Putting Out

Dinner last night with a friend of more than 20 years surfaced the topic of writing, and how much he wished he had a vehicle for putting it out there. I suggested a blog, and made the case that his life contained both (i) available time and (ii) interesting thoughts/experiences that others (maybe) would read.  But at minimum, a blog would be a vehicle to putting himself out there, a key starting point.

My sense is that his willingness to blog will be as direct a window into how serious his intent is, and my further sense is that the first post will feel (unnecessarily) like he’s writing a mission statement.  He’s likely written hundreds of thousands of words since he’s been using email, but the first blog post will feel monumental — defining perhaps — and there’s no good reason for that.  It’s just putting it out there.

So with that, I re-engage and re-commit to putting it out there.  It really wasn’t that hard.  Whether it’s any good is another matter, but at least it wasn’t that hard.

Metallica is not Metal

Metallica is one of the most successful metal bands of all time — 90 million+ copes worldwide and 25th on the all-time list with their “Metallica” record.

This morning’s run had me in and out of “And Justice for All,” a seminal work, and if ever there were an appropriate use of the word “tight” to describe a recording, “Justice” is really tight. It’s also highly organized. First comes rhythm guitar like a persistent assault, then the machine-gun snare, and lead guitar wheeles easily above it all. Then Hetfield comes in with a throaty spew of angst and anger. Even if it sounds “hard,” it’s really very organized — planned, when you step back. In this morning’s experience, it was not metal.

Some folks say that if you have to self-describe, it’s probably false advertising. If you’ve ever heard anyone “compensate,” this is what I mean. Folks who tell self-congratulatory stories are likely compensating for something that’s missing. Restaurants with a giant “OPEN” sign may be hurting for customers, or AdWords on Google saying “FREE” are likely misleading. In Metallica’s case, the fact they had to actually use THE NAME OF THEIR GENRE to name their band points to the lack of metal (or mettle) they really put out.

Record sales, sold-out stadiums, 25+ years as a band and songs that make millions bang head is an awesome accomplishment, but I would argue their delicately-orchestrated arrangements are not metal.

Scale Rules

Scale is sought by lots of companies, and when found, it’s amazing. To be able to do factors more with the same (or fewer) resources is so powerful. Humans create scale, but alone, they never do. They eat, sleep and can only be in one place at one time — I think some folks think they can scale, but they can’t.

My team pushed live a site that helps us scale in the business development capacity, and just like that, things we used to do with (i) phone calls, (ii) documents and (iii) emails are now just happening. We’re working to ‘be okay with that,’ which means making the right decisions around what human should (and should not) do.

Scale also changes the nature of “partnerships,” and what kind of relationships you create. I don’t wax nostalgic about having to have a close, personal or even special relationshp with partners as they scale and increasingly-rely upon “platforms,” “SDK’s” and “API’s,” as all those things scale better than I can.

I’ll offer more specifics around the meaning (and metrics) of scale in future posts, but watching scale unfold is awesome, and we’re doing it now. My hope is we can stay out of our own way as we do so.

Who Wins is the Story

I grew up around political discussion at the dinner table, where the President’s schedule was the organizing principal. Unlike sports, politics reigned as the lead topic, and it continues to lead today. My father worked as a military aide in President Johnson’s White House, he has always spoken fondly of that experience, and that instilled in me a deep respect for and fascination with the Presidency.

And tonight is ‘Game Five’ in the Democratic Primaries, and ‘Game Seven’ of the Republican Primaries. I now watch Mike Huckabee make his concession speech, and as eloquent as he is, it’s like watching a losing coach make sense of his team’s losing performance. Politics is great sport, and tonight stands to be a defining night on both sides of the aisle — it’s among my favorite experiences (on TV).

I stick close to MSNBC and hop to CNN at commercials — I’d love to hear others’ formulae for how best to channel and/or site surf to fully-ingest and experience best all that’s spewn. I realize all programming is essentially “a data feed with talking heads as filler,” but I enjoy it all.

An AP reporter quoted in the NYT last Saturday put it well below:

“My role model and mentor at The A.P. was Walter Mears, who recently retired, and he used to say that who wins is part of the story,” said Mike Glover, an Associated Press reporter.

In other words, there are times to discuss the merits of candidates’ values and experience, and there are times to count votes, discuss tactical warfare and who is winning and losing — and tonight is the latter.

Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!

