The Big Idea Blog

Don't tell me how good you are. Just be good and I'll notice.

nospam@example.com (David Duccini) — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 21:09:02 -0500

On one of those rare occasions when I get to be a passenger, I get the opportunity to really notice and read the billboards.

You can tell a lot about an area by the advertising -- I'm often amazed/amused by all the adverts for attorneys and law firms when I'm in places like California. The best one to date: "Half-priced lawyers dot com" ! FINALLY some honest billing for honest effort - LOL

In our area of Minneapolis/St. Paul, we seem to have somewhat of a banking war going on -- I'm not even sure its for actual accounts or for raw mind-share.

In an ever escalating war, one large national bank had the audacity to just come out and tell me they were the best -- "Laughable at best" was what I thought.

What was amusing was that in all my most recent experiences with said bank I couldn't find really anything that they had done that even rose to the level of mediocrity. In other words, they sucked at being average.

Talk about managing expectations:

"Sometimes in service based businesses, all we ever hope for is mediocre service. Anything above that is a bonus."

Is that so hard?

Today's Big Idea: "Don't tell me how good you are. Just be good and I'll notice."

There's a reason why Jedi mind tricks don't work on everyone.

Who are you guys and what are you doing here distracting me? The Big Idea Blog is written by David Duccini & David Walbridge

Secrets of show business - Models that work; models that don't

nospam@example.com (David Walbridge) — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 10:32:05 -0500

I have many friends in theater - Actors, musicians, dancers, puppeteers and many more. They often ask me how do I make a successful living as a performer. Well. Its quite simple and very difficult.

a. People perform fo a variety of reasons, but mostly because they love it.

b. Theater succeeds because audiences buy tickets.

A & B are not the same and are only marginally related. Caring about something, even if you care a great deal, will not cause it to become a successful business.

Over the years I have many (many, many) friends try and create a successful theater business...and nearly all fail. In their defense they usually have tons of talent and infinite drive. But you need that and a business sense.(1) And capital. And luck.

There are some theater models that tend to work:(2)
- Dinner theater
- talent shows
- Stand-up comedy
- renaissance fairs

And there are some that almost never work:
- bagpipe musicals
- all mime
- improv

In the Twin Cities there are 50+ theater companies; and they mostly do the same things. They are successful.

BIG IDEA: Before you start a theater business (or ANY business) do a little research -- Find out which models tend to work.

1. Know anything about marketing? reading a P&L sheet? The difference between an employee and a contractor? The non-profit model?

2. Mostly by being popular, selling food and alcohol and keeping expenses under gross income.)

I need more ideas/ I'm blocked/ I can't think of anything / work is hard

nospam@example.com (David Walbridge) — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 22:53:56 -0500

Where do you get all your ideas, Dave? You write perform, coach, create film and even teach creativity -- How do you do it?
Don't you even find yourself with nothing to write about? ( Joke about, create, film, build, teach, etc.)

No.

Hasn't everything already been done/ told/ created?

No.

I have writer's block.

No. You have a case of lazy.

Writer's block is a completely made up thingie. It is an excuse to not write. You can't think of ANYTHING to write about - really?

Here's an idea; Make a list of nouns. Write about those. (Seriously ask me about the 5x5 exercise)

You might not be writing because you are letting your editor interfere with your writer -- Hint -- when you are writing, just write - no editing, no judging no cross outs. Just write.

Want short story ideas? Mash stuff together. A place, a device and two women. A feeling, your childhood, food preparation.

Part of being a writer ( or any sort of creative) is working. And part of that work - possibly the most of it -- is coming up with things to do. You will spend time thinking, experimenting and running up dead ends. A lot of time. Its part of the job, its part of your process.

Tonight's big idea: Creative work requires work. Often lots of it. The raw material of most creative projects is ideas; acquiring them, remembering them and trying them out. Get used to it.

Rules for rulebreakers - Success as a creative professional or creative person

nospam@example.com (David Walbridge) — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:38:03 -0500

rule 1 Get over it. You are smart/ funny/ beautiful/ intelligent. Stop trying to hide it/ move yourself to the boring middle/ not using your superpowers. Shut the up about how hard it is to be an artist/ MC/ potter/ alt/rocker/ smureffette impressionist.

I meet lots of people who are new creatives. They ask me fairly frequently how this and that is done, and almost every question is, at its center-- "How do you do it?"

It being success.

I really liked Pulp Fiction; way too violent but genius in the way it makes YOU put it together and figure out the rules as you go - work it out and keep up bub, or miss the party.

So this essay is some helpful rules and lots of tough love.

rule 2. study the masters. Whatever fields interest you have a past - use it. Study whatever is available.

rule 3. Is it totally unnecessary to figure out what field you are in.

