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Hiten Shah › Likes
Awesome.
urdumania1, Garin Kilpatrick, China Internet Rumors and 118 other people liked this
hahahaha
- MG Siegler
haha
- Daniel Brusilovsky
I've been having fun watching the Facebook employees do that today as well - lol
- Jesse Stay
Is there a group "I Just plain hate Facebook"? I'd like to join.
- Jeff P. Henderson
Scary thing is I think a lot of people are actually taking that group seriously.
- Tony Miller
Hhahhahaha!!!
- Zulema ⋅ spicy cocoa tart
laugh out loud.
- Micah
LOL!! Yes they are, Tony - that makes it so much better. :->
- Kurt Starnes
It's killing me - check it out :-> http://www.facebook.com/search...
- Kurt Starnes
I just love how some people have joined, completely ignoring the description of the group and showing the type of people they really are. I don't *love* the changes, but I will get used to them and someday soon I will not even remember the old way it was done. Change is good... long live change!
- travispuk
hahha that is too funny!! :D
- Susan Beebe
Classy!
- Tyson Key
ROFL
- Roberto Bonini
I HATE THE NEW FACEBOOK HOME PAGE, UNTIL ITS NEXT FACELIFT, AFTER WHICH I WILL BITTERLY COMPLAIN ABOUT HOW PERFECT THIS LAYOUT WAS.
- Rebecca Sun
Yes, Rebecca, exactly. :)
- Dan Hsiao
Touché Facebook Employees, Touché.
- Navarr
ahahahaha:D
- Beybin Esen
Try http://lite.facebook.com/opozo, the simple the better, but not simpler.
- Orlando Pozo
i want to start company to disorganize world's info & make it universally unaccessible & useless. just to keep google busy
Michael Leggett, Bronson Harrington, Carlo Maglinao and 37 other people liked this
I think we have a new nemesis. :)
- Matt Cutts
from iPhone
Does your proposed company have a motto?
- Tim Tyler
This is the wittiest comment I read here on Friendfeed - ever.
- Space Cowboy
Apparently, the company has already been started. I had several replies saying that governments in general seem to make things disorganized and unaccessible :)
- dannysullivan
Suggestions for the name of the company: Spammers
- Shakeel Mahate
Hilarious Danny!
- Greg Bogdan
How about Elsevier?
- Ruchira S. Datta
ARGs generate new information but intentionally make it obscure and difficult to access.
- Chris Bentzel
Thanks to everyone who suggested the free Sun Virtual Box for running Windows on OS X. Works great! http://www.virtualbox.org/
Daniel Rowley, Ron Bieber, Howell Selburn and 10 other people liked this
How well does it do with Boot Camp partitions?
- midnightgolfer
Been thinking about using Virtual Box to run Windows on Ubuntu: http://lifehacker.com/367714...
- Jason Heppler
Jason, you should -it works really well
- Robert Johnson
I don't know if it works with Bootcamp partitions (like VMWare and Parallels do) but I'm using it with XP right now and it seems every bit as fast as either Parallels or VMWare.
- Leo Laporte
Is there any way to run Linux like that?
- Kyle
If I already have a license to run VMWare Fusion, what does Virtual Box do that VMWare doesn't?
- Paul Grav
@Daan. VMWare does this too.
- Paul Grav
Can you succeed as an entrepreneur without a degree? You bet! Will you be working harder than the other entrepreneurs to do so? You bet!
John G, David Cook, iamkhayyam and 36 other people liked this
Funny thing is, I remember when I was on the other side of this argument. My dad and others were trying to convince me to get a degree, and I was making all the arguments you're seeing here on why a degree wasn't necessary. It was when I realized the amount of work I was going to have to go through to succeed w/o a degree that I went back to school and finally got one.
- Jesse Stay
BTW, it was without a degree that I became a Senior Engineer, led teams of other engineers, organized and led an IT department at a company, and more. I still am 100% convinced that my degree was the best decision I could have ever made to get.
- Jesse Stay
What did a simple piece of paper get you?
- Rah-PM 2012
That simple piece of paper (degree) got me the nice life I have right now, without it, it would not have been as much fun.
- Dan owns Comicsforge.com
Rahsheen that paper has gotten me into doors that would not have been open otherwise. I've gotten jobs when competing against people that didn't have degrees with equal experience. I can now get into jobs completely unrelated to my experience, which is extremely valuable as an entrepreneur. The degree gives you much more flexibility than not having one. Can you succeed without it? Yes, but you're going to be working much harder to do so.
- Jesse Stay
a degree from the right place gives you a network, your fellow students, alumni etc.
- Iphigenie
I should also add that I would have never gained the business knowledge, or marketing knowledge, or other specific business-related knowledge I have now which has enabled me to be an entrepreneur, write books targeted towards Marketing and PR professionals, increased my blog exposure, and more. You can't learn that stuff as a software developer in the field quite as easily. I would have...
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- Jesse Stay
I think having a degree is almost meaningless as an entrepreneur. It's mostly useful for job-seekers. People generally don't care that much about the formal credentials of the founder of a company, they care more about the quality products and services. Only in edge cases does it matter I think.
- Meryn Stol
I agree with Joelle that college is useful for building up a network, but this doesn't work to well if you both hate to study (that is, follow the curriculum together with fellow students) and hate college life. I tried it for a while, but really couldn't bare either.
- Meryn Stol
Does Paul Buchheit have a degree? Do you care? Do I care?
- Meryn Stol
Without the degree, many doors are simply closed to you. Its may not be fair, but it is a fact.
- DGentry
Meryn, considering he got most of his experience at Google, which for the most part requires a degree, and in many cases a graduate degree, I'm pretty sure Paul has a degree. Not only that but because of his degree he was able to invent Gmail, and use that experience to create FriendFeed. Could he have done it without? Maybe, but he would have had to work *much* harder to do so.
- Jesse Stay
"because of his degree he was able to invent Gmail, " REALLY? lol - Give me such a degree. I mean, we would have about a thousand gmails before his one. :)
- Meryn Stol
Honestly, I think a degree is more likely to help you than hurt you.
