Making the Case for Textbooks: Calling Out Seth Godin’s Rant

Seth Godin recently wrote a blog post where he rants about the uselessness of textbooks.  His rant concludes with this paragraph: This industry deserves to die. It has extracted too much time and too much money and wasted too much potential. We can do better. A lot better. I’m here to tell you that Seth is being very conveniently ignorant.  I mean this in the very literal sense, not the jealous girlfriend...

Google Maps: Get it Together (To put it politely…)

“****!  They got it wrong AGAIN! This is ****-****!” “You’re really selling me on this iPhone-thing, Ben,” my brother cheerfully chimed in. I was pissed.  I’d been in Austin for a week and was at the wrong place again. Why? Google Maps. … In July of 2007, I made a spur of the moment decision with a friend to buy a van and go on a road trip for three months.  On the trip,...

Settling Down, Lessons from a Stoic, and Keeping it Weird (The “I’m Moving to Austin” Post)

For the past two years, I haven’t lived in a single location (and city) where I knew I was going to be there for more than two months. In July, it will have been two years since the original road trip was planned.  In fact, living in that van was the most certain I’ve been about my living situation for more than five weeks at a time. That ended in December of 2007. I barely moved back into my house when...

How I Make Almost $4 Per Work Hour

I’m using some fuzzy math here, but I’m pretty sure I make about $4 per work hour. Let me explain…. When you start a company, you don’t just start a company.  It’s not like consulting where you immediately take on jobs. When you start as a consultant, you are the identity.  Your history, your accomplishments, etc. When you start as a company, the company is nothing and its identity is...

A Lesson in Batch-Task Efficiency: Middle School Spanish Class with Cute Girls

Middle school Spanish class was a blast. I was two rows from a window, with a clear shot into the courtyard. Between the window and me was a girl whom I probably had a crush on. (Ok, so I did.)  Let’s call her CrushGirl. Basically, Spanish class taught me to multitask…”If I’m going to be looking out the window, I might as well fawn over a cute girl while I’m at it.” Spanish...