Dave Morin

In talking to a collegue of mine at Harvard tonight about the finer things in life, he mentioned that he has lately been finding himself in deep philosophical conversations with a Rhodes Scholar friend of his. She constantly quotes Thoreau and other whatnot, causing him to feel somewhat inadequate. Until, one night on the topic of life, he threw in this analogy for her (in defense of religion):

Mac people have a solid unshakeable kernel deep inside etc. and then add on software that makes them better but that doesn’t affect their core.

PC people are always in flux and small additions or changes in their lives change the whole operating system.

I told her she needs to be more like a Mac.

Touche, Hugo.

(She later told him of the similarities to Maslow…lol)

“Everyone should work at a place where they can wear sandals to work.”
- Dave Morin

Days like today in San Francisco are the days that make me love living here. The sparkling water full of sailboats in the San Francisco Bay, the Golden Gate, everyone out on the streets enjoying the day, and smiling faces everywhere. These are the days that redeem the fog filled ones (though we love you too fog).

So, I have a few things on my mind today, first of which are the comments I have been getting about my “ThoughtBombs.” A few folks (and not so happily) have made reference to the site www.thoughtbomb.net, and my usage of the term being a reference there. It is in fact, not. I heard the term first in the book The Ten Faces of Innovation by Tom Kelley, which references a way that IDEO uses to educate everyone in the firm on current and interesting ideas. One person puts together a book full of interesting thoughts and distributes it to the entire firm. They use it as a way to spread interesting information to everyone. So, consider what I’m doing a mini version of that, for all of you. Thanks Tom Kelley, and IDEO, for being an inspiration to me.

Secondly, people have been making references to the new addition at the bottom of my posts. The inclusion of the geographical location from which I am making the post. I did, in fact, get this idea from Guy Kawasaki’s new blog. And, I thank him for the fantastic idea (and breakfast a couple of weeks ago..thanks Guy!). I think it’s genius, in that it gives you a sense of geographical place as you finish reading someone’s post. This leads to a better context of the content based on where the person was posting from. Brilliant!

Thanks to everyone who has influenced me in generating content for this blog. Without the authors that I read, the people in my life around Silicon Valley, San Francisco, and the world, I really wouldn’t have anything to write about. It’s the sharing, re-sharing, and re-mixing of ideas that makes the world go ’round. So thank you to everyone that helps give me subject matter to think and write about. I can only hope that my contribution to the conversation is just as interesting and worthwhile to you as my reader.

Written from The Grove on Fillmore - Pacific Heights, San Francisco

At dinner with my parents tonight:

Me: “I’ve got your back mom.”
Mom: “Oh no! You inherited my bad back too?”
Sister: *Laughing uncontrollably*
Me: “No mom, you know, I’ve got you’ve covered…everything is under control…”
Mom: “I’ve never heard that before.”
Sister:*Still laughing*

Nate Warner points us to a recent Trendwatcher article about Generation C. And, rightly points out that, most of our generation doesn’t associate itself with X,Y,Z, or the millenials. We are a generation that is about content and content creation with digital media tools (even if just for our friends, or for our classes). We’ve grown up with the tools, and seen them evolve. We know how to use them for fun, for persuasion, and for vast styles of creative projects.

All of these things are the reasons that ways to share this content are popping up left and right. (Think Flickr, and the Apple Student Gallery) And, it is only the beginning.

Cheers to content creation.