- MiniMage, enterRUPPted
Meryn, how could he work for Google if he didn't have a degree? I know for a fact that those positions require grad degrees in many cases.
- Jesse Stay
Indeed, he wouldn't have been able to go work at Google as easily. Though if he created gmail by himself, he might have gotten into Google through acquisition, like with Writely (remember that?).
- Meryn Stol
Meryn, Paul's LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in... - he has a Bachelors it looks like.
- Jesse Stay
What if I don't plan to work for anyone? What if I don't want a job? What does the degree get me?
- Rah-PM 2012
Meryn, which would have been much harder to do, and hence my point.
- Jesse Stay
Jesse, my point is that I don't care. I care that he makes cool stuff like Gmail and FriendFeed.
- Meryn Stol
I am with Meryn Stol on this. Unless you are sure that you know what the future will be, You shouldn't be telling people to go to college. College != Skills AND College != opportunities.....
- Tweet Feeds
I didn't say I disagreed with your point. Also, you should not forget the "opportunity cost" of college. Time spent on college is time not spent on writing code for your startup.
- Meryn Stol
Two or three guys deciding NOT to do college but instead spend ALL this time coding, while reading a lot of programming books will get VERY far.
- Meryn Stol
Meryn it is time well worth it though. Until you're making your millions there's no reason to quit College.
- Jesse Stay
I am 120% behind Jesse. It doesn't make a person smarter or better, it makes things easier.
- Mona Nomura
Rahsheen it probably depends on what you want to do. If you're okay limiting your potential, or making it harder to get there, you're fine not getting a degree.
- Jesse Stay
I don't think there are an awful lot of guys who have the luxury of doing nothing but coding for four years. I know my parents wouldn't have let me sit in their house without either going to school or working for someone else, and often when you work for someone else, they own your code, which to my thinking doesn't get you off the ground.
- MiniMage, enterRUPPted
Well you've got to keep in mind that the only thing I care about is succeeding "big". In some way, I consider most high-end careers (college->well-paid 9-5 job) as "failed" careers. You just need to learn the entrepreneurial mindset... Most people never get that chance, unfortunately.
- Meryn Stol
Mona, funny thing is my dad would do a double-take if he saw what I was saying now. I used to be 100% on the other side of this conversation. It wasn't until I got a degree that I realized what it did for me.
- Jesse Stay
This is true even if the person in question is making a 6 figure salary. I still consider it failed.
- Meryn Stol
I was one of those "I am way too smart for college" people but learned my lesson the hard way. ;) My mom is probably flipping around in her grave (awkward joke, but true!)
- Mona Nomura
Meryn, and that's fine - get a degree while you're doing that. 9 out of 10 businesses fail - yours most likely will. In the mean time you were wasting all that time failing when you could be succeeding getting your degree. You can do both at the same time - I raised a family of 5, worked full time, all while getting my degree.
- Jesse Stay
Mona, it's funny how we all learn the hard way (well, the majority of us, that is) - I was one of those, too.
- Jesse Stay
Maybe the career isn't failed exactly. I hate the word "career" anyway. I don't care for a career, I care for accomplishments. So forget my "failed career" notion.
- Meryn Stol
Meryn, a degree is 100% an accomplishment. It's an easy accomplishment compared to your other options, too.
- Jesse Stay
Jesse, let me specify that a bit more: I mean I care for I have done in the world. In this regard, having learned something is only relevant to the extend that you're gonna use it. I still need to put much of my knowledge to practice, but I know that I learn only to put it practice, not just to say I know something.
- Meryn Stol
Haven't seen anyone address my point.
- MiniMage, enterRUPPted
Oh, and I *really* don't care about easy. Actually, I hate easy, that is, in life. I like life hard.
- Meryn Stol
In my industry, I work with many people who became 'successful' in unconventional ways. They do not have degrees and a lot of people w/out degrees are hard(er) to work with, because they have to 1. prove to themselves and others how they are capable or just as capable as those with degrees and once those grounds are set 2. we can move on to get things done. Again, this is not everyone but a lot of people. :)
- Mona Nomura
Meryn that's fine - I'll race you and we'll see who wins.
- Jesse Stay
Mona, I've seen the same, and was on the other end as well as one of those trying to prove
- Jesse Stay
MiniMage I agree with you - in my case I have to feed a family of 6. 100% coding for 4 years isn't an option for me.
- Jesse Stay
Ok, Jesse, race is on. :D Don't forget about the tortoise and the hare though! ;)
- Meryn Stol
Not to say it doesn't go the other way, too. I've worked a bunch of Ivy Econ/MBA jerks who are plain and simply rude, close minded, and stubborn because of their pedigrees. They key is, to be the balance between the two. ;) As for the race, Jesse - I have an inkling you have a head start. :P
- Mona Nomura
I'll be first to say MBA is a waste, but then again my Dad is an Executive VP of a major International Public company and he did that through his MBA. Maybe my advice on that is only for Entrepreneurs.
- Jesse Stay
Oh, I'm willing to race on practically any terms. As I said, I like life hard. :)
- Meryn Stol
Meryn, keep in mind I'll work just as hard, but with a degree and college experience behind me :)
- Jesse Stay
@MiniMage is right - it's certainly more likely to help than to hurt - but degrees are way, WAY overrated. And I don't see how they're particularly relevant or useful to entrepreneurs, either. When was the last time you asked for the educational background of the founder of a company before deciding if you would do business with that company?
- Anthony Citrano
Jesse, keep in mind that a degree will only get you so far, while I also have college experience, and been reading full-time for years and years. Really, I think I have the head start. I think you should propose a handicap for me. But first, we need to know what we race for. A kind of measurement or something... Otherwise we won't know who has won.
- Meryn Stol
Tweet Feeds, thanks - I enjoy being called a bigot. Do you have a degree?
- Jesse Stay
Who said we (or at least myself) is intolerant or takes offense to those that do not have degrees? I am speaking from experience. Why are you getting so upset?
