Ira Glass on Hard Work, Taste and Getting Started This is great. I saw this a while back and wanted to share but lost the link, sorry. Everyone was once a beginner; taste and creative skill develops with time, but only comes once you get started. To View More >>

I've been so excited by this story since yesterday I just had to share. Yesterday Danny told me that one of our developers, Simon, had launched a game on the iTunes app store. I was interested but to be honest, at least initially, more polite than excited. That was until Simon introduced me to "Nutty Bugs", and then I was blown away. I am not easily impressed, but it's not an overstatement to say that I was stunned. Stunned, not just because I had no idea about the project, but because what they have created is so complete and professional. In six months they have not only developed a game, they've To View More >>

People with dirty jobs are happier In this movie Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs does two things, first he talks about a day he worked on a farm and amongst other things docks lambs. I saw this show and couldn't believe he did what he did. I thought it was inhumane and as it turns out initially he did too, but in an entertaining fashion he talks through his learning and explains. The second thing he does is he makes the point that in his opinion people with Dirty Jobs are happier. He puts forward a strong case that following the advice "Follow Your Passion" might be bad advice. For some it To View More >>

The presentation by Merlin Man and John Gruber was called 149 Surprising Ways to Turbocharge Your Blog With Credibility. In reality it was a discussion about authenticity and how you blog. It brought into focus what I've been thinking about for the last couple of months and made me realise what I have been trying to deny for a while now. That is that blogging is probably the most difficult thing I have ever done. I'm used to being successful, but blogging hurts I've had a blessed life. By blessed I mean we worked like crap to provide a great product, have awesome experiences and try like hell To View More >>

Yesterday I wrote about how not to travel. To be sure, living stupidly out of balance as I've been is damaging to your health, depressing and unsustainable, but working 9 to 5 doesn't seem to work either. Being careful, never putting in extra effort when required, will almost always cause an enterprise to flounder and it's not the making of good "War Stories". In my office is a bookshelf full of business books and autobiographies, and at home I have shelves full of the same. You never read, "Well we started the business, it all went well and I made it home early every night." Instead the stories To View More >>