Last week. Waffle House. 3:30 am. Somewhere in North Carolina. Three tables of people, one them just leaving and a few more still-to-be-cleared tables. That silent, slightly-depressing, but oddly-comforting early-morning aura has enveloped the room. The lighting bright and a bit too harsh. Server: Hey baby, just sit right here Me: Thanks Server: You want […]
Read More »Anatomy of a 2-hour trip: Tuesday 5:00 pm: Arrive at the airport 6:00 pm: Hailstorm with ice descriptions ranging from ‘baseball-sized’ to ‘tater tot-sized.’ 7-ish pm Flight delayed – boo! 6:00 – 10:00 pm: Flight delays get later and later in 20-minute increments. Too brief to leave the gate area. 10:00 pm: Board plane – […]
Read More »A few short months ago, the dominant conversation in media circles focused on issues such as: 1. Innovations like VR/AR, etc 2. Native content and how to differentiate from editorial 3. Ad Blockers and how to get around them 4. Finding audience segments within massive- scale audiences 5. How to count video views (and what […]
Read More »Dear Social Media, Rage is a gateway drug. Be on the lookout. It often begins with the prescription drugs Passion and Activism. Misused, those can lead to the highly-addictive Outrage. Often the Outrage addict becomes hooked on the street drug Blind Outrage. At some point, nearly everyone dabbles in Rage. Rage is often peddled to […]
Read More »Somehow this has become a seditious statement lately, but: I feel pretty good about the U.S. Before 45.9% of you get excited and 48% get angry, let me explain. Yes, it’s embarrassing to travel outside the U.S. and try to explain what’s going on. Yes, the idealistic view we have of what a “leader” looks […]
Read More »Greenville, SC – Not my first time back. One of many, usually brief visits. To answer the question: – Proud of the progress it’s made – Still love the place and always will. It’s in my bones – Can see why people are impressed – Would say it’s unquestionably solidified itself as SC’s second city […]
Read More »In my first executive job, I learned the concept of the “right of first concern.” Here’s how it works: – Take a decent-sized company, large enough to have a bureaucracy – Get some people into a room to discuss an idea – Have someone do an extraordinary amount of work to present the idea – […]
Read More »Walked into the barber shop just as the previous customer walked out, leaving me with the Israeli owner and the Ukrainian “kid” who works for him. I sit in the kid’s chair by the window and he starts doing his thing. They have TVs by each chair, but all show the same channel: Kid: You […]
Read More »Walked out of my apartment building. The doorman introduced me to the exterminator, who comes once a week. I had never met the exterminator before. We shared small talk. He was wearing furry hat. He told me things I didn’t want to know about my apartment from before I bought and gut renovated it. I […]
Read More »Billionaires and Reality About 10 pm — I sat in the lobby lounge at our hotel with a few people. The billionaire happened to own the hotel. There was a webcam temporarily affixed to a railing so his security people could monitor the lounge area. A little after 10, the hotel manager shooed everyone out […]
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