Silicon Valley Is Tackling Bullshit Problems "If you're a revolutionary, then be one: put your money where your mouth is, and fix a big problem that changes the world for the better - if you really have the courage, the purpose, and the vision."
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Time Capsule: An Intimate Service That You'll Like
Photos are valuable because they're personal. In this age of digital cameras, you likely have as many photos as rabbits have offspring.
It's thus difficult to reminisce because a) you probably have thousands of photos, and b) they're out of sight on a hard drive or in the cloud somewhere, and thus out of mind.
Time Capsule remedies both the too-many-photos and out-of-mind problems by hooking into Flickr and emailing you some of the most interesting pictures you uploaded to Flickr a year ago.
TC also lets you leave a message for yourself that it will send to you in a year.
Time Capsule makes you feel really good because you're reminded of old memories when you see your year-old photographs. It's an intensely intimate and useful service that is too rare these days. Any time you can help your customers feel good when they use your service, you're sure to have a winner. In the first TC email I got, I was reminded of a fantastic trip I took to Napa last year and it brought up warm memories of drinking great wine, eating great food, and playing cards with great friends.
Amazing insights from democratic organizations My friend Traci at WorldBlu brought together CEO's from democratic companies to share best practices, which she summarizes here. If finding talented people and responding quickly to changing market conditions are important to you, you need to read this. (Disclosure: I advise WorldBlu).
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This is one of my favorite memes of the past few years, so please indugle me. Following up on my Year in Cities 2005 and 2006 posts, here's the 2007 edition coming at you from Tigre, Argentina (about 30 km north of Buenos Aires -- more about this soon). Now with a nifty map of my 2007 travels!
Happy New Year!
Santa Monica, CA*
San Francisco, CA*
Napa, CA
Bangkok, Thailand*
Maenam, Koh Samui, Thailand*
Thong Nai Pan Yai, Koh Phangan, Thailand*
Dallas, TX
Austin, TX
Cambridge, MA
Lexington, MA*
Vancouver, BC
New York, NY*
Southington, CT
West Hartford, CT
Greenwich, CT
Toronto, ON*
La Jolla, CA*
Oguinquit, ME
Kennebunkport, ME
Philadelphia, PA
Washington, DC
Sherman Oaks, CA*
Pasadena, CA
Tigre, Argentina
Should "increasing happiness" be a policy objective? "If the object of public policy is to maximize society’s well-being, more attention should be placed on fostering social interactions and less on accumulating wealth." It's a contentious idea, but one well-grounded in research.
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Stop Wasting Time Being Unhappy
I've been thinking a lot about happiness lately. Even considered changing this blog's topic to Happiness. Ultimately, good customer experience and employee experience are ultimately all about making people Happy.
Since World War II the gross domestic product per capita has tripled in the United States. But people's sense of well-being, as measured by surveys asking some variation of "Overall, how satisfied are you with your life?," has barely budged. Japan has had an even more meteoric rise in GDP per capita since its postwar misery, but measures of national happiness have been flat, as they have also been in Western Europe during its long postwar boom, according to social psychologist Ruut Veenhoven of Erasmus University in Rotterdam. A 2004 analysis of more than 150 studies on wealth and happiness concluded that "economic indicators have glaring shortcomings" as approximations of well-being across nations, wrote Ed Diener of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and Martin E. P. Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania. "Although economic output has risen steeply over the past decades, there has been no rise in life satisfaction … and there has been a substantial increase in depression and distrust."
So what's the secret to living a happy life? Close relationships, a sense of meaning, and belonging:
once your basic needs are met "differences in well-being are less frequently due to income, and are more frequently due to factors such as social relationships and enjoyment at work." Other researchers add fulfillment, a sense that life has meaning, belonging to civic and other groups, and living in a democracy that respects individual rights and the rule of law. If a nation wants to increase its population's sense of well-being, says Veenhoven, it should make "less investment in economic growth and more in policies that promote good governance, liberties, democracy, trust and public safety."
These are true things, and there's a growing demand for helping people find Happiness, even if it means having less money. Consider:
I know people who've left high-paying jobs to pursue passions and make a LOT less money. Being one of them, it's ludicrous to even think about going back
The explosive success of books like The Four-Hour Work Week, which show you how to follow your passions now
The rise of positive psychology. Researchers study factors that make people happy. Contrast this with traditional psychology research, which is obsessed with pathology. Martin Seligman, author of Authentic Happiness, and Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness, are two respected positive psychologists that you should know about
Sites like The Experience Project and 43 Things are amazing places to find people who can help you follow your passions, and people like Steve Pavlina help you find happiness by "achieving your highest potential"
If you're reading this post, time is the most scarce and thus most valuable currency you have. You can always earn money. I'm constantly reminded of this by my business partner Jon, who is willing to pay $10 / hour for Craigslisters to do pretty much any task he doesn't want to do, so he can focus on things he considers fun and high-value.
So instead of wasting time making money that won't make you happy (if it *does* make you Happy, by all means, ignore this), pay attention the Dan Gilbert's findings. Gilbert says that humans are actually quite bad at predicting what makes them happy. For example, lottery winners and paraplegics are equally happy a year after their life-changing incidents. So, instead of assuming that more money, or a nicer car, or a fancier office will make you happy, think about the close relationships you have, how you derive meaning from work and play, and what groups or communities you belong to. And then immerse yourself in them.
Actually, immerse yourself *after* you watch this TED Talk by Gilbert...
