May 2012
33 posts
Three key principles of designing home-run... →
matthewerosenberg:
People love to express themselves. This is why we buy the clothes we like, enjoy customizing our World of Warcraft characters, decorate our apartments, change our profile and cover photos, put bumper stickers on our cars, among many other things. Every decision you make is a form of self expression. Even if you are buying a pair of $5 throwaway glasses for Coachella, you’re...
Writer's Bloq, Inc.: Top Ten Most Angsty... →
From the Writer’s Bloq team, this week’s Tuesday Tidbit:
*disclaimer: all teasing is done out of love, respect, and just the slightest envy of the characters.
(Alternate title “Top ten Fictional Characters whose lives could be set to a Radiohead Soundtrack.”)
Charlie – The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Considering the title explicitly venerates a passively lived life – Charlie has to make it onto...
“When you do something noble and beautiful and nobody noticed, do not be sad. For...”
– John Lennon (via david)
Startup Founders: Don't Freak Out
By: Dharmesh Shah
“Remember, if the pain doesn’t kill you, it only hurts a lot. A lot of the time, near-fatal events are often just that — near-fatal. They don’t quite kill you. Startups are vulnerable, but generally resilient.
Your natural reaction when something really bad happens is to think about the worst-case scenario. But, that’s usually counter productive. ...
Nine Dangerous Things You Were Taught In School
By: Jessica Hagy
“Be aware of the insidious and unspoken lessons you learned as a child. To thrive in the world outside the classroom, you’re going to have to unlearn them.
The people in charge have all the answers.
Learning ends when you leave the classroom.
The best and brightest follow the rules.
What the books say is always true.
There is a very clear, single path to success.
...
“Today is a new day. Hiding from your history only shackles you to it. We can’t...”
– Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free (via creatingaquietmind)
"New York City Tech Boom Sets Pace" →
“New York has the nation’s fastest-growing tech sector and has surpassed Boston as the No. 2 hub, behind Silicon Valley, for Internet and mobile technologies, according to a report released Wednesday by the Center for an Urban Future.”
By: Jennifer Maloney
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The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs
His saga is the entrepreneurial creation myth writ large: Steve Jobs cofounded Apple in his parents’ garage in 1976, was ousted in 1985, returned to rescue it from near bankruptcy in 1997, and by the time he died, in October 2011, had built it into the world’s most valuable company. Along the way he helped to transform seven industries: personal computing, animated movies, music, phones, tablet...
“Everything I’ve ever let go of has claw marks on it.”
– David Foster Wallace
Think You Deserve To Be Called a CEO?
By: Alexander Haislip
“1. Attract Awesome People
2. Build an Experience, Not a Product
3. Learn Finance
4. Define a Big Goal and Take Small Steps
A remarkable CEO should be like the moon, illuminated by the reflected light of all the stars he or she has brought into orbit. Awesome people act as accelerants to whatever you’re doing. They push ideas forward, execute with aplomb and...
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Post-Unsolicited reflections of a rather...
It was 6:28. We hadn’t poured the drinks, we had yet to slice the brie, and we were just starting to hang the Writer’s Bloq banner. We were anxious, excited, and running out of time. But time wouldn’t stop for us, and neither would Unsolicited.
Two minutes later, the doors opened. Editors, agents, and writers shuffled into the Rare Books Room at The Strand. Students and...
5 Lessons From OMGPOP's Huge 'Draw Something' Sale...
By: Dan Frommer
App Store Overnight Success Is Real (And Unpredictable)
You Can Fail 30 Times And Still Succeed
“Sell High”
…
“People do not seem to realise that their opinion of the world is also a...”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
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WatchNot sure how Johnny Depp feels about this, but I’m on board!
“Many adults are put off when youngsters pose scientific questions. Children ask...”
– Carl Sagan
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When someone asks you a ridiculous question... →
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“There are known knowns; there are things we know we know.
We also know there are...”
– Donald Rumsfeld
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WatchTalk about a deck that’s to the point… Kudos for directness. Site seems just as clean.