- Mona Nomura
Tweet Feeds good - I still don't see why you're getting so upset. I could care less if you have a degree or not, but if you're going up against someone with the same experience I'll choose you any day. In addition, the degree will carry you along much longer financially as an entrepreneur trying to bootstrap than without the degree. If you don't need that money, fine - don't get a degree. I don't care. I just know what has helped me - I speak from both sides of the fence here.
- Jesse Stay
Agree strongly with Tweet Feeds (but not his tone.) :) (primarily - no correlation between a degree and good entrepreneurship (in fact I can make a lot of arguments why true entrepreneurs are more likely to drop out))
- Anthony Citrano
TweetFeeds? Look at Jesse's original Tweet. lol
- Mona Nomura
3 people out of how many entrepreneurs? And thanks for calling me a bigot again. How hard did they work on that, and did they have their millions before or after they quit school?
- Jesse Stay
Tweet Feeds you're still not getting my point
- Jesse Stay
Tweet Feeds, look at Jesse's original Tweet LOL
- Mona Nomura
I'm not dismissing you and if you thought I was, that is definitely not the case! But I still agree with Jesse -- the road to success is easier for one that has a degree; I am not saying which is better or which is worse. :)
- Mona Nomura
Mona, agreed - neither is worse. I just think the path without a degree is much harder. People can call me a bigot for that if they want, but I certainly don't think I'm passing judgement on anyone.
- Jesse Stay
Tweet Feeds wait, so who's passing the stereotypes? I'm talking from experience as an entrepreneur on both sides. I'm talking about myself when I speak. Who are you talking about?
- Jesse Stay
Tweet Feeds: "I believe that a degree is usually bad for an innovative mind." Cite examples, please.
- Victor Panlilio
ok Jesse, I completely agree with you and will withdraw my comments and sorry for stereotyping, Based on your experience, a degree means an entrepreneur won't need to work as hard. Victor, I said have no data, just shooting out of my you know what.
- Tweet Feeds
Ok, Gennefer.
- Mona Nomura
Suggest y'all read Larry Page's May 2 commencement address at Univ. of Mich., and note the part where he said: "It's not easy for me to express how proud I am to be here, with my Mom, my brother and my wife Lucy, and with all of you, at this amazing institution that is responsible for my very existence. I am thrilled for all of you, and I'm thrilled for your families and friends, as all...
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- Victor Panlilio
Jesse: I think you're getting push-back for two reasons: (1) What you're calling "making it easier" is essentially a matter of looking at an out-dated, anti-productive, systemic bias and saying "well, that's how it is, work with it." That's pragmatic, no question, but depressing for both individuals and our future as a people. (2) I'm personally getting the impression (and I may very well be wrong) that you're not only pragmatically accepting the bias, but even promoting and endorsing it.
- Roger Benningfield
A degree is a brand, and it's good for everything that brands are good for: reputation by association. Brands are most valuable when people don't have other ways of learning reputation. With increasing information (trusted reputation systems), brands matter less. Smart people find ways to see beyond the brand instead of just being fanbois. But brands have some meaning even to non-fanbois.
- Daniel Dulitz
I would also like to add: what Roger said. --^
- Anthony Citrano
Finding it hard to stay on top of all your social feeds? Some useful tools from LifeHacker - http://lifehacker.com/5234590...
Rafael, Daniel Rowley, Courtney Engle and 9 other people liked this
Happy birthday Gmail! Now that you're 5 years old, I think it's time to put away that old "beta tag" security blanket :)
Mike Chelen, pastas9, Josh Haley and 57 other people liked this
Search is Number Two Online Activity – Email is Number One; "Heck, Yeah," Say Google Founders - http://www.google.com/press...
- Paul Buchheit
97 invites left if anyone's looking.
- Andrew Smith
I think Paul just doesn't like having his resume in beta. :)
- Louis Gray
I've got 177 invites. w00t!
- Matt Cutts
490 :)
- Paul Buchheit
You make the product, you get the most invites. :)
- Matt Cutts
I think that I manually boosted it at some point long, long ago.
- Paul Buchheit
100 left. I must have gotten a refill.
- Louis Gray
Why did I get my invite on 4/5? What the hell took so long?
- Gabe
+1 Louis
- Tim Ostler
I can't think of any other services that has been in such a long beta test....(except Windows /snicker)
- Dennis Bjørn Petersen
from twhirl
94 left for me.
- Mike Doeff
94 for me, too. Huh.
- Laura Norvig
hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
- tera
Paul nice quote "that it's better, initially, to make a small number of users really love you than a large number kind of like you."
- Aditya Vempaty
RT @belindaang: Pic of Google AdWords ad insert in a print magazine! Lol... What an irony!? http://twitpic.com/1tcza
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Hiten Shah liked this
Wildfire Promotion Builder: A quick and easy way to promote your business on the social web. - http://www.wildfireapp.com
Justin Rains, Daniel Rowley, Fatih Taşkıran and 26 other people liked this
We've designed an application that enables organizations to run interactive promotions (e.g. sweepstakes, contests, coupon giveaways, etc) on the social web. We're in private beta and would love to get your feedback. Sign up for an invite at http://www.wildfireapp.com/compani... and add "Apps" after your company name.
- Alain Chuard
It looks cool any chance of an invite code to actually test the functionality?
- Anton Mannering
from twhirl
yup, I'll send you one shortly. Thanks for signing up!
- Alain Chuard
Cheers Alan. If it does what it says on the tin. It'll be very cool.
- Anton Mannering
from twhirl
Hey Anton, what's http://udoogoo.com all about?
- Alain Chuard
Ah.. bummer. Alain, I signed up for an invite before you posted about adding "Apps" after my company name (fabrikade). Hope to test out Wildfire real soon. Thanks!
- Jonathan Kong
Udoogoo is a social application platform. A Cloud of Crowds. We're very much on the "telco" for social networking functions side of things. Networks and content belong to the client always and forever. We're messing around in the murky water of identity and context.
- Anton Mannering
from twhirl
re: Jonathan: Got your signup. I'll send you an invite very soon. Thanks for signing up!
- Alain Chuard
re: Anton: Udoogoo sounds super interesting. Would be keen to test it when you're ready with it.
- Alain Chuard
Alain: Cheers I'll be posting invites here when we launch so keep an eye out.
