Don’t Celebrate Until The Ink Is Dry And The Cash Is In The Bank
Recently I wrote a blog post about how I hated losing, but I embrace it as a way to learn, improve and increase my win rates. You’re Most Vulnerable Right After You’ve Won the Deal One of the things I learned from my “post-game analysis” is that you’re most vulnerable right after you’ve won the deal. I know it sounds counter-intuitive but my experience tells me it’s true. At the moment you pop the champagne cork and let down your guard is when you’re easiest to attack. In my blog post about how I hate losing I told the story about how when I was running my first company in the UK I competed and won a major contract with the largest water company, Thames Water, that would have been worth millions of dollars. An external consultant helping the Thames Water procurement team overturned the decision to use my company and got them to select a small software company. And the reverse lesson is also true. For simplicity, let’s call this person inside your new potential customer, “the enemy.”
The Tragic Death of Practically Everything
Wired Editor in Chief Chris Anderson is catching flak for the magazine’s current cover story, which declares that the Web is dead. I’m not sure what the controversy is. For years, once-vibrant technologies, products, and companies have been dropping like teenagers in a Freddy Krueger movie. Thank heavens that tech journalists have done such a good job of documenting the carnage as it happened. After the jump, a moving recap of some of the stuff that predeceased the Web–you may want to bring a handkerchief. Internet Explorer, as you’ll recall, died in 2004. In 2005, the Macintosh suffered a trauma which inevitably led to its death earlier this year. Linux absolutely, positively died in 2006. The venerable technology known as TV died in 2006. too. By 2007, Microsoft Office had bit the big one. Microsoft itself also passed away in 2007. E-mail had a good long life, but it too went to its reward in 2007. I hope this doesn’t come as a shock, but Facebook died in 2008. The netbook croaked in April.
A VC
Eye Candy: Shipping Containers Grunge Up Stark Modern Office | Co.Design
The Swiss architecture firm Group8 has managed to marry two of the biggest cliches in contemporary architecture -- shipping containers and stark white offices -- to produce something entirely unique. The project is a new workplace for Group8 in Geneva, and the architects' sleight of hand was to load up a massive open floorplan with more than a dozen steel containers, rust, grime and all. Here's the interior of one of the containers. Mostly, they're used for conferencing and brainstorming. The office is called Cargo (of course). We're sold on pure aesthetic grounds. We also love the idea Group8's toying with here. [Via DailyTonic ; images by Régis Golay of FEDERAL Studio in Geneva and courtesy of Group8 ]
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Stoned scientists
Stephen Jay GouldStephen Jay Gould Renowned scientist and Harvard Professor Stephen Jay Gould died in May 2002, of lung cancer. Gould was the author of many books on science and evolution, including The Mismeasure of Man, and his massive 1400-page opus The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, published shortly after his death. While many obituaries marked Gould’s passing, few mentioned that Gould had been using marijuana since at least 1982. That was the year Gould was diagnosed with a rare and incurable cancer called abdominal mesothelioma, and told he had eight months to live. Gould survived and thrived for 20 years after receiving that grim diagnosis, with treatments including surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Yet above and beyond these, Gould claimed that it was pot that saved his life. “It is beyond my comprehension that any humane person would withhold such a beneficial substance from people in such great need simply because others use it for different purposes,” said Gould. ?
TAP vai continuar a distribuir refeições à entrada dos voos quando faltarem tripulantes
Lisboa, 16 ago (Lusa) – As refeições a bordo dos voos da TAP vão continuar a ser distribuídas à entrada do avião sempre que seja impossível assegurar o serviço de bordo por falta de um tripulante, disse à Lusa o porta-voz da empresa. "Já admitimos que há situações em que, por falta de um tripulante, pode não ser possível fazer serviço de bordo. Nesses casos, as refeições vão continuar a ser distribuídas à entrada", afirmou o porta-voz da companhia aérea à Lusa, depois de os associados do Sindicato Nacional do Pessoal de Voo da Aviação Civil (SNPVAC) terem rejeitado um protocolo sobre o serviço de bordo que havia sido negociado com a TAP. Questionado sobre a possibilidade de baixar o preço dos bilhetes em função desta situação, o porta-voz respondeu que a companhia aérea "não vê necessidade, nem do ponto de vista legal, nem do ponto de vista prático", salientando que "o serviço continua a ser assegurado".
John Cleese on Creativity
August 15, 2010John Cleese on Creativity Fabulous 10 minute video by John Cleese on the optimal conditions for creativity. Inspired. More about the subconscious Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at August 15, 2010 02:28 AM Interesting presentation, and in line with some of the research that I've done that indicates that ALL our ideas come to us in the sleep state and then we "remember" them the next day when we engage in some kind of right brain type of activity. I also like what he says about people not knowing that they aren't really good at something. Posted by: Val Vadeboncoeur at August 15, 2010 02:06 PM Post a comment Thanks for signing in, . (If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. You are not signed in.
Pão: Lei que impõe cortes no sal entra hoje em vigor
Lisboa, 12 ago (Lusa) – A partir de hoje o pão português é obrigado a conter menos sal, com a entrada em vigor de uma lei elogiada por médicos e especialistas em saúde pública mas que levanta várias reticências à indústria do setor. A nova lei define um teor máximo de 1,4 gramas de sal por 100 gramas de pão e obriga a que os rótulos das embalagens de alimentos pré-embalados prestem informação sobre a quantidade relativa e absoluta de sal na embalagem, por percentagem do produto e por porção/dose. Industriais e comerciantes de panificação lamentam que a lei deixe de fora produtos como os cereais de pequeno-almoço e acusam o Governo de falhar os apoios previstos para o setor. “O pão foi um bode de expiatório para alguém mostrar que se preocupa com a saúde dos portugueses. A associação refere que o setor tem perdido produção para produtos ligados ao pequeno-almoço, como os cereais, “e que não vão estar abrangidos pela nova lei e que contêm em média cinco vezes mais sal do que o pão”.
Liya Mairson's Pop-Up Cardboard Playhouse
Posted by core jr | 13 Aug 2010 | Comments (0) Liya Mairson, a graduate of the Shenkar College of Engneering and Design, has created a children's play house that takes cues from pop up books, except this on is life size. As the pages are unfolded, so too do imaginary domestic spaces for children to play in. According to Mairson, the project was specifically targeted to small urban apartments which lack the space of a play room, and can be tucked behind a door when no tin use. Whether intentional or not, it reminds of Joe Colombo's Total Furnishing Unit, circa 1971-72, which is awesome. A few more shots of My Space after the jump.
