Jack Zerby

The creative battle

“The willing endurance of pain is a key factor not only in human dignity, but also in human creativity. It would seem to follow that individuals who spend their lives in the persistent avoidance of pain are not likely to amount to much… The process of achieving their professional level is usually full of pain. Such mastery demands endless practice of technical operations, endless assaults on seemingly ineluctable concepts, humiliation by teachers, anxious and exhausting competition with peers. To gain such mastery, one must face the sting of pertinent criticism, the shock of a thousand minor failures, and the nagging fear of one’s own un-improvable inadequacy. A tiny minority gets through to the top, to memorable excellence or profound understanding. The rest of us stop along the way, perhaps for a temporary rest, perhaps for a period of reassessment. But once we stop, we are unlikely to start up again. Security is suddenly far sweeter than enterprise” - Prof Robert Grudin

This is what drives me every single day.

If our new daughter can make ill beats like this, we will get along just fine. Even if she can’t we will still get along just fine.

The Motion Picture Association of America, which is counting on Mr. Dodd to revive its diminished influence, announced that he would take over on March 17 as its chairman and chief executive. The job, which will pay about $1.5 million a year, will require Mr. Dodd to push a Hollywood agenda in Washington that includes a more aggressive government stance against piracy and an effort to persuade China to lift limits on the distribution of Western movies.

— 

www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/business/02dodd.html

Ahh ok, now I get it! 

Goodsie Blog: Feature Release: Developer API →

goodsie:

Today, we are excited to release the Goodsie Developer API, which has comprehensive read support for Products, Order History, Coupons, Pages and most other aspects of the Goodsie system. The API is ideal for use with 3rd-party accounting and shipping systems, or to enable more sophisticated off-site integrations with websites or blogs.

The API is JSON-based and RESTful, uses OAuth 2.0 for authentication and allows other applications to access and manipulate resources associated with a Goodsie store over HTTP. Store resources are currently exposed to the GET HTTP method. Future versions of the API will support PUT, POST, and DELETE functionality.

The API is currently available on a free trial basis for a limited time to all Goodsie store owners and partners. To access the API and register for a developer key, please visit goodsie.com/developer

(via jonathanmarcus)

It’s one part foursquare and four parts onesquare,” Mr. Lodwick said.

— Exclusive: Jake Lodwick Raises $1-2 M. To Build Elepath, a Software Studio | Betabeat (via rickyv)

This is why Jake is awesome.

(via rickyv)

This dude is good, no, GREAT…

Ridic…

I have days like these sometimes…haha

Love this clip of Milton Friedman

superamit:

Two weeks ago I got a call from my doctor, who I’d gone to see the day before because I’d been feeling worn out and was losing weight, and wasn’t sure why.

He was brief: “Amit, you’ve got Acute Leukemia. You need to enter treatment right away.”

I was terrified. I packed a backpack full of clothes, went to the hospital as he’d instructed, and had transfusions through the night to allow me to take a flight home at 7am the next day. I Googled acute leukemia as I lay in my hospital bed, learning that if it hadn’t been caught, I’d have died within weeks.

—

I have a couple more months of chemo to go, then the next step is a bone marrow transplant. As Jay and Tony describe below, minorities are severely underrepresented in the bone marrow pool, and I need help.

A few ways to help:

1. If you’re South Asian, get a free test by mail. You rub your cheeks with a cotton swab and mail it back. It’s easy.
2. If you’re in NYC, you can go to this event my friends are putting on.
3. If you know any South Asians (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, or Sri Lanka), please point ‘em to the links above. Thank you.

jayparkinsonmd:

My friend Amit Gupta founded my favorite photography site Photojojo. A few weeks ago, he was diagnosed with leukemia. Amit is one of the nicest, most genuine, most creative people you could ever meet. Prior to founding the awesome Photojojo, he also co-founded Jelly in 2006 in NYC, a coworking community, that’s now spread to 60 cities across the world and helped spark the coworking revolution. It looks like Amit will need a bone marrow transplant quite soon. We can help him with that.

tony b:

Unlike blood transfusions, finding a genetic match for bone marrow that his body will accept is no easy task. The national bone marrow registry has 9.5 million records on file, yet the chances of someone from South Asian descent of finding a match are only 1 in 20,000.

This is where we come in. We’re going to destroy those odds.

How? By finding and registering as many people of South Asian descent as we possibly can.

Tests are easy– a simple swab of the cheek. If you’re a match, the donation involves an outpatient procedure. It’s not fun, but it’s not dangerous either. And doing it could save a life.

We are encouraging anyone of South Asian descent to take a test to see if you’re a match. 

You can get a free test by mail, or, if you’re in New York, you can join us Friday, October 14th for a special party to rally support.

We’ll have test kits on hand at the party, as well as music, booze, and maybe even a photo booth. It will, for the first time, combine a House 2.0-style party with a New Work City-style party, and if you’ve ever been to either, you know they are always something special.

Please spread the word and please do everything you can to help Amit beat leukemia. He’s a superstar.

Much thanks to Tony and pals for organizing this event, and EVERYONE who’s been tweeting and reblogging.

Please help get the word out any way you can. My life quite literally depends on it.

(via soxiam)

Mimeo →

Chill name…cough

Roy Jones is the man at dancing before he knocks you out.

Lionel Richie - Just To Be Close To You

Now this is a jam…

The hot companies come and go. You can’t create lasting value on hype. It can give you a boost for sure but at the end of the day product wins and that is where all entrepreneurs must focus, particularly when the hype cycle ends.

— 

www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/09/after-the-hype.html

This article by Fred Wilson is spot on. Every day I wake up and think how I can make our products better. I don’t really care if we have the most users, but I do care if those users love the product. I’ve seen countless examples of companies who care more about hype and popularity than they do about building quality products.

My first experience with this was working at Vimeo. We didn’t rely on Techrunch posts to build the userbase; we focused solely on building the best product we possibly could. We didn’t focus on the competition, we built what we thought was right for Vimeo.

So here’s to pouring every ounce of energy and emotion into building value, not hype.

Nothing like puttin this jam on at the end of the day.

Makes me wanna put on my Zubaz’s and watch some Saved by the bell.