I read blog posts by Don Dodge and Glenn Kelman today about people jumping from Google to Facebook and it got me thinking about entrepreneurs.
Most people have an aversion to risk, my college economics professor told me. Which means they have to be rewarded to take on that risk. The higher the risk, the higher the possible payout has to be for people to jump.
We make risk/reward decisions every day, all day. Do I go skiing, and enjoy the rush of flying downhill even though there’s a small chance I’ll blow out a knee? Should I go to college or just get a job and start earning money now? Should I eat the high fiber and generally healthy thing on the menu, or go for the cheeseburger? Should I hit the restroom before the movie starts? Etc.
Every time we do something, or don’t do something, there’s a risk/reward algorithm being calculated in our brain.
Entrepreneurs, though, are all screwed up. They don’t need to be rewarded for risk, because they actually get utility out of risk itself. In other words, they like adventure.
The payouts for starting a business are just terrible when you account for risk. A tiny minority of entrepreneurs ever get rich. And the majority of entrepreneurs would probably make far more money, and have more stable personal relationships, if they just worked for someone else.
In my youth I was a corporate lawyer, making a very nice salary for representing technology startups in Silicon Valley. There was a good chance I’d make partner after 7-8 years and could be earning maybe a million dollars a year by the time I was 40. All I had to do was work hard, and bring in clients. I was good at both.
But I left the law after just three years to join a startup. And the reason I did it was adventure. I wanted to be in the game, not just watching it. My parents thought I was crazy. They still have no real idea of what I do for a living, and they were, frankly, pissed off that I spent their money getting a law degree, only to throw it away before I was 30.
But I did it anyway. And then I left that company after a year to start my own company. And I’ve never looked back since then. That first company I started made a lot of money for the venture capitalists – nearly $30 million – but next to nothing for the founders. The companies I started after that varied between failures and mediocre successes. But at no point did I ever consider getting a “real job.” That felt like a black and white world, and I wanted technicolor. Also, I hate working for other people because I’m really bad at it.
When I talk to non-entrepreneurs about the startup world I often use a pirate analogy. Not because I know that much about pirates, but the general stereotypes work well as an analogy.
Why did some people way back in the 17th century, or whenever, become pirates? The likely payoff was abysmal, I imagine. There’s a very small chance you’d make a fortune from some prize, and a very large chance you’d drown, or be hung, or shot, or whatever. And living on a small ship with a hundred other guys must have sucked, even for the captain.
But in my fantasy pirate world these guys just had really screwed up risk aversion algorithms. Unlike most of the other people they actually lusted after that risk. The potential for riches was just an argument for the venture. But the real payoff was the pirate life itself.
Also, it was nearly impossible to be an entrepreneur back then.
Now it turns out that most people in Silicon Valley are actually normal risk averse types. They carefully calculate the potential rewards of a startup before they join, taking into account stock options as well as salary. And also the resume value of a company.
Some of the richest people I know aren’t really entrepreneurs. They worked at HP and then moved to Netscape when it got hot. They made a fortune and then jumped to Google and made another fortune. And now they’re jumping to Facebook.
They may be very good engineers, or sales people, or marketing, or execs. But they ain’t entrepreneurs. They’re just resume gardening and they’re really no different from everyone else.
I don’t care if you’re a billionaire. If you haven’t started a company, really gambled your resume and your money and maybe even your marriage to just go crazy and try something on your own, you’re no pirate and you aren’t in the club.
That thrill of your first hire, when you’ve convinced some other crazy soul to join you in your almost certainly doomed project. The high from raising venture capital and starting to see your name mentioned in the press. The excitement of launch and…gulp…customers! and the feeling of truly learning something useful, you’re just not sure what it is, when the company almost inevitably crashes and burns.
Now that person is interesting. That person has stories to tell. That person is a man who has been in the arena.
There are lots of things that I will probably never experience in this life. Military combat. Being dictator of a small central American country. Dunking a basketball. Being a famous rock star. Or walking on Mars.
But one thing I have been, and will always be, is an entrepreneur. And damnit that feels pretty good. Because if I was a lawyer right now, even a rich lawyer, I’d always have wondered if I had what it takes to do something a little more adventurous with my life than work for someone else.
Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) could chair the House Natural Resources Committee.The midterm elections aren't until next week, but Big Energy lobbyists have been in high gear for awhile now. They've been out there winning friends and influencing the people who can help them the most if the Republicans win the House. Like Doc Hastings.
