Tokyo and tech through the eyes of a split pea

Crisis of Nihilism

In December of 2005 I had the opportunity to invite Umair Haque – who was then running a consultancy called Bubble Generation – to Sony during an internal week-long technology and strategy sharing event. I had been following Umair via his blog and felt Sony should hear what he was saying. Thanks to a skeptical [...]

Boss Diversity

From “‘Dilbert’ on how to save your career”, an interview with Scott Adams:

Q. I know you don’t like to give advice, but do you have any general thoughts on how to cope with hard times?
A. The best plan now is to have as many bosses as possible. I call it boss diversity. If you work [...]

Krugman’s Interstellar paper

With Paul Krugman recently being awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics, I was reminded of a paper of his from 1978. I think I originally got it from Gruber (Daring Fireball) …

*sigh*, the music industry

A twit (I forget which one I have so many; distractions!) pointed me towards the announcement of Sell-A-Band receiving a new round of funding.
Since one of my current projects is 音レボ (Otorevo), which despite the struggles is growing organically, I eagerly read through the comments. Two in particular that made me think:
commenter 1:

the problem with [...]

Converse or be cast aside

A little bit of Craigslist history and some food for thought on the importance of engaging your audience. Thanks Gen.

Au contrare

Here’s an excerpt I’ve been meaning to post, mostly for my personal archive.  Something to think about as the markets chug along and Tokyo is a decade “overdue” for its little jolt (though keep in mind this was written in 1989…)
“What if there is a massive earthquake in Tokyo?  Tokyo is reduced to rubble.  Investors [...]

Paul Graham’s Guide to Investors

Here’s a fascinating read by Paul Graham on factors startup founders should keep in mind while seeking investors, angel or VC.  In exploring the options myself for a few of our projects (miistation and kirakirajin) the topic inevitably turns to valuations, which I’ve found more difficult than expected to respond to.  There’s the money you [...]

How the world shapes up

I find these visualizations of nation sizes based on different factors quite fascinating.  (This is more an anchor for my future reference).  Here’s one comparing housing prices:

It would be interesting to see actual numbers on the land-mass differences between real and visual.
UPDATE:  I’m getting all this through Daring Fireball, who posted an update on the [...]

Inspiration from Stanford’s entrepreneurship video library

I’ve been on a video binge watching insightful and inspirational talks by some of the VC and entrepreneurship community’s leaders, all given at Stanford over the past 3-4 years. Many of these were suggested by my friend Greg, who is himself an angel investor in some very promising ventures.
I’m posting these here as both [...]

A Rhyme for oDesk

Inspired was I, one night in San Fran
while visiting family and friends,
to create a website for those in Japan,
that was fun and followed pop trends.
I whipped up the spec as oDesk requests,
and posted one night to hire.
Next mornin’ I woke, and to my delight,
The response put my Inbox on fire!
Coders from Russia, India, China,
even a [...]