Rule 4. start. This is actually number one. Stop reading books about writing books. Stop collecting bound journals and pens -- There is NO coloration between the quality of your notebook and the quality of your writing.

Rule 5 there are lots of ways to work; but for the purpose of rule 7 lets talk about returning the favor when a mentor helps.**

Rule 6 Creativity is the same across all media, fields and disciplines. A dancer uses the same toolbox as a writer, as a comic, as a bronze sculptor as a teacher as....

Rule 7 when you start your stuff ( whatever it is you do / are making= your stuff) will look like the masters stuff. Ok actually your stuff will be bad***

***rule 8 be bad. Make lots of mistakes. Seriously, stink up the room. Prob. The most important rule ( see also failure} but I had to bury it here at 8 so you wouldn't stop reading at number one.

Rule 9 Creative? You will need to get over the need for finished ideas, closed projects and sequntial numbering.

Rule 10 Make space for art. In your house, in your day. In your life. “art” is whatever you want it to be.

For my friends it might be writing, movie making or jokes.

Rule 11 Its hard!

Rule 12 The people in your life who don't like your projects (stuff)? Get them out of your life – release them gently and calmly, but you need support.

Rule 13 Stop with the time wasters. TV is one, smoking another. You need time to learn, sit, fail, create.

Rule 14 get a notebook.

Rule 15 Get a notebook

Rule 16 get a notebook, cary it everywhere, show only those you trust,

its for ideas. Write them down. draw them...

Rule one.You don't need to make a living with your creativity to be happy.

Rule 17. College might help. It might not.

Rule 18

** how do you pay someone back who makes a major major difference in your development?

Money. Say ' thank you”. Be great. Pay it forward. Fix their Buick. Etc.

That wasn't really nineteen. I've saving nineteen for when I see you

Rule 20 Don't steal. You will not grow and it hurts the one person who thought was so good that your had to use their 'stuff.” Ask permission. Create your own. Pay them. Yes, you may quote this and repost with attribution. Stealers have excuses; creators create. Pick your ethics early

Rule 21 There are very few rockstars.

Rule 22 Nearly every success creative professional I've every met had most of the following attributes; worked hard, disciplined, lucky, smart, had health care paid for by their partner's job, worked 10 years minimum before they were successful, had a good sense of business and marketing, is driven by a need to do their 'stuff,' lives fairly cheaply, works weekends, has talent, keeps learning, reads, is friendly,

Rule 23. This spot is for your rule.

rule 24. it starts when you start.

Employees...and you!

nospam@example.com (David Walbridge) — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 18:28:21 -0500

Now I realize that is less newsworthy than say Charlie Sheen or the Earthquake in Japan but...here's a simple idea.

There are two main reasons an employee wants to join your company --

1. Salary
2. Corporate culture

Given the recent economic times, salary is often pre-set, regardless of who walks in the door but what's the advantage to having a positive corporate culture?

You'll get more interesting, out-of-the-box, and talented people...Interesting brings interesting, and flexible attracts the flexible.

At Best Buy there are two restaurants. And flex hours. And product discounts. And a dry cleaner..and child care...and more.

Today's BIG idea: What can you add to your corporate culture to attract BIG talent?

Corollary if you are a 9-5 business, you get 9-5 talent. And not even banks are 9-5 anymore.

What are you hiring: staff or talent?

nospam@example.com (David Walbridge) — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 17:02:05 -0600

An important question for HR : Are you hiring staff or talent?

Every company needs both. Staff is important for day-to-day functioning -- they run things. Your front desk receptionist is important staff and often the face of your organization. Talent is the people who create things. (*)

Disney needs both - Staff to sell tickets and talent to create the movies. Each role in their organization is distinct - you don't want talent to do things the same way everyday - but for your staff its essential.

Despite the title, Subway needs staff, not sandwich artists. But it takes talent to find (or create) Jared and get him on TV.

Another distinction: staff is easy to manage -- the closer they get to exacting uniform standards, the better they are doing. Talent...well. Talent goes by different rules. The personality that is good at big picture ideas and 'out of the box' thinking isn't a conformist. The start late in the day. They wear fun shoes. They ignore paperwork. But they also create the ideas and products that drive profits.

A big idea for hiring: Talent is not staff - and you need both to succeed.

( *'talent ' is the term used in acting; creatives is often used to refer to writers, camera crew, innovators, concept people, etc.)

Say yes to being 'Overqualified'

nospam@example.com (David Walbridge) — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 11:04:05 -0600

Imagine going to your local restaurant on date night... and sending the food back because its better than you expected. Fabulously good. The kind of food you will remember in stories for five years. And you'd send it back, un-eaten because it far exceeds your expectations.

