Organized Entropy

Been awhile?

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 11:22:29 -0400

Been awhile?

"Sell a man a fish and he eats for day. Teach a man to fish and you ruin a wonderful business..."

Fri, 25 May 2012 11:02:59 -0400

“Sell a man a fish and he eats for day. Teach a man to fish and you ruin a wonderful business opportunity.”

Talk about being flakey.

Wed, 16 May 2012 20:26:08 -0400

Talk about being flakey.

"Don’t hate me because I sin differently from you."

Wed, 09 May 2012 21:08:24 -0400

“Don’t hate me because I sin differently from you.”

- An interesting way to look at how we judge others.

Of course everyone is littering on Earth Day.

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 22:14:24 -0400

Of course everyone is littering on Earth Day.

A creative solution to stop littering, now hopefully people have...

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 23:28:39 -0400

A creative solution to stop littering, now hopefully people have a good shot.

This talk by Larry Smith at TEDxUW explores why we will fail to...

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 17:51:59 -0400

This talk by Larry Smith at TEDxUW explores why we will fail to have great careers.

With a very powerful presentation, Larry doesn’t hold back in telling us that many of us will fall short in accomplishing our goals.

Why do we do this! I was travelling recently and as usual, once...

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 16:21:01 -0400

Why do we do this! I was travelling recently and as usual, once we landed, EVERYONE starts to stand up and gets in awkward positions (as seen above) just to wait another few minutes before they can actually go anywhere!

It makes no sense! That is all.

There have been several viral videos lately ( KONY 2012...

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 19:26:04 -0400

There have been several viral videos lately ( KONY 2012 anyone?), but I have to say I loved the promo video for Dollar Shave Club. This video is a perfectly executed mix of over-the-top humor through the lens of hyperbolic seriousness, resulting in a funny, but effective marketing campaign primed to go viral.

The idea itself is for cheaper razors for men, which is clearly an opportunity, looking at the currently ridiculous prices for men’s razors. You have to give their founder (star of the video) props for his impeccable performance in the cliché packed video to raise a lot of positive press on a small startup budget.

Hopefully the quality of their blades are at the same level of their video. Check them out at DollarShaveClub.com.

It’s funny because it’s true. But seriously, we all...

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 16:33:21 -0400

It’s funny because it’s true. But seriously, we all need to stop waiting for tomorrow.

Susan Cain on the Power of Introverts via TED.com. Being an...

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 13:28:50 -0500

Susan Cain on the Power of Introverts via TED.com. Being an introvert myself, definitely loved this talk as she makes some great points on the complex subject. Check it out!

9 Interesting Ideas In Action

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 11:46:35 -0500

A compilation of 9 intriguing new ideas, businesses, or applications from around the world.

1. Books Sold Through Vending Machines

24x7 Cultural is selling books for pay-what-you-want prices in Brazil. Certainly not a good sign for book stores.

2. Problem Solving Platform Connects Businesses with Students

MindSumo invites students to solve businesses problems, while showing off their capabilities for potential jobs.

3. Taxi Service for Kids!

Fleurette Kids Taxi in Ottawa provides safe, secure transportation for kids - love this one.

4. Using the Crowd for Cheap Airfare

FlightFox in Australia uses the crowd to find the cheapest airfares available.

5. Interactive Takeout Menu’s via QR Codes

L.A. based Paperlinks is making access to restaurant’s takeout menus easy and interactive with QR codes.

6. Platform Matches Socially Focused Start-ups with Designers

Brands for the People is a platform that connects ethically conscious companies with affordable branding.

7. Site Rewards Families for Household Chores

HighScore House makes doing chores fun by making them challenges you complete for rewards in a game.

8. Mobile Platform Enables Real-time Student Analysis

GoSoapBox is a mobile platform that enhances the classroom through real-time participation, feedback, and assessment.

9. Site Creates a Launch Page for Your New Venture

LaunchRock is a simple web app that creates a ‘Coming Soon’ page for your new venture, to help you build buzz and prepare for your launch.

Lots of awesome stuff going on all around the world. Do you have an idea that can solve a real world problem? Make it happen.

"Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing."

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 17:04:10 -0500

“Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”

- Oscar Wilde

Oh job market, how utterly ridiculous you are. I’ll never...

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:04:12 -0500

Oh job market, how utterly ridiculous you are. I’ll never understand how people come up with requirements for job openings. Pretty sure they are the most random things ever.

Happy birthday President Washington!

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 17:04:55 -0500

Happy birthday President Washington!

The Paradox of Advice

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:16:00 -0500

You often give advice to help someone else make decisions in difficult situations, based on your own experiences. There are two types of people who give said advice:

1. People who give advice and have clearly followed it themselves

2. People who give advice, but clearly do not follow it at all

Everyone has probably been both of these at some point in their lives and hopefully the first more often than the second, not that it really matters.

The funny things about advice is that those receiving it often don’t take your advice anyways. They may consider it and it may have some sway in their final decision, but it’s not as useful as we think.

This is simply because we primarily learn through our experiences or rather our mistakes. So until we experience the results of specific decisions ourselves, we don’t learn and we probably don’t take advice.

It makes you wonder, just how valuable advice really is…

Shawn Achor on the happy secret to better work via TED.com.

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:40:43 -0500

Shawn Achor on the happy secret to better work via TED.com.

The Value of Your Degree

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:14:12 -0500

What is the true value of a degree? BA, MBA, PhD, JD?

The more I understand how things work, I get that feeling that the major benefit of getting a degree is that it simply opens doors to opportunities that are otherwise unavailable.

When you go to an interview, the presence of your degree is just another tick in the check box of qualifications that show you belong. What’s surprising is once you get a job and start your career, the value of your degree drops dramatically. Who cares about your GPA, that you were honors, that you got a double major, what matters most at that point is your experience.

The other benefit comes from the instant credibility you earn that in some odd way shows that you are 100% qualified for your area of expertise, but does this make sense?

Just because you have a PhD you are qualified to be a professor? Just because you’re an MBA you should know how to handle finance and run a business? It seems that these degrees have allowed us to make overly general assumptions about the quality of people holding them and their capabilities.

What’s even more crazy, is that many current graduates are having trouble finding a job in this market and their solution is to go back to school and get another degree. But to what end?

It surely seems that all degrees are resulting in ridiculous amounts of debt, questionable assumptions, and no guarantees. So is it really worth it?

Mind The Gap: What it takes to become a creator of anything.

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:20:38 -0500

Mind The Gap: What it takes to become a creator of anything.

Start: The One Step Process

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:54:43 -0500

You start out full steam ahead, inspired, driven, excited about a new idea, business, diet, workout, etc. You’re ready to do it, take on the world and prove yourself, once and for all. You’re ready to START.

That first day, you do it all, just like you’re supposed to. You’re proud of yourself. It was hard, challenging, but you accomplished your goal for that day and you drift off to sleep satisfied. The problems start the following day…

You start to think… “Well I did it yesterday and I’m so tired. I could take this day off and start up again tomorrow. I should ease into it right? Start slow? Maybe this isn’t the right time to be doing this?”

EVERY EXCUSE IN THE BOOK.

And all of a sudden, just like that, you’ve stopped. You quit and you convinced yourself it was ok to do so.

The simple fact is that if you want real change, if you want to be amazing, it takes hard work and it’s not pretty. Everyday you have to convince yourself to START. You have to have that same enthusiasm, excitement, and belief in what you’re doing.

In essence it is a one step process, where you have to start and start and start again. The question becomes, do you really want it?