Eugene "B"-log

"Simplicity is not the absence of clutter, that’s a consequence of simplicity. Simplicity is..."

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 14:07:52 -0400

“Simplicity is not the absence of clutter, that’s a consequence of simplicity. Simplicity is somehow essentially describing the purpose and place of an object and product. The absence of clutter is just a clutter-free product. That’s not simple”

- Jonathan Ive

"Companies rarely die from moving too fast, and they frequently die from moving too slowly."

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 14:46:57 -0400

“Companies rarely die from moving too fast, and they frequently die from moving too slowly.”

- Reed Hastings

"Leaders are not what many people think–people with huge crowds following them. Leaders are people..."

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 15:40:41 -0400

“Leaders are not what many people think–people with huge crowds following them. Leaders are people who go their own way without caring, or even looking to see whether anyone is following them. ‘Leadership qualities’ are not the qualities that enable people to attract followers, but those that enable them to do without them. The include, at the very least, courage, endurance, patience, humor, flexibility, resourcefulness, determination, a keen sense of reality, and the ability to keep a cool and clear head even when things are going badly. This is the opposite of the ‘charisma’ that we hear so much about.”

- John Holt

Why are corporations failing? cc: @jeffjarvis @edyson

Sat, 06 Aug 2011 16:11:24 -0400

“In one of the first chapters of “In The Plex”, Steve Levy says it’s the “superbrainy engineering mentality that represented the future of business in the Internet age.” How true! What is not driven by the technology today? Toothbrush - can be electronic, refrigerators could automatically re-order food for you (granted this one didn’t take off just yet), peanut butter is automatically scraped from barrels with six sigma quality and stuffed into a jar, GE producing PAC imaging systems and American Express tracking fraud and abuse and at the same time partnering with @FourSquare to engage with the consumers.

An then there is complexity in tracking all these data points to be able to make just-in-time, accurate decision support capabilities of the living breathing organization.

An organization is like a human body. Everything needs to function perfectly in perfect unison or else you are sick. Well, corporations are sick today and will be for the foreseeable future.

So why, you ask? This is my theory and please don’t assume that I am talking about 100% of large enterprises. There is a small percentage (I dont have empirical data, maybe somebody does) of companies that are run by “super brainy mentality” that get just GET IT!!!

The business people who are the top of organizations today just don’t get it. They know the phrase “real time”, but don’t know what to do with it or how to “install it”. Decisions are made on stale information. There is so much data that becomes information, but DOES NOT become KNOWLEDGE.

The leaders of today also do not understand that everything is transparent. That there are no more secrets and backhanded deals. Employees have a million ways to communicate anything from inside of the corporation’s skin using today;s technology. Protectionism DOES NOT work

Tomorrow’s corporations need to inspire their workforce, they need to innovate in the marketplace, they need to engage with their customers and most importantly trust the future leaders. The leaders of today do not know how to accomplish this. They don’t understand in what ways technology can help. They just place demands based on inaccurate information, hire CIO’ who are pure operators and not business thinkers and lose the edge… Technology was a back thought of the business goal not the leading dog of the pack.

And this is why I think corporations as living and breathing organisms are becoming extinct. The future is entrepreneurship. And while, the word “entrepreneur” most of the time signifies two guys in a garage I am not just describing that. It also is a corporation that allows freedom to innovate, freedom to make decisions, acceptance of quick failure and quick recovery as well as rewarding risks at the rank and file.

There are two lessons here. One is a famous phrase by Esther Dyson: ” “Fail cheap. Fail fast. Fail often. Always make new mistakes.” Secondly is to embrace the new corporate leaders that know how to apply technology to grow a business, innovate and at the end create jobs!!!

1st ever Health 2.0 NYC Hackathon #gov20 cc: @todd_park

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 18:56:41 -0400

Well, Alex Fair from @FairCareMD and the rest of the great team at Health 2.0 NYC has done it again! Sold out event, star speaker and a mission - a mission to change our healthcare system. Please see below from Alex and re-tweet, blog, shout, poke and enthuse the health data geeks around you to participate!

“Announcing the first ever Health 2.0 NYC UXathon/ Hackathon

Health 2.0 NYC is not about passively listening, we DO stuff. So let’s meet Todd Park (CTO of HHS) halfway and live the dream he has been proselytizing so well. Let’s liberate all that crunchy data he has Opened Up from Government Data Sources and make some killer apps for health living!

