Happy Links

October 19, 2005 in Happy Links
  • Venture Voice interviews Jason Fried on this podcast. For those of us not suffering Jason Fried fatigue yet (boo to those who are), this is a great interview. Slow at first, but Jason hits his stride toward the end and says some great stuff. As I was listening and quoting parts of this to my friend over IM (he asked me to pause so he could hurl half way through), I figured out why I enjoy following JF: His success gives me permission to follow my gut, even (and especially) when it bucks conventional wisdom. He does so himself (almost with blinders on) and it's hard to argue with his success. Kudos to him for sharing his formulas for success so freely.
  • This presentation by Steve Jobs where he announced the new iPod, iTunes and iMac was the most inspiring thing I've witnessed in months. Yes it's Apple koolaid in liberal doses, but I don't own a mac, or an iPod or even iTunes. What's amazing about this presentation is watching Jobs as he conveys the energy of Apple's success. (75% market share with mp3 players, 85% market share of legal music downloads). Witnessing him in action, his passion, his excitement, and his innovative spirit -- he personifies what it means to matter in this new economy. He is a glimpse into the future, and it is exciting. I bet you can't watch this without contracting insomnia.
  • Due diligence and light bulbs, a post by yours truly (sorry) where I talk a bit about the nerdy charge that comes from playing with spreadsheets as part of due diligence. "This is the moment I hadn't expected. This was the sweet side effect of doing due diligence. I'd had a stroke of genius looking at those rows and columns. And so it began. I started tweaking, get rid of these expenses, add this new one, take that one out. Run it again. And there it was..."
  • Ideas for Startups, another brilliant essay by Paul Graham. "I think people believe that coming up with ideas for startups is very hard-- that it must be very hard-- and so they don't try do to it.  They assume ideas are like miracles: they either pop into your head or they don't. I also have a theory about why people think this.  They overvalue ideas."
  • PC Magazine reviews a bunch of free resources, office suites, anti spyware, firewalls, etc. The navigation through this mess is almost too cumbersome to bother with, but there are some helpful reviews here.
  • Top 10 places to find free images for your blog (or anything else for that matter).
  • Jakob Nielson talks about blog usability -- top 10 design mistakes.
  • The Flip 2K5 where Anil Dash compares his take on 1.0 vs 2.0 "built to flip" companies.
  • Entrepreneur's-Journey guide Yaro Starak bought one of those 10px pieces on the million dollar homepage, and reports on the results.

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