The restless mind.

"We’re not using mortar. We’re using glass and steel."

Thu, 31 May 2012 15:34:10 -0400

““We’re not using mortar. We’re using glass and steel.””

- Steve Jobs response to Larry Ellison when, after touring the Apple prototype store for the umpteenth time, the Oracle founder quipped “Don’t you read the newspaper? Bricks and mortar are dead.”

Important quotes from smart people about boring topics that do NOT get reblogged on Tumblr.

Wed, 23 May 2012 15:48:43 -0400

Felix Salmon, doing a bang up job documenting the train wreck Facebook IPO:

All of which means that the winners in this whole game were you and I: the quiet skeptical masses who simply sat back and watched the farce unfold. In the game of Facebook IPO, it turns out, the only winning move was not to play.

PS. I did not play.

Mike Shatzkin, writing to the DoJ about the Apple/publishers/Amazon collusion thing:

In a nutshell, without uniform retail pricing, Amazon can effectively disintermediate the publishers, but the publishers can’t effectively disintermediate Amazon.

This is true. Welcome to the network.

If you can't beat laser cat, you probably deserve to die.

Tue, 15 May 2012 15:41:43 -0400

An oddly appropriate line from Mat Honan’s piece on how flickr died at the hands of Yahoo. Reading the post is like watching an autopsy: painful and dreary, but necessary in order to grok what went wrong.

This broke my heart:

Flickr is still pretty wonderful. But it’s lovely in the same way a box of old photos you’ve stashed under the bed is. It’s an archive of nostalgia that you love dearly, on the rare occasion you stumble across it. You pull them out, and hold them up to the light, and remember a time when you were younger, and the Web was a more optimistic place, and it really was almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world.

And then you close the box.

"We don’t think of it as Etsy becoming more like the rest of the world. Rather the rest of the world becoming more like Etsy."

Thu, 10 May 2012 12:19:44 -0400

That’s from ETSY CEO Chad Dickerson’s post on how ETSY has become a B-corp (and raised another $40m).

Etsy is more than just an online marketplace. Etsy is a beacon in the world for running businesses sustainably, responsibly, and profitably, with people at the center. The kind of sharing and cooperation you see on Etsy — what has been called a “sharing economy” that is part of a broader “quiet revolution” — can help businesses change the world. Etsy is helping power that revolution, and although we’ve been at it for seven years, it feels like we are just getting started.

I’ve loved ETSY from the day it went live. Happy to see their network intensify and spread.

Beginners

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:38:00 -0400

Beginners is the movie I’d want to make if I was a director. And Mike Mills is the kind of director I’d want to be: thoughtful, kind, and honest.

This may be my new favourite, pushing aside The Hours and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. (Gasp!)

“It makes me think that the thoughts I have in my head...

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:18:21 -0400

“It makes me think that the thoughts I have in my head that make me feel the most lonely because I don’t think anyone else thinks them are also the thoughts that have the most potential to make me feel connected.” *

Forrester CEO George Colony states the obvious about post-Jobs Apple in Forbes: they will coast,...

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:28:04 -0400

Forrester CEO George Colony states the obvious about post-Jobs Apple in Forbes: they will coast, then decelerate.

When Steve Jobs departed, he took three things with him: 1) singular charismatic leadership that bound the company together and elicited extraordinary performance from its people; 2) the ability to take big risks, and 3) an unparalleled ability to envision and design products. Apple’s momentum will carry it for 24-48 months. But without the arrival of a new charismatic leader it will move from being a great company to being a good company, with a commensurate step down in revenue growth and product innovation. Like Sony (post Morita), Polaroid (post Land), Apple circa 1985 (post Jobs), and Disney (in the 20 years post Walt Disney), Apple will coast, and then decelerate.

(It’s no wonder big brands rely on Forrester for piercing insights.)

John Gruber defends Apple, as he is won’t to do, by picking up this thread:

Disney is the comparison I like best. And he’s right, Disney sputtered a bit in the ’70s and ’80s, post-Walt. But look where they are today: the leading family entertainment company in the world, right where Walt left them. Apple should be so lucky 40 years hence.

This made me wince. Disney didn’t sputter. It failed spectacularly on its core offering (animation) and only survived by making money from “anything else that isn’t animation.” When it DID revitalize it’s core, it was only through what amounted to be the reverse takeover of Disney by another company. Pixar. A Steve Jobs company.

Which is all to say, Steve—we miss you.

More.

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 00:15:00 -0400

More.

Please forward to Fox News.

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 10:51:11 -0400

Kurt Vonnegut to Charles McCarthy, after the administrator authorized the burning of all his school’s copies of Slaughterhouse Five:

Perhaps you will learn from this that books are sacred to free men for very good reasons, and that wars have been fought against nations which hate books and burn them. If you are an American, you must allow all ideas to circulate freely in your community, not merely your own.

"Ask your parents for an Xbox or try books."

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:03:00 -0400

From Tumblr’s updated ToS:

You have to be at least 13 years old to use Tumblr. We’re serious: it’s a hard rule, based on U.S. federal and state legislation, even if you’re 12.9 years old. If you’re younger than 13, don’t use Tumblr. Ask your parents for an Xbox or try books.

About Last Night

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 23:34:58 -0400

Stumbled across Last Night, a gem from first-time director Massy Tadjedin. We both loved it: subtle direction, smart script, solid cast—and a silky cut under the measured hands of Susan Morse.