- Anton Mannering
from twhirl
Hi forgot to add an "Apps" after my company name - Please check and send an invite anyways
- TrafficBug
@Alain Chuard: Much appreciated. :) Thanks!
- Jonathan Kong
@TrafficBug: No worries, I got you in the list. You'll get your invite soon!
- Alain Chuard
any idea about how the Vimeo presentation was build?
- Pablo Corral
Hey Pablo, it was done internally. In terms of software I used Photoshop and ScreenFlow. Let me know if you have more questions.
- Alain Chuard
Sounds like something I could use for my business. (and I didn't notice the apps thing either. i just signed up as adirah).
- Anika
Thanks Anika! I'll send you an invite soon.
- Alain Chuard
Thanks Alain!. Also, your site looks nice. Are you using Radiant as CMS or just managing the rails app using filesystem?
- Pablo Corral
Thanks Pablo! We're not using Radiant as CMS. We built our own system which is much more basic than Radiant. At the moment we're fully focused on the actual promotion application and extending it into the Facebook and OpenSocial platforms. Are you using Radiant? If so how do you like it?
- Alain Chuard
We need more testers for Wildfire. Please sign up here: http://www.wildfireapp.com/compani...
- Alain Chuard
Sounds interesting....I just signed up for an invite too
- Nestor
Thanks for signing up Nestor! I'll send you an invite soon!
- Alain Chuard
Hi Baard, sorry that you haven't received your invite yet. We're sending out invites once a week. We're planning another big code push on Monday so if you don't mind I'll send you yours mid next week... hope this is ok with you.
- Alain Chuard
Just FYI, we're planning to send out more invites on Wednesday or Thursday so if you haven't received an invite yet it will be on these days that you'll get one. Thanks for your patience and have a great weekend!
- Alain Chuard
We got tons of sign ups! Thanks for everyone that signed up! We really appreciate it!
- Alain Chuard
Discovery-Driven Planning - http://stage.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp...
Hiten Shah, kareem, Brad Chapman and Paul Buchheit liked this
"Conventional planning operates on the premise that managers can extrapolate future results from a well-understood and predictable platform of past experience. One expects predictions to be accurate because they are based on solid knowledge rather than on assumptions. In platform-based planning, a venture’s deviations from plan are a bad thing. / The platform-based approach may make sense for ongoing businesses, but it is sheer folly when applied to new ventures."
- Nivi
from Bookmarklet
Sean Oliver, Hiten Shah and rowlikeagirl liked this
I think google has no big ideas. this morning they announced a to-do-list. FGS. Remember the milk MUCH better. http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009...
Vezquex, Eric Gehler, fbrunel and 40 other people liked this
RTM ftw
- andy brudtkuhl
Aye, but I hate the fact that RTM doesn't have an outlook sync
- Seang-Lim Tan
Om, we need to have lunch. :) Also today: http://bit.ly/3EzaDS (Google is funding research on the Singularity). Yesterday, a full picture of the world's oceans, plus the ability to see historical imagery as slices over time. Recently, a completely open-source mobile operating system. Also recently, a fast web browser with a distinct philosophy of ease-of-use and radically improved security abstractions.
- Matt Cutts
Also in the last week: http://bit.ly/SAq8 New details emerge of Google's research into crawling the deep web. It's live on google.com now and has substantially improved Google's relevance and coverage over other search engines.
- Matt Cutts
Also in the last week: Google releases a whole set of tools to make broadband measurements more easy. This has long-term implications from net neutrality to censorship to debugging desktop applications: http://bit.ly/Mkkz
- Matt Cutts
Also in the last week: an update on the dozens of ways that Google is pushing open-source forward, from direct contributions to software packages http://bit.ly/146Ln to post-commit hooks on Google Code, our open-source project hosting: http://bit.ly/aOFO . The latter allows anyone to kick off all kinds of flexible HTTP POSTs to the open web after a commit.
- Matt Cutts
Also in the last week: offline Gmail. "Oh well, other companies have already introduced that," you say. Absolutely right; we took more time to make sure that offline Gmail worked well. But in many cases, that offline ability is based off of Gears, which was a big idea proposed and pushed forward by Google. Gears is a big idea that enables all sorts of useful innovations.
- Matt Cutts
looks like M.Cutts just laid out the innovation smack down!
- shayne catrett
Also in the last week: mentions of major research funding for the next Big Ideas in search and beyond: http://bit.ly/exGQ These are important ideas that Google is encouraging in academia.
- Matt Cutts
Look, a to-do list might not seem like a Big Idea. And that's okay. Not every launch is going to be a Big Idea. Sometimes it's going to be iterating and improving. I think a ubiquitous to-do list accessible via mobile/xhtml phone, Gmail, or web/gadget is pretty handy. But Google still has plenty of Big Ideas and ways that we're pushing the web and the world forward.
- Matt Cutts
The ocean project seems like big enough idea to me. I completely second Matt Cutts that Big G is not out of big ideas :)
- Varun Mahajan
Google really doesn't need any more big ideas IMO. They're behaving like a more mature company and doing more with their current ideas. 'Big ideas' often turn out to be a big waste of time and a distraction from the core business - hence the pretty radical trimming that has taken place lately. [edit] So something like Google Books which has been taking place for ages ... will finally pay off after the settlement is finalized. *That* is a big idea, but it's one they've had for 5+ years.
- AJ Kohn
I think it can be safely said that Malik's off-color comment has been ceremoniously dismantled
- coldbrew
Om pwned. --ET
- Charlie Wood
Google has *too many* ideas, I think, is the real problem, and they rarely anymore bother to make anything truly great. Matt, I wouldn't be bragging about Google Offline either. I had to discontinue use after one day b/c it kept switching me to offline mode and I kept getting "Still working...." messages throughout the day, despite being connected to my home internet connection with no problems or slow downs in any of the other sites or services I had open.
- C. K. Sample III
Where is the answer from Om?
- Edwin Khodabakchian
So I did end up posting my response -- sure Matt makes good/great points in some cases but also glosses over a few things. Of course, we are disagreeing. http://gigaom.com/2009...
