Tuesday, July 15, 2008
I swear--by my life and my love of it--that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine. --John Galt's Oath from Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged"
I came here to say that I do not recognize anyone's right to one minute of my life. Nor to any part of my energy. Nor to any achievement of mine. No matter who makes the claim, how large their number or how great their need. --Howard Roark from Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead"
"If you want my advice, Peter," he said at last, "you've made a mistake already. By asking me. By asking anyone. Never ask people. Not about your work. Don't you know what you want? How can you stand it, not to know?" --Howard Roark from Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead"
Download The Virtue of Selfishness MP3 AudioBooks
I came here to say that I do not recognize anyone's right to one minute of my life. Nor to any part of my energy. Nor to any achievement of mine. No matter who makes the claim, how large their number or how great their need. --Howard Roark from Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead"
"If you want my advice, Peter," he said at last, "you've made a mistake already. By asking me. By asking anyone. Never ask people. Not about your work. Don't you know what you want? How can you stand it, not to know?" --Howard Roark from Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead"
Download The Virtue of Selfishness MP3 AudioBooks
Labels: audiobook, Ideas, interestingness, mp3
Posted by Nick HaC @ 6:09 AM
Share on Facebook
Email this
Add to del.icio.us
Digg this
Shameless Plug
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
Sunday, May 25, 2008
TED: 6 ways mushrooms can save the world
The focus of Stamets' research is the Northwest's native fungal genome, mycelium, but along the way he has filed 22 patents for mushroom-related technologies, including pesticidal fungi that trick insects into eating them, and mushrooms that can break down the neurotoxins used in nerve gas.
There are cosmic implications as well. Stamets believes we could terraform other worlds in our galaxy by sowing a mix of fungal spores and other seeds to create an ecological footprint on a new planet.
"Once you’ve heard 'renaissance mycologist' Paul Stamets talk about mushrooms, you'll never look at the world -- not to mention your backyard -- in the same way again."Linda Baker, Salon.com
Labels: ecology, Ideas, interestingness
Posted by Nick HaC @ 5:57 AM
Shameless Plug
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Scott Berkun speaks on the Myths of Innovation. How to you innovate successfully? How do you make money from innovation? Why do some innovations succeed and some fail?
http://web2expo.blip.tv/file/856263/
Posted by Nick HaC @ 5:57 AM
Shameless Plug
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
Monday, May 5, 2008
Ive just started reading Clay Shirkys new book - Here comes everybody - and its wonderful.
I would recommend buying a copy or reading the blog.
You can also watch Clay Shirkys Video Lecture at Harvard on Heres comes everybody
From Amazon:
"How do trends emerge and opinions form? The answer used to be something vague about word of mouth, but now it's a highly measurable science, and nobody understands it better than Clay Shirky. In this delightfully readable book, practically every page has an insight that will change the way you think about the new era of social media. Highly recommended."
-Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine and author of The Long Tail
"Clay has long been one of my favorite thinkers on all things Internet-- not only is he smart and articulate, but he's one of those people who is able to crystallize the half-formed ideas that I've been trying to piece together into glittering, brilliant insights that make me think, yes, of course, that's how it all works."
--Cory Doctorow, co-editor of Boing Boing and author of Overclocked: Stories of the Future Present.
Labels: conversations, Ideas, social media, web 2.0
Posted by Nick HaC @ 6:21 AM
Shameless Plug
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Labels: cgm, consumer, consumer generated media, conversations, government, Ideas, law
Posted by Nick HaC @ 6:06 AM
Shameless Plug
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
Monday, October 8, 2007
The web is a sea of conversations navigated by search. We have talked alot about search in our blog but what about conversations?
If you havn't read The ClueTrain Manifesto, then you will enjoy the following
- Markets are conversations.
- Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors.
- Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice.
- Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives, dissenting arguments or humorous asides, the human voice is typically open, natural, uncontrived.
- People recognize each other as such from the sound of this voice.
- The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.
Read the Full Book Online for Free
A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies.
These markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can't be faked.
Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do.
But learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lip service about "listening to customers." They will only sound human when they empower real human beings to speak on their behalf.
While many such people already work for companies today, most companies ignore their ability to deliver genuine knowledge, opting instead to crank out sterile happytalk that insults the intelligence of markets literally too smart to buy it.
