Yesterday I attended MIT’s Roundtable on the Digital Economy. It was a gathering convened by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, the authors of Race Against the Machine, to discuss “Work and Value in the Digital Economy.” The gathering brought together an interesting mix of academics, startups, investors (yours truly) and policy experts. I don’t have time this morning for more detailed thoughts, but I came away with a clearer grasp of some of the central questions: 1. Is work actually dimini...

Yesterday I attended MIT’s Roundtable on the Digital Economy. It was a gathering convened by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, the authors of Race Against the Machine, to discuss “Work and Value in the Digital Economy.” The gathering brought together an interesting mix of academics, startups, investors (yours truly) and policy experts. I don’t have time this morning for more detailed thoughts, but I came away with a clearer grasp of some of the central questions: 1. Is work actually dimini...

One of our goals for 2012 was to get scuba certified as a family. We took a first run at it in a rushed fashion early in the year but abandoned that effort after a less than pleasant pool dive in Manhattan. In the fall we decided to start the process over and go with a proper PADI certification program. We found a dive center in Playa Hermosa in Costa Rica called Diving Safaris and structured our vacation around that. Instead of wasting time on location with theory, we took the theory classes...

One of our goals for 2012 was to get scuba certified as a family. We took a first run at it in a rushed fashion early in the year but abandoned that effort after a less than pleasant pool dive in Manhattan. In the fall we decided to start the process over and go with a proper PADI certification program. We found a dive center in Playa Hermosa in Costa Rica called Diving Safaris and structured our vacation around that. Instead of wasting time on location with theory, we took the theory classes...

I’ll be the first to admit that I am a sucker for the command line. Hence I was smiling yesterday, when I saw the Duck Duck Go Terminal hack. But I realize that it is not mass market behavior. So I am happy whenever a bit of command line like goodness finds its way into broader usage. The rise of @mentions and #hashtags on Twitter is one such example. By adding a tiny bit of syntax to an expression we wind up with a lot more value without requiring a lot of extra work on behalf of the user. I...

I’ll be the first to admit that I am a sucker for the command line. Hence I was smiling yesterday, when I saw the Duck Duck Go Terminal hack. But I realize that it is not mass market behavior. So I am happy whenever a bit of command line like goodness finds its way into broader usage. The rise of @mentions and #hashtags on Twitter is one such example. By adding a tiny bit of syntax to an expression we wind up with a lot more value without requiring a lot of extra work on behalf of the user. I...

First: Happy New Year! Second: Tech Tuesdays will resume next week. And now on to the topic of this post. Washington is starting us off into 2013 with a whimper. In a slightly past the artificial fiscal cliff deadline compromise we find ourselves with a nano bargain that amounts to the proverbial rearranging of the deck chairs on the Titanic. There are lots of analyses published today about what’s in the bargain (increased taxes) and what isn’t (debt ceiling). Also lot’s of talk about what th...

First: Happy New Year! Second: Tech Tuesdays will resume next week. And now on to the topic of this post. Washington is starting us off into 2013 with a whimper. In a slightly past the artificial fiscal cliff deadline compromise we find ourselves with a nano bargain that amounts to the proverbial rearranging of the deck chairs on the Titanic. There are lots of analyses published today about what’s in the bargain (increased taxes) and what isn’t (debt ceiling). Also lot’s of talk about what th...

Today will be the last Tech Tuesday for 2012 as I will be taking another one of my information slim down breaks starting next week. In the review of programming topics covered so far, I pointed out that we have not yet looked at any of the questions that arise once we have given instructions to the computer. The biggest one here is does it all work? Or are there errors? How would we know and what do we do about it? Program errors are known as bugs and finding and getting rid of them as debugg...

Today will be the last Tech Tuesday for 2012 as I will be taking another one of my information slim down breaks starting next week. In the review of programming topics covered so far, I pointed out that we have not yet looked at any of the questions that arise once we have given instructions to the computer. The biggest one here is does it all work? Or are there errors? How would we know and what do we do about it? Program errors are known as bugs and finding and getting rid of them as debugg...

