Congrats to StyleFeeder on their round of funding… but I have to ask, “Do they know Shergul works there?” cause I would have assumed having him on the team would be worth $2M all by itself.
Good lord. 388 in line and 20 min to get in. I have time but this is pretty bad. I want to jump in, play or look things up, and then move on.
I don’t understand why Blizzard hasn’t figured out a better way to do login in the years the service has been live. I’m logging in now (3:56 PM Pacific) and there is a line of 250 people trying to login and the estimated time is ~10 minutes. Seems like something they could improve.
Hmmm… maybe they need a PM lead to prioritize it? 
I did pay the $19.99 and I love all the new apps and customizations on my iPod Touch. Still… if it goes to free in 30 days I’ll scream bloody murder (and then chuckle at the people who waited).
Yes, I’m predictable.
Well, I think it is pretty clear that Seth Godin’s blog now has a place of prominence in my blog reader. When his new post shows up I generally will read it before anything else, even my friend status updates from Facebook.
Anyway, today he has a post about Workaholics that struck a chord with me. Here is his post but you should go and check out his blog:
Workaholics
A workaholic lives on fear. It’s fear that drives him to show up all the time. The best defense, apparently, is a good attendance record.
A new class of jobs (and workers) is creating a different sort of worker, though. This is the person who works out of passion and curiosity, not fear.
The passionate worker doesn’t show up because she’s afraid of getting in trouble, she shows up because it’s a hobby that pays. The passionate worker is busy blogging on vacation… because posting that thought and seeing the feedback it generates is actually more fun than sitting on the beach for another hour. The passionate worker tweaks a site design after dinner because, hey, it’s a lot more fun than watching TV.
It was hard to imagine someone being passionate about mining coal or scrubbing dishes. But the new face of work, at least for some people, opens up the possibility that work is the thing (much of the time) that you’d most like to do. Designing jobs like that is obviously smart. Finding one is brilliant.
See, when I leave a job I try to find something that I want to change and fix it. The new people don’t know all my history and instead of treating it like starting at a new school and picking a new name for people to call me (”Hi, I’m Will.I.Am”) I try to use the fresh start to fix something. It is a easy time to change and start fresh. When I left CompUSA for FairMarket in 1998 I wanted to be better about my level of responsiveness. Working at CompUSA was not fulfilling but that shouldn’t impact my delivery to the customer so I opted to take that up a notch. Some people may think I took it to an extreme but I love being known for a high level of support. Also, tools like blackberries and email became much more a part of my life which enabled the change.
I’ll leave you with a tale from my final days at eBay. I gave ~10 weeks notice to help recruit and train my replacement. I loved my job and my extended team and wanted to leave them as well off as possible. I knew many people had the PM skills to manage the team and deliver the products but I wanted to find someone who had the potential to be passionate about the platform. It had been my life for 10 years and stay or go it will always be important to me. (Thanks to my VP for enabling the non-standard overlap so I could do that training.)
Anyway- almost every exec and HR rep I met with during my long march to the door ended up asking me the same question, “Are you sure you’re leaving? You seem really passionate for someone on the way out.” My response was similar in most cases and tempered in some but it went along the lines of, “instead of asking why I’m passionate about my job, why aren’t the people staying more passionate?”
Now, I’m not saying there aren’t passionate people there…this was mainly in response to people and a set of “issues” right at the end. In the context of those issues it was funny that anyone would ask me why I was leaving. Can’t really go deeper into that in a public blog but buy me a beer and I’m sure to share.
Bought the book The Big Switch yesterday based on a few blog posts and reader reviews. I’m about a chapter in and think it is a really good read so far. I’ll let you know what I think at the end. 
Here’s a short summary from the Amazon page:
Book Description
An eye-opening look at the new computer revolution and the coming transformation of our economy, society, and culture.A hundred years ago, companies stopped producing their own power with steam engines and generators and plugged into the newly built electric grid. The cheap power pumped out by electric utilities not only changed how businesses operated but also brought the modern world into existence. Today a similar revolution is under way. Companies are dismantling their private computer systems and tapping into rich services delivered over the Internet. This time it’s computing that’s turning into a utility. The shift is already remaking the computer industry, bringing new competitors like Google to the fore and threatening traditional stalwarts like Microsoft and Dell. But the effects will reach much further. Cheap computing will ultimately change society as profoundly as cheap electricity did. In this lucid and compelling book, Nicholas Carr weaves together history, economics, and technology to explain why computing is changing—and what it means for all of us.
