Staring Down Stockdale

The power of Twitter & how news spreads

Mon, 16 May 2011 21:04:59 -0400

The team over @SocialFlow have put together an incredible post on the spread of news of Osama Bin Laden’s death through Twitter:

http://blog.socialflow.com/post/5246404319/breaking-bin-laden-visualizing-the-power-of-a-single

I particularly love these two sentences:

Twitter has become the dominant mechanism to get timely updates about events that are taking place regardless of geography, topic or even language.

And with that, the perfect situation unfolded, where timing, the right social-professional networked audience, along with a critically relevant piece of information led to an explosion of public affirmation of his trustworthiness.

Hat tip to @Pkedrosky for highlighting this…

Staring Down Stockdale - Redux

Sat, 12 Mar 2011 16:28:00 -0500

Staring Down Stockdale - Redux:

Trying to get back into this ‘blogging’ thing all the kids are talking about… It’s been awhile…

Deb Roy: The birth of a word | Video on TED.com

Sat, 12 Mar 2011 16:26:50 -0500

Deb Roy: The birth of a word | Video on TED.com:

MIT professor explores the development of language using amazing video and audio collection. Additionally, looks at the connections of communication and content using social networks and capture of television programs. Particularly impressive set of visualizations. Curious to see how quickly advertising seizes on how these communication processes happen and utilizes them to sell product innovatively.

"The only thing different about the Google mafia compared with other, similar periods in history, is..."

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 03:42:01 -0500

““The only thing different about the Google mafia compared with other, similar periods in history, is that more money was made at Google by more people (and more money will be lost).””

- The Top Angel Investors: Behind the Rankings - BusinessWeek

"Much-Touted Bloom Fuel Cell Still Too Spendy"

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 03:34:22 -0500

“Much-Touted Bloom Fuel Cell Still Too Spendy”

- Much-Touted Bloom Fuel Cell Still Too Spendy | Wired Science | Wired.com

Ridiculous - how much more than "par" did the first Ford cost?

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 03:34:07 -0500

When you do the math, the Bloom box’s electricity costs substantially more per kilowatt hour than the grid.

"In other “clean-energy” sectors such as solar and wind energy, jobs are predicted to..."

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 03:32:32 -0500

“In other “clean-energy” sectors such as solar and wind energy, jobs are predicted to emerge in the same broad categories of installation, manufacturing, R&D and IT services, but the near-term expected levels of investment in and adoption of these renewable sources of energy mean that net job creation should top out in the tens of thousands, as opposed to the desired hundreds of thousands or more.”

- Sunil Sharan - The green jobs myth - washingtonpost.com

Green jobs are vague, but necessary

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 03:31:56 -0500

For the purpose of creating jobs, then, a “clean-energy economy” will not offer a panacea. This does not necessarily mean that America should not become green to alleviate climate change, to kick its addiction to foreign oil or to use energy sources more efficiently. But those who take great pains to tout the “job-creation potential” of the green space might just end up inducing labor pains all around.

"FOR entrepreneurs hoping to land start-up capital from angel investors, here’s what two recent..."

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 03:27:46 -0500

“FOR entrepreneurs hoping to land start-up capital from angel investors, here’s what two recent studies found: Don’t get carried away when you pitch your product because the investors may lose interest faster than you can say “almost unlimited market.””

- In the Hunt - In Pitching to Angel Investors, Preparation Outweighs Zeal - NYTimes.com

Advice for early stage firms...

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 03:27:35 -0500

FOR entrepreneurs hoping to land start-up capital from angel investors, here’s what two recent studies found: Don’t get carried away when you pitch your product because the investors may lose interest faster than you can say “almost unlimited market.”

That's better, Arizona.

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:24:56 -0500

That's better, Arizona.

"What we decided from Day 1 in the company is that we wanted to only solve the difficult problems. ..."

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:26:43 -0500

“What we decided from Day 1 in the company is that we wanted to only solve the difficult problems. We didn’t want to find the first little thing that could work. We knew what we were after. We were after the Holy Grail, and if we didn’t get it, we didn’t care.”

- Interview with K.R. Sridhar, Founder of Bloom Energy

Marketing Matters for Clean Tech (or why Bloom is interesting)

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:23:38 -0500

Marketing Matters for Clean Tech (or why Bloom is interesting)

An important connection

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:36:32 -0500

A theme I hope to discuss in more detail is the overlap of military and commercial applications of renewable energy and other clean technologies. In the meantime, I highly recommend: The DOD Energy Blog

Interesting that Arizona would threaten the solar industry at a time when green jobs are so heavily...

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:29:18 -0500

Interesting that Arizona would threaten the solar industry at a time when green jobs are so heavily in focus:

Critics: Bill Puts Solar Companies, Jobs at Risk

Arizona energy bill could hurt Chandler’s solar future

Arizona “Great Leap Backward for Solar Power” Passes Committee

If this passes, most people think Suntech and others will pull out of the state.

Suntech to open plant in Arizona

Take your own advice, or hello.

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:21:00 -0500

Having advised multiple people in the past few weeks (months?) to start a blog and use Twitter to create a personal brand and build out a network online, I thought I’d take my own advice. After several days of lurking, here we are.

The name of the blog comes from the well-known Stockdale Paradox, but then you already knew that. I work in the clean tech industry - with an investment, research, and strategy group - and I expect most of my posts will be focused in that direction.

The quote representing my inaugural post comes from an article in a 1970’s Harvard Crimson. It captures the way I’ve felt moving between different locations and environments, from Baltimore to Charlottesville to Pearlington to Boston to New York and so on…

Buy the ticket, take the ride. I’m glad you’ll be joining me.

"Vietnam stopped when I left in 1970. A week later I was skiing at Lake Tahoe, tan in the middle of..."

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:12:18 -0500

“Vietnam stopped when I left in 1970. A week later I was skiing at Lake Tahoe, tan in the middle of February, and already my mind could not embrace the idea that the war still went on.”

- From: Something Was Dreadfully Wrong