Gnomedex 2007 first day

I just returned from my first day at Gnomedex. This is the first time I’ve attended this event and it was a lot of fun. My favorite speaker of the day at Guy Kawasaki (picture below) who spoke about evangelism. He was so good that he should have been the keynote speaker. He was by far the most polished speaker yet also had the most interesting content. I loved his story of how he turned down the chance to interview for the Yahoo CEO position because it would have meant a 2 hours commute. He put his family first which was cool even though it may have cost him an estimated $2 billion had he landed the job.

guyThe theme I will remember most about his talk is that when growing your business it’s best to talk to your most loyal customers and ask them what you can do better instead of spending time asking those who don’t buy your product or service.  “It’s very hard to convert an atheist”

The most confusing talk of the day was given by Jason Calacanis. It’s not so much that his talk wasn’t interesting because it was. It’s that I was looking forward to his talk more than any others, and he showed up with what amounted to a 45 minute infomercial for his new company called Mahalo. I reviewed Mahalo a few weeks ago and believe he could be on to something. But it’s old news and I wish Jason would have talked about another topic because he’s such an interesting character and is so smart. Maybe my expectations were too high? 

When Jason asked the audience a question about spam Dave Winer yelled out, “What do you think about conference spam?”. No doubt many others in attendance were thinking the same thing. Jason seemed a bit dejected after this happened and didn’t have as much energy. Jason brought up many valid points about spam and the need for better search results. But I was disappointed that each point he made felt like a tailor-made opportunity to mention Mahalo. I think Winer was right to call him out.

chrisI came to Gnomedex expecting to to experience a much different conference than what I’m accustomed to. Most conferences I’ve attended have been as a Microsoft employee or vendor and most had thousands of attendees. They are big and impersonal. But I found out today that Gnomedex has many of the same problems you’ll find at larger conferences such as technical issues, starting on time and keeping people on topic. And there’s got to be a better way of drawing for prizes.

But overall, Chris and Ponzi did a great job of selecting speakers who are thought-provoking and interesting. And sometimes controversial.

Random things I noticed:

  • Lots of action at the back of the room
  • Men outnumbered women 40 to 1
  • Lots of Apple laptops and iPhones
  • The attendees are older than I expected
  • Google was hardly mentioned. Microsoft even less.
  • Chris facilitates rather than leads the discussion

Overall, the first day was well worth the price of admission. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.

–Link to Gnomedex pictures on Flickr

Guy Kawasaki picture taken by KK
Chris Pirillo picture taken by Mr Noded

Refusing to Cooperate

It’s impossible to take a good picture of my two youngest kids. They pull faces, stick their tongues and won’t stand still. I think I give up.

DSC_0705

Lincoln and Anna Lynn. Both showing off goofy faces and new haircuts.

Apple does it again with new keyboards

I wish the new Apple keyboards would work on a PC. I thought there was a chance they would but the requirements are as follows:

  • Mac computer with available USB 1.1 or USB 2.0 port
  • Mac OS X v10.4.10 or later
  • Keyboard software update

These make my Microsoft keyboard look like junk, but I wonder how comfortable they are in use.

Just gorgeous design though yet again from Apple. applekeyboard

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Ignite Seattle

Here’s my mini review of Ignite Seattle that I attended tonight. I was so tired I only stayed for the first half of talks. I’ll have to catch the 2nd half when the videos are posted online.

Scotto Moore – “Make art not content” Scott was fantastic. His slides didn’t overwhelm and his preparation impeccable. But it was his delivery that really set him apart from the others. He moved through his slides at a very fast pace but every one was interesting. There was no filler. Probably the best of the night that I saw.

Deepak Singh – “Small medicine: Nanotechnology and biology” Maybe it’s because I was sitting near the back of the room, but I had a tough time understanding Scott. Others seemed to enjoy his talk a lot. He started right into his topic and I knew nothing about nanotechnology so I was lost right from the start. I’d like to see this one again.