About the Author
Nicholas Carr is the author of Does IT Matter? The former executive editor of the Harvard Business Review, he has written for the New York Times, the Financial Times, Wired, and other publications. He lives outside Boston, Massachusetts.
They’ve just released new apps for the iPhone and are now making some available for the iPod touch at the bargain price of $19.99. They’re cool… but aren’t these the same things other companies would just give you to increase usefulness on the $400 device I bought and to add value on top of my growing music and video purchases? I mean, how much value do I get from a memo pad anyway. I like the maps, weather and all the other widgets but do I really don’t want to pay for a software update.
We’ll see if I give in before Apple does (or before someone just hacks the crap out it).
My friends and I are always talking about web-based businesses that people are able to start, grow organically, and need little hand holding. Check out From 10 Hours a Week, $10 Million a Year in the New York Times.
Granted, the thing I find funniest in this article is how unconcerned he is with user experience. Sure, his site is doing really well and people apparently like it but it is just this kind of response that leaves the door open for someone to beat him.
Spending time at Plenty of Fish is a visually painful experience. Wherever a row of members’ photos is displayed, which is most pages, many of the faces are elongated or scrunched because Mr. Frind has not taken the trouble to write the software code that would automatically resize frames or crop photos to prevent distortion. When I asked him why he had not addressed the problem, he said it was a “trivial” issue that did not bother users.
And that my friends is the power of the free market. His choice not to address it, his user’s choice to stay until they find a better solution, and someone else’s option to come along and dethrone him. Maybe I should have gone with, “that’s the circle of life (on the web).”
I was reading the Apple Closes In on Hollywood article in the Jan 7th Business Week that discusses Apple’s bid to gain market share in movies. It is a good read and a solid summary if you don’t know any of the issues that will plague Apple as they try to expand further into that market but it doesn’t go through all the background that I think it pretty interesting.
So, if you already know how Apple has changed the music industry then none of this will be new to you. The short summary is that many music execs feel that Apple has destroyed their businesses by pricing individual songs at $.99. They have gone back to try and negotiate for variable pricing which is completely counter what users want. They have tried some interesting variations with charging more for new releases or DRM free downloads but the market is screaming loudly that the perceived value isn’t there. Still, that won’t stop the music execs from trying to get every penny they can. (Make sure you read this post that really sums up the problems with the music industry.)
Anyway- as bad as the music industry has been the movie industry is going to be a pain in their own way. Why? Because they’ve seen how people want control of their music and that the highly profitable market for CD’s is shrinking like crazy. Even more than the music industry the movie companies want to own the ways that we consume the media we purchase. To that end they won’t let Apple become the central distribution point for digital movies like they’ve been for music.
Well, I like iTunes and love my iPods. I love the ease of purchase, integration with the players, and my ability to download a bunch of the free content like podcasts (like TWIT) that I consume weekly in addition to music. I’m not wild they they too restrict my use of the media I’ve purchased even if they do it under the guise of appeasement. One thing we know about Apple, they love their closed systems and want to control everything they can.
Still, I want everyone involved in the industry that wants to be. More competition will make for better solutions. Who knows… maybe Apple will come up with the best solution and maybe they’ll be beaten by some company we’ve never heard of yet. Regardless of Apple’s role in video I think that 2008 is going to be a huge year for the industry.
Ok… not really but I know this will make some people laugh. I enjoyed the movie 10 Things I Hate About You and I’m not (terribly) embarrassed to say so. I caught it on cable this weekend and laughed at all the celebrities that are in it. At one point I saw Bianca Kajlich who is now appearing in Rules of Engagement (CBS page), one of the new sitcoms I’ve watched. And since it is well known that I liked Bring It On I’ll throw out that Gabrielle Union was in this too.