1840s democracy
June 10th, 2007
1840s democracy
150 years ago, we had pretty much settled on all of the protocols and conventions of the American democractic system. We had figured out the steps and rules of electing a president.
Before radio, before TV.
Before planes or cars.
Before computers or voting machines.
Before YouTube.
Since mass democracy is essentially an exercise in communication and marketing, the [...]
Excellent tips for getting through the day
June 10th, 2007
Pmarca productivity: Excellent tips for getting through the day.
blog.pmarca.com: The Pmarca Guide to Personal Productivity
What a fantastic post. And so many great suggestions that I’m hesitant to choose a sample…so I’ll limit myself to three:
Each night before you go to bed, prepare a 3×5 index card with a short list of 3 to 5 things [...]
The best creative thinking books
June 10th, 2007
The best creative thinking books.
Between teaching a course on creative thinking at UW, and writing a book on innovation, I’ve read dozens of books on creative thinking, from handbooks, to games, to psychology literature. Here are the four books I’d recommend as a starter library: they range in focus from handbooks to theory to history.
Sparks [...]
Semantic analysis: Making sense of the chaos of free text
June 10th, 2007
Semantic analysis: Making sense of the chaos of free text.
Matt Hodgson has posted a summary of a presentation he did for our local IA group recently. This is a truly awesome piece of IA work – he analysed a large volume of unstructured text and designed a framework to rewrite it in a consistent, machine-readable, [...]
Google get small
June 2nd, 2007
Google get small.
Google really are a contradiction. I guess it’s what happens when you become a large organisation with megalomaniacs at the top, ex-Microsoft middle-management psychopaths, and a lot of crazy engineers trying to solve big problems. From Coding Horror:
Google wants to extend that same efficiency outside their datacenter to your home PC. The three [...]