May 2012
7 posts
“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.”
– Albert Einstein
The Reason Online Ad Prices Are Free Falling →
AdAge published a piece I contributed to it recently which explains the economics of the online ad industry.
1 tag
Ads work (even on me)
Peter Thiel has been lecturing about startups at Stanford and in a recent class, he talked about the importance of distribution to any business succeeding. How you reach your customers is incredibly important because simply having the best product doesn’t always mean you win the customer. The customer needs to hear about you and trust you. Thiel touched on a point that I’ve always...
“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve...”
– Paulo Coelho
1 tag
The $144,146,165 Button →
I always wondered how much to tip a cab driver and also how much extra money those default options in cabs were generating as a result of consumer ignorance of social norms. Now I know… it’s a lot of money. Talk about the power of default (and behavioral economics)
2 tags
Wonder and Beauty in Everything
Recently, I’ve been spending a lot of time with science and humanities focused friends (as opposed to my economics and tech friends). The weighty subjects of life, the mind, the purpose of them, and the wonderment of them have come up repeatedly for whatever reason.
The conversations reminded me of a fascinating psychology book, Soul Dust, and the Wall Street Journal article summarizing...
“The visionary lies to himself, the liar only to others.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
April 2012
8 posts
“I have a healthy disregard for the impossible.”
– Larry Page
Let's Save Business From the Businessmen →
When wide-eyed recent college graduates, disillusioned with the corporate world, lament the ugliness of modern capitalism, they overlook the fact that with all its imperfections, capitalism remains the best way to organize an economy. It has helped lift tens of millions out of extreme poverty in China and many other previously centrally planned economies. On a microeconomic scale, businesses...
1 tag
The Cost of Pricing Everything
Can optimizing everything for maximum utility leave us in a sub-optimal situation? That’s the question posed this week in a very interesting book review of What Money Can’t Buy. The author surveys how market morality (the idea that markets always lead to optimal outcomes) permeates our everyday life now and challenges traditional social norms. He concludes rather provocatively, but...
“Find the leverage in the world so you can be truly lazy”
– Larry Page
Economic Theory Plots a Course for Good Food →
“At Starbucks, the price of coffee isn’t so expensive. But the profit margin changes when you order any special blended milk and sugar concoction. And speaking of beverage prices, if you must order a Coke with your meal, it tends to be cheapest at Chinese restaurants.”
1 tag
The Beatles As a Business Model
Steve Jobs was a huge fan of The Beatles and even once said:
My model for business is The Beatles: They were four guys that kept each other’s negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts. Great things in business are never done by one person, they are done by a team of people.
This comparison really rings true to me for the...
“You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.”
– Henry Ford
1 tag
Size Matters, But Not For Long
On my recent trip to Shanghai, I was amazed by the sheer scale of construction and building going on there. In the Pudong district, you can see two of the world’s largest towers standing next to each other. What’s incredible is how short lived their reigns as China’s tallest tower (and among the world’s tallest 10) last despite their incredible sizes.
9 years separated...
March 2012
6 posts
“If you’re not getting rejected on a daily basis, your goals aren’t...”
– Chris Dixon
Directional Media Is Moving →
My guest article on MediaPost about the yellow page industry shift towards local display advertising from just local search.
1 tag
International Perspective
Traveling from the US to another country always gives me some new perspective.
The other day I was flying from San Francisco to Shanghai, and I was surprised to find there were no individual televisions on the plane — a rarity on most of my domestic flights now and even more rare on international flights I’ve taken. After my momentary shock, I remembered the Louis CK bit...
1 tag
Access to Capital
In college, I joined a non-profit, Elmseed Enterprise Fund, a microfinance institute that lent $1,000-$3,000 to low-income entrepreneurs who didn’t have access to traditional credit. I thought it was a really interesting organization which had a mission I could get behind, having started my own little enterprises in high school with seed capital provided by my parents. From my time running...
“And don’t worry about losing. If it is right, it happens — The main...”
– John Steinbeck on Falling in Love: A 1958 Letter
1 tag
Hope on the Horizon
One painting that came alive for me on a recent trip to Paris was The Raft of the Medusa. It depicts some men on a raft after the first-time commander made a mistake during a voyage. It captures the moment in which salvation comes and rescue is in sight on the horizon.
For first time founders, this painting probably reflects some truth about that first major mistake or failing in their startups’...
February 2012
5 posts
1 tag
Separating the Sensei from the Sufficient
I started off on the bunny slopes the other week when we took the office out to skiing but by Day Two, I was doing real runs (albeit easier ones). I had a different teacher each day. I had never really skied before so it all truly was a learning experience for me. The whole experience made me wonder what separated a great teacher (or sensei if you will) from just an okay (or sufficient)...
1 tag
Why Are Harvard Graduates in the Mailroom? →
How economic-lotteries shape careers in certain industries and how they are becoming more common
14 Ways an Economist Says I Love You →
1 tag
Access to Information
One of the greatest gifts ever given to me was from my dad who paid for any book I wanted. This generosity led me to splurge and gorge on voluminous tomes of information. Coupled with the availability of Wikipedia, access to books made me feel like I could learn anything I wanted. I don’t think I would be where I am today if I hadn’t had such access to information. This is why this...