Last Night stands in stark contrast to the comparable—and wretched—Closer, which was over-cast, over-directed, under-written, and utterly pretentious. Closer desperately wants you to FEEL something, damnit!, but never rises above platitudes. Last Night avoids the spoon feeding and lets everyone (performers included) decide their moral centre. Can’t wait for Tadjedin’s next film.

Getting somewhere.

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 22:51:23 -0500

Two different blogposts featuring people I admire collided today and came to the same conclusion: getting somewhere often requires that you not be too specific about where you’re going.

From David Fincher, talking about Dragon Tatoo and his approach to making films:

I always feel that the best things come out of having just enough time to get into some serious trouble and not enough time to navel-gaze endlessly.

And Paul Graham, on being careful not to be too visionary:

I think the way to use these big ideas is not to try to identify a precise point in the future and then ask yourself how to get from here to there, like the popular image of a visionary. You’ll be better off if you operate like Columbus and just head in a general westerly direction. Don’t try to construct the future like a building, because your current blueprint is almost certainly mistaken. Start with something you know works, and when you expand, expand westward.

The popular image of the visionary is someone with a clear view of the future, but empirically it may be better to have a blurry one.

Things that made me smile recently.

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:41:00 -0500

This shot of Lauren Bacall.

A new sourdough loaf I tasted just moments after it left the oven.

Opening the mail to find my wife’s royalty cheque and remembering how she’s wanted to write since she was five.

Playing Sarah Jaffe’s Clementine in the car at obscenely loud levels.

Tyler. He always makes me smile, even when I’m cursing his name.

An email footer that included the sign-off: Sent from my awesomeness called Emily

The New Girl. God I love that show.

Noticing that my pants included an orange seam of thread on the inside that only I could see.

Rooney Mara’s reaction to Colin Firth’s description of her at the Oscars.

A joke Adam made. I can’t remember the joke, but I remember it made me feel good.

Sending Rob chocolates from SOMA because he was feeling insane.

Vive l’Oscars!

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 14:05:41 -0500

Vive l’Oscars!

"The alchemy of becoming your self is the ultimate act of leadership."

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 17:03:48 -0500

“The alchemy of becoming your self is the ultimate act of leadership.”

- A VC: The Management Team

Finally saw Lust, Caution. Ang Lee is in total control,...

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 23:46:07 -0500

Finally saw Lust, Caution. Ang Lee is in total control, channeling both Hitchcock and Polanski as he switches between classic thriller and masochistic romance with every turn. Wei Tang is formidable, but outgunned by Tony Leung Chiu Wai in a monster performance. Two enthusiastic thumbs way up, as S&E used to say.

Comfortable, but not too comfortable.

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 13:15:00 -0500

The New Yorker examines brainstorming, noting that its supportive, considerate framework doesn’t work since it lacks dissent:

Dissent stimulates new ideas because it encourages us to engage more fully with the work of others and to reassess our viewpoints. “There’s this Pollyannaish notion that the most important thing to do when working together is stay positive and get along, to not hurt anyone’s feelings,” she says. “Well, that’s just wrong. Maybe debate is going to be less pleasant, but it will always be more productive. True creativity requires some trade-offs.

I walked away from brainstorming years ago after realizing it was a group preening exercise. My preferred approach is to brief my team, have them go away and think, and return to debate their findings.

As for teams, the New Yorker quotes sociologist Brian Uzzi, who studied why some Broadway productions failed while others succeeded:

“The best Broadway teams, by far, were those with a mix of relationships,” Uzzi says. “These teams had some old friends, but they also had newbies. This mixture meant that the artists could interact efficiently—they had a familiar structure to fall back on—but they also managed to incorporate some new ideas. They were comfortable with each other, but they weren’t too comfortable.

I’ve noticed this with my favorite filmmakers. They’ll typically fall into a long-term relationship with their D.O.P, editor, and composer, but change-up the screenwriters, production designers, and co-producers.

Comfortable, but not too comfortable.

Ah, Audrey.

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:17:04 -0500

Ah, Audrey.

Hey, old media middlemen: No industry is safe. Kickstarter's coming for YOU.

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 15:06:00 -0500

The headline comes from Andy Baio in the comment thread from Yancy Strickler’s news that two Kickstarter projects hit $1m within 4 hours of each other.

There are crazy days and then there are days like yesterday. Kickstarter has experienced some frantic hours but nothing like what happened in the 24-hour span between Wednesday at 6:54pm and Thursday at 6:44pm. Two million-dollar projects, a major political speech involving Kickstarter, an amazing band launching a project for a comeback 20 years in the making… the list goes on.

The list does go on. And on. And somewhere on that long list, written between the lines, is the sentiment of Baio’s comment.

The internets have already robbed the media barons of their marketing and distribution monopolies. Finance was the last wall of defence, a moat of money that was too thick and deep to bridge. No longer. Kickstarter is Daniel Plainview—and he’s drinking his milkshake.

Be an enlightened despot.

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:34:00 -0500

Terry Gilliam on filmmaking (aka “himself”):

Growing up is for losers.

Film school is for fools.

Auteurism is out.

Fil-teurism is in.

Put your ideas in a drawer. Take them out as needed.

All you’ve really got in life is story.

Command the audience with your lens.

Nothing can defeat a director who is one with his actors.

Surround yourself with improvisers.

Directing is not for the faint-of-heart. Or the sane.

Be an enlightened despot.

Bonus Lesson: Whatever you do, don’t work with the Weinsteins.

Via oberholtzer