It’s become the Urban Outfitters of the ideas world, finding “cool” concepts suitable for being packaged and sold to the masses, thereby extinguishing the “cool” in the process.

And I wonder… why do I keep at it? If internet sales are that profitable, I should close up the retail shop and switch to a web-based specialty service.

But, it breaks my heart to think about that. And then I re-read the owner of RCB’s letter. It tells me they must be feeling the pinch too. The letter speaks directly to their customers: “hey, think about us.” As far as I know, RCB does not have much of a web-sales presence. And everything I know (which is a lot) about that shop is mostly great. Great service, great sales selection, great staff. Like I said, if I did not already own a bike shop, I would probably spend my cash there. Or at least get on one of their sponsored teams so that I could get all the sweet deals and hook ups they offer to their teams.

And, what would happen if that shop was to close. Or go web based?

My own theory is that we are in the middle of a dramatic and broad technological and economic shift in which software companies are poised to take over large swathes of the economy.

The U.S. government and the Department of Defense in particular have benefitted from an extremely advantageous resource position over the past half-century. This strong resource position, meaning that the DoD has had the advantage of having more resources than any competitor due to America's position as the world's leading economy and innovator, is not unlike Xerox's position in the middle of last century due to its plain paper copying patent. Rumelt notes that "a strong resource position can obviate the need for sophisticated design-type strategy." If you are the clear leader and the competition cannot touch you, there is no need to strategize. Even if things begin to get tough, the answer most commonly turned to is to mobilize more resources.

Put another way: That $25 million is going to go to someone this year. Designers have two choices: Get in the game or keep complaining on the sidelines.

It used to be that Google claimed that their motto was ‘don’t be evil.’ Now it appears to be ‘I’m sorry, but we have to be evil to compete with Facebook.’

"So what does all this lead to? One day, if you’re working at a business with a “content” based model, you’ll wake up and find out you’re not hitting your revenue numbers. Projected earnings from your amassed “content” trove aren’t being realized. Maybe Google changed their search algorithm or perhaps users are turning to apps to find articles. Maybe your articles just suck. Whatever the cause, you’re left trying to close the gap between the numbers you promised your boss or investors and the actual revenues your older “content” is delivering. Let’s call this “the content crunch”."

-- Tom's Shoes succeeds at marketing, but Warby Parker wins for a better anti-poverty model

Paying your debts is, as a rule, a good thing. But the double standard here is obvious and offensive. Homeowners are getting lambasted for doing what companies do on a regular basis.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2011/12/19/111219ta_talk_surowiecki#ixzz1iiH6QQM7

“Avoid mom & pop projects that don’t take your money” @Pinboard: Don’t Be A Free User'

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The story of Cook and Schwinn bicycles

When drastic price cuts weren't enough to entice buyers, he decided to throw in $17,000 cash toward the purchase of a car with every house. (That money can only be spent at the local General Motors dealer, of course -- because, let's go U.S.A.!)

So this is what it has come to. Developers are now giving away vehicles to entice people to live in distant suburbs with life-draining commutes just when gas is hitting $5 a gallon. And a few consumers are biting -- one is quoted as saying, "My money was in the bank, collecting very little interest, so I thought I might as well take a little gamble."

Ah, yes, gambling on real estate. That's the kind of anecdote that makes you feel confident about America's economic future.

The article talks about how builders like Kim Meier, the guy behind the car giveaway, are having trouble moving their newly constructed homes in a market that is already glutted with buildings sitting empty:

Sales of new single-family homes in February were down more than 80 percent from the 2005 peak, far exceeding the 28 percent drop in existing home sales. New single-family sales are now lower than at any point since the data was first collected in 1963, when the nation had 120 million fewer residents.

IBM to invest in Africa's mobile tech boom

"carriers have been standing in the way of excellent user experiences for a long time"

expat blog

"World, I'll pay extra if you will please give me less"

We pay the fear tax when we spend time seeking reassurance. We pay it 2ce when seeking reassurance makes us more anxious.

Fascinating story of offshore toy manufacturing

Newspapers as CMSes

"I'm uneasy about this most trendy and oversold community. " from 1995

What the country needs more than higher growth and lower unemployment, greater income equality, a new energy economy and drastically reduced carbon emissions is a redistribution of power, a society-wide epidemic of re-democratization. The crucial moments of American reform and progress have achieved this: from the direct election of senators to the National Labor Relations Act, from the breakup of the trusts to the end of Jim Crow.

"there is a pervasive attitude that nonprofits need to get all their money right to the needy, and do all their administration on the cheap. No one thinks a business should be run this way, but it’s conventional wisdom in the nonprofit sector, and the result is that the groups you’re paying to accomplish great things are trying to do them without good technology or good people. "

History of the automobile

"The Sustainability Consortium is comprised of leading academic researchers and companies, working collaboratively to design and develop a Sustainable Index for consumer products. This index will effectively quantify the sustainable attributes of a product by examining the energy & climate, material efficiency, natural resources, and people & community aspects of a manufactured product throughout its life cycle."

Jimmy Carter, America's Cassandra.

See, all those anthro degrees ARE actually worth something.

"In a paper for the British Journal Of Sports Medicine last year, Dr Craig Richards, a researcher at the University of Newcastle in Australia, revealed there are no evidence-based studies that demonstrate running shoes make you less prone to injury. Not one..."

"...Runners in shoes that cost more than $95 were more than twice as likely to get hurt as runners in shoes that cost less than $40."

Rewrite your code from scratch