June 2009
32 posts
How to Write a Good Business Plan →
An economic downturn is a great time to start a business.
Product v. process journalism: The myth of... →
Whose standards? The Times’ standards, of course. They set the standard, don’t they?
The Pied Piper of Pay →
Web entrepreneurs these days are getting the wrong idea that all that matters are users—not revenue.
The newspaper suicide pact →
I think I’ll remember last week as the moment when I finally knew, with a certainty approaching fatigue, that the newspaper industry – the business and passion that both shaped and warped me over the past 20 years – had chosen ritual suicide. The choice appears grimly reached and irrevocable.
The Capitalist Manifesto: Greed Is Good →
(To a point)
Fast Food Apple Pies and Why Netbooks Suck →
While netbooks have a nifty form factor, they’re not where the mobile computing action is.
It's Finished →
You reach for your purse or wallet and take out your last note. Something about it doesn’t feel quite right. It’s the wrong shape or the wrong colour and the design is odd too and the note just doesn’t seem right and… By now you’ve realised: oh shit! It’s the dreaded Scottish banknote!
(thanks, Peter)
The Disadvantages of an Elite Education →
Our best universities have forgotten that the reason they exist is to make minds, not careers.
The Lear Jet repo man →
Business has never been better for the fearless pilot who takes back millionaires’ expensive toys.
The Joy of Less →
I have no bicycle, no car, no television I can understand, no media — and the days seem to stretch into eternities, and I can’t think of a single thing I lack.
Something's Got To Give →
All the way down the bank of radar scopes, the air traffic controllers have that savage, bug-eyed look, like men on the verge of drowning, as they watch the computer blips proliferate and speak in frantic bursts of techno-chatter to the pilots: “Continental 1528, turn right heading 280 immediately! Traffic at your 12 o’clock!” A tightly wound Tom Zaccheo, one of the...
The Megacity →
The Third Mainland Bridge is a looping ribbon of concrete that connects Lagos Island to the continent of Africa. It was built in the nineteen-seventies, part of a vast network of bridges, cloverleafs, and expressways intended to transform the districts and islands of this Nigerian city—then comprising three million people—into an efficient modern metropolis.
(thanks, nostrich)
Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? →
The diamond invention—the creation of the idea that diamonds are rare and valuable, and are essential signs of esteem—is a relatively recent development in the history of the diamond trade.
(thanks, nostrich)
Lingering →
Critiques, as opposed to mere descriptions, of internet culture emphasize the informality or (more judgmentally) the vulgarity of our promiscuous messages. These communications, in their ease, inexpensiveness, and abundance, suffer less pressure than before to be or seem important, meaningful, or definitive—in other words, to last in our minds. In their clamorous competition with one another,...
Show or Tell →
Should creative writing be taught?
The Chain Never Stops →
American slaughterhouses are grinding out meat faster than ever — and the production line keeps moving, even when the workers are maimed by the machinery.
(thanks, nostrich)
Behold the British, tattooed and half-naked →
The sweaty slap slap of flip-flops, men’s hairy toes, ghastly bondage sandals: when it comes to summer we are a disgrace.
(thanks, Kim Gothberg)
Rules for Time Travelers →
With the new Star Trek out, it’s long past time (as it were) that we laid out the rules for would-be fictional time-travelers.
The Ultimate Lock Picker Hacks Pentagon, Beats... →
Marc Weber Tobias can pick, crack, or bump any lock. Now he wants to teach the world how to break into military facilities and corporate headquarters.
Live Your Best Life Ever! →
[Oprah’s] most ardent fans regard her as an oracle. If she mentions the title of a book, it goes to No. 1. If she says she uses a particular wrinkle cream, it sells out. At Oprah’s retail store in Chicago, women can purchase used shoes and outfits that she wore on the show. Her viewers follow her guidance because they like and admire her, sure. But also because they believe that...
How the web and the weblog have changed writing →
Suppose that an idea merited 20 pages, no more and no less? A handful of long-copy magazines, such as the old New Yorker would print 20-page essays, but an author who wished his or her work to be distributed would generally be forced to cut it down to a meaningless 5-page magazine piece or add 180 pages of filler until it reached the minimum size to fit into the book distribution system.
Check out Chris Muscarella’s Sunday Instapaper list for some great reading material today.
25 And Over →
If you have reached the age of 25, I have a bit of bad news for you, to wit: it is time, if you have not already done so, for you to emerge from your cocoon of post-adolescent dithering and self-absorption and join the rest of us in the world.
Burnout →
Web professionals are often expected to be “always on”—always working, absorbing information, and honing new skills. Unless our work and personal lives are carefully balanced, however, the physical and mental effects of an “always on” life can be debilitating.
The Case for Working With Your Hands →
Many of us do work that feels more surreal than real. Working in an office, you often find it difficult to see any tangible result from your efforts. What exactly have you accomplished at the end of any given day?
(thanks, Avi Flax)
The End of the Affair →
The fate of Detroit isn’t a matter of economics. It’s a tragic romance, whose magic was killed by bureaucrats, bad taste and busybodies. P.J. O’Rourke on why Americans fell out of love with the automobile.
(thanks, Bharath)
How to Teach a Child to Argue →
Why would any sane parent teach his kids to talk back? Because, this father found, it actually increased family harmony.
(thanks, Inky)
Halal: Buying Muslim →
Time was, buying Muslim meant avoiding pork and alcohol and getting your meat from a halal butcher, who slaughtered in accordance with Islamic principles. But the halal food market has exploded in the past decade and is now worth an estimated $632 billion annually, according to the Halal Journal, a Kuala Lumpur-based magazine. That’s about 16% of the entire global food industry. Throw in...
Math and the City →
One of the pleasures of looking at the world through mathematical eyes is that you can see certain patterns that would otherwise be hidden. This week’s column is about one such pattern. It’s a beautiful law of collective organization that links urban studies to zoology. It reveals Manhattan and a mouse to be variations on a single structural theme.
All You Can Eat: A journey through a seafood... →
The restaurant walls were covered with shrimp boats—striking photos of trawlers at docks, at sea, in sunset silhouettes. The Gulf of Mexico was a mile away. Yet, while I sat eating, real shrimp boats sat rusting, their outriggers raised as if surrendering.
The box from the dumpster gave me a clue: “Product of Ecuador. Farm Raised.”
(thanks, Stublag)
The Cost Conundrum →
What a Texas town can teach us about health care.
Vanity Metrics vs. Actionable Metrics →
The only metrics that entrepreneurs should invest energy in collecting are those that help them make decisions. Unfortunately, the majority of data available in off-the-shelf analytics packages are what I call Vanity Metrics. They might make you feel good, but they don’t offer clear guidance for what to do.