If there’s a state in the union synonymous with the modern American Dream – it’s California 1.
For the past twenty years, every vocation or avocation I’ve been interested in has had a significant pull from California.
There’s now some evidence California is becoming less attractive to do business in.
California’s loss is the rest of the country’s gain.
Attention: Minnesota policy makers – there’s some opportunity here. I’d like to see Minnesota on this list as well. The same business conditions that make it attractive to move here make it attractive to stay here. 😉
1. For cities, I’m sure NYC still holds the #1 position.