“Think of it: the lowest common denominator in being digital is not your operating system, modem, or model of computer. It's a tiny piece of plastic, designed decades ago by Bell Labs' Charles Krumreich, Edwin Hardesty, and company, who thought they were making an inconspicuous plug for a few telephone handsets. Not in their wildest dreams was Registered Jack 11 - a modular connector more commonly known as the RJ-11 - meant to be plugged and unplugged so many times, by so many people, for so many reasons, all over the world.” PeopleThinkingWorldReasonDreamCommonCompanyKnownPiecesComputerModelsDecadesTinyDigitalMeant To BeBellsPlasticLowestTelephonesLabsPlugsCommon DenominatorOperating SystemsWildest DreamsLowest Common DenominatorConnectors Author:Nicholas Negroponte
“Many [business] people focus on what is static, black and white. Yet great algorithms can be rewritten. A business process can be defined better. A business model can be copied. But the speed of execution is dynamic within you and can never be copied. When you have an idea, figure out the pieces you need quickly, go to market, believe in it, and continue to iterate.” PeopleNeedsBelieveIdeasProcessBlackWhiteFocusPiecesFiguresModelsSpeedDefinedExecutionWithin YouBlack And WhiteStaticAlgorithmsBusiness Models Author:Gurbaksh Chahal
“The business model piece is we're always talking about competing more effectively. If you're starting a company or career you don't want to compete. You want to create a monopoly. We want to invest in a company that has a good plan to create a monopoly.” IfsWantCompanyTalkingCareersPiecesPlansModelsInvestingStartingCompetingMonopolyBusiness Models Author:Peter Thiel
“But most of us who aren't models aren't models, right? And so, you just have to get used to that and sort of read right past it. So. On the sex symbol piece, I don't get that piece. On the personality piece, that people are excited to meet a leader from Mozilla - maybe there's more about meeting me personally than I give credit for, but I find that people are excited about what Mozilla is, more than 'Oh my god, there's Mitchell, look, her hair,' whatever.” PeopleGivingLooksPastUsedSexLeaderPiecesHairPersonalityModelsMeetingsExcitedCreditSymbolsSex SymbolMozilla Author:Mitchell Baker
“And ultimately, it's good for all of us to have more original programming on the air. Business doesn't drive the creative. So, in identifying a project like Dovekeepers, looking at something like Extant and looking at Under the Dome, it was about falling in love with a piece of material, getting excited by the creative direction, hearing a vision, and getting excited about the potential for those projects and building the business model around it. And they're not all modeled the same way. Every one is different.” WayDifferentFallVisionCreativePiecesAirBuildingMaterialsProjectsModelsOriginalsFalling In LoveExcitedHearingProgrammingIdentifyingBusiness ModelsDomes Author:Nina Tassler
“Expert estimates of probability are often off by factors of hundreds or thousands. [...] I used to be annoyed when the margin of error was high in a forecasting model that I might put together. Now I view it as perhaps the single most important piece of information that a forecaster provides. When we publish a forecast on FiveThirtyEight, I go to great lengths to document the uncertainty attached to it, even if the uncertainty is sufficiently large that the forecast won't make for punchy headlines.” IfsImportantMightTogetherUsedViewsPiecesInformationModelsErrorsFactorsUsed To BeUncertaintyExpertsLengthDocumentsProbabilityPublishMarginsAnnoyedHeadlinesForecastsForecasting Author:Nate Silver
“Shamanism, on the other hand, is this world wide, since Paleolithic-times, tradition which says that you must make your own experience the center piece of any model of the world that you build.” WorldHandsPiecesThis WorldModelsTraditionWideShamanism Author:Terence McKenna