tech

The Internet Of Yesterday

The internet of yesterday wasn’t bulletproof, but you might say it was bullet-resistant.

It wasn’t regulated. It was totally distributed. It wasn’t dependent upon anything other than existing telephone infrastructure.

As the internet has matured, it’s now considerably less bulletproof. It’s regulated now – not only can authoritarian governments shut down access completely, as has been the case in various Arab Spring uprisings, but it can selectively filter what content can be accessed, as is the case with China’s Great Firewall, and selectively monitor what it’s citizens are doing online, as is the case with the United States’ internal security apparatchik’s data collection and analysis programs. Continue reading The Internet Of Yesterday →

uncategorized

Energy, Nonsense, and Gullibility

A few years ago, I worked with a client who was all about energy.

He had an obsession about something he called “peak state” which involved eating massive amounts of fruit in the morning (he did this instead of caffeine because fruit sugars were supposed to stimulate the brain), pushups, a thumping EDM playlist, and chugging massive amounts of water.

We weren’t filming a CrossFit training session. We were filming corporate videos about managing money. It was a little bizarre, but I went with it. I try not to judge.

Continue reading Energy, Nonsense, and Gullibility →

internationalization

People Getting Stuff Done

If you think about the amount of stuff a human can get done in a lifetime, it’s staggering.

In either a very good or very bad way.

The vast majority of billionaires in the world came from nothing. Many, born into no special favors, built up billion-dollar commercial empires (think Richard Branson, Sam Walton, Ralph Lauren) or tech companies (Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Peter Thiel, Jan Koum). Starting from where everyone else started, they’ve amassed fortunes, acquired airlines, flown to space, built skyscrapers, and done everything in between. Continue reading People Getting Stuff Done →

uncategorized

Feudalism

I’m writing this short essay as an exploration into power structures. As an opinion piece, I’m sure that many could have significant issues with the assumptions herein. If so, I welcome feedback since I’m still exploring ideas.

I’d like to start out with a thought about semantics and fallacies.

It’s easy to get distracted by details. The further you can get from something, the easier it is to see it in relation to everything around it. Environment and context is so important to fully understanding the importance and effect of a subject, that it’s worth stripping away as much superfluous information as possible.

Continue reading Feudalism →

marketing

Announcing Discosloth: Data-Driven Marketing

I’m excited to announce something really exciting.

An internet career wasn’t intentional. At fifteen, I accidentally got my first gig building a janky HTML website for $1300, back when being a webmaster was still a viable career.

Thirteen years later, the internet is still here. And through some periods of starvation alternating with windfalls, forty countries, a few worn-out pairs of Vans, good jobs, bad jobs, I’m somehow still here too.

I met Anya last year, and because it’s always wise to make multiple life decisions at once, we decided to quit our jobs, start a company, and get married all in the same year.

We started Discosloth because we were tired of hearing jargon while seeing no results. It’s so easy for those in the digital world to throw around a lot of buzzwords & processes and never actually do what marketing is supposed to do: make people more money.

We don’t like funnel-hacking gamification through disruptive tech.

We don’t like agile inbound marketing thought leadership.

We don’t like pivoting to customer journey growth hacks.

Corporate inefficiency, along with all the spreadsheets and processes and bullshit tedium, is exactly what we’re not. So we’ve based our entire workflow around providing clients with what they want: more money.

Marketing consulting is not a glamorous niche. We provide paid advertising management and the transparent reporting we think clients deserve. It’s actually pretty boring. But, since Anya is smarter than I am, we’ve already seen what I consider totally unexpected success in our launch.

We’re currently onboarding new clients. If your company needs help squeezing the maximum ROI out of your online advertising campaigns, give us a holler.

 

 

internationalization

True Globalization: Rejecting Cultural Hegemony

A couple days ago I got back from Eastern Europe: Romania, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary.

Part of traveling, or even more so living abroad, is a direct experience with globalization. You’re heading out from your origins & creating an effect in another place; you’re letting that place effect you. Ideally you’re creating value & producing something of substance while you’re at it, enriching both yourself and those around you.

Eastern Europe has seen an explosion of globalization within the past few years, and I suspect it’ll only increase in the next few.

There seems to be two bipolar camps around the question of globalization.

The first is a fundamentalist approach that tends to be nationalistic, and calls globalization “bad”. It calls for the regulation of borders, of the preservation of traditional entities like churches, parties, and cultures, and tariffs on unorthodox thought. Continue reading True Globalization: Rejecting Cultural Hegemony →

travel

Erasing Borders

In late September, I got back from a 40-day trip around the world. I saw quite the range: from the Arctic Circle to the Sahara, from the world’s northernmost capital to the world’s southernmost capital, from glaciers to jungles, from icebergs to beaches.

The concept of easy travel is a brand new thing.

You might enjoy this video, the first of a series of travel videos produced during the trip.

I’m convinced of one thing: provincialism is dead.

Continue reading Erasing Borders →