- Om Malik
For me, it seems that some of my favorite Google projects have been messed with without direction. They integrated Bookmarks with Notebook, now have stopped work on Notebook(?) Now they add tasks to gmail only. I use notebook all across the web, including gmail. It's just confusing to me. I wonder if my RTM account is still valid.
- adam garrett
The need of the hour is a good open strategy and let other dev's improve on ideas the Google has already implemented. There are API's but they lack the control one wants.
- Ritesh
For me, it was Google Earth's upgrade but did anyone stop and think that Google is throwing a bunch of stuff out there (using their current resources) to find out what becomes 'the big idea' ?
- Charlie Anzman
@om, hypothetically speaking, what if google's to-do saves 10, 5 or 1 million people (30m total users) 10 extra minutes/day, 5 days/week? Certainly nothing small about that right! Same goes for any and all efficiency tools/features put out by yahoo/ms/fb - if even 1/2 of those extra minutes get re-invested/re-converted back into productive labor, the impact/effect will be quite large over the long-term. :)
- Will DeLuca
i love burn notice because they actually film in miami for real, unlike the bullshit which is csi miami and dexter (awesome show tho).
Hiten Shah liked this
I just gave a talk to about 30 top executives around the world (non tech) and almost none knew about Twitter, Qik, Kyte.
Adarsh, ClubEddy - clubeddy.com, myron and 82 other people liked this
Can you name some of them?
- Chetan Bhawani
This does not surprise me at all.
- Suki Fuller
I'm guessing they do now!
- Simon May
Spread the twitter-awareness :)
- Sasha Kovaliov
this does not surprise me. i have spent a lot of time in industrial companies and email is the most advanced tech that has traction. can't even get secure sharepoint sites to get traction with execs!
- Jeff DiStanlo
welcome to the analogue world ;)
- Sascha Pallenberg
Were you surprised? It amazes me how few people (in general) know about these....especially Twitter.
- Vinny
I am not surprised. The day these and other such folks get onto social media, social media will be passe ;)
- A. Prem Kumar
People don't know about Twitter?! What!
- frank barry
Ya i suspect by end of 2009 it will have hit mainstream consciousness, but still obscure now.
- Brian Carter
not surprised. even some of my friends in tech doesn't know twitter
- AJ Batac :)
I just can't believe it. Do these people live under a rock?
- Happy
It would have been a surprise if they had. Good job Robert is on hand to spread the word.
- WoH: Minding her Steves
There was a seminar on social media and communications in Toronto last night and a few people had never heard of Twitter, either. Is it really surprising or are we just to immersed in it?
- Bonnie Dean
It took me years to get around to wanting to use Twitter. I read about it regularly at Coding Horror (ex: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog...) for at least a year but I just didn't see the point. I finally registered because I wanted to reply to a friend's tweet. I think for a lot of people it's more of a reticence to join social networks than plain technophobia.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
that says something doesnt it?
- Richard Binhammer
This is not surprising. Recall that John McCain does not even use email. And I am sure most, if not all, of these "top" executives are part of McCain's generation.
- Joe Lima
I haven't touched Qik/Seesmic/Kyte because I can't work out the difference. Not surprised most won't have heard of them or Twitter
- Luke
Robert, send them an invoice for innovation consulting! ;-)
- masa media - Martin
Make a list of top execs who do know about social media.
- stefan hyttfors
Not Surprising, I'd consider myself fairly Tech savvy and although i've been registered for ages i only just started Tweeting. Although given the publicity it's had in the last few weeks i'm slightly surprised.
- Jamie Vidamour
but i guess they know about Facebook ? well, i think twitter is more for more tech people
- Junal Rahman
Do you think their assistants know about those technologies? My understanding of CEO responsibility is that they have to think on a super broad and strategic level. Many of those technologies are about integrating tiny pieces of information into something bigger. Since that's not really their job, I would think those services would be off the CEO's radar until they have an impact at that high level. Right?
- David Wynn
from fftogo
Our CMO @BestBuyCMO relayed a similar experience at a CMO dinner he was one or two of 10+ who knew about the tools and he certainly was the top user of them.
- Ben Hedrington
It's not surprising, if you think about it, but it's still unfortunate. Top executives are hardly "the mainstream" and if they're not in tech or marketing, those types of communication are not foremost in their minds. I know one chief exec. of a Fortune 1000 company who still has his "important" emails (as determined by his assistant) printed out and put on his desk every day.
- Robert Clockedile
from twhirl
This does not surprise me in the least. Yes, awareness is growing but anyone who assumes that our social media world has "made it' to mainstream is unclear on the concept.
- Cathy Brooks
from twhirl
What a surprise!! Here in Brazil I've asked to my friends and coworkers and nobody knew about Twitter. Well, some of my friends don't even check e-mails account daily...
- Flavio Knopp
it goes to show that twitter, kyte, friendfeed, etc... haven't really hit the mainstream yet... user adoption will always be a problem no matter what platform or software is out there.
- Dejim Juang
Most of them can't even use email....
- Stuart Murray Walton
What is the point of Twitter, Kyte etc when hundreds of thousands of people are losing their jobs and we are in global economic crisis? Don't these top execs have bigger issues at hand? Are we drinking too much social media coolade in these times?
- Andy Oliver
Dejim: I would not consider 30 executives not knowing about Twitter to equate to these services not being in the mainstream. It you ever worked with "top" executives, you'd be amazed by how much "mainstream" knowledge they really lack.
- Joe Lima
I'm doing a Social Media 101 seminar in a few weeks for entrepreneurs who haven't touched linkedin.com, facebook, or twitter. Seminar is full. We'll likely do 2 or 3 more. I'm not surprised at your group's ignorance.
- Shelley Cadamy
I'm a publisher in medical technology market data and I continue to be stunned at how much behind the tech curve my audience of medtech companies is. Their rate of adoption of social media, like their adoption of new information technologies, lags at the same rate as physicians, who are traditionally slow to adopt any new technologies other than medical technologies.
