From Leonardo’s notebooks. And yes, it’s mirror writing. To-do lists are part of our well-organized lives, right? Or do we just think they should be? The internet throws us so very many apps that will corral and perfect our languishing to-do lists. Some people love them, but many creative minds find them stultifying and […]
Part three: yet more from Northside Innovation Festival Can empathy be automated? Hello Alfred is a butler service that we were told is thoroughly systematized, from the face-to-face IRL home visit when a client signs up – to the handwritten notes left by the Alfreds who have cleaned your house, put your groceries away, […]
Here’s part 2: more of what I learned at Northside Innovation Festival Uh oh. Your pitch is too good Investors told us that incubators and the like have gotten so good at helping startups polish their pitches that they are all becoming indistinguishably great. They all hit the same metrics, the same themes. They’re becoming […]
Following are some notes I made at a recent panel of product designers in NYC. Single Use vs Swiss Army Knife. There’s a significant difference in the way the Americans and the Chinese use mobile apps. In the West, designers prefer apps that do one thing and do it well. Single use apps. Foursquare separated […]
On BuzzFeed’s crazy-fast growth When he started out, BuzzFeed founder Jonah Perretti was experimenting with contagious media in his Chinatown lab – because he was interested in what would work and not because he was following a business plan. At BuzzFeed we live in a test and learn environment every day. We are in 7 […]
A monster called “digital workflow” raised its hairy head as the film editing business moved to the desktop in the late 80s and early 90s. A whole slew of companies tried getting it sorted. This was the beginning of the learning curve. Save Project was an important and not yet automated function. The first digital […]
You may remember the fear in the eyes of the players of pianists, bassoonists and horn players when they first figured out that their beautiful acoustic notes were being sampled, recombined into new works and reused a zillion times. Is that fear now creeping into the mascaraed eyes of fashion models? Neha Singh, Head of Product […]
“If you are contemplating a $50m investment round think long and hard. If you chase money, money will chase you.” So said John Battelle (of Wired, Industry Standard, NewCo et al) in conversation with Dave Morgan. Battelle’s most important career rule: “Quit when you know you should quit.” [I know that I didn’t and I […]
I am no longer accepting coaching clients. Now under the name Peter Pollock, I narrate and record audiobooks – spies, FBI agents, LBGTQ teens, science futures, London gangs, Cockney rhyming slang – and stay tuned for vampires, werewolves and other beasties! Check out books narrated by Peter Pollock on Audible and visit peterpollockvoice.com
