QTalks

No mentors! I want to learn with my peers ... or maybe not

Learning about this San Francisco networking group reminded me about what I hate so much about most of the associations and networking groups. Invariably (almost always, etc.) someone comes up to me and tries to mentor me or tell how I should be doing something differently. Or maybe they're just trying to sell me on doing something that would benefit them.

One of my central problems (central to my entire life) is that I want to innovate a better way to do things. By the definition of me, I don't want to do things the way other people have done them. So I am not open to being tutored.

Most successful people see that I am unsuccessful and rush to help. Sometimes it's hard to clamp my jaw shut and not snap at them.

So can I be assisted? Probably not. Doomed to my own destruction.

Startup2Startup — 2007 November.

Given how brave (and stupid) those of us are who attempt to launch a new startup, i thought it would be helpful to have a regular conversation where we learn about a new topic of interest, get to know the next generation of entrepreneurs, and share the success & mistakes of the past generation. With luck, perhaps the new folks will at least avoid a few of the same piles we’ve stepped in previously.

Avoiding Black Holes in Conversation

When Jim Henson died I was struck with personal grief, and I imagine more than a few people are feeling personal grief about the loss of Michael Jackson. I suspect that it's about .001% of the people who can't stop talking about him.

I thought it would be fun to place the Twitterfall widget on my desktop and see what people are talking about. Guess what? Sports and celebrities. Now, to be fair, the Iranian election was getting just as much play. But politics, sports, and celebrities are conversational black holes to me. I can't contribute. I closed the widget.

Doc Searls Weblog · Beyond celebrity obsession.

Celebrity is to mentality as smoking is to food. (I originally wrote “chewing gum” there, but I think smoking is the better analogy.) It is an unhealthy waste of time. And time is a measure of life. We are born with an unknown sum of time, and have to spend all of it. “Saving” time is a rhetorical trick. So is “losing” it. Our lives are spent, one end to the other. What matters most is how we choose to spend it.

I should be able to make this work ...

One of my goals for this summer is too learn how to leverage Delicious. Now, I've had an account forever. In fact, I have several accounts because I've never been able to make it work for me.

I'm a collector/curator by nature, so it seems that collecting and labeling links, then presenting them to my friends and contacts, would be natural. But Delicious has always seemed like a black hole to me. I put links in their which I can never find again.

There's this furniture store in Fort Worth. They make no-screws office furniture that's easy to assemble and co-ordinate. But I can't find them anymore. I went through all my old Delicious accounts. I know they must be somewhere ...

It makes no sense that Delicious won't work for me. It should be making my life easier, not harder. I will tame it!!

Cookbook from Houston Chowhounds

For a $5.50 donation you can get an e-book of recipes from the Fried Chicken Throwdown and Battle Mac & Cheese.  This event staged on June 8, 2009 by the Houston Chowhounds benefits Recipe for Success.

For a small amount of money, you could make a big difference in the Houston community.

What I love most about this event and cookbook are the level of creativity they represent in the Houston community. Everybody contributing from their best. Fun and community. Strikingly original recipes, from the very simple to the very complicated. Old fashioned and adventurous. All from people you could meet tomorrow.

Thanks to Jenny Wang for organizing, Beaver's for hosting, and Houston Chowhounds for making it a big success.

To get a PDF cookbook, send a $5.50 donation via Paypal to Jenny Wang, imneverfull@gmail.com.

Active Pets Houston is Ready

This week I'll do my first newsletter for the re-formulated Active Canines--now Active Pets Houston. I recently switched out the banner. We are starting to have a reasonable number of events on the site. Christy is trying to get out first event going this fall on pet fitness and nutrition.