I have been thinking a bit about the pros and cons of grinding it out versus transforming a company. By grinding it out I mean pursuing a path on which you are making progress but very slowly. So I am not talking about situations in which a company has not figured out at all what they are doing or is completely failing, but rather a situation in which every bit of growth takes a huge amount of effort. By transforming I mean making a big shift in strategy with the goal of finding a business th...

I have been thinking a bit about the pros and cons of grinding it out versus transforming a company. By grinding it out I mean pursuing a path on which you are making progress but very slowly. So I am not talking about situations in which a company has not figured out at all what they are doing or is completely failing, but rather a situation in which every bit of growth takes a huge amount of effort. By transforming I mean making a big shift in strategy with the goal of finding a business th...

A while ago I started buying some shares in GOOG, AMZN and EBAY as they declined heavily. Those trades have worked out well (so far) and I feel good about owning companies that I believe still have a lot to gain from the secular move online (in the case of EBAY not so much from the core business as from Skype and PayPal). I have not been buying AAPL, despite the fact that I am about to switch from my trusted old Panasonic – which Chris (Fralic) yesterday incredulously recognized as being the ...

A while ago I started buying some shares in GOOG, AMZN and EBAY as they declined heavily. Those trades have worked out well (so far) and I feel good about owning companies that I believe still have a lot to gain from the secular move online (in the case of EBAY not so much from the core business as from Skype and PayPal). I have not been buying AAPL, despite the fact that I am about to switch from my trusted old Panasonic – which Chris (Fralic) yesterday incredulously recognized as being the ...

One of my favorite cartoons describing the financial crisis shows two guys standing below a “Wall Street” street sign looking out into the distance. There a wave starts to build up that over several panels of the cartoon gets bigger and bigger. The wave comes directly at the two guys as they are looking on. In the penultimate panel the wave washes over them and completely drenches them. In the last panel one guy turns to the other and says: “I totally did not see that coming.” To me it perfec...

One of my favorite cartoons describing the financial crisis shows two guys standing below a “Wall Street” street sign looking out into the distance. There a wave starts to build up that over several panels of the cartoon gets bigger and bigger. The wave comes directly at the two guys as they are looking on. In the penultimate panel the wave washes over them and completely drenches them. In the last panel one guy turns to the other and says: “I totally did not see that coming.” To me it perfec...

One of the founding principles of the United States is a clear separation between church and state. This kind of secularism was a huge break-through in government at a time when most European countries had fairly significant roles for the church in government. Much of the early motivation for the principle of secularism in the US can be traced back to the desire to escape the intolerance and prosecution that so frequently resulted in Europe from the influence of the church on rulers. I am the...

One of the founding principles of the United States is a clear separation between church and state. This kind of secularism was a huge break-through in government at a time when most European countries had fairly significant roles for the church in government. Much of the early motivation for the principle of secularism in the US can be traced back to the desire to escape the intolerance and prosecution that so frequently resulted in Europe from the influence of the church on rulers. I am the...

I have two wishes for 2009 and both relate to the global financial and economic crisis. First, that the individual pain and hardship from the economic won’t be as bad and widespread as I am afraid they will be. Second, that there will ultimately be a collective gain by bringing about changes that we have not otherwise been able to accomplish.

I have two wishes for 2009 and both relate to the global financial and economic crisis. First, that the individual pain and hardship from the economic won’t be as bad and widespread as I am afraid they will be. Second, that there will ultimately be a collective gain by bringing about changes that we have not otherwise been able to accomplish.

I recently wrote that the reason we can now get some real AI results is that we have a large body of data available. One area in which this applies is visual search. There are already some fantastic examples of what can be done with a large number of images in the work that has been done on pulling images from Flickr to assemble detailed views. There are also a couple of visual search engines already out there, such as Riya. The great thing for teaching a lot of these algorithms is that there...

I recently wrote that the reason we can now get some real AI results is that we have a large body of data available. One area in which this applies is visual search. There are already some fantastic examples of what can be done with a large number of images in the work that has been done on pulling images from Flickr to assemble detailed views. There are also a couple of visual search engines already out there, such as Riya. The great thing for teaching a lot of these algorithms is that there...

NYC EDC has been meeting with entrepreneurs, VCs and others from the startup community in New York City to figure out whether it is possible to create more startup jobs. I recently participated in a discussion on this topic and there was an interesting discussion about the availability of seed capital in New York. Several folks made the argument that there is already enough seed capital available and that if more were available it would just mean that businesses get funded that “shouldn’t.” I...

NYC EDC has been meeting with entrepreneurs, VCs and others from the startup community in New York City to figure out whether it is possible to create more startup jobs. I recently participated in a discussion on this topic and there was an interesting discussion about the availability of seed capital in New York. Several folks made the argument that there is already enough seed capital available and that if more were available it would just mean that businesses get funded that “shouldn’t.” I...

We have been having an interesting discussion in our village on the feasability of Internet voting for local issues. In general, I am wary of electronic voting systems because they have the potential for manipulation at large scale. I certainly think that the closed source model that has been pursued to date is completely broken. Any effort on the federal and state levels should be open source for sure and will probably be futile until we have a broader crypto infrastructure (if ever). In the...

We have been having an interesting discussion in our village on the feasability of Internet voting for local issues. In general, I am wary of electronic voting systems because they have the potential for manipulation at large scale. I certainly think that the closed source model that has been pursued to date is completely broken. Any effort on the federal and state levels should be open source for sure and will probably be futile until we have a broader crypto infrastructure (if ever). In the...

A few weeks ago, my daughter came home quite distraught from school. “Daddy, the polar bears and penguins are dying and it is our fault” she declared at the dinner table. Having spent many hours admiring the polar bears and penguins at the Central Park Zoo, this was something that all three of our kids immediately agreed was to be stopped. So they wanted to know what could be done about it. We had one of the better dinner discussions in a long time and produced a list of things we would do pe...

A few weeks ago, my daughter came home quite distraught from school. “Daddy, the polar bears and penguins are dying and it is our fault” she declared at the dinner table. Having spent many hours admiring the polar bears and penguins at the Central Park Zoo, this was something that all three of our kids immediately agreed was to be stopped. So they wanted to know what could be done about it. We had one of the better dinner discussions in a long time and produced a list of things we would do pe...

This is a continuation of yesterday’s post. Those of us who have been around computers for a long time have lived through many letdowns when it comes to AI. The promise was frequently grand (cf various Herbert Simon quotes) but the actual results were disappointing to say the least. But a funny thing has happened over the last decade on the web. The grand promises have (mostly) disappeared and yet the results are beginning to show up! We might not be noticing them because they are not even la...

This is a continuation of yesterday’s post. Those of us who have been around computers for a long time have lived through many letdowns when it comes to AI. The promise was frequently grand (cf various Herbert Simon quotes) but the actual results were disappointing to say the least. But a funny thing has happened over the last decade on the web. The grand promises have (mostly) disappeared and yet the results are beginning to show up! We might not be noticing them because they are not even la...