My friends are up to cool stuff
Two updates from a couple of friends of mine:
First, if you've ever wanted to punch your computer after using unfriendly enterprise expense reporting applications like SAP, check out Parand's new app, XPenser. You can record your expenses by SMS, voice, or email, and it's nice and easy to use. It's part of a new wave of customer-friendly money-management apps like Wesabe and Mint.
Facebook to integrate third-party data in News Feed They're working to get access to third-party data sources. For example, your Amazon purchase history or Netflix rental history could show up in your Facebook News Feed. I've got a longer post brewing on this topic...
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Animoto makes web slideshows FUN This seriously cool product turns your snooze-inducing vacation photo slideshows into music-video style productions, automagically. Haven't found anything this useful on the web in a while! (via Photojojo)
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Optimizing for life instead of money People are realizing that once you reach a certain income level (which is different for everybody--it depends on your personal burn rate) the more money = happiness belief is false.
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Work is being done to value intangibles on balance sheets Finally, economists are working to value the intangibles that often drive success in a knowledge economy--things like reputation, environmental externalities, and interaction with the community. Love this quote: “Some people think the logic of econometrics was handed down by God, but it’s actually the result of 40 or 50 years of economists and accountants arguing about corporate performance.”
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Interview with Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster Two nice quotes: "We operate with a public-service mentality such that we don't think in terms of competition," and, "Financial metrics aren't something we focus on; they're a pleasant side effect if we manage to do a good job by our users."
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A cogent analysis of how to invest in new forms of media Umair hits it on the head yet again. With apologies to Ray Kurzweil, “I became interested in long term trends because a business model needs to make sense in the world in which it is finished, not the world in which it was started.” Since the media value chain is reforming, it makes sense to invest in what's getting traction, and worry about biz model once you have a better understanding of the new value chain.
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Why eBay is not a rational market Interesting stuff. Also this gem from the economists who studied eBay: "making prices... more transparent may actually be beneficial to sellers." In other words, be up front and set your customers' expectations properly, and you'll sell more.
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How to Find the Perfect Unregistered Domain Name
I stumbled across this brilliant site about a month ago, and have been telling anyone who'll listen how awesome it is.
It's awesome because for $50 it helps you find an unregistered domain name that fits your criteria. So if you want to find a domain that's max 10 characters long, letters only (no numbers, dashes, or other punctuation), and describes a social network for goldfish, they'll be able to help you. Here's how it works.
1. Create an account, pay $50, and provide description of the domain name you're looking for.
2. This is sent to the PickyDomains contributors.
3. Let the domain names roll in.
4. Pick one.
That's it! When you register one, $25 goes to the domain namer, and $25 goes to Picky Domains.
And the best part--if you don't register one, you get your money back! Freaking risk-free!
I'm taking advantage of their "plug us on your blog, get a free name once" service, but the real reason I'm plugging Picky Domains is because it's a really smart, well-executed, and valuable service. Heartily recommended!
Announcing The Facebook Developers' Garage: LA Edition
I'm really curious about Facebook's new Developer Platform, but haven't had time to play with it.
So I figured I'd put together an event that would let me do so.
Thanks to Amit, I connected with the rad folks who do Facebook Platform Evangelism, who are going to come down to LA to present on the platform, answer technical questions, talk about best practices, viral distribution, hang out, etc.
Basically it's going to be a bunch of geeks getting together to hack on the Facebook Platform. Build an app, share ideas, collaborate, check out app demos, get dev support from Facebook Developers, etc. It'll be a full twelve hours of hacky Facebook goodness.
This will have a Barcampy-vibe, so come ready to share, participate, and absorb new ideas along with other Facebook app developers.
Attendance will be capped, so please only RSVP if you're serious about attending and building on the platform!
(And if you'd like to help out with organizing, please drop me a line!)
So my pal Noah is running another conference up in the valley next month. I wouldn't normally pimp two conferences in a row, but the last one was so good that I'm happy to let y'all know about this one.
The last conference was about Community, and this one is about marketing through viral means. I used to think that "viral" was an over-used term until my buddy Otis sat me down and explained to me how he tested viral features and measured virality. So this is a conference that's focusing on stuff any entrepreneur should be thinking about. I'm pretty excited for it, hope to see you there!
Here's a video of a panel with guys from Fark, PlentyOfFish, HotOrNot, Slide, Suicide Girls, and a couple others from the last conference that may whet your appetite for Viral. (I really like how Noah went outside of the stupid valley echo chamber to get really interesting entrepreneurs to speak.)
Why solving for extreme cases may be more effective Often the biggest problems are caused by a small group of extreme cases (Noah cites homelessness and bad cops as examples.) Fixing those extreme cases may get you better results than solving for the "average" case. (It's the 80/20 rule in effect--something that's been cropping up in my life a lot recently.)
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Facebook's open platform is a game-changer My friend Jonathan says: "to succeed in a market with no real switching costs (e.g. the consumer internet), when users invest in you, you must use that investment to make it better for them to stay, not to make it harder for them to leave." Facebook just provided a way for every consumer internet developer on the planet to make money from their site, *and* make Facebook more valuable. There's risk involved, but I think there's far more upside.
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Flickr GM apologizes for mistake This is how an apology to a community should be written. Stewart explains the situation, takes responsibility, and assures the community that changes will be made to prevent the same mistake from happening again. Great to see him owning the issue and using it as an opportunity to change. There's far too little of that going on these days.
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I'm really curious about Facebook's new 
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