Silicon Valley ninja and startup guru Steve Blank posted a great video lecture on his blog about the Secret History of Silicon Valley. This is part his ongoing series of blog posts and lectures. I love history, especially the widely unknown variety, so I thought I’d share it here. Though be warned, the video is just over an hour long.
Garden: Tools
http://bit.ly/8eabAH (Video)
This video caught me off guard when I first watched it, but you’ll find the creativity delightful. (Open the top video)
Mark Solon of Highway 12 Ventures recently posted A Startup’s Twelve Days of Christmas, which became an instant favorite of mine. What a great reminder for businesses of all kinds and sizes that “great people build great companies”.
Design: Fluid
http://bit.ly/4xOKm6 (Video)
You’ve seen cotton weaved into clothing. You’ve seen metal weaved into chain mail. But what if you weaved clear plastic tubing into a sculpture and pumped different colored liquid through it?
Design Thinking: Mindmap
I’ve been poking around online, looking for a software that works well for “Mind Maps”. This week I tried MindMeister. This link connects you to a mind map I created on the subject of statistics. Mind maps are fascinating ways to look at subjects, problems, or really anything. For more on mind maps check out Buzan World http://bit.ly/6ML3Ty.
Advertising: Innovative
“last week you sold one, and the week before you sold two, and the week before you sold none, and the week before one.” And I was like, “OK, I get it…. Maybe I should call those people and personally thank them.” And we started laughing. It was like, “Yeah, maybe you should offer a free drum lesson.” I was like, “Well, maybe I should just take them to lunch.” And we started laughing about that — it really came up that easily. And I was like, ”Wow, this could be a great idea.”
Has social networking site LinkedIn eclipsed WSJ, Forbes, and Business Week as the preeminent medium for targeted advertising of the young, affluent, and influential? They make their case here. I came across this on Guy Kawasaki’s blog, and was pretty blown away at the comparison. LinkedIn claims a more diverse user base from a gender standpoint, lower average age (43), a higher average household income, and a higher average education level. Props to LinkedIn, though be mindful that the claim is being made from their own site.
It will be interesting to see how the massive investments that have gone into social networking shake out. Most everyone sees the money making potential of social networking sites. But so far, LinkedIn is unique in that it has turned potential into profit. By the way, feel free to connect with us on LinkedIn here.
I’m a really big fan of where the world is headed in terms of the technology and body of work behind data visualization. While immensely useful in the context of bringing data to life for professional purposes, some of these renderings are so good that the lines between utility and art have started to blurr. Here is a list of really great examples of data renderings / digital art that I think are just really cool. Many of these are coming from the Victoria and Albert DECODE exhibit in London (http://bit.ly/6FSaiq). Have fun! -B
http://www.number27.org/work.html
http://hci.stanford.edu/jheer/
http://www.aaronkoblin.com/work.html
http://www.liaworks.com/category/theprojects/
http://www.troika.uk.com/graphics
http://www.flight404.com/blog/
Design: Geek Style
http://bit.ly/5XLSYI (Pictures)
Understanding fractals has always been reserved for the upper echelons of geekdom, but this my friends takes it to a whole new dimension (no pun intended…well…actually…)
Design: The good, the bad, the messed up.
http://bit.ly/5FRMTL (Pictures)
Everyone loves to pick up Popular Mechanics and look at the pictures of what crazy new technologies we can look forward to in the future. But what if we step back in time and look at what we thought would be the crazy new technologies of the future. What lessons can be learned from this? (Props to w00t blog for putting this together.)
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