Jeff Bezos was asked at Amazon’s shareholder meeting if the company is taking enough risks. Bezos gave a passionate clinic on innovation:
I believe if you don’t have that set of things in your corporate culture, then you can’t do large-scale invention. You can do incremental invention, which is critically important for any company. But it is very difficult — if you are not willing to be misunderstood. People will misunderstand you.
Any time you do something big, that’s disruptive — Kindle, AWS — there will be critics. And there will be at least two kinds of critics. There will be well-meaning critics who genuinely misunderstand what you are doing or genuinely have a different opinion. And there will be the self-interested critics that have a vested interest in not liking what you are doing and they will have reason to misunderstand. And you have to be willing to ignore both types of critics.
Everything about this makes me happy. Read the entire article.
In early 1971, Hart wrote to dozens of actors, authors, artists, musicians, playwrights, librarians, and politicians of the day. She asked them to write a letter to the children of Troy about the importance of libraries, and their memories of reading and of books.
(via Our History: Letters to the Children of Troy, May 1971 | Troy Public Library)
Unhappy 52nd Birthday Morrissey.
Morrissey - Interesting Drug (Hammersmith Odeon, London, UK, 10/4/91) (by lapislazuli42)
Imagine if the trusted real-estate agent you hired to sell your house persuaded you to sell it to her best client for $1,000,000 by telling you this was the best price she could get. And then, the next morning, the person who bought your house immediately turned around and sold it for $2,000,000 (using the agent to sell it, naturally).
How would you feel if your agent did that?
Shafted.
And that’s EXACTLY what BOFA and Morgan Stanley just did to LinkedIn and LinkedIn’s shareholders.
LINKEDIN IPO: Stock Priced Too LowThe correction you are seeking, and which I now solemnly herewith deliver under the implied threat of a trademark-infringement lawsuit, is that “Stetson” is the name of your company and not a generic term for a hat. You further demand that all future references to “Stetson” contain a little R in a circle, like this: Stetson®. Okay. Done, and done.
Stetson® hats suck.
Gene Weingarten: Restraint of trademark - The Washington Post
It’s strange how something as seemingly innocuous as an image of an “anatomically correct heart” will startle me. There I’ll be, skipping through Etsy looking for pottery espresso cups and BOOM there’s a heart with its four chambers, its piping all miraculously connected in the standard arrangement, perfectly evolved to hydraulically cycle and oxygenate blood. A couple of years ago I wouldn’t have thought twice about it, would’ve moseyed on in my quest for preferred pottery, but now it makes my thoughts stutter. My impulse was to quickly scroll past it - a “look away” reaction - but it was too late, the thought had already crossed my mind: “there is a perfect heart, and perfect hearts aren’t always standard issue, and darn! this picture making me think about this!”
I tell the story ok enough verbally, sitting beside someone, but it’s hard for me to write it. Facts are easier to write than emotions, especially when emotions are a scrambled up mess of dismay, fear, and anger at the random misfires of the universe, soothed only slightly by hope, utter hope, in the advancements of medical science. So, here’s the medical facts about Ken’s son Riley, from “Riley’s blog”.
Riley was born with congenital heart defects that were detected shortly after birth. He has a condition called heterotaxy which means his internal organs are reversed. His heart is on the right side of his chest. He is also missing a spleen, a cardiac-related condition called asplenia syndrome. Riley’s heart only has a single ventricle and a common valve. Before treatment, oxygen poor blood mixed with oxygenated blood causing severe cyanosis (“blueness”).
There is no cure for Riley’s disease but a three-stage palliative treatment is commonly performed. A few days after birth in April 2003 surgeons at UCSF performed the first stage, a BT Shunt. In May 2004 surgeons performed the Glenn Procedure. In March 2006 Riley underwent the Fontan Procedure, the third stage. Riley developed protein losing enteropathy and in March 2007 received a Fontan fenestration which failed, followed by the Fontan takedown in April 2007.
Riley’s 8 now. He’s super smart and he’s funny. He loves playing baseball and legos, riding his bike, hanging out with his little brother, and asking wise questions. His condition is stable and he goes in for a checkup in the next month or so. In the meantime, it’s “enjoy each day as it comes” and “hurry up, science”.
I read a digital message from boyhood guitar hero Johnny Marr moments after it was sent (from England) about a public school chorus in Staten Island covering a classic song from The Smiths. I was able to instantly view a streaming video of the performance. I was then able to forward the message to my friends and acquaintances all over the world. Feeling nostalgic, I accessed a digital locker of my entire music collection over a network connection and played the original song on my portable computer. Needing to leave my desk, I switched the playback to my telephone and was able to continue listening while I walked. From my wireless telephone. That is in my pocket.
Sometimes it’s satisfying to recognize how far we’ve come.