"This is too good" You'd say "Even though it is what I ordered and prepared perfectly at a fair price."

When I hear 'over qualified' I always say thank you. An employer says my talents exceed their needs.
This is a good thing -- I can bring more to the table, job or project than the bare minimums.

There are two standard reasons employers worry about hiring the 'too talented.' The first is that the employee might know everything and be hard to manage and the second is that they will get bored and quit. Either of these might be true but depend vastly more on personality rather than talent or degrees.

But, even if both assumptions are true -- You are getting great talent at a great rate.

And if neither assumption is true -- You are getting more talent than you asked for.

Now if a Sheila with an MBA applies for our internship, that's not going to work. But instead of dumping her...change the position. Use her years of experience, talent and contacts. Its a gift.

Remember - you are hiring talent. If you think you need 5 talent units and someone has 10...that's good. Don't aim for a range of 4.5 to 5.5 units. Aim for signing up bucket loads of ability.

Thursday's BIG IDEA: Don't assume a candidate has too much to offer your business.

(Talent is more than creative ability. Its judgement, experience, knowledge of the fields, contacts, related skills and tool knowledge. )

3D movies are so cool - and they absolutely don't work.

nospam@example.com (David Walbridge) — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 08:48:09 -0600

Walter Murch discusses here why 3d doesn't work - (mostly due to technical issues and the physics of looking.)

I disagree.

Just saw the Green Hornet movie in 3D. A great character, a nice big theater, even got into the preview for free. Still bad.

Its used the latest and greatest 3d technology.

But

A muddy movie, vague and unsure of itself.

Four uses of the depth faking technology that stood out:

- the end credits.

- shell casings falling

- an eight pack of scenes ( eight different scenes on screen at the same time)

- a pen on a desk

the first was very cool and much too late. the second was cool and minor. the 3rd was gimmicky and really served to say "look! We have 3d! get it?" And the fourth was distracting.

Three dimensional movies don't work for one reason - and its not technical. Story matters. Characters are important.
Anything that ignores these is merely a booth demo at CES. And is a bad movie.

For my thoughts on another minor 3d movie see here .

Peer-to-Peer Lender Prosper Concedes to LendingClub

nospam@example.com (David Duccini) — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 08:34:51 -0600

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...

Well this past week Prosper.com did a sudden and abrupt about-face on their business model.

Without warning they shutdown their auction system for peer-to-peer lending.

The fallout has begun.

SocialLending.net calls this move a "big risk" for Prosper and suggests that the next quarter will be critical.

The comments over at P2P-Banking.com range from "is this just a New Coke" move to test our loyalty to "I think this is the worst thing Prosper could have done."

And the grousing is getting more rancorous over on FaceBook

They claimed it was based on feedback, but as a top 1,500 lender I never received a single survey asking what I thought. Guess I didn't make the cut

I sent an email off to "reflective-rupee" the number one lender on Prosper asking him/her what they thought of the change in model, given that the automated investing system was now placing what appeared to be increasingly higher and higher automatic bids on the paltry number of open loan requests (which incidentally concentrates risk for those lenders). Here's what they had to say:

----- Original message -----
From: BrighterSuns
To: reflective-rupee
Received: Dec-26-2010 6:35 AM
Subject: Concentrating risk: What do you think of the change prosper made?

Hey #1 - #1454 here with a question...

Are you aware of the change that prosper made last week, eliminating the auction system for new notes?

Just curious since it looks like you might be auto-investing and your account has made some pretty dramatic multiple bids in the last few days, investing over $1000 per note in some cases

-BrighterSuns

----- Original message -----
From: reflective-rupee
To: BrighterSuns
Received: Dec-26-2010 6:17 PM
Subject: Re: Concentrating risk: What do you think of the change prosper made?

I think that the end of the auction is a positive, as you cannot be outbid, and rates do not get bid down.

I have bid $1000 on listing many, many times over the past year or so.

In terms of concentration, given that I have a portfolio on Prosper of nearly $1 million in loans, a $3000 concentration is not too much, as it is only about 0.3% of my portfolio.

WOW! Anyone foolish enough, not to mention so casual about losing $3000 in my opinion deserves to lose every penny of it.

Note also that the auction must have been a big burden what with all those rates getting bid down

My own take on it is this:

First of all, the pre-set interest rate removes all sense of hope and optimism for borrowers who have generally fared well in attracting lenders and then getting better rates through bidding down. It created a natural market for measuring and mediating risk. Now we're supposed to outsource that Prosper?

