Category: Essays
-
Looking At Conspiracy Theories From Inside Someone Else’s Foil Hat
Walking a mile in someone else’s shoes, they say, is the best way to understand them. Last week, I donned a foil hat and took to Twitter. I wasn’t out to understand conspiracy theorists – I was sarcastically mocking them. But now I do better understand how the fringes are drawn to conspiracy theories. In…
-
Books of 2019
Happy New Year, and new decade! I started last year with many ambitious goals, and I failed most of them. I intended to read at least 36 books in 2019 and only completed 14, oh well. For those interested these are the books I read over 2019: Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass…
-
Online Gurus Are Beyond Parody
I used to make videos mocking the folks you see in ads on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc. selling you some form of info product. I had to stop, because, while standing in front of a U-Haul place and talking about the haters who will claim I the great, “Dutch Ovens” don’t own all these trucks,…
-
How-To Course Market Saturation Index
People often love simple correlation metrics, in part because (aside from post hoc fallacies, like more ice cream means more murder), correlation can be an easy indicator of a broader trend. My favorite correlation metric example is the Hot Waitress Index, so dubbed by Hugo Lindgren in an article for New York Magazine. Lindgren’s point,…
-
Partner Or Employee With Extra Steps?
This morning I saw a post by Paul O’Brien titled “A VC is asking 6% for acting as an advisor…” – My first thought, that is some b******t – O’Brien agreed. His post is well worth reading, and it lead me down another thought pathway. When you give out a lot of equity, you are…
-
Why I Stopped Calling Myself A Consultant
When someone asked what my job was, I used to tell them I was a “Consultant”. This was an accurate title. I worked with companies, largely on digital marketing, video, and product planning. I’ve stopped using the title, however, and should have given it up sooner. A few years ago, a client told me I…
-
Why I Don’t Sign NDAs, Mostly
As a general rule, I don’t sign NDAs; meaning non-disclosure agreements, because as a general rule, NDAs are BS, meaning b******t. Here’s the thing, NDAs serve a narrow function. Enforcing confidentiality when no other legal structure would require it. It’s why you don’t need Lawyers or medical personnel to sign an NDA. You also don’t…
-
10% Happier, Book Review
I want to call this book “life-changing”, but I’m not going to because reading it didn’t change my life. What I’m trying to say is, the book has the capacity to be life-changing. If someone handed me this book five years ago, for example, I think it would have changed my life. The problem is,…
-
The Chaotic Language of Art
A friend asked for help promoting an “amazing and underrated artist” on display at a Dallas museum. Over coffee, we crafted a press release for Igor Samsonov‘s exhibit. I’d never met or heard of Samsonov before, but his work was indeed amazing. The visual depth of every painting is striking. Scenes and subjects have an…
-
Whatever Tragedy Just Occurred, I Don’t Assume You Approve
Some tragedies are of a variety that go viral. A school shooting, a crime motivated by race. A lot of things in a state with bizarrely open public records that creates nearly self-writing headlines. None of these are good things.
-
In A Decade, Devices of Twenty Years Ago Will Be The Hot New Gadgets
In ten years, devices from twenty years ago will become the hot new gadgets of the day. They will be improved, shinier, and better with technology advancement. But limited function devices, that just play music, help you navigate or wake you up in the morning will be all the rage. Not only among the same…
-
Play Bigger, Book Review
In an older post, I claim most marketing books suck. I stand by this; Most marketing books are garbage, rehashing other, older books, written to convince big companies who can hire consultants, to hire the authors. In that post, I quote Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets — because it’s the…
