Likes & Launch
Month
I was reading Fast Company’s article on Facebook rated as the #1 most innovative companies 2010 [full article here] when I came across an interesting except about the company culture at Facebook:
“At the heart of the process is the notion of "hacking,” which Zuckerberg insists is not about breaking and entering: “It’s about being unafraid to break things in order to make them better.” Buchheit, a strong internal voice for hacking, describes it as a mix of arrogance and curiosity. “The root of the hacker mind-set is ‘There’s a better way,’ ” he says. “Just because people have been doing it the same way since the beginning of time, I’m going to make it better.” After years of making and remaking the site, pride of ownership takes a backseat to the sheer rush of creation. “It’s like castles in the sand,” designer Soleio Cuervo says of the countless product changes that happen over the course of a week, month, and year. “What we make won’t last, but we make things fast and get to test our ideas quickly with real users. We’re in it for the impact.”’
I found this notion of build, break, rebuild to resonate loudly among all people my age. For example, I’m also sure I wasn’t the only kid who bought a lego set only to build my own creations. In my tweens I learned to sew so I could transform old clothes into something new to wear. Today I love (or hate depending on my attachment to the original) new video mash-ups, technology software hacks and song remixes. What have you hacked lately?
Above and beyond “If you build it they will come” to “If you build it, generate original blog posts, use SEO and PR- they will come.”
Great poem
draws no sharp distinction
between her labor and her leisure,
her mind and her body,
her work and her play,
her education and her recreation.
she hardly knows which.
she simply pursues her vision
of excellence through whatever
she is doing and leaves
others to determine
whether she is working or playing.to herself, she is always doing both.
- anon
My coverage for Elance.com on the emerging trends of online film distribution.
My coverage at SXSW on how to make a living blogging.
Attending SXSW is a great opportunity to meet new people, hear new ideas, learn lessons about past success and failures and have a great time. In order to get the most out of the weekend I spent some time thinking about what I want to do in the future.
There are so many things I want to do this lifetime but that laundry list feels too prescriptive and infinite to manage at this point in time. In honor of my recent knowledge of the 6 word memoirs, I’ve created the following mission:
Be inspired. Share stories. Help people.
I am a huge consumer of information these days by either reading, watching videos, traveling and sometimes all three. I’ve been so inspired by learning about other people and ideas that I’ve decided it’s time to share. Through film, writing and interactions I hope to share the incredible lives and events going on. Not only that, I’ve been really inspired by all of the for-profit socially conscious companies. I hope to bring that mentality to whichever venture happens next. I really admire non-profits but I’m especially intrigued by self-sufficient companies that are tackling the same big problems.
I’m all ears to ideas or opportunities!
Cheers to the future!
I follow @CameronHarold on Twitter so I recently found his offer that anyone can promote their blog on his website. I’m looking for new blogs to follow and I thought it couldn’t hurt to invite more people to mine.
Happy reading new followers- I hope you find something you like. I’m always ready to ‘meet’ people with similar interests so leave a note, message me on twitter @blocks8 or follow me here.
Thanks!
Brittany
“How are we expected to see the forest through the trees when the trees are burning around us? And history shows that businesses that emerge in the strongest times are not the ones putting out fires but are the ones constantly planting new seeds.“ — Moira Forbes
Moira Forbes was the guest speaker at the February 85Broads NY Chapter breakfast hosted at Morgan Stanley. Forbes is the Vice President and Publisher, ForbesWoman and Associate Publisher, ForbesLife magazine. She brought some interesting stories about her great grandfather, the founder of Forbes Magazine, and some powerful insight. I’ve outlined my favorite points below.
1) If you want to lead through change, start with yourself.
You have to find your own motivation before you spread it to your team and colleagues. Create a vision, if you don’t have one, find one or look around at other colleagues to find inspiration. Once you can put your stake in the ground others can rally around the same goal.
2) Innovation is more than improving existing products.
Innovation is essential, especially in the times of strained budgets and shifting markets. Usually companies try to refresh or rebuild products they already sell, but innovation is more than that. You have to keep your eyes open to the industry you’re in and those that surround it. Forbes put it; “And history shows that businesses that emerge in the strongest times are not the ones putting out fires but are the ones constantly planting new seeds”. For example, Nintendo belonged to the gaming industry, a market whose typical customer was 10-30 year-olds, predominately male and very comfortable with technology. Nintendo could have created a graphics-heavy console to accommodate increasingly complex games. Instead, they democratized the industry to include everyone from 5 year-olds to 95 year-olds. They pushed open their market instead of building within it.
3) Innovative companies put time on the calendar.
If innovation is a priority, then the amount of time dedicated to innovation should reflect that. This sounds like a simple thing to do, but how often does top management have time set aside for innovation? Once a month? Once a quarter? If yes, then innovation and change is not really a priority. Think about the game changers, get out of the weeds. Regular updates and weekly meetings in addition to a constant stream of email eats up your time. Putting aside time for innovation takes discipline and hard work; it’s not easy to do. If you only focus on the things you do best you’ll end up blindsided by the companies that constantly reinvent themselves.
For more updates follow me at @blocks8
I found Juanitos while looking for music to put in my video. You can check out their whole album here: http://freemusicarchive.org/search/?quicksearch=juanitos