Powered by the mind
Jun0
The advances in the mind-controlled device field are stunning. Only a few years ago, it seems like there was just talk of potential for this technology. Now it seems to be proliferating rapidly targetting communities where traditional interfaces won’t work (e.g. Toyota’s wheelchair below).
At this rate, consumer adoption seems nearer than we might think. Just look at what Emotiv is starting to bring to the always early-adopting gaming community.
Life in Biosphere 2
Jun0
Listening to this story of the O2-CO2 balance destabilizing so quickly on the microscale is pretty interesting. Also interesting: the fact that they apparently figured out a good enough solution to live out the full two years. I’d be interested to learn more about the innovations that “necessity” produced.
Social Networking Site Dominance
Jun0
My old friend Tim Stallmann, who knows a crazy amount about innovations in cartography, referenced this map (click image to see big version). I find it fascinating. In some ways, the social networking sites remind me of nation states. The question that comes to my mind is whether or not convergence into a single “mega-network” is inevitable, likely, unlikely, or impossible. Every answer could be reasonably made. The real outcome seems like it could be a harbinger of the direction the world is heading in a century or two.
(Click image to see big version)
Entrepreneur’s Paranoia
May1
Recently, I had a fantastic day. Deals were closing at work. The sun was actually shining in London. My workout went well (and I actually managed to have a workout!). The Fates were on my side.
Amidst all of this, what did I find myself thinking about? Going out with friends? Heading to the park? Watching a movie? No. I found myself wondering with no small amount of trepidation about what I should be worrying about. That’s right, somewhere in the last year or so, I have developed paranoia. To be precise, it is a condition I call “entrepreneur’s paranoia.” It means I am constantly looking for problems, and if I don’t see any, I assume it just means I need to look harder.
On the one hand, it is an outstanding trait for an entrepreneur. Small businesses are plagued by the arrival of the unexpected because they lack the resources to weather a storm. Thus, the more a business is able to anticipate, the better it can perform. The Climate Bridge team has been excellent at anticipating events that our peers have not, and it has allowed us to outperform. Beyond anticipation, the process of scanning for what is next dulls the impulse of the present, smoothing out the highs and lows of daily business activity. The result, generally, is a greater ability to exhibit dispassionate judgment, another trait that entrepreneurs too often lack (because you’ve got to have a healthy dose of passion to go out on an uncertain limb to start a business to begin with!).
On the other hand, many times, its not such a great trait for a human being. It can temper the joy and freedom of life’s best moments, and it can create conservatism or even mistrust in places where boldness and trust are to be desired.
So far, I have not found any people that can effectively turn entrepreneur’s paranoia on and off in their daily lives. I have found some who lack or have shed it entirely (often to their detriment), but none who can turn it on and off. The question, then, what is the right and realistic place for “entrepreneur’s paranoia” in an entrepreneur’s life?
Binary begins in Africa
May0
This video is extremely cool. We often forget how much of modern mathematics was born in the Middle East and/or Africa. It was nice of this guy to go through induction rites to remind us!
Check out the NEW StartingBloc website
Mar1
Yep, that’s right, StartingBloc has changed its look for another season and can be found at www.startingbloc.org.
I am pretty sure they were trying to flatter me with the homepage image…and I must admit it worked!
Fresh air
Feb0
Eighteen months ago, I was working in San Francisco. I was making day trips up to Marin County and down to Palo Alto. I was getting out in the sun, enjoying the breeze, and I was loving every minute of it. You know that feeling you sometimes get on a stressful day, where you just feel like you need to breathe? I didn’t have those in San Francisco.
Then, I went for a sum total of one hike in 2008. It was a fantastic jaunt in the Tennessee mountains with great people and great conversations in a great setting. It provided inspiration, energy, and ideas that drove me for months thereafter.
Now, I am thinking of moving from the outdoors-challenged London to the outdoors-deprived Shanghai. It’s a city where the haze limits visibility to a mile or two on a good day. It’s a country so densely populated and so short of National Parks that my only real options for substantive outdoors activities will be the Himalayas or leaving the country. It’s a country where emissions are so high that some cities are literally bordering on uninhabitable.
Sure, it will make for some interesting stories, but how long do you want to be in a place where the sky only looks blue if you’re looking straight up because the stretch of smog gets thicker as your eyes travel to the horizon?
I know, I know, that’s exactly what I’m going to China to work on, and there’s honor in being in the thick of the battle. There’s something unique and challenging about being on the front lines of whatever issue you’re fighting for: the environment, an end to poverty, education for all. On the one hand, you are putting yourself in the perfect place to understand your impact and refine your efforts. On the other, it means that you are shooting yourself in the foot. You are putting yourself directly into the resource-constrained environment that bred the problem. On the whole I am excited to head eastward at least for a time, but I can’t claim that I don’t sometimes think that many social and environmental battles much more comfortably fought from a distance.
I gotta get some fresh air!