An Interested Mind by Matt Sederberg

Twitter

2008-11-26T03:36:00.000-08:00

I'm now on twitter, the microblogging service that limits user entries to 140 characters. I'm msederberg, feel free to follow me. Still trying to make sense of how twitter will fit into my daily routine and what my strategy will be. I've noticed that some bloggers that I'd followed pretty closely, such as Paul Allen and Guy Kawasaki, have greatly decreased their blog volume and instead twitter many times a day.

However, the twitter crowd that I "follow" is still a very small subset of the internet group that I'm usually in touch with. It seems like twitter is still in the early adopter stage, but it's growth is impressive: 343% since last year.

I recently downloaded TweetDeck for my Mac and this has greatly increased the usability of twitter for me, since now I get popup notifications when someone I'm following tweets, instead of needing to check back to the twitter website. Using TweetDeck, I searched for recent tweets about NURBS and T-Splines and a few other topics and began to follow the users who had tweeted about those subjects. I feel like I'm slowly being connected to a relevant twitter community.

Bob McNeel

2008-07-09T12:50:00.000-07:00

Great article on Bob McNeel, one of my mentors, and a member of our board of directors. Bob has a unique, refreshing way of doing business, as you'll read in the article.

Here's one excerpt:

"When I arrived in the offices of Robert McNeel & Associates in Seattle, Bob was on the phone, telling the caller that Rhino probably wasn’t the best option for what they were looking for and that he (or she) should probably look for a specific vertical application for the industry that they were in as it might do more. Throughout my two days with Bob and the development team I was trying to figure out why this laid back approach to developing and selling CAD tools worked. In the most capitalist nation on the planet McNeel is an anathema to corporate culture. There is almost a total lack of greed and it’s incredibly refreshing.

"While CAD vendors spent millions in marketing, McNeel & Associates doesn’t, instead preferring their customers to be the product’s ‘marketeers’, spreading the good word by mouth and if that’s a slow process then so be it. The McNeel ethos is to listen to the customers, help customers, because if the customers are happy, the products do well. It’s not about milking customers."

Business principles from Ratatouille

2008-05-07T23:15:00.000-07:00

The Economist has a nice article highlighting the resurgence of Disney, and paralleling it with the premise of Ratatouille--that for the long-term success of a company, it's important to value innovation and encourage quality work, not to merely chase dollar signs.

Lenovo +/- stat

2008-01-30T21:20:00.000-08:00

There is a new stat this year in NBA box scores: the "+/-" stat. I recently discovered that this is called the Lenovo Stat, and is designed to measure a player's overall contribution to the team. Specifically, it says what the point differential was when that player was on the court during the game--whether his team outscored, or was outscored by, the opponent.

Here's the box score from the Utah Jazz/New York Knicks game today.

You'll notice that nearly all the Jazz players have a positive "+/-" stat, and nearly all the Knicks have a negative "+/-" stat. This is because the Jazz led the entire game.

However, one interesting note: David Lee on the Knicks played over 37 minutes, and had a positive Lenovo stat: +3. This means that when Lee was in the game, the Knicks outscored the Jazz! In the 11 minutes Lee wasn't in the game, the Jazz outscored the Knicks by 14, and the Jazz ended up winning by 11. So, even though Lee only had 14 points, you could point to the Lenovo +/- stat and say he was easily the MVP of the game for the Knicks.

One clunky laptop per child?

2008-01-19T17:01:00.000-08:00

Like most socially-minded geeks, I have been fascinated with Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative. Mr. Negroponte, a tech guru at the celebrated Media Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, unveiled his dream in 2005 to make laptops available to children in third-world countries across the planet. The idea was to mass produce the laptop (he would only accept orders in quantities of 1 million or higher) and make it robust enough to withstand poor conditions.

Unfortunately, the early reviews are somewhat mediocre. The Economist cites poor implementation of the technologies, lackluster go-to-market execution, the emergence of commercially available low cost computers, which the OLPC people regarded as a threat rather than competitors, and, most disappointingly, the "hubris, arrogance and occasional self-righteousness of OLPC workers. They treated all criticism as enemy fire to be deflected and quashed rather than considered and possibly taken on board."

It will be interesting to see if the OLPC is able to succeed. Hooray if it does; if it doesn't, it will provide a valuable lesson about how even the most high-minded of ideas should not be exempt from the rigors of external critiques.

Successful cross-cultural relations

2007-12-20T15:24:00.000-08:00

Kwintessential has some great info about establishing relationships with people from foreign cultures.

Is Facebook dying?

2007-12-04T14:51:00.001-08:00

I'm a huge fan of Facebook as a tool for keeping in touch--I'm even currently trying to push my great-aunts and uncles to join, as well as my extended family, so we can all get to know each other better.

But is Facebook on the decline? Perhaps, according to this article.

Which type of customer are you?

2007-10-25T15:34:00.001-07:00

I just read an interesting article at BYU's website discussing how companies issue customer service to disgruntled clients. The article asserts that organizations train their employees to issue customer service in a standard way (apology + compensation) but in reality, there are three types of customers, and each would prefer to be reconciled with the company in a different way.

If a company can train its employees to offer three different "types" of compensation, it would stand a better chance at retaining customers.

Legal answers for startups

2007-10-11T13:34:00.000-07:00

I noticed Guy Kawasaki interviewed one of the partners at Fenwick & West, a large Silicon Valley law firm, and got some great answers about legal decisions that high tech software companies need to make.

Fenwick & West was actually the first law firm we used when we started T-Splines, and they did a great job with the project they were given.

Animoto

2007-08-30T16:56:00.000-07:00

My friend Bjorn pointed me to this site where you can make music videos from a series of photos in literally about 70 seconds, for free.

Here's a quick video with pictures I tossed up there from a tutorial I was doing.

Why Startups Fail

2007-08-28T09:40:00.000-07:00

Great article pointed to my by Roger on the importance of creating a product, not merely technology, if you're a startup company.

Another YouTube video

2007-08-21T11:29:00.000-07:00

Okay, I've uploaded another video to YouTube for my software company and I'm doing a test run here of embedding the html here on my blog. This video was made using Apple's Keynote and iMovie software.

Online shopping cart reviews

2007-06-25T20:15:00.000-07:00

We're doing a makeover of our website store. I've spent hours trying to decide on our approach, since this is a major decision for us. I've considered three options:

1. Hire a programmer to write us a custom store. This has the advantage of potentially getting me exactly what we want (and nothing I don't want), but it will either be rather expensive (if I have someone local do it) or difficult (if I use an off-shore programmer from someplace like rentacoder.com.)

2. Use a free, open source store like OSCommerce and invest some time myself into figuring out how adapt it to my website. This is an attractive option since I'd like to learn how to do this, but my time presents a high opportunity cost.

3. Buy or subscribe to a professional, ready-built store. There are hundreds of these on the internet, and the difficult part about this is figuring out which one is the best fit for us at the price we want to pay. I searched for hours to try to get an objective ranking of these sites, stumbling past very disorganized pages at Wikipedia, pseudo-rankings filled with Ad-Word links, and old lists, trumpeting the state of the art (in 2004). Finally, I came to TopTenReviews.com, which had exactly what I was looking for--an objective ranking of the top ten shopping carts in 2007! I really like this TopTenReviews.com site; it seems like the ConsumerReports for Web 2.0 and media. I will definitely return here again. (BTW, it ranks ShopSite as #1. I used ShopSite in the past and found it to be very good, but it had some minor annoyances. Hopefully they've fixed these by now, but I'll probably try #3: MonsterCommerce.com. I'll report back on how well it fits our needs.)

"Cheapo" flights online

2007-06-25T20:13:00.000-07:00

A European friend coming to the states asked if I could help her purchase a cheap ticket online last week.

I went through my normal routine:

1. Go to www.kayak.com. Kayak usually has very good fares because it directly searches the databases of most travel sites (orbitz, travelocity, etc.) as well as the airline websites (delta.com, jetblue.com, etc.) However, they didn't have a very competitive price to get from Europe to the states.
2. Check out travelocity.com directly. I know it probably shouldn't have anything that kayak.com wouldn't pick up, but I decided to check anyway. Nothing.
3. Finally, I googled "Sofia Salt Lake airfares" I came up with a site I'd never heard of before: cheapoair.com. This seemed like a VERY fly-by-night name (no pun intended), but I decided to check it out anyway. They returned very cheap flights--about 2/3 the price of the cheapest one on Kayak.

How was cheapoair.com able to do this? Well, one way is that they don't limit their flights to be on a single airline the whole trip--some flights included legs from Bulgarian Air, Czech Air, and United all in the same package. I'm not sure how that works--whether you need to recheck your baggage after each leg, or if the airlines are communicating and recheck it for you. I was a little wary, though, so I didn't select one of those options, instead finding a slightly more expensive one that stayed with Czech air the whole time.

The other way it looks like cheapoair is able to do this if by charging TONS of fees--we're talking nearly $200 in fees for a $375 ticket. Even after paying the fees, this was still the cheapest option, but I don't think I've ever seen so many fees.

Anyway, I found out that cheapoair IS a legitimate website--I spent a decent amount of time talking with them on the phone (long story), and I already have my purchased ticket in hand. SO, despite the name, this appears to be a reputable company. Make sure you know how large the fees are before booking through them, but I will now definitely include them on my list of places to check for airfares.

Seth Godin live at the Salt Palace

2007-05-24T19:48:00.000-07:00

This afternoon Seth Godin stopped by Salt Lake City to promote his new book The Dip, currently #8 on the New York Times bestseller list.

I'd been looking forward to this event for some time, and was happily in attendance. This was one of the more effective book tours I have been aware of. Rather than sitting at a table next to a stack of books at Barnes & Noble, Seth marketed one of his greatest assets--his public speaking ability--and billed the event as a speaking engagement, with a door fee of $50. Oh, and by the way, we each got 5 "free" books. Why 5? So we would read one and give four away. This is a brilliant marketing tactic, but like everything that makes Seth so good, this wasn't trickery--simply an effective way of communicating a solid product, where all parties involved would benefit.

Seth used his hour speech to expound about the concept of The Dip, and to respond to audience questions.

Seth began by observing that there is a shortage of superstars. Superstars, unlike the rest of us, don't need to advertise themselves. People come to them. Pixar doesn't put out an ad when they're looking for the head animator of their next film--they approach a superstar.

