November 12, 2006
money 319
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Hugh MacLeod
Hi, I'm Hugh.
My life is committed to drawing little illustrations that spread messages, inspire people, help businesses kick butt & support causes.
Gapingvoid is based upon the science of how these cartoons work.
If we can help you or your business, please email us here.
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Archive for November, 2006
markets are
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P.S. Yes, I’ve got the new scanner. This was drawn on paper, not Tablet PC.
November 11, 2006
dinosaur t-shirt and mug now available etc.
The “Dinosaur” cartoon is now both a tee-shirt and mug selling over at CafePress.
[NB. They’re being sold at cost. I make no markup or profit etc. I explain my reasons here.]
the microsoft question
I was hanging out with Microsoft’s Steve Clayton and two of his colleagues yesterday [Hi James and Ben, great meeting you both etc], and the question came up:
“So, Hugh, why are you so interested in Microsoft?”
Fair question. Here are some thoughts:
1. Rebirth. A big, long-term interest for me is how both individuals and organizations, once they’ve been around the block a few times, get their Mojo back. As I wrote in September:
“Rebirth” is a wonderful metaphor, meaning everything from “re-invention” to “regeneration” to “renaissance” to… just about anything.
I find that a large part of the human experience is [a] getting oneself into a rut and then [b] figuring out how to get oneself out of it.
What is true for individuals is also true for large groups of people… businesses, organizations, nations etc etc. How do we re-invent our modus operandi? Serious question.
I don’t claim to have all the answers, but it’s a subject that interests me professionally more and more.
And I think it’s a subject that also interests Microsoft more and more. How do they grow? How do they avoid extinction? How do they keep innovating, instead of being calcified to death by their own corporate inertia, something that all big companies suffer from [and often succumb to]?
i.e. It’s a subject that genuinely interests us both. And where there’s genuine mutual interest, there is connection.
2. Robert Scoble. I once went on record saying that Robert Scoble, blogging as a Microsoft employee [N.B. he quit Microsoft earlier this year], was the biggest thing to happen to advertising since Apple’s “1984” commercial.
I took me a while to figure it out, but one day I suddenly realized, the big story about Robert blogging from inside Microsoft wasn’t the effect he was having on outsiders like myself [“Oh, what a lovely blog, I think I’ll go out and buy me a new PC”], but on the effect he was having on his fellow Microsoft employees. His blog was starting conversations that simply could not have happened before the invention of the blog. Why? The Porous Membrane, of course.
This one little insight completely changed and informed my views about the future of marketing. So I have Microsoft to thank for that one.
3. Microsoft is an interesting company. If they weren’t, I doubt they’d get so many millions of words in the mainstream media written about them, every year, like they do. All I’m doing is the same as countless thousands of other journalists and bloggers are doing.
4. Being nice pays off. Thanks to becoming friends with Scoble and the London Girl Geeks in the last year or two, I’ve since met quite a few MS people, and to be quite honest, for the most part they’ve all been well-mannered, interesting, engaging, passionate, very smart people, and I’ve enjoyed their company. Unlike some of the arrogant jerks I’ve met from other companies in my time.
5. They’re in the software business, I’m in the software business. They have a commercial interest in Microsoft product. I have an [albeit much smaller] commercial interest in Thingamy product. So we’ve got that in common.
6. They’re in the de-commodification business, I’m in the de-commodification business. So you think $300 desktop software is ubiquitous? You should see the $10 wine business. Where 80% of the wine sold in the UK is bought by a half-dozen or so top supermarket and retail chains, and the number of commercial, large-scale wineries in the world number in the tens of thousands. You try rising above that clutter, Boyo. Yeah, not easy. Again, where there is common interest, there is connection.
7. Microsoft wants to change the world, Stormhoek wants to change the world. Again, common interest. How well we succeed is always debatable, but hey, you only live once.
[UPDATE:] Steve posts a reply.
genius!
My fave Blaugh comic yet. Congrats to Fitz & Pirillo.
[Meanwhile:] Poor Pirillo had a setback:
One thing is certain: my trust in the future of our industry (and the alleged transparency of the blogosphere) is at an all-time low.
Yep. It’s no longer about “The Sphere”. It’s now about people. Watch your back/wallet etc.
