December 2008
80 posts
Expertise and passion →
Should the person who runs the customer service operations at a ski school also be required to love skiing? Can the CFO of a large church be an atheist? Does the head of marketing at Kodak have…
Extraordinary Organizations: $170M company with no... →
We don’t know a lot about organizing organizations.
We apply techniques like command and control, specialization, batch processing, hierarchy, and other other lessons we’ve learned from TV, our…
Get yourself on Twitter! →
One of the biggest stories in the tech world in 2008 has been Twitter. I was at first quite down on Twitter, but have since changed my mind. It’s a mix of a social network (like Facebook/MySpace)…
Man Bites Dog: Newspapers Outlive Themselves,... →
News came last week that the Old Grey Lady is starting an Instant Op-Ed feature online. This new technology will “allow the paper’s Web site to post immediate expert viewpoints on breaking news,”…
Assessing fit with the Wisdom of Crowds →
When I wrote earlier about how to conduct a good technical interview, I had only a few things to say about how to assess if the candidate fits in with the team, including this: This…
Extraordinary Organizations: $170M company with no... →
We don???t know a lot about organizing organizations.
We apply techniques like command and control, specialization, batch processing, hierarchy, and other other lessons we???ve learned from TV,…
Assessing fit with the Wisdom of Crowds →
When I wrote earlier about how to conduct a good technical interview, I had only a few things to say about how to assess if the candidate fits in with the team, including this: This…
Man Bites Dog: Newspapers Outlive Themselves,... →
News came last week that the Old Grey Lady is starting an Instant Op-Ed feature online. This new technology will “allow the paper’s Web site to post immediate expert viewpoints on breaking news,”…
The untold millions →
The media is biased towards stories that want to be told. This is especially true about the media covering the web world. It???s much easier to write a story about Facebook, Google, Youtube, or any…
Expertise and passion →
Should the person who runs the customer service operations at a ski school also be required to love skiing? Can the CFO of a large church be an atheist? Does the head of marketing at Kodak have to…
Expertise and passion →
Should the person who runs the customer service operations at a ski school also be required to love skiing? Can the CFO of a large church be an atheist? Does the head of marketing at Kodak have to…
The untold millions →
The media is biased against stories that want to be told. This is especially true about the media covering the web world. It’s much easier to write a story about Facebook, Google, Youtube, or any of…
Proof of concept fail →
Submitted by Heather R
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Proof of concept fail →
Submitted by Heather R
A short personal note →
My apologies for the lack of posting recently… LondonAnnie and I moved!
We’re just down the road a bit from our old place. For the same rent we’ve got a much bigger flat that even has a view of…
Here Your Chance To Make a (FAIL) →
Submitted by Craig B
Elephant Slide Fail →
Submitted by Max K
You Know Chrysler is Toast Because.. →
The CEO takes out a fullpage ad in the Wall Street Journal today to thank the American Public for “investing” in Chrysler.
Lets see, is there anything more idiotic than spending more than 100k…
"I must study politics and war so that my sons may... →
“I must study politics and war so that my sons may have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval…
Partners in fail →
Submitted by Warren H
Quote of the month →
For every PhD there is an equal and opposite PhD.
- Gibson’s Law
Price Sticker Placement Fail →
Submitted by Nancy
Orville Wright Did Not Have A Pilot's License →
That sentence is the entire text of Chapter 19 in Gordon MacKenzie’s 1998 Orbiting the Giant Hairball, still the best book on what it takes to be creative in a big company — or really — in any…
QuizBot now does SMS and Twitter →
Starting today you can ask QuizBot questions via SMS (text message) if you live in the UK and via Twitter (if you’re a Twitter user).
To ask questions via Twitter just follow …
Repeat Two →
While I’m at it, this one deserves a repeat, too; it’s constantly on my mind:
Managers have lost dignity over the past decade in the face of widespread institutional breakdown of trust and…
Do something new every three years →
When I was at The Economist, there was a policy to rotate everyone every three years. The idea was that fresh eyes were more important than experience. “Foreign everywhere” was the…
Beyond War: The audio version →
In the book, we tell a story about a group called “Beyond War,” which tried to mobilize public opinion against the nuclear arms race. As part of their anti-nukes presentations, they’d do a…
Data Asset Example →
One common characteristic of a great web service is a data asset that increases the effectiveness of your service as it grows. As I was Christmas shopping today, I found a great, simple example.