However, there are all sorts of niches that are in a superstar vacuum, many opportunities for people to be the best in the world. For instance, you can be the best newpaper boy in the city of Orem, UT, or the best baker on Center Street, or the best 3D free-form modeling software in industrial design.

So why do people stop short of doing their best--why isn't everyone the best in the world, instead of having so many average people?

Because of The Dip, says Seth Godin.

Before every big upside, there is a dip, and too many people don't know when to stick it out and when to quit.

What makes this difficult is that really successful people quit all the time--they just know when to quit and when to push through.

I'll let you read Seth's book to get all of his insights about evaluating dips, but one significant one is to do your best to judge the size of the dip before you start something. Count the cost. Then you won't be surprised at how long it takes to get through it.

Moms worth six figures?

2007-05-10T13:18:00.000-07:00

When I was at my parents' house a while back, I noticed a link to my blog on my mom's bookmark bar. So Mom, if you read this, this post is for you: according to this Reuters article, the work that stay-at-home moms do is worth $138,095 a year.

Wow!

Mom, thanks for staying home to raise me! Happy mother's day!

Seth Godin Coming to Utah

2007-04-17T08:31:00.000-07:00

Phil Burns over at tagjungle.com is leading an effort to get Seth Godin to come to Utah as part of his upcoming book tour. $50 gets you a seat to hear Seth speak (certainly to be well worth the money) as well as five of Seth's new marketing book. Right now, this is in the planning stages, and we need to get 500 people to pledge to attend in order to get Seth here. This number needs to be hit by April 30. Details, copied from an email from Phil, follow below. I'm pretty excited about this myself and signed up within minutes of receiving the email.

If you’re interested in hearing Seth speak, there are a few things you need to do.

· First, pledge to pay $50.00 at http://www.pledgebank.com/SethGodinUtah

· Next, blog about it! We’re trying to create a blog storm about this, even a quick simple post advertising this will help a lot

· Third, tell everyone at work or who you think will be interested about it!

· Finally, all the details and updates are being managed at a new site, www.wordmob.com keep an eye on the site for details

Here’s Seth’s blog post announcing this opportunity:

T-Splines overview video

2007-04-03T09:37:00.000-07:00

Here is a YouTube video that gives a four minute overview of my company's new industrial design software product.

Embeded YouTube Videos in your own website

2007-03-30T12:33:00.000-07:00

All right, this isn't really new material for my blog, but I'm trying out how to imbed YouTube videos on website. So here goes, my sister and I performing at graduation last year:

(BTW, instructions for how to embed videos can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/sharing)

Report: Bulgarian Folk Dancers in Helper

2007-03-25T20:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I drove down to Helper, UT with my girlfriend and her mom to see the visiting Bulgarian folk dancers from Montana, Bulgaria.

We'd hoped to get in Helper in time to see their charming mining museum, but didn't quite make it before closing. Instead, we walked around the outdoor "courtyard" of the museum, where we examined pieces of mining equipment (and learned a lot about extracting ore from the earth).

After dinner at the bustling town diner "Balancing Rock" (the rural boys playing pool under the second story balcony reminded me of Professor Harold Hill's famous song in the Music Man), we made it over to the folk dance concert just as it was starting. The concert was at the Rio Theater. I hadn't been able to locate an address for it before embarking on our day trip, but I was sure we'd be able to find it. Sure enough, it was just a few buildings down from the diner (thanks, Tricia, for the good eyes).

Anyway, the concert was great! It was actually the first time I had seen Bulgarian folk dances done by real Bulgarians. The dances were interspersed by singing by their teacher (my favorite part). She had a rich Bulgarian vibrato, which sounds Middle Eastern and climbs across the musical staff instead of being restricted to the immediate neighborhood of the note.

Afterwards, I was able to meet Stephanie, the Peace Corps volunteer who had organized the event. I also met Zlatko Zhivkov, the mayor of Montana, Bulgaria, who was a fine fellow. It was a pleasure for me to speak with him and some of the teachers in Bulgarian--an opportunity I don't often have these days. I was invited to Montana (origin: 2nd century Roman word, not the US state) whenver I want to--something I may take them up on!

With Zlatko Zhivkov, mayor of Montana, Bulgaria

Bulgarian Folk Dancers in Helper, UT

2007-03-20T17:49:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, March 23rd at 6 PM, a group of 13 Bulgarian dancers (students from ages 12 to 18) will be performing Bulgarian folk dances in the Helper, UT Rio Theater. Admission is $1. The concert was organized by Stephanie Giacoletto, a Peace Corps volunteer from Helper serving in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian delegation is from the small Bulgarian town of Montana (others in the group include teachers and the mayor), and are staying with the citizens in Helper.

Helper is a mining town in the heart of Central Utah, near Price. The town got its name from the loaner steam engines that would "help" push trains up the canyon just outside of town. Harry Truman once gave a speech in the city at the railroad station as he was stumping across the country. The town boasts a charming, if mostly abandoned, historical Main Street that is reminiscent of the town of Radiator Springs in Pixar's feature film Cars.

Bulgaria is a country of 7 million people tucked away between Greece, the Black Sea, Romania, Serbia, and Turkey. Though the country is small, Bulgarians pride themselves as having a little bit of everything: sunny beaches, pristine mountains, wide plains, and dense forests. Bulgaria is known for its yogurt, cheese, rose oil, weightlifters, and computer prowess (it was the technological center of the former Communist bloc.)

I served an LDS mission in Bulgaria between 2000-2002 and toured much of the country during my stay there. While I never made it to Montana, I was in many cities of similar size. My lasting impression of Bulgarians is one of warmth, hospitality, and charm.

I very much look forward to attending the event and mingling afterwards! It's a very rare occurrence to have such a cultural activity in such a charming, rural city as Helper, UT!

The full schedule of the group's Utah performances follows below:

Wednesday, March 21st - 6:00 p.m at Mont Harmon Jr. High in Price (admission is free)
Thursday, March 22nd - 10:30 a.m. at the Student Center on the Salt Lake Community Campus
Saturday, March 23rd - 6:00 p.m. at the Rio Theater in Helper (admission is $1.00)

Movies, Events, and Dating Ideas for Provo College Students

2007-01-13T17:21:00.000-08:00

My buddies Rich Millar and Trent Ostler recently invited me to take a look at their new website, What2doatBYU.com. Their site provides a comprehensive source of information for events, movies, parties, and dances going on for college students in Provo, UT.

Their site has good information to help college students make an informed decision on the ever-present question about what to do on the weekend. I was especially interested about how Rich and Trent chose to publicize What2doatBYU.com: through creating a "group" on social networking site Facebook. The "group" feature that they used is one way Facebook allows people to link up with others who share common interests. Some Facebook groups are professional (Internet Marketers), some focus on special interests (Govorish po-russki? Russian Speakers), and some are just for fun (Han Solo is a Total Stud).

Rich and Trent publicized their site by inviting all their friends to join the Facebook group "What2doatBYU.com Saved me from Boredom!" The size of this group quickly ballooned to over 300 members in just a few days. I was curious about the traffic this was bringing to their site, so I asked Rich 5 questions about internet marketing and What2doatBYU.com.

1. How do you keep your site up-to-date with the latest events?

We are constantly checking our resources to make sure we are up to date. But we are also relying on those who use the website to let us know if there is something missing. That is exactly what the website is designed to do--allow anyone in the valley to post upcoming events directly on our home page or read other peoples posted events so they can find out what's going on around Provo.

2. I know your site has only been up for a short while, but do you have any data yet that shows what the most clicked-on event pages are? What are students in Provo most eager to find information about?

Our top three visited pages are Parties, Dances, and Other Cool Things 2 Do (which includes Comedy Clubs, Museums, Game Centers and much more).

3. I'm curious that you seem to have launched this site from creating a group on Facebook. (Which grew pretty fast--300 people in just a few days?!) Do you know how many of these people actually clicked through to your site? Have you done any other internet marketing for this? What has been the most effective?

There are now well over 300 hundred members in that Facebook group within the short period of just three days. Our statistics show that over 500 people have come from Facebook to visit our site so far with just a handful coming from other sources. This has been the only marketing tool we have used so far. But we do plan to distribute flyers in the near future to apartment complexes and then hopefully just let it spread by word of mouth.

4. How did you decide what to feature on your site? Are there similar sites for other college towns in America?

We weren't able to find any other sites that are really patterned like ours--specifically for college students. There were a few sites that had bits and pieces of information here and there, but there wasn't a single website that brought it all together onto one easy website to find. We originally looked at sites from major cities such as San Diego that are designed to help tourists find things to do there. From those websites we were able to narrow it down to the categories that we thought would be most appealing to college students here in Utah Valley.

5. As a Provo native, which events/places on your site would be your personal choice for a group outing? For a date?

Personally I love the mountains around here so I would probably pick an event that involved them. In the winter, definitely skiing, snowboarding or sledding and in the summer hiking or backpacking. There are so many beautiful National Parks out here that everyone should experience if they come to Utah. As for a date, I would probably go to the Planetarium on campus or Thanksgiving Point. They have so many neat things to do and see out there, especially in the summer.

No college football playoff?

2007-01-06T11:43:00.000-08:00

Like many college football fans, I heartily enjoyed Boise St.'s amazing, highlight-heavy upset of Oklahoma in this year's Fiesta Bowl. I was actually alone in my apartment, chatting on my phone as I watched the game, but during each of the Broncos' amazing plays, I reveled in the whoops and hollers coming from the surrounding apartments. On the game-winning Statue of Liberty handoff for a two point conversion, a spontaneous celebration erupted in the stairwell, as various football buddies spilled outside, eager for a chance to share enthusiasm by chest-bumping and high-fiving. Americans love college football.

College football bowl games are some of the most exciting athletic contests I have seen. For instance, it doesn't take too good of a memory to remember Vince Young's improbable fourth-down touchdown run in last year's National Championship game against USC--a team many were calling the greatest college football team of all time.

So with Boise. St. finishing the season a perfect 13-0, the question emerged this year, as it does every year: why don't we have a college football playoff? Every other major college and professional team sport crowns an undisputed champion, while college football's champion is effectively determined by the polls.

I just read an insightful (if exhaustive) article on this at Yahoo! sports. The writer identifies the commissioner of the Big 10, Jim Delany, as the most powerful man in college football, and consequently, the person most responsible for blocking the implementation of a college football playoff. The article doesn't villanize Mr. Delany; it merely reinforces what he himself has stated many times: he doesn't work for NCAA football--he works for the Big 10, and all of his decisions are made to look out for that conference, not to look out for the best interests of college football. The other power players in college sports agree: for a college football playoff to ever become a reality, Mr. Delany must endorse the idea.

