I cannot say this better than Dustin Curtis can, so read it: What a stupid idea.
They saw the future and they built it. But for some reason, my first reaction to their earliest attempts wasn’t to give them the benefit of the doubt–it was to immediately find problems and then dismiss their ideas.
The future is extremely hard to see through the lens of the present. It’s very easy to unconsciously dismiss the first versions of something as frivolous or useless. Or as stupid ideas.
We all talk about being disruptive, but how many people say things like “the relational database market is a $9bn market, I want to reduce it to a $3bn market and take 1/3 of that”? Saying is one thing, having the vision is another. That was me paraphrasing Marten Mickos (former CEO, MySQL – exit $1bn) speaking to Danny Rimer (partner, Index Ventures).
I live by the mantra that the best way to predict the future is to engineer it (via Alan Kay) and that the future is wide open.
Posted on 6/3/2013, 12:10 am, by Colin Charles, under
General.
“Those who study logic too long may lose sight of reason.” - Daniel Nichter (source)
Posted on 27/2/2013, 6:35 am, by Colin Charles, under
General.
Does having a critical mind require you to be a critic? Does being a critic long enough make you a cynic?
These are thoughts that have crossed my mind in recent times. As I’ve grown older, I realise that I’ve been overly idealistic in the past.
These days, I’m motivated to see the positive in things. Punditry overall is boring as it doesn’t create.
I’m motivated by Scooter Braun’s motto:
IMAGINE. CREATE. EXECUTE. DELIVER.
I think I’ll spend some free time going back and only looking at the positive side of things.
Posted on 20/2/2013, 2:49 am, by Colin Charles, under
General.
“You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”
Harvey Dent (fictional character) said that in Batman The Dark Knight. Deep, and something we should often think about.
Posted on 12/1/2013, 7:23 am, by Colin Charles, under
General.
“Its like a magazine. (Evan Williams) is getting you guys to do all the work. Philip Kaplan once told me that the best kind of Internet company is one where everyone else does the content, you just sit there and collect the money.” – Leo Laporte on Medium.
Makes you think a lot about Twitter. Facebook. Medium. Instagram. You’re creating the content. Someone else is making money out of it. No one seems to care. It’s time to diet.
Quote from This Week in Google #180.
Posted on 16/9/2012, 1:21 am, by Colin Charles, under
General.
Via Mozilla Webmaker:
“Mozillians are people who make things. Moving people from consumption to creation is Mozilla’s goal.” - Mitchell Baker, Mozilla Chair and Chief Lizard Wrangler
This is a brilliant goal. To build a generation of webmakers. Getting people to create more than just consume.
It is widely stated that 1% create, 10% curate, the rest consume (quote from Fred Wilson). Imagine if the tables were turned.
