Jason Schultz

Without saying much, it says everything.

I think we need to completely overhaul the way life-charities and Goverment/Social Orgs work so that there is huge incentive for private companies (especially startups!) to create value for them.

Literally 5% of the effort in the tech scene devoted towards changing these decaying and withered orgs/processes/systems would change the lives of so many people.

There is so much to be done, people dieing every day, and all the smart people chasing the money which is in the opposite direction. So let’s put money in new places and watch what happens. The kicker is, this market has almost NO COMPETITION for smart new age companies to build for. Not only is there no competition, but the markets not even defined. A true gold rush to build new businesses - business that actually change lives far greater than most can comprehend and ripple greatness throughout the world.

If the changes were made in the right ways, future generations might look back and wonder why we were so negligent before and also so good to have started when we did to give them the platform for changing.

This isn’t fairy tale meta-crazy thinking, this is right now, more real than global warming - IN YOUR FACE IMPORTANT.

Simple things, that work.

The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.

For those trying to revolutionize the Media, Mobile, Social, and Music space, think about that one for a minute…

Excellent post in the New York Times, and does tie in with my previous post on hard work.

WE’VE all heard the tales of the apple falling on Newton’s head and Archimedes leaping naked from his bath shrieking “Eureka!” Many of us have even heard that eBay was created by a guy who realized that he could help his fiancée sell Pez dispensers online.

The fact that all three of these epiphany stories are pure fiction stops us short. As humans, we want to believe that creativity and innovation come in flashes of pure brilliance, with great thunderclaps and echoing ahas. Innovators and other creative types, we believe, stand apart from the crowd, wielding secrets and magical talents beyond the rest of us.

Balderdash. Epiphany has little to do with either creativity or innovation. Instead, innovation is a slow process of accretion, building small insight upon interesting fact upon tried-and-true process. Just as an oyster wraps layer upon layer of nacre atop an offending piece of sand, ultimately yielding a pearl, innovation percolates within hard work over time.

Read the whole story here… 

So Umair asked “what do you think is toxic about orthodox strategy”? My response, and I merely use the reference to Darwin/GOD/etc to illustrate a point..

So what is wrong with orthodox strategy? Why is business as usual tearing apart the economy? Why is industrial age thinking decaying brands/businesses/institutions/organization from to the core?

Well…. It’s like life, right?

Evolution of species. Natural selection. Darwin, and the like.

The species that last were those which could adapt, change, and procreate.

Orthodox strategy is like playing GOD and trying to create a permanent asexual species from day 1 in an ever evolving world - IT CAN’T HAPPEN. There is no permanence.

Edge strategy is like playing GOD and trying to create a species that can adapt to an ever evolving world at an ever increasing pace. To be able to shift, shuck, and jive. Were talking permanence through adaption, change, and procreation.

Someone should tell the finance/business/f’d world that the dinosaurs are extinct and there is no Jurassic Park.

Web based testimonials have had a rough time and taken a lot of heat during web 1.0. Lucky for them the web is growing up.

Testimonials don’t have to be anonymous. They can allow for new connections. They can add value (but only to those who first add value to the end user or customer). Imagine testimonials by way of social media. A facebook or linkedin profile snippet next to the (previously anonymous) words of endorsement.

People (customers) can connect, talk, and share in ways we never thought possible in web 1.0. Soon all legitimate reviews and testimonials will be powered via social engines to nail down the credibility aspect they’ve always been missing. In the not-so-distant future seeing static testimonials on ecommerce web sites will appear stagnant and cheap.

We think we’ve seen all there is to offer from the social space but it’s a fact that the most revolutionary has not even begun to fight.

 Guaranteed to hold you spell bound:  http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/229

Absolutely Stunning - just WOW

Let’s all set aside our industrial age paradigm of looking at a product for what it ‘is’ the moment its released.

The MacBook Air shares similarities with the iPod. When the iPod came out, it was not the runaway success it is today. It was ahead of it’s time, ahead of the curve, made for what was coming. Same with MacBook Air.

In 5 years if you’re still worried about having a CD Rom on your latest laptop it will be the equivelent of being worried about having a floppy disk drive today.

Look at the underlining changes and shifts, not at the status quo. ASP’s, internet apps, web based *, etc etc etc.. CD WHAT?

 Ok, so this has some wow built in:

Shannon introduced powerful, simplifying, enormously useful new concepts that transformed electronics and communications. For his own amusement, though, he could also go to the opposite extreme. He built an elaborate mechanical contraption called the “Ultimate Machine”.

“Nothing could be simpler. It is merely a small wooden casket, the size and shape of a cigar box, with a single switch on one face. When you throw the switch, there is an angry, purposeful buzzing. The lid slowly rises, and from beneath it emerges a hand. The hand reaches down, turns the switch off and retreats into the box. With the finality of a closing coffin, the lid snaps shut, the buzzing ceases and peace reigns once more. The psychological effect, if you do not know what to expect, is devastating. There is something unspeakably sinister about a machine that does nothing – absolutely nothing – except switch itself off.”

Arthur C. Clarke, Voice Across the Sea

 

Read more here