I myself tend to be rather utilitarian: I usually look for the outcome that brings the greatest good to the greatest number of people. So I can't say I agree with Mr. Delany. But one thing I can say: he has definitely been doing his job. So what would it take to influence Mr. Delany and his friends to implement a playoff? They would need to be convinced that doing so would be more lucrative than continuing to sponsor the Bowl Championship Series (BCS). The best way to do this? Continued success from the mid-major conferences, showing that they belong on the same level as the BCS schools. Go Boise St.!

LinkedIn?

2007-01-04T15:25:00.000-08:00

I'll start off this post not by asking, "Have you heard of LinkedIn?" but instead, "Are you on LinkedIn?" LinkedIn is the MySpace for grownups--a professional social networking site where businesspeople can keep in contact, be introduced to one another, and expand their networks. There are many other professional networking sites, but frankly, none of them carry as much clout, and I can't recall any of their names without googling. Some networking sites, like thehive.com, attempt to bring the LinkedIn idea to niche markets, but my experience is that most of the active members on these niche sites also have a LinkedIn account. The point of this paragraph? If you haven't joined a professional social networking site yet because you're waiting to see which one emerges as the market leader, stop waiting. LinkedIn leads the pack, with over 8.5 million users.

Why use LinkedIn? Evangelist-turned-Venture Capitalist Guy Kawasaki blogs about ten top reasons why he uses the site. Among them are improving your visibility, increasing your connectivity, and giving yourself the ability to perform "blind" reference checks--you can see who (if anyone) has given a potential partner a good recommendation.

My own experience with LinkedIn? Well, I'm sold on the concept, but I underutilize the site. As of this post, I have 54 connections--people from college, my industry, mentors, partners, customers. This is a modest number, but the more active members of my network have well into the hundreds of connections. The most evangelized way to use LinkedIn is to (surprise) make connections--to get your connections to introduce you to their connections, etc. I haven't done this at all yet. I have used LinkedIn to do some background checking; when I was considering hiring a consultant, his LinkedIn recommendations were the clincher in my decision. I've also used it to stay abreast with changes in employment for people I know. But the top reason I use LinkedIn? For the future. The best time to build your network is now, before you actually need it.

Russian Diary

2006-12-10T00:47:00.000-08:00

My fascination with Russian culture, people, history, and current climate is sometimes hard for me to communicate with people who haven't been there. This diary from The Economist's Moscow correspondent does a pretty good joy of conveying the depth and irrationality of the Russian experience.

Mitt's Economists

2006-11-29T22:02:00.000-08:00

Mitt Romney just attracted two top economists, Greg Mankiw and Glenn Hubbard, to act as co-chairs of his Commonwealth PAC’s Economic Advisory Council.

I was excited to read this. Hubbard comes with top credentials, though regrettably I am not as familiar with him myself. Mankiw is both brilliant and eloquent (he blogs). He was President Bush's former Chairman of Council of Economic Advisers, and is currently a professor at Harvard, where wrote two of my undergraduate economic textbooks. I'm looking forward to the chance he will have to influence policy. Economists often criticize policy makers because many of their decisions cater to special interests and do not maximize the overall economic wellbeing of the country. I will be actively following the economic proposals coming out of Romney's camp, and will hope and expect them to be sound, coming from Mankiw.

Off Topic: Robert Frost Poetry

2006-11-27T05:00:00.000-08:00

Today I discovered a renewed interest in poems. This "enlightenment" came while painting at the Boys and Girls Club with some friends, where there were so many smells and sights that reminded me of my own time at elementary school. The cozy smell of burning lint on the radiator, with its accompanying warm, sedative heat. Stepping outside and seeing the weeds that have seeds that look like tiny green pumpkins that we used to eat at recess; peering into a closet full of dodgeballs.

Somehow these nostalgic thoughts prompted me to ask my friends, in a Robin Williams-type way, if anyone knew any poetry to recite. This is perhaps the first time in my life I have done this. We each mustered up a poem or two. One of my friends recited "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost. I had always enjoyed the ending of this poem: "But I have promises to Keep/And miles to go before I sleep." Hearing the whole poem was a treat.

I took a few minutes to memorize this poem when I got home. It's was a pleasant surprise to find out how fast it's possible to memorize poems. I knocked this baby off (helped by it's unique rhyme scheme) in under 30 minutes (try it--I bet you can, too!). And now I have deliberate, thoughtful prose I can mull over in idle moments.

So here is the poem:

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Off-Topic: Twin Winners

2006-11-21T21:24:00.000-08:00

My dad is from Minnesota, just down the road from Lake Wobegon (where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all of the children are above average). Since he and my mom settled in Utah, I grew up without a local major league baseball team to cheer for. So my dad, brothers and I would always root for the Minnesota Twins.

The Twins are a small market team, which means they don't generate enough revenues to pay top dollar for high priced free agents. While the Yankees routinely add one or two new All-Stars every year through trades or exorbinant contracts, the Twins out of necessity focus on doing well in the draft and getting young talent through their farm system. The Twins will never be able to "buy" a championship--their only option is to build a championship team by developing their own young players.

This approach led to some rough years in the 1990s, but now the Twins have a pretty good, young team built up. They've been to the playoffs four of the past five years. And they're finally getting some home-grown star power. Today, Twins first baseman Justin Morneau won the American League MVP. Johan Santana was awarded the AL Cy Young Award last week. It's great to stick with a team for years with little to brag about, then to see them succeed the right way--through hard work and investing in their own players. Go Twins!

Video Games for the Rest of Us

2006-10-30T22:01:00.000-08:00

One of the most disappointing things about my current job in a 3d modeling company is that I have no interest in computer games. This really is unfortunate, because when I go to industry events and talk with the enthusiasts about why they should use T-Splines to make their next game, they understandably reply by excitedly chatting about the latest and greatest games. When this happens I can only smile and wait for my programmers to come over and rescue the conversation, since they are more up on games than I am.

My disinterest comes from a few sources: I was a poor player as a child, some of the fantasy adventure titles don't interest me (I play sports games or Mario Bros. when I do indulge), and I don't have enough time to allow myself to be sucked into a game--it seems like all the high-end titles these days are complex and requires significant ramp-up time and learning in order to truly challenge and compete.

Given my attitude, I was very intruiged when one of the programmers here told me about the new Nintendo Wii that is coming out. This is an innovative new approach to gaming that is targeted at the marginal gamers--someone who doesn't have the interest to seriously get involved in games, but may occasionally play for 15-30 minutes at a time. The Wii features a very simple controller that can detect motion (they're coming out with a tennis game where the controller could be used as a racquet) and reportedly has new games that are easier to comprehend (perhaps along the lines of Dr. Mario?)

The Wii could be the device that helps video games shed their stigma.

Moscow School of Management

2006-10-16T23:10:00.000-07:00

This article in the Financial Times caught my eye today. Russia's answer to the Harvard Business School, the Moscow School of Management, has been announced and is expected to open its doors in 2008. Russia has no internationally recognized business school at present, and this school, endorsed by Vladimir Putin, expects to fill a major need for developing home-grown Russian talent and attracting additional businesses to Moscow.

One of the challenges this school faces will be attracting top-flight faculty. China and India have filled their academic ranks with nationals from their respective countries who had been employed internationally. Russia does not have that luxury--there are not nearly as many Russian faculty members are prestigious business schools. Also, the Moscow School of Management will run itself as a business, without the tenure system. This idea is innovative, but it remains to be seen whether well-regarded business professors will accept a position on those terms.

At any rate, I will be watching the news closely on this subject, as it seems the school will be finished just when I'll be ready to attend business school. I speak Russian and this is a very intriguing program to me. In fact, so I don't miss any developments, I've just set up a Google Alert on "Moscow School of Management."

If you've never used Google Alerts, it's an easy mechanism that sends you an email whenever a topic you are interested in appears in the news. I use Google Alerts for many terms associated with my company, as well as my competitors, so it's easier to keep abreast about when we're in the news and when my competitors come out with new products. By using Google Alerts on this topic, I'll be able to track major developments in the story.

Schmoozing with Shostakovich

2006-10-13T16:15:00.000-07:00

I just read a great article about Vivace, the Utah Symphony's social group for 20- to 40-somethings who enjoy classical music. I began participating in this group (they sponsor pre-concert lectures and post-concert parties at select Utah Symphony performances) because I like classical music. (I am now on their advisory board.) This article in Utah Business (free registration required) focuses on the networking aspects of Vivace: evidently a number of people have gotten jobs out of connections they made from this group.

I honestly hadn't thought of making business connections at the symphony. I attend to round out my life--to have conversations with people who care about concerti and Chopin; to get away from the office banter of charts and computers. I also like the fact that Crystal Young-Otterstrom, the coordinator, runs Vivace with one ear to the ground and is very responsive to input from attendees. It makes me feel like Vivace is my organization.

However, on second thought, it shouldn't be surprising that friendships born while enjoying the finer things in life would blossom into business relationships. The Utah Symphony attracts a very intelligent, discerning clientel. I have met a lot of fascinating people at Vivace--now I'll look forward to not merely handing off my ticket when attending, but handing out some business cards as well.

The next Vivace event is Saturday, October 28: Mozart Served Hot, with Awadagin Pratt.

Gen. MacArthur leadership principles

2006-10-11T20:05:00.000-07:00

I received a list of questions today that Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in the South Pacific during WWII, used to guide him in his responsibilities. I found many of them useful to inspire reflection in my own job. I've copied a number of them below; the complete list can be found on the Logoworks website.

Do I know by NAME and CHARACTER a maximum number of subordinates for whom I am responsible? Do I know them intimately?
Am I thoroughly familiar with the technique, necessities, objectives and administration of my job?
Do I act in such a way as to make my subordinates WANT to follow me?
Do I delegate tasks that should be mine?
Do I arrogate everything to myself and delegate nothing?
Do I develop my subordinates by placing on each one as much responsibility as he can stand?
Am I interested in the personal welfare of each of my subordinates, as if he were a member of my family?
Have I the calmness of voice and manner to inspire confidence, or am I inclined to irascibility and excitability?

