It’s considered high-minded right now to come out railing against patents. Everyone is doing it, from Mark Cuban to Fred Wilson to Twitter. It seems to me that the picture is not quite as black and white as one might think. Cuban talks (albeit a bit tongue in cheek) about a janitor being sued for […]
Tag Archives: Business
The Threat to the Open Internet
I am reading a fascinating book right now called The Master Switch : The Rise and Fall of Information Empires by Tim Wu. The premise of the book is that information empires (the telephone, film, and TV) all undergo a very similar lifecycle as they mature. They start out as open platforms with the introduction of […]
The Discipline of Solving a Real Problem
The question that trumps all other questions when starting out with a new idea: “What is the question you are answering?” If you can’t articulate a concise response in less than 15 seconds, I would submit that it’s time to pause and consider seriously whether to continue. It’s a discipline that flies in the face […]
Call Us, We Won’t Call You
I write a lot on this blog about stupid things that businesses do, not so much to be critical of them but to remind all of us that every single interaction counts. We got a dog a few weeks back and are looking to install an electric fence. There are really only a couple of […]
For Free
A few weeks back I was having breakfast with Bruce Benedict, the proprietor and creator of Cardiphonia. Cardiphonia is a music label in the 21st century sense of the word, focused on helping upcoming artists in a niche space (sacred music). Bruce is one of those guys that you can’t help but love watching. He […]
Would You Like Some Bland With That?
I spent the week between Christmas and New Years in Tulsa, OK visiting family. On one of the days my wife and I decided to go get some coffee (or tea in my case). There were, of course, sixteen Starbucks within a five mile radius of where we were, but I wanted something different. We […]
On Liberty
I rarely delve into politics on this blog. The reason for this is that I aim primarily for this blog to be informative and interesting, and politics is usually neither. There are times, however, when the laws being considered and passed by the United States government need to be talked about. Such is the case […]
You Never Know Who’s in the Room
A few years back I went to see a Switchfoot concert at a college nearby. At the time I knew who they were, but would not have considered myself a fan. At the urging of my brother, I went to see them. The concert venue was lousy, and there was almost no one there. Probably […]
The Technology Adoption Debt
I am guilty many times of rushing to judgement about how widespread technology adoption is among the general population in the US. I often presume that because I know about and use great technology every day that most everyone else is doing the same. It’s simply not true. There is a significant portion of the […]
Building a Company
I realized this past week that I have been guilty of not trying to build a company, but rather building something that might sell someday. It’s not that selling your company is a bad thing. I wouldn’t mind if it happened. However, the focus is not the same. I was finishing up Steve Jobs biography […]