But that day was inevitable…
November 8, 2006
ink on paper
A stack of new “cartoons drawn on the back of business cards”, all made in the last week or two.
As helpful and convenient as drawing on my Tablet PC is, there’s a certain je ne sais quoi you only get with ink on paper. So my favorite media is asserting itself again. Good news.
I’ll post some of these up on gapingvoid, once I’ve bought a new scanner.
blog fatigue
Om Malik complains about Web 2.0 fatigue:
The Web 2.0 conference hasn’t even begun, and you can feel the fatigue. You can almost predict the marketing “spin” coming over next few days, that is enough to make you groan.
I can relate. I usually come down with a heavy dose of blog fatigue every couple of months or so. It usually lasts a week or two. I think it’s normal.
Sometimes all you want from life is a cup of coffee and to hold the hand of a certain special someone.
November 7, 2006
an old polaroid
[click on image to enlarge]
An old polaroid of myself, taken circa 1990 by my old friend, David Freedman. He tells the backstory here.
David and I used to work together at Leo Burnett in Chicago, when we were first out of college. Later, we collaborated on turning Mr Hell, a cartoon character of mine, into a TV series for the BBC.
David’s now a very well-respected animation producer in London, and doing very well, with a lovely wife and two darling kids to call his own.
I got David into blogging just over a year ago. He tells me it’s been pretty useful for his career so far, because as he put it, “it keeps my name out there, within the industry”.
I’ve been saying this for a while: you don’t necessarily need a huge audience to be a successful blogger. You just need a good audience, relevant to which ever industry you choose to be in.
Niches are good. We like niches.
videocast help wanted
I’ve started working on my latest project: video podcasting. I now have to acquire some equipment.
I’ve just ordered a new Apple laptop for doing the editing [My current Tablet PC is driving me nuts, so I fancy a change], but I’m really thinking more about camera and sound options.
Camera quality doesn’t concern me too much. The videos will be designed to go up on YouTube, so nothing too professional needed. Heck, Scoble tells me he did all his stuff at Microsoft with a $300 camera, so I want to take the same lo-fi approach.
The thing that concerns me most is sound quality, so I guess a good microphone solution will be in order.
Anyone have any suggestions? This is all new to me, so your input would be most appreciated. Thanks.
[Note to self:] Maybe Lloyd can help me. Anyone else?
November 6, 2006
“professional vs passionate”
Who is having my babies? That’s right, Kathy Sierra is having my babies.
But this is who Tim is. He didn’t use the F-word to attract attention. He used it because he honestly believes that Project Blackbox is, “totally drop dead f***ing cool.” So he said it. And of course it brought up all sorts of issues related to honesty, authenticity, professionalism, personal vs. corporate blogs, etc.
I would be proud and thrilled to have someone describe something I made in those terms. Those exact, most passionate, terms.
I’m sure they’ll be great looking kids…
parmet is right, of course
Excellent point from Dave Parmet:
I was going to comment on this.
And then I read this.
And it occured to me that picking fights with, invoking the names of or kissing up to so-called A-listers as a means to generate blog traffic is sooooooo 2004.
The blogosphere has moved on, People. Deal with it.
[Meanwhile:] I wish Gabe would create a Techmeme widget like this Netscape one for my sidebar. That would be so cool. [UPDATE:] Gabe tells me there is a Techmeme widget here. It’s a bit wide for my liking, is there any way to make it slimmer? Thanks, Gabe! [UPDATE:] Gabe tells me that yes, in fact it does fit on the sidebar. Mea Culpa. Thanks again, Gabe!
November 5, 2006
viking 319
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every proton holy
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arrington in the wsj
Nice, concise article in the Wall Street Journal about Michael Arrington:
Two years ago, Mr. Arrington, a onetime lawyer and Internet executive, was living the life of a surf bum in southern California. Today, the 36-year-old has become one of the most influential people in Silicon Valley. Like a latter-day Henry Blodget, the onetime star Wall Street analyst who helped fuel the late 1990s dot-com frenzy, Mr. Arrington uses his TechCrunch blog to determine the destinies of new start-ups and to fan the flames of the current Internet boom.
November 2, 2006
i’ve started a blog 319
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please go to bed
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