Drifting 2
Jeroen Bakker sent in a great list of suggestions as a follow up to last week’s “Drifting” post.
Applying Akin’s Laws of Spacecraft Design To Startups
David L. Akin is the Director, SpaceSystems Laboratory at the University of Maryland. He is also the author of “Akin’s Laws of Spacecraft Design.” He lists more than 40 laws, here are ten that I thought were directly applicable to software entrepreneurship, but the whole list is very funny and worth reading.
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New Capabilities We Plan To Develop in 2011
New Capabilities We Plan To Develop in 2011 To ensure that conversations and requests for help were productive, Anthony Scampavia kept a question at the top of his whiteboard in his various offices at Cisco for more than a dozen years: What is the problem you are trying to solve? Here are three problems we
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Most Powerful Insights are Simple
Most powerful insights are simple, and can be communicated in simple terms using practical examples, diagrams, and rules of thumb.
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Early Adopters Have Already Let Go of the Past
Early adopters have already let go of the past and are looking for near term results that can provide building blocks to better outcomes.
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Always Be Collecting Data
Always be collecting data and perspectives; always be connecting the dots you have gleaned from these data points and perspectives.
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So…What’s Your Story?
What’s your story? Entrepreneurs get asked variations of this question a lot: the most important answer is the one they tell themselves.
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Drifting
It’s useful to think very deeply about a situation but beyond a certain level of effort or length of time you need to do some drifting and recharge. I think you need a mental circuit breaker for detecting an impasse and triggering activities that can lead to a change in perspective.
Take Time to Walk Around The Problem
It’s rare for a new initiative to work the first time, at least when I try. I have to “walk around the problem” to look at it from different perspectives.
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Traveling Hopefully
For my first post of 2011 I commit to traveling hopefully. I was inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s observation “to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labor.”
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Quotes For Entrepreneurs–December 2010
You can follow @skmurphy to get these quotes for entrepreneurs hot off the mojo wire or wait until the end of the month when they are collected on the blog. Enter your E-mail if you would like new blog posts to your inbox.
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Virtual and On-Line Are As Superfluous As Horseless and Electric
I think that virtual and on-line are fast becoming as superfluous as adjectives like horseless and electric.
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The Snow Lay Round About, Deep and Crisp and Even
Luck is like snow, a certain amount falls on everyone. But unlike snow, you can increase your luck.
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Let Men Their Songs Employ
I have been thinking about different kinds of teams and team work. For example a choir has sheet music (“Let Men Their Songs Employ”) that predefines the content and timing of each person’s contribution. In a different way the script for a play outlines the content and sequence of each actor’s part.
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If Money Doesn’t Change Hands, You Can’t Call a User a Customer
Here is another excerpt from my September interview with Gabriel Weinberg. This one focuses on why payment and testimonials are so important to differentiate users from actual customers.
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Customer Development Requires a Willingness to Be Surprised
Customer Development requires an openness to new ideas from prospects and a willingness to revisit assumptions and to be surprised.
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Quotes On The Limitations of Cleverness
A couple of quotes for entrepreneurs on the limitations of cleverness. Don’t just be clever, be kind and make things of beauty with care.
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Annie Dillard on the Appreciation of Grace and Beauty
An excerpt from “A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek” by Annie Dillard that offers a meditation on grace and beauty.
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The Venture Lifestyle Business
“Some buildings need air conditioning because they have air conditioning. Because they were designed to be air conditioned, they have no natural ventilation and would be miserable to inhabit without air conditioning.” John Cook in “Maybe You Only Need It Because You Have It“ I wonder if the same thing happens to some fraction of
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