PRETTY ENTERTAINING AND SPOT-ON ANALYSIS in the comment thread of a Robert Scoble blogpost:
Buy your creative destruction before it grows up and kills you.
That’s spinchange’s summary of the Friendfeed purchase by Facebook. I lecture on, and track instances of, creative destruction at work, so here’s another one for the file. Few companies are in a position to simply buy off their competitor. Of course, I have a line of friends who will aver that “the US government does it all the time…” And what about the auto companies (I think there was a movie about some 100-mpg car back in the 60s…) Anyway…
more stuff…
A granola-eating, Left Coast venture capitalist gets schooled aboard the USS Nimitz: Lessons from the U.S. Navy. The piece includes 8 great insights. I’m wondering if I can preach this outline. I’ll let you know if I figure that one out.
There are things that Craigslist cannot do: What newspaper ads still have going for them:
“This dimension of creating demand is one that deserves more attention than it gets. Google can’t do it. Yellow Pages can’t do it. There’s plenty of competition—radio, TV, cable, other print media, even ‘if you lived here, you’d be home by now’ billboards along the highway. But it’s not something you can lose to a smarter algorithm. Not yet, anyway.
MICHIGAN TO NYC AND BACK: So my wife and I just drove to New York City and back. From Grand Rapids it’s about 760 miles one-way. In all we put 1,800 miles on the minivan. Yesterday it took us 17 hours to get back. A college-style road trip would have taken 12 hours or so. But we had three children and pregnant mom – we took our time. We hit this torrential downpour somewhere on the PA-Ohio border. It was remarkable – to a Californian. My co-driver, Keith of “Pasadena to GR” fame, said it was typical Midwest weather. I’ll say – the thing cleared in a few minutes, as if nothing had happened. We are not eager to make that drive again any time soon. But, on the other hand, it’s much cheaper to do that than to fly. New York update: They’ve created these pedestrian areas in Times Square and up and down Broadway. It makes the place feel different. I like it. But I don’t have to drive in that area.