January 2010
1 post
allthebests - find the best choice for you →
September 2009
10 posts
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned about living a life it’s that you need to keep...”
– Jonathan Coulton (via meaghano via marco via jackcheng via 43folders)
Amen! (via bustr)
““You’ve never sold cars before. Is that right?”
...”
– Confessions of a Car Salesman
How to Close a Sale →
The Presumptive Close. Picture the prospect using your product and put yourself into that picture as they are using it. “I wish I could be there with you when you drive down your street in this new car.” “I wish I could see the look on the faces of your employees when you install this new computer system.” This is an excellent close to be used on reluctant or indecisive...
“Throughout recent years, a vast amount of money and time and brains has been...”
– On Sales Resistance
Why are artists poor? →
Today, as the old mass media industries of television, newspapers, book publishing, recorded music and movies are being fundamentally restructured by the digital economy, it’s become clear that the early 21st century digital revolution is having as profound an impact upon culture as the mid 19th century industrial revolution.
“To often do newbie and even intermediate guys focus on advanced concepts and...”
– The Fundamentals of Game from The Thundercats Seduction Lair
Nassim Nicolas Taleb Life Tips
1. Skepticism is effortful and costly. It is better to be skeptical about matters of large consequences, and be imperfect, foolish and human in the small and the aesthetic.
2. Go to parties. You can’t even start to know what you may find on the envelope of serendipity. If you suffer from agoraphobia, send colleagues.
3. It’s not a good idea to take a forecast from someone wearing a tie. If...
Survivorship Bias →
In finance, Survivorship bias is the tendency for failed companies to be excluded from performance studies because they no longer exist. It often causes the results of studies to skew higher because only companies which were successful enough to survive until the end of the period are included.
August 2009
12 posts
3 good reasons to start a company
1. You know how to do something that nobody else can do (the typical MIT tech spinoff approach)
2. You have a lower cost of capital than anyone else (the “my dad was really rich” approach taken by Bill Gates and others)
3. You have a better understanding of one kind of customer than anyone else.
- From Phillip Greenspun’s Tips for Startup Companies
The Sullivan Nod →
The Sullivan nod is a theoretical sales technique used to create a subconscious suggestion to a customer to purchase one particular item out of a list of like items. It is used most frequently by bartenders and waiters when reciting lists of items (such as alcohol or wine) in the hopes of getting the customer to select a particular brand.
“Whenever I talk to a band who are about to sign with a major label, I always end...”
– Steve Albini on The Problem With Music
Kelly Criterion →
In probability theory, the Kelly criterion, is a formula used to determine the optimal size of a series of bets. In most gambling scenarios, and some investing scenarios under some simplifying assumptions, the Kelly strategy will do better than any essentially different strategy in the long run
“I imagine attention-based pricing, in which prices of information commodities...”
– From A Short Manifesto on the Future of Attention
“American business at this point is really about developing an idea, making it...”
– Ian MacKaye of Fugazi