2012 was a great year for me personally but also one that points to big challenges ahead for all of us. On the personal side we moved back to Manhattan after nearly 10 years in the suburbs and couldn’t be happier. Chelsea has turned out to be terrific not just because of proximity to the USV office and the kids’ school but also because it has a wonderful neighborhood feel. For the first sixth months of the year we home schooled our kids which was a wonderful experience that also served to con...

2012 was a great year for me personally but also one that points to big challenges ahead for all of us. On the personal side we moved back to Manhattan after nearly 10 years in the suburbs and couldn’t be happier. Chelsea has turned out to be terrific not just because of proximity to the USV office and the kids’ school but also because it has a wonderful neighborhood feel. For the first sixth months of the year we home schooled our kids which was a wonderful experience that also served to con...

It is fascinating how the Internet is creating new entities and phenomena that defy existing categories. The challenge that arises is that many politicians and regulators still think in these old categories. Here are just a bunch of recent examples. Uber, Hailo, Lyft, Sidecar etc all enable transportation but are not cab companies. AirBnB, VRBO, HomeAway all enable lodging but are not hotels. Skillshare, Udacity, Udemy, Coursera, Khan Academy enable learning but are not schools. Blogs enable ...

It is fascinating how the Internet is creating new entities and phenomena that defy existing categories. The challenge that arises is that many politicians and regulators still think in these old categories. Here are just a bunch of recent examples. Uber, Hailo, Lyft, Sidecar etc all enable transportation but are not cab companies. AirBnB, VRBO, HomeAway all enable lodging but are not hotels. Skillshare, Udacity, Udemy, Coursera, Khan Academy enable learning but are not schools. Blogs enable ...

I had a topic in mind for today’s post but in light of the elementary school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, that can wait until another day. As a father of three, the thought of children being killed by a gunman is horrifying beyond any comprehension. I have written before that I support stricter gun control. The research on gun violence across states and countries supports the view that limiting access to guns helps reduce gun violence. Common sense tells us the same. We have to make acce...

I had a topic in mind for today’s post but in light of the elementary school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, that can wait until another day. As a father of three, the thought of children being killed by a gunman is horrifying beyond any comprehension. I have written before that I support stricter gun control. The research on gun violence across states and countries supports the view that limiting access to guns helps reduce gun violence. Common sense tells us the same. We have to make acce...

As a board member I am often actively engaged in helping to recruit new hires to a company. A lot of people have written about the importance of cultural fit. I want to add the idea of “mission desire” to the characteristics companies should look for. That’s not just true for companies that would self identify as mission driven (as in having a social component to their business) but all companies. By mission desire I mean a candidate’s desire to work in this particular domain and on the speci...

As a board member I am often actively engaged in helping to recruit new hires to a company. A lot of people have written about the importance of cultural fit. I want to add the idea of “mission desire” to the characteristics companies should look for. That’s not just true for companies that would self identify as mission driven (as in having a social component to their business) but all companies. By mission desire I mean a candidate’s desire to work in this particular domain and on the speci...

In 2008, I wrote a mini series about Kaizen and Software Development. Kaizen or continuous improvement asserts the centrality of quality as the only way to achieve the trifecta of quality, speed and cost. Simply put incremental improvements around quality will result in lower cost and higher speed. Much of agile development has really been the re-invention of techniques long known in manufacturing. In my series I cover lot size one, no inventory, visualization, root cause analysis and customi...

In 2008, I wrote a mini series about Kaizen and Software Development. Kaizen or continuous improvement asserts the centrality of quality as the only way to achieve the trifecta of quality, speed and cost. Simply put incremental improvements around quality will result in lower cost and higher speed. Much of agile development has really been the re-invention of techniques long known in manufacturing. In my series I cover lot size one, no inventory, visualization, root cause analysis and customi...