Julian Gutman

"Kanye is more like David Foster Wallace, scribbling his funny long sentences inside our brains with..."

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 15:10:41 -0400

“Kanye is more like David Foster Wallace, scribbling his funny long sentences inside our brains with those thrilling drops in tone.”

- Never thought I’d see these two of my favorite artists compared. Amazing article

American Mozart - Magazine - The Atlantic

Now this is how you do a movie teaser. Reminded me a bit of...

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:03:09 -0400

Now this is how you do a movie teaser. Reminded me a bit of Moon.

Happy Birthday David (NEW Prometheus Viral!) (by PrometheusNews)

The boundaries in retail are compressing. Nice move by...

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:00:03 -0400

The boundaries in retail are compressing. Nice move by IKEA.

IKEA UPPLEVA (by IKEASWE)

“The 850BB bailout was greater than the entire 50 year...

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:52:09 -0400

“The 850BB bailout was greater than the entire 50 year operating budget of NASA ” <—- WOW

Neil deGrasse Tyson - We Stopped Dreaming (Episode 1) (by Scrunchthethird)

A powerful talk about the state of our justice system and the...

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 15:21:36 -0500

A powerful talk about the state of our justice system and the lingering racism/classism that distorts it

(via Bryan Stevenson: We need to talk about an injustice | Video on TED.com)

"The moment is worth more than the memory"

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 18:52:00 -0500

“The moment is worth more than the memory”

- Some dude

Personally not offended by either but funny what people choose...

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:31:00 -0500

Personally not offended by either but funny what people choose to get upset about

Brain-Dead Teen, Only Capable Of Rolling Eyes And Texting, To Be...

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:32:44 -0500

Brain-Dead Teen, Only Capable Of Rolling Eyes And Texting, To Be Euthanized | The Onion - America’s Finest News Source | Onion News Network)

David Attenborough - Wonderful World - BBC (by CopterVideo)

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:28:39 -0500

David Attenborough - Wonderful World - BBC (by CopterVideo)

“I don’t really leave Brooklyn on the...

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:03:49 -0500

“I don’t really leave Brooklyn on the weekends” cc: @joewest

Shit New Yorkers Say (by wexlerglazer)

Should not have given up that Astronaut dream ISS Passes Over...

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:01:35 -0500

Should not have given up that Astronaut dream

ISS Passes Over Stormy Africa (w/Milky Way) (by JMajorLITD)

If You Support PIPA/SOPA, You're A Socialist

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:40:00 -0500

Economic innovation is driven by destruction. Joseph Schumpeter coined the term “Creative Destruction” to describe this idea in his seminal work Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. Schumpeter argues that what makes Capitalistism uniquely effective is its ability to generate and tolerate the destruction of old industries by the force of technological innovation. More top-down economic systems fail in two dimensions: they are unable to manage the complex beast that is a modern economy and worse they inevitably use their centralized power to protect an entrenched few thus undermining the path of creative destruction.

Politicians today throw the word “innovation” around in spades when discussing what makes America great and resilient. The fact that these same politicians back PIPA/SOPA indicates they are ignorant of how innovation actually works. The last century of economic innovation in America is a tour of industries and companies that either adapted to the the force of creative destruction or died. I suspect that if we had the same class of politician for that run we’d still be perfecting a faster horse buggy.

Making matters worse the second most overused term by the same class of politician is “Socialism”. Although again they don’t care for what the word actually means, only its intended rhetorical effect, they use it to criticize a government they believe intervenes too deeply in the “free-market.” I hope it’s ignorance and not lobbying that has these same politicians supporting one of the most egregious free-market interventions in history.

It’s easy to predict how Washington will fight back. They’ll use more rhetorical tricks to argue that they are simply trying to prevent “theft”. “Are you pro stealing in society?” they’ll ask with the usual wry smile. They’ll paint you a picture of cyber-thieves overseas that are holding the American media industry at virtual gunpoint and threatening our economic prosperity.

Realistically the driving force behind PIPA/SOPA is a collection of media companies who support the ideology of the free-market when its working in their favor and fight it when the very forces it unleashes threaten their cash flow. Before the rise of one of the greatest and most innovative disruptions in modern history, the internet, the strategic power of the media industry was in their ability to control the distribution of physical media. The big players used vertical integration to achieve channel control and monopolistic pricing power which as always translated into a mix of higher prices, bundling, conglomerates reducing competition, and stagnation on a cultural level.

The internet was a Godzilla of creative destruction to the media industry. By its very nature it drove the price of digital goods to near zero and commoditized distribution (technologically that’s literally what it does) thus destroying the industries long standing business advantage of controlling the distribution channel. Basic microeconomics dictates that as a result the industry would suffer a reduction in pricing power/margins/ROE and would need to rethink how it creates value. The former has certainly occurred but the industry is trying to resist the latter.

