TheNitai

I’ve found this and simply had to share it. This outlines a lot what an entrepreneur has to do. Have fun building businesses, I sure have

Here is a great talk from Jason Fried, co-founder of 37signals, on bootstrapping and getting your company up and running. Really worth seeing.

Steve Johnson talks on “Where ideas come from” gives a good overview how people and especially where they get their ideas from. I personally have been a long time fan of creating an environment where one can cultivate ideas instead of working like a horse. He just emphasizes that socializing creates ideas and being together with others brings out the best. Enjoy.

This talk by Nicholas Christakis given at the TED talk in Cannes is a must see for everyone who wants to know how social networks influence our behavior. Especially for marketers or people who want to avoid marketers this is a knowledge to have… This also shows how important and powerful every single person is within the society.

Most of you probably remember the UI of the movie “Minority Report”. We all thought that this would be way cool to interact with our machines like that. Well, good news. The future of the UI is here. The makers of the movie did not only show us what could be done, but also allowed the guys to develop it.

In the below talk, John Underkoffler demoes the UI he and his team has been working on and compares it to the same revolution that once the Macintosh set off when it was introduced. I especially like the quote: “I think it is time that we ask the same of technology. Technology is capable off, expressing and being {…} with a certain generosity. And we need to demand that…”

This YouTube Video is just too good to pass on. As a big Star Wars fan (I guess, I watched the first one 50 times at the movies) this is a must see. And if you don’t know Star Wars (well you know, the Avatar generation) then it is a must see, so you can talk with the big boys.

Right, so I’ve been on the internet for quite a long time. Like many of you, I most of the time “could” ignore those ads when visiting a newspaper website, but today, while reading the times.com website, I was just simply annoyed. You have to look at the screenshot to understand what I mean:

I mean, what do those editors think when they place an ad like this? Does the newspaper think that we will click on it? As you can clearly see, the ads and navigation takes up around 70% of the screen estate. Never mind the usability of the website, less then me finding my way around.

Thought, this is just one of the examples I’ve seen in recent time, it is clearly the biggest one. Maybe more annoying are the ones that hover on top of the news text and you need to close them or the ones that act on your mouse movements.

Now, I’m not blind and I know that you guys have to make money. But please, find a more decent way to make money. As an example, cooperate with Apple on their iPad offering and place your ads there. Or make a paid subscription model, that makes us readers, a follower of your newspaper instead of one leaving your site immediately (as I did).

If you run out of ideas, I got plenty left and they have proven to work. I’m available at your disposal…

I have to admit, I’m a huge fan of Movies and TV shows that have some fiction involved. Movies like “Avatar” and TV shows like “Heroes”, “Lost”, and “Flash Forward” are my favorites.

Nowadays we have come a long way to making the screen look real. Remember the first Star Wars movie (and how mind blowing it was) and looking at Avatar now (and how mind blowing it is!). Worlds apart.

If you ever wondered how it is done and are into Visual Effect’s I recommend that you check out the StarGate Studios YouTube Channel. Very good stuff. One of my favorites is below.

Seth Godin had a great idea by gathering the thoughts of over 70 people, each giving you ideas what to think about as we go into a new year. He publishes the book now for free.

Here is one of my favorite ones from Dave Balter:

A long time ago, starting a company that made software for computers was dumb. Microsoft and Apple may beg to differ. A company that manufactures cars: dumb. Putting a college yearbook online: dumb. Limiting updates to just 140 characters: dumb.

But what makes dumb, smart? The ability to look at the world through a different lens from everyone else. To ignore rules. To disregard the ‘why’s’ and ‘how’s’ and ‘never-succeeded-befores’. Then you need conviction, and the ability to stand by that conviction when other (smart) people look you in the eye and say, “no way, nuh uh.”

So, how do you tell a good dumb idea from a bad dumb one? Good dumb ideas create polarization. Some people will get it immediately and shower it with praise and affection. Others will say it’s ignorant and impossible and run for the hills. The fiercer the polarization, the smarter your dumb idea.

Of course, dumb can be just dumb. You just have to be smart to tell the difference.

Here’s what’s easy: to recognize a really smart new business concept as just that. What’s hard is recognizing that the idea you think is just plain dumb is really tomorrow’s huge breakthrough.