Interesting perspective on economics and environment

A friend of mine sent me this.

I'm not a tree hugger, by any means, but I do think we need to look at how we individually affect the environment.




I don't agree w/ all of her philosophies, but I will watch b/c it's well done and thought through. The one point, that I totally agree with, is a shift in our conscienceness. Do we really need all this stuff?

My feeling is that innovation is good and consumerism is bad. They intersect at some point. It's not like a faucet that you can turn off. The same innovation that gives us that $4.99 clock radio that ends up in a land fill 6 months later is the same type of innovation that solves problems, like the environment.

I also try not to feel sorry for people. Feeling guilty about the hair dryer I bought b/c someone making a $1 per day is nonsensical. People were exploited in American years ago during the Industrial revolution. Without that revolution, we would not have the things we have today.

How to live in a world of distractions

Distractions are not all bad. I love a good distraction. The issue I have, is that they cut into family and friend time. I can't believe I'm saying this, but social networking sites, like Facebook, are great ways to stay in touch with friends and family.

Now, Facebook, is not without its faults. Of course, I have that guy or girl that posts every 30 seconds. The main problem is that I said about 10 words to them in 4 years of high school. I guess that's why they let you de-friend people.

I fought Facebook for a long time, but you know, email is just so lacking and I want to throw my cell phone out the window, let alone talk on it.

Bill Gates success explained

I always enjoy the debunking of myth. Did Bill Gates take a big risk? In hindsight "no", but at the the time, in his mind, that was a big risk. The big challenge is handling that risk psychologically, and he did.

Tim Ferriss puts in excerpt in his blog from a new book by Rick Smith titled "The Leap".

Was the risk measured? No, how could he know the upside was $60b in personal wealth? He did mitigate the downside by keeping the door open at Harvard.

Bill Gates best asset was his support system. Most of us would have sold the program to IBM for what we thought was a lot of money. Instead, Gates retained the rights to his program. That's how he became the richest man in the world and not just another rich man.

If you like what you read, the Huffington Post also has a separate excerpt from the book.

Dotcom pioneer practically wiped out

John McAfee, software entrepreneur, and the namesake of McAfee Associates has seen his fortune dwindle from $100m to $4m.

It's an interesting story for a few reasons. First, does he even care? He lives in Belize where $4m still makes you super rich. How do you go from $100m to $4m? The article sites the sale of a $11.5 million aerotrekking facility in New Mexico. This property sold at auction for $1.15M. This is about 10% of what he spent, which puts it in line with his other investments.

This guy had $100m in '94. It's estimated that the dot-com market bubble burst in 2001. You have to think a pioneer like this would have appreciated that $100m.

I'd love to hear the real story b/c none of this adds up.

Look out. Here comes Meth.

Meth addicts figured an easier, safer way to make meth. The new method is called "shake and bake".

You can read the full details in the Associated Press titled "New meth formula avoids anti-drug law"

So what's the point? The point is that people are insane. Why would anyone do this to themselves?

SEO Tools for Google

Want to know who scores in the top for your keywords and who links to them?

Sitemapdoc has a keyword analyzer that brings up the top 4 sites and then will show you every site that's linking to them.

How does this help? It helps if you're looking for paid links. Many of the sites that link to your site, probably sell links. They're working for site, so they may work for you.

They also have one of the better Google SERP (Search Engine Result Placement) rank tools. There are many tools like this, but this one is fast and it will search for you in the top 64 spots.

Now, I can't mention any tools without including SeoChat tools. They have the most comprehensive, free SEO tools.

Groupon - Crowdsourcing

Assimilating and being organized pays at Groupon.com.

Here's how it works:

1. Groupon makes a bulk deal with a business.
2. They offer it to the Groupon community.
3. If enough people buy, everyone gets the deal.
4. If they don't get enough people to buy, it dies.
   

Beyond saving money, Groupon is fun and it exposes you to products or services you can't pull the trigger on.

I missed the boat on this deal. My wife and I love Bonsoiree in Chicago. It's an upscale BYOB place. They offered their $50 tasting menu for $20. 517 people bought in to get the deal. Sure there's fine print, like, it's only good Tues-Thurs and one per table.

How did Bonsoiree win?

• 517 guaranteed covers.
• Prepaid.
  
• Exposure to everyone on the email, even though they did not buy in.
• They do not cannibalize their other customer base by offering a deal across the board on.

Another huge success story. After selling 220 Groupons in February for $189 teeth-whitening services from Brite Smile, down from the usual $600, a similar promotion a few months later sold more than 700 deals due to the larger e-mail distribution.

Today, Groupon makes about 50% of the commission. This seems high at first, but along with the exposure, it's reasonable. Personally, I would like to see better deals and a smaller split w/ Groupon.