That's what friends are for: Hastings is a Republican representative from Washington state and, if Republicans take over, the likely next chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee. Big Oil already loves the guy -- he was railing against the deep water drilling moratorium in the Gulf even before BP's oil stopped gushing. And he did all he could to slow Democratic efforts to impose new safety standards on offshore drillers. In short, Doc Hastings loves offshore drilling.
To make sure that he knows that the people who do the offshore drilling love him back, oil and gas interests have dropped $70,000 into his campaign coffers this election cycle compared to $10,000 last time around.
See, some things still work in Washington. [The New York Times]
And in other green news:
Gloom with a view: Republicans just got another piece of ammo in their upcoming campaign to reign in the EPA. The North American Electric Reliability Corp (NERC) released a report warning that if the EPA is too aggressive in regulating pollution and greenhouse-gas emissions and closes power plants, it could "significantly impact" the power grid. NERC is funded by the energy industry, but it carries weight for its role in setting grid-reliability standards. The EPA says it's more industry doom and gloom and scare tactics. [The Hill]
Tales from the dark side: Before you start to buy into the notion that BP is a changed company, refresh your memory about how reckless the oil giant had been before the explosion in the Gulf last spring. A new ProPublica investigation paints the ugly picture:
The investigation found that as BP transformed itself into the world's third largest private oil company it methodically emphasized a culture of austerity in pursuit of corporate efficiency, lean budgets, and shareholder profits. It acquired large companies that it could not integrate smoothly. Current and former workers and executives said the company repeatedly cut corners, let alarm and safety systems languish, and skipped essential maintenance that could have prevented a number of explosions and spills. Internal BP documents support these claims.
You will run and you will like it: The Germans have finally made a splash in the electric car business. The makers of an Audi electric car say they've set a new world record by having it run 375 miles without recharging the battery. [Space Daily]
No days in the park: California's national parks could take a beating from climate change, from stunted redwoods to the disappearance of Joshua trees and Yosemite's waterfall. [San Francisco Chronicle]
That old black magic: Much is being made of China's big high-profile push into renewable energy. But is this a country that really believes it can get the coal monkey off its back? [Scientific American]
Going to shell: Scientists at the University of Calcutta have found that egg shells can absorb up to seven times their weight in carbon dioxide. And that's making them wonder if they can play some kind of role in capturing carbon. [E! Science News]
Bottle fatigue: No more bottled water at Seattle University -- not in cafeterias, not in concession stands, not in vending machines. Instead students are selling stainless steel water bottles with the goal of raising $2,000 to install a water-treatment system at a medical clinic in Haiti. [Seattle Times] And while we're on campus, students can now rent from UCLA's "Bike Library" a fully-equipped, eight-speed bike for only $35 a quarter. [Southern California Public Radio]
eric seiger
Facebook Wins Another <b>News</b> Feed Patent
When Facebook originally filed for the patent in the fall of 2006, it was just a month before the company launched its news feed. It argued at the time that as more and more users joined the social network, the amount of information it ...
Fox <b>News</b> Ratings on Election Night Beat Networks - NYTimes.com
The Fox News Channel's midterm election coverage attracted more viewers than any of the broadcast networks' coverage, according to the Nielsen Company.
Great, great <b>news</b>: Pelosi might stay on as House minority leader <b>...</b>
Great, great news: Pelosi might stay on as House minority leader.
eric seiger
I read blog posts by Don Dodge and Glenn Kelman today about people jumping from Google to Facebook and it got me thinking about entrepreneurs.
Most people have an aversion to risk, my college economics professor told me. Which means they have to be rewarded to take on that risk. The higher the risk, the higher the possible payout has to be for people to jump.
We make risk/reward decisions every day, all day. Do I go skiing, and enjoy the rush of flying downhill even though there’s a small chance I’ll blow out a knee? Should I go to college or just get a job and start earning money now? Should I eat the high fiber and generally healthy thing on the menu, or go for the cheeseburger? Should I hit the restroom before the movie starts? Etc.
Every time we do something, or don’t do something, there’s a risk/reward algorithm being calculated in our brain.
Entrepreneurs, though, are all screwed up. They don’t need to be rewarded for risk, because they actually get utility out of risk itself. In other words, they like adventure.
