2017: A year in review (and a preview of 2018) Eric D. Brown

2017 was an interesting year for me.

I bought a new house in February after being homeless for about 4 months. In October 2016, my wife and I sold our house and spent the 2.5 months of 2016 and the first 1.5 months of 2017 traveling around the Southwest (we spent the time in Colorado and New Mexico). Our plan was to spend 6 months to a year traveling around the country but we both realized quickly that we need a ‘home base’ and weren’t cut out for living out of vacation rentals. Additionally, most of these vacation rental owners’ ideas of ‘high speed internet’ are not the same as mine (most places had low-end DSL…ugh).

Beyond the travel and new house purchase, I spent most of this year focused on helping organizations use their data better. Most of my time was spent helping companies (and people) understand the data, organize their data better, collect more diverse data-sets or help them understand whether they should dive into big data, machine learning and/or deep learning.

One thing I noticed that was a bit different in 2017 than in previous years: organizations are more ‘data smart’ than they used to be. This is a good thing. It saves me (and other consultants) from having to explain the basics of data management and focus more on the ‘sexy’ stuff around data. Don’t get me wrong – there are still plenty of companies that are still managing their multi-million dollar organization with excel spreadsheets and access databases (with no real clue what data quality / data management means) but these organizations now better understand the need to introduce more a sophisticated approach to their data.

Looking back on the types of projects I worked on over the year, I noticed a trend continuing that started in 2016. I’ve been spending more of my time in a ‘strategic’ role vs a tactical role. Sure, there are still some projects that saw me being very hands-on with data science, machine learning and deep learning initiatives, but about 60% of my time in 2017 was spent working with CxO level leaders in what I’ve come to call ‘data science strategic consulting’.

From a blogging / writing standpoint, I’ve written a bit in 2017 (but not as much as I want to or should be doing). A few of my favorite articles from the year are:

• When it comes to big data, think these three words: analyze; contextualize; internalize
• Deep learning – when should it be used?
• Don’t forget the “Science” in Data Science
• Data and Culture go hand in hand

So…what does 2018 look like?

I’m not one of those people who puts together forecasts for the coming year. I have no idea how folks come up with their predictions. That said, I can tell you what 2018 looks like for me personally.

For one, I’m going to be a traveling more both personally and professionally. I’m going to make a point to get out to a few conferences this year so look for me at some of Big Data and MarTech conferences. Most of my client work is remote so I don’t do a lot of travel for work other than the occasional face-to-face meetings, but I’m hoping to get out a bit more regularly to meet with clients / potential clients – especially if there’s some good landscapes for my take photos of

Additionally, in my role as CIO at Sundial Capital Research (publishers of sentimentrader.com), I’ll be focused on continuing to make our operations more efficient as well as find new and innovative ways to use stock market market related data. I’ve found the financial world to be a fascinating one and more and more of my time is being spent focused on this role versus my own consulting practice. That said, I’m going to be a bit more focused on this role in 2018 while leaving about 50% of my time available for consulting.

On a personal level, I’m planning on getting out in the ‘wild’ more. I absolutely love to be out in nature with my camera and I’ve started blocking out time in my calendar to try to get out into nature more this year. I’ve got a portfolio that I need to continue filling out – and in order to do that, I need to be outside. Here’s a semi-gratuitous image that I recently made for your viewing pleasure:

A wide angle of the Tall Grass Prairie near Pawhuska OK – view on 500px.com

2018 looks to be a good year for me and mine…here’s hoping it turns out that way for you.

from Eric D. Brown http://ericbrown.com/2017-year-review-preview-2018.htm
http://ericbrown.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/2017-2018-300x169.png

Acknowledgments

Even though it's usually at the end, the acknowledgments are often the most important part of a book.

This year, thousands of people have helped. They've inspired those they engaged with, built things that mattered, gracefully handled pain and loss, connected with ideas... and they've also spirited me through airports, welcomed me into their lives, shared honest feedback, made a commotion, set an example and showed up precisely when needed. They've written and been read, spoken up when it mattered and extended themselves. They've done their work in public or in private, from nearby or afar, but they've seen and been seen.

The thought of listing them (and alas, leaving out so many) is both exciting and enervating, but here's a very partial list, perhaps 5% of those that I owe so much to. Perhaps you can make a list as well.

