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I am just like Larry Ellison. Well, to be more precise, I’m just as bad as Larry Ellison. Last Friday I stopped at Farley’s to get a cup of coffee before coming into work. Even though there were parking spots open on the opposite side of the street, I decided just to double park in the direction I was headed. I had done this many times before and thought that I would be fine for the few minutes it takes to get coffee: my hazard lights were on after all. Low and behold, as I walked out with my delicious cup of coffee, a police officer was writing a ticket. I verified that he was ticketing my car and accepted the ticket graciously when he handed it over, despite his pompous attitude.

So, how does this make me just like Larry Ellison? Larry Ellison has been known to land his private jet at the San Jose airport after the curfew designed to keep noisy planes from disturbing the local residents at night. Larry has the reputation of thinking he is a deity, and he therefore believes laws like this curfew don’t apply to him. What’s more, a $2500 fine is a drop in the bucket for a man worth $20 billion or so. As it turns out, Larry has so much bravado that he decided to sue the city of San Jose over the curfew law, and subsequently he was granted immunity to land his jet (see question #11 of the curfew FAQ) and the law was changed.

Now, consider my situation: I decided, despite knowing that it was illegal, to double park my car outside the coffee shop. I felt, much like Larry does, that I am entitled to do what I want. As it turns out, I was penalized for it, but $50 is not that big of a deal to me. Sure, I don’t want to pay a $50 ticket every time I get coffee, but you can look at the fine in one of two ways: either that cup of coffee cost me $51.45, or amortized over the countless other times I have double parked to buy coffee, they have each cost me about $2.00. From the second perspective, a fine for double parking once every 50 or so coffee trips is an acceptable risk to take.

I don’t plan on fighting the ticket like Larry fought the law, but I might think twice about double parking the next time I stop for coffee.

the site is secure we promise. i don’t know why the little padlock doesn’t come up (i’m assuming thats what you are referring to) you are more than welcome to call and place an order if you would like. 212-414-4533. ask for Joe or Steve. you can just give them your credit card info and then email your order to this email with mailing addy, etc.
thanks for your support of frenchkiss.

That was the response I received from French Kiss Records when I sent them a somewhat angry email about trying to sell records on the Internet without a secure server (read about Insecure Purchases). [Continue reading…]

I explored the concept of conviction and concluded that while I do have morals, I lack conviction, because I lack the undying passion necessary for it. For instance, I believe that biking to work, thus cutting back on driving and gas usage, would be better for the world (as well as my health and proverbial pocketbook). But I am lazy enough that I have only been able to bring myself to do so a few times since actually making the decision to bike more often. If I had conviction, I would bike to work every day. Since I don’t, is there a way to create conviction in myself? [Continue reading…]

It sounds like a great promise, to have all Internet shopping occur over secure channels. I was fairly certain that it all was (not because of any grand experiment that checked out every point of purchase on the web, but through a vast assumption). I was all primed and ready to buy both of The Hold Steady’s albums direct from their record company when I noticed that I was about to submit my credit card number over an insecure form. In all likelihood, no one would happen to be capturing packets as I placed my order, thus stealing my credit card number, but I am sufficiently paranoid in this regard that I decided to instead send them a somewhat angry email, after finding no way to contact them by phone. Too bad. I really would like to support them directly.

On the walk back home through the Tenderloin I was approached by a woman who was in dire need of some spare change. As I walked toward her, she made a quick change in direction to bring us face-to-face, at which point she delivered her marketing message: “White boy, do you have any spare change? I need to get some…”. With her misguided plea of “white boy,” I was totally thrown off. Maybe a quick lesson in addressing your audience would do her some good.

Is it a bad sign that I can write more verbosely and potentially more eloquently about things I dislike versus things I like? Maybe there is a job out there for a critic who always writes negative reviews.

In stark contract to The Constantines who preceded The Hold Steady at tonight’s show, these guys know how to rock. The lead singer is a frantic manic talk-singer with a nervous twitch, singing crazy lyrics and backed up by a hard rocking band. The lead guitarist knows how to have fun on stage without looking like a tool. The bassist did his own thing in good style, which is what makes a bassist cool, while the drummer kept a solid beat with nice breaks. The keyboardist, who I will refer to as “The Frenchman,” was totally out of place with the rest of the band (he should have been playing with The Arcade Fire), but he kicked some ass in his own way, lifting a bottle of red wine to his lips as the guitarist and bassist sipped from a bottle of Beam. This band has a unique musical style and tons of energy; they know how to get the crowd pumped. When the lead singer ended the evening with the words, “This was the best night of my life,” you really believed that’s what he thought and not just a line he gives every audience, though I’m sure tomorrow night might bring the best night of his life again.

Tonight I saw The Constantines play at the Great American Music Hall. The band consists of Screech playing keyboards, his older brother singing in the style of Tom Waits, Ricky Schroeder’s way geekier cousin playing guitar, a one-note bassist and a drummer. Their music was really pretty good, and I would have fully enjoyed the show had it not been quite so obvious that they had taken correspondence classes from the publishers of the “… for Dummies” series of books — classes such as “An Uplifted Fist: Rock Power to the People,” “Guitar for Rockers: Move the Neck, Make the Sound,” and “Bass Note: Fast and Above Your Head.” It is not so egregious that they were doing these things on stage, but just that they looked uncomfortable doing them. Be natural, guys, and enjoy playing your music.

I had thought a little bit about traveling after I finish up at Edusoft, but I hadn’t put much effort into it and hadn’t come up with any place to go. With only a little convincing over the weekend, my friends pushed me in the right direction. I browsed the bookstore looking at the travel guides to decide where to go. When impulse struck, I decided on Japan and I booked a flight yesterday.

Three weeks in Japan. No plans. Should be an adventure.

In Good to Great, Jim Collins introduces the Hedgehog Concept as a key insight into taking a good company to greatness. The idea is to develop your strategy along three key dimensions and then to crystallize that into one concept that guides all efforts. The analogy to the hedgehog comes from an parable about a fox and a hedgehog in which the fox tries many different methods to catch the hedgehog. Each time the hedgehog just rolls himself into a tight ball of spikes, thwarting all the fox’s efforts. The hedgehog understands its one big thing and consistently applies it, achieving “greatness,” at least in the ongoing battle with the fox. What is interesting about this business concept is that it closely parallels individuals’ pursuits of their true calling, and thus their personal greatness. [Continue reading…]