Stockton, Giuliani Best Motivators

2006-08-31T08:04:00.000-07:00

The Get Motivated Seminar on Tuesday featured an impressive array of speakers, including Peter Lowe, Tom Hopkins, and Robert Schuler. However, my favorite speakers were Rudolph Giuliani and John Stockton. Top motivational speakers inspire not only with their message, but also with their life. Both Giuliani and Stockton have been inspiring me for years. To see them in person and hear them speak was a rare treat.

Giuliani came on to the stage to cheers while “New York, New York” blared and gave a powerful address about leadership and courage under fire. He shared six principles of leadership: to be a leader, you must be a person of conviction, an optimist, have courage, understand the value of teamwork, have goals, and love people. For each of his principles, he shared great stories. For instance, when he became mayor of New York, he had two driving goals: to lower crime, and to improve the economy. For one of these areas (crime-prevention) he had a lot of experience. However, he did not have a strong background in economic development. To compensate for this, he surrounded himself with a strong team because he realized that it would be years before he could understand the economy as well as they did. His relying on them helped the city run better.

Giuliani also mentioned that one reason leaders have great courage is because of their relentless preparation. He urged us to prepare for everything we can think of. Then, when things we haven’t anticipated happen, we will have prepared for them, too. On September 11, none of them had ever thought something like that would have occured. However, they had prepared for a number of smaller emergencies and had routines in place for each response. On 9/11, they were able to leverage their preparation for those smaller events and handle the larger crisis admirably.

John Stockton received far and away the longest applause of the evening as his hometown fans welcomed him back to the Delta Center floor, where, in his words, he would have been more comfortable “running around in short shorts.” Stockton led into his remarks by commenting that he shouldn’t have been on the same stage as the rest of the deal-makers, as he had only renegotiated his contract twice during his entire career. The first time was to reduce his salary to make more room for other players, and the second time, he had misunderstood a clause that had actually been in his favor. When that was pointed out to him, he was too embarrassed to have them change it back. Those self-effacing remarks endeared him to the audience even more.

Stockton spoke about the importance of competition. He pointed out that competition is a good thing—it provides motivation. When we reward people for mediocrity, the reward is false, and they are set up for failure. He also pointed out the need for kids to experience failure as well as success, because they need to learn how to deal with it. He learned the most when he was on the bench watching Ricky Green, instead of being inserted right into the starting lineup when he joined the Jazz out of college. Stockton also mentioned that competition doesn’t imply a lack of balance. Competitiveness means you want to be the best friend, employee, dad, son, brother you can be, which introduces a great balance in your life.

Finally, Stockton noted that some people think competition is bad because it isn’t fair. He commented that what really isn’t fair is that we were all born in America with incredible opportunities before us. I’m glad for the opportunity I will have to implement the things I learned at this seminar in my personal and business life.

Get Movitaved, Part 2

2006-08-28T07:28:00.000-07:00

Brice Wallace from the Deseret News phoned last week to hear more of my thoughts about John Stockton speaking at the Get Motivated Seminar tomorrow. Read the article here.

One empowering question

2006-08-23T11:26:00.000-07:00

I used to uncheck every box for promotional mailings when I registered at websites or bought products online, as spam prevention. However, now I welcome promotional literature from every place I do business, for two reasons. First, the literature will likely tell me about things I'm interested in, and I've realized that most places don't email newsletters very often anyway. Second, I enjoy studying promotional pieces--this is good "research" material for me for my own business mailings.

I just got a great newsletter from Logoworks, whom we used a few years ago to design our logo. (Incidently, Cory Maylett, our fabulous graphics designer, came up with our final logo design.)

The newsletter talked about how to cultivate endless referrals. The bottom line? Whenever you network, focus on the other person--don't spend any time talking about yourself. I really appreciated their one key question:

"Pat, how can I know if someone I am speaking with would be a good prospect for you?"

That's a great question to close a conversation with! I'll be honest--I feel like way too often I'm the one being helped in my networking instead of the one helping others. To proactively find out how you can assist the other person is empowering, can tell you even more about their interesting business, and is a great way to start a relationship.

John Stockton and the Get Motivated Seminar

2006-08-10T20:50:00.001-07:00

I have at least one journal entry for every week of my life between the time I was 5 until I turned 14. So what would I write about? Sports, of course. I would report the weekends scores, scribble down BYU's starting football lineup for the upcoming season, and write about the exploits of John Stockton and Karl Malone.

One thing I liked about John Stockton was that he was such a workhorse. He almost never talked with the media, he just went out, got his 15 points, 13 assists, and 2 steals every night, and then slipped out the back door before any reporters could catch him.

So imagine my surprise a few weeks ago when I saw John Stockton headlining a motivational seminar on August 29th in the Delta Center. Yes, the same player who always let his game do the talking is going to publicly share his insights about determination. I am so excited to hear him talk! Oh, and the rest of the speakers on this day-long seminar are rather famous themselves--Rudolph Guiliani, Zig Ziglar, Steve Forbes, etc.

The folks that are putting this on were doing some marketing tactic that I really haven't figured out yet. I paid them $49, and they told me I could have as many tickets to the event as I wanted. So now I have fifteen extra tickets to this day long seminar, and I would like to share them. I am not planning on taking my office--I work with a bunch of programmers who are in general quite motivated but don't especially enjoy being subjected to passionate speakers and marketing hype. So if anyone would like some of my tickets, please feel free to comment on my blog or email me at matt AT tsplines.com. This will be a great event. Details below:

GET MOTIVATED SEMINAR

with Zig Ziglar, Rudolph Giuliani, John Stockton, Steve Forbes, Dr. Robert Schuller and Tom Hopkins!
at the Delta Center
301 W. South Temple, Salt Lake City, UT
8 a.m. - 4:45 p.m.!

This show is so HOT it SIZZLES!

#1 Motivator Zig Ziglar will be joined by this dynamic team of experts:

Rudolph Giuliani will teach you how to lead in difficult times!

John Stockton, Utah Jazz 10-time NBA All Star, will teach you how to lead your team to victory.

Steve Forbes, President and CEO of Forbes, Inc., will show you your keys to growth and opportunity!

Dr. Robert Schuller, America’s best inspirational speaker, will teach you how to achieve your personal and professional goals!

Tom Hopkins, America’s #1 authority on selling, will tell you how to strengthen your sales and negotiation skills!

Update Aug 21: All my extra tickets have now been given away. Hope to see you at the event!

I'm a proud son

2006-07-12T10:41:00.000-07:00

When I began this blog, my intent was to share observations of things I have learned from people I admire. But the sad truth is that I'm not plowing through biographies at a steady clip right now, and I'm flat out doing a poor job of jotting down my personal interactions.

However, I can't pass up this chance to brog (brag in a blog?) a bit about my dad.

My dad and I are the best of friends, but the reason for this post is that he is receiving the top award in his field this year, the Computer Graphics Achievement Award, at the worldwide SIGGRAPH conference in Boston this week. This is the latest of an impressive number of recognitions and opportunities he's been awarded lately as a result of his lifelong commitment to excellence. I've learned a lot from him in many settings, but on the occasion of this award, I wanted to share a few habits of his I've noticed in his professional career that have led to his successes.

Preparation

I listened to a speech not too long ago about time and patience. The speaker, Henry B. Eyring, commented on how in life we have early-harvest and late-harvest crops. He said it can be discouraging if we think something in life should be harvested early, but in reality it is a late-harvest crop. So we need to have patience. He mentioned how his dad, a world-famous scientist, spent his whole life investing in “late-harvest” crops---things where he would put a lot of time and effort into up front, and then not worry about seeing the benefits for a while.

I think my own dad has taken a similar approach to life and his career. Becoming a world-class academic doesn't happen overnight, but it takes years of learning, researching, and preparing. I've noticed how when my dad has received special assignments or opportunities at the university or elsewhere, he prepares for them intensely, and the result is that his professional assignments are all carried out with high quality.

Significance

I have often thought about becoming a university professor myself and following in my dad's footsteps (albeit in a different field---I studied economics). I've had a number of talks with my dad about this possibility, and he's shared the positive and negative aspects of being a professor. Although there a numerous parts about his profession he enjoys, one unintentional side effect that disturbs him is the "public or perish" mentality. University professors must have a good output of papers published in journals to keep their jobs. However, because of this emphasis on a quantitative measurement of a professor's competence, many papers are churned out, published, and rarely looked at again.

To be honest, I'm sure my dad has had papers like that. In fact, I once attended a lecture he gave, where he quoted someone else referring to one of my dad's papers as something like one of the biggest mistakes of the year in the field. However, my dad has never given up the vision of producing something of significance, and his award specifically cites two of his major advances that are significant contributions to the field--according to Google Scholar, one of his papers has been cited 730 times in other papers! I'm proud of my dad, not because everything he does is important, but because he always has an eye on creating meaningful things.

Priorities

Upon entering my parents home, you step into the entry hall and behold the lone piece of furniture in the whole room: a single tall bookcase. While doing the latest round of rearranging of the furniture a few years back, my dad was undecided about where to put this bookcase until he realized there was space in the entry hall. "This will provide a good emphasis on learning in our home," I remember him deciding.

Both in his professional and personal life, my dad has a remarkable ability to focus on his priorities and let them take first claim upon his time. It's impossible to do anything worthwhile if you don't know what it is you are wanting to do. I have no doubt about what my dad's priorities, both at work and at home, and it shows by the achievement he has been able to make in these areas, while letting less significant things take care of themselves.

I'm here in Boston with most of my siblings to see my dad get his award tomorrow. We're proud of him and glad that he has invited us to participate in this wonderful moment with him.

eFax--Receive Faxes for Free

2006-07-12T09:57:00.000-07:00

As someone who stores nearly all his information electronically, and uses Microsoft Outlook for most of my file organization, I have never understood why people still use fax machines. It seems so much cheaper and straightforward to simply scan documents and send them over email as a PDF. Plus, you have the added advantage of always being able to easily find the document by searching your email.

We don't have a fax machine in our office, and as a matter of principle, I don't want to buy one. To me, it seems like the dinosaur of office equipment, soon to go the way of the typewriter.

I was talking with my employees about this yesterday, and one of them pointed out that, although their days may be numbered, fax machines will likely stay around for quite some time. He pointed out that they are often a lowest common denominator of communication between businesses. Many businesses that aren't high-tech may not have the need for up-to-date computing systems, but they do have a fax machine. I saw his point, and made a prediction: fax machines will be around as long as non-HD television sets. For over ten years, I have been getting advice to not buy a "regular" TV, since soon, everything will be in HDTV. But the truth is, "regular" TV is a standard, and there is always a lot of inertia against change--both in TV sets and office equipment.

