Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Jeff Bezos on space, free speech and creating shows to sell more shoes
from Amazon – TechCrunch http://techcrunch.com/2016/05/31/jeff-bezos-on-space-free-speech-and-creating-shows-to-sell-more-shoes/?ncid=rss
Xiaomi inks Microsoft patent deal and agrees to pre-install Office apps on its phones
from Microsoft – TechCrunch http://techcrunch.com/2016/05/31/xiaomi-inks-microsoft-patent-deal-and-agrees-to-pre-install-office-apps-on-its-phones/?ncid=rss
Xbox One price drops to $299 just in time before unveiling slim Xbox One at E3
from Microsoft – TechCrunch http://techcrunch.com/2016/05/31/xbox-one-price-drops-to-299-just-in-time-before-unveiling-slim-xbox-one-at-e3/?ncid=rss
Wasting our technology surplus
When someone handed you a calculator for the first time, it meant that long division was never going to be required of you ever again. A huge savings in time, a decrease in the cognitive load of decision making.
Now what?
You can use that surplus to play video games and hang out.
Or you can use that surplus to go learn how to do something that can't be done by someone merely because she has a calculator.
Either way, your career as a long-divisionator was over.
Entire professions and industries are disrupted by the free work and shortcuts that are produced by the connection economy, by access to information, by robots. Significant parts of your job are almost certainly among them.
Now that we can get what you used to do really quickly and cheaply from someone else, you can either insist that you still get to do that for us at the same fee you used to charge, or you can move up the ladder and do something we can't do without you.
from Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/156443163/0/sethsblog~Wasting-our-technology-surplus.html
Microsoft confirms Microsoft Ventures VC arm, renames old one ‘Microsoft Accelerator’
from Microsoft – TechCrunch http://techcrunch.com/2016/05/31/microsoft-confirms-microsoft-ventures-vc-arm-renames-old-one-microsoft-accelerator/?ncid=rss
Monday, May 30, 2016
The possibility of optimism (the optimism of possibility)
Is the glass half full or half empty?
The pessimist sees what's present today and can only imagine eventual decline. The glass is already half empty and it's only going to get worse.
The optimist understands that there's a difference between today and tomorrow. The glass is half full, with room for more. The vision is based on possibility, the future tense, not the present one.
Pessimists have trouble making room for possibility, and thus possibility has trouble finding room for pessimists.
As soon as we realize that there is a difference between right now and what might happen next, we can move ourselves to the posture of possibility, to the self-fulfilling engine of optimism.
from Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/156288752/0/sethsblog~The-possibility-of-optimism-the-optimism-of-possibility.html
Sunday, May 29, 2016
Problems
Avoiding a problem with foresight and good design is a cheap, highly leveraged way to do your work.
Extinguishing a problem before it gets expensive and difficult is almost as good, and far better than paying a premium when there's an emergency.
Fretting about an impending problem, worrying about it, imagining the implications of it... all of this is worthless.
The magic of slack (a little extra time in the chain, a few extra dollars in the bank) is that it gives you the resources to stop and avoid a problem or fix it when it's small. The over-optimized organization misunderstands the value of slack, so it always waits until something is a screaming emergency, because it doesn't think it has a moment to spare. Expensive.
Action is almost always cheaper now than it is later.
from Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/156185614/0/sethsblog~Problems.html
Saturday, May 28, 2016
The originality paradox
There are a billion people trying to do something important for the first time. These people are connected by the net, posting, creating, daring to leap first.
It's hard, because the number of people racing with you to be original is huge.
The numbers are so daunting that the chances that you will create something that resonates, spreads and changes the culture are really close to zero.
But it's also certain that someone will. In fact, there's a 100% chance that someone will step up with an action or a concept so daring that it resonates with us.
Nearly zero and certain. At the same time.
Pick your odds, decide what you care about and act accordingly.
from Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/156073798/0/sethsblog~The-originality-paradox.html
Friday, May 27, 2016
Comixology CEO shows off new Unlimited subscription service
from Amazon – TechCrunch http://techcrunch.com/2016/05/27/comixology-unlimited-interview/?ncid=rss
Amazon puts Alexa in the browser with Echoism.io
from Amazon – TechCrunch http://techcrunch.com/2016/05/27/amazon-puts-alexa-in-the-browser-with-echoism-io/?ncid=rss
Beware the gulf of disapproval
As your new idea spreads, most people who hear about it will dislike it.
(click to enlarge)
Start at the left. Your new idea, your proposal to the company, your new venture, your innovation—no one knows about it.
As you begin to promote it, most of the people (the red line) who hear about it don't get it. They think it's a risky scheme, a solution to a problem no one has or that it's too expensive. Or some combination of the three.
And this is where it would stop, except for the few people on the blue line. These are the early adopters, the believers, and some of them are sneezers. They tell everyone they can about your new idea.
Here's the dangerous moment. If you're keeping track of all the people who hate what you've done, you'll give up right here and right now. This is when the gulf of disapproval is at its maximum. This happened to the telephone, to the web, to rap music... lots of people have heard of it, but the number of new fans (the blue line) is far smaller than the number of well-meaning (but in this case, wrong) people on the red line.
Sometimes, if you persist, the value created for the folks on the blue line begins to compound. And so your fans persist and one by one, convert some of the disapproving. Person by person, they shift from being skeptics to accepting the new status quo.
When the gulf of disapproval comes, don't track the red line. Count on the blue one instead.
from Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/155949362/0/sethsblog~Beware-the-gulf-of-disapproval.html
Thursday, May 26, 2016
The circle is complete: Minecraft is getting a deathmatch mode
from Microsoft – TechCrunch http://techcrunch.com/2016/05/26/the-circle-is-complete-minecraft-is-getting-a-deathmatch-mode/?ncid=rss
Microsoft and Facebook are building the fastest trans-Atlantic cable yet
from Microsoft – TechCrunch http://techcrunch.com/2016/05/26/microsoft-and-facebook-are-building-the-fastest-trans-atlantic-cable-yet/?ncid=rss
ACLU moves to join Microsoft lawsuit against Justice Department
from Microsoft – TechCrunch http://techcrunch.com/2016/05/26/aclu-moves-to-join-microsoft-lawsuit-against-justice-department/?ncid=rss
Microsoft could introduce not one, but two new Xbox One consoles
from Microsoft – TechCrunch http://techcrunch.com/2016/05/26/microsoft-could-introduce-not-one-but-two-new-xbox-one-consoles/?ncid=rss
Pretty, cheap and well-rounded (three misunderstandings)
It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking you need to be prettier if you want to be an actor or actress. It turns out, though, that most important thespians aren't conventionally pretty (Marlon Brando, Julia Roberts, Angelina Jolie, Geena Davis, Morgan Freeman...)
It's easy for a retailer or a freelancer to believe that the best way to succeed is to be cheap. But just about every important brand (and every successful freelancer) didn't get that way by being the cheapest.
And anyone who has been through high school has been reminded how important it is to be well-rounded. But Nobel Prize winners, successful NGO founders and just about everyone you admire didn't get that way by being mediocre at a lot of things.
Pretty, cheap and well-rounded are seductive ways to hide out in a crowd. But they're not the path to doing work that matters.
from Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/155824584/0/sethsblog~Pretty-cheap-and-wellrounded-three-misunderstandings.html