The payouts for starting a business are just terrible when you account for risk. A tiny minority of entrepreneurs ever get rich. And the majority of entrepreneurs would probably make far more money, and have more stable personal relationships, if they just worked for someone else.
In my youth I was a corporate lawyer, making a very nice salary for representing technology startups in Silicon Valley. There was a good chance I’d make partner after 7-8 years and could be earning maybe a million dollars a year by the time I was 40. All I had to do was work hard, and bring in clients. I was good at both.
But I left the law after just three years to join a startup. And the reason I did it was adventure. I wanted to be in the game, not just watching it. My parents thought I was crazy. They still have no real idea of what I do for a living, and they were, frankly, pissed off that I spent their money getting a law degree, only to throw it away before I was 30.
But I did it anyway. And then I left that company after a year to start my own company. And I’ve never looked back since then. That first company I started made a lot of money for the venture capitalists – nearly $30 million – but next to nothing for the founders. The companies I started after that varied between failures and mediocre successes. But at no point did I ever consider getting a “real job.” That felt like a black and white world, and I wanted technicolor. Also, I hate working for other people because I’m really bad at it.
When I talk to non-entrepreneurs about the startup world I often use a pirate analogy. Not because I know that much about pirates, but the general stereotypes work well as an analogy.
Why did some people way back in the 17th century, or whenever, become pirates? The likely payoff was abysmal, I imagine. There’s a very small chance you’d make a fortune from some prize, and a very large chance you’d drown, or be hung, or shot, or whatever. And living on a small ship with a hundred other guys must have sucked, even for the captain.
But in my fantasy pirate world these guys just had really screwed up risk aversion algorithms. Unlike most of the other people they actually lusted after that risk. The potential for riches was just an argument for the venture. But the real payoff was the pirate life itself.
Also, it was nearly impossible to be an entrepreneur back then.
Now it turns out that most people in Silicon Valley are actually normal risk averse types. They carefully calculate the potential rewards of a startup before they join, taking into account stock options as well as salary. And also the resume value of a company.
Some of the richest people I know aren’t really entrepreneurs. They worked at HP and then moved to Netscape when it got hot. They made a fortune and then jumped to Google and made another fortune. And now they’re jumping to Facebook.
They may be very good engineers, or sales people, or marketing, or execs. But they ain’t entrepreneurs. They’re just resume gardening and they’re really no different from everyone else.
I don’t care if you’re a billionaire. If you haven’t started a company, really gambled your resume and your money and maybe even your marriage to just go crazy and try something on your own, you’re no pirate and you aren’t in the club.
That thrill of your first hire, when you’ve convinced some other crazy soul to join you in your almost certainly doomed project. The high from raising venture capital and starting to see your name mentioned in the press. The excitement of launch and…gulp…customers! and the feeling of truly learning something useful, you’re just not sure what it is, when the company almost inevitably crashes and burns.
Now that person is interesting. That person has stories to tell. That person is a man who has been in the arena.
There are lots of things that I will probably never experience in this life. Military combat. Being dictator of a small central American country. Dunking a basketball. Being a famous rock star. Or walking on Mars.
But one thing I have been, and will always be, is an entrepreneur. And damnit that feels pretty good. Because if I was a lawyer right now, even a rich lawyer, I’d always have wondered if I had what it takes to do something a little more adventurous with my life than work for someone else.
Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) could chair the House Natural Resources Committee.The midterm elections aren't until next week, but Big Energy lobbyists have been in high gear for awhile now. They've been out there winning friends and influencing the people who can help them the most if the Republicans win the House. Like Doc Hastings.
That's what friends are for: Hastings is a Republican representative from Washington state and, if Republicans take over, the likely next chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee. Big Oil already loves the guy -- he was railing against the deep water drilling moratorium in the Gulf even before BP's oil stopped gushing. And he did all he could to slow Democratic efforts to impose new safety standards on offshore drillers. In short, Doc Hastings loves offshore drilling.
To make sure that he knows that the people who do the offshore drilling love him back, oil and gas interests have dropped $70,000 into his campaign coffers this election cycle compared to $10,000 last time around.
