Marketer, Market Thyself Seth Godin points out that marketers need to spend some of their energy on marketing their profession. “It all comes down to spreading ideas. If you can get your art or your political cause or your restaurant’s ideas to spread, you win. Somewhere along the way, people were sold that marketing [equals] … Continue reading Marketer, Market Thyself

The Virtual is the New Real In yet another sign of the incredible growth and value in what was once called virtual reality, virtual pets site NeoPets was just sold for $160 million. If anything, I’m surprised the price was so low!

The Madness of Modern ParentingThis woman scares the bejesus out of me. For anyone who is too busy to read the whole article, here are the basics. High-powered Wall Street woman decides to have a baby. When the baby arrived, she discovers what all new parents discover: Parenting is a bitch. A wonderful, amazing bitch, … Continue reading The Madness Of Modern Parenting

The Meta-Bubble Bubble We have reached the point of absurdity, where not only do we have a housing bubble, and a bubble in commentators discussing the housing bubble, we now have a bubble in commentators discussing the bubble in commentators discussing the housing bubble. For the last word on this subject, Justin Khoo over at … Continue reading The Meta-Bubble Bubble

Good Lord, McClintock Actually Wrote Something Intelligent! California State Senator Tom McClintock recently wrote a thought-provoking and effective piece of agitprop. Looking at the issue of the educational system, McClintock conducts a clever thought experiment to determine whether our schools are spending our money wisely. He creates a hypothetical 180 child school, and gives it … Continue reading Good Lord, McClintock Actually Wrote Something Intelligent!

Good Enough Isn’t One of my greatest failings is that I’m too flexible. I can adjust to pretty much anything, and I have low expectations. Seth Godin points out that sometimes it’s better to make something as good as it can be, rather than just being good enough. Only by pushing past “good enough” can … Continue reading Good Enough Isn’t

You Are What You Charge Tom Evslin posted a terrific story about his experiences as a consultant. The punchline is that sometimes it’s better to charge a ridiculous sum of money because it gives you more credibility. “I won an argument with an IBM SE on the very good grounds that I was more expensive … Continue reading You Are What You Charge

Yay Capitalism Here’s today’s capitalism quote of the day, from TheAgitator by way of Coyote Blog. “Critics of capitalism once predicted that free markets would wreak mass starvation, depletion of resources, pollution, and death. They’re now reduced to bitching about too many flavors of toothpaste. We’ve won the debate.” Now both are responding to this … Continue reading Yay Capitalism

Yes Virginia, There Is A Housing Bubble It’s been over a week since my latest Cassandra-like post on the housing bubble, so it was quite fortuitous when I ran across this post on Always-On. In it, Eric Janszen paints a gloomy picture of just how out of control today’s real estate bubble is. A few … Continue reading Yes Virginia, There Is A Housing Bubble

Bob Geldof Is A Jurassic Dumbass Techdirt has an excellent piece on how Bob Geldof, irked by the fact that folks who won free tickets to his charity concert were selling them on eBay, called upon the world to boycott eBay. While Sir Bob has certainly done a lot of good for the world, his … Continue reading Bob Geldof Is A Jurassic Dumbass