So, while I continue to live in my anti-fax world, I still have to have some way to doing business with everyone that is still communicating via fax. Thank goodness for eFax. eFax is a service that allows you to send and receive faxes on your computer (via email). Their free offering includes giving you a fax number and allowing you to receive faxes for free. By upgrading, you can also send faxes. This is a great service that helps ease the transition from paper to digital communication.

Martha Moth Makes Socks

2006-07-11T21:08:00.000-07:00

I wonder what my parents did when they lost track of old friends and acquaintances. I suppose they relied on Christmas cards if they had a current address, or else lived off the memories. The other day, my dad was dusting off slides while he was looking for something for an academic presentation, and he found some slides of friends from 25 years ago, just after he married my mom. He had a lot of fun reminiscing with her about the old times.

The neat thing about the Internet is it makes it much easier to come across "lost" friends--even if you're not trying. The other day I was doing some googling, and came across a delightfully illustrated children's book named Martha Moth Makes Socks, published this year by Houghton-Mifflin. It turns out it was written and illustrated by none other than my friend from freshman year at college, Cambria Evans (now surnamed Christensen--rumor has it her husband is artistically talented as well). It was evident when I knew her that Cambria was an amazing artist with a spunky imagination, but it was neat to see that she has finally "made it big." I promptly dropped Cambria a line and invited her to join my LinkedIn network (which is one way I keep friends from becoming "lost")--I would love to be able to work with her when we need design work done in the future.

I haven't had a chance to read this whole book yet, but the reviews at Amazon have been great. I have seen some of the artwork, and it makes someone even as right-brained as me start to imagine. I'd pick it up if you get the chance!

Brief History of Internet Marketing

2006-07-10T07:13:00.001-07:00

Here is a great overview from the Economist about the history of pay-per-click, pay-per-call, and pay-per-action Internet marketing offerings at Google, Yahoo, Snap.com, and YouTube.com. It also points out how since the performance of Internet advertising is so easy to track, it has become a variable cost of production instead of merely a cost-center.

Sharing Personal Networks

2006-06-26T09:58:00.001-07:00

I've realized that I like living and working in bustling places. I appreciate peace and quiet, but when it comes to making friends and networking, I enjoy being accessible to other people and having others be accessible to me.

Maybe that's why Paul Allen's efforts to build a tech community in Utah resonate with me. He commented on how the office park where WordPerfect used to be in north Orem, UT is full of tech companies who are each in their own cubicles, huddled up with their own concerns and rarely interacting. I find myself engaged in similar behavior inside my own office building. This is a shame because there is much benefit to be had by collaborating.

I attended one of Paul's entrepreneurial luncheons for the first time last week. He extended an open inviation on his blog, and 13 of us, mostly strangers to each other, responded and talked about our business challenges and ideas over lunch. It was a great idea---everyone was open with their information and networks.

The challenge I brought to the table was about product management.

We're looking to hire a CAD product manager at my company. A number of people had helpful leads they passed on. But I also got sound advice for what do to in the meantime---how I can better understand and interact with my programmers in order to better accomplish our programming and product goals.

It felt good to have other people talk about and consider my challenges---and it felt good to give advice and share my network with others. I'll attend more of these types of events in the future.

Seth Godin Shares Blogging Secrets

2006-06-03T11:30:00.000-07:00

Seth Godin is one of the better-known marketers on the Internet, and his blog always seems to have relevant, insightful content. Today I read his list of 56 ways to get traffic to your blog.

Some of my favorites:

Use lists.
Be topical... write posts that need to be read right now.
Learn enough to become the expert in your field.
Break news.
Be timeless... write posts that will be readable in a year.
Be among the first with a great blog on your topic, then encourage others to blog on the same topic.
Share your expertise generously so people recognize it and depend on you.
Announce news.
Write short, pithy posts.
Write long, definitive posts.
Coin a term or two.
Do email interviews with the well-known.
Answer your email.

First Utah Blogger's Conference

2006-05-30T10:24:00.000-07:00

I'm looking forward to attending the first Utah Blogger's Conference on June 13 at the Miller Innovation Center. Among the speakers will be Phil Windley and Tim Stay, two of the more prominent bloggers in the state. The biggest draw for me, though, will be meeting and getting to know bloggers from around the state.

There will be free admission and free dinner. See you there!

Starting up? Consider an incubator

2006-05-25T08:38:00.000-07:00

Michael Eager alerted me that the business incubator at Provo Labs is now accepting applicants. This looks like a great opportunity for entrepreneurs in Utah Valley, especially if they are BYU students because the new Provo Labs building is just across the street from campus on 9th East.

A few of the benefits include weekly training by Paul Allen, office space, web hosting services, a Blackberry phone, and networking events. The price looks very reasonable.

I'm a big believer of launching your company in an incubator. When my dad and I launched T-Splines almost two years ago, we first "incubated" with CEDO, an Orem non-profit that provides mentoring, advice, and office space to startups. (Our offices weren't at CEDO, we mainly used their mentoring services.) Following that, we "incubated" again at Zygote Media Group for a year. Being at Zygote was great for us. Our little 20 x 20 cubicle got a little cozy at times (just before we released our first product we had eight employees crammed in there). However, being able to observe the Zygote culture, see how a 3d content creation house worked, and have weekly strategy meetings with their CEO was invaluable to me.

YouTube and graduation

2006-04-29T16:57:00.000-07:00

My sister Maria and I both received our diplomas from Brigham Young University over the weekend. Maria finished college with a vocal performance minor, and was invited to sing at her convocation. She kindly asked me to accompany her, and we performed a song written by my dad's friend Roger Hoffman, "Consider the Lilies."

It was really neat to be able to participate in graduation and to perform in the cavernous Marriott Center basketball arena. I obtained some footage taken from the audience and made it into a music video that I uploaded to YouTube.com. YouTube is a great site where you can upload your home videos for free for anyone to watch. It was very simple, and I'd recommend trying it yourself!

Here's the video of Maria and me. (It is streamed over the Internet.)

Technicalvideorental.com: the Netflix for Do-It-Yourselfers

2006-03-29T10:39:00.000-08:00

I've been renting technical DVDs from Technicalvideorental.com for the past couple weeks and have been quite pleased with the service. I discovered this site while I was doing research in the animation industry; I was looking to view some video tutorials about different modeling techniques. These videos are usually around $50, and since my purpose is mainly research, I have no need to own these videos--I will probably only watch them a few times. Then I found technicalvideorental.com. They charge $9.99 per dvd (free shipping) and you get to keep it for one week. I'll admit that sounds expensive for normal dvd rentals, but these guys have titles that are hard to find: some of their topcis include woodworking, cooking, and arts & crafts. I couldn't find any of the titles I have checked out from here at Netflix. As technicalvideorental.com points out, you could watch 5 videos by renting from them for the same price as purchasing one.

Their order process could be improved: for some reason, while you are checking out, they don't refer to your purchase by its full name--they just shorten it or describe it. This led to some confusion with my first purchase: I thought I was renting one title, but in fact I was shipped a similar title that was uninteresting to me since I had already seen it. However, the folks there were kind enough to ship me the title I had really wanted at no additional charge.

Anyway, this is a cool business model, and it looks like technicalvideorental.com has found a great niche. I would recommend trying them out.

Statcounter.com: Amazing Free Web Analytics Tool

2006-03-27T22:56:00.000-08:00

One of the neatest things about writing a blog or having a website is the ability to get instant feedback. It's amazingly simple to find out how many people read what you write and where they come from. I use two analytics programs on my website and blog: Google Analytics and Statcounter. Both of these programs are free. I have already blogged about Google Analytics: it is great for giving an overview of your whole website: how people navigate it, which pages are most popular, etc.

I use Statcounter mainly for my blog. It's interesting because it gives information about each visitor: what city they're from, how long they stayed on my site, and how they found my site. I don't look at Statcounter too often, but today I was looking at it and noticed a lot of people came to my site after Googling various phrases. I typed in those same phrases in Google and was amazed at the results. I'm ranked pretty high on Google for some of the topics I've blogged about. For instance, here is my "ranking" for various search terms on Google:

For the term "lds business networks," I'm ranked #1. For "symphony marketing" I'm #2, "byu animation department" #5, and "the hive lds" #6. What this means is that Google thinks I write pretty relevant stuff about those topics.

So the point of this post is that I probably wouldn't have known these rankings if I didn't use Statcounter. Now that I have realized I can attain a high ranking on those terms, if I want to I could make more posts on those topics to drive more traffic to my site. Using Google AdSense, I could make money if some of that traffic clicked on the Google ads on my site. Or, I could choose to write more about the industry I work in--computer animation--and drive more traffic to my tsplines.com website and establish my reputation in that arena.

Anyway, the gist of this post was to point out that I never would have known this information about my Google search results if I hadn't installed the free Statcounter software. I'd highly recommend going to www.statcounter.com and giving it a spin.

A Cartoon by Warren Buffett?

2006-03-21T10:21:00.000-08:00

Marketwatch.com reports that Warren Buffett is coming out with a series of four cartoons called "The Secret Millionaire's Club" to teach kids all about investing. However, as Paul Ferrell notes, there's a not-so-subtle undercurrent running throughout the shows, urging powerplayers to stop ignoring lessons they should have learned in Economics 101 and make better financial decisions with more integrity.

Mormon Temples

2006-03-20T10:40:00.000-08:00

One of the powerful things about blogging is the ability that commonplace people have to influence the landscape of the Internet. Paul Allen, the founder of Provo Labs who originally encouraged me to begin blogging, recently asked a number of us to compose a blog entry on Mormon temples. There were a number of sites with inaccurate information that came up first with a Google query for "mormon temples," and Paul pointed out that by linking to the more accurate sources of information, we could boost them up in the rankings.

I hadn't been actively blogging for a while, but when I started up again today I decided to post on this topic. I first googled "mormon temples" to see how the rankings currently stand, and was very pleased: the site we were all linking to, which was #9 two months ago, is now up to #1. This is great because it means that many more people will be getting more accurate information about Mormon temples (something above 50% of people click on the first site listed on a results page).

I think this is a great example of the positive ways blogs can be used to advance a good cause. As a practicing member of the LDS church, ensuring the accurate distribution of information about our temples is important to me, and it is neat to be able to do something to help out in a small way.

Quaero is the new Google?

