My trip and things I love

joshsternberg:

What’s the most annoying tendency you see in young startups these days?
With tech company CEOs becoming pseudo-celebrities, there’s been a movement towards every smart kid feeling like they should be a founder and CEO, when in reality most of these kids should be more content working for someone else and learning on the job before they take the leap to start something for themselves. As a result many of the best employees leave companies too early. It’s a problem.

Do you think being an angel investor is trendy?
Yes. Very. People hear the rare stories of angel investments turning into big money. No one ever hears when people never see a return.

Has the success of companies like Facebook and Twitter caused delusions of grandeur for many startups?
Yes. The movie “The Social Network” painted a ridiculous picture of startup life. It’s fucking hard, and most kids don’t understand the sacrifices that they’ll need to make and the risk they are taking on when starting a business.

Click through to read the rest.

The only reason you should be an entrepreneur is because that’s the only way the idea will come into the world

—Dustin Moskovitz: Y Combinator’s “No Idea” Round Bad for Silicon Valley | PandoDaily

(via davemorin)

WPP said Tom Bedecarré, the chairman of AKQA, would also become president of a new arm called WPP Ventures, which will be based in Silicon Valley and will look for digital investment opportunities.

—

WPP Acquires AKQA to Beef Up Digital Marketing - NYTimes.com

Hoo boy. That’ll be fun. 

(via rickwebb)

rickwebb:

My friend Diana did a post recently musing on the streaming nature of social media and how sometimes important news can get missed as the events in people’s lives just scroll by. She made a nice post about the basic facts. I liked it. So I’m going to do it too.

I left the…

Part of why I like the bay area is because so many people there are in tech that it’s the center of all conversation. Even a few years ago San Francisco didn’t feel like part of the party. Somehow it stole the show.

—San Francisco or Palo Alto? - Uncrunched

(via davemorin)

theeconomist:

Big data. It’s a term we hear frequently these days. But what exactly is “big data?” Is it a force for good, or a way for companies and governments to keep better track of us? In this clip from The Economist’s Ideas Economy events series, we ask leading experts what they think of the rise of big data.