It strips out any emotion from the lenders standpoint in terms of "helping another person out".

With the high-speed auto-funding and the lack of requirement to have borrowers provide a descriptive narrative of their use of funds eliminates the advantage of having the notes get naturally vetted through crowd-sourcing. If dozens of other people aren't voting with their dollars, maybe I shouldn't either. On the flip side, if a loan request is or nearly funded, maybe enough other people have vetted it and have confidence in the borrower -- maybe I should take a second look.

They have halted taking on any new borrowers they deemed to be HR - High Risk -- but since THAT designation was based on their own model, how do we know that the E grade borrowers aren't actually HR's? It's like that goofey color coding system the TSA uses, you know how "Threat Level Orange is the new Green".

From my own portfolio, almost all of my delinquent and likely defaults will occur from borrowers ranked at a grade C and above! Take a look, you'll see the defaults are happening in borrowers rated "AA, B, C" - ridiculous.

In my own investing over the past year, prosper has had countless glitches where they can't seem to calculate their fee's correctly (I recently got charged a $42.52 "service fee" on a $0.42 Note payment against a $25 note!

Dec-29-2010 12:37 AM Dec-29-2010 Withdrawal Service fee 45935-14 051055937 Completed -$42.52 $66.69
Dec-29-2010 12:37 AM Dec-29-2010 Deposit Note payment 45935-14 051055937 Completed $0.42 $109.21

And I've had cases where newly issued notes have mysteriously ended up in my "paid-in-full" status causing the invested money to evaporate. To be fair they have fixed all of these issues when I brought them to their attention...but would they themselves have noticed? Do they have any kind of auditing going on?

It really begs the question: If they have these kind of "block-and-tackle" kinds of problems, what kind of confidence should we have that they can actually execute any kind of big changes in their system successfully?

I invested in the people, not their numbers. Statistics have a place, but when you let the robots run the shop, it dehumanizes the whole affair.

Prosper is no longer a community of peers -- its a soul-less machine.

The high-speed funding, and lack of required narrative sets up the perfect storm for fraud.

Today's Big Idea: "Sudden drastic changes to a company's underlying business model usually signal deep distress."

In piloting almost all accidents are caused by a "chain of events" -- it's usually never one single thing, but a couple of conditions that cause the system failure. "Its foggy, the oil hasn't been changed in a while, AND you're in a rush to get home" -- boom! Or "its the maiden voyage, you're racing along a full steam, AND you're in the north atlantic" -- ice berg!

Or how about "You dramatically change your business model, you irritate your lenders, AND you scare off your borrowers" -- BK!

Who are you guys and what are you doing here distracting me? The Big Idea Blog is written by David Duccini & David Walbridge

Let me save you some time: Work is hard.

nospam@example.com (David Walbridge) — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 11:27:47 -0600

cretivity, seth

A nice essay on creativity

nospam@example.com (David Walbridge) — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 13:03:33 -0600

Sally Hogshead on creativity

Want to innovate in your garage? Bayport, MN pop. 3,162 is more progressive than St. Paul, MN pop 287,151

nospam@example.com (David Duccini) — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 07:30:00 -0600

In my quest for equity regarding the blatant discrimination between homeowners with attached garages versus those with detached garages, I find it refreshing that Bayport, MN a little town just north of St. Paul, home to Andersen Windows, actually has a more sensible and equitable municipal code when it comes to "home occupation" than Twin Cities own Saint Paul, Minnesota!

The first part of the Bayport, MN municipal code has been replicated here:

(78) Home Occupation. Any gainful occupation or profession engaged in, at, or from a dwelling unit by the occupant of the dwelling unit. Except for occasional outdoor educational activities, the "home occupation" must be conducted within the dwelling unit, and not within accessory buildings other than a detached garage if the dwelling unit does not have an attached garage*.

With that one addition, Bayport Minnesota trumps Saint Paul Minnesota in terms of permissible innovation!

Saint Paul zoning for whatever asinine reason draws a myopic line in the sand and claims that "all detached garages are accessory buildings and ALL accessory buildings are the same thing" -- no exceptions. See I agree that you might not reasonably expect to be able to operate your home based business out of your toolshed, or greenhouse -- then again, I suppose it depends on what your business is...and clearly your business probably isn't the cities business telling you what you can and can't do on your private property....but hey if they don't want you generating more revenue or increasing the value of your property, or the massive multiplier effect of your spending on other products and services, who am I to argue with a strategy that looks suspiciously akin to having the entire city of Saint Paul Minnesota declared a "superfund site"??

The people that write and enforce these codes need to take a class in semantics at a minimum and ideally philosophy where they might learn that just because you continually call something by a different name, that it does not fundamentally change what it is in essence.