This contest is for the Designers, Programmers or Companies that can use the Healthdata.gov datasets out there. Everyone else, please ignore or pass on to your friendly neighborhood designer or programmer with a little time on their hands. Potential sponsors who want to tap into the creativity of the developers and designers of New York, please read on too…

The Challenge.

Do this:

1. Go to the www.healthdata.gov site

2. Imagine a useful application you could build with the many data sets there or ask a potential sponsor to help dream one up - see below if you need an idea.

3. Mash it up and build a prototype and/or design a killer User Experience (UX) by the 10th at Noon (EST) and post it to the forumfor general review and comment. We will send a survey to gather votes. The members of Health 2.0 will serve as judges for the big prize.

(Note, you could win with just an amazing design, but it is better if you team up with a programmer to make a prototype too.)

The Big Prize

The top 2 entries get to be displayed as part of the Health 2.0 Meet Todd Park Event.

Sponsorship winners will be determined by individual sponsors.

Qualifications:

1. No companies or teams, just individual programmers and / or designers - max team size = 2

2. It has to be the work that was substantially done now, don’t dust off an old project and submit it. You can build on previous work, just note what is new.

3. It has to be beneficial to the delivery or practice of healthcare

4. You need to be able to attend live or via webcam on 8/12 in NYC @ 3 PM and do a demo.

Sponsorship:

If you would like to sponsor a team or a challenge please do so through the Hackathon/ UXathon Discussion topic here or email me.
Designers and / or Programmers can be sponsored by companies

Example:

FairCareMD Physician Profiles make choosing a doctor easy but no great dataset exists that incorporates all the data freely available. Demographics, Quality and Cost data for every Practicing Physician, Dentist, Hospital, Urgicare center, or Allied Health Professional in America should be readily and easily available to all patients. FairCareMD is willing to sponsor the project but we need a great leader for it and to kickstart the development cycle. The data are interspersed among many of the .gov data sets. Mash them up and if you knock our socks off we will sponsor further development and pay a $1,000 cash prize.

Why do this?

1. Hackathons are great for hiring and jobs. If you have the stuff and can strut it here you will get hired and have rock star status.

2. National Exposure - this event is big and will be livestreamed as well as published and tweeted online

3. Get Paid in Cash and maybe Equity - Sponsors like FairCareMD are looking for great new team members who can handle big data but we can’t afford to hire non-producers and most of us have been burned at least once. Get into a great startup by showing your skills and don’t just be a programmer, earn some sweat equity in the next big thing.

4. UXathon? Well, because often the hacked up creations are often not all that usable - so usability is also part of this contest, where relevant

Please feel welcome to pass this on to others who might be interested.

To see more about Todd Park or the event, click here.

Once again, thank you for making our group and events what they are.

Best Regards,

Alex Fair”

Wow - found old checks from ‘98 - these companies do not...

Sat, 23 Jul 2011 15:49:47 -0400

Wow - found old checks from ‘98 - these companies do not exist #extinct Bell Atlantic, MCI, Smart Beep

"It has been just so in all my inventions. The first step is an intuition — and come with a burst,..."

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 18:12:10 -0400

“It has been just so in all my inventions. The first step is an intuition — and come with a burst, then difficulties arise. This thing gives out and then that — ‘Bugs’ — as such little faults and difficulties are called.”

- Thomas Edison

jayparkinsonmd: Here’s the logo for the project I just...

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 00:42:05 -0400

jayparkinsonmd:

Here’s the logo for the project I just mentioned that helps nurses learn about new innovations that make their jobs easier. We worked with our favorite design firm, Liitle Fury! They’re amazing little furies…

"Thieves want your things… But neighbors want your time.. ” - haha"

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 00:39:20 -0400

““Thieves want your things… But neighbors want your time.. ” - haha”

- Larry David

jayparkinsonmd: In 2009, Kate Moss said “nothing tastes as good...

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 18:23:40 -0400

jayparkinsonmd:

In 2009, Kate Moss said “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.”

In 1964, our Surgeon General said, smoking is bad for you. This was released when about 50% of all adults smoked. Now, in NYC, only about 12% of adults smoke. 46 years later.

Which one has the most influence over people? Pop culture vs. the surgeon general?

The issue of obesity is much, much more complicated than smoking. Smoking is one addictive behavior. Obesity is an entire ecosystem around you— your neighborhood, your means of transport, your corner store, your supermarket, your family, your culture, your attitude toward exercise, our media’s attitude toward skinny and overweight, our retail stores gradually increasing the measurements of a size to make us feel we’re not gaining weight, etc..

There is no quick fix to obesity.

