Inspiring Quotations

The secret to internet millions

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 13:12:00 +0000

“Here’s the formula if you want to build a billion-dollar internet company,” he said. “Take a human desire, preferably one that has been around for a really long time…Identify that desire and use modern technology to take out steps.” Ev Williams

Facts and Opinion

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Wed, 01 May 2013 16:07:00 +0000

"If we have data, let’s look at data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine."

Jim Barksdale, former Netscape CEO

Bezos's heavy Amazon

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:53:00 +0000

"As I write this, our recent stock performance has been positive, but we constantly remind ourselves of an
important point – as I frequently quote famed investor Benjamin Graham in our employee all-hands meetings – “In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.” We don’t
celebrate a 10% increase in the stock price like we celebrate excellent customer experience. We aren’t 10%
smarter when that happens and conversely aren’t 10% dumber when the stock goes the other way. We want to be weighed, and we’re always working to build a heavier company."

From Amazon's 2012 letter to shareholders (here)

I made this.

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 11:25:00 +0000

"creating something personal, even of moderate quality, has a different kind of appeal than consuming something made by others, even of high quality"

Clay Shirky (in Cognitive Surplus?)

Silicon versus Carbon

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 12:51:00 +0000

Things change because of people interacting with other people, rather than technology or design really doing things to people.”

Mark Earls

Get it out there / Always in Beta

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 14:16:00 +0000

So many @instagram features we only thought of after seeing real usage. A day of your app in the wild is worth a month of guessing.

Mike Krieger, Instagram on Twitter

Frantic is good

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:13:00 +0000

If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough

Mario Andretti

Culture > Technology

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 16:17:00 +0000

Communications tools don't get socially interesting until they get technologically boring.

Clay Shirky

Effectiveness vs Efficiency

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 08:50:00 +0000

“Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.”

Peter Drucker

Perhaps a bridge would be better?

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:55:00 +0000

The most dangerous strategy is to jump a chasm in two leaps.

Benjamin Disraeli

Change etc.

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:59:00 +0000

"The whole world turns upside down in ten years, but you turn upside down with it."

Spider Robinson

Only 20:20 vision is hindsight

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:57:00 +0000

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.

Søren Kierkegaard

There's no such thing as a side effect

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:04:00 +0000

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny ...'

Isaac Asimov

Behavioural Economics

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 10:46:00 +0000

“To know what people really think, pay regard to what they do, rather than what they say.”

Rene Descartes

Time out to think

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 10:43:00 +0000

Only the guy who isn't rowing has time to rock the boat.

Jean-Paul Sartre

Spread the love

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 17:59:00 +0000

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy: They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

Marcel Proust
French novelist (1871 - 1922)

Smell the roses

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 17:57:00 +0000

A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832)

My heart beats true

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:36:00 +0000

All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832)

But it's my perspective!

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:17:00 +0000

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world

Arthur Schopenhauer

The power of social influence

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:14:00 +0000

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone.

Arthur Schopenhauer

New idea are ridiculed

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:11:00 +0000

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

Arthur Schopenhauer

Don't Let 'Em Get You Down

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:37:00 +0000

"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds."

Albert Einstein

Definition of Publishing

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 09:36:00 +0000

"Publishing" is such a little metonym-bomb, it confuses the conversation. Replacing it w/'making things public' clarifies much.

Clay Shirky
(Tweeted 10th June 2009)

Social Objects

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Wed, 13 May 2009 11:32:00 +0000

"The key is to produce something that both pulls people together and gives them something to do... I don't have to control the conversation to benefit from their interest."

Henry Jenkins

Impact of Digital On Culture

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Wed, 13 May 2009 08:21:00 +0000

"Our focus should be not on emerging technologies but on emerging cultural practices"

Henry Jenkins

HT @faris