if you're bored, you're not paying attention
More-or-less finished prose that hasn’t been published elsewhere
So you’re considering quitting the rat race and becoming an entrepreneur — congratulations. Whether you’re working on a killer startup with a few pals or embarking on a career of self-employment, you’re about to discover what life is like when you have maximal control.… Read the rest
The South End (aka SERC) is one of two swimming-rowing clubs that share a building in Aquatic Park, right next to Hyde St. Pier. It’s a terrific group of welcoming, fun-loving people who are into all things aquatic. What’s more, it’s a San Francisco institution, dating back to 1873.… Read the rest
I was a kayaker this morning for a group of veterans swimming from Alcatraz to SF. It was a great morning… Beautiful, flat water, warm… And a bunch of men and women hauling ass through the water. Including guys missing limbs but swimming just the same.… Read the rest
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Univision is acquiring Gawker Media for $135 million, news reports confirmed this week, beating out Ziff Davis in an auction for the media company’s assets.… Read the rest
It’s hard to imagine now, but the web once meant far more than Google and Facebook. In the early days, there was an explosion of optimism and experimentation as people embraced blogging, mostly via a range of sometimes half-baked open standards that let them publish, share, and communicate with each other.… Read the rest
I was one of those students who did very well in high school and college, and then, once I graduated, immediately regretted all that diligence.
I knew right away that I should have maybe taken it easier, taken myself less seriously, and been more open to things outside my immediate field of vision.… Read the rest
Driving down from the Altamont Pass, the highway curves through a long, shallow, descending valley on its way down to the flats of the San Joaquin Valley. Wind turbines on either side, and the occasional cow. Karen noticed the hills rising up from us on the left side were covered in dark green trees, while the hills rising up on the right were grassy, tawny, and treeless.… Read the rest
Floating on the American River with the 15 year old and the 9 year old, who seem so caught up in their own internal narratives that at times they barely notice the river, the flocks of ducks crisscrossing it, the geese flying overhead, the distant blue heron standing on a snag, the dragonflies, the swallows, the shimmering of light and shade on the surface of the water.… Read the rest
It’s been almost exactly a year since I left a salaried job and went independent. This is now the third time I’ve been an independent entrepreneur (not counting the times I’ve launched publications or products within existing corporations), and each time I’ve taken a different approach:
1999: seed-funded startup with one cofounder, attempted to raise venture capital (and failed)
2000-2003: solo business operator, primarily working as a freelance writer but with some contract editing jobs, stopped when I joined a new magazine
2015-present: Sole cofounder of a content agency, working primarily as a solo writer/editor to start but more and more with partners and contractors as the business has been growing.… Read the rest
Around the turn of the century, people started talking about the “attention economy.” A natural outgrowth of the ad-supported Web, this stemmed from the idea that people’s time and attention would soon be valuable commodities, because of their scarcity.
The phrase has dwindled in popularity but the concept remains.… Read the rest
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