So what does “quick” mean? In the world of smoking, quick meant 46 years to see a 38% decrease in a city with a very progressive, multi-factorial anti-smoking campaign. Regarding obesity, en masse behavior change takes generations. Just in the past decade, we’ve gotten the obesity conversation started. Hopefully, in 50 years and about the time I die, we’ll have seen a 38% decrease in obesity.

It’s just important to have some perspective and keep the conversation, awareness, and inspiration going.

"You have to be run by ideas, not hierarchy"

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 10:28:25 -0400

“You have to be run by ideas, not hierarchy”

- Steve Jobs

"#quote - Life is like a dogsled team. If you ain’t the lead dog, the scenery never changes."

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 21:36:52 -0400

“#quote - Life is like a dogsled team. If you ain’t the lead dog, the scenery never changes.”

- Lewis Grizzard

A lesson in transparency @PadPivot style

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 21:30:44 -0400

On January 15th, I pledged towards a neat project on Kickstarter - PadPivot (http://kck.st/gmzC2U). Their goal was to raise $10k towards “the ultimate tablet stand for iPad, Galaxy Tab, Kindle, or other tablet device”. I love Kickstarter as a platform and once in a while contribute to other neat projects such as “Times Square into Art Square” (http://kck.st/caH6Lc)

What I loved about PadPivot designers, Jim and Bernie, is that the enthusiasm was exuding from day one of the project and it has not stopped. This passion must have been felt by 4823 project backers raising in total over $190k.

Here is what impressed me the most… I, one of 4823 backers, really felt as if I was part of the process. We all helped pick the logo, observed bag designs, saw the first shot that turned into tools, saw pictures of Jim and Bernie at MacWorld, etc, etc

But… We were also informed of every issue. Whether it was PadPivot team’s or not they took ownership and full accountability even for Kickstarter platform problems.

From the beginning till now there has been 49 updates to the backers and a lot of time elapsed since my initial contribution to the project.

The PadPivot is still not at my house (coming very soon), but I am more then willing to be a patient consumer all because Jim and Bernie had me engaged, informed and their full transparency throughout is what will continue making PadPivot a great success.

A lot of businesses can learn from them and apply this methodology as a differentiating factor…

Fred Wilson on disruption

Sat, 11 Jun 2011 16:40:17 -0400

Fred Wilson on disruption:

“Wilson highlighted Sal Khan who created more than 2,000 free online classes through his Khan Academy and noted that “the vast majority of people who are on Khan Academy are not in the United States.” Saying “if you really want to see how the world is changing go to Sub-Saharan Africa or go to Southeast Asia or go to Eastern Europe and parts of the world that have not had things that we take for granted and look at how they are using the internet to get access to those things and I think that is where you see the big game changing things are going to happen.”

Is Groupon’s Business Model Sustainable?

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 17:46:33 -0400

Is Groupon’s Business Model Sustainable?:

Some interesting facts here but my question is where are the local businesses NOT spending the $677M - local newspapers are dead in 3 years

What markets / players are getting disrupted by Groupon?

Sat, 04 Jun 2011 10:08:37 -0400

"perfection is an iterative process"

Sat, 04 Jun 2011 01:46:49 -0400

“perfection is an iterative process”

- me,I think……..

"Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad."

Sat, 04 Jun 2011 00:35:31 -0400

“Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad.”

- Salvador Dali

Simvastatin #justsaying

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 22:41:35 -0400

Not even sure how I ended up at PubMed Simvastatin page -http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0000911/ - but this drew my attention.. I think from now on this will be my test for any doctor (please note I do not take this drug :) )

“Tell your doctor if you are taking antifungal medications such as itraconazole (Sporanox) and ketoconazole (Nizoral); clarithromycin (Biaxin); erythromycin (E.E.S., E-Mycin, Erythrocin); HIV protease inhibitors such as indinavir (Crixivan), ritonavir (Norvir) and saquinavir (Invirase, Fortovase); nefazodone (Serzone); and telithromycin (Ketek). Your doctor will probably tell you not to take simvastatin if you are taking these medications.”

"Twitter is about the now. It’s about what the world is talking about, thinking about, caring..."

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 20:53:40 -0400

“Twitter is about the now. It’s about what the world is talking about, thinking about, caring about and sharing right now. A tweet from an hour ago is a little stale. A tweet from yesterday is practically worthless. A tweet from a week ago is a historical curiosity. A tweet from last year belongs in a museum - or in a blog post, perhaps.”

- Daniel Tenner #guru