In the end of the day Creative Destruction is a force of redistribution. The value that’s taken from one industry and its companies is distributed to a combination of consumers via better pricing/quality and new players who are willing to embrace the innovation to serve customer needs more effectively. No value is lost and society is better off.

The media industry needs to either accept the fact that their slice of the big economic pie has changed or adapt to this new environment by going after their share of the new new thing. Arguably they are even best positioned to grab a large share. I once asked Jeff Bezos why he came out with the Kindle if it was going to cannablize their core business. His response was that of a man who understands Creative Destruction, “I’d rather eat my own lunch than have someone else do it.”

So call your politicians and tell them to stop driving America towards Socialism. It’s not merely the internet and the infinite benefits it brings society that are at risk. If we accept the precedent that industries can use the government to fight creative destruction when its not in their favor we become party to the crippling of true innovation.

Let me know what you think over at Hacker News: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3482452

PS - I’m taking no position here on whether piracy is theft. I’m arguing against using legislation as an economic weapon against changing industry dynamics, especially when said legislation will have tremendous negative externalities on overall innovation and other thriving industries.

Great posters of great music quotes (via music philosophy)

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:00:00 -0500

Great posters of great music quotes

(via music philosophy)

"If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can..."

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 15:37:30 -0500

“

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

”

- If— Rudyard Kipling

It’s hard to not repost Carlin quotes

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:13:39 -0500

It’s hard to not repost Carlin quotes

"Ideology is a specious way of relating to the world. It offers human beings the illusion of an..."

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 13:48:40 -0500

“Ideology is a specious way of relating to the world. It offers human beings the illusion of an identity, of dignity, and of morality while making it easier for them to part with them. As the repository of something suprapersonal and objective, it enables people to deceive their conscience and conceal their true position and their inglorious modus vivendi, both from the world and from themselves. It is a very pragmatic but, at the same time, an apparently dignified way of legitimizing what is above, below, and on either side. It is directed toward people and toward God. It is a veil behind which human beings can hide their own fallen existence, their trivialization, and their adaptation to the status quo. It is an excuse that everyone can use, from the greengrocer, who conceals his fear of losing his job behind an alleged interest in the unification of the workers of the world, to the highest functionary, whose interest in staying in power can be cloaked in phrases about service to the working class. The primary excusatory function of ideology, therefore, is to provide people, both as victims and pillars of the post-totalitarian system, with the illusion that the system is in harmony with the human order and the order of the universe…”

- Havel, Power of the Powerless, 1978

"Programming languages are like cats. It is easier to get a new cat than to get an old cat fixed...."

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:00:06 -0500

“Programming languages are like cats. It is easier to get a new cat than to get an old cat fixed. Most successful languages are ultimately replaced by upstarts. Remodeled languages rarely match the glory of the original. Fortran was once the king of languages. It has been revised several times over the years, but the modernized dialects experienced a fraction of the prestige of Fortran IV. Similarly, Pascal was a popular structured programming language, but none of the object oriented dialects ever approached Pascal’s glory. Instead, languages tend to be superseded.”

- JavaScript: The World’s Most Misunderstood Programming Language Has Become the World’s Most Popular Programming Language

Metta World Peace thanks Jesus Christ that he still has his...

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:53:18 -0500

Metta World Peace thanks Jesus Christ that he still has his teeth (by losangelestimes)

Alabama Shakes - Treat your ears right. Listen to this album.

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 16:38:00 -0500

Alabama Shakes - Treat your ears right. Listen to this album.

"Taking this a couple of steps further, the article points out that, to many people, Facebook’s..."

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 12:08:55 -0500

“Taking this a couple of steps further, the article points out that, to many people, Facebook’s “frictionless” sharing doesn’t enhance sharing; it makes sharing meaningless. Let’s go back to music: It is meaningful if I tell you that I really like the avant-garde music by Olivier Messiaen. It’s also meaningful to confess that I sometimes relax by listening to Pink Floyd. But if this kind of communication is replaced by a constant pipeline of what’s queued up in Spotify, it all becomes meaningless. There’s no “sharing” at all. Frictionless sharing isn’t better sharing; it’s the absence of sharing. There’s something about the friction, the need to work, the one-on-one contact, that makes the sharing real, not just some cyber phenomenon. If you want to tell me what you listen to, I care. But if it’s just a feed in some social application that’s constantly updated without your volition, why do I care? It’s just another form of spam, particularly if I’m also receiving thousands of updates every day from hundreds of other friends.”

- The end of social - O’Reilly Radar