I am going to boil down a 6 page article (its awesome) on How to grow a super-athlete to one quote. This I believe holds good for kids, adults and others.

”

Deliberate practice means working on technique, seeking constant
critical feedback and focusing ruthlessly on improving weaknesses”.

The mobile phone market is going to start looking like the pharma industry is. A bunch of “generic” drug makers sold OTC at cheap prices and another set of very expensive prescription drugs. Nokia’s on route to become the generic maker and Apple, RIM will compete the high end. No wonder I compare the iPhone to Pfizer’s Viagra. It was not until later that Cialis (Blackberry’s Bold) came out, but Viagra had won the mindshare by then.

Of course people try to convince me the Palm Pre is going to change it all.

My answer, Yeah Right. If the Palm Pre does well, then expect Nokia to buy them out quickly. Else its yet another and an also ran.

Rob says that the single most important question in your career should be “Are you a producer or a consumer“.

“But if you realize that one of the pleasures in your life is to read
about code/startups/entrepreneurs/music, then embrace that you are a
consumer. Knowledge for knowledge’s sake is not bad as long as you
realize that you are not working towards an end beyond your own
edification, which again, is not a bad thing.

Likewise, if you’re someone who has an unquenchable desire to produce something,
then stop reading about other people, and start doing it yourself.
Seriously, don’t read another blog post, tweet, or issue of Fast
Company until you’ve made a visible move towards that goal you so
desperately want, but think that reading and dreaming about will
somehow make it come true. Once you’ve made that single action towards
advancing your idea, you can come back and read a few more posts.”

I think its not a simple “either you are a producer or a consumer” discussion. Most people are more of one than the other, but being a producer requires more commitment to consuming for sure. Most producers cannot consume in a vacuum and the ability to consume what’s relevant is important.

Personally I have reduced my consumption primarily because I have too many “useless” interests. I am thrilled I found this out and am taking a proactive step towards reducing my “junk reading” purely for the sake of spending time on reading. It makes you more “learned” but its a big time commitment.

From NYTimes.

1. Of the 16 best selling cars & trucks in America 10 are American vehicles. The Camry is the best selling car, but the Ford F 150 is the best selling vehicle (outselling the Camry by about 75% more)

2. GM and Ford both dropped far less than Toyota OR Honda in Dec 2008 ( I suspect its because of incentives).

3. Chevrolet is the only brand in the top 16 cars with positive change in sales year over year.

Paul Krugman on beating the recession:

1. Milton Friedman, in particular, persuaded many economists that the
Federal Reserve could have stopped the Depression in its tracks simply
by providing banks with more liquidity, which would have prevented a
sharp fall in the money supply. Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve
chairman, famously apologized to Friedman on his institution’s behalf:
“You’re right. We did it. We’re very sorry. But thanks to you, we won’t
do it again.”

2. John Maynard Keynes, who argued that monetary policy is ineffective
under depression conditions and that fiscal policy – large-scale
deficit spending by the government – is needed to fight mass
unemployment.

Strange how 2 economists have influenced the entire US thinking on macro economics, but its true.

In his piece End of the financial world as we know it, there’s an interesting paragraph on the long and short of Wall street’s interests:

“OUR financial catastrophe, like Bernard Madoff’s pyramid scheme,
required all sorts of important, plugged-in people to sacrifice our
collective long-term interests for short-term gain. The pressure to do
this in today’s financial markets is immense. Obviously the greater the
market pressure to excel in the short term, the greater the need for
pressure from outside the market to consider the longer term. But
that’s the problem: there is no longer any serious pressure from
outside the market. The tyranny of the short term has extended itself
with frightening ease into the entities that were meant to, one way or
another, discipline Wall Street, and force it to consider its
enlightened self-interest.”

This balance of short and long term is no different from other balance that gets talked about a lot – Work/Life.

There’s no easy answer to solving either balance problem and I’m not sure solving it is going to get people happy either. Trouble is that the “balance” is mostly self determined. One person’s short term is another person’s immediate term and so on.

Snow White – Apple
Sleepy – Palm
Dopey – LG
Grumpy – Sony Erricson
Happy – RIM (Blackberry)
Sneezy – Motorola
Doc – Nokia
Bashful – Samsung

Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame) talked today about why Capitalism needs a makeover. In it he talks about what’s broken (easy lending, profligate spending, unsophisticated investors and sophisticated crime) and what’s still working (freedom of employment and entrepreneurship).

I dont believe this is yet another recession. Its a chance in a lifetime to reshape our approach towards economics. Its clear that capitalism provides some benefit and like all things provides some negative behavior among its participants.

What has to change in my opinion:

1. Spending: Living within your means has to become the norm. If you make $5 you have to spend less than that. I dont believe its required to force saving as much as spending less than you earn. Hence, lending practices have to factor in lot more that just your current earning. It has to discount it by several percentage points, keeping in mind the unpredictability of wage increases (giving room for inflation). I’m not articulating a non-consumer driven society, just a more sane one.

2. Enforcement of current laws: I’m not sure we need more laws. Given SOX already exists for public companies, (and its onerous) what’s needed is active enforcement of it and fixing loopholes in the process.

3. Social acceptance of community good. Its no secret that there are more social entrepreneurs needed now more than ever. This is not so much an economic as a socio-economic requirement.

What do you think? What else’s needed to make Capitalism 2.0 work?

If it takes 10,000 hours for someone to become an expert at something, then it would take you 3 years at 60 hours a week and 5 years at 40 hours / week to become an expert – which is an euphemism for “you are no longer learning”.

I am not sure I believe the number 10,000, but food for thought anyway on how often you should consider doing something new.

The book itself “Outliers” is interesting but I am not convinced its in the “Blink” or “Tipping point” class.

WSJ has a multi-author piece on tips to leverage Web 2.0. They have interviewed about 30 executives and managers to gain the following insights:
1.  Don’t just talk at consumers — work with them throughout the marketing process.
2.  Give consumers a reason to participate.
3.  Listen to — and join — the conversation outside your site.
4.  Resist the temptation to sell, sell, sell.
5.  Don’t control, let it go.
6.  Find a ‘marketing technopologist.’
7.  Embrace experimentation.

Interesting overall, but mostly 101 stuff for experienced folks. The trend to capitalize on is that the suits are now beginning to talk about it, so maybe we can gather that Web 2.0 is now arriving to the mainstream. Ironic that many have declared it over in the Valley.