SchreiBlog

The Slow Web

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 18:36:53 -0700

Real-time interactions happen as they happen. Timely ones, on the other hand, happen as you need them to happen

yes! This post captures a lot of what I’ve been feeling lately. Tons of little brain frissons happening. Timely information to me is thoughtful. I want to make a web that’s more thoughtful and thought-producing.

jackcheng:

One of the better spots to enjoy a bowl of ramen noodles here in New York is Minca, in the East Village. Minca is the kind of place just out of the way enough that as you’re about to get there, you start wondering if you’ve already passed it. A bowl of noodles at Minca isn’t quite as neatly put together as those of other ramen establishments in the city, but it is without a doubt among the tastiest. There’s a home-cooked quality to a bowl of noodles at Minca. And there’s a homey vibe to the restaurant. Minca is a good place to meet a friend and sit and talk and eat and drink, and eat and talk and sit and drink some more.

The last time I was at Minca, I had an especially enjoyable conversation with Walter Chen. Walter is the CEO of a company called iDoneThis, a quiet little service that helps you catalog the things you’ve accomplished each day. iDoneThis sends you a daily email at your specified time, and you simply reply with a list of things you did that day. It’s useful for teams who want to keep track of what everyone is working on, and for individuals who just want to keep track.

I first reached out to Walter because I was mesmerized by this koan at the bottom of the daily emails:

iDoneThis is a part of the slow web movement. After you email us, your calendar is not updated instantaneously. But rest up, and you’ll find an updated calendar when you wake.

iDoneThis is a part of the slow web movement. The Slow Web Movement. I’d never heard that phrase before. I immediately started digging around—and by that I mean I googled “Slow Web Movement”—and the lone relevant search result was a blog post from two years ago. If you run the search again today, you’ll find Walter’s writeup on his company blog, which reflects a lot of what he told me over dinner.

As we talked further, I said to Walter that as soon as I saw “the slow web movement,” I assigned my own meaning to it. Because it’s a great name, and great names are like knots—they’re woven from the same stringy material as other words, but in their particular arrangement, they catch, become junctions to which new threads arrive, from which other threads depart. For me, “The Slow Web” neatly tied together a slew of dangling thoughts.

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fsgbooks: “A related phenomenon is the ongoing transformation,...

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 23:29:21 -0700

fsgbooks:

“A related phenomenon is the ongoing transformation, courtesy of Facebook, of the verb to like from a state of mind to an action that you perform with your computer mouse: from a feeling to an assertion of consumer choice. And liking, in general, is commercial culture’s substitute for loving. The striking thing about all consumer products—and none more so than electronic devices and applications—is that they’re designed to be immensely likable. This is, in fact, the definition of a consumer product, in contrast to the product that is simply itself and whose makers aren’t fixated on your liking it. I’m thinking here of jet engines, laboratory equipment, serious art and literature.”

-Jonathan Franzen, “Pain Won’t Kill You,” from Farther Away: Essays

Yes! Build the thing. The liking comes later.

Kale Club! perfect. npr: We have a kale club? Hm. Never knew. —...

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 21:29:58 -0700

Kale Club! perfect.

npr:

We have a kale club? Hm. Never knew. — Tanya

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

babesofnpr: According to our public radio insider, NPR senior producer Jessica Goldstein runs, bikes, founded NPR’s Kale Club, and can mic a radio expedition to Patagonia, Antarctica, the jungles of Thailand, or the Tasmanian Sea. Seen here with hubby Peter Breslow, there’s only one way to salute this NPR power couple: Cheers!

"Influence is not just marketing. It’s about expanding the gaps between what already exists, to..."

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 23:12:53 -0700

“Influence is not just marketing. It’s about expanding the gaps between what already exists, to make changes. The Latin meaning behind ‘advert’ explains it plainly, ‘turn to/toward’, a readjustment to focus on what’s next. We must train ourselves to take a fresh viewpoint, which is often just as impressive as inventing something from scratch. When we make new things familiar and familiar things new, Rory explains, a kind of poetry happens. And with that we munch on our re-invented Nice-r biscuits. After an hour with Rory, advertising looks a lot like art.”

- Yes! I like the idea of creating space around what already exists, to make way for the new.

"The fatal misconception behind brainstorming is that there is a particular script we should all..."

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:20:43 -0700

“The fatal misconception behind brainstorming is that there is a particular script we should all follow in group interactions. The lesson of Building 20 is that when the composition of the group is right—enough people with different perspectives running into one another in unpredictable ways—the group dynamic will take care of itself. All these errant discussions add up. In fact, they may even be the most essential part of the creative process. Although such conversations will occasionally be unpleasant—not everyone is always in the mood for small talk or criticism—that doesn’t mean that they can be avoided. The most creative spaces are those which hurl us together. It is the human friction that makes the sparks”

- I really liked this article from Jonah Lehrer, too… looking forward to reading his new book.

Brainstorming Doesn : The New Yorker (via jamesgross)

Congrats Justin and Andre! I’m looking forward to hearing...

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 10:17:14 -0800

Congrats Justin and Andre! I’m looking forward to hearing more about SimpleForm and your projects

simpleform:

I am so extremely happy to announce Justin Watt will be joining Simpleform full-time.

Justin was my 2nd hire at Federated Media and was instrumental in designing and building the platform that allowed all of our advertisers, publishers, and sales people to interact. He left FM as Director of Platform and instead of joining another company, he and his girlfriend traveled around the world by container ship, car, train, you name it. The picture above is him rowing a boat on the Ganges in India.

I could not be happier about this. It also marks a change in what we’re doing here as we return to client work.

When I decided to put out the call for people to join Simpleform full-time I realized I was going to have to compete with funded startups who had deeper pockets and a wealth of perks. But I didn’t want to just hire people, I wanted seasoned engineers who had been through a startup or two and knew what it took to ship code.

I couldn’t compete on perks so I decided to compete by offering something the funded startups do not: people at Simpleform have access to our contracts, budgets, and bank statements. They get to participate in our profitability, see where we’re spending money, and have a vote on how we can save it.

My bet here is that is a hell of a lot more interesting in getting the types of people I want to join us. That seeing your work directly impact the health and success of a business is a far more motivating for people who are perhaps tired of the startup-consumer-product-grind.

So welcome Justin, thanks for listening, and I hope you keep checking back because I want to keep sharing with you the results (and code!) of our new company.

damn… BINGO!

Fri, 06 May 2011 19:44:18 -0700

damn… BINGO!

A Murder Foretold : Unravelling the ultimate political conspiracy: The New Yorker

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:52:23 -0700

A Murder Foretold : Unravelling the ultimate political conspiracy: The New Yorker:

gross:

Think this is the best New Yorker story I’ve ever read. This has to become a Wire-like TV series.

Yes! I just started this last night, popping an old New Yorker off the stack. Best is strong, my favorite is William Finnegan’s portrait of Doc Renneker and Ocean Beach