See, some things still work in Washington. [The New York Times]
And in other green news:
Gloom with a view: Republicans just got another piece of ammo in their upcoming campaign to reign in the EPA. The North American Electric Reliability Corp (NERC) released a report warning that if the EPA is too aggressive in regulating pollution and greenhouse-gas emissions and closes power plants, it could "significantly impact" the power grid. NERC is funded by the energy industry, but it carries weight for its role in setting grid-reliability standards. The EPA says it's more industry doom and gloom and scare tactics. [The Hill]
Tales from the dark side: Before you start to buy into the notion that BP is a changed company, refresh your memory about how reckless the oil giant had been before the explosion in the Gulf last spring. A new ProPublica investigation paints the ugly picture:
The investigation found that as BP transformed itself into the world's third largest private oil company it methodically emphasized a culture of austerity in pursuit of corporate efficiency, lean budgets, and shareholder profits. It acquired large companies that it could not integrate smoothly. Current and former workers and executives said the company repeatedly cut corners, let alarm and safety systems languish, and skipped essential maintenance that could have prevented a number of explosions and spills. Internal BP documents support these claims.
You will run and you will like it: The Germans have finally made a splash in the electric car business. The makers of an Audi electric car say they've set a new world record by having it run 375 miles without recharging the battery. [Space Daily]
No days in the park: California's national parks could take a beating from climate change, from stunted redwoods to the disappearance of Joshua trees and Yosemite's waterfall. [San Francisco Chronicle]
That old black magic: Much is being made of China's big high-profile push into renewable energy. But is this a country that really believes it can get the coal monkey off its back? [Scientific American]
Going to shell: Scientists at the University of Calcutta have found that egg shells can absorb up to seven times their weight in carbon dioxide. And that's making them wonder if they can play some kind of role in capturing carbon. [E! Science News]
Bottle fatigue: No more bottled water at Seattle University -- not in cafeterias, not in concession stands, not in vending machines. Instead students are selling stainless steel water bottles with the goal of raising $2,000 to install a water-treatment system at a medical clinic in Haiti. [Seattle Times] And while we're on campus, students can now rent from UCLA's "Bike Library" a fully-equipped, eight-speed bike for only $35 a quarter. [Southern California Public Radio]
eric seiger
Facebook Wins Another <b>News</b> Feed Patent
When Facebook originally filed for the patent in the fall of 2006, it was just a month before the company launched its news feed. It argued at the time that as more and more users joined the social network, the amount of information it ...
Fox <b>News</b> Ratings on Election Night Beat Networks - NYTimes.com
The Fox News Channel's midterm election coverage attracted more viewers than any of the broadcast networks' coverage, according to the Nielsen Company.
Great, great <b>news</b>: Pelosi might stay on as House minority leader <b>...</b>
Great, great news: Pelosi might stay on as House minority leader.
eric seiger
eric seiger
eric seiger
Facebook Wins Another <b>News</b> Feed Patent
When Facebook originally filed for the patent in the fall of 2006, it was just a month before the company launched its news feed. It argued at the time that as more and more users joined the social network, the amount of information it ...
Fox <b>News</b> Ratings on Election Night Beat Networks - NYTimes.com
The Fox News Channel's midterm election coverage attracted more viewers than any of the broadcast networks' coverage, according to the Nielsen Company.
Great, great <b>news</b>: Pelosi might stay on as House minority leader <b>...</b>
Great, great news: Pelosi might stay on as House minority leader.
eric seiger
I read blog posts by Don Dodge and Glenn Kelman today about people jumping from Google to Facebook and it got me thinking about entrepreneurs.
Most people have an aversion to risk, my college economics professor told me. Which means they have to be rewarded to take on that risk. The higher the risk, the higher the possible payout has to be for people to jump.
We make risk/reward decisions every day, all day. Do I go skiing, and enjoy the rush of flying downhill even though there’s a small chance I’ll blow out a knee? Should I go to college or just get a job and start earning money now? Should I eat the high fiber and generally healthy thing on the menu, or go for the cheeseburger? Should I hit the restroom before the movie starts? Etc.
Every time we do something, or don’t do something, there’s a risk/reward algorithm being calculated in our brain.
Entrepreneurs, though, are all screwed up. They don’t need to be rewarded for risk, because they actually get utility out of risk itself. In other words, they like adventure.
The payouts for starting a business are just terrible when you account for risk. A tiny minority of entrepreneurs ever get rich. And the majority of entrepreneurs would probably make far more money, and have more stable personal relationships, if they just worked for someone else.
