My Own Pirate Radio

Regarding attention, A-lists, and oxygen for content: the Economist published “Sing a song of Spitzer” back on Jul 28th 2005. It’s a brief piece on bribery in the radio industry: Read the rest of this entry »

Last weekend Katrin and I visited with friends Saul, Kristen, Aaron and Kim in Richmond, Virginia. We’re all friends from Seattle, originally, so between the six of us we had a great west-coast-goes-east-coast reunion.

In between amazing meals (Kuba Kuba, Mama Zu’s, Cafe Gutenberg shown here, and Kristen and Saul’s home cookin’) we explored the city, and on Saturday in Carytown Saul and I stumbled across One-Eyed Jacques, a cool little gaming store. They bill themselves as “The Finest Game Store in Richmond, Virginia”, and from the vast selection of board games, miniatures and puzzles, it’s easy to see why.

I asked the manager what it’s like running her small mom-’n-pop shop, and she kindly spent a few minutes sharing with us. To wit:

* Competition has heated up radically Read the rest of this entry »

Blogging for me is a hobby. I’ve only been doing it a short while, and it’s not my day job or something I try to promote. I’m pretty sure most of my readers are friends and family who humor me by visiting on occasion. So this morning, on seeing my blog traffic running at 10x its normal level, my initial reaction was fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Read the rest of this entry »

From their FAQ:

How can Spurl.net cover its costs?

Spurl.net’s core business is in mining information about the World Wide Web from our databases. Note that it is information about Web pages in the database, NOT about the Spurl.net users, whose privacy we respect greatly (see our Privacy policy).

Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks for all the great comments on NewCo Compensation Principles, both public and private. Great food for thought.

Rob, I agree with your assertion: corporate feudalism is the norm today. Most companies have the equivalent of royalty, nobility, knights and serfs, both in terms of power structure and compensation allocation. Serfs are told they can climb the ladder to become royalty, but in reality that’s out of reach for most. If conditions are oppressive for long enough the serfs will revolt. And while a “revolt” these days won’t result in beheadings, it at least means poisonous morale, lower productivity, and unwanted employee attrition. (OK, we’re mainly talking about tech companies here, and tech compensation packages these days are hardly oppressive, even for serfs. But you get the point… it’s about perceived fairness.) Read the rest of this entry »

How many people, out of everyone who has ever lived on Earth, find work in their lifetime that they truly love doing? Almost none, I suspect. This topic is often on my mind; at least once a year I pop up from the rabbit hole and ask, “Do I love this job? How long should I keep doing it? What needs to change? What else could I be doing instead?” If you’re obssessed with the same meme, check out Paul Graham’s essay, How to Do What You Love.

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Over dinner with friends this weekend we debated the Danish cartoons and the corresponding backlash. I’m particularly interested in the issue, having parents of mixed religion — a Nigerian Muslim father and a Danish Christian mother — and a childhood spent in Nigeria and Canada. At the core of it I think most non-Muslims, especially the ardent free-speech advocates, either don’t understand or refuse to acknowledge the real motivations behind the reaction. Abbas Raza has an inkling: he posted an essay today on 3 Quarks Daily that provides insight and great food for thought. In my humble opinion, he is right on target. Read the rest of this entry »