Tag: Social Media

I Run the Earth’s Smallest Startup

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I’m now the CEO of a book. Yes, a book.


My second novel comes out today. Set in an imaginary Bay Area startup, it’s steeped in tech and science. The plot deals with the toxicity of social media, the perils of government hacking, the ethics of near-future augmented reality, and more. I poured about 7,500 hours of my life into it, as I mentioned in a post three weeks back. A long-time entrepreneur, I’ve now spent more time writing fiction than running companies, and am a novelist from tip to toe.

But I don’t feel like one this morning. I feel much more like a jittery CEO launching his understaffed startup into a dense market. Because that’s what novelists are these days. My startup is called After On, and my venture backer is Random House. They funded my launch and will support me for as long as it makes sense. Like all good VCs, they’re a great font of advice and contacts, and they earnestly wish me success. Also like good VC’s, they have a portfolio to manage. They’ve diversified their risk across it, whereas I’m frantically all-in on my lone creation.

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Delete Your Website.

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If you’ve ever heard an ad for Squarespace, you know it’s easy to create a website. A simple, beautiful single page all your own has become a must have for any emerging designer, artist, entrepreneur, or brand. And for good reason. It’s a modern day business card.

If you’re like me, you set one up, paid your monthly fee, and forgot about it while you tried and figured out how to build an audience and social media following — something that’s getting harder and harder to do for just about anyone outside of the Kardashians.

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Dear Twitter: FWIW, this is how you spell “democracy”: EMPATHY

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(Image totally stolen from here. Thanks?)

When I caught the story of the mass shooting yesterday (and yes, I know, in my country, we need to specify which mass shooting yesterday, so I mean the mass shooting of Republican congressmen in Virginia, not the one in San Francisco, or any of the other 154 that have happened so far this year), I immediately feared what turned out to be true — that some crazy had targeted a group of politicians because of their politics. And so saddened by all that meant, I tweeted an expression of condolence:

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Has Humanity Lost Its Purpose?

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No one in tech is talking about Homo Deus. We most certainly should be.

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Upon finishing Yuval Harari’s Homo Deus, I found an unwelcome kink in my otherwise comfortably adjusted frame of reference. It brought with it the slight nausea of a hangover, a lingering whiff of jet exhaust from a hard night, possibly involving rough psychedelics.

I’m usually content with my (admittedly incomplete) understanding of the role humanity plays in the universe, and in particular, with the role that technology plays as that narrative builds. And lately that technology story is getting pretty damn interesting — I’d argue that our society’s creation of and reaction to digital technologies is pretty much the most important narrative in the world at present.

But as you consider that phrase “digital technologies,” are you conjuring images of computers and iPhones? Of “the cloud” and Google? Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Netflix, Slack, Uber? I’ve always felt that this group of artifacts — the “things” that we claim as digital — the companies and the devices, the pained metaphors (cloud?!) and the juvenile apps — these are only the most prominent geographic features of a vaster and more tectonic landscape, one we’ve only begun to explore.

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The Iron Grip of Facebook’s Tentacles

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Facebook’s power is portrayed in this one graph. Vladan Joler, leading the research, reveals the common denominator that drives the company’s momentum — the user:

All of us, when we are uploading something, when we are tagging people, when we are commenting, we are basically working for Facebook.

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On Facebook

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Why won’t the company let us truly filter our feeds?


Like you, I am on Facebook. In two ways, actually. There’s this public page, which Facebook gives to people who are “public figures.” My story of becoming a Facebook public figure is tortured (years ago, I went Facebook bankrupt after reaching my “friend” limit), but the end result is a place that feels a bit like Twitter, but with more opportunities for me to buy ads that promote my posts (I’ve tried doing that, and while it certainly increases my exposure, I’m not entirely sure why that matters).

Then there’s my “personal” page. Facebook was kind enough to help me fix this up after my “bankruptcy.” On this personal page I try to keep my friends to people I actually know, with mixed success. But the same problems I’ve always had with Facebook are apparent here — some people I’m actually friends with, others I know, but not well enough to call true “friends.” But I don’t want to be an ass…so I click “confirm” and move on.

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Murder Video Puts Facebook on the Spot

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The NewCo Daily: Today’s Top Stories

MKH Marketing | Flickr

On Sunday a guy in Cleveland announced in a Facebook post that he was going to murder somebody. Then he posted a video in which he committed a murder. Then he went on live Facebook video to confess the murder (The New York Times). Two hours later, someone on Facebook flagged the videos for Facebook’s moderators, and they were taken down. Today, the suspect killed himself in Pennsylvania after a multi-state manhunt.

Looking beyond the brutality and the stupidity, the incident raises profound questions about the nature of Facebook. Is Facebook a public civic space, where free expression reigns and individuals are accountable for their communications? Or is it a private community, where the corporate owner of the space bears ultimate responsibility for every post?

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Just Call.

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People in business who like to Get Shit Done fall in love with each version of The New. When I was a kid, new was the the Apple II. Then the IBM PC, digital phones and voice mail, the Mac — oh God, the Mac! — word processing, email, the cell phone, the Internet — mmmmm, the Internet! — and then the iPhone — oh…the iPhone!

Well damn the iPhone, because I lay at its feet the death of the most efficient technology ever created for the speedy disposition of Getting Shit Done — the plain old telephone. But not just any old-school telephone. The high tech, multi-line, digitally switched telephone of the late 1980s — the kind of phone upon which you could conduct, merge, and manage multiple direct conversations with your peers, colleagues, partners and adversaries — a direct line of human expression brain to brain — the kind of shit it’ll take us decades to replicate (if we ever do).

Are You Going Direct to Consumer Yet?

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NewCo Shift Forum

It took a kick in the teeth and the rise of social media to teach celebrity chef Tyler Florence a lesson he’ll never forget: You have to learn how to make your own content, period.


Tyler Florence initially made his name as executive chef at a string of hit restaurants, but he came to fame on the Food Network. But when the 2008 recession cancelled his show and cut off his income and audience, he found his way back to the spotlight through intelligent use of social media and new kinds of business partnerships. Below is the video of Florence’s fascinating talk at NewCo Shift Forum, along with the full transcript, edited for clarity.

Tyler Florence: My name’s Tyler Florence. I’m an executive chef and owner of Wayfare Tavern here in San Francisco. If you guys live in San Francisco, I’m sure you’ve had the fried chicken. If you haven’t, we’d love to feed you, make sure you get a chance to pop by.

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C’mon Facebook. It’s Time For Your Toddler Twin Media Party.

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File Under Humble Suggestions

There’s only one company that can possibly spin media gold on Facebook. And that’s Facebook.


Round and round and round goes the debate — Facebook’s not a media company, Facebook’s not a traditional media company, Facebook’s a new kind of media company. Facebook’s gonna pay media creators to make stuff on Facebook! Wait, no they’re not. Wait, maybe they will make it themselves! Gah.

We’ve seen this debate before — Google refused to call itself a media business for years and years. Now, well…YouTube. And Play. Twitter had similar reluctancies, and now…the NFL (oh, and college softball!). Microsoft tried, but ultimately failed, to be a media company (there’s a reason it’s called MSNBC), and had the sense to retreat from “social media” into “enterprise tools” so as to not beg confusion. Then again, it just bought LinkedIn, so the debate will most certainly flare up (wait, is LinkedIn a media company?!).

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