Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

Election 2008– The General Public

CMM June 26th, 2008

Due to the confidential nature of some projects I’m working on, I’m looking for alternative topics. I decided to go with old-faithful… politics.

When I first started blogging back in 2003, I was very active and well-read on politics. At the time I was living in south Florida, an area of attention for both local and national elections. Having volunteered and surrounded by it, I spent quite a bit of time writing about it. I love the American system of government and think writers have made been a major contribution to its strength. At one point, I even considered doing a joint Masters in Public Policy and Business Administration. As fate would have it, my life took a different turn as I watched people burn out and get passed over for consideration at the close of the ‘04 campaign season. I took my hiatus from politics and refocused my attention on business strategy and entrepreneurship, ending up in East TN with a MBA and career in community development venture capital.

Now its 2008, and I find myself being pulled into the wonderful pandemonium that is a presidential election year. I’ve been slightly adrift over the past few weeks, wondering what role I should play. After getting very involved with a primary candidate (and being left a little heart broken), I’ve kept my distance. This ends with this series of posts, categorized as Election 2008.

The topics I’d like to post are:

  • The candidate I won’t vote for
  • The candidate I will vote for
  • What are my important issues for this election cycle
  • Thoughts on the current state of affairs
  • Review of the Bush administration

To be honest, I’m not sure how this series of blog post will be taken. I’ve found it difficult to have conversations about the upcoming election. I feel like the general public is broken into three categories: 1. Obama fan boys/girls, 2.  wandering hero-worshippers, and 3. a silent majority. Let me define:

  • Obama fan boys/girls: Typically come from the young professional crowd that grew up on eco-friendly public service announcements, a healthy dose of racial guilt, and the sitcom image of a president. This audience is naive enough to believe in diplomatic talks, troop withdrawals, etc. They are also skeptical enough to think that America and/or its leaders are some how involved in most of the world’s problems and therefore responsible for fixing them (i.e. global warming, world hunger, etc). There is also the ever present intellectual liberal that in their wisdom can ”see some of the evil of capitalism and good of socialism.”
  • Wandering Hero-Worshippers: These people cling to some former icon, whether it be Regan, Kennedy or even F. D. Roosevelt. In today’s political climate, these folks are looking for someone that seems to embody the vision of these gone servants. I guess I fall in this category… I’d vote for ghost of Reagan, ghost of Goldwater, or ghost of Buckley ticket. Secretly, I think most politicos are hero-worshippers.
  • A Silent Majority: That’s right… I’m borrowing a term from Richard Nixon. The truth is, I do believe that the majority of Americans are hard working, down-to-earth folks that just want to live their lives. They don’t run around looking for things to be offended by, object to, or become zealots about. And they are confused. They are confused by the mud slinging and pandering of our politicians, by the complexity and spending of our government. They want something different, but don’t know the what or how. They need a hero (insert cliche ’80’s song “Holding Out for a Hero”)…

Now for a little humor…

 

Reading List of Southern Writers

CMM June 25th, 2008

Okay, so I have an undergraduate degree in English from a southern college. You probably expect me to be well read in southern literature, right? Well, wrong. I actually focused on Romantic and Victorian writing with a secondary focus on the history of the English language. Since American writers have only recently taken prominence on the literary scene (by recently, I mean the last century), only a small piece of my college reading included southern writers. As for my reading since graduation, I’ve been focused on non-fiction American history, politics, technology, and business. Throw in the required reading and study associated with getting an MBA, and there goes any hope for leisure reading. When I did have time for leisure reading, I’ve been working my way though the works of Christopher Buckley and Nick Hornby.

I’ve decided to fill this gap in my literary experience. After some research and consultation, I decided on the following criteria for selection:

  • Author must be from the American southeast or spent a substantial amount of time in the American southeast
  • The author must have received a Pulitzer or be credited with developing a specific style of writing
  • The writing must be a novel
  • The novel must be set in the American southeast

As such, here are the authors and works on the list:

  • William Faulkner “The Sound and The Fury” (Pulitzer– 1955 and 1963)
  • Harper Lee “To Kill a Mockingbird” (Pulitzer– 1961)
  • Cormac McCarthy “Suttree” (Pulitzer– 2007)
  • James Agee “A Death in the Family” (Pulitzer– 1958)
  • Robert Penn Warren “All the King’s Men” (Pulitzer– 1948, 1958, and 1979)
  • Tom Wolfe “A Man in Full” (founder of New Journalism)

Consideration went to:

  • Pat Controy
  • Truman Capote
  • Rock Bragg
  • Anne Rice
  • John Grisham
  • Mark Twain

Twitter’s Learning Curve

CMM June 13th, 2008

I previously wrote about my frustration with Twitter’s growing pains. I know this is part of the start-up experience, but I was becoming frustrated by what I perceived to be Twitter’s lack of interest in solving the problem. Since blogging should be as much about the positive as the negative, I am happy to report that Twitter is taking steps to correct the problem (hat tip to Venture Beat).

First, Twitter’s chief architect has left the company. It is still speculation as to whether this was an amicable parting of the ways, but it is clear that Twitter has struggled to keep the service running in the days since his departure. As a lesson in entrepreneurship, sometimes key people have to go. This gives an opportunity for new blood to come on board with fresh perspective, energy and ideas. Maybe this is needed? Let’s face it, the simple service hasn’t really increased the robustness of its service in the 16 months I’ve been using it.