However, employees are getting hyperlinked even as markets are. Companies need to listen carefully to both. Mostly, they need to get out of the way so intranetworked employees can converse directly with internetworked markets.
Corporate firewalls have kept smart employees in and smart markets out. It's going to cause real pain to tear those walls down. But the result will be a new kind of conversation. And it will be the most exciting conversation business has ever engaged in....
Labels: behaviour, communities, consumer, conversations, Ideas
Posted by Nick HaC @ 5:32 AM
Shameless Plug
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Every new project (or job, or hobby or company) starts out exciting or fun. Then it gets harder and less fun, until it hits a low point: really hard and not much fun at all.
And the you find yourself asking if the goal is really worth the hassle.
Maybe you're in a Dip - a temporary setback that you will overcome if you keep pushing.
But maybe its really a Cul-de-sac, which will never get better no matter how hard you try.
What really sets superstars apart from everyone else is the ability to escape dead ends quickly whilst staying focused and motivated when it really counts.
Winners quit fast, quit often and quite without guilt - until they commit to beating the right dip for the right reasons. In fact, winners seek out the Dip. They realise that the bigger the barrier, the bigger the reward for getting past it.
Losers, on the other hand, fall into two basic traps. Either they fail to stick out the Dip - they get to the moment of truth and then give up - or they never find the right Dip to conquer.
Whether you;re a graphic design, a sales rep, an athlete or an aspiring CEO, this fun little book will help you figure out if you;re in a dip thats worthy of your time, effort and talents. If you are, The Dip will inspire you to hang tough. If not, it will help you find the courage to quit 0 so you can be number one at something else.
The Dip - http://sethgodin.typepad.com/the_dip/
Labels: behaviour, communities, Ideas, Marketing, Startups, web 2.0
Posted by Nick HaC @ 9:55 PM
Shameless Plug
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
This weekend is OZIA 2007, the Premiere Annual Information architecture and Usability Forum in sydney
Here are the list of Topics/Speakers
- Matthew Hodgson - Semantic analysis in IA
- Scott Parsons - Exploring multidimensional tagging frameworks
- Donna Maurer - Ethical issues and information architecture
- James Breeze - Open your mind - map it!
- James Matheson - Information Architecture of Wikis
- Hurol Inan - Landing Page Optimisation
- Patrick Kennedy - "There's no I in team" – a case study in collaborative information architecture
- David Sless - ROI in Information Design: where IA figures in ID
- Faruk Avdi - Rise to Play a Greater Part – Delivering Specs in the Bigger Picture
- Steve Baty - Analysing Quantitative Data
- Iain Barker - Is length still an issue?
- Stephen Collins - Love in an elevator - selling the value of IA to business
- Gary Bunker - User Research in virtual worlds
- Elizabeth Pek - Designing sites people love - balancing emotion with business reality
- Sharon Varley - Get out your pinking shears, it’s time to cut a few patterns
- Rashmi Sinha - Fast, cheap & somewhat in control - 10 lessons from the design of SlideShare
Labels: behaviour, communities, IA, Ideas, Usability
Posted by Nick HaC @ 8:49 PM
Shameless Plug
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Here is the latest Video from our WebTV Show - Get Shifted! TV
Labels: behaviour, communities, consumer, design, Ideas, Marketing
Posted by Nick HaC @ 1:03 AM
Shameless Plug
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
Thursday, August 2, 2007
I had the pleasure of watching Ayn Rand's the fountainhead over the weekend... Truely inspiring...
Thousands of years ago, the first man discovered how to make fire. He was probably burned at the stake he had taught his brothers to light, but he left them a gift they had not conceived, and he lifted darkness off the earth.
Throughout the centuries, there were men who took first steps down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision.
The great creators -- the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors -- stood alone against the men of their time. Every new thought was opposed; every new invention was denounced. But the men of unborrowed vision went ahead. They fought, they suffered, and they paid. But they won.
No creator was prompted by a desire to please his brothers. His brothers hated the gift he offered.
His truth was his only motive. His work was his only goal.
His work -- not those who used it.
His creation -- not the benefits others derived from it -- the creation which gave form to his truth.
Are you prepared to upset your fellow man to overcome mediocrity and to do something remarkable?