- Patrick Driscoll
Top *executives*? No surprise there, unless they're *tech* executives. Gates or Dell not knowing would be worrying, but should a boss at Exxon or Rolls-Royce (the aero engine company) know or care any more than we'd know or care about distillate refining or FADEC aero engine controllers?
- James
I don't think we are drunk on social media when we say that in spite of the downturn and maybe because of it, we need to look at the enormous possibilities of social media at the very least as a brand loyalty mechanism(ie I am more apt to subscribe to products from companies/ people that I have a more intimate relationship with).
- Phillip
The other issue with non tech executives not tuned in is their reluctance to accept ideas that don't have a direct and obvious connection to ROI. I have to admit (and I'm not blowing my horn) that during the pre-internet heydey, I felt like Tom Hanks in "Big" raising my hand to say, "I don't get it". Then, I couldn't understand why website traffic mattered more than revenue.
- Patrick Driscoll
Recently, I spoke with a colleague of mine, a university professor of linguistics known as geek. I asked if someone is studying tweets' peculiar language and style from a scientific point of view. "Twitter?" he said, "Microblogging? never heard before". A geek, they say. Well...
- PaperDoll
not surprised at all. You may try to ask if they know Firefox
- ClubEddy - clubeddy.com
There's a whole tendency in social media toward rapidly accepting what's at the front edge of development, while at the back end, product managers, sales/marketing and other grunts are just struggling to hit their numbers. They don't live and breathe the latest info tool -- they live and breathe their own product.
- Patrick Driscoll
OK, I'm hogging the airwaves, but one last point. When I look at new medical technologies emerging in the market, I have to bring in two very important perspectives: the opinion-leading early adopters (docs at universities or highly visible MD-consultants to industry) and the regular practicing physician working in the trenches of daily care. Social media evangelists would have me pay much more attention (I'm simplifying a bit) to the opinion-leaders.
- Patrick Driscoll
I can understand that they don't know about Qik or Kyte, even I don't and I spend a lot of time on Twitter and FriendFeed...
- Odi Kosmatos
You should get a hat!
- Freida Wolden
from twhirl
I don't think that social media is so important that everyone MUST take part in it. If I had more of a life (was a busy doctor or exec.), twitter and friendfeed would be the last thing that I would do in my spare time -especially twitter.
- BEX
Carol Bartz doesn't use Flickr and she's Yahoo's CEO. Her daughter does use facebook to post photos though.
- Thomas Hawk
Our organzation is doing well w/Facebook with more plans for expansion after receiving demographics that show a high number of professional level participants and 30 and up crowd. I always considered FB for kids.
- R. Ferguson
I can belive Qik and Kyte. But Twitter. That is tough. Of course my CEO doesn't know what SEO is.
- John Flynn
Robert, that does seem strange. But then I see smaller co's. and non-profits jumping into Twitter, FB,etc. faster. My theory is because start-ups and NP's are open to the pool of university student volunteer workers, interns, and beginners out there who are more saavy in this area.
- Melanie Reed
Maybe it's the name...? Maybe they would prefer using something called The TwitCorp Group
- Catherine Ventura
robert - did you talk to them about zoho, zocdoc, gomobo, freshbooks, etc ?
- Allen Stern
not surprised.
- anna sauce
They must not have any kids... or watch CNN <grin> Nice one, Catherine - love The TwitCorp Group
- Cheryl Allin
from twhirl
OMG there's a world OUTSIDE of Twitter and Soc Nets?! :P
- Mona Nomura
cmon mona you should know by now that in the valley there are only a few products that can be talked about outside the valley by those inside the valley - scoble just doing his job :) ha!
- Allen Stern
And to think, we just had an amazing tweetup in the Raleigh area last night of more than 200 tweeps. Triangle Tweetup was awesome.
- Angela
Mona - LOL - say it ain't so!!!!
- Susan Beebe
Yes, I agree with Freida, you should get a hat :)
- Michael Forian
Non-tech CEOs is not surprising. However, depending on the kind of executive not knowing at least 1 like Twitteer may be troubling. For example if they are media companies or telecom companies then that is a more troubling thought than say the executive for a manufacturing company. Ultimately the lack of knowledge is a reflection of the type of talent they recruit and how that impacts their corporate culture now and in the future.
- Altan Khendup
Did those same guys also show ignorance about Facebook- then we will know that we live on different planets - google,facebook,twitter are all helping to re-shape the way we communicate with each other- rgds- hiro bachani- http://www.merlin-me.com -Merlin Magical Gadgets
- hiro
Amazing how a generational gap can preclude users from a given technology. I bet none of their friends are on Twitter either
- Jameel
Unsurprising to me. I think the only interesting item might be how a company without a revenue model continues to raise money! In *this* economy, that is a story.
- AJ Kohn
The elementary school I work at has started to hear about Twitter. It is going mainstream very quickly.
- MarkCarras
Their on FriendFeed now are they?
- paul mooney
My fiancée has heard of Twitter and she does her damnedest to avoid all this high-fallutin' technology.
- Chris Charabaruk
Not a good mood if you want to build up goodwill and awareness of your brand. I mean, unless you're McDonald's or something.
- Mike Nayyar
very small % of top exective in japan knows twitter either.
- Yasuyuki Goto
Do they need to know? Is twitter going to get them out of their problems? Maybe their marketing managers do know?
- santiromero
Why would they know or care about Twitter, Qik or Kyte? What's the business case?
- Francine Hardaway
did they know about facebook - for global mainstream business leaders that at least should be known?
- mike "glemak" dunn
Using our difficult economic circumstances to dismiss the tools of Web 2.0, be it Twitter, Facebook, or something else is to embrace the status quo. And if you hadn't noticed, the status quo isn't working. Web 2.0 offers a unique opportunity to reach out to customers, be they current or would-be customers, and engage them in a way previously not possible. As for me, I work for a...
more...
- Lee Allgood
did they know about computers? how about the internet? ebay? facebook? trying to quantify the time lag between reality and executives.
- Dino
does that say something? twitter and all these things are not the most essential parts of businesses. these things are fun but there's lots of people i know who have no idea about twitter. people who invest so much time and effort in these things have to realise this.
- Terry O'Fee
when things get really really tough these "social media experts" in the businesses will be the first to get the axe, sadly.
