Say yes, and you’ll figure it out afterward.

Tina Fey

via swiss-miss and Huffpost.

via Gaping Void

You’re not going to know if this approach will work.

You do know you can swim.

Win.

via Andy Swan .

I don’t think there’s too much money sitting around. I think there’s too much money in too few hands. So when six white guys in suits control two and a half billion dollars, that’s not a good thing. Instead of being allocated just to one firm, it would be better if that two and a half billion dollars was allocated to 25 firms at $100 million each. It would lead to more diversity or people trying more things: data sciences, urban sciences, transportation, energy, materials science, and many others.

via Fred Wilson Q&A.

Every frame in this video is a photograph taken from the International Space Station. All credit goes to the crews on board the ISS. I removed noise and edited some shots in photoshop. Compiled and arranged in Sony Vegas.

Music by John Murphy – Sunshine (Adagio In D Minor)

Image Courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center, The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth

Talk about putting things in perspective.

The path from 0 to 1 might start with asking and answering three questions. First, what is valuable? Second, what can I do? And third, what is nobody else doing?

The questions themselves are straightforward. Question one illustrates the difference between business and academia; in academia, the number one sin is plagiarism, not triviality. So much of the innovation is esoteric and not at all useful. No one cares about a firm’s eccentric, non-valuable output. The second question ensures that you can actually execute on a problem; if not, talk is just that. Finally, and often overlooked, is the importance of being novel. Forget that and we’re just copying.

The intellectual rephrasing of these questions is: What important truth do very few people agree with you on?

The business version is: What valuable company is nobody building?

These are tough questions. But you can test your answers; if, as so many people do, one says something like “our educational system is broken and urgently requires repair,” you know that that answer is wrong (it may be a truth, but lots of people agree with it). This may explain why we see so many education non-profits and startups. But query whether most of those are operating in technology mode or globalization mode. You know you’re on the right track when your answer takes the following form:

“Most people believe in X. But the truth is !X.”

via Peter Thiel’s CS183: Startup – Class 1 Notes Essay

via GapingVoid

Roger McNamee’s 10 hypotheses:

1. “Next” Web Architecture = Hypernet + Hyperweb
2. Enterprises Adopting Consumer Technology 
3. Index Search is Peaking
4. Apple’s App Model Has Undermined Economics of HTML4 Web
5. HTML5 is Game Changer for Publishers
6. Tablets Are Hugely Disruptive
7. First Wave of “Social Web” Is Over
8. Smartphones in US: Apple + 7 Dwarfs
9. Wireless Infrastructure Is a Competitive Threat to US
10. Integration of TV & Internet Could Be Disruptive

via hypernet

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.

– Oscar Wilde