2006-03-20T10:25:00.000-08:00

Europe came together in the 80s and 90s to create Airbus, a subsidized company that now successfully competes with Boeing. Can the European nations come together again to compete with Google? Here's an interesting article from The Economist about Quaero (Latin for "I seek"), the Eurogoogle sponsored by France and Germany, which may be available by the end of the year.

The interesting part of Quaero is that it will allow users to search not only by typing words, but also by query images and voice recognition software. What this means is that if you were looking for an image of a basketball player, you could upload your own image of a basketball player and Quaero would crawl the web, looking for pictures similar to yours. Additionally, if you're looking for an mp3 with the words "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country," then you could speak that phrase into your computer microphone and Quaero would return a list of mp3's with that phrase--automatically transcribed and translated into a number of European languages.

This seems like incredible stuff. I look forward to hearing more about it.

More student Emmys from the BYU animation department

2006-03-20T10:22:00.000-08:00

Utah Valley's reputation as a fertile ground for 3d animation continues to grow, as the BYU animation department recently brought home two more Student Emmys for their work on the films Noggin and Turtles. Read the article in the Deseret News.

Life after college

2006-02-15T14:31:00.000-08:00

This week, I mark my two month mark of being a college graduate. Honestly, my life hasn't changed a lot. I am still working at my company, but now I have less external demands on my time (no classwork). It's been nice to be in the office more and finish a lot of things that I'd been putting off. However, after months of working or studying 12 hours a day except Sundays, I've found myself with extra time, so here are some of the ways I'm spending it:

Reading biographies (currently Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling)
Being involved in service organizations (marketing for the Utah Symphony and thehive.com)
Playing in two basketball leagues
Training for a half-marathon

I'm also trying to get more involved in some local business and civic organizations. I'd be interested to hear how those of you who are out of college choose to spend your time that you used to spend in the library.

Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum

2006-01-13T21:25:00.001-08:00

I attended my first Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum luncheon last week at Novell as a guest of Roger Andrus. This was a great experience for me. One of the drawbacks of running a software company in an international industry that communicates largely over the Internet and telephone is that I can go whole days without meeting someone outside the office in person. I really value these personal interactions, and at the UVEF I met entrepreneurs from all sorts of industries: financial consultants, high-tech idea guys, and some manufacturers. I was especially pleased to meet Michael Horito from Rocketship Design and John Thomas, one of the original Viewpoint guys.

Michael's office is just down the street from mine, and I'm going to drop by next week and observe them using their CAD software in their design processes. My company is going to start producing CAD software this year, and it's interesting to me to see how people use their CAD software in their everyday jobs.

John's old company Viewpoint was a 3d modeling company in Orem that was one of the 3d industry leaders a few years ago. The company was sold and doesn't maintain modeling operations in Utah anymore, but I always enjoy meeting their former executives that are still in the area. It's cool to talk with someone like John who really understands our software, and I have a lot of respect for those guys since they established a great company back in the day.

Guy's Golden Touch

2006-01-05T19:13:00.000-08:00

I just finished reading The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki today, which is an incredible guide to starting a business from one of the main Apple evangelists. When I got back on my computer, I serendipitously noticed on Seth Godin's blog that Guy's started his own blog. I'll definitely be reading this often. Guy's smart, funny, and savvy--and knows a lot about starting businesses.

Love is the Killer App

2005-12-22T23:46:00.000-08:00

So I finished my bachelor work in college last week. One thing I am excited to do now that I don't have assigned homework is to create my own curriculum by reading books and meeting interesting people. It's priceless to get a great education, but I think it's just as empowering to educate yourself by your own initiative.

The first book I finished after graduating was "Love is the Killer App:" How to Win Business and Influence Friends by Tim Sanders, the Chief Solutions Officer at Yahoo!. This book was recommended strongly by Paul Allen. He says this book changed his life. I hope to say the same thing once I've tried out what Tim teaches. Here's the scoop:

Tim teaches that the way to succeed in business, and in life, is to be what he calls a lovecat: a nice, smart person. He explains that to be an effective lovecat, you need to freely share your knowledge, network, and compassion. He shares good insights for each exhortation, but his most enduring advice is his instructions on reading books. Tim teaches how to mark passages, then to reference them inside the front cover with page numbers, and to write good quotes in the back of the book with page numbers. The act of writing helps you retain the knowledge better, and then when you have a few minutes of "media time" you can spend it reviewing what you read in the book (Tim recommends spending 80% of your media time in books, as opposed to in magazines or on the Internet.) I'm looking forward to that system of marking in all my books; although I underline, it's still hard to find those passages.

One tidbit about Tim's advice for sharing compassion (which I notice from my notes in my front cover can be found on page 179 of his book): use your salutations as an opportunity to show compassion! Tim notes that the average person has 12 saluations a day--saying hello and goodbye to six people. Most people just let these opportunities slide by, but by calling the person by name, tell them you've been looking forward to talking with them, and sincerely listening, you can build that person up.

I would highly recommend this book and look forward to reviewing it often. If anyone has experiences with reading this book, or just about having a better time in life from loving people, feel free to share them!

Online Gaming and the Economics of Fun

2005-12-17T12:51:00.000-08:00

Here's another interesting article in The Economist about the economic implications of part of the world's population being immersed in online gaming. One interesting thing from the article: there's quite a market on eBay for virtual items acquired in online games: it's possible to make $3.50/hr as a "farmer:" accumulating these in-game goods and selling them.
http://economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5300059

From "Toy Story" to "Chicken Little"

2005-12-14T13:51:00.000-08:00

This article in The Economist is one of the best popular descriptions I've read of what goes into the making of animated computer graphics films. If you've ever wondered how Shrek was made, this jargon-free article is for you.

http://economist.com/printedition/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5244073

Gold Mine of Entrepreneurial Resources

2005-12-09T16:08:00.000-08:00

I just finished my class in Internet Marketing from Paul Allen. Talk about drinking from a fire hydrant! One of the best take-aways from this class is that now I have pages of notes to refer to in the future. Also, now I know the geography of resources on the Internet better, and know where to go to keep up-to-date. I had promised various people that I would forward these notes onto them, but today I stumbled upon a better solution: Paul has a webpage with most of these idea already posted on it! If you go to his Resources for Entrepreneurs, you can find sources of where to go for the best information in nearly every category of Internet marketing and being an Internet Entrepreneur, from Affiliate Programs to Web Hosting. I am going to bookmark this page and refer to it often.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe review

2005-12-08T09:57:00.000-08:00

Last night at 11:30 I saw a preview screening of Disney's new version of C.S. Lewis's classic, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I'm really not a late night person, and I have a ton of projects to wrap up before Christmas, but one of my friends' brothers works at a movie theater. He was setting up the film last night and said we could come in and watch the practice run if we didn't disturb anyone. So he let us in the back door of the theater and we sat in the darkness for 30 minutes while he set up the film.

I found the film worth staying up late for. The story is a timeless classic, and I really enjoy watching fantasy stories from my childhood like the Lord of the Rings and this one that are able to take advantage of good computer graphics to tell the story like it should be told. This production was head and shoulders above the BBC version you may have seen. I thought Lucy was the stand-out actress of the four children. Aslan was remarkably done. And the talking beavers were some of the most believable talking CG animals I have seen. There were a number of small elements of the story that I had forgotten since it has been a dozen years since I read the books: did you remember that Father Christmas makes an appearance?

If you just see one film with your family this holiday season, see this one. The battle scenes and action are well-done, but they aren't excessively violent, and much of the death takes place off-scene, which makes it more appropriate for children. And also, Disney left entact the Christian undertones that run throughout the film. It was great to see Disney producing a well-done film with values that are important to me again.

How to control buzz: Word-of-mouth Basic Training

2005-12-01T10:56:00.002-08:00

In my industry, we talk a lot about building buzz. 3D modelers are a niche group, and congregate heavily on the internet, so opinions can travel fast. When people started talking about our T-Splines product on the forums, it was at first a sensitive experience for me. How would they receive the product we had invested two years in development? I rejoiced whenever anyone saw the light and got excited about our product, and when people had complaints (usually about the price) it made me anxious. I've since realized you can't please everyone, but in any case, buzz is important, and learning how to best generate good buzz is interesting to me.

I came across an interesting blog about building buzz, or word of mouth marketing, that was mentioned in MarketingVOX. The Word of Mouth Basic Training Blog (or WOMBAT blog) is hosted on first site devoted to teaching marketers to use word-of-mouth marketing techniques. Check it out! It has some interesting insights on fostering good word of mouth marketing.

The $100 Laptop

2005-11-29T07:54:00.000-08:00

It seems like everyone is talking about the $100 laptop proposed by some MIT researchers: designed to bring computing to third-world schoolchildren, the laptop is powered by a hand crank so it can even be used in places where there isn’t reliable electricity. It sells for $100 when purchased in quantities of one million or more. They've published a faq about their project on the web.

I thought this was one of the cooler ideas I have heard in a while. Then I read an insightful and well-reasoned argument by Lee Felsenstein taking a closer look at the economic and financial implications of jumping on the $100 laptop bandwagon. He points out problems of distribution, power generation, hardware issues, and infrastruture with implementing a large-scale program like this. If you have a chance, I’d recommend reading his post and the plethora of responses it spawned. My own opinion? I want to see some more facts. I think Lee’s points are well-thought out. However, if nothing else, I commend the researchers at MIT for attempting to do something about this world-wide problem instead of just theorize about it. In doing so, and in coming up with an innovative idea, they’ve been able to focus attention on this issue, and hopefully a good synthesis will arise from their idea and the response of the opposition.

Family-Owned Businesses

2005-11-19T13:02:00.000-08:00

A year ago when my dad and I decided to go into business together, I had a conversation with a family friend. He warned me that family businesses fail more often than other businesses for various reasons. I took this advice as a challenge, and my dad and I have worked hard at being very open about all aspects of our company.

This week, I enjoyed listening to a presentation by Timo Jones, an entrepreneur who has built a flourishing company (Timeshareware) with his family members. He noted that family owned businesses account for more than 65% of all companies in the US, and that 1/3 of Fortune 500 businesses are family owned.

Some of Timo's observations from his experience in working with family:

Benefits of family

Loyalty and trust are established.
Relationships are a known quantity.
Family can add motivation to succeed.
A strong family culture can translate into a strong company culture.

Challenges of Family

Formality may be uncomfortable—with your parents, brothers--but you must be formal in order for the business to be successful.
Spouses' opinions must be taken into consideration.
Keep focused on preserving long-term relationships.

