Tag Archives: Life

Will Facebook Rule the Future of Social?

Posted on by

Facebook KingFacebook is very powerful right now, pervading our everyday lives and businesses. And they have no intention of stopping. While not as acquisition-hungry as Google, which has a reputation for buying up every great small business in sight, Facebook is expanding scope like hotcakes. Places, Deals, Marketplace, Photo Recognition, Questions, Games, Groups, Mobile…the list of Facebook products grows everyday.

So my question stands:  Will Facebook rule the future of social?

No, I don’t think so. Facebook, while omnipresent, is not currently based in natural human exchange. Pokes, wall posts and events are digital abstractions of real dialog. The future of social will be…more social.

Facebook is a closed social graph. And by that, I mean it’s A) restricted to the people you “friend,” B) restricted to the people signed up on Facebook and C) restricted to active device users. This type of social network is limiting and far too much effort. Worse, it’s not human. In real life, we meet people and they become acquaintances. We spend more time with people and they become our friends (or enemies). There is no mutual contract, no “friend” button. Venture capitalist Fred Wilson touches on the unnatural effort involved in curating your various network lists when he forecasts the Implicit Social Graph.

Social technology will evolve. I predict that a platform with the most open, implicit social graph and a passive user experience that promotes true human interaction by keeping your phone in your pocket will take the cake as social media king. Facebook is not situated, nor was it founded, to promote such an organic vision.

What do you predict? Do you think Facebook is an unstoppable behemoth or will the value of real life ultimately take it down?

—-

Imperial Crown (Heraldry) vector art via Wikimedia Commons.

The Path of Greatest Resistance

Posted on by

Everyone has fear, but no one needs to be afraid. Fear is a powerful tool if used wisely, one that can guide you to great discovery. We fear obstacles, the bumps in the road on the way to accomplishing our goals. But don’t be afraid. Use that fear to measure and appreciate the value of your potential success. The greater the fear, the greater the obstacles, the greater the feat, the greater the reward. Avoid the path of least resistance – it is deceptive and will get you nowhere. Choose the path of greatest resistance – it will guide you to your dreams.

Home

Posted on by

On a flight to Denver this morning to see family and friends for a long weekend. Home.

How do you define “home?” A residence? Memories? Family? Friends? Your job?

Home is where the heart is. Love and cherish it.

The family you choose, the passions you follow, the place you always long to return to. But if the place you reside does not allow your dearest relationships to be near, enable the pursuit of your dreams, or warm your heart upon return, then can you truly call it home? Why are you living there? Go home. Or find another.

To complicate matters, you can never truly appreciate home until you leave it.

The Easiest Thing You Can Do to Spread Joy

Posted on by

President Lincoln said, “Folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” Now, I know everyone isn’t an optimist. We all have bad days. But there is one thing you can do to make a difference, to change it up, and warm the day…

Smile 🙂

You’ve got a face. Use it! A smile can brighten a person’s day. Everyone wants to be happy, so help them out. They will probably return the favor.

Find it within to muster a real, heartwarming smile. If you can’t find a reason to smile, force yourself to smile anyway. The other person may be able to return the favor with a genuine one instead. Like a yawn, a real smile is contagious. One smile becomes two, two becomes more. Happiness abounds!

Spread the joy. Start with a smile.

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Change

Posted on by

Simple. I accepted that change is inherent and inevitable.

Things will always evolve around us, without our control. You can either go with the flow or fight it. If you want things to stay the same, you will have to adapt – change your tactics to put up a better fight. Go with the flow or adapt. Either way, you change.

Accept change and you may even learn to embrace it. Stop worrying and love change.

The Key to Success

Posted on by

Degrees? Funds? Ideas? Street smart? Experience? Politics? Connections?

No. Not even close.

Your heart is the key to success. Passion is the fuel that sustains hard work, manifests talent and ties relationships. If you love what you do and love the people around you, you will succeed. If you don’t, you probably won’t – at least not in the manner you personally define success.