I Believe in Recovery

I recently added a new experience : I am signed up and currently in week one of training for the NYC Triathlon. I was attracted to it because it unapologetically takes advantage of some uniquely NYC-esque topography: A swim in the Hudson River, a bike ride on the West Side Highway and a finish in Central Park — I’ve been wanting to do one for probably five years.

There’s a reasonably-detailed shopping list for a first triathlon, and you find yourself suddenly thrust into a series of stores and people and attitudes whose experiences are primarily (if not exclusively) all about the outdoors and/or endurance sports. It’s a no-nonsense crowd whom I’ve found to be helpful, smart and interested in helping others (me) understand their world.

I was asking Mike at Jack Rabbit Sports (their tri guru, I overheard) about powdered supplements and if he ‘believed in any of them’ (as I was skeptical), and he fired back a great quote:

“I believe in recovery.”

He so meta-responded to me — I just stared blankly at him. As I snapped out of it, Mike’s quote crystallized what I had been hearing in bits-and-pieces from different coaches and people: That training itself isn’t where you get stronger, it’s how well you RECOVER, stupid.

I have never trained for an endurance event with a specific timing goal — it’s always been about the experience or seeing if I could finish, but triathlon may be different. Shorter distances, shorter time-frames, so much equipment and special clothing — I can already sense a logistical challenge on par with the physical challenge. I find myself lingering over GPS devices glass case displays.

Recovery, stupid. Back to my $6.00 Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich — training fuel.

Doing it Right

Have you ever had a weekend where you (i) made progress on projects laying dormant, (ii) got the right amount of sleep and (iii) ate and drank properly? It’s a great feeling, and you’d think, worth doing more often than not. Why not “do the right thing” every weekend, if it feels this way?

I think the answer is complicated, and I’m not certified to offer it, but I think we get back to the office and, when asked “How was the weekend?” We say “Good. Mellow. Yours?” It near-implies that we did “nothing” or didn’t go to as many museums as we should, or lacked civic contribution. Even if all those complexes are true, isn’t “doing it right” an accomplishment? Perhaps not if there aren’t (i) stories to tell, (ii) new places/people to talk about and/or (iii) nobody underprivileged better off as a result of your time. It sounds like a no-win situation.

“60 Minutes” had a story about an organizaion called Remote Area Medical (RAM), who spends their weekends setting up clinics in rural areas where folks are uninsured or under-insured, and how they helped nearly 1,000 patients in one weekend — lots of basic dentistry and vision care, on up to cancer diagnoses.

Stan Brock is RAM’s founder, and lives essentially with no income and with limited plumbing — wholly at the service of RAM. They started by air-dropping supplies into Africa, and Stan still flies the WWII-era aircraft used to run RAM’s missions — a complete badass. His clinic’s hours start at 6am, when he opens the door, and he personally cuts off (sometimes hundreds of) people when “the weekend is over” and his volunteers have to get back to their lives. He is there start-to-finish.

Stan probably (i) sleeps very little, (ii) takes not-so-great care of himself and (iii) has stories that would be too brutal for the office on Monday — but the impact — my God. A woman spoke of not being able to see, not being able to afford eyeglasses and not knowing what her alternative options really were, and she started to cry at the thought of not receiving RAM’s care.

So the experience of “Doing it Right” can apparently vary widely, and something tells me that it has little to do with whatever “recommended daily allowance” of anything has to say in the matter.

Reading is Huge

I noticed words by Steve Jobs’ January Macworld address that disses the Amazon Kindle, saying that “Americans don’t read anymore” (328,000 results estimated by Google). How completely lame is that?

I found this an inaccurate, self-serving and ridiculous thing to say. Others have gone into detail about all the ways in which this statement-as-if-fact is simply wrong, so I won’t add to that, since what bothers me is the impact it has on those who idolize “Steve.” What kind of person disses reading?

Could you imagine Barnes & Noble’s CEO Steve Riggio saying the same thing about the iPod, saying “people aren’t buying music anymore?” He would have been more accurate than Jobs. The Book Industry Study group pegged 2006 publisher revenue a nearly three times that of the pre-recorded music industry — Americans by more than 3 billion units worth of books annually (!).

I’ve always thought of Apple as catering to a smarter crowd, and its products’ quality and timing as a reflection of that. I love digital music, I love the digitization and control of media and I love how Steve Jobs toys with the media to make them eat out of his hand, but this was irresponsible.

Do you party?

This morning’s NYT writes of Obama’s courting of the Jewish vote, with interesting figures about the divergent outcomes among Jewish voters in NJ, CT and CA. It also speaks to Hillary’s draw among “traditional Democratic voters” (paraphrased), and it reminds me of those who party and those who don’t. Do you party?

