If you do anything remotely related to startups you’ve probably used CrunchBase at least once or twice. It is an awesome platform with a ton of great data.
It appears the folks at big data analytics company SiSense has utilized CrunchBase’s API to create some pretty sweet visualizations. Check ’em out.
This is really cool. It’s easy to forget that our fancy-pants internet still relies on extremely long undersea cables connecting us all. If I had Photoshop / time I’d draw in some sea monsters and whirlpools like the nautical maps of lore.
Source: TeleGeography – found via coolinfographics.com
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According to LinkedIn, I have one of the top 5% most viewed profiles for 2012. No wonder I’m getting so many sales calls. If you ask me, that’s a small price to pay for such esteemed recognition.
Who had the most viewed profile of 2012 you ask? Barack Obama with 526,270 views. To be fair, it was an election year, (i.e. he was applying and interview for a job) otherwise he might just be a five-percenter like yours truly.
No word yet on the date / time / location of the awards ceremony.
A truly amazing video.
The fascinating history of Silicon Valley, Shockley Semiconductor, and Fairchild Semi. Worth a watch. After you watch that check out Something Ventured.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/silicon/player/
Most of you by now have probably seen or heard the Dodge Ram commercial that ran during the Super Bowl. If you haven’t, check it out below.
God also made bankers….
From MarketWatch:
To be read in the voice of Paul Harvey.
And on the eighth day God looked down on his planned paradise and said, “I need someone who can flip this for a quick buck.”
So God made a banker.
God said, “I need someone who doesn’t grow anything or make anything but who will borrow money from the public at 0% interest and then lend it back to the public at 2% or 5% or 10% and pay himself a bonus for doing so.”
So God made a banker.
God said, “I need someone who will take money from the people who work and save, and use that money to create a dotcom bubble and a housing bubble and a stock bubble and an oil bubble and a commodities bubble and a bond bubble and another stock bubble, and then sell it to people in Poughkeepsie and Spokane and Bakersfield, and pay himself another bonus.”
So God made a banker.
God said, “I need someone to build homes in the swamps and deserts using shoddy materials and other people’s money, and then use these homes as collateral for a Ponzi scheme he can sell to pensioners in California and Michigan and Sweden. I need someone who will then foreclose on those homes, kick out the occupants, and switch off the air conditioning and the plumbing, and watch the houses turn back into dirt. And then pay himself another bonus.”
God said, “I need someone to lend money to people with bad credit at 30% interest in order to get his stock price up, and then, just before the loans turn bad, cash out his stock and walk away. And who, when asked later, will, with a tearful eye, say the government made him do it.”
God said, “And I need somebody who will tell everyone else to stand on their own two feet, but who will then run to the government for a bailout as soon as he gets into trouble — and who will then use that bailout money to help elect a Congress that will look the other way. And then pay himself another bonus.”
So God made a banker.
This really sums it up.
Great quote about modern age apprenticeship from the book Mastery. I haven’t read the book but will add it to my ever growing to-read list.
***
Each age tends to create a model of apprenticeship that is suited to the system of production that prevails at the time. In the Middle Ages, during the birth of modern capitalism and the need for quality control, the first apprenticeship system appeared, with its rigidly defined terms. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, this model of apprenticeship became largely outmoded, but the idea behind it lived on in the form of self-apprenticeship—developing yourself from within a particular field, as Darwin did in biology. This suited the growing individualistic spirit of the time. We are now in the computer age, with computers dominating nearly all aspects of commercial life. Although there are many ways in which this could influence the concept of apprenticeship, it is the hacker approach to programming that may offer the most promising model for this new age.The model goes like this: You want to learn as many skills as possible, following the direction that circumstances lead you to, but only if they are related to your deepest interests. Like a hacker, you value the process of self-discovery and making things that are of the highest quality. You avoid the trap of following one set career path. You are not sure where this will all lead, but you are taking full advantage of the openness of information, all of the knowledge about skills now at our disposal. You see what kind of work suits you and what you want to avoid at all cost. You move by trial and error. This is how you pass your twenties. You are the programmer of this wide-ranging apprenticeship, within the loose constraints of your personal interests. You are not wandering about because you are afraid of commitment, but because you are expanding your skill base and your possibilities. At a certain point, when you are ready to settle on something, ideas and opportunities will inevitably present themselves to you. When that happens, all of the skills you have accumulated will prove invaluable. You will be the Master at combining them in ways that are unique and suited to your individuality. You may settle on this one place or idea for several years, accumulating in the process even more skills, then move in a slightly different direction when the time is appropriate. In this new age, those who follow a rigid, singular path in their youth often find themselves in a career dead end in their forties, or overwhelmed with boredom. The wide-ranging apprenticeship of your twenties will yield the opposite—expanding possibilities as you get older.***
Found via Value Investing World
Photogenic Thoughts 