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10 Things Your Commencement Speaker Won't Tell You
Don’t agree with everything, but these are quite well stated:
Some of your worst days lie ahead. Graduation is a happy day. But my job is to tell you that if you are going to do anything worthwhile, you will face periods of grinding self-doubt and failure. Be prepared to work through them. I’ll spare you my personal details, other than to say that one year after college graduation I...
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“If anything or anyone distresses you, think how you’ll feel a week - a month - a...”
– Swami Kriyananda
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Steve Jobs, college dropout and CEO of Apple...
For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and ask myself: “if today was the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something… Almost everything–all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall away in the...
April 2012
28 posts
2 tags
Teach the Books, Touch the Heart
Phenomenal, touching piece:
By: Claire Needell Hollander
“FRANZ KAFKA wrote that “a book must be the ax for the frozen sea inside us.” I once shared this quotation with a class of seventh graders, and it didn’t seem to require any explanation.
We’d just finished John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men.” When we read the end together out loud in class, my toughest boy, a star basketball...
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8 Core Beliefs of Extraordinary Bosses
1. Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield.
2. A company is a community, not a machine.
3. Management is service, not control.
4. My employees are my peers, not my children.
5. Motivation comes from vision, not from fear.
6. Change equals growth, not pain.
7. Technology offers empowerment, not automation.
8. Work should be fun, not mere toil.
By: Geoffrey James
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Watchwritersbloqinc:
From piece in USA Today:
“Here’s a look at the book by the numbers:
25 million: Copies sold, in more than 30 languages.
514: Eggs in Charlotte’s sac, “my magnum opus … the finest thing I have ever made.”
MORE: 100 Greatest Books for Kids list
PHOTOS: What are the top 10 books for kids?
REVIEW: ‘The Story of Charlotte’s Web’ by Michael Sims
31: Age at which DiCamillo...
“Admit it. You aren’t like them. You’re not even close. You may occasionally...”
– Timothy Leary
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Writer's Bloq Takes on the Nation's Writing Scene →
“Writer’s Bloq, an online writing community that went live in February of this year, has quietly gained buzz around the New York City MFA and post-MFA writing scenes. Approximately 500 approved writers and readers have so far logged on and participated. Users edit work, give and receive criticism, and help cultivate a following for one another. The first thing one sees upon signing in...
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Insightful piece on investing ethics
* The musical prologue is also a nice touch.
“Two years ago we invested $250,000 in Instagram. Thanks to the spectacular vision and effort of Kevin Systrom and the Instagram team, the investment will be worth $78,000,000 when the Faceboook acquisition closes. The work that Kevin and team did will go down as legend in the industry and we thank them immensely. We also thank our co-investors...
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Unsolicited countdown... →
Only 2 weeks until Writer’s Bloq first official event!
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Because the harsh reality is startups are...
“It’s so easy to get swept up in the great stories and lives of people like Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and Elon Musk & how successful their respective companies are. It’s tempting to sit in your bed at night dreaming of leaving your high paying banking or corporate job and heading west to Silicon Valley, leaving the cubicle farm to make a difference and change the world…
Here...
“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man...”
– Theodore Roosevelt from a speech given in Paris at the Sorbonne in 1910
Getting Ahead: A Letter to Myself by Jesse Farmer
“I moved to Silicon Valley the summer of 2006, as soon as I graduated from the University of Chicago. Two college friends, Ryo Chijiiwa and Isaac Wolkerstorfer (neé Wasileski), asked me to join their startup OpenHive, a “social” search engine for college campuses that allowed students to search each others’ bookshelves. I had no expectations. In fact, before my plane landed...
http://backleftlitz.tumblr.com/ →
backleftlitz:
I went to a website that generates names at random, and chose the last name Modica. I went to a website that lists zip codes and chose 93727, Fresno, California. I went to the White Pages website and typed in Modica, 93727. One person with that name lives in Fresno, and her name is Rhonda. She lives on 4871 E Lane Ave in apartment 228 and is between the ages of 35 and 39 and...