Cross a Busy Street

Posted on by

Risk is a lot like crossing a busy street. You can go out of your way to find an intersection OR you can wait patiently for traffic to free up and seize your opportunity. In life, you can accomplish your goal by the book the slow way OR you can study your surroundings before making a direct move. In either case, there is a level of patience involved – leaping into risks unstudied can be suicide. The crosswalk or textbook may be safer, but they add time to your journey and do not force you to genuinely appreciate the physics around you. Crossing the street or accepting a challenge may end in failure, but you could save a lot of time and have much more to learn by doing.

Sometimes, the crosswalk may be the most direct route – embrace it. Other times, you may need to cross a six lane highway while racing the clock or a competitor. Only you can decide whether the time saved and lessons learned are worth it.

I am not advocating for jaywalking or breaking laws. But I do encourage you to seriously consider a more direct path. Put down the book and get dirty.

What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?

Posted on by

Frankly, the question is bullshit. We are guided to answer it with a profession, a title or a lifestyle.

“I want to be an artist.” “I want to be the president.” “I want to be a film director.” “I want to stay at home and raise my children.”

The problem? There’s far more to life than a title, many roads to travel, and too much time to do only one thing. Your answer will change. It has since you were born, it will continue to evolve until the day you die. My answer changed throughout my life from Locomotive Engineer to Meteorologist to Starship Captain to Video Game Designer to Film Producer to Technology CEO. I have been all over the map, with passion and curiosity. I am sure you have, too.

I understand the question. “What do you want to be?” It is a focusing mechanism, the answer of which can help guide you into the trials and tribulations of adulthood. Unfortunately, the question suggests that there is only one answer per person. It distinguishes between future (“what will you become”) and present (“what you are now”). And it prompts you to cite conventional societal roles or industries as a solution to your life problem. Woe is you if your job title is at the core of your eulogy.

I propose a new question:

“What is your purpose?”

Purpose is your mission in life, your agenda, the core principal that guides you when you wake up in the morning and drives you to make decisions. No matter the career or role you play, purpose underlies everything you say and do.

What would you die for?

I want to bring people together. That’s my purpose. And that purpose is far more noble and omnipresent than my resume or my title.

Breaking Bad Habits 101

Posted on by

We all have habits we are not proud of. The first step to breaking a bad habit is being aware of it in the first place. “I bite my nails. I gamble all my money away. I eat too much candy. I need to lay off the cocaine.”

Bad Habit Log

The best way to make yourself hyper-aware of your habit is to document every infraction. Keep a log or journal of some kind. Never miss an entry. Let it haunt you.

I organize my logs with “Date,” “Time,” “Days [between infractions],” “Location,” and “Reason.”  The “Reason” part is extremely important – you must explain to yourself why you have betrayed your commitment to breaking this habit. If you do not have a good reason for betraying yourself, watch the guilt roll in. Embrace it.

Spreadsheets

I prefer spreadsheets so I can use formulas to automatically calculate time between infractions and overall averages (I use Google Docs specifically so that I can carry logs around with me wherever I go).  The “time between” formula is simple and can be copied all the way down a column:  

= ( Today’s Date – Last Infraction Date ) + ( Today’s Infraction Time – Last Infraction Time )

Make it a Game

You cannot quit bad habits overnight. It takes time and realistic measurable goals. You might as well have fun with it. Challenge yourself to increasing the overall average time between infractions. Average the “Days [between infractions]” column and set a goal to reach the next full day average (for example, time between infractions is 2.3 days now, set a goal of raising that average to 3 days). If you are not too ashamed of your habit, rope a friend in to hold you accountable (betting money or meals always helps).

Documenting is much easier than breaking the habit. With enough practice, documenting becomes a new good habit. From there, the real work begins!

Do Not *Reach* for Your Goals

Posted on by

Be your goals instead.

We are raised to set goals and reach them. “Shoot for the moon and you could reach the stars.” The problem? Stars are really far away. Our nearest star Alpha Centauri is 4.37 light-years away (about 26,395,661,800,000 miles). “Reaching” your goal establishes a psychological distance between you and your objective, making it that much harder for you to accomplish.

Be your goal. Forget distance. Close the gap. Discard maps. Embody your mission. Speak the language. Do not hesitate. Plow all obstacles aside. You have what it takes.

Finish lines are illusions. Be who you want to be, no less, no later. Now.