Second, Twitter has hired some mercenary software development staff form Pivotal Labs. Not to get the techno-geeks too excited, but this is like hiring the A-Team of software writing. On the down side, this is a mercenary team. Once the work is done, Hanibal and company collect big paychecks, enjoy a cigar, and move on to the next project. Let’s hope Twitter has someone to learn the new architecture and help it evolve with future needs.

As an interesting study in developmental strategy, I think Twitter has been forced into taking these steps. First, I don’t think they have any substantial intellectual property to protect their service. Second, many big name people in the tech business have hinted at the simplicity of Twitter’s architecture and an interest in creating a rival platform. I’ve heard that those efforts are being kept in stealth mode, but this could create an interesting environment for Twitter. Given the Townhall project by Microsoft (MSFT),I wouldn’t put it past MSFT to develop something in house. Lastly, Twitter experiences competitive pressure from Google acquisition Jaiku.

Image from casualgamedesign.com.

Why I’m Not Surprised by Couch-Gate

CMM June 12th, 2008

Hat tip to Metropulse for the article “The Couch Uncovered” and to Doug at Reality Me for the post and record of events included in ”Knoxville ‘The Couch’”. Also, kudos to Michael Silence for writing the editor of the NYT.

Let me begin by saying that I am not a Knoxville native. My only Knoxville credentials are a graduate degree from UT, almost two years of residency, and actively reading Jack Neely’s Secret History articles. For the record, I’d be interested in Jack’s thoughts on “The Couch” as Knoxville’s unofficial historian. From my perspective, I wasn’t really insulted by the nickname, but maybe I don’t know any better.

That being said, there are two elements of this literary incident that do not surprise me. First, I would not be surprised by a NYT writer taking literary liberties with certain facts. In my opinion, the “gray lady” has moved away from  its 98 Pulitzer-prize-winning history as the current leadership struggles with competition from new media. When a Knoxville Tennessee native, Adolph Ochs, took management of the New York Times int he late 1800’s, he gave the paper a new slogan– “All That’s Fit to Print.” With this new mission, the gray lady took on international prominence and became a literary force. Not only did the NYT generate award-winning articles, it also utilized cutting edge technology to grow circulation and appeal to a broader audience.

Over the past few years, I’ve heard many conversations criticising the editorial and managerial decisions of the NYT. It seems the slogan today is “Anything We Want to Print.” In 2004, then NYT public editor Daniel Orkent wrote a piece that criticised a certain liberal bias in the paper. He remarked on the papers deliberate “cosmopolitan slant” towards certain social issues. To be honest, this makes sense given the location of the paper, but this bias seemed to increase over the past few years and influence other categories. The New York Times has also struggled with plagiarizm and fabrication (ahem, Couch-gate). In 2003, Jason Blair was forced to resign after his writing was found to be at fault in both.

The modern newspaper faces a much different competitive landscape than twenty years ago. Now we live in a world of 24-hour news coverage provided over the television and Internet. This news medium, probably more accurately described as opinion, entertains people with the Bill O’Reillys, Keith Obermanns, and Chris Matthews of the world. More frightening than the commenatary of these talkings heads is the fact that many people seem willing to accept their opinions as factual news. At the end of the day, newspapers and all traditional print media struggle to keep up with this “I need it now” mentality. Subscriptions have been shrinking and circulation costs have been increasing.

This brings me to the second element of this incident that doesn’t surprise me– bloggers. Blogs have cut into traditional media. Bloggers have a chip on their shoulder, similar to any upstart stuggling to get respect. Lets face it, even legitimate bloggers are the Rodney Dangerfields of the world. Brilliant writers struggle to get an income because “they just don’t get no respect.” Fortunately, we’ve seen a change in this dynamic over the past few years as many bloggers have been brought onto newspaper staffs and many newspaper writers have developed blogs. Regardless, local bloggers can be very protective of their territory, and with our cultural pride, Knoxvillians aren’t any different. If the validity of the nickname is a stretch, the writer was very naive in thinking it would be accepted as common knowledge. Now if one of the Knoxville blog community had come up with the new nickname, then it would have been different…

That being said, I’m proud of our little community for its cultural pride and sense of community. Likewise, I’m appreciative of the NYT article and the many positive things it points to in this great city (although, I could do without the “I’ll Take My Ball and Go Somewhere Else” response from the author). I was also pleased to see local newspapers and local bloggers working in tandem to unveil this mystery. Again, maybe Jack Neely will weigh in next week on the legitimacy of “The Couch?”

Of course, every notable incident involves a conspiracy theory. Maybe this whole thign was planned in advance in order to spur linking and discussion (double hat tip to Doug at Reality Me and hat tip to Glenn at Instapundit).

Wallstrip on Investing in Vice

CMM January 31st, 2008

Leave it to the ladies at Wallstrip to do an amusing video on vice investing during an economic downturn. Vice investing is purchasing stock in guns, cigarettes, gambling. and booze… all areas of the economy that tend to perform better in an economic downturn. It begs the questions, is that really consistent with the idea that investors always behave rationally in a free market?

My favorite line…. “I’m a hot widgit!”

Next »