Duncan Watts has a fascinating, brief piece in the NYT Magazine today about the "rich get richer" effect and how cultural mega-hits dont have much to do with many individuals independently liking a given song or book. Rather, the success of a successful book or song and the failure of...
Prof. Steven Postrel has a good post over at Organization and Markets about why some entrepreneurial opportunities go unsatisfied. His example is why outdoor coffee tables have four legs instead of three, when its "obvious" that three legs would make the table rock less. He concludes with the following design...
I was talking to a journalist today about entrepreneurship. I told him my theory that the myth of creativity is that it all happens in one, giant "Eureka!" moment.You know the image: The idea comes to mind and you freeze. Its brilliance strikes you. Its going to change the world!...
How do web 2.0 / consumer web app-ish type companies generate buzz for their free product or service online? Online promotions? Email blasts? Pray to be TechCrunched?Ive seen an increasing number of companies do all this and one thing more: hire low-cost "evangelists" to sit at a computer all day...
Ive launched a new project: Business Rules of Thumb -- its a public wiki to track useful rules of thumb from negotiation to marketing to presentations to PR. Please contribute rules of thumb to the wiki! The password is: "thumb".Some of the content is taken with permission from Seth Godins...
Marci Alboher has written a great new book that came out yesterday called One Person / Multiple Careers. She sent me an early copy and after reading it I spoke with her on the phone.The premise is this: From lawyer/chefs to police officer/personal trainers to mom/CEOs, more and more people...
Geoffrey Moore, author of the pathbreaking and essential business book Crossing the Chasm, just blogged about the Davos '07 theme "The Shifting Power Equation." Moore says:The shift from computing to communications also has profound implications for the redistribution of power. As the Internet continues to work its transformation of the...