In my youth I was a corporate lawyer, making a very nice salary for representing technology startups in Silicon Valley. There was a good chance I’d make partner after 7-8 years and could be earning maybe a million dollars a year by the time I was 40. All I had to do was work hard, and bring in clients. I was good at both.
But I left the law after just three years to join a startup. And the reason I did it was adventure. I wanted to be in the game, not just watching it. My parents thought I was crazy. They still have no real idea of what I do for a living, and they were, frankly, pissed off that I spent their money getting a law degree, only to throw it away before I was 30.
But I did it anyway. And then I left that company after a year to start my own company. And I’ve never looked back since then. That first company I started made a lot of money for the venture capitalists – nearly $30 million – but next to nothing for the founders. The companies I started after that varied between failures and mediocre successes. But at no point did I ever consider getting a “real job.” That felt like a black and white world, and I wanted technicolor. Also, I hate working for other people because I’m really bad at it.
When I talk to non-entrepreneurs about the startup world I often use a pirate analogy. Not because I know that much about pirates, but the general stereotypes work well as an analogy.
Why did some people way back in the 17th century, or whenever, become pirates? The likely payoff was abysmal, I imagine. There’s a very small chance you’d make a fortune from some prize, and a very large chance you’d drown, or be hung, or shot, or whatever. And living on a small ship with a hundred other guys must have sucked, even for the captain.
But in my fantasy pirate world these guys just had really screwed up risk aversion algorithms. Unlike most of the other people they actually lusted after that risk. The potential for riches was just an argument for the venture. But the real payoff was the pirate life itself.
Also, it was nearly impossible to be an entrepreneur back then.
Now it turns out that most people in Silicon Valley are actually normal risk averse types. They carefully calculate the potential rewards of a startup before they join, taking into account stock options as well as salary. And also the resume value of a company.
Some of the richest people I know aren’t really entrepreneurs. They worked at HP and then moved to Netscape when it got hot. They made a fortune and then jumped to Google and made another fortune. And now they’re jumping to Facebook.
They may be very good engineers, or sales people, or marketing, or execs. But they ain’t entrepreneurs. They’re just resume gardening and they’re really no different from everyone else.
I don’t care if you’re a billionaire. If you haven’t started a company, really gambled your resume and your money and maybe even your marriage to just go crazy and try something on your own, you’re no pirate and you aren’t in the club.
That thrill of your first hire, when you’ve convinced some other crazy soul to join you in your almost certainly doomed project. The high from raising venture capital and starting to see your name mentioned in the press. The excitement of launch and…gulp…customers! and the feeling of truly learning something useful, you’re just not sure what it is, when the company almost inevitably crashes and burns.
Now that person is interesting. That person has stories to tell. That person is a man who has been in the arena.
There are lots of things that I will probably never experience in this life. Military combat. Being dictator of a small central American country. Dunking a basketball. Being a famous rock star. Or walking on Mars.
But one thing I have been, and will always be, is an entrepreneur. And damnit that feels pretty good. Because if I was a lawyer right now, even a rich lawyer, I’d always have wondered if I had what it takes to do something a little more adventurous with my life than work for someone else.
Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) could chair the House Natural Resources Committee.The midterm elections aren't until next week, but Big Energy lobbyists have been in high gear for awhile now. They've been out there winning friends and influencing the people who can help them the most if the Republicans win the House. Like Doc Hastings.
That's what friends are for: Hastings is a Republican representative from Washington state and, if Republicans take over, the likely next chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee. Big Oil already loves the guy -- he was railing against the deep water drilling moratorium in the Gulf even before BP's oil stopped gushing. And he did all he could to slow Democratic efforts to impose new safety standards on offshore drillers. In short, Doc Hastings loves offshore drilling.
To make sure that he knows that the people who do the offshore drilling love him back, oil and gas interests have dropped $70,000 into his campaign coffers this election cycle compared to $10,000 last time around.