To party is to put one’s loyalty to a political party above all considerations when choosing a candidate. Party loyalty in my parents’ generation is high, and I think I know why: There was less choice in organizations with whom you could have a RELATIONSHIP if you held beliefs or wanted to participate. In the case of my wife’s parents, my father-in-law was president of his town’s council for 25 years, my mother-in-law volunteered at polling places, organized by the Republican Party. They both party hard.

I would ask here what folks’ real RELATIONSHIP to political parties is, and with that, if it justifies so much loyalty and weight in their decision-making. Do you know someone who works for a political party? Does the political party ensure the employment of a friend or family member? Does the party advocate on your behalf for issues that matter? Do you enjoy the information and/or communication they provide you? If the answer is “yes” to any of these, then you have a relationship and you should party. Partying may not result in the best decisions around candidate selection/support, but it is a basis for partying.

A more modern stance is to be a “registered Independent.” I think this is often a statement of one’s independence (note: small “i”), and less a statement of alignment with the Independent Party. What it means on a practical level varies state-by-state, depending on that state’s degree of “open primary” participation, and for states whose primaries only allow party-registered folks to vote, in many ways this stance is one of abstinence (from voting).

I party for practical reasons: My adult life has had me living in Chicago, San Francisco and New York, whose local issues and candidates have been long-dominated by Democratic candidates, and I want to vote in primaries that matter. If I am swayed by a Republican candidate in a general election, I’ll await that stage to vote for them. In exchange for this belief, I am castigated by my (mostly conservative) friends as being a LIBERAL, which is a dirty word.

If you click/read the definition of “Liberalism” offered by Wikipedia, I would not blush at that description of belief system. What’s remarkable is how damn CONSERVATIVE the definition of Liberalism sounds. It almost makes you think that when it comes down to it, both sides don’t think that differently after all — and that was sarcasm. There’s nothing wrong with partying for good reasons, it’s just a matter of watching when it gets out of control.

FriendFeed : Day Three

FriendFeed is a service that lets you share feed-driven updates from several online services with people whom you agree are ‘friends.’ Or ‘Feed Friends,’ a new friend type.

We have ‘links’ (LinkedIn), ‘contacts’ (Plaxo), the ‘friended’ (Facebook) and now ‘feed friends,’ and a conversation with a fellow digital media phreak the other night spoke of how taxing it can be to anguish (even for two seconds) over which relationships fit into which categories. We both agreed we’d given up on LinkedIn, where it was simpler to just “Accept All” (invitations), and that we put more care into our Facebook friends — and we’re still in early innings of all this. He was working on the definitiion of a ‘friend type’ that was strictly related to playlist creation and sharing online (“…how about Play Friends, oh wait, nevermind…”).

What I would say on Day Three of FriendFeed is that (i) it is immediately gratifying in its ability to find people who are relevant (avoid use of word ‘friends’ here on purpose), (ii) it is clean and gets to the point, and (iii) its ability to make feeds private means you can experiment without accidentally posting a Flickr album from spring break in Cancun in 1991 to total strangers.

I also noticed it is already the #3 search result on my name on Google (vain mofo that I am), which shows its got some serious SEO skills baked in. Started by former Googlers, that’s not shocking, but it is [Darth Vader voice] most impressive.

Raoul’s R(ao)ules

I am coming late to this, forgive me in advance.

Raoul’s is a restaurant in Soho that was there before the neighborhood turned into a high-end, outdoor shopping mall. Its crowded, tastefully-decadent and delivers strong drinks rapidly. I went with a friend whom I knew in San Francisco and who is now in DC, and a digital music junkie like me.

We tore through Michael Robertson’s keynote and demo of MP3Tunes’ new version, agreed it was great to see him ’still after it,’ and otherwise dissected online locker services and how certain services could be so much better, but none had it figured out. It’s a classic indstry-fueled conversation, but it also had tributaries into our respective views of where we live, what we hope to do and how our respective, better halves our doing — and then back again to digital media.

You get the strongest sense — every now and again — that regardless of the startup-of-the-month, or which open platform ‘goes meta’ on another, that maybe, just maybe, the folks within the business may be the true, underlying asset.

And if it’s not clear, I am kidding and wholly believe that to be the case. But if OpenSocial would just make OPML a peer-to-peer-based streaming with XHTML extensibility at affordable, statutory rates with reasonable licensing terms, that too would be killer.