Maegan Ashworth – “No, not skin: Epidemiology for the layman” I really enjoyed Maegan’s talk. The slides got a way from her a bit but her content was fascinating. I’d like to see her do this again and I hope that she’s chosen to present at Gnomedex. I won’t soon forget her slide showing the glass of alcohol and the damaged lung. The crowd loved her. Very fascinating talk.

Rob Gruhl – “How to buy a new car” I think this might go down as the most popular talk of the night. Rob was so prepared and so concise that his delivery was perfectly suited to the medium. He was funny yet provided very valuable information such as selling your car instead of trading at the dealer, secure your own financing and walking out of the deal the minute they jerk you around. This is the talk I will remember a month from now.

HB Siegel – “Werewolf Strategy” Have you been in the middle of a conversation when someone starts talking about World of Warcraft or other complex game you’ve never played and you have no idea what they are talking about? That’s how I felt listening to this talk. Siegel was well-prepared and had interesting slides. But I could not figure out the rules to this crazy game for the life of me. It sounded me to me that the goal of the game was to get 13 to 17 people around the table and yell at each other.

Dave McClure – “Startup metrics for Pirates: AARRR!” Although his slides were a mess at times Dave is one of the best public speakers I’ve seen. His delivery was fantastic. Much of his content was over my head but his explanations helped me understand what entrepreneurs should focus on. Does Dave do this for a living? He seemed like a pro.  

Shawn Murphy – “Hacking Chocolate” I had no idea what to expect from Shawn. The content seemed out of place when I heard the topic but turned out to be great for this event. He started out slow but really hit his stride after a minute into his talk. You could tell that Shawn really loves chocolate! I loved his list of spices and other foods that go well with chocolate such as cinnamon and exotic fruits. His slides were great and he had a good grasp of his content. Excellent.

–Randy Stewart also covered the evening and has a good number of links

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The 25 best opening lyrics

Spinner has an interesting list with samples of the best 25 opening lyrics. I thought most were quite good, although I thought their choice for #1 had more to do with singer’s personal life than the song. Still, a pretty good list.

Here are a few of my favorites that didn’t make Spinner’s list:

“Well I think it’s fine building jumbo planes”

Cat Steven – Where do the Children Play – Click to listen

“Jane says I’m done with Sergio”

Jane’s Addiction – Jane Says – Click for You Tube clip

“Mother, mother, there’s too many of you crying”

Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On – Click for You Tube clip

“Summertime and the livin’s easy”

Sublime – Doin’ Time – Click to listen

“I read the news today, oh boy”

The Beatles – A Day in the Life – Click to listen

“Crossroads, seem to come and go, yeah”

Allman Brother Band – Melissa – Click for You Tube clip

“So, so you think you can tell heaven from hell”

Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here – Click to listen

Two thousand zero zero

I’m interested in how companies woo potential employees. It’s refreshing to come across such an honest pitch. This one is from the Careers page at Blip.tv:

We’re not partying like it’s 1999. We’re not raising a hundred million bucks and promising to build a billion dollar company. We’re building real value for real people and working to turn a real profit.

The Bike Shed and the Atomic Power Plant

I enjoyed reading the writings from C. Northcote Parkinson that were linked to from 37 Signals.

Specifically, he describes the difference between building a bike shed vs. an atomic power plant. He explains that getting approval to build the atomic power plant is easier to do because it’s so vast and so complicated that people can’t understand it. Instead of trying to understand they assume that someone else checked all the facts before it got to them, and they go ahead and approve the project.  

Contrast that with the bike shed which is so simple to build that anyone can do it. And since anyone can build it, everyone feels it’s their job to provide input on how it should be built which creates an environment where the simple turns into the complex and the shed never gets built.

From my experience, this analogy is right on the money. I’ve worked at companies where the most complex software projects were approved with very little oversight from management or the board of directors. Because the projects were so complex and only the management team understood the vision for the product, the normal checks and balances were never put in place. Yet some smaller software projects that would have helped us grow our existing business were bogged down in bureaucracy.

So maybe the moral of the story is to make your project proposal sound so complex and so intimidating that everyone will assume it’s already been checked out.