Wednesday, August 10, 2011
The White Male Conundrum
Image via CrunchBaseWhite Male Conspiracy To Drive Me Homeless
The Proverbial White Male
Most of the people I actively know today are in the NY tech ecosystem. The next thousand people I'd prefer to get on a first name basis with are mostly in the NY tech ecosystem. And there the Fred Wilson name stands out. And Fred is a white male. I don't think I have ever made Fred feel like, oh no Fred, you are a white male and you are worth millions and I feel queasy about it. Quite the opposite. I have had and I have expressed genuine, deep, heartfelt appreciation for his life's work. (A Surprising Blog Post From Fred Wilson) The guy is officially the top VC in the world. And I admire him for that. Excellence gets me. It makes me happy to watch excellence. On the other hand I note the guy walked into this town I believe in the 1980s with an empty pocket and a very loving wife. (Larry Ellison) I admire his success even more because of that. I find it very inspiring that he started where he started. (At MIT, So I Did It)
And I have had my disagreements with Fred, all very well documented at this blog. And I have talked of John Doerr's Larry Page mistake, and Fred Wilson's Jack Dorsey mistake. But then I am hugely biased in favor of the founding CEO type.
My point being my admiration for Fred has not been sycophancy, that is not my style. And my admiration for Fred has not been some kind of a subservience to the white male, something I have seen too many people of my background go for. Just ask Tim Berners-Lee, a guy who has a much more secure place in the history of tech than does Fred. (Tim Berners-Lee: The Internet Is Not A Country)
The Proverbial White Male
Most of the people I actively know today are in the NY tech ecosystem. The next thousand people I'd prefer to get on a first name basis with are mostly in the NY tech ecosystem. And there the Fred Wilson name stands out. And Fred is a white male. I don't think I have ever made Fred feel like, oh no Fred, you are a white male and you are worth millions and I feel queasy about it. Quite the opposite. I have had and I have expressed genuine, deep, heartfelt appreciation for his life's work. (A Surprising Blog Post From Fred Wilson) The guy is officially the top VC in the world. And I admire him for that. Excellence gets me. It makes me happy to watch excellence. On the other hand I note the guy walked into this town I believe in the 1980s with an empty pocket and a very loving wife. (Larry Ellison) I admire his success even more because of that. I find it very inspiring that he started where he started. (At MIT, So I Did It)
And I have had my disagreements with Fred, all very well documented at this blog. And I have talked of John Doerr's Larry Page mistake, and Fred Wilson's Jack Dorsey mistake. But then I am hugely biased in favor of the founding CEO type.
My point being my admiration for Fred has not been sycophancy, that is not my style. And my admiration for Fred has not been some kind of a subservience to the white male, something I have seen too many people of my background go for. Just ask Tim Berners-Lee, a guy who has a much more secure place in the history of tech than does Fred. (Tim Berners-Lee: The Internet Is Not A Country)
Tuesday, August 09, 2011
Unexplained Spike
This blog just did 900 per hour kind of traffic, that too around midnight, usually the slowest part of the 24 hour period. And I can't explain it. It is not like any one blog post got picked up somewhere. It seems to be some kind of sitewise boost. And it was not even an active day. It was a day when I had not blogged at all.
But I am taking it.
Monday, August 08, 2011
New Business Card On The Way
My business card over the years has had just one word on it, my first name: Paramendra. But I have come to realize it has not been serving its purpose. You necessarily have to explain to people.
That's my first name. If you google me up, everything about me shows up. My name at Gmail would be my email.
Okay, when you have to say that each time you give out your card, that is not a time saver, and you become bored of yourself. As in, people can google up your name? Really?
Noone else has my first name. My parents saw Google coming.
That is another line I add. But you can say even that only so many times. And it is not like people care.
And so this is my new business card. I just placed orders for 500 cards at Vistaprint.
Now people are not going to get weirded out by my business card. No more.
That's my first name. If you google me up, everything about me shows up. My name at Gmail would be my email.
Okay, when you have to say that each time you give out your card, that is not a time saver, and you become bored of yourself. As in, people can google up your name? Really?
Noone else has my first name. My parents saw Google coming.
That is another line I add. But you can say even that only so many times. And it is not like people care.
And so this is my new business card. I just placed orders for 500 cards at Vistaprint.
Now people are not going to get weirded out by my business card. No more.
Sunday, August 07, 2011
Kevin Shitstorm Of Instagram
Image via WikipediaKevin Shitstorm of Instagram takes great pride in saying their team is only four people and they have still managed to take over the world. I think that is one remarkable record to have. I mean, they have been acquiring a million new users a month.
But don't you think they should maybe grow the team a little and release an Android app like maybe six months ago?
Lightbox Android app could be an Instagram killer This Android app is aiming to replace your regular camera functionality and, from what I’ve seen, it has a very good chance of doing that as well as giving the little, green robot something to crow about when iPhone owners talk about Instagram...... a social photo-viewing app that can tie in to your various social networks to display photos. This includes Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare and the company is compressing those photos on its servers to make sure the pics pop up quickly..... many of the innovative mobile photography companies are focusing on the iPhone only
But don't you think they should maybe grow the team a little and release an Android app like maybe six months ago?
Lightbox Android app could be an Instagram killer This Android app is aiming to replace your regular camera functionality and, from what I’ve seen, it has a very good chance of doing that as well as giving the little, green robot something to crow about when iPhone owners talk about Instagram...... a social photo-viewing app that can tie in to your various social networks to display photos. This includes Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare and the company is compressing those photos on its servers to make sure the pics pop up quickly..... many of the innovative mobile photography companies are focusing on the iPhone only
Saturday, August 06, 2011
Truly Disruptive
Of all the blog posts I have done at this blog, this has got to be my favorite: My Web Diagram.
I keep thinking in terms of the red circle.
What after the infrastructure has been built? Then what? That has implications. When people in tech talk about disruptive, it is about shifts in the way the technology operates. Digital disrupts the music scene, for example. Disruptions can be to business processes.
But the web is not one technology, just like white is not one people, Indian is not one people. There are many peoples. Africa is not one country.
Friday, August 05, 2011
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