Liz Jackson, Bernadette Jiwa, Amy Koppelman, Debbie Millman, Ishita Gupta, Frank Oswald, Sunny Bates, Fiona McKean, Andrea Stewart Cousins, Jacqueline Novogratz, David Wahl, Fred Wilson, Joel Lueb, By The Way Bakery, David Curhan, Cat Hoke, Nancy Lublin, Roger Gordon, Aria Finger, David Wilf, Marjorie Bryen, Kevin Kelly, Niki Papadopolous, Chunyan Teng, Paul McGowan, Mark Frauenfelder, Shawn Coyne, Ramon Ray, Emily Epstein, Harley Finkelstein, Phil Hollows, Tina Eisenberg, Sarah Jones, Simon Sinek, Bryan Elliott, Tom Kubik, Travis Wilson, Jesse Dylan, Rodger Beyer, The extraordinary team I work with every day at HQ, Micah Sifry, Steve Dennis, Sheryl Sandberg, Marco Arment, Adam Grant, Sam Saffron, Susan Piver, Michelle Welsch, Tim Ferriss, Brian Koppelman, Alex DiPalma, Willie Jackson, Shawn and Lawren Askinosie, Nicole Walters, Robin Estevez, Chris Meyer, Francoise Hontoy, Louise Karch, Acar Altinsel, Shannon Weber, Michele Kyd Lee, Lodro Rinzler, Sarah Peck, Susan Schuman, Lisa Oswald, Danny Meyer and, of course, you.

Especially you.

Can't do it without you and the ruckus you seek to make every day. Thank you.

       

from Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/514002742/0/sethsblog~Acknowledgments.html

Automating your life on this week’s episode of CTRL+T

 People are lazy. Well, let me speak for myself. I am lazy. So it’s no wonder why on this week’s episode of CTRL+T, I was drawn to some news items that touched on home assistants and personal assistants for when you’re out in the wild. Amazon’s Echo Dot was the top-selling product on all of Amazon this holiday season and startup Fin recently launched its human/AI… Read More

from Amazon – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/30/automating-your-life-on-this-weeks-episode-of-ctrlt/?ncid=rss

Granularity

You can't make an hourglass with a boulder.

But break the boulder into sufficiently small bits of sand, and you can tell time.

You wouldn't want to eat a baked loaf of ice cream, mustard, fish, bread, capers and cheese.

But separate them into their component parts and you can open a restaurant.

It's tempting indeed to build the one, the one perfect thing, here it is, it's for everyone.

But one size rarely fits all.

The alternative is break it into components, to find the grid and to fill it in. Not too small, not too big. Grains that match what we're ready to engage with.

       

from Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/513795302/0/sethsblog~Granularity.html

Amazon did a lot of funky stuff this year and it’s paying off

 Holy hell, it’s been a year for Amazon. Jeff Bezos’ former-online-bookstore dumped $13.7 billion to buy a bunch of grocery stores, that speaker you talk to in your living room that Amazon makes is really popular and a bunch of server farms Amazon runs generate more than $10 billion in revenue annually. Read More

from Amazon – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/29/amazon-did-a-lot-of-funky-stuff-this-year-and-its-paying-off/?ncid=rss

New habits

I bought a CD yesterday.

That didn't used to be news. I used to buy a CD every week, week after week, year after year. It adds up.

Hi-rez streaming changed that habit for me, but it took about a year before the itch (mostly) subsided.

Old habits die hard, and it's entirely possible that your customers are on fumes, buying your old stuff now and then, down from often and on their way to rarely.

You can live on old habits for a while, but the future depends on investing in finding and building some new ones with (and for) your customers. Or your family. Or yourself.

The most powerful insight is that you can do it with intent. You can decide that you want some new habits, and then go get them.

       

from Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/513581998/0/sethsblog~New-habits.html

AWS showed no signs of slowing down in 2017

 AWS had a successful year by any measure. The company continued to behave like a startup with the kind of energy and momentum to invest in new areas not usually seen in an incumbent with a significant marketshare lead. How good a year was it? According to numbers from Synergy Research, the company remains the category leader by far with around 35 percent marketshare. Microsoft sits well behind… Read More

from Amazon – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/28/aws-showed-no-signs-of-slowing-down-in-2017/?ncid=rss

Amazon updates Fire TV’s YouTube app to redirect users to a web browser instead

 The feud between Amazon and Google continues today with the early removal of YouTube from the Fire TV – a move Google had said wouldn’t take place until January 1, 2018. But as a number of Fire TV owners have now noticed, launching the YouTube app today informs you that you can choose to watch “YouTube and millions of other websites” by using a web browser. You then… Read More

from Amazon – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/28/amazon-updates-fire-tvs-youtube-app-to-redirect-users-to-a-web-browser-instead/?ncid=rss

Are you day trading?

