Some interesting stuff from around the web…
US Airways bids $8 billion for Delta. I think the airline industry has lousy economics, but once you are in, maybe it makes sense to merge and strive for operational efficiencies.
StartupJournal chronicles a company that faced too much demand.
Twelve CEO Diseases, and how to treat them. Are there only 12?
A new blog on Servant Leadership may interest some of you.
Unemployment is causing skilled workers to leave Germany. Not a good long term trend for that country.
I found a great post from last year about the the web2.0 entrepreneur bubble. Take shared information about tech trends posing as unique insight, add low barriers to entry and some underpants gnome thinking and what you get is thousands of wannabes playing what amounts to an entrepreneurial lottery.
Adult Video News magazine has created an online layout that has flipping pages and looks very much like a real magazine. Be forewarned that this site covers the adult industry and is NOT WORK SAFE. Don't click on it if children are around either.
Long-time readers will remember will remember The Business Experiment, a foray into peer production and wisdom of the crowds that launched before most people had ever heard of Web 2.0 (and incidentally, launched the same month as Techcrunch). Since TBE has shut down, I've been in contact with the guys at WeAreSmarter, and can finally blog about it. The project is producing a book that will be the first networked book on business. The book is all about how to use wisdom of crowds in a real business setting, so of course I gave them my $.02 about many of the limitations I encountered with TBE. It is sponsored by MIT and Wharton, so click over, check it out, and feel free to contribute something.
Check it out: A list of the best business magazines.
This Wharton/MIT project sounds very interesting. I’ll make sure to check it out.
So when you “gave them my $.02 about many of the limitations I encountered with TBE” what was their reaction? Are they smarter than thee? (You only have actual experience with the craziness of crowds.)
It looks completely mental to me. Should be called “VOSP” for “visions of sugar plums” .
Well, I get a lot of questions about TBE and people never seem to like my response when I tell them that the wisdom of crowds only works for a very narrow sliver of applications that meet certain constraints.
One thing I’ve learned is that most people, myself included, are really pretty stupid. I think success in life comes when you learn to quickly cast off parts of your stupidity in the face of new evidence, as opposed to beating your head against a wall insisting you aren’t stupid.