See, some things still work in Washington. [The New York Times]
And in other green news:
Gloom with a view: Republicans just got another piece of ammo in their upcoming campaign to reign in the EPA. The North American Electric Reliability Corp (NERC) released a report warning that if the EPA is too aggressive in regulating pollution and greenhouse-gas emissions and closes power plants, it could "significantly impact" the power grid. NERC is funded by the energy industry, but it carries weight for its role in setting grid-reliability standards. The EPA says it's more industry doom and gloom and scare tactics. [The Hill]
Tales from the dark side: Before you start to buy into the notion that BP is a changed company, refresh your memory about how reckless the oil giant had been before the explosion in the Gulf last spring. A new ProPublica investigation paints the ugly picture:
The investigation found that as BP transformed itself into the world's third largest private oil company it methodically emphasized a culture of austerity in pursuit of corporate efficiency, lean budgets, and shareholder profits. It acquired large companies that it could not integrate smoothly. Current and former workers and executives said the company repeatedly cut corners, let alarm and safety systems languish, and skipped essential maintenance that could have prevented a number of explosions and spills. Internal BP documents support these claims.
You will run and you will like it: The Germans have finally made a splash in the electric car business. The makers of an Audi electric car say they've set a new world record by having it run 375 miles without recharging the battery. [Space Daily]
No days in the park: California's national parks could take a beating from climate change, from stunted redwoods to the disappearance of Joshua trees and Yosemite's waterfall. [San Francisco Chronicle]
That old black magic: Much is being made of China's big high-profile push into renewable energy. But is this a country that really believes it can get the coal monkey off its back? [Scientific American]
Going to shell: Scientists at the University of Calcutta have found that egg shells can absorb up to seven times their weight in carbon dioxide. And that's making them wonder if they can play some kind of role in capturing carbon. [E! Science News]
Bottle fatigue: No more bottled water at Seattle University -- not in cafeterias, not in concession stands, not in vending machines. Instead students are selling stainless steel water bottles with the goal of raising $2,000 to install a water-treatment system at a medical clinic in Haiti. [Seattle Times] And while we're on campus, students can now rent from UCLA's "Bike Library" a fully-equipped, eight-speed bike for only $35 a quarter. [Southern California Public Radio]
eric seiger
eric seiger
Facebook Wins Another <b>News</b> Feed Patent
When Facebook originally filed for the patent in the fall of 2006, it was just a month before the company launched its news feed. It argued at the time that as more and more users joined the social network, the amount of information it ...
Fox <b>News</b> Ratings on Election Night Beat Networks - NYTimes.com
The Fox News Channel's midterm election coverage attracted more viewers than any of the broadcast networks' coverage, according to the Nielsen Company.
Great, great <b>news</b>: Pelosi might stay on as House minority leader <b>...</b>
Great, great news: Pelosi might stay on as House minority leader.
eric seiger
eric seiger
Facebook Wins Another <b>News</b> Feed Patent
When Facebook originally filed for the patent in the fall of 2006, it was just a month before the company launched its news feed. It argued at the time that as more and more users joined the social network, the amount of information it ...
Fox <b>News</b> Ratings on Election Night Beat Networks - NYTimes.com
The Fox News Channel's midterm election coverage attracted more viewers than any of the broadcast networks' coverage, according to the Nielsen Company.
Great, great <b>news</b>: Pelosi might stay on as House minority leader <b>...</b>
Great, great news: Pelosi might stay on as House minority leader.
eric seiger
Facebook Wins Another <b>News</b> Feed Patent
When Facebook originally filed for the patent in the fall of 2006, it was just a month before the company launched its news feed. It argued at the time that as more and more users joined the social network, the amount of information it ...
Fox <b>News</b> Ratings on Election Night Beat Networks - NYTimes.com
The Fox News Channel's midterm election coverage attracted more viewers than any of the broadcast networks' coverage, according to the Nielsen Company.
Great, great <b>news</b>: Pelosi might stay on as House minority leader <b>...</b>
Great, great news: Pelosi might stay on as House minority leader.
eric seiger
Facebook Wins Another <b>News</b> Feed Patent
When Facebook originally filed for the patent in the fall of 2006, it was just a month before the company launched its news feed. It argued at the time that as more and more users joined the social network, the amount of information it ...
Fox <b>News</b> Ratings on Election Night Beat Networks - NYTimes.com
The Fox News Channel's midterm election coverage attracted more viewers than any of the broadcast networks' coverage, according to the Nielsen Company.
Great, great <b>news</b>: Pelosi might stay on as House minority leader <b>...</b>
Great, great news: Pelosi might stay on as House minority leader.
eric seiger eric seiger
eric seiger
eric seiger
eric seiger
Facebook Wins Another <b>News</b> Feed Patent
When Facebook originally filed for the patent in the fall of 2006, it was just a month before the company launched its news feed. It argued at the time that as more and more users joined the social network, the amount of information it ...
