What we read this week (2 Dec)

Quotes of the week

The best advice I could possibly give you, and forgive me if this seems glib, is to work. Work. Work. Work. Every day. At the same time every day. For as long as you can take it every day, work, work, work. Understand? Talent is for shit.

– Barry Moser

A digital strategy is a plan to engage and empower networks of people, connected by shared interests, to satisfy a measurable business objective.

– Bud Caddell

Articles of the week

• Russell Davies: again with the post digital
  RIG’s Russel Davies once popularized the term “post-digital”, and in some ways it’s been haunting him since. In this post he re-visits it, lending new meaning to the term.
• Why Gidsy’s MarketPlace for Experiences Could Change Things
  Andrew Hennigan with a good writeup about our office neighbors Gidsy, and why they are on to something big.
• Why we’re consistently surprised by the consistently unsurprising future (ft. Little Printer)
  Our buddy Kyle Cameron Studstill took the frenzy around BERG’s Little Printer this week to think about why we can be surprised by the past, and why we are surprised about our lack of surprise about the future.
• Innovation Excellence: A Prototype is Worth a 1000 Ideas
  “If a picture is worth a thounds words, then I think a prototype is worth a thousand ideas.” While we are not sure about the exact numbers, we do agree with the general assumption. And prototypes do not necessarily need to be physical objects either.
• All Things D: The Apologies of Zuckerberg: A Retrospective
  At this point, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s pattern on privacy is clear. Launch new stuff that pushes the boundaries of what people consider comfortable. Apologize and assure users that they control their information, but rarely pull back entirely, and usually reintroduce similar features at a later date when people seem more ready for it.
• ZDNet: Google’s highly profitable secret war against small businesses and jobs
  While we find the wording in this article a touch too aggressive, it is interesting nonetheless how Google’s change of strategy resulted in less AdSense revenue for small businesses.
• Future Perfect: A Shift From the Visual
  Jan Chipchase on why “a photo or it didn’t happen” is something that we won’t say 10 years from now, and how the importance of visual will fade over time. If there somebody we trust with assertions of the future, it is Mr Chipchase.
• The Guardian: Know thyself: the Quantified Self devotees who live by numbers
  While we had to cancel our trip to the Quantified Self Europe Conference last week, the Guardian published a quite comprehensive summary of the event, and a good intro into the topic.
• O’Reilly Radar: Don’t blame the information for your bad habits
  Clay Johnson argues that we don’t suffer under information overload, but information overconsumption. He has a point there. A little warning: this interview with him will likely make you want to buy his new book “The Information Diet”.
• Caught in the Webb: Let’s Not Party Like It’s 1999
  Rick Webb, co-founder of the Barbarian Group, speaks up against NYC’s mayor Bloomberg pretending to be the buddy of the NYC tech scene while violently crashing down on OWS.