1 tag
Life's Problems Worth Solving
Many conversations with other twenty something year olds out of college seem to gravitate inevitably towards what we’re doing with our lives — as in, what’s the point in what we’re doing and should we continue doing it? I often hear people ask what is “the narrative of my life?” as though their story will be told to posterity, which is an interesting way to...
January 2012
7 posts
What's Wrong With the Teenage Mind? →
How earlier puberty is affecting society and people. Interesting take on how teenagers need more real world experience and perhaps less schooling to make better decisions.
“In a fight between a grizzly bear and an alligator, the terrain determines the...”
– Unknown
2 tags
Helping the Little Guy: How Local Businesses Can...
There’s something noble and attractive about the little guy standing up against the giant. We feel special and better about ourselves when we go to the local mom-and-pop establishment and give them our business — I know I do. I also know I don’t feel that way after I leave Starbucks or some other huge chain. Apparently, there’s a new trend for people to even rebel against...
“Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources...”
– Inc. Magazine - “What’s an Entrepreneur”
The Quiz That Shows How Human Decision Making... →
Interesting demonstration of how humans tend to make the wrong decision based on framing.
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were...”
– Thomas A. Edison
1 tag
Resolution: Taking A Stand
One resolution I’ve made for 2012 is to take a strong stance on more issues. I’ve always felt some people are too opinionated about things they don’t know enough about, which probably made me overcompensate and not form strong opinions to share. Some friends have pointed out that even when I know a lot about things, I often times don’t take a strong position about them....
December 2011
7 posts
2 tags
What are the most common cognitive biases seen in... →
I wrote an answer to this question on Quora. There are few things more interesting to me than the intersection of behavioral economics and startups.
“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses...”
– T.E. Lawrence
3 tags
Hiring The Best and Those Even Better
Reading the biography of Amazon.com’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, I came across this quote on hiring:
“One of [Jeff’s] mottos was that every time we hired someone, he or she would raise the bar for the next hire, so that the overall talent pool was always improving,” said Nicholas Lovejoy, who joined Amazon in 1995 as the fifth employee. Bezos put the philosophy this way: Five years...
“I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful...”
– Steve Jobs
1 tag
Grit is the Secret to Success
Growing up, I always believed anything could be accomplished through “sheer will.” Most childhood challenges for me fortunately related mostly to school work so it was easy to see the linear relationship between time spent and output. As I grew older, I began to wonder if “sheer will” was enough, especially as I entered into more and more competitive academic environments...
Is It Irrational to Give Holiday Gifts? →
Interesting take on gift giving by a behavioral economist:
Behavioral economics has one more lesson for gift givers: If your goal is to maximize a social connection, don’t give a perishable gift like flowers or chocolates. True, people enjoy them, and you don’t want to impose by giving something more permanent. But what are you trying to maximize? Is your goal to avoid imposing on them...
2 tags
Behavioral Economics Study: scarcity imposes huge... →
An interesting new study suggests that the poor have more to think about in terms of trade-offs which costs them financially.
1 tag
The Hardest Thing in Life To Do
From Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland:
“Which road do I take?” (Alice)
“Where do you want to go?” (Cat)
“I don’t know,” Alice answered.
“Then, said the cat, it doesn’t matter.”
“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”
I’ve come to realize that the hardest and most important...
November 2011
11 posts
“You tend to get told that the world is the way it is, but life can be much...”
– Steve Jobs in PBS’ “One Last Thing” (via lilzet)
2 tags
Future of Retail: Why It Won't Be Empty Windows
Recently, I received a nice postcard from a friend who was explicitly trying to prop up her favorite dying US agency — a beautiful, thought though likely futile effort. It made me wonder about the future of businesses that primarily operate offline.
The Internet through the spread of email has permanently disrupted the main business of the US Postal Service, and the uptick in shipping...
“Dreamers need the realists to keep them from soaring too close to the sun. And...”
– Cam from Modern Family
2 tags
Founding Foodies: Gourmet Startups
As a bit of a foodie myself (just made Yelp Elite! screw useless Foursquare badges. I can’t eat them), I’ve always been fascinated by entrepreneurship in the food space. I still can’t believe the crap most people eat and that there aren’t better choices available for some people. People are forced to eat unhealthy take out food or junk food because of a lack of fresh, tasty...
2 tags
Why Nice Guys Don't Finish Or Decide
In response to the article on the Entrepreneurial Generation, I’ve been discussing with friends a specific part:
AND that, I think, is the real meaning of the Millennial affect — which is, like the entrepreneurial ideal, essentially everyone’s now. Today’s polite, pleasant personality is, above all, a commercial personality. It is the salesman’s smile and hearty handshake, because the...
The Entrepreneurial Generation →
The millennial affect is the affect of the salesman. Consider the other side of the equation, the Millennials’ characteristic social form. Here’s what I see around me, in the city and the culture: food carts, 20-somethings selling wallets made from recycled plastic bags, boutique pickle companies, techie start-ups, Kickstarter, urban-farming supply stores and bottled water that wants to save the...
1 tag
Time and Attention as Signals of Caring
Recently, someone remarked to me that the way she shows that she cares for people is by traveling to see them. The time involved in traveling is a clear signal of caring. Spending time to travel is a better signal of caring than spending money on a gift. Money is producible and you can always make more of it, but you can’t ever get time back. This holds true for whether it involves a subway...
“If you want to live your life in a creative way, as an artist, you have to not...”
– Steve Jobs