YakShaving

Yak•Shaving (noun) Any apparently useless activity which, by allowing you to overcome intermediate difficulties, allows you to solve a larger problem

when do you advise or guide someone?

we’re busy trying to figure out what the guest experience is going to look like on bettr@ and what the hook might be to get someone to join an already awesome content aggregation site. obviously, we think that guidance and mentorship is a huge part of informal learning, but is it large enough to warrant [...]

links for 2008-09-23

F|R: How to Avoid Feature Creep with Your Software Apps – GigaOM The Vision/Mission Statement Test The Audience Test: The Scope Test: The Best Solution Test The Revenue Test The Attraction/Retention Test (tags: webdesign usability startups productmanagement simplicity) College Panel Calls for Less Focus on SATs – NYTimes.com “It would be much better for the [...]

links for 2008-09-22

Education: Sats put primary pupils off science, says study | Education | The Guardian (tags: schools education learning testing) Top 10 Sources of Logo Design Inspiration update ze logo? (tags: logo webdesign resources reference)

beta + nonwebstartups = ?

Lately, I’ve been reflecting about the meaning of being in “beta”. Web startups are interesting because they can always be in motion, adding new features and functions on a weekly, daily, or even hourly basis (though that’s a little overboard). The iPhone is kind of like being in beta. You can add bells and whistles [...]

links for 2008-09-21

Yoshiro Nakamatsu, We Salute You // Brainsturbator this guy is pretty awesome (tags: invention innovator japan)

links for 2008-09-18

YouTube – Riz Khan – Schools killing creativity? – 10 Sep 08 – Part 1 (tags: creativity schools education learning)

links for 2008-09-17

Jason Fried – Things We’ve Learned at 37Signals | Kris Jordan (tags: startup software toread work) What entrepreneurs need to know about Founders’ Stock « Lightspeed Venture Partners Blog (tags: venturecapital entrepreneurship stock finance)

links for 2008-09-16

Edge: WHAT MAKES PEOPLE VOTE REPUBLICAN? By Jonathan Haidt we have refined our diagnosis: conservatism is a partially heritable personality trait that predisposes some people to be cognitively inflexible, fond of hierarchy, and inordinately afraid of uncertainty, change, and death. People vote Republican because Republicans offer "moral clarity"—a simple vision of good and evil that [...]

links for 2008-09-15

Evolving VC What makes a good venture Capitalist? (tags: venturecapital vc investor financing) Particletree » What We Looked for in an Angel (tags: venturecapital investor money startup angel wufoo)

links for 2008-09-14

David Foster Wallace – Commencement Speech at Kenyon University (tags: wisdom speech philosophy life) AjaxDaddy – Ajax Examples in Action (tags: webdev web widgets)

San Fran trip + TechCrunch50 Redux

I’m back from San Francisco and really missing it–a shout out to Ani for putting me up and showing me around and giving me the real startup scoop– Which would have taken me months to catch up on! awesome breakfast place: Zazie Techcrunch50 was generally pretty awesome — Jason Calacanis wanted bloggers to answer the [...]

links for 2008-09-12

The School of Life (tags: school learning bibliotherapy)