Free Google Web Analytics

2005-11-14T23:37:00.000-08:00

I subscribe to the daily ezine MarketingVoxx. This is a free subscription, and I would recommend it to anyone interested on keeping a pulse on the news of the search engine companies and internet marketing. So today I read what seems to be a major announcement: Google is making its web analytics tool free to the public.

Web analytics software helps you track traffic on your website, and this information is invaluable to anyone running a company with a web presence. Web analytics tells you the number of visitors to your site each day, where they click, and which pages are most popular. It also tells you which sites they came from, what country they live in, and much, much more. Some web analytics software, such as the top-of-the-line stuff offered by Omniture, costs thousands of dollars a year. The fact that Google is making their software available for free could have major implications. I tried signing up today, but I think they were overwhelmed with traffic and I couldn't log on. However, I look forward to trying this out on my site. If their tool is as good as everything else Google puts out, it will majorly disrupt the web analytics industry. I'll report on my experience soon.

The Hive--LDS Business Networking

2005-11-14T23:18:00.000-08:00

Do the words LinkedIn, Friendster, or facebook mean anything to you? These are all networking sites for different purposes: to help you connect with business associates, friends, or classmates, respectively. The trick behind these sites is that you join, invite your friends to join, they invite their friends, etc...As in all networking ideas, as more people join, the benefit to everyone increases. All of the aforementioned sites have millions of registered users. As you search the databases on these sites, you come across interesting people who you'd like to meet, find out you have a common acquaintance, and request an introduction.

I had my first experience meeting someone on LinkedIn this way over the weekend; a common acquiantance introduced me to a violinist studying at Harvard Business School, and he gave me some insights on marketing for the Utah Symphony. It was really cool.

So, this entry is to introduce yet another social networking site: thehive.com. Thehive is still in beta and will officially launch soon, but I think it will fill an important niche. Just like I value my networks of friends and acquaintances in the animation industry, my college friends, and even old tennis buddies, I value the network created by my membership in the LDS church. Thehive.com was created as a way for Mormons (and those who enjoy doing business with Mormons) to network and help one another. So, if you are a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or want to do business with them, sign on today at thehive.com. It's free.

Disclosure: I volunteer some of my time to help out at TheHive. It is a non-profit organization and is not officially affiliated with the Church.

BYU Animation Department

2005-11-07T13:00:00.000-08:00

This article in the Deseret News details the success of the BYU animation department. One of the benefits we've realized from locating our company in Utah Valley has been the the synergistic relationship with the talent coming out of BYU's Student Emmy award winning program--they've been a great hiring pool for us. The article also highlights Brent Adams, Head of the BYU Animation Department, who has provided great direction to me personally while I have been learning about the animation industry.

Michael Simmons: Passion, Purpose, Prosperity

2005-11-05T10:03:00.000-08:00

I found Michael Simmons's book The Student Success Manifesto interesting because it relates elements of entrepreneurism to life in general. Michael kindly sent me a copy of his book to review. His book is also available for free download on his blog.

Michael has spent thousands of dollars over the last few years on seminars, conferences, and books related to personal development and growth. In his book, he shares what he has learned, combined with his personal experience. His book is surprisingly insightful for someone so young.

I'll acknowledge that personal growth books sometimes get a bad rap because they seem to be a dime a dozen, and many are admittedly unoriginal. However, Michael resonated with me, and to get an idea of whether you would enjoy Michael's insights, I would suggest visiting his blog so you can get a flavor of the kind of ideas contained in his book. In a nutshell, Michael advocates taking control of your life, being passionate, and not blindly following the mainstream. In essence, he urges us to approach our lives with the same sort of attitude that an entrepreneur approaches his business--constantly looking for ways to innovate and improve.

One of my favorite quotes from his book was from Tom Peters: "We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You." Ultimately, we are responsible for whether Me Inc. survives or fails.

Another part of his book I enjoyed was the observation of Michael's friend, who noticed after an internship that "Companies are not well-oiled machines. Business is the ability to work with people, not just numbers." It's important to realize that the powerful forces at work in our economy are not faceless institutions but are in fact people. This way, we become empowered and realize that we can really make a contribution and effect change ourselves.

A neat thing about this book is that Michael not only shares his ideas about becoming an Extreme Entrepreneur, but also includes a number of practical things that he has done to become successful. They include starting a business, shadowing role models, getting mentored, leveraging your schooling, conducting informational interviews, and a concept he calls "Vuja Daze"--experiencing something new, outside of your normal realm of activities.

This book is a quick read, and I would recommend it to young people like myself interested in making their own decisions and creating a life they would like to live. I'd be interested to hear comments from others who have read Michael's book.

The Book I Almost Wrote

2005-11-05T08:54:00.000-08:00

One of the blogs I regularly read is Michael Simmons's Young Entrepreneur Journey. I read it because I appreciate his insights, and because he provides a very honest and interesting view into his life as a young entrepreneur. And all this at the ripe old age of 23.

Michael sent me a copy of his book The Student Success Manifesto to review on my blog, in light of my stated goal to review biographies and share my observations on interesting people. You can read my review of his book here, but in this post I wanted to share some tangential thoughts that came to me while I was reviewing Michael's manifesto.

Reading his book reminded me of thoughts I had when I was a young teenager. I was very obedient to my parents and kept good grades in school. I was also rather shy and bookish. Many of my peers in junior high seemed strange to me, and it seemed to me that the news media's constant reports on juvenile delinquency confirmed my generally hopeless view of teens in general.

One day, I thought that all of the above evidence must undoubtedly mean I should write a book about me. I would share what I believed, my goals, and my advanced state of maturity. I was certain mothers, newscasters, and book publishers would be enamored with my thoughts and become fans of the teenager who had his head on straight (and wasn't bashful to admit it). I would become a blessing and a source of inspiration to the community.

Well, thankfully that book was never written. Since that time about ten years ago, an interesting development has taken place inside of me. I've realized that, fortunately, the state of humankind is not nearly as dire as I had feared. As I made efforts to shed my shyness and become more involved in other people's lives, I was amazed at how good people are, and how much I can learn from them. Whereas I would have written that book to set myself up as a light for others to follow, any such work I would write today would be far better, because I would share all the light I have gathered from others.

The second reason I'm glad I never wrote that book is that I've become more aware of what it really means to have a fulfilling life. Sure, I'll always value hard work, learning, and doing what I think is right. However, as one of my friends remarked yesterday, "a person is a person because of other people." Building rich, enduring friendships is much more rewarding to me now than being a lonely overachiever with lots of accolades.

So perhaps this blog is really the Book I Want to Write, sharing thoughts that impress me that I've learned from others.

Back to Blogging

2005-11-03T22:37:00.000-08:00

I'm back. After two weeks of silence, I'm back in the blog world. On the plus side, it has been a good two weeks for our company. A review for our product came out in VFXworld.com (sorry, free registration required to read the article), and there's been a number of other new developments. One thing I'm involved in right now is writing a tutorial for our product. In my effort to craft a great piece of writing, I've revised, revised, and revised. I think my perfectionist attitude with that partially led to my reticence to blog (how could I post anything less than my best work up here if it's a reflection on me?) and although I've started many posts, I never posted them because they didn't seem amazing enough. But that streak of blogging perfectionism has past, and I've resumed posting my unedited views. Welcome back.

Utah Symphony Marketing Ambassador

2005-10-20T13:10:00.000-07:00

I'm really excited this weekend because I'll get my first assignments as a student marketing ambassador for the Utah Symphony. They say I'll even have a chance to help develop their marketing strategy to the college crowd. I've always loved classical music, and I love going on dates to hear the Utah Symphony. When my parents got married, their first major purchase wasn't a car, entertainment system, or nice cutlery: they bought a top-of-the-line Yamaha upright piano. I began playing it when I was five, and going to my parents' home on Sunday afternoons to play while my sister sings is still one of my favorite forms of relaxation.

Though I was never tempted to make performing into a career, I've immensely enjoyed being able to play for friends at social gatherings and church functions. I even learned how to play the organ and was the first organist for my church in Bulgaria when I was a missionary (the first organ our church owned in the country was installed in the beautiful ancient Thracian city of Plovdiv in while I serving there.)

So I'm glad I have this chance to introduce the Utah Symphony to the twenty-somethings. If anyone has any great ideas about why they like the symphony or how to market it to college students, feel free to share them!

Mentoring

2005-10-19T18:13:00.000-07:00

I spent my lunch today enjoying a delicious spinach enchilada at Bajio's with Erik Hughes, Senior Director of Strategic Alliances at the SCO Group. I contacted Erik through a great program at my college called Take a Cougar to Lunch. This program helps students network with local professionals who are willing to mentor students and, benevolently:-), even pay for the lunch. I got the feeling that this program isn't utilized as much as it could be, since Eric said I was the first student to contact him in two years. I had a delightful time with Erik, and he let his own food get cold as he shared answers to my questions about how his career unfolded and gave me ideas about how to run my own company better. We discovered we had some common interests, including that we both spoke Russian.

I would highly encourage students to take advantage of programs like these at their colleges. Too often we get buried in our studies and don't take time out for singular experiences that help us get the big picture. I'm a big fan of mentoring. The Young Entrepreneur Journey blog recently compiled a list of top reasons to be involved in mentoring, I'd like to add a few of my own.

Why Mentor
--Give back. We've all been blessed more than we deserve. One of my colleagues references giving back as an essential part of maintaining good karma; others call it the Golden Rule. The bottom line is that it feels good to help others.

--Gain perspective. It's easy to get stuck in a rut of your own little world. Mentoring others helps you realize that others have challenges, too, and can help you look at your own situation in life with new eyes.

Why receive Mentoring

--Lose Fear. Perhaps I'm unique, but I love talking with people who are on the next stage of life. Someone once said that he felt like a giant oak, growing in stature in one area of responsibility until he was uprooted and fell like an acorn to start anew in another stage of life. Talking with people who are flourishing one step ahead of me helps take away some of my fear of becoming an acorn again.

--Get real-life instruction. Mentors can give incredible practical advice. If they've been down your road before, they've likely discovered through trial and error what works. Mentors are usually quite generous in sharing that experience.

Backcountry.com founder: Beware Penflation!

