January 2012
1 post
October 2011
1 post
September 2011
2 posts
1 tag
Anonymous asked: Cliche, but what have you learned...
My friend Ryan Carver took a picture of me holding my newborn son a few minutes after his birth. I like to think it captures both of us at a moment of awakening - both of our lives have just begun. Until that moment we had never met, but I felt as though I had been waiting my whole life to meet him. I loved him instantly and unreservedly.
I have learned this year that there are many types of...
1 tag
joshuakaufman asked: What's the single most important business decision you've ever made?
August 2011
3 posts
1 tag
rickwebb asked: What's the most unexpected scary thing about parenting so far?
1 tag
bustr asked: What are you most afraid of accidentally becoming/doing if you aren't diligent about proactively preventing it from happening?
Work In Progress: An update to 35 in 35
My 36th birthday approaches, a bit more quickly than I’m entirely comfortable admitting. I wrote a post last year around this time about some of the things I’d learned - it was a cathartic experience to put it out into the world. The response was more than I’d anticipated (it’s been liked and re-blogged more than 1,000 times).
After some careful consideration, I’ve...
June 2011
1 post
March 2011
2 posts
rickwebb's tumblrmajig: Jill Simonsen →
rickwebb:
And then this Thursday night, at a SXSW party at Mugshots, amongst friends I see annually, having a great time, a text from an LA friend - one of the many who Jill has touched, and I’ve known so long in so many different ways, but originally through Jill’s amazing brother Corey. A text that I needed to call her. We have some business dealings, this friend and I, so I texted if it was...
January 2011
3 posts
Bobulate: Uncomfortability →
bobulate:
However, the two things must be mingled and varied, solitude and joining a crowd: the one will make us long for people and the other for ourselves, and each will be a remedy for the other; solitude will cure our distaste for a crowd, and a crowd will cure our boredom with solitude.
One must get uncomfortable. If you venture a little, you will evolve a little. If you venture a lot,...
December 2010
6 posts
Alan Nathan Yost
We lost our good friend Al Yost about 10 days ago. The memorial was yesterday. His wife Debbie asked his friends and family to share stories about what made Alan the remarkable man that he was. This is what I was able to say:
“I miss my friend Alan. It is too soon for this, to be here, mourning him. And too terribly unfair.
Unfair because Al was someone of such uncommon intelligence, and...
"the distribution of wealth as well as of poverty"
“Having abolished the caste systems of old and fought to ensure universal access to education and opportunity, it seemed that we might have built up a meritocracy that had introduced an element of true justice into the distribution of wealth as well as of poverty. In the modern era, destitution could therefore be regarded as not merely pitiable but deserved.”
- Alain de Botton,...
November 2010
5 posts
"We are angry because we are overly optimistic..."
“I was reminded of the Roman philosopher Seneca’s treatise On Anger, written for the benefit of the Emperor Nero, and in particular its thesis that the root cause of anger is hope. We are angry because we are overly optimistic, insufficiently prepared for the frustrations endemic to existence. A man who screams every time he loses his keys or is turned away at an airport is evincing a...
What makes a great men's suit? - Quora →
I get asked this occasionally. Nice that there’s a Quora answer for it that handles it pretty perfectly.
October 2010
3 posts
On Anger
[Image credit Mike Monteiro, used with permission]
In a recent set of conversations with old friends and colleagues, a recognizable pattern has emerged. We’ll catch up on what they’re up to. I’ll give my rundown of all the recent excitement. And then inevitably, they wind up with a smile on their face and each of them says the exact same thing:
“You don’t seem...
“You sell good stuff. But never in my experience has any of your employees...”
– Mule Design Studio’s Blog: Dear Gap, I have your new logo.
My friend Mike has been writing amazingly good, approachable writing about the design process for the last few months. He and I are involved in different parts of how creative projects get built, but man, he gets it.
September 2010
4 posts
“A stronger version of this theory relies on what I have called...”
– Creative Forces - Reason Magazine
Pre-reqs for collaboration
While I was in London, I picked up a copy of Chris Robson’s “Confessions of an Entrepreneur,” which focuses on handling the emotional stresses of startup life. I finished the better part of it on the plane home, and have been doing a lot of thinking about some its first lessons; specifically, that choosing who you’ll collaborate with to build out your idea is vastly more...
mikemonteiro asked: If it's a weekday can you call it brunch, or is it just a late breakfast?
Catching of happiness →
bobulate:
We rode along like that. Man, Superman, and me. There were a lot of other people. Everyone staring straight ahead. And when the train stopped, the Superman’s man looked around. He asked directions just like every other New Yorker. Someone pointed the way, staring past Superman. Man and Superman were just New Yorkers after all.
Probably my most favorite thing that Liz has written,...
August 2010
15 posts
“Furthermore, Gilt generally becomes a large source of inbound traffic to the...”
– How does Gilt’s business model work? - Quora
You may or may not be as obsessed with Gilt as my wife and I, but this is a hell of a fantastic rundown of how the entire operation works, from someone on the label side. Fascinating stuff.
deep cut
ztaylor:
dictionaryofobscuresorrows:
n. an emotion you haven’t felt in years that you would have forgotten about completely if your emotional playlist hadn’t been left on shuffle, a feeling whose opening riff begins pulling all your other neurons after it like a dog on a leash waiting for you to open the door.
I will now accept “my emotional playlist has been left on shuffle”...
“5. Save the slurping and gargling for Napa Valley tasting rooms and morning...”
– Alan Richman’s Tips for Ordering Wine in a Restaurant: Alan Richman: GQ
I like his list (though I think more people need help understanding varietals and vintages when they’re ordering), and #5 is definitely a favorite. I give foodies a hard time, but man oh man is there nothing worse than a...
“Quality time” with the wife or kids is a phrase made up by guilty spouses. My...”
– Lies Entrepreneurs Tell Themselves « Steve Blank
I work with startups and I’m a co-founder in another. I see variations on the perspective that Blank describes in his post, and am sometimes guilty of it myself. A great set of lessons learned from an experienced entrepreneur.
“On the last day of class, I ask my students to turn those theoretical lenses on...”
– How Will You Measure Your Life? - Harvard Business Review
An excellent read for those who’re looking for a little meaning in how they live. (via @tedr)
“We will build this application. You might use it or you might not. We have an...”
– notes on “workin’ 9 to 5 “
Andre and I are on different paths, but I respect the hell out of his reasoning and his opinions. Lovely to see both spelt out in such a great post.
“Take things away until you cry. Accept most things, and reject most of your...”
– Frank Chimero
For designers (my people, once-removed) this is a better list of lessons learned than I could ever come up with.
“The need to diet, which we know so well in relation to food, and which runs so...”
– Alain de Botton ”On Distraction”
[via Bobulate]
apresley asked: What's one piece of knowledge you wish you could have had during your late college or early career stage of life?
pitonak asked: Who's the person in your life you owe most? Why?
Anonymous asked: What's one thing you know for sure?
Ask Me Anything
The 35 Lessons post seems to have gotten quite a bit more attention than I’d anticipated. I set up a Q&A form so that you can ask me a question about it (or anything else), if you’ve got one. I’ll answer it here on my tumblr. Currently accepting anonymous questions - let’s keep it friendly.
35 Lessons in 35 Years
My father always told me that the day we stop learning is the day we die. I wrote this as a sort of preparation for my 35th birthday last week. Some of these are poignant, others are simply trite; I attribute the latter to my growing sense of sentimentality as I age. That, and I need an editor.
Allow me to present some of the hard-learned lessons of my time thus far:
The Opposite Sex
-...