- Terry O'Fee
the value of twitter? i know lots of successful businesses who would never even look at this kind of stuff. it's not as important as a lot of you people think.
- Terry O'Fee
You people? Who you calling 'YOU people'.
- Chris Saad
Thats the problem. You NEED to look at it before you understand its value, both for personal use and as a corporate tool.
- JCunwired
you people = the people who think the world would end if twitter shut down tomorrow...
- Terry O'Fee
This post is a complete and utter déjà vu for me. Robert, did this happen another time upon which you posted a very similar statement. For a second there, I thought FriendFeed glitched and reissued an old entry. Maybe I'm just tired.
- Micah
seems that twitter will have 30 more users.
- pala
Um. I work under people who thinks blogging is new and uncharted territory. I'm in marketing.
- myron
nonsurprising.. some of my teammates don't know about twitter. none of them know about qik. and i never heard of kyte!
- Ihar Mahaniok
The Loneliness of the Early Adopter | Technologizer - http://technologizer.com/2009...
Rod Bauer, Bill Romanos, Wil and 4 other people liked this
Arduino - HomePage - http://www.arduino.cc/
Robbert Hozee, titox, Daniel Rowley and 48 other people liked this
"Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments. Arduino can sense the environment by receiving input from a variety of sensors and can affect its surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators." Some examples at http://www.arduino.cc/playgro...
- Paul Buchheit
from Bookmarklet
via http://news.ycombinator.com/item.... I think I'll buy one.
- Paul Buchheit
I want to play with these too but I don't know what to start with. Lots on Make: http://www.makershed.com/SearchR...
- Andrew Smith
I read a great interview in Wired about the people behind Arduino. Despite my degree implying I should know something about hardware I'd have no clue where to start with one.
- Benjamin Golub
heh. I have eight now. They're lots of fun.
- Sam Harmon
The new Heathkit?
- Brian Sullivan
Very much the new Heathkit. I need to pick one up.
- Ben Jackson
from twhirl
Allow me to plug a former media lab-mate's business by suggesting http://www.adafruit.com/ as a great place to pick up arduino kits.
- Kelly Norton
now if I could just wire one of these up to my coffee machine i'd be all set ;)
- Roberto Bonini
I bought it from hacktronics through Amazon, since that's much easier than registering on some other website. I wonder why these sites don't all sell through Amazon.
- Paul Buchheit
Japanese Drinking Games. No#6: Kiku No Hana « Gaijin Tonic - http://gaijintonic.com/2009...
Hiten Shah liked this
Re: In this economy, we're all entrepreneurs - http://www.thisisgoingtobebig.com/2009...
Hiten Shah and Mike Elliott liked this
"great post. i reblogged part of it at fredwilson.vc"
- Fred Wilson
ActiveRecord.js : Cross Browser, Cross Platform, JavaScript ORM - http://www.activerecordjs.org/
Hiten Shah liked this
if you want to check to see if your Apple notebook fans are working properly just run Tweetdeck =)
Hiten Shah liked this
Although you may not know what the future holds for you, others in fact do; your boss, etc. Who knows your future?
Hiten Shah liked this
‘How To Demo Your Startup’ by Jason Calacanis - http://www.techcrunch.com/2008...
Hiten Shah, theineke, Adam Kazwell and 2 other people liked this
My paraphrase: 1. Show your product within the first 60 seconds. 2. The best products take less than five minutes to demo. 3. Your demo should leave people wanting more. 4. Talk about what you've done, not what you're going to do. 5. Understand your competitive landscape—current and historical. 6. Short answers are best. 7. PowerPoint bullet slides are death. 8. When presenting over the phone use a handset and a land-line. 9. No one has an answer for everything… feel free to say you don't know. 10. Always confirm the time of your meeting/call, and always be 15 minutes early. 11. Show, don't tell. 12. Use inclusive words (we, not you), live in the present (are, not can). 13. One driver, one navigator. 14. Have an anecdote ready for technical issues. 15. Start the pitch by (a) describing how you came up with the idea, (b) showing the problem, or (c) just show the product. 16. Don't start the pitch with your bio, the market size, or the competition. 17. Repeat your high-concept pitch five times.
- Nivi
from Bookmarklet
18. Modulate your tone (excited, puzzled, questioning) so the audience doesn't zone out.
- Nivi
The benefits of a bad economy
Hiten Shah, Paul Buchheit and deeje liked this
Water hides the rocks at the bottom of a pond. Lowering the water level exposes the rocks underneath. / Abundant spending hides the opportunities in our economy. Reduced spending will expose new opportunities to our corporations. / In a great economy, money hides problems and opportunities. Companies will get orders whether or not they innovate. / But in a bad economy, companies must invent products that even newly poor customers will buy. Products that customers truly need and value. Products with enduring value. And they must find cheaper ways of designing, manufacturing, marketing, and selling the products customers already buy. / Constraints spur creativity. Bad economies demand innovation. / (Inspired by http://bit.ly/DP1P and http://bit.ly/3WqrpW)
- Nivi
I love having more than one secure internet connection to run off of if one begins to lag... ;D
Hiten Shah liked this
Overnight success takes a long time - http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2009...
Nicola Junior Vitto, Gavin, Iggy Mwangi and 171 other people liked this
Thanks Paul... great post.
- Brian Roy
Most overnight successes take an Alaskan winter.
- Akiva
Great post, Paul. One of the running themes of a lot of the posts yesterday seemed to come from "well, it's been a year: FriendFeed should be in a much different place," but great things take time to do.
- Mark Trapp
Scott Berkun wrote a really fine book entitled "the myths of innovaiton" (http://www.amazon.com/Myths-I...). He points out that perhaps the greatest myth of innovation is that the innovation arrives in it's entirety in a single moment in time. Essentially that the innovation was a single flash of insight and execution. The reality is it comes piecemeal over time.
- Brian Roy
Nice Paul, there are a whole boatload of startup / project myths I wish we could bust. The "overnight success" is one of the worst.
