Reap and Prosper

I'm a serial entrepreneur who's had his ups and downs in this life. I'm asian american who grew up overseas, I speak several languages, I've worked as an industry analyst covering the VC industry, I've launched a luxury clothing company, a digital rights management company, I'm currently working on launching my Facebook shopping company and a mobile gaming app. I have an MBA. I grew up in the middle east to diplomat parents who currently live in Asia and Africa. I live in Boston and LA. I just survived a subarachnoid brain hemorrhage and a stroke last year. I was in a coma for 3 months and was pretty paralyzed most of 2011. My view of the world has completely changed as I feel I am a new person altogether. I'm definitely much more thankful and appreciative for the things that I have and this blog is a testament to my own human spirit of keeping hope and dreams alive. I hope someday I would be a great VC or angel investor and have a blessed life to inspire, to connect and help others succeed.

Why Google’s revenue is a half billion dollars less than everyone expected - Christopher Mims

stoweboyd:

Everyone is spending more time on proximal (‘mobile’) devices, and the monster companies like Google haven’t been able to catch up. Proximal ads currently pay less than desktop ads, so Google in down a half a billion from expectations.

futuramb:

Harvard launches two free online courses, more than 100,000 sign up worldwide | KurzweilAI

Harvard University’s first two courses on the new edX digital education platform launched this week, as more than 100,000 learners worldwide began taking dynamic online versions of CS50, the College’s popular introductory computer science class, and PH207, a Harvard School of Public Health course in epidemiology and biostatistics.

Camera: Nikon D5000
Aperture: f/3.5
Exposure: 1/80th
Focal Length: 20mm

You don’t need a reason to help people

"The social era will reward those organizations that realize they don’t create value all by themselves. If the industrial era was about building things, the social era is about connecting things, people, and ideas. Networks of connected people with shared interests and goals create ways that can produce returns for any company that serves their needs."

— The Social Era Is More Than Social Media | Fast Company (via futuristgerd)

Decentralizing education: how startups are dismantling the university | KurzweilAI

futuramb:

futuresagency:

Certification

This is a big one. Most people would argue that taking online courses that don’t confer college credit is not a very smart move. After all, credits lead to degrees. All employers are looking for degrees, right? That discussion is for another time, but startups are providing records and certifications in a variety of ways. October 08, 2012 at 06:31PM

This is an interesting point we must see and understand - especially if we are working with higher education. The view from inside the universities is not worth anything if the public follows other paths.

lilly:

Little shrine near Jobs’ house in Palo Alto. (Taken with Instagram at Steve Jobs)

soupsoup:

The Rumble 2012: Bill O’Reilly vs Jon Stewart (Full)

- a post from Business Insider

What’s really wrong with the economy?

In 1988, entry level wage at a factory down the street was $9.66 an hour. Gas was 1.08/gal and minimum wage was 3.35

That same factory, in 2012, now pays $8 for that same entry level job. Gas in my area is 4.07/gal and minimum wage is 7.25

*Back in 1988, that entry level wage would buy 8.94 gallons of gasoline. *In 2012, that same job pays enough to buy 1.96 gallons. *To buy the same amount of gasoline in 2012 as 1988, that entry level job would have to pay $36.38 per hour.

This is at the heart of what is wrong with the economy.

How Google Went From Search Engine To Content Destination

parislemon:

Danny Sullivan breaks down the current state of Google and how we got here. (This is about a month old, but I’ve been catching up on some reading, and it’s very good.)

Sullivan attempts to succinctly define Google:

Google is a search engine and a social network and a mobile operating system and mobile phones called Nexus and a tablet called Nexus and a place you can buy content like books and games and videos called Google Play and a travel guide and a restaurant guide and a place you can write blog posts and a place you can watch videos on YouTube and a web browser and a way to place ads all over the web and where you can get offers or you can use your phone as a credit card and much more.

While Sullivan is clearly being a bit facetious here, this statement is telling. Google is rubbing some people the wrong way because they’re trying to do everything and stomping on lots of toes along the way.

This is also fascinating:

Android beats or is a close rival to Apple’s iOS marketshare, depending on the stats you look at. Google no longer needs to to fear Apple cutting it off. That’s good, because now Apple IS cutting it off, something Apple probably wouldn’t have done if it weren’t for Google being so fearful of Apple that it developed a rival to Apple’s mobile platform.

In other words, Apple is now cutting off Google because of the steps Google took to ensure that it wouldn’t matter if Apple cut them off. The prophecy has been self-fulfilled.