Bad marketing? I saw a sign in the tourist area yesterday touting "ice cold water served here". Isn't ice-cold water just . . . ice?  ¶ 10/20/2005 04:42:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

Am I a socialist? An identity crisis, of sorts, has seized upon me. On the one hand, I'm a libertarian, small-government, free-market kind of guy. People vote with their feet, and I assume that what the market will pay for, is what the market needs, and what efficiently distributes resources. On the other hand, out of all possible places, I live in New York City: the most overtaxing, liberal, socialistic city in the USA. I pay a city, state, and federal income tax, 8% sales tax, and huge transportation fees. I could live anywhere, but I live here. In socialism. Have I voted with my feet?  ¶ 10/06/2005 07:21:00 PM 1 comments links to this post

Brave new world of Media An interesting site, and sure to soon be sued out of existence: http://www.rentmydvr.com I'm convinced that with all the advertisement avoidance technology out there; the DVR's, the adblockers, the podcasting; marketers will soon be blending their product pitches into the fabric of the content more and more. The Pepsi cans will be in the video games, we'll have more viral videos, better, and more clever branding websites. Rather than encapsulating the content, the ads will *be* the content. At the same time, people will become more and more accustomed to paying for content they like out of their own pockets. I'd much rather buy a TV show for $.20 than sit through eight minutes of commercials in half an hour.  ¶ 10/04/2005 03:59:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

Strategery Imagine the same conversation, held by two pairs of people. One pair is a gossiping set of office workers, talking about what Tom Cruise's next movie ought to be. The exact same conversation, word for word, happens simultaneously in Hollywood, between Michael Ovitz and Steven Spielberg. One of these conversations will have far-reaching ramifications, the other is a waste of time. In the same way, intellectuals like to crowd around coffeeshops and parse through the various issues of the day. A tiny fraction of those conversations will be important, though many of them will produce superior ideas. The penultimate question, then, is not whether an idea is good, but whether the idea is in good hands.  ¶ 10/03/2005 05:52:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

'Burbs I've developed a new theory, under which I can possibly imagine myself one day moving to the suburbs. The theory is as follows: among the various resources we as human beings have at our disposal -- money, knowledge, time, favors from friends, family, etc -- we have a sort of renewable resource: Energy. From the age of say, 20, to the age of 100, we can expect this daily resource to dwindle. I'm definitely not going to start the next Google at the age of 90, I simply won't have the energy to invest. Now living in a major city like New York takes energy. Bumping into people on the sidewalk all day, the sirens in the middle of the night, the constant stimulation. In my arrogant youth, I can wastefully toss off chunks of energy to pushing through grocery stores and climbing five flights of stairs to my apartment three times a day. The benefits of living in the big city more than outweigh the cost. But the age-based energy dwindling will bring about a conservation backlash. I'll jealously guard my calories. I'll look at how much energy I have to spend in a day, and how much I'll need for my job and my family and my legions of fans (naturally), and I'll realize that I simply have no room left in the caloric budget for crowded grocery stores. I'll need to find a low-energy alternative. And suddenly, the suburbs will appeal to me.  ¶ 10/01/2005 12:40:00 AM 0 comments links to this post