by Charles on January 14, 2012 |
I’ve taken a major break from blogging here at Wordful, and it’s in large part to some serious shifts in my personal and professional life over the past year. To make a very long and (painful) story short—the down economy and a few other issues forced me to to shutter my office and consultancy and venture to San Francisco to find “a real job.”
On May 6 of last year, I kissed my wife and kids goodbye and left Kona for San Jose on a one-way ticket with $50 in my pocket. My sister picked me up and the next day my dad drove me up to the city, where I met up a good high school friend of mine who works at Google. I’m still sleeping on his floor.
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by Charles on June 14, 2011 |
No, they shouldn’t.
Of course there’s no way to determine who’s stupid—let alone the validity of stupid being a unit of measurement (or judgement)—but, yes, as a general rule of thumb, stupid people shouldn’t blog.
What I’m referring to here are some recent comments made by blogger and entrepreneur Jason Calacanis at ReadWriteWeb 2Way Summit NYC, namely:
“There are a lot of stupid people out there … and stupid people shouldn’t write.”
“There needs to be a better system for tuning down the stupid people and tuning up the smart people.”
Hearing stuff like that, in such blunt and unrefined fashion, will piss off most people. Yet I don’t see how anyone could disagree with the essential message: people who blog junk shouldn’t be blogging. They deserve to be penalized, not rewarded. [click to continue…]
by Charles on June 12, 2011 |
Being smack dab in the middle of tech-startup world here in San Francisco, I’ve seen more than my fair share of clever names.
Businesses in the Mission where I’m staying all seem to draw on the appeal of one-word randomness, like Beretta (a restaurant), Ritual (a coffee shop) and Revolution (a clothing boutique). Pithy and tidy, these monikers do a good job evoking the zeitgeist of the city hipster.
Naming an online property is not that much different, with the glaring exception that it must be wholly unique to qualify for its own URL. So my question is: In such a crowded but unlimited space of domain names, how do you come up with something original and catchy? [click to continue…]
by Charles on June 3, 2011 |
Everyone has a their own special way of communication and expression over email.
Some are more formal and start each message with a salutation like “Hi, Charles –” and end with a goodbye like “Sincerely, Howard.” They do this every single email, even if it’s a rapid fire conversation.
There are others who don’t address me by name at all. Just plain, unlabeled dialog with no greeting or exit. Sometimes all lower case.
Then there’s the signature. You’ve got the ones who type out their name at the end of each message, and those who rely on the standard pre-written signature. More spartan email writers leave no name. [click to continue…]
by Charles on May 30, 2011 |
My hunch when I moved here three weeks ago from Hawaii is now confirmed: The tech scene in the Bay Area is all about—well, tech.
This thriving, buzzing industry is built around a culture of code, of devising niche solutions to niche problems. At its center lie the software engineer, who reigns as queen bee in the hives of the tech giants and startups of Silicon Valley and San Francisco.
So what about the rest of us?
What about the marketers, the designers, the writers and editors, the community managers and publishers of content? Do we get a fair shake at shaping the future in a world gone tech?
I’d like to think so. The question is—how? [click to continue…]
