August 15, 2004
hot pimp action
(HOT PIMP ACTION: Regular readers of gapingvoid are asked to help support the site by buying the occasional box of blogcards. Thanks)
Here I go, pimping blogcards again. I have no shame. I just got myself a new box of 500 (this design).
Blogcards totally rock. Those who disagree are idiots.
And in other news…
I’m still working on “How To Be Creative”, still having fun with it. The trick is keeping it interesting and useful without, as a reader kindly pointed out, turning it into a 12-Step touchy-feely monstrosity. You know, like those lilac-colored books with Prozac-friendly titles and pictures of rainbows on the cover that you see in the bookstores.
Don’t worry. I’ve got a plan. Heh.
Work has been really busy. My company just won a big new client last week, thanks partly to the work I’ve been doing (read “The Hughtrain Manifesto” to get an idea). It was a good team effort.
Between work, drawing cartoons, my 90 minute commute each way and writing “How To Be Creative” I’ve not had much time for reading other people’s blogs. Ergo I don’t have a lot of new links to show you guys. Ouch. Blogs are meant to be a two-way thing. Blogs are about “The Conversation”. So I feel like I’ve been negligent.
Still, as I often tell people, instead spending all your free time trawling for interesting links, it’s really far easier to just find somebody who’s much better at it than you, and refer your readers to him/her. Somebody like Jeff Jarvis or Jason Kottke.
I’m reading a lot of venture capitalist blogs these days. I have no need for venture money myself, but I generally find their world view very interesting– very different to the ones I normally come across in the advertising and marketing world. They’re in the business of guessing “what comes next”, and making money from it. Not an easy game to play. You have to be very, very smart and have a diamond-hard sense of intellectual honesty to do it. So it’s all very stimulating stuff. Brad Feld and Tim Oren are both great ones. I’m also a big fan of Fred Wilson– he can take the big ideas and make them sound really simple and down-to-earth. His ability to demystify VC and make it all sound pretty common-sense stuff is phenominal.
The one I’ve been clicking with a lot recently is Jerry Colonna. He was a VC, he isn’t any more, but he’s a terrific writer. He’s got this wonderful ability to be totally lucid, totally informed and totally heartfelt at the same time. He knows a lot, he thinks a lot, he feels a lot. It’s a terrific combo.
And hardly a day goes by without me checking up on Loic Lemeur and Joi Ito, two VCs/entrepreneurs who are heavily involved with blogging and blogging software. If you want to know where that world is going, you cannot, repeat cannot afford not to listen to what they’re saying.
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Hugh, I want to buy a box of cards but need to send a check (complicated credit card billing address situation). Couldn’t find a mailing address. Would you contact me?
Regards,
BC of Fishy Art Co
Nice cards. I ordered a box of 50 of them. Would like it if you could put some more desings with “she” instead of “he” in it. I would have bought some more if they had a feminine reference, as I am female. Thanks and keep up the good work. I like it!
Thank you for your kind words, Hugh !
Thanks Hugh. I’m blushing. You’re a kind soul (despite of/because of your biting wit
).
I love your site. Want to support you. Could you make a sampler set? Don’t care if it is more money. I cannot decide on a single design. Thanks!