Month: December 2009

12/07/2009

I just read a great article by Seth Godin about why those who use trademarks, copyrights, and patents to intimidate and litigate themselves into positions of power are, in the end, doomed. In the Digital Age it’s increasingly difficult to truly protect your ideas, and the costs of doing so are mounting ever higher.

So, how do you protect your ideas in a world where ideas spread?

Don’t.

Instead, spread them. Build a reputation as someone who creates great ideas, sometimes on demand. Or as someone who can manipulate or build on your ideas better than a copycat can. Or use your ideas to earn a permission asset so you can build a relationship with people who are interested. Focus on being the best tailor with the sharpest scissors, not the litigant who sues any tailor who deigns to use a pair of scissors.

Amen, brother. Now hand me my scissors.

12/06/2009

Two months ago, Laralee asked me if I could grow a beard… more to see what it would look like than because she finds it irresistably sexy or anything. I figured I’d never really had a beard, so why not. Plus it was an excuse to be lazy and not shave as much.

Two months later:

Sadly, I just don’t get much along my jawline except a bit of scruff. I feel like a sixteen-year-old hoping to get some facial hair to prove to the girls that I’m a real man.

So I decided it wasn’t really making me look like a rugged mountain man, and figured I’d shave it off and go back to the ol’ goatee that I’ve had for about fourteen years now.

Maybe when I’m older I’ll get a distinguished-looking salt-and-pepper beard going, and women will swoon. Until then, it’ll be the goatee.

12/01/2009

Of all the enemies of true liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes. And armies, debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.

In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people.

No nation can preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

Thus spoke James Madison two hundred years ago. Too bad Obama is walking the same path as Bush, dragging us deeper into the quagmire that is Afghanistan, ignoring the lessons of the past decade and the wisdom of men long dead.