May 2004

The Innovator’s Dilemma: United States Edition

This month’s WIRED has an article that reminded me of a core argument in Clayton Christenson’s book, The Innovator’s Dilemma–that successful businesses are vulnerable to toppling by smaller competitors when their prior success blinds them to a changing market. Philip Bobbit of UT Austin argues in Technology is Killing Democracy that the very technological innovations…more

ITA Software: Trip Planner – best flight search engine; shows ALL options

PurpleSlurple – turns any webpage into a Douglas-Englebart-certified information resource with paragraph-level permalinks (i.e. link to any element on the page, even if the author didn’t provide an anchor link to it!)

Marginal Revolution: Mall Science – how to position items in a store to sell better (know walking patterns, people like to shop away from the door so they don’t buy the up-front “featured” items, provide seats for those dragged along shopping (husbands!))

Kurt Vonnegut On employment: “I believe half of the duty of every inventor is to make a product that is better and cheaper, and the other half is to create a job that is more satisfying. We do only half of it. People are never mentioned, as though they don’t figure in the equation at…more

February 7 | Conan O’Brien’s Commencement Speech – “I’ve dwelled on my failures today because, as graduates of Harvard, your biggest liability is your need to succeed. Your need to always find yourself on the sweet side of the bell curve. Because success is a lot like a bright, white tuxedo. You feel terrific when…more

Make a Bonfire of Your Reputations – don’t wait to do what you think is right: “I have seen ten years of young men who rush out into the world with their messages, and when they find how deaf the world is, they think they must save their strength and wait. They believe that after…more

overstated: Weblogs and authority – with a gorgeous CSS table

THE SNOWSUIT EFFORT – as minimal as it gets; beautiful design though

Jonathan & Joanne :: Nov. 20th, 2004 – gorgeous faux paper design