Generations
For me the greatest impact of Barak Obama’s historic victory yesterday is the generational shift that it enables. I’m not talking about his generation, although there’s clearly a passing of the baton from the 60’s generation (people born in the 40’s) to the 80’s generation (people born in the 60’s). I’m talking about his kids (and your kids and my kids) generation. About the millions of children who woke up this morning with real possibility – with the realization that there are truly no limitations on their ambitions. …
November 5, 2008· 1 min read
why do we stray?
A recurring theme in venture circles these last few weeks has been “Back To Basics” with VC pundits boldly prognosticating about the current state of the markets, talking about the infamous Sequoia deck and trying not to make people wince as they lay their claim to how they saw all this coming (I’m not immune to this myself and offered what I hoped was some practical advice in a recent post). …
October 30, 2008· 2 min read
out of digits
For those that scoffed at my posts (here and here) about the US savings rate falling below zero (written during the summer of 05′) here’s another, somewhat less scientific data point (not that the skeptics need further convincing these days). The National Debt Clock which counts the total national debt (not consumer debt, but that of the government) ran out of digits a few weeks ago. Oy.
October 15, 2008· 1 min read
what’s a company to do?
Now that I’ve received a link to the Sequoia “Holy Shit” presentation about 30 times along with about a dozen emails asking “what do you think?” it’s probably time for a post. My partner Jason has a great post up on the subject (with a more general discussion of how the current markets effect our business – definitely worth reading) and Brad has some practical advice up this morning on his blog as well. …
October 13, 2008· 3 min read
Track your favorite Olympic sports with Filtrbox
Information tracking company Filtrbox has put out a handy little widget for tracking TeamUSA at the Olympics. By choosing both sports (for example: “USA Cycling – Men’s Road”) or an individual athletes (“USA Cycling – Men’s Road: Levi Leipheimer”) you can keep up to date on your favorite Olympic stories.
August 8, 2008· 1 min read
Closing the top of the world
China has effectively closed off Mt. Everest peak attempts this year by baring teams from being on the mountain between March and June (which effectively closes off the window for an attempt from the Tibet side this year). All of this is apparently in reaction to protests in recent years over Tibeten independence and the plan to have the olympic torch scale the mountain during that time period on its approach to China for the games (apparently the Chinese would prefer not to have the torch run into protesters this year). Yikes! …
March 13, 2008· 1 min read
Jumping on the bandwagon
I admit it – I’m not a huge baseball fan. I used to love baseball. I collected baseball cards, followed the box scores and (in true nerd fashion – especially for that era) kept complicated spreadsheets tracking the stats of my favorite players. The Bill James Baseball Bible was my religion. That was before 1986. That was before, in the time between I left my neighbors house where I was babysitting to be with my dad to enjoy the Sox winning their first World Series since 1918, the world stopped, all reason was thrown out the door and I ended up pacing my room all night cursing the fate that had caused me to be born and raised in Boston. I pretty much gave up on baseball at that point, enjoying the game from a somewhat safer distance. I took a detour back into the fold in September and October of 2004 to finally enjoy the victory that should have long ago been. …
October 16, 2007· 2 min read
Are you in Boulder on the 19th?
The Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art puts on a fantastic (and very fun) art auction every year. My wife, Greeley, and I have been regulars for several years and always have a great time. This year Greeley is even more involved as the event chair (putting on an art auction is an incredible amount of work!). I’m playing a more peripheral role as the stand-in event photographer (the regular event photographer is out of the country, so with the qualification of owning a brand new digital SLR camera – a birthday present from Greeley – the photo duties are falling to me). …
October 3, 2006· 1 min read
The respect of a cousin
The following is an article that was published in The Jewish Week. It’s of particular interest because it came to me by way of a Pakastani-born muslim friend who currently lives in Dubai (with the subject that included “Please reprint/forward this where you can”). The Respect Of A Cousin After the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten’s 12 caricatures of the prophet Muhammad were republished in European newspapers, riots erupted in Damascus, Gaza, Beirut and elsewhere throughout the Muslim world. The violence is an extreme manifestation of the deep hurt felt by virtually all Muslims. As we condemn the violence on the streets, perhaps we should take a moment to understand the hurt in the hearts of the great majority of Muslims who did not engage in violence. For Muslims, the mere rendering of an image of Muhammad is sacrilege. The portrayal of Muhammad in a pejorative fashion is to them an inconceivably offensive desecration, on the level of what would be for us the defilement of a Torah scroll. Because it was done in newspapers across Europe, it was a slap in the face repeated thousands of times. Perhaps it’s a question of respect, not freedom. Freedom of expression theoretically protects the right of a non-Jew to desecrate a Torah scroll. Yet we would all view freedom of expression as a hollow defense to such a vile act. Some say Muslims can’t take criticism and simply don’t understand freedom of the press. In my own limited experience, that has not been the case. For the past year I’ve written a column in a Muslim newspaper, Muslims Weekly, in which I’ve criticized suicide bombing, the treatment of Jews under Islamic rule, the anti-Jewish rantings of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and even Muslims Weekly’s own reporting about Israel. But it was all done with respect, an informed appreciation of the wonderful benefits that Islam conferred upon the Jewish people, along with a willingness to look at our own imperfections together with those of the other. Regardless of whether or not the European press was constitutionally free to publish the offensive images, the act was a blatant and vulgar act of disrespect to Islam. Such insults no doubt contribute to the frightening specter of a clash of civilizations. What can we do as Jews to lessen the hostilities? Perhaps, just perhaps, a little respect would help. Rather than ripping the wounds wider with editorial musings extolling freedom of speech and condemning violent protests, is it not time for a bit of healing? The pages of this Jewish newspaper present a place for a small start by showing Muslims right here that though we too have the freedom to say anything we like, we choose to convey respect to our Muslim cousins. Printing something positive about Muhammad best does this. There is a space between romanticizing the past and vilifying it. There is a time to focus on the dark side of history and a time to view the other in the best light. There is a time to cull from our rabbinic writings the good our sages saw in Islam and there is quite a bit of such sentiment recorded. We Jews need to learn to be more flexible, pursuing the claims of Jews expelled from Arab countries and criticizing anti-Jewish TV programs and cartoons in the Muslim media, while at the same time displaying gratitude for all the good Islam did for us. There is a time to jump over our pain and see the humanity of the other. That time is now. Let us start: There is a Hadith (oral tradition concerning the words and works of Muhammad) recorded by Bukhari in the name of Amer Bin Rabiha that reads as follows: “A funeral procession passed us and the Prophet stood up for it. We said, ‘but Prophet of God, this is a funeral of a Jew.’ The Prophet responded, ‘rise.’ ” One can search the writings of the ancient non-Jewish world for a more powerful example of a public display of respect for the humanity of the Jew. There simply is no more powerful statement than the single word uttered by Muhammad nearly 14 centuries ago. Some readers will bombard this newspaper with reams of material showing a darker side to Islam, as if it were just too much for them to hear one good thing. But it is there, it is a sacred part of their tradition, it is good and we should hear it and respect it. …
March 2, 2006· 4 min read
The old paradigm
It’s funny that network news programs remain popular. Why get your news from such a limited source – and to boot, one that knows nothing about what you’re really interested in? Take, for example, the nightly reporting of the Dow and Nasdaq. Is that actually relevant to most people’s lives? The answer is no – but it’s a proxy for something more specific that you’d otherwise want but the new isn’t in a position to give you. Same thing with the news – you don’t really get what you want, but it serves a proxy for what you do. …
February 9, 2006· 1 min read