Google fusion is My Yahoo. If there was any doubt that Google is rebuilding Yahoo pice by piece and becoming a portal, I hope it's all dispelled now. It's amusing to see Google become a fast follower of Yahoo!'s, rather than vice versa. Soon they will be twins and the only difference will be in the minds of their users, imagining subtle differences in what is even essentially the same brand.
from Paradox of Choice. this explains so very much to me.
And the answer is yes, it's getting better, though he still beats every point within an inch of its life.
From ASIS&T 2006 Information Architecture Summit: Key Topics Survey Results, the topics attendees most want to heara about are
facinating... I never expected number three to pop up, but I am extremely pleased to see it. It's a definate sign the community is realizing they much reach higher, deeper to make a real difference.
Every Californian must see Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, every American should. What it tells us about our choices and the way we have invited ourselves to be pillaged by greed is telling and memorable. Hopefully memorable enough to last to the next election. Go see it, it's entertaining, not preachy but very very thought provocing.
I'm still in a state of never reading just one book. In fact, I'm pretty sure except for when I'm traveling, I never will be. Right now I'm 1/3 of the way through two books, and done with the third. Paradox of Choice and We the Media have something in common: the first third is endless repetitive examples of their "big" point. In We the Media's case, it's all about how new technology is disrupting old media, in Paradox of Choice it's all about how too much stuff sucks. Of course if you hadn't heard of SMS or blogs or wikis, We the Media could be facinating. And if you are already a "kill old media" fanatic, it would be satisfying. But if you are a tech savvy individual with a middle of the road attitude about new media and old (as Dan Gilmore, is apparently) you might think, hey, let's get on with it? What is the solution? What's next?
With Paradox of Choice, I'm nerveous there is no answer. Noise just gets louder, as we buy Real Simple magazine and retreat to Pottery Barn for mock rustic reminders of simpler decades.
I'm hoping the authors get from shoring up their problem statement with examples and get to the payoff soon. Admittedly, because of their approach, both books are great resources for examples, so if you need to make either of those points with your boss, you should get these books.
I'll report back when I'm farther along, perhaps when I've hit a solution...
Finally, Astonishing Stories rocks. I remember one summer I was at my grandparent's cottage, and I was laying in bed, next to my sister, bored, too hot to sleep, and I turned on the radio (an ancient-yet-perfectly-preserved 1950's thing, like everything in their cottage). Out of the radio came a radio play, The Masque of the Red Death read-- I remember-- by Vincent Price or his voice double. I shivered in the heavy heat as the story terrified me, even at one point reaching out to hold sweaty hands across the distance between the twin beds with my sister (unheard of, since we mostly fought in those days). Everytime we went back, I'd fiddle with that radio, trying to recreate that delicious moment.
Astonishing Stories made me feel like that again. A couple stories got me shivering with fear. For some reason, the sequel is much more oriented to horror than its excellent predecessor, Thrilling Tales. But it's good. It's hide under the bed covers with flashlight good. It's read in your tree house, and chase lightning bugs after good. It's well written enough for a grownup, but speaks directly to the kid in you. And that's worth 12 bucks.
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When VC's start thinking about design-- well, penetration has happened, baby.
Northwest VC: Following the value trail...
"Value is all about the brand and product design. Bose has a great brand and these headphones are pretty cool and comfortable so people are paying up for them."
You can hear part of the talk I took notes on-- the ideas are very much the same.
Listen to this commentaryBusiness schools will be launching their graduates into the real world over the next few weeks. Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan speaks at Wharton's commencement this Sunday. Pepsico's president will do the honors at Columbia Business School next Wednesday. General Electric's CEO Jeff Immelt shares his thoughts with the graduating class at the Harvard Business School in June. These stars are all at the top of their game. But commentator Dan Pink says an MBA won't necessarily get you there"
Sorry I'm not saying much these days, but I've got several major projects going right now, including
I can't really guarentee much blogging for a bit now, but perhaps that will change. It's funny, business doesn't squash me quite as much as secrecy. Hopefully that will be changing in the next couple months...
Anyhow, be mellow and enjoy the huge number of smart bloggers that are out there these days.
Jon Udell: Heavy metal umlaut: the movie is a facinating look at the life and times of a single page of the wikipedia. Check it out for a illustration of what open-editing makes possible.