I’m a huge fan of Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet’s lifetime business partner. I’ve written previously about his distillation of behavioral psychology principles for business, but in today’s Slate piece he covers a much bigger topic: where the U.S. economy went wrong and how unlikely it is (given the dominant influence of monied interests on politics) continue…
I just got an email from Jon Atherton, creator of the popular iPhone game Wobble iBoobs. I was surprised to hear from him, because our last email exchange ended badly (full transcript below). When I reminded him about our previous exchange, I got the reply shown in the image at top. Maybe sleaze pays in continue…
This blog post by Bill Burnham has generated a ton of buzz today, but it’s worth (briefly) chipping in about how the trend is playing out in the Seattle market. The quick summary of Bill’s point is this: “there is plenty of investment capital available for Consumer Internet companies that have demonstrated significant market traction continue…
My father-in-law – now retired – had two professional careers, spending his first 25 years as Naval officer, and another, equally long stint as a university professor and dean. He loved his time in the Navy, and it also offered a lasting benefit in the form of a military pension – what he likes to continue…
One of the most accurate business cliches I know of is this one: “success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” Most good entrepreneurs come up with new business ideas constantly, but also know from experience that those ideas have no value if they aren’t backed up with commitment, sustained effort and constant adaptation to market continue…
A few months back a friend here in Seattle asked if I’d like to help out with a new non-profit idea he’d been cooking up. My friend – Digvijay Chauhan – had worked in the U.S. for years, first at Microsoft and later as co-founder and CTO of AskMe. But he was born and raised continue…
Since last fall’s economic downturn, dozens of pundits of various stripes have announced the death of venture capital as an asset class. And it’s true (as Paul Kedrosky and the Kauffman Foundation have convincingly argued) that the class is grossly overcapitalized and will have to shrink radically to produce the kinds of returns investors rightfully continue…
A few years back I proposed (and only partly in jest) a “Hippocratic oath for business.” This morning I read in the New York Times that a group of students at Harvard Business School had publicly made a similar pledge. I don’t really expect this to sweep the business world by storm, but I applaud continue…
I’m not a doomer, but I *do* believe that the accelerating rate of technological change (i.e., Moore’s Law) will continue to cause disruptions in our society and the global economy, and that these disruptions will likely increase in amplitude as the future acclerates toward us. In that spirit, I’ve been following with interest the mainstreaming continue…
I think this one actually goes under the heading “Slightly Embarassing Private Obsessions”, but here goes anyway. For as long as I can remember I’ve been fixated on money. But not for the usual reasons. My obsession isn’t about stuff. Instead, it’s a strange cocktail of two very different ideas I inherited from my parents. continue…