Disruptive Thoughts

Incentives

February 17th, 2008 Comments

Remember when this blog was relevant? Me either.

I do remember when it was fun. And alive. What happened? Life. Sadly the asset that was DisruptiveThoughts has slowly eroded. Gone. I want to invest into it - to build it up while enjoying a hectic life.

What to do?

Follow the advice a Nobel Laureate gives to dieters: donate to the Nazi party.

Commitment contracts, a constructed incentive to promote task completion. To this end, I’ve written and signed a contract to donate to Kiva every week that I don’t post 4 times.

Relevance isn’t the goal. It’s always been about thinking. See you tomorrow.

Links of the Moment

January 30th, 2008 Comments

Here are some recent posts that are excellent reads.

1) Influentials On The Web Are People With The Power To Link. With keen interest I’ve been reading the content that has erupted around Clive Thompson’s latest article in Fast Company. I’m not convinced that Watts’ theory is mutually exclusive from Gladwell’s.

2) The Big Lie About Free. “Spot the error? It’s that the only way to measure value is with money.” To which I wonder, what if the best way to measure value is to make it free?

3) Sweet Home Chicago. Return on four month’s investment? A lifetime of clarity. Nicely done Eric.

4) Where’s the Money and Start-up Business Models. These echo a point in my Ignite presentation from Toronto DemoCamp late last year. The point was oddly received by Toronto’s tech community, yet it shouldn’t be a debated point.

Songs of the Year - Best of 07: Number 7

January 30th, 2008 Comments

Forever this song will be linked to some memorable runs through Westdale in early fall. Classes were starting at McMaster and the village was alive with frosh week action supported by the warm Indian summer.

Gotta Get Myself Into It by The Rapture is my 7th favorite song of 2007. If you’ve been following the transition of my music taste over the past two years you’ll understand just how perfect of a fit this song is for me. Here’s the video for the song.

Songs of the Year - Best of 07: Number 8

January 13th, 2008 Comments

If I was to tell you that MGMT - Kids was a song of the year and you were to respond “but Fraser, you only discovered that song two short days ago” you would be correct.

I share that song for a few reasons: (i) I’m totally addicted to it right now; (ii) Ken sent me an email saying “always appreciate the exposure to new tunes” and I don’t want to let him down with this entry; and, (iii) there’s a part of me that feels I should be embarrassed about the number 8 song of the year.

Do you ever get guilty pleasures that bubble up from unexpected places? I do. And the number 8 song is definitely one of them.

Follow along with me: I was listening to Stern and Duran Duran played Hungry Like the Wolf, a song I love, to promote their new song (album?). I picked up a copy of their greatest hits to listen to an old guilty pleasure and in the process discovered this song, a new guilty pleasure.

Oh, and Ken, check out MGMT. Their album is superb.

NYC

January 6th, 2008 Comments

At precisely 9:00 pm on Saturday, January 5th, 2008 my plane touched down in New York City marking the start of my NYC adventure.

Yesterday was a mixed day of emotions. There were emotional highs about the adventure that lays ahead. There were also trying lows. I wrote this a short moment after waving goodbye at the airport and disappearing out of view of loved ones.

I explored the city today, it was really my first time discovering it. It was a day marked with firsts.

My first day waking up in my new city. First time seeing the Empire State Building. First run in Central Park. First time feeling the wave of miss that occurs when you’re far away from friends and family.

Here’s a photo of my building.

my building - 010608

Overwhelming thought of the day: this is going to be an emotionally intense year (and one hell of a city to live in).

If you’re in the city let’s grab a drink.