347 entries under "article"

How Abigail Koffler grew her email list from scratch

[Each week is something to cook, something to order, and something to read.]

[I ask a question every week and include the responses in the following week.]

Languaging: The Strategic Use Of Language To Change Thinking

[Viagra had to invent a disease called erectile dysfunction to avoid saying 'impotent.']

[Whoever frames it and names it can claim it. You can become an authority by defining a category.]

[A grande is preceived to be more expensive than medium.]

[All great languaging involves one of the four arithmetic operations: what does it add? subtract? multiply? divide? The result can be longer, or in seconds, or an order of magnitude different.]

How Toastmasters has survived—nay, thrived!—for 100 years

[There is a counter at each meeting for both grammar mistakes and filler words like 'um', and a timer helps speakers fit into the allotted time. People keep coming back to improve their skills.]

How I write

[After grouping fragments of your idea, and before writing a draft, bring it up when talking to smart people and try to get their feedback or disagreements. This is part of allowing time to work in your favour and helps you find the right words or way to express in more permanent form.]

A cellular theory of communities

[Communities grow less like linear software products and more like multi-cellular organisms. If the conditions aren't conducive, the entire structure can collapse.]

[It's easier for cells to stay alive when they are smaller. Multi-cellular organisms grow by producing more cells.]

[Might be more strategic to build a large community by connecting many smaller, more intimate micro-communities. Enlarging small groups destroys the qualities that make it potent.]

To scale a community, build lots of special, one-of-a-kind places for a few people at a time, and then work with the most active members to build fast interconnects between them.

Positive Sum Worlds: Remaking Public Goods

Greater scale should mean greater good as valued by an increasingly wider set of people: the creation of positive externalities.

pay it forward

[The coolest thing to say when receiving gratitude is not 'you're welcome' but 'pass it on'.]

being smart vs being kind

[Nourishment leads to more growth than coddling.]

[Like babies, challenge ideas not when they are fragile but when they have grown legs.]

Michael, Dwight and Andy: the Three Aesthetics of the Creative Class

[Upper class proles project 'I am winning'; Middles project 'I am serious'; Upper middles project 'I am at ease'.]

[Upper class proles show they are 'winning' by talking about daytrading, fantasy sports, and other publicly abailable information that is really about them. This is in place of ticket stubs and receipts that in the past would have been whipped out of their wallet to prove something.]

[The middles show they are 'correct' by discussin talking points and everything that's wrong with the world as an obvious contrast to themselves.]

[The upper middles show they are at ease by not pretending, as the middles do, but by gossiping hints about the secret context that no one else knows.]

[When the conversation turns yo real estate, the upper proles talk about prices, the middles talk about demographic and social issues, and the upper middles talk about renovation.]

Digital Sovereignty.

[All maps are projections, imperfect representations of space.]

On Pioneers, Settlers, Town Planners and Theft.

[Pioneers build the first prototypes of new technologies. Settlers make it accessible profitable. Town planners make it a commodity that enables new pioneers.]

[Create incentives for each group to steal from the other.]

[Each group has a different culture. Not to be subsumed under 'company culture'.]

Participation Inequality: The 90-9-1 Rule for Social Features

[Help counter participation inequality by making it easier to contribute; making participation a side effect of other things they did; offering templates to avoid intimidating blank pages; rewarding participation with badges or discounts; showcasing great contributions.]

8 tips for converting free newsletter readers to paid

[Conversions don't happen on first contact. People need repeated exposure before taking action.]

App Store Arguments

In this world you don’t need 1,000 true fans to make a living; you need 1,786 — 536 fans to pay Apple, 253 fans to pay Twitter, and only then the 1,000 that make it possible to create something new. It is inevitable that some number of businesses never get started, because of this deadweight loss.

[Apple strategically launched on 2nd or 3rd tier carriers to maximize their control over the experience, and then used the leverage from market dominance to force larger carriers to accept.]

Civic LARPing

[Create opportunities for live-action role-playing by 1) presenting challenges and 2) maintaining a broader audience that witnesses it all.]

Do the Real Thing

[Nothing can be better than something if it fosters the urge to do the real thing. Something fake can be harmful if it drains you of energy and space to do the real thing.]

AARRR Framework- Metrics That Let Your StartUp Sound Like A Pirate Ship

[Acquire leads by helping people find you; Activate customers by helping them succeed and repeat; Retain them by understanding why they're leaving or staying; give them incentives to Refer news leads; increase Revenue by reducing costs or raising prices.]

[Allow visitors to signal themselves as leads, qualified leads, and then customers.]

[Invest more in the channels that are successful.]

[Twitter helps you follow your first 30 accounts, Facebook helps you add you first 7 friends, Dropbox helps you upload your first file, because then you are more likely to come back.]

[Easier to retain or sell to an existing customer than acquire a new one.]

New Atheism: The Godlessness That Failed

Malachi-2:3-says-God-wants to-put-dung-on-your-face-related t-shirts, bumper stickers, keychains, and coffee mugs

How We Ditched Venture Capital and Let a Competitor Fund Our Startup

[A startup is not one idea but a thousand ideas in one direction.]

The Future of Education is Community: The Rise of Cohort-Based Courses

[Cohort-based courses (CBCs) can be more easily accomodate new information.]

[Video calls can be recorded, but they don't capture the magic of the experience, which makes it piracy-resistant.]