Fox <b>News</b> Ratings on Election Night Beat Networks - NYTimes.com
The Fox News Channel's midterm election coverage attracted more viewers than any of the broadcast networks' coverage, according to the Nielsen Company.
Great, great <b>news</b>: Pelosi might stay on as House minority leader <b>...</b>
Great, great news: Pelosi might stay on as House minority leader.
big seminar 14
Online writing jobs provide recession-proof work for anyone who can read, write and has a computer. This is an easy career to start; one where you can literally start making money right away. So what types of work is available for those who want to work from home as a freelance writer, earning money completely online? Following are a few.
Types of Online Writing Jobs
1. Blogging for Internet Marketers and Affiliate Marketers: There are plenty of online writing jobs in the blogging sector. Why? Because there are affiliate marketers and other online marketers who make their living running several blogs at once.
Some may operate 10, 50 or 100 blogs or more. And, they simply don't have the time to write copy for all of them. So, they hire freelance writers to write blog posts. These posts are usually short -- 150-250 words.
The rate for this is usually in the $5 to $20 per post range. Although there are freelance blog writers who make much more, depending on the topic.
2. SEO Article Writing: What is this? SEO is the acronym for search engine optimization. Search engine optimization is just a fancy phrase for writing copy in such a way that it helps web surfers to easily find things online.
For example, if you wanted to find out about SEO writing, what would you type into your favorite search engine to do that? You'd probably go to Google or Yahoo or MSN and type in "what is SEO" or "SEO copywriting?" Something along those lines, right?
Then, pages and pages of results would pop up. Once they do, you'd start clicking to read up on the subject. The phrases "what is SEO" an "SEO copywriting" are called keyword phrases. SEO article writers write web content using keyword phrases supplied by the firms who hire them.
You can make $15, $25, $35 or more per 350-500 word article as an SEO article writer.
3. Special Report Writing for Corporate America: Another lucrative sector of the online freelance writing jobs market is special report writing. Companies hire freelance writers to produce special reports on everything from how to effectively work with a web designer to how to buy car insurance online.
You can charge anywhere from $10 to $35 per page -- on the low end, for these reports. Yes, per page!
The reason companies are so willing to pay freelance writers to do special reports is that they use them as sales tools. They may use them as free giveaways for signing up to a newsletter, or as an enticement to take a one-day seminar (that cost a few thousand bucks). And, paying a freelance writer a few hundred dollars is a drop in the bucket compared to what these reports make for companies when used as sales tool.
As you can see, there are many types of online writing jobs. And, you don't need any special education to pursue them. All you need is a computer, a simple website, some marketing muscle and a desire to succeed.
The beauty of online writing jobs is that you never have to worry about being laid off -- ever. Now that's job security!
eric seiger
Facebook Wins Another <b>News</b> Feed Patent
When Facebook originally filed for the patent in the fall of 2006, it was just a month before the company launched its news feed. It argued at the time that as more and more users joined the social network, the amount of information it ...
Fox <b>News</b> Ratings on Election Night Beat Networks - NYTimes.com
The Fox News Channel's midterm election coverage attracted more viewers than any of the broadcast networks' coverage, according to the Nielsen Company.
Great, great <b>news</b>: Pelosi might stay on as House minority leader <b>...</b>
Great, great news: Pelosi might stay on as House minority leader.
eric seiger
Facebook Wins Another <b>News</b> Feed Patent
When Facebook originally filed for the patent in the fall of 2006, it was just a month before the company launched its news feed. It argued at the time that as more and more users joined the social network, the amount of information it ...
Fox <b>News</b> Ratings on Election Night Beat Networks - NYTimes.com
The Fox News Channel's midterm election coverage attracted more viewers than any of the broadcast networks' coverage, according to the Nielsen Company.
Great, great <b>news</b>: Pelosi might stay on as House minority leader <b>...</b>
Great, great news: Pelosi might stay on as House minority leader.
eric seiger
Philip Neustrom
at 2:15 pm, October 6, 2010
Regarding “your project should already have a working prototype,” I think that it helps in some cases to have a prototype or some kind of rough mockup, but I don’t think it’s a requirement. I can see a prototype/mockup being helpful to establish a rough idea or give credibility to the team.
But Knight wants to fund innovative ideas, so if your project’s goal is to slightly beef up a working project then I’m not sure that would fly. So there’s a fine line here.
