Nadia Eghbal’s new book, Working In Public: the Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software, may not have been on your short list of books to read this year. It’s admittedly a nerdy topic: it’s about open source projects, roles and responsibilities; the rise of GitHub as a developer platform; and how developer culture is evolving around the new power of creator platforms. I recommend you get it. It is mostly about software development, but the core insight of the book is bigger: Eghbal clearly sees and articulates something important about… Read more Making is Show Business now →
This week we have a very special interview guest: I’m delighted to share this conversation with Margaret Franklin, CFA. She serves as the President and CEO of the CFA Institute. Software and the internet haven’t yet made their real impact across the world of professional services, especially when it comes to professional designations and certifications that demonstrate proficiency. On the one hand, the internet has created access we could’ve only dreamed about decades ago, both in terms of access to knowledge and advice, access to financial products like diversification, and… Read more The Future of the CFA Institute: An Interview with Margaret Franklin, CFA →
Whenever I have a candid conversation with someone interesting in tech, I like to ask: “What are taboo topics in Silicon Valley?” Unsurprisingly, most of the suggestions I hear are… Read more Are Founders Allowed to Lie? →
Welcome to the fourth and final segment in this series on Gift Culture at the Online Frontier. If you missed any of the first three, you can catch up here: Gift Culture, Part 1: Homesteading the Twittersphere Gift Culture, Part 2: The SE Suite, An interview with Julie Young Gift Culture, Part 3: Scarcity Status versus Abundance Status Today Julie is back with us to help close things out, along with our second very special guest, coming in to bat cleanup: Eugene Wei. If you’ve spent any time on Tech… Read more The Kids are Alright: An Interview with Eugene Wei and Julie Young (Gift Culture, Part 4) →
Welcome back to this multi-part newsletter series on Gift Culture on the online frontier. If you missed them, check out Part One (defining gift culture, and the “homesteading” behaviour exhibited… Read more Scarcity Status versus Abundance Status (Gift Culture, Part 3) →
Welcome back to part 2 of a multi-part series on Gift Culture at the digital frontier. If you haven’t read last week’s post on gift culture as an adaptation to… Read more The SE Suite: An Interview with Julie Young (Gift Culture Part 2) →
If you go to the About page on Matthew Ball’s website, you’ll find a quote from Jason Hirschhorn: “Kevin Mayer called and said ‘Hey, Bob Iger and I would like to have lunch with you’…And Iger, I’m going to paraphrase here, says ‘You know, you’re an idiot.’ And I’m like, ‘Why is that, Bob?’ And he goes, “You give away for free what we pay tens of millions of dollars a year from management consultants for.” Kevin was talking about Matt’s Disney-as-a-Service post from 2016; but it could have been any of his… Read more Homesteading the Twittersphere →
One of the themes we talk about a lot in this newsletter, such as here and here and here and here and here, is how Silicon Valley is a “controlled… Read more Rollin’ (ARR-paid vehicle) →
Welcome to Dancoland 