From the bold-words blog. Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, speaks on how to build a business for the long haul, and why he doesn’t put much emphasis on advertising:
Growth isn’t central at all, because I’m trying to run this company as if it’s going to be here a hundred years from now. And if you take where we are today and add 15% growth, like public companies need to have for their stock to stay up in value, I’d be a multi-trillion-dollar company in 40 years. Which is impossible, of course.
So all of these companies that are going for the big growth, if it continues for any length of time, will outlast their resources and outlast their customers and go belly-up. And that’s why these huge companies have massive layoffs all the time.
Since I’m trying to run this company like it’s going to be around a hundred years from now, we have to limit our growth and keep it to what we call “natural growth.” In other words, I don’t advertise on billboards in inner cities so that kids buy our black down jackets instead of The North Face’s. In fact, we hardly advertise at all.
There is an exhibit in San Diego by the American Mathmatical Society about “mathmatical art” – art created by interesting algorithms. If you throw a bunch of numbers into a forumla, sometimes beauty emerges:
Ok, I think this is super-interesting. Everyone is familiar w/ speed-dating, right? (You go to a speed dating event, and basically play musical chairs, switching chairs every three minutes and talk-to/meet as many potential dates as possible, hoping for a love connection.) Well, the newest trend is “eyegazing” — its speed dating, only you can’t talk. You stare into the eyes of your “date” for 2 minutes and then you rotate and do it again.
After a fun mini-lesson in the art of eye contact, the group splits into pairs, and each pair spends two minutes looking into each other’s eyes, no talking, just soaking in each other’s essence through the windows to their soul.
Using ambient light in a new way, to create some very interesting blinds:
The good folks over at NOLS have been driving a vegetable oil-powered bus cross-country to raise awareness about alternative energy sources, climate change and the low-impact philosophies that the school has taught for years. I’m a graduate (twice!) and I cannot say enough good things about NOLS and everything I’ve learned from them. They teach a leave-no-trace approach to backcountry travel, and utmost respect for mother nature. A big shout out to the folks on the bus – check out their blog.
This is a way cool collection of new approaches to describing data on the web – visually. Things like heat maps, mind maps, and elastic lists – super cool.
Just when you thought there were no more frontiers. Just when you thought that adventure was dead, along comes the Tuxedo Travels. My friend Doug Campbell was sitting in Hong Kong w/ his buddy, and after a few drinks, they decided to don tuxedos and travel overland in their formal attire all the way to London. For several months they traveled across Asia wearing only tuxes. Here they are enjoying high tea at Everest base camp. Most recently they were featured on CNN – way to go Dougie!
Imagine living on $35k a year. Now imagine supporting six other family members on your 35k. This family does just that. They are America’s Cheapest Family, and they have paid off their house in just 9 years. They live simply, but they enjoy life immensely with very little waste. How much do we need in order to live? How much are we wasting? I’m guilty.
This looks like a great read. Its all about how computing is following the same path electricity followed.
A hundred years ago, companies stopped generating their own power with steam engines and dynamos and plugged into the newly built electric grid. The cheap power pumped out by electric utilities didn’t just change how businesses operate. It set off a chain reaction of economic and social transformations that brought the modern world into existence. Today, a similar revolution is under way. Hooked up to the Internet’s global computing grid, massive information-processing plants have begun pumping data and software code into our homes and businesses. This time, it’s computing that’s turning into a utility.
I’m a firm believer in Cloud Computing – I’ve moved everything I do out to the cloud so that I can pick up any computer, mobile device, or cellphone and keep working. Backups happen online, availability is anywhere I can get an IP address, and I don’t have the headache of maintaining software anymore – I just need a browser. This, I think, is where we are all headed.
This is just amazing. A man who was washing the exterior windows of a NYC skyscraper fell 47 stories from the scaffolding and survived. From the NY Times:
Alcides, whose wife lives in Ecuador, suffered serious injuries. Officials said he was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital, where he remained in grave condition last night. Hospital officials declined to discuss his chances, and other authorities were at a loss to explain his survival.