…
Grand plum puds results →
Position Crew Time (original) Time (adjusted)
1 Alan Hawes 07:49 07:59 Note 1
2 Prince Michael/Mince Pie 07:55 08:05 Note 2
3 Grand 48 07:58 08:08 Note 3
4 John Levy 08:02 08:11 Note 4 …
Grand plum puds results →
Position Crew Time (original) Time (adjusted)
1 Alan Hawes 07:49 07:59 Note 1
2 Prince Michael/Mince Pie 07:55 08:05 Note 2
3 Grand 48 07:58 08:08 Note 3
4 John Levy 08:02 08:11 Note 4 …
The Bullock Cart and the Race Car →
Imagine you are trying to travel from your town to another town on a bullock cart. It may be hard for some of you to imagine that. Coming from India, I know that there are lots of places where this…
Spelling Fail →
Submitted by Michael F
Dewey defeats Truman →
Headlines matter now more than they ever did. Headlines provoke and introduce. They cajole and they position. No headline, no communication. This spreadsheet you just sent me… what does it…
Dewey defeats Truman →
Headlines matter now more than they ever did. Headlines provoke and introduce. They cajole and they position. No headline, no communication. This spreadsheet you just sent me… what does it say?…
A Friday music video →
He’s a rock legend. She’s a bluegrass star.
Together, they put together one hell of an album. Here’s one great video:
Dewey defeats Truman →
Headlines matter now more than they ever did. Headlines provoke and introduce. They cajole and they position. No headline, no communication. This spreadsheet you just sent me… what does it say?…
Panto trailer: 13th December 2008 →
When was the last time you looked at your business... →
Talk to someone who runs a successful business and ask them, ???When was the last time you looked at your business plan???? Chances are they don???t even know where to find it. ???Three…
Amnesia →
Mysteriously, about a week ago, Dan, the program manager designing most of the new features in FogBugz 7, came to ask me what features I thought should go in the timesheet reporting…
The Death of Tech and Entrepreneurship? →
I had an interesting chat the other day with a former venture capitalist who is now doing private equity (i.e. managing larger funds than ever before). He has given up on venture capital. Too…
Marissa Mayer???s Simple Advice On Who To Hire:... →
Google???s Marissa Mayer said a lot of interesting things on stage today on stage at the Le Web Conference in Paris. We covered the Chrome and Search Wiki news.
But the most important…
When was the last time you looked at your business... →
Talk to someone who runs a successful business and ask them, “When was the last time you looked at your business plan?” Chances are they don’t even know where to find it. “Three Start-Ups, a Year…
Panto trailer: 13th December 2008 →
Amnesia →
Mysteriously, about a week ago, Dan, the program manager designing most of the new features in FogBugz 7, came to ask me what features I thought should go in the timesheet reporting…
Signs of a very weak economy, how Clare College is... →
This article in the New York Times shows exactly how weak the economy has become:
In the market equivalent of shoveling cash under the mattress, hordes of buyers were so eager on Tuesday to…
The Death of Tech and Entrepreneurship? →
I had an interesting chat the other day with a former venture capitalist who is now doing private equity (i.e. managing larger funds than ever before). He has given up on venture capital. Too…
Marissa Mayer’s Simple Advice On Who To Hire:... →
Google’s Marissa Mayer said a lot of interesting things on stage today on stage at the Le Web Conference in Paris. We covered the Chrome and Search Wiki news.
But the most important…
Warning: The internet is almost full →
Due to the extraordinary explosion in video, blogs, news feeds and social network postings, the internet is dangerously close to running out of room. Nothing can grow forever, and exponential…
Global Warming Is Real →
And finally, we have the proof…
Breakout products and the process - Everybody's an... →
In NPD universe, much like in other facets of business and life, there is the passé, the mainstream, the leading edge…and then there’s the fringe. The fringe is often maligned and dismissed because…