June 12, 2011
I Apologize for the Delay
The delay's name is Daylia, and she was born this past Wednesday...
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June 7, 2011
Human Stock Market: Lumni Beat Us To It
Last Fall, this critical-thought community spent an entire week discussing practical next-steps for creating a human stock market. One in which you could invest in potential at the individual level. At the end of the week, despite great participation, I was still stumped.
But loyal reader and friend, Chris Stapel, came across a New York Times article by David Bornstein that highlights a company called Lumni, who is putting a similar idea into action.
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But loyal reader and friend, Chris Stapel, came across a New York Times article by David Bornstein that highlights a company called Lumni, who is putting a similar idea into action.
In exchange for $8,530 in financing, [Columbian nursing student Jairo Sneider] agreed to repay 14 percent of his salary for 118 months after he graduated. At that point, regardless of how much he has paid, his obligation terminates. ... If he ends up earning the average salary for nurses in Colombia, he will end up paying the equivalent of an interest rate of 17 percent, which is the average rate in the country for a student loan. And if he ends up doing better, he will pay more, and Lumni will share in his success.
Lumni has made similar deals with 1,900 students to date. Fifty five percent of them are women and 90 percent are the first in their families to attend college. Most of these students would have otherwise been unable to pay for college. So far, the default rate is under 3 percent.
Genius. Lumni got around my hold-up with ensuring the student would pick a profitable career during the repayment period. (The individual retains the majority of the profits.) While this isn't as apples-to-apples as a true Human Stock Market, it's extraordinarily more practical, and I can't wait to figure out how to put my money behind something like this.
Why didn't we think of this, gang?
June 6, 2011
Too Selfish for Communal Living
Francis Chan's "Crazy Love" recently provoked my friends and I to discuss the potential beauty of communal living. Mind you, this required a whole lot of conversation to get me there, so I will not presume you see this "beauty" initially, but rather the disastrous horror that would surely come from it.
In fact, I'm sure many of you can empathize with my hold-ups. One discussed benefit was the idea that we could share our talents to lessen our individual expenses. For instance, one of the girls in this discussion is a professional hair stylist. So, in this communal living scenario, we would never have to pay for haircuts again. My wife is a great cook. So, we wouldn't have to pay to go out to eat. And I could....create personal branding campaigns for these individuals and play devil's advocate during our lively political debates??
The idea of getting free haircuts for life is appealing. But even if my personal talents could offer a utilitarian consumer service in return, I still think I'd be doing the math in my head - keeping track of who's getting the best out of this deal.
The only way I could get past this is if I actually loved these people like they were my own family. Then, I wouldn't keep score. And perhaps we shouldn't buy neighboring houses until I do?
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In fact, I'm sure many of you can empathize with my hold-ups. One discussed benefit was the idea that we could share our talents to lessen our individual expenses. For instance, one of the girls in this discussion is a professional hair stylist. So, in this communal living scenario, we would never have to pay for haircuts again. My wife is a great cook. So, we wouldn't have to pay to go out to eat. And I could....create personal branding campaigns for these individuals and play devil's advocate during our lively political debates??
The idea of getting free haircuts for life is appealing. But even if my personal talents could offer a utilitarian consumer service in return, I still think I'd be doing the math in my head - keeping track of who's getting the best out of this deal.
The only way I could get past this is if I actually loved these people like they were my own family. Then, I wouldn't keep score. And perhaps we shouldn't buy neighboring houses until I do?
June 3, 2011
Why NPR’s Single Sensory Production is a Blessing
While listening to the radio this morning, I had an epiphany regarding just how good NPR is. I mean, it's really good. And I started thinking about what I was comparing its "good" against. National televised news, I suppose. (segue)
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Technology has gotten to the point where it has become easy enough and affordable enough for non-creative types to put together the "appearance" of quality-looking multimedia. Anyone, for several hundred dollars, can buy a Canon HD camera, and use iMovie to put together something that looks extremely polished, and yet can be constructed with very little creativity at all. And what percentage of the populace can tell the difference between great and decent communications when both look "polished". (segue return)
Let's go back to NPR, which deals only in the single sense of sound. There's nothing else to distract us. No pretty people. No pretty graphics. No pretty transitions. Just the story. It better be good. It has to be good. Because there's no other way to trick us into thinking it is. "Polish" can make up for garbage without many of us noticing.
So, as "polish" becomes universally prevalent, what happens to art?
June 2, 2011
Here’s Why Everything is Bon Jovi’s Fault
People always ask me why I hate Bon Jovi so much.
1) The man exudes undeserved arrogance. I can't watch him perform without getting physically nauseous.
2) He once claimed in an interview that he singlehandedly brought the acoustic guitar back to rock 'n roll. I There is ever so much wrong with this ridiculous claim.
3) Only "woo" girls like Bon Jovi.
4) Jeff Tweedy thinks Bon Jovi sucks, too. (Watch clip above)
Bon Jovi's music is insultingly awful to those of us who see music as communication. Now, as a businessman, I think he knows exactly what he's doing.
June 1, 2011
Shaq’s Retiring. (Shared Punchline)
As soon as I found out Shaq had announced his retirement from the NBA, I immediately tweeted, "Shaq just announced his retirement. Hope that means he'll have time to take his martial arts movies more seriously."
Sure, I was tempted to go with a Kazaam reference, but I decided to stick with the lesser known, Shaq Fu (which I later remembered was actually a video game, and not a movie).
Still, I was pretty pleased with myself, and after a few minutes, decided to jump on Twitter to see how my message had been received.
Nothing. A little surprised, I typed "Shaq" into a Twitter search to see if perhaps the news of his retirement hadn't spread quite yet. And what did I see? Hundreds and hundreds of tweets with my identical joke.
1) Does my generation (raised on Seinfeld and Simpsons) all have the EXACT same humor?
2) Does this teach us how incredibly formulaic and unoriginal most humor is?
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Sure, I was tempted to go with a Kazaam reference, but I decided to stick with the lesser known, Shaq Fu (which I later remembered was actually a video game, and not a movie).
Still, I was pretty pleased with myself, and after a few minutes, decided to jump on Twitter to see how my message had been received.
Nothing. A little surprised, I typed "Shaq" into a Twitter search to see if perhaps the news of his retirement hadn't spread quite yet. And what did I see? Hundreds and hundreds of tweets with my identical joke.
1) Does my generation (raised on Seinfeld and Simpsons) all have the EXACT same humor?
2) Does this teach us how incredibly formulaic and unoriginal most humor is?