That's a good question... [lotd]

Lesson #4:  When someone responds, "That's a good question." That means that they don't have the answer at hand.

How Did Economists Get It So Wrong? [Economy]

Paul Krugman, let's it rip in the NY Times piece:

Few economists saw our current crisis coming, but this predictive failure was the least of the field’s problems. More important was the profession’s blindness to the very possibility of catastrophic failures in a market economy. During the golden years, financial economists came to believe that markets were inherently stable — indeed, that stocks and other assets were always priced just right. There was nothing in the prevailing models suggesting the possibility of the kind of collapse that happened last year. Meanwhile, macroeconomists were divided in their views. But the main division was between those who insisted that free-market economies never go astray and those who believed that economies may stray now and then but that any major deviations from the path of prosperity could and would be corrected by the all-powerful Fed. Neither side was prepared to cope with an economy that went off the rails despite the Fed’s best efforts.

Read the entire article here.

The long game [Lessons]

Lesson #3. It's all about constant and long-term vigilance. It's easy to say yes now, but can one follow through? 

Ideas should scale [Lessons]

Lesson#2: Insights do not scale. Ideas scale. Insights lend themselves to new ideas.  Build rapid prototype and explore the idea. Good ideas are not about specifications and therefore, scale.

From: 
Putting the People First: Human-Centered Poverty Alleviation.
Featured Speakers: Tim Brown, CEO, IDEO; Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO and Founder, Acumen Fund. Moderated by Stuart Davidson, Managing Partner, Labrador Ventures

Image Source: Tumitu Design

There was an easier way all along. [Lessons]

Lesson #1: Instead of a series of embedded “if statements” I can make histograms with a data analytics pack. The realization that hours of Xcel juggling for no good reason at all. Sometimes its easier to ask to challenge your previous assumptions. There may have been a faster way.

Image Source: wallyg

Independent v. Indie [Film]

Strong Bad, has a funny video differentiating the key traits of Independent vs. Indie films.

HT: MiracleMax

Bay Bridge [Bay Area Construction]

A portion of the bay bridge is undergoing seismic retrofits. Over the holiday, the bridge was completely shut down.  To compensate, BART has been running virtually 24-hours--a rare occurrence.

SFist writes:
Captin_nod put together this mesmerizing video featuring time-lapse photography of yesterday's ongoing Bay Bridge construction and the rising of last night's very lovely full moon.

You can also check out these Bay Bridge 360 live video cams all weekend.

In related news, SF Appeal reports that yesterday was BART's second highest day of ridership ever, and the transit agency has also apparently embraced social networking.

Joel Klein vs. New York City teachers [Rubber Room]

Interesting article about education in NYC and the Rubber Room. Joel Klein vs. New York City teachers: newyorker.com

Convert Evolution [iPhone App Design]

Tap tap tap has a short video taking us through their design iteration process. It's amazing the number of little tweaks that result in a highly consumable product.  When thinking about your processes, how often do you tweak them? How often do you iterate?



Convert Design Evolution from tap tap tap on Vimeo.

More info about Convert is at taptaptap.com/convert

SF's Lunch Bell [Routine]

Though born in SF, it wasn't until this year that I got a chance to really explore my hometown. At times, I still feel as if its a foreign country to me. As Xavier said in L'auberge Espagnole:

When you first arrive in a new city, nothing makes sense. Everythings unknown, virgin... After you've lived here, walked these streets, you'll know them inside out. You'll know these people. Once you've lived here, crossed this street 10, 20, 1000 times... it'll belong to you because you've lived there. That was about to happen to me, but I didn't know it yet.

Every Tuesday, at noon, air raid style sirens scream through San Francisco. According to the SF gov't website:, "Every Tuesday at noon, San Francisco tests the Outdoor Warning System. During the test the siren emits a 15 second alert tone."

Turns out there is a rich history behind the weekly event. It was created during the second world war as a civil defense measure. 72hours.org with the help of the SF Department of Emergency Management created a short two-minute clip that explains the genesis of the outdoor warning system and profiles Cesar Santos, the dispatcher who tests the Siren every Tuesday at Noon.

San Francisco is slowly becoming mine.

Online Marketplace for Directors [Online Film Festivals]

While living in DC, I was lucky to be part of a film festival. What continually amazes me is the depth and quality of amateur work out there. Given the high cost of making mass consumptive media (like movies and commercials), its no wonder that companies rarely bet on an unknown director.

Film festivals, especially the strappy small ones, seek to showcase emerging talent and their unique stories. For example, a Paris-based production company Mr. Hyde has launched The Hyde Tube, which provides an online venue for directors to have their work juried.

There are two things I like about the project:

• Creation of a Marketplace: Mr. Hyde, hopes that the Hyde Tube will becoming a marketplace where clients can find source new talent (and probably for a cheaper cost). In effect, Mr. Hyde is trying to remove the middlemen in the process--for a nice price"Clients will contact The Hyde Tube in order to pass on a project to a specific director, who is then free to decide whether or not to accept it. If accepted, the director will write a treatment or make an animated test within 3 to 5 days. For this work you will receive approximately 500€.

  If the client is happy with the treatment and decides that the director will make the film, The Hyde Tube will connect the director with the client, and Mr Hyde or one of its affiliate studios will oversee the production until the film delivery."

• Visualization of Content: With a reported 100 directors, I was deeply curious on how they were going to help clients scroll through all the content. The use of screenshots allow the clients to scan multiple aesthetics efficiently.