Inovate or die!

I'm a huge fan of Tim Ferriss and his book "The Four Hour Work Week" AND the fantastic movie Fight Club based on the Chuck Palahniuk novel of the same name. So this post is right up my alley: Tyler Durden's 8 rules of Innovation.

Driving me to Drink (or at least to "Tivo")

Last night was a crazy night for fall tv premieres. There was so much on that even with a dual tuner DVR I had to make a decision which shows I would stream online later. Some of this is directly caused by the networks putting their best stuff on in the same time slots. This used to be just good old fashioned competition. Now I think it is having the effect of pushing viewers (at least those that are somewhat tech inclined) online.

Whats more is that I swear during the 3 hour season premiere of Heroes (another competitive game) NBC so oversold the advertising that it seemed to be 1 line of dialogue followed by 3-5min of commercials. Plus the obvious product placement throughout the show. Talk about driving your audience to DVRs...

Take note networks you now officially have no room to claim that DVRs are driving you out of business. We love your move to stream your content online - now if you will give in and let us download the shows directly to our DVR/home media servers (with ads intact) we would love you even more.

Wrong Woman

Why isn't it big news that Gloria Steinem wrote an OP/ED titled "Palin: Wrong Woman, Wrong Message"?

When the matriarch of the feminist movement thinks she's the wrong person for the job shouldn't all these PUMAs sit up and take notice. This ran in papers all over the country but the LA Times version was the first to come up on Google:

http://tinyurl.com/6aoxpt

SNL

All hail Tina Fey and Amy Pohler...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBH1gleAyf4

The Hate Party

Douglas Rushkoff has a post on his blog that sums up some of what I was feeling during last week's convention.

I felt a bit nauseous watching the Republican convention last night. I’m very much a give-the-benefit-of-the-doubt kind of guy, so I try to listen to the arguments people make even when they’re made in over-the-top or patronizing ways. Sometimes it’s good to distinguish between the rhetorical devices and the underlying substance. Even people who use manipulative language sometimes have an important point beneath their persuasion techniques (ads against smoking, for example).

I usually don’t feel uneasy when I put those filters on, but last night - during the Guiliani speech - I realized I was no longer filtering a speechwriter’s intentional manipulation; I was trying to look beyond real hate. These folks were gritting their teeth, shaking their fists, and smiling the way gladiators do when going into combat against barbarians. And this is the incumbent party. The ones currently in power.

http://rushkoff.com/2008/09/04/hate-party/