Hiring

For years employees would hire veterans because after x amount of years of experience an employer knew they were getting a knowledgeable person based on track record, but that is kind of a lazy way to hire. It’s just like football, you hire skill and lose potential, you pay to mitigate risk. Employers would then hire young people at a low salary if they were bright, once again to mitigate risk. “You seem smart but you don’t have a track record so we will have to pay you less.” Much like football you are not setting your team up to win a super bowl in the coming years. (This also sounds similar to VC world)

What FaceBook, Google, etc. well in addition to hiring smart veterans was they flipped the script a bit. They started hiring young people with alot of potential and paying them alot of money. A few years later they are winning super bowls. And the old employer style is having a hard time finding talent. Now everyone wants a young genius and they are in short supply.

Time and time again this risk mitigation strategy is a red flag and one should be sure they are mitigating for the right reasons. Also, when you save time by mitigating it is a red flag because in a way you are being lazy, and when you are lazy you give opportunity to those that aren’t lazy to move ahead. (not lazy cause you don’t work hard but lazy because you are using a system to think for you and when you do that you get further and further from being different and different equals success because not everyone can be successful).

Some good TED talks

TED TED Talks
TED Talks


Sixth Sense Technology

http://blog.ted.com/2009/03/sixth_sense_demo.php

Great technology of the future. Why take a mobile device out of your pocket when your environment is constantly able to take input and interface with all the world knowledge.


Stumbling on Happiness

(The 21 min summary version)

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html

Read and loved his book, “Stumbling on Happiness” which gives perspective on the science behind what lead to sadness, happiness, imagination and how poor/amazing those things work.


Sir Ken Robinson on Education

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

What IS smart? DO we reward all sorts of talent or have we progressively become a society that our bodies are simply a transport device for our big brains. Sir Ken gives a humorous take on our recognition of education.

And his follow up years later if you like him:  http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution.html


Physics meets life

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/garrett_lisi_on_his_theory_of_everything.html

This van bound Hawaiian finds the balance in quantum physics and  life.

AppMakr Hits the Ground Running

AppMakr.com has gotten some good press today 🙂

TechCrunch/CrunchGear
http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/01/06/appmakr-make-your-own-iphone-apps-for-just-two-bills/
“What AppMakr lacks in vowels they make up for in coolness. ”

MobileCrunch
http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/01/03/appmakr-transforms-app-store-landscape-enables-anyone-to-make-their-own-iphone-app/
“Surprisingly, AppMakr was extremely well done and easy to use.”

Livingston
http://www.livingstonbuzz.com/2010/01/04/appmakr-makes-iphone-apps-accessible/
“AppMakr service is a no-brainer for most small companies and nonprofits.”

Scobleizer
http://scobleizer.com/2010/01/04/part-i-hot-startups-to-watch-in-2010-2/
“Top 25 Startups of 2010”

Guy Kawasaki
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2010/01/how-to-make-an-iphone-app.html#axzz0benPLHYD
“I can now offer custom iPhone apps for each of the 800 Alltop topics. How cool is that?”

Re-Hashing your reading experience. (Tablet Concepts/MacBook Touch)

Now that tablet PCs are not just “coulds” but are “soons,” designers must start to really reinvent the way the rest of us will digest content. Non laptop touch interactive computers are coming soon, probably the first jaw dropper in late January. So what will this new world be like?

Berg, a design company in London, tasked themselves with creating a video that describes this new reading environment.  How you will read content, scroll through content, orientation, spacing, interaction, etc. must all be well thought out to keep the reader immersed in the content while allowing the great new tools a tablet can offer to become exposed and, well, at your fingertips — ready to go.

Below is a video of Sports Illustreted demo’ing their newest SI release on the Apple MacBook Touch

And then another tablet video for the Courier from MicroSoft

iPhone Secret Feature

iPhone Undo
iPhone Undo

Lately I have noticed that I get prompted to “undo typing” or cancel my text. I would hurriedly press cancel and after getting the message a few times I started to think something was becoming buggy with my phone or my fat fingers were accidentally pressing some wrong button. The I realized — wait there is no “undo” button/feature on the phone where the hell is it coming from? After some quick research, I found out there is an unpublished “undo” feature on the iPhone after SDK 3.0.

Ready for it…..and….

Activate Undo Text Feature:
After typing on the iPhone, shake the phone to undo what you have typed.