"I would rather fail as a writer than succeed as a lawyer."
After designing the artwork “Lifting a Dreamer” which later was adopted as the Twitter Fail Whale, I visited America in 2009 for the first time in my life to receive the inaugural Shorty Award in Design. There I met Aaron Taylor-Waldman, the designer of the Shorty Awards’ logo. I was stoked to learn from Aaron that the Shorty logo was actually inspired by my whale. Attending the Shorty Awards ultimately lead to many opportunities including a New York Times Magazine profile and being commishioned to create the Pale Whale for fellow Shorty winner Conan O’Brien.
Now, 5 years later, I decided to take a chance to make a new whale inspired by Aaron’s Shorty logo design - those 3 whale tails. I thought about revealing the face of the whales behind those tails, in cerebration for Shorty Awards’ 5th Anniversary as well as the growth of the Shorty whale family amongst social media families globally. I’m pleased to present the Fail Whale’s cousin who will make his first appearance at the Shorty Awards on April 8, 2013!
Rocking more Shorty Awards Sizzle GIFs. So much better than sizzle reels.
Very excited to release the very first Shorty Awards Sizzle GIF!
Tumblr founder David Karp high fives Kenyatta Cheese (from the BBC’s Doctor Who tumblr) after winning the Shorty Award for Best Brand Presence on Tumblr.
Enter the Shorty Industry Awards until March 5th!
This is the first in a series of Sizzle GIFs created by Shorty Award #GifMaker finalist Dianna McDougall
The serial entrepreneur (via The New Yorker)
On NPR’s Marketplace talking profits and perils of fake Twitter accounts.
"If I don’t do a set in two weeks, I feel it. I read an article a few years ago that said when you practice a sport a lot, you literally become a broadband: the nerve pathway in your brain contains a lot more information. As soon as you stop practicing, the pathway begins shrinking back down. Reading that changed my life. I used to wonder, Why am I doing these sets, getting on a stage? Don’t I know how to do this already? The answer is no. You must keep doing it. The broadband starts to narrow the moment you stop."
— Jerry Seinfeld on why he keeps doing standup nearly every week despite being worth an estimated $800 million
Riding the subway (Taken with Cinemagram)
Required listening this weekend: This excellent 53 minute audio documentary on Dave Brubeck (December 6, 1920 – December 5, 2012) from NPR titled In His Own Sweet Way. RIP.
My latest blog post for Muck Rack:
I recently had drinks with a friend of mine who was the CTO of a hot venture-backed company that went on to be acquired by a large silicon valley company. One of the beautiful things about being a CTO is you don’t have to worry about marketing strategy and execution, and his old company had…
Just set all my tumblr posts to automatically be posted to my App.net account thanks to IFTTT, so in a very meta move I’m tumbling my IFTTT recipe (which you can use too) and hoping it ends up on my app.net account.
My latest guest column for Fortune
Light and dark in New York City
Light and dark is the defining dynamic of post-Sandy New York City.
Usually in Manhattan, day or night, light wins. While New York may even feel dark at night, it really is perpetually quite bright. If you walk around on any normal night at any odd hour, light will stalk you through the quaintest of side street, over bridges and even underground. No bedroom is safe either. An essential investment made by a well rested New Yorker is heavy window shades.
Thanks to Sandy there are now two New Yorks: Light New York, which exists above about 30th Street with power, wifi and seemingly complete normalcy. Dark New York, which is completely without power and in parts near pitch black at night.
Dark New York is striking for a number of reasons:
The ingenuity of local bar keeps, restauranteurs and grocers to stay open by candle light, generator or even car battery.
The glow of midtown always present in the distance.
The failure of a single chain store to stay open.
The constant uneasy negotiation between motorists, pedestrians and bikers at major intersections with non-functional lights and no crossing guards.
The number of large building that NYU’s able to power by generator which didn’t include its hospital.
The alarmingly low percentage of people who have flashlights (did they leave them at home or do they not own one?).
The ability to easily tally how many of your neighbors are home by the presence of any light in their windows.
The novelty of walking around Manhattan with a flashlight.
Watching the number of neighbors dwindle every night the black out continues.
Not being able to see what’s in front of you without a flashlight.
Silence.
The awful smell of garbage wrought by only a couple extra days at the curb.
The lack of candles at every store.
Walking isn’t a choice, it’s usually the only way to get around.
How inadequate candles are at matching the light from bulbs.
The complete lack of cell coverage in many areas.
How quickly your eyes will adjust to any level of light.
The ideas you have without distractions from texts and push notifications.
Light from just a three wick candle can feel uncomfortably bright in the new normal.
The usefulness of radios.
The slow speed of time.
The 100 costumed souls who paraded in the village on Halloween even though the Village Halloween Parade was canceled.
How good a quality scotch tastes served neat.
"When you really become a professional at this stuff, what’s important is how well you can do when you’re not inspired."
— Louis C.K. (via entrepreneurwisdom)
