The Shalllows

 I didn't think I would from the moment I saw the title, but I was very surprised (and taken aback) by how much I liked this book. I figured it would be about some guy who "discovered" the Internet all by himself, but it got way deeper than that, and I was impressed with how the whole thing unfolded.


There were some great quotes in this.

"Socrates was right. As people grew accustomed to writing down their thoughts and reading the thoughts others had written down, they became less dependent on the their own memory."

I guess, once I read this, I realized that it was genius, and that I had always, in the back of my head, 'known' for myself, but it was great to hear it confirmed by an author.

"The reliance on personal memory diminished further with  the spread of the letterpress..." and then it hit me that everything was coming together this year, like what Toolin was trying to show us, and what Rosenberg was trying to do. And I can't believe it all worked out in the end.

There really were some great quotes in this book. p. 72: "Such qualifications deserve  note--any generalization about the adoption and use of a new technology will be imperfect--but they don't change the fact that the arrival of moveable-type printing was a central event in the history of Western culture and the development of the Western mind." I get the importance of moveable type to our very existence, or, rather, our current place in life, but I never thought about how much it effected my own personal mind. it's kind of creepy, but mostly pretty cool.

And as if Bruce Friedman knew me, and read my thoughts on one thing that I thought I was totally alone about: "I now have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print."

It may be pretty obvious that this is happening to everyone who comes into contact with the World Wide Web, so I guess I can relax...for now.

Kickstarter!

Kickstarter, I hope this doesn't offend, but Kickstarter was easily the best trip we've had so far. I think it made sense to me because I've already gotten in the mode, where I've got an adviser for my final project for Poly, and I thought Cindy was really a nice person, and if it works out, I can't wait to go to Kickstarter. Though it just makes me work harder for what I consider a "decent" project, but I'd like to see if Cindy can help me out...one day. We'll see. I know, it's WAY too early, but we'll see. But the company is pretty amazing. I'm impressed with what they've done so far. The Seed-Bomb? That they saw that as a great invention, and they got the start-up money. I never dared to think of myself as a entrepreneur, but who knows? That's how inspiring I thought they were at Kickstarter.

McGraw-Hill

 I didn't know that Education was just PART of what they do. And text books. And I'm not sure what they've got going on in Singapore in 2012, but I know from what Patrick, the Senior director, said that London is where they do "motion graphics" for teaching aids. I never thought they'd need so much reorganization for such a "small" company, but I guess it goes to show you how much I knew about McGraw-Hill, which is not that much. But they were good at text books, if I remember. Of course, I figured they had "Product Development" somewhere

Poly Incubator

By far, Amanda Moritz was great. I went back to her because I was interested" about what she had to say. She told me about how they're going to consider putting up some more info on the jobs they need, and i liked her. and I will definitely consider emailing her back at a later point, but she was totally in control, even without the CEO present. She gave me her card, we'll see what happens with that. I think I wouldn't personally know what I would need Baba for, I'm not that interested in how many apps they have (but wow! a million apps is impressive). Local Uncle was interesting, I guess. and it's kind of cool, that their headquarters are in Switzerland. I didn't know how much they worked in the US, but it sounds like it was a very grass-roots kind of adventure.

eMusic blog entry

I liked listening to eMusic. first, it brought be back memories of the "ol' days" of Napster, which I liked hearing from them, because I figured they made a LOT of money at Napster. I was curious about another aspect of eMusic: how can they afford to put up so much music? even REALLY old songs, like Johnny Cash at Folsom County Prison, but that's a great song, too, just because it has all prisoners pumping their legs. Anyway, I couldn't also my question, because there were too many people who had their own questions at that time, which I guess is a good thing, but I do wonder how eMusic really renerates $$. But then he went into CPA and Cost per Acquisition, which I didn't really understand at first, but the guys really knew what they were talking about. I also wanted to know how much the books were bringing into them, but again I couldn't.

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose

The book was interesting, in that I learned what it took for Tony Hseih specifically to get into entrepreneurship his own way.  He did it in a round about way, but that’s ok because he’s the one pulling in all the money his own way.  Entrepreneurship? The guy embodies entrepreneurship with every fiber of his being. And I guess I have a lot of respect for that.  It struck me how much the internet has change, just in the short time I’ve had to think about online practices. Does that scare? Of course it does. But if I want to be an entrepreneur one day, then I just have to get over it.   That’s supposedly where Poly comes in to the picture.

I did learn a lot about branding from the book, He spent a LOT of time on branding in the book. He was specifically obsessed with how he was interacting with his customers, and how he could reach out better to them, which I had a lot of respect for him for.  He didn’t make it such a big deal that he was doing all these little things for the customer. He made the whole an enterprise about his customers and his employees, which I liked hearing. Just personally, I know people who shop at Zappos and they love what they get. I didn’t hear any of the sweet things that he claims to do for customers, but I don’t not believe, because I think he handles people very well.

Overall, I was impressed with everything he made Zappos into.  It’s the kind of entrepreneur  I, if it actually (not that I’m banking on it) to me, I would like to be like.  Whatever I decide to do once I’m an entrepreneur, I just can’t imagine, once I get to that point, just letting it go.  I was surprised in the book, when he was saying how little money he had at some points of his life, and I couldn’t help but think of all the pages where he was buying a huge loft that he clearly had money for. And then all of a sudden he didn’t have money for anything.  And I guess I got by the end of the book, that he doesn’t think it’s necessarily the best thing to use your own money to get your business out of the hole.  And I’m not sure that I have that kind of patience to watch while my company is struggling and to take these lavish trips to anywhere, domestic or international,  and not want to run back and see how the business is doing.

Can I add that I thought the book was really fascinating? I will admit, that it gave me a new found respect for the kinds of entrepreneurs out there that actually care how their company survives, and he showed me that how a company and it’s employees are treated makes a huge difference. I will admit that I didn’t think that I could ANYTHING out of a book written by an entrepreneur who “made it” in life: How could he know anything about my situation, but I definitely thought he had a firm grasp on how he knew could run a company, and boy,  did he know how to do it just right.