The volatility of bitcoin turns the people who own it into addicts. At any given moment, it's up $100 or down a thousand.

When it's up, you think you're brilliant, that you somehow had something to do with it.

And when it's down, the world is about to implode.

Most people don't day trade bitcoin, but all of us day trade something. We're hooked into something volatile, easily measured and emotional. We overdo our response to news, good or bad, and let it distract us from the long-term job of living a useful life.

Your SEO results, your Facebook likes, the look on your boss's face when she gets back from a meeting--all of these things are rife with opportunities for day trading.

It'll be volatile with or without your help. Better to set it aside and get back to the real work of making a difference instead. 

       

from Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/513352628/0/sethsblog~Are-you-day-trading.html

HQ Trivia Is Coming to Android | Crunch Report

HQ Trivia is coming to Android, Amazon Echo is the No. 1 best seller on the site and the founder of LeEco is ordered to return to China. All this on Crunch Report. Read More

from Amazon – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/27/hq-trivia-is-coming-to-android-crunch-report/?ncid=rss

Amazon’s Alexa app hits the top of the App Store for the first time

 Amazon’s claims that the Echo Dot was the retailer’s best-selling product all through this holiday season appear to be backed up by the rise of the Alexa app in the U.S. App Store. The companion app for Alexa-powered devices like the Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Show and Echo Spot, grabbed the number one spot for the first time ever on Apple’s App Store on Christmas, and still… Read More

from Amazon – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/27/amazons-alexa-app-hits-the-top-of-the-app-store-for-the-first-time/?ncid=rss

The power of the possible

Next year is almost here.

And doing what you did this year probably isn’t going to be sufficient.

That’s because you have more to contribute than you did this year. You have important work worth sharing.

To reach your goals, you’ll probably need more effective and powerful ways to tell your story, get clients, gain market share and serve your audience.

I'm excited that we'll be offering the The Marketing Seminar again, beginning in just about a week. It teaches you how to push beyond your current constraints and truly see what’s possible. In 2017, more than 4,000 people took the Seminar. 

Many of them came hoping that they'd learn some new techniques from me in the fifty videos that are included.

Most of them were surprised.

They were surprised to discover that while there are tons of useful tactics and approaches in the videos, the real power of the Seminar is helping people see what's possible. The peer-to-peer connection that's built deep into the Seminar means that you'll spend far more time giving and getting feedback than you will watching videos.

It's this powerful interaction that changes the game. This is a future of education—community plus content.

We each carry around a frying pan, looking for just the right size fish to fry. We each have an expectation of what we've got, what we might get and what we deserve. And most of all, we each carry around limits, beliefs about what we're able to contribute.

The Seminar takes your impact at the edges and multiplies it by ten.

We’re announcing the next session next week, and giving people who subscribe to our updates a first look and a special discount in advance.

If you’re ready to do your most important work, we’d very much like to help you get there.

       

from Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/513156828/0/sethsblog~The-power-of-the-possible.html

The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on all of Amazon this holiday season

 The holiday shopping season is finally over and that means Amazon has some shopping data for us. This holiday season, Amazon’s Echo Dot was the top-selling Amazon device, as well as the top-selling product available from any manufacturer across all categories on Amazon.com, with millions sold. Meanwhile, Amazon’s newer Alexa-enabled devices, the Echo Spot, Echo Dot and Echo… Read More

from Amazon – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/26/the-echo-dot-was-the-best-selling-product-on-all-of-amazon-this-holiday-season/?ncid=rss

How much is 'smarter' worth?

No new costs, no new machines, no new resources.

Just smarter.

Smarter about the process, about the effects, about planning. Smarter about leadership, about management, about measurement.

How much is smarter worth?

In my experience, smarter is almost always a bargain, something you can buy for a lot less than it's worth.

       

from Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/512951902/0/sethsblog~How-much-is-smarter-worth.html