Hey St. Paul Department of Safety and Inspections (aka zoning), a garage is a garage, attached or otherwise.

You see the modifier "attached or detached" enhances "garage". Treating a detached garage as something else discriminates against the people that pay your salaries, and hopefully will continue to agree to fund your pensions....quid pro quo baby, you don't serve us, don't expect us to serve you....

So it turns out that a Google or an Apple COULD happen in a Bayport, Minnesota garage -- just don't expect one to happen in St. Paul, Minnesota anytime soon!

Today's Big Idea: In order to execute your big ideas, you may need to follow Jimmy Buffets advice and seek a change in lattitude. Even if that means moving one city over.

Mea culpa! It turns out that St. Paul could just look at its neighbor Bayport for fresh ideas and not cast that longing gaze at California...

Check out your city's municipal code -- you may be a second class citizen and not even know it!

In the mean time I think Bayport, Minnesota is an excellent place to start incubating ideas and companies that will drive tomorrows service and knowledge based economy.

* Underline added to help Zoning Zombies who frequently have at least one eye closed, either due to aversion to daylight, when most work occurs, or because they are distracted by fantasy job-posting boards for positions they can never attain. If only they would consider starting their own ebay business in their detached garage....wait a minute.....

Take a break...

nospam@example.com (David Walbridge) — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 11:33:21 -0600

Good advice ( in video form) from the founder of go daddy

Take a break

Today's big idea... Chill

Bonus ideas...

Innovation versus City Zoning: Why Google Could Never Happen in St. Paul, MN

nospam@example.com (David Duccini) — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 16:18:15 -0600

If you live in the city of Saint Paul, MN in a residential (R-4) neighborhood, and if you have a detached garage you're not permitted to use any part of it in support of a home-base business?

However, if your neighbor next door has an attached garage they are more than welcome to use any and all of it in support of their venture!

Say what?!

You read that right: If you have a detached garage in Saint Paul Minnesota, you're essentially a second-class citizen, while your neighbor across the street with their attached or tucked under garage can operate their EBAY or consulting or personal services business to their hearts content. Your neighbor now has a competitive advantage, sanctioned and supported by the City of St. Paul. What you get with your "accessory structure" (aka, detached garage) is a "nastygram" from the city Department of Safety and Inspections. In some cases they might even show up at your house, walk through backyard and attempt to get inside your garage without notice or permission.

Thanks in part to subclause "C" of St. Paul Code, Sec. 65.141. - "Home occupation"

St Paul City Code, Sec 65.141 - Home occupation

I checked in with the folks over at St. Paul Zoning to confirm this -- you can too.

There goes my plans to start collecting and selling vintage 80's sweaters and clothing, or possibly antique cookie jars on EBAY since I would not be allowed to put a desk and computer there or temporarily store any of it in my detached garage because through some arcane zoning magic I don't quite understand, the moment I do, my garage is magically converted into a warehouse (despite the fact that I might have my car or other personal possessions in it at the time) -- while my "neighbors connected-to-the-house-possibly-by-a-breezeway-garage" is still just a plain old garage.

It gets even stranger if you own the property, use it as as second home, rent it for part of the year, it suddenly becomes against city code for you, the owner, to store or use that garage - say for example, hobbies like woodworking, welding, home-brewing etc let alone keeping any of your personal possessions (like the aforementioned vintage 80's sweaters!)

You can't even use the space as a home office. But your neighbor could.

If this isn't a prime example of over zealous and overly restrictive not to mention invasive government, I don't know what is?

What it means is this: A Google or an Apple could never happen in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

At a time when our state is facing down an unprecedented budget shortfall, it begs the question: Does it make ANY sense to restrict jobs and shutdown the economic engines that drive our economy, namely service and knowledge based businesses? Most of which are now operated from peoples homes?

Today's Big Idea is this: "Cities like Saint Paul should take cues from Silicon Valley if they want to encourage innovation and play a role in tomorrows economy. Some of the worlds biggest companies started in garages. Just not in St. Paul"

Who are you guys and what are you doing here distracting me? The Big Idea Blog is written by David Duccini & David Walbridge

Distractions...

nospam@example.com (David Duccini) — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 10:39:23 -0500

Long time no post...

Have been REALLY busy with work and teaching, a new puppy, and of course brewing!

Here's a little food for thought -- something to read and be distracted by while we work diligently on the next Big Idea:

Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena

http://skeptoid.com/

Today's Big Idea: Not all distractions are squirrels...right Ginger?

Who are you guys and what are you doing here distracting me? The Big Idea Blog is written by David Duccini & David Walbridge