Jennifer 8. Lee
at 1:11 pm, October 11, 2010
Here are some important updates and clarifications to the above post:
1) Knight announced four categories this year, not just the three named in the post. They are Mobile, Authenticity, Sustainability and Community. After four years of running the Knight News Challenge, Knight decided to focus attention on these areas this year.
The Mobile category seeks innovative ideas for news and information on all types of mobile communication devices. The Authenticity category offers funding for projects that help people better understand the reliability of news and information sources. The Sustainability category considers new economic models supporting news and information that helps citizens run their communities and their lives. And the Community category seeks groundbreaking technologies that support news and information specifically within defined geographic areas.
In the Community category, a place-based focus is an absolute requirement and entries have to detail in what specific geographic community the media innovation will be tested. For the Mobile, Authenticity and Sustainability categories, the foundation prefers media innovation entries with a community focus. More information is available at
http://www.knightfoundation.org/news/press_room/knight_press_releases/detail.dot?id=371039
2) For-profit companies have always been able to participate in the news challenge. Knight continually improves the process, last year making no-interest loans in addition to grants.
There are limits to participation by for-profit companies: If the project involves software, the funded media innovation must result in open source code. That requirement applies to many different types of projects. 2010 grantees include companies building a product from scratch (such as NowSpots real-time ads), creating or rebuilding an open-source version of existing software (Front Porch Forum’s local community product), funding continued product development (Stroome’s collaborative video editing software) and continuing existing open-source work (Stamen Design and DevelopmentSeed).
If a grant is made to a business, both the initial and future releases of the code need to be open source. If a no-interest loan (Program-Related Investment) is made, at least the initial release must be open source. After that initial open release, PRI winners can license future versions in other ways.
3) Sustainability and existing prototypes may or may not be helpful, for the application process, as it depends on the specific proposal.
Prototypes can be both good or bad, and thus are evaluated accordingly. Knight has funded projects along the entire spectrum of existence. Some grantees, such as Spot.us from 2008 and MediaBugs from 2009, were only ideas before they received their funding. Others — such as the 2010 grantees LocalWiki and Front Porch Forum — had already demonstrated traction in specific localities and were looking to expand their model elsewhere.
As for sustainability, some projects are meant to be limited in duration only, such as the development of an experimental jazz club game at UC Berkeley. Other projects hope to use the Knight grant to kick off a longer-term project that will last past the duration of the grant period, such as DocumentCloud, a 2009 grantee to develop an open-source document handling project. The challenge’s reviewers help Knight look at the different project plans and evaluates those in context.
4) The contest welcomes content or citizen journalism projects. Innovative content or community reporting models can and do get funded. One example is from 2010, Teru Kuwayama’s basetrack.org, which is an experimental media project tracking the First Battalion of the Eight Marines over the duration of their deployment to Southern Afghanistan, specifically through social media.
During the Hacks and Hackers session from which the original post was created, a question was asked from the audience about what kinds of common problems the reviewers saw. Since innovation is a core value of the contest, traditional content and citizen journalism projects lacking in innovation were generally not looked upon favorably by contest reviewers.
5) The Knight News Challenge is a continual learning process where everyone, including the foundation, adapts year to year. So what has happened in the past is not necessarily indicative of what will happen in the future. The reviewers, regulations, and grant process change annually. This year for example, the News Challenge has introduced categories. Last year, Knight worked intensively with business, technical and legal experts to develop Program-Related Investments, a significant new development.
At the Hacks and Hackers session, questions were asked about the News Challenge process in the past. Those questions were answered in the specific in an effort to be helpful: The answers I gave were my opinions as one of dozens of reviewers, not the foundation’s official policy, and shouldn’t be applied as such. Reviewers often have conflicting opinions, which makes for healthy debate. In addition, the reviewers are not really “judges,” as their opinions are advisory and the foundation’s trustees make final grant decisions.
6) One other technical clarification. The original applicant for real-time ads was Brad Flora, who started Windy Citizen in Chicago, but the 2010 grant has now officially been given to NowSpots, a new entity created to develop the ads — open-source, of course.
Knight is excited by the continued wide interest in the News Challenge. Any further questions, please refer to newschallenge.org. Applications can be accepted on Oct. 25 with a deadline of Dec. 1.
- Jennifer 8. Lee, Knight News Challenge consultant.