From the monthly archives:

February 2010

Sifting my Dunbar number out of siloed data

February 22, 2010

You’ve probably heard more than you care to about the Dunbar number – the idea in sociology that you cannot maintain more than 150 real friendships. I began to wonder about myself. How many people do I really contact in a given period of time – say a month? This started me on revealing a [...]

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What is an hour of your attention worth?

February 18, 2010Attention

Read the very disappointing cover story on my new Fortune magazine that came in the mail today. I’ll post more about it with observations when I have more time. But Jeff Jarvis was interviewed for the story and he had an interesting comment about attention. It got me thinking about all of the media and [...]

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The 4-to-1 Ratio

February 17, 2010Culture

Image via Wikipedia We have a 4:1 input to output ratio on our head — why is it so hard to use them in this proportion? Seeing and Hearing are art forms. Really Seeing and really Hearing are anyway. The act of observation. The art of listening. Even when we listen we are watching – [...]

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Jeff Jarvis & Jaiku’s Founder discuss Google Buzz http://bit.ly/cLa9VW

February 17, 2010Stream

Jyri Engeström, the founder of Jaiku, is a brilliant thinker who has the best thoughts on Buzz that I've heard to date. Jarvis adds a bit to the conversation, but it's worth just running this in the background while you work for Jyri's insights. Listen to it here: http://bit.ly/cLa9VW Thanks for my friend Bill Sobel [...]

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If you are not willing to be bad at something, you’ll never learn how to be good.

February 16, 2010On Ideas

Image via CrunchBase Most of the people moaning about Google Buzz have not actually created a product of their own and put it out there. Five thoughts… 1) It was smart for Google to get into the space. 2) It was smart for them to integrate it into an existing platform. 3) It will be [...]

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Deconstruction instead of brainstorming

Thumbnail image for Deconstruction instead of brainstorming February 11, 2010On Ideas

Brainstorming is taught as the primary tool for creative thinking. The problem is it doesn’t work. Don’t get me wrong. There are some who do it well. IDEO is legendary for their ability to brainstorm. They have rules painted on the walls. Everyone learns them. It works for them. They are the exception, not the [...]

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Where Kevin Rose’s idea for Digg was born

February 10, 2010On Ideas

via img214.imageshack.us Just saw this on Bryson Moore’s blog, and think it is a great photo for a three reasons: 1. It shows the power of thinking visually. 2. It shows how to get ideas down on paper. 3. It shows that tools you love help facilitate #1 and #2. I don’t know Kevin, and [...]

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The Google Ad

February 8, 2010Brand

Image via CrunchBase I have not read any of the commentary about the Google ad yet, and for a reason. I wanted to get down my opinions of it untainted by anyone else’s opinions because I’ve rarely seen something that so defied my expectations. Everyone talks about Google taking over every business that they move [...]

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Comcast Launches XFINITY

Thumbnail image for Comcast Launches XFINITY February 5, 2010Brand

via blog.comcast.com Hmmm…we never like these changes, and it’s always easy to take a cheap shot at rebrands. I’m remembering back to Anderson Consulting’s shift to Accenture and how hated it was. Now, Accenture seems like it’s been here forever. Same with this shift — Comcast to xfinity — it’s not hard to imagine how [...]

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Demoted to Gold

February 4, 2010Personal

Image via Wikipedia American Airlines demoted me to Gold. I got a very nice pre-printed letter in the mail informing me that I did not qualify for Platinum status any more. They said that if I wanted to pay either $549 or $629 to reinstate my Platinum status then I could. Thanks to Apple, I [...]

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