Saturday, January 7, 2012

Ice Cube Celebrates The Eames (by pacificstandardtime)

…great horizontal killer applications are actually just fancy data structures. Spreadsheets are not just tools for doing “what-if” analysis. They provide a specific data structure: a table. Most Excel users never enter a formula. They use Excel when they need a table. The gridlines are the most important feature of Excel, not recalc. How Trello is different - Joel on Software
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Autonomy at work is strongly associated with lower stress and greater happiness, and, if nothing else…means more of us making more choices for ourselves. Time to grow up: The future of work is adult
Thursday, November 24, 2011

Dieter Rams - SFMOMA (by Andrew Birchett)

Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Google knows it. Viacom knows it. The Chamber of Commerce knows it. Internet democracy groups know it. BoingBoing knows it. But, the Internet hasn’t been told yet — we’re going to get blown away by the end of the year. The worst bill in Internet history is about to become law. STOP SOPA, SAVE THE INTERNET - Boing Boing (via fred-wilson)
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
A tool addresses human needs by amplifying human capabilities. A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design
Friday, October 28, 2011

What sits within the cross section of our talents?

While having dinner with a couple of friends the other night a discussion came up of where each of our businesses were going in respect to our city, state and region. Everyone at the table is either a new entrepreneur with a service based businesses model, or had been one at some point. The, enviable, topic of trying to move from a 100% service (billable hour) to purely a software as a service model (monthly reoccuring revenue) eventually reared it’s head.

I’m not going to go so far to say that I don’t like software as a service, I’m a huge fan. I’m not convinced that it’s the end-all-be-all-for model to build within our region. Yes, the SAS model does offer (currently) the best economics currently, but is it the right business to build here in respect to resources, talent and focus?

I drew the diagram above on a napkin. Grand Rapids, and West Michigan in general, have some very interesting companies moving from their historical center of expertise to one of the cross sections, but I’m not sure if anyone has figured out what lays in the middle. I’m not saying that every new successful business will hit dead center of this three way intersection, but to me it’s one that’s rather intriguing.

What problem space is waiting to be solved at this cross section? Do you think anyone is already doing, or well onto their way, all three of these equally well?

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

We don’t hire commodity workers

Last night at the aimWest Innovation panel a great statement was mentioned by one of the panelists that stuck in my mind. “We don’t hire commodity workers.” That short, one sentence, line provides a great deal of insight into the culture, direction and fortitude of the company, department and team members. Not just top down, but even the expectation placed on fellow coworkers.

In today’s environment, especially within the tech arena, there’s a large demand for talented people. The gotcha is it’s not a demand for someone who can just take a spec and write some code, or someone who just pulls a cable from point A to B. For teams to be effective all members have to hold the skill set to communicate, think analytically, question and deliver.

The day of the one trick poney is done. Companies want collaboration, collaboration doesn’t work with commodity talent.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011
…work has become something that we do rather than a place that we go. Cisco security GM: Consumerization drives everything — Tech News and Analysis