2005-10-12T23:09:00.000-07:00

Notes from a presentation I sat in on this week from John Bresee, co-founder of backcountry.com. Backcountry.com is the #2 outdoor retailer on the web (next to REI), does tens of million of dollars of revenue per year, and has an Alexa ranking of 7,281. If you're unfamiliar with Alexa rankings, they're a biased but often-used popularity ranking of web pages. This means there are 7,280 sites that are visited more often than backcountry.com. To put this in perspective, my site, tsplines.com, has an Alexa ranking of 624,223 and we average about 500 unique visitors a day in our niche market. BYU's Alexa ranking is 4,048.

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that John's company is a major player, and he's not hurting financially himself. So I was somewhat surprised when in his opening remarks, he pulled out a plastic pen from his pocket, held it up, and said, "This right here is what is wrong with my company." I was a bit startled to hear that coming out of the mouth of a power player, but he went on to explain that the pens his purchasers had bought were not the cheapest pens, since they weren't connected with the most efficient way of running a business. He said he didn't need a pen like that--he could use the cheapest pen. He called paying more than you need to for something "penflation" and warned to watch for it at every level of your company.

I could go on, but in the spirit of brevity, I will only leave you with that one thought: no matter how many resources you have, beware penflation!

Phil Windley--How to start a blog

2005-10-07T15:44:00.000-07:00

I sat through one of the most entertaining and informative powerpoint presentations I've seen in a while this week when I learned how to start a blog from Phil Windley. Now I can't say that Phil wrote the book on blogging, but he achieved something with even more credibility for us Internet geeks: he was listed #1 on Google under "how to start a blog" (until this week when Blogger bumped him down :-(). Before I pass on Phil's great nuggets, I do want to say a word on his Powerpoint presentation: it was amazing. He rarely had more that three words on a slide, and many slides just contained pictures or photographs or comics that he wove masterfully into his script. I'm always tempted to make lists of information on my powerpoint slides, even though I know I shouldn't, but Phil inspired me to really believe the adage that a picture is worth 1000 words.

Blogs

Why blog? Well, you can learn things by writing about them, use your blog as your own personal soap box, or use your blog to teach people things. Phil mentioned that he heard about blogs a few times before he could figure out why he should blog himself. Then he realized he could write about technology. He used his weblog to communicate with the people he was in charge of when he was the CIO of the State of Utah, and has since created a name for himself in the tech blogging community. Below are some of my observations and notes from his presentation:

When you read blogs, you are creating your own panel of experts

Phil mentioned a few names of bloggers whom he trusts and whose opinions he reads regularly. In the information age, there is so much news going everywhere, and Phil said reading trusted blogs allows you to position yourself where you would like to in the stream of information--bloggers become the information routers, a position previously held by major news networks. I'm still trying to figure out how much of my information I am going to get from blogs and how much I will continue to rely on sources like MyYahoo! and the Economist. You may have noticed that my blog role only has two links on it so far--Paul Allen's blog (an excellent source for keeping up on the Internet marketing landscape) and the Young Entrepreneur Journey, which I read mainly because I enjoy Michael's thoughts on being a young entrepreneur. I would be interested to hear which bloggers you, my readers, turn to for business news, Utah news, or animation news.

Keep your blog on your own site--not the site of your employer.

He views his blog as part of his career, not part of his job. He's changed jobs a few times lately (including being the CIO of the State of Utah), but his blog has stayed on the same page. When I heard this, I went out and bought mattsederberg.com and sederberg.org (Yahoo! is having a domain name sale for $4/year right now). I suppose I might move by blog to one of those sites in the future; however, hosting my blog at tsplines.com (my company) seems all right to me for now.

You need to have some sort of focus

His topic is computing with a little politics thrown in. If the topic is too broad, it will be hard to attract a base of like-minded readers. Phil also advocates blogging about what is interesting to you. If you try to guess what your readers would like, you will soon get tired and lose motivation if you're not writing about something you love.

Practice the virtuous cycle—read a lot of other blogs and comment on them

Phil says this is the best way to drive traffic to your own blog--by commenting on others'. I think that is true, but I also think that commenting on other people's blogs is a good exercise in general because it helps you "get to know your neighborhood." It's always fun to meet people who blog on a similar topic as you (you could find them using Google's new blog search engine at blogsearch.google.com) Everyone's always excited to see a comment posted on their blog (I am) and it's good to participate in the community. As Robert Scoble, Microsoft’s chief blogger, said, ”I have found no other way to meet as many geeks, see as much technology, have as many interesting covnversations with interesting people, and make things happen for so many people, as my blog."

David McCullough: "Amateur" historian

2005-09-29T16:16:00.000-07:00

David McCullough: "Amateur" historian

For the past two months, I had been looking forward with anticipation to the appearance that David McCullough was to make in Provo, UT. For those of you unfamiliar with Mr. McCullough, he is the best-selling author of such works as "Truman," "John Adams," and "1776." I have read all or parts of each of these books and enjoyed them immensely.

I found Mr. McCullough's speech to be even more than I had expected. I have been to plenty of speeches by dignitaries: scientists, composers, even authors, and I have sometimes come away disappointed that public speaking was not numbered among their talents. This was not the case with David McCullough.

David McCullough refers to himself as an "amateur" historian in the true sense of the word, meaning, he says, that he does his work for pleasure and not for pay. His enthusiasm shined through during his speech, reflected both in his interestingly woven narratives and the depth of knowledge his interest has inspired him to attain.

As he told us stories of Adams, Jefferson, and Washington, I was especially taken with his descriptions of Washington. Mr. McCullough recounted how Washington was not a brilliant intellectual, but he was a leader who believed he must always dress and act as a leader. Washington learned from his mistakes. He made dreadful mistakes, almost inexcusable ones, but he always learned from them very quicly. And most of all, Washington played by the rules. George III commented at the time that if Washington was to turn command of the troops back over to Congress at the end of the war, he would be the greatest man in the world (which, of course, he did.)

I'll post a link to the transcript of McCullough's speech when it becomes available; in the meantime, check out this interesting interview of David McCullough.

Hurricane Rita

2005-09-21T20:24:00.000-07:00

This post is off-topic, but with Hurricane Rita approaching Texas I've been wondering, what if they run out of hurricane names this year? What will they do? And how are hurricane names conceived in general--haven't they run out of names after all these years?

I think most of us are aware that hurricanes are named alphabetically, but here's some new stuff I dug up at the National Hurricane Center:

--Hurricanes (or more accurately tropical storms) are named whenever the storm winds reach 39 MPH.
--There are actually only 6 rotating lists of names that are used for hurricanes, so the names used in 2005 will be used again in 2011.
--Names beginning in Q, U, X, Y, Z are not used
--If there are more than 21 storms in the Atlantic in a given year, additional storms will be named using Greek letters (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, etc.)
--If a storm is so deadly or costly that using its name would be inappropriate in the future for sensitivity reasons, its name is retired (see list of retired names here).

Brian Beutler: Growing a business through hard work

2005-09-20T21:17:00.000-07:00

Today I was at a luncheon with Brian Beutler, co-founder and CEO of Alianza, a leader in Mexican telecommunications. Aliana's business model is to enable businesses to make phone calls for drastically reduced rates by routing their calls over the Internet through a technology called Voice Over IP (VoIP). VoIP is a very hot technology; Skype, the world leader in VoIP was just purchased by eBay for $2.6 billion.

Brian is only 26 years old, comes from my hometown of Orem, UT (I didn't know him before), and just finished raising $2 million in capital for his startup company. I found Brian's thoughts very insightful. Brian has a lot going for him, but if I could boil it down to two defining items worth mentioning in a blog, they would be hard work and humility.

Hard work
One of Brian's biggest business accomplishments to date has been raising $2 million in funding, which is frankly amazing considering his company's relatively small current monthly revenues. He was able to secure this funding because of his strong business plan and the promising growth potential of his technology. However, this funding didn't come overnight. Brian pitched his business plan over 100 times before he had any takers. He and his partner were working for free and he had already committed most of his personal assets to the business before the funding started coming in. Now, with the funding in, Brian continues to take ultimate responsibility for the well-being of his 32 employees.

Humility
Brian seems like a smart enough guy, but I think the key to his future success will be his humility and focus on others. It's always refreshing to meet someone who understands the concept of humility enough to exercise it while being a strong leader. Brian's humility reminds me of one of my favorite quotes by CS Lewis (sorry I don't have the reference:-)):

Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call "humble" nowadays: he will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody. Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerfull intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you do dislike him it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.

Anyway, it's great to see Brian succeeding in a high-flying tech company by following old-fashioned, grounded principles of hard work and humility.

Joel Otterstrom: katrinahousing.org

2005-09-15T09:32:00.000-07:00

I attended an interesting meeting this week where Joel Otterstrom, one of the cofounders of katrinahousing.org, spoke. I was amazed how these guys could harness the power of the Internet and get this great site up so quickly after the disaster. Katrinahousing.org is a non-profit organization that provides a matching service to match homeless hurricane survivors with citizens willing to share their homes. It was most interesting to hear how katrinahousing.org interacted with the other sites that sprung up to help those affected by the disaster, such as katrinahousing.net, hurricanehousing.org, etc. It seems like in general these sites all worked together for the benefit of everyone.

Katrinahousing.org is still in need of volunteers to help answer emails and phone calls; if you are interested in helping go to their website or phone 801-373-1299.

Introduction

2005-08-31T17:27:00.000-07:00

Hello, world.

This blog was born to fulfill a requirement for a series of Internet marketing lectures I am taking from Paul Allen. Paul is the founder of Myfamily.com and one of the more highly-regarded entrepreneurs in Utah, and 45 aspiring young people like myself are looking forward to his lectures over the next 16 weeks.

The theme of this blog will lessons learned from outstanding people, through a series of interviews, observations, and book reviews.

Studying people can be one of the most interesting and fruitful pursuits for a young person.
I have always enjoyed reading biographies and conducting informal interviews with people I admire for my own personal enrichment. The purpose of this blog is to share these insights with others.

A bit about myself: I've been living the life of an entrepreneur for about a year, but my business interests began in 2004 when I began preparing a business plan for this company with Kyle Welch that eventually took 2nd place at the BYU Business Plan Competition. I have spent a lot of time studying other startups in my space, and have benefitted from an incredible amount of advice from seasoned professionals.

Since I'm currently involved in the Internet and animation industries and am based in Utah, most of my subjects will be related to one of those topics. But hopefully the principles discussed will be of interest to all.

I hope you'll come on board, check back often, enjoy the ride, and post comments.
Kind regards,
Matt