- mikepk
Brain, exactly, and the myth there is the "one idea" that precipitates success drives me crazy too. I wrote a post (and reposted it a few months ago) about this one. http://mikepk.com/2008...
- mikepk
Amen!! Peeps tend to see "web celebs," for example, once they're up there ... but no one sees the *years* of hard work prior! I like to say I'm an overnight success 10 years in the making!! :)
- Mari Smith
Another interesting effect is that the VC cycle is predicated on hyper growth and 2 to 5 year return on investment. That helps push some ideas to failure even though, if given a more natural growth curve, they might have succeeded.
- mikepk
+1 Mikepk - VC funding creates a hyper-focus on geometric growth instead of creating a sustainable company... Those two are NOT the same thing.
- Brian Roy
Hyper-growth is dangerous because it forces a lot of short term moves, such as hiring the wrong people because you need them _now_. I suspect that better companies come out of busts than booms because they are able to grow at a reasonable pace.
- Paul Buchheit
Epitome of why I love, trust, and believe in FriendFeed. Classy, Paul and thank you for sharing with the community.
- Mona Nomura
Tell me about it. I got the arrows in my back to prove it. :-)
- Dave Winer
Nice summary, Paul. As I mentioned in a comment on the post, it's clear you understand we care, and that we didn't intend to open the door for those clamoring for you to fail - but it was a natural result.
- Louis Gray
"Once we launched, the response was surprisingly positive, except from the people who hated it for a variety of reasons. "
- Clare Dibble
@Paul - "Yes, technically you're doing my work for me, but it's mutually beneficial because we'll do our best to create a product that you like". Was this supposed to be an indirect response to Dave W asking you to pay him consulting for his ideas?
- kartik vaithyanathan
Paul Buchheit +1
- Duncan Riley
So true. People think that from registering a domain to becoming a millonaire takes 1 idea and a couple of months. It took our company 10-years to do something "successful".
- Martin Añazco
Been around this block a few times myself Paul. There is a pheneomenon out there around second ventures after the first was a winner. Let's have a talk about this over a beer after the outcome of FF is known. And also, I wouldn't necessarily count on the experience of selling a "product" inside a juggernaut like Google as being the same thing as making something work in the blogosphere or where ever it is FF is supposed to be planted.
- Dave Winer
One more thing -- you're a very good writer -- but there's something else that isn't in your post. The odds against all startups are overwhelmingly against them. Ask Ev about Odeo someday. Your post is remarkably like the things he was writing about that product. And like the stuff I was saying after my company's IPO and was starting my second company. Unfortunately this was before blogs, so you'll have to take my word for it. I didn't really consider the possibility of failure. And of course we did fail.
- Dave Winer
at least 24 hrs... ;o)
- Rob Sellen :o)
Great post Paul. Too many companies (see Webvan and slew of others) thought rapid growth was enough. But good businesses grow slowly, even on the Internet.
- AJ Kohn
Nice post and great perspective. Nice position to be able to compare your own gmail experience to your FF experience.
- Vernonkell
Here's Joel Spolsky talking about the same thing: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/article...
- Piaw Na
The comments on your blog are awesome, e.g. "Gmail would be a lot better if it allowed registration of usernames < 6 characters wide." Proposed reply, "Oh, you can, but every single one has already been taken"
- j1m
I commented in the post, but I saw a comment in FriendFeed that noted how another well-known service had a well-executed marketing introduction, followed by rapid growth, followed by severe technical failures. Not to imply that one growth model is always right and another one is always wrong (plus, that company solved its technical issues).
- Ontario Emperor
from fftogo
Paul, keep up the good fight to properly manage FF for optimal growth, scalability and integration of features. Rushed products typically fail. However, a healthy burn rate is good too. Release timely updates in response to user demand. There are some important UIX features that should be released soon as users are clamoring for ease of use features and FF could risk losing more users if these basic UI features are not implemented within a reasonable amount of time. Good Luck! :)
- Susan Beebe
I commented over at the post. Really nice entry, with great perspective.
- Martha
Paul: I've read this post three times and it's a work of art. Thank you and thank you for creating a service that has addicted me for almost a year now.
- Robert Scoble
Not to one up Scoble, but it's the service itself that is the work of art.
- Vicarbott
i appreciate this blended perspective. today i am dealing with the often elusive "balancing" objective, i.e., what is an acceptable pace towards those "goals posts", while honoring the organic nature of the quest!
- Gregg
+2 Paul
- Varun Mahajan
Paul, FriendFeed just rocks... It's already great today...
- Aad 't Hart
Nice stuff.... some great comments etc.. thanks to mona for pointing me to it. :o)
- Rob Sellen :o)
Paul's piece got reprinted at All Things D. Nice exposure: http://voices.allthingsd.com/2009010...
- Louis Gray
Paul, I think FriendFeed is the best thing that I saw in 2008 on the web. It is still rough and needs to figure out how to best reel in the casual user, but there is so much promise in this service. The core of it is so powerful really and you guys are months if not years ahead of anyone else working in this area right now. Good luck to you and your team!
- Thomas Hawk
+1 Thomas! Couldn't agree more... keep up great work FF team!! :)
- Susan Beebe
Why cant twitter just block the sending of DMs that contain the phishing url?
Logan Leger, Christian Anderson, Jesse Stay and 4 other people liked this
Same reason why we still don't have an API authentication solution
- Bwana ☠
+1 Bwana, and prefereably a standard one...
- directeur
@ev Can you please block DMs that contain the phishing url?
- Christian Burns
Have you ever gotten ev to respond to you? I've had a hard time getting a response.
- Jesse Stay
I have an app that runs at midnight every night and archives my day's twitter posts in OPML. Here's today, so far. http://static.opml.org/twitter...
Tyson Key, Kol Tregaskes, Hiten Shah and 4 other people liked this
nice! Here's the Grazr reader for it: http://bit.ly/HX0Y Not very exciting / dynamic, but as in include it could be cool.
- mikepk
Or - this from FF is a complete archive of all those posts - http://friendfeed.com/search...
- Vernonkell
Nice, I didn't know the "service:" search modifier
- mikepk
Hiten Shah and Igor The Troll יִצְחָק liked this
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