Labels: communities, Ideas
Posted by Nick HaC @ 5:42 AM
Shameless Plug
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
Thursday, July 26, 2007
It seems today we have become so risk averse and so keen to play it safe that we are missing out.
Creating new and wonderful things requires us to be prepared to fail. Our social and business structures don't reward risky experimentation, thereby re-enforcing a culture of mediocrity.
"There was once a time, when people did bold things to open new frontiers, we have collectively forgotten that lesson.
Now we are at a time when boldness is required to move forward."
- Bill Stone
Here's a Job advertisement for Shackleton's 1914 Antarctic Journey: how things have changed...
"Men Wanted
For hazardous journey
Small wages, bitter cold
Long months of complete darkness
Constant danger
Safe return doubtful
Honor and recognitions in case of success"
Ernst Shackleton 1914
What are you doing that is bold?
Labels: behaviour, communities, Ideas, technology
Posted by Nick HaC @ 12:13 AM
Shameless Plug
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Seriously, why is spam illegal and so bad that you can go to jail for it?
Direct Mail is the real crime!
We checked out mail today and it would have had a kilo of junk mail in there.
Here's why DM sucks soo badly
1. Direct mail wastes precious natural resources (paper, manufacturing, energy), on the otherhand, Spam is just a bunch of zeros and ones in a server somewhere.
2. Junk mail creates soooo much paper/trash waste for councils/landfill/garbagetrucks, spam makes none of this.
3. Collecting mail can now be very frustrating and we have to sort it out which takes time and thought. You can also miss REAL legitimate mail, or dont get a letter in time cause it is burried in junk. Just like spam, but without the spamfilters! (Lightbulb... new business idea.)
We're not hippies or anti marketing or anything, just damn frustrated and even angry at the crap these brands expect us to put up with.
I wouldn't tolerate direct email if it was email spam, would you?
Labels: advertising, branding, consumer, Email, Ideas, reputation
Posted by Nick HaC @ 7:10 AM
Shameless Plug
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
You have heard of outsourcing? But what about crowdsourcing?
Instead of traditionally outsourcing work to agencies, new economy businesses are leverging a new paradigm of creative resource - the consumer.
Its a really exciting trend where more and more businesses are harnessing the power of the internet combined with the talent of the skilled / empowered / passionate consumers.
Examples:
- Looking for a new corporate logo? Hire a corporate branding agency OR run a internet "submit your logo" viral/interactive campaign with user voting capabilities to find your new brand. (London 2010 Olympics logo cost GBP400k, and it is quite frankly... shite)
- Hire Saatchi to make a 1 million dollar tv advertisement OR create a youtube submit you own video to win 50k viral campaign.
- Hire a professional photographer to make images for your marketing material OR use iStockPhoto.com and leverage the leagues of kids with cameras to capture that unique look for your business.
- Hire a market research firm to find out how people like your product, OR create an online viral poll/survey with incentives for participants and get real/honest consumer insight
- Spend billions on government paid scientific research, OR create million dollar prizes for scientists who create solutions to specificed problems (see Aubrey de Gray's Life Extension project)
--------
Warning, shamless self-promotion
At Shifted Pixels, we create campaigns that leverage the wisdom of the masses for our clients. If your interested, contact us for a quick chat.
Labels: behaviour, communities, consumer, Ideas, social networking, web 2.0, websites
Posted by Nick HaC @ 6:08 AM
Shameless Plug
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Seth Godin talks at Gel 2006, a very funny look at how stuff is broken.
Labels: advertising, behaviour, consumer, design, Fun, Ideas, Marketing
Posted by Nick HaC @ 10:32 PM
Shameless Plug
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Can you get your idea to spread?
If you can figure out how to get your ideas to spread - you will be successful. Regardless of if you run a coffee shop or are in business or run scientific research or are flying hot air baloons.
We are living in a centuary of idea diffusion. People who can spread ideas, regardless of what those ideas are, WIN.
In the past TV was at the heart of spreading ideas, many of these ideas from TV formed part of our childhood, (aka the tv-industrial complex).
Things have changed.
Posted by Nick HaC @ 6:50 AM
Shameless Plug
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
At Shifted Pixels, we deliver services that leverage the measurable business benefits of the online engagement.
Give us a buzz! We want to talk to you!!!
