Mike's notes.
Supported by Greenhaven Road Capital, finding value off the beaten path. One theme that’s come up on this blog are moments where someone thinks, “Hmm, that’s interesting.” These ideas emerge when someone’s perception of the world doesn’t match reality. When this happens we can do three things. Dismiss reality (stubborn), That person is an idiot. Of… Continue reading Hmm, That’s Interesting
The 2012 job-to-be-done at Calm was meditation. But when engineers looked at the usage data they noticed something interesting, there was a lot of Calm usage at night. “When they started productizing around sleep,” explained Vinny Pujji, “that’s when it opened up from being just a meditation focus thing to what they are today, which… Continue reading JTBD is iteration
Supported by Greenhaven Road Capital, finding value off the beaten path. Martin Lindstrom was doing research for LEGO. He was a good choice because he loved LEGOs. As a kid, Lindstrom built a LEGO Land in his backyard. It was so popular that one day two – kind – IP lawyers showed up and asked… Continue reading Martin Lindstrom
Supported by Greenhaven Road Capital, finding value off the beaten path. These are notes from three YouTube talks by designer Dan Lockton. I found Lockton’s work thanks to Stevyn Colgan’s mention of him in the park benches section of Why Did the Policeman Cross the Road? 2014, Nudgestock. Dan Lockton wants people to know that… Continue reading Dan Lockton
Supported by Greenhaven Road Capital, finding value off the beaten path. Restaurants are terrible businesses but in the spirit of inversion we can learn from anyone. Lately, a quote from Barry Ritholtz’s podcast with Cal Turner Jr. has bounced around my head: “Luther Turner, my papa, was wonderful. He only had a third-grade education. He… Continue reading Restaurants
Supported by Greenhaven Road Capital, finding value off the beaten path. Michael Smith and Rahul Telang of Carnegie Melon University wrote an interesting book, Streaming, Sharing, Stealing: Big Data and the Future of Entertainment. Smith and Telang wrote this book because of a “perfect storm” in the economic entertainment ecosystem. Traditionally a few firms dominated… Continue reading Streaming, Sharing, Stealing
Supported by Greenhaven Road Capital, finding value off the beaten path. Greg Lindsay’s talk, Innovation Doesn’t Happen at Your Desk is an attempt to get people to work together and better. I think he’d agree with Rory Sutherland in that many of the logical questions have been answered and we need to get a bit… Continue reading Greg Lindsay
Supported by Greenhaven Road Capital, finding value off the beaten path. Avi Goldfarb and Ajay Agrawal spoke at Google about Prediction Machines. They wrote the book because they noticed more AI startups in Toronto and more AI investing in the Bay. “We got to see both the flood of companies coming into our lab in… Continue reading Avi Goldfarb & Ajay Agrawal
Supported by Greenhaven Road Capital, finding value off the beaten path. James Aitken spoke with Ted Seides on the Capital Allocators podcast. What I liked most about this episode was Aitken’s approach to interestingness. We’ve written about that’s interesting moments before. Eric Maddox had his in Iraq. Brian Koppelman had his and it inspired Billions… Continue reading James Aitken
Supported by Greenhaven Road Capital, finding value off the beaten path. Joel Greenblatt joined Barry Ritholtz for a strong seventy or so minutes. Even though I’ve read (but need to re-read) You Can Be A Stock Market Genius I still enjoyed this episode. On to the annotations! … A new Point of View. Greenblatt had… Continue reading Joel Greenblatt
The Waiter's Pad 