I picked up a phrase some time ago that I think applies: “The next big thing is always beneath contempt.” Implication being that it is, of course, until it isn’t. Until it’s too big to ignore. This has happened over and over again in our society. In the middle ages, people assumed that no serious discussion could happen in anything but Latin — the so-called “vulgar” languages had no merit.

Courts around the country are being flooded with mass copyright lawsuits. In a typical case, the owner of a pornographic film sues dozens of anonymous defendants in a single lawsuit, obtains their contact information, and then tries to extort a four-figure settlement from each defendant before the case reaches the courtroom. The potential embarrassment of having one's name publicly associated with pornographic works gives even innocent defendants a strong incentive to settle.

Every project has friction between members, disagreements, conflicts over style and philosophy. These social problems are counter-acted by the fact that no large project can be accomplished otherwise. "We must all hang together, or we will all hang separately." But the expressiveness of Lisp makes this countervailing force much weaker; one can always start one's own project... This is the Lisp Curse.

The idea of focus has huge benefits. Focus and the art of saying no are keys to greatness. However, you only succeed if you focus on the right thing. “Enterprise” is not the right thing. It’s not a valid target. Enterprise support is a feature, not a product. I don’t mean that as opinion, but as a point of fact. Focus on a set of customers whose only characteristic is a job description is missing the whole point of focus.

Anyone can attend in person (minors may attend only if accompanied by an adult). The program is free, and no registration required. Seating is on a first-come basis: our auditorium capacity is ~250. When? PARC Forums are typically held on Thursdays, about twice a month. The Forum presentation, including Q&A, takes place from 5:00-6:00pm, with networking afterwards from 6:00-6:30. The entire program lasts from 5:00-6:30pm.

These are the only things you need to do to be successful*. You can get away with just doing one of the two, but that's rare, and usually someone else is doing the other part for you.

If you you don't have any marketable skills, learn some. It's the future. We have Khan Academy and Wikipedia and Codecademy and almost the entire world's collective knowledge at your fingertips. Use it.

Presenter First is a software development approach that combines the ideas of the model–view–presenter (MVP) design pattern, test-driven development, and Feature-driven development.

Presenter First concentrates on transforming each of a customer's requirements into a well tested, working feature as quickly and with as much correlation to the customer's story language (requirement) as possible. The language of the story or requirement is used to directly guide development of the feature – even naming the modules and function calls. As a consequence, the feature implementation tends to closely represent the customer's desire with little extraneous or unneeded functionality. The language of the source code also corresponds closely to the customer's stories.

Everyone in the retail world wants to see if Ron Johnson can work his magic a third time.

For 15 years, he helped shape Target's cheap chic image. Then, he spent about a decade changing the way Americans shop for electronic gadgets at Apple.

'It was very obvious to Google that my website was not a licensed pharmacy,' said David Whitaker, the prisoner who acted in the sting.

Here was the deal: In exchange for providing Amazon a 90-day exclusive, authors get their book(s) listed with the Lending Library, which allows Prime members to borrow books electronically. Second, authors would be able to run free promos -- for each 90-day period I enroll in Select, I could make the book available for free for up to five days, divided however I liked.

At first, I wasn't sure what to think about it, especially given the exclusivity requirement. Part of me was aghast -- how dare they ask me to pull my book from the other retailers! And then something occurred to me. Between October 1 and December 31, I had sold a grand total of .... ONE book on all the non-Amazon platforms -- that one sale on Barnes & Noble.

Also worth a discussion -- what doesn't help or boost sales. I hate to say it, but I'm gonna. My blog, my Facebook fan page and Twitter feed didn't help push the book beyond the confines of my regular following.

...It also presents some interesting business challenges, too. How you grow your company from three employees, how you work in teams, and how you split your app up into services all help ensure that you'll be able to react to your product's growth.

There is only one valid definition of a business purpose: to create a customer.

Be a domain expert, not an expert in a technology. For example, if you're interested in games, be a games expert. Technology moves on, but all the same principles apply in a domain regardless of technology.

I’m constantly being asked, “Do you know any Rails programmers?” If you’re a programmer today and you’re not employed, you’re not looking or you’re not doing the right things: (A) get involved in open source development, (B) learn a development environment that’s hot right now.