THE DREAM IN ACTION


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An entrepreneurship and adventure blog: THE DREAM IN ACTION (by Ryan Graves)

Archive for March, 2008


03.23

2008

Goals

One of the goals that I set when I first started writing on ActionsTalk is that 100 people would read the site in one day. Well finally, (a lot later than I thought) I reached that goal. On March 15th we had 132 unique visits to the site.

March 17th visits As you can see one day later there were 13 visitors, a 90% decrease in 24 hours. Sadly the 132 was a one day count hopefully with your help I can continue to write and post quality so that the number continues to grow.

Thanks for you help in achieving this small goal.

03.21

2008

Technology in our private lives

Do you worry that technology will invade our private lives? How many video camera’s do we need. In cities like London you can’t really go anywhere without being video taped. Google keeps a record of everything you’ve ever searched. They probably know you better than most of your friends. Technology has improved our free access to information significantly but what if you don’t want people to have that information.

Just how close will you let technology get…

iPottie

03.18

2008

Learning vs. Doing

There is something that I’ve been struggling with a great deal recently and an article I read tonight by Paul Graham made the struggle even worse. The issue originated from my decisions surrounding what I should be reading, how I should be spending my “develop Ryan time” and what sort of further education I should pursue. The struggle I’ve been facing is this, “is it more important to know how to do or to do.”

This struggle also ties back to the motivation behind my other blog ActionsTalk. Often times I find myself discussing ideas, learning how to implement new ideas, and working to further develop those ideas but not as often do I find myself acting on those ideas. Maybe action is the significantly more important piece.

The example that comes most easily to mind is a web app. I always seem to have great ideas around new web solutions for all kinds of different life and business problems but I much less (almost never) find myself trying to develop (in the coding sense not the growth sense) these new ideas/applications. In this scenario I often question if I’m spending my time wisely. Just because I’ve read about hundreds of start-ups, tested hundreds of start-ups tools and apps, and could easily tell you all the do’s and the do not’s of starting a start up company doesn’t mean I’m any closer to starting one.

Paul Graham’s conclusion in the article was disturbing in that I’ve spent a lot of time trying to understand many of the how’s and what’s of the start-up process such as how to obtain funding, how do I choose a language and what are the capabilities of that language, and what are the most profitable idea industries. I haven’t spend as much of my time learning the languages, writing the code or actually “creating” anything. Paul’s contention is that you don’t need to know “business” to succeed in this process. You don’t need to know the process before you dive in. Well I’ve been spending much of my time on understanding and learning the process. If Paul is right, then that’s scary.

Maybe it’s time I stopped worrying about the start up industry. Maybe it is time that I pick up that PHP/MySQL book by my bed that’s practically unopened and begin to dive into the doing, the coding, the ever so important creation phase of this process. The learning will not stop it will just change. Now I believe the learning will be more applicable and a bit less theoretical.

Anyone who has gone through the process of transitioning from “reading about” to “doing”, I would love to hear your feedback on the experience and what conclusions you drew on Paul Graham’s theory.

03.18

2008

BigDog

This is 3 parts creepy and 5 parts amazing. This video puts a robot project by Boston Dynamics on display. I can guarantee that you will be impressed by this. Most especially by the ability of this robot to correct its near fall on the ice (half way through video).

Again I apologize for all the videos recently but I’ve been watching more thus finding more amazing things to share.

03.17

2008

Here is why…

This blog is as much for me as it is for you. I found while writing for ActionsTalk.com that I was limited in my scope of  discussion because of the theme that ActionsTalk attempts to cover. Sometimes there are more great topics than just start-ups or business persons that I wanted to discuss. Those topics will be here. Don’t worry I promise that this site will not be a “vent” session. I have no intention of complaining on this blog. I will only share insights and experiences that I find interesting and I hope you will to, but if not don’t read, there are plenty of other blogs.

Thank you and enjoy.

03.17

2008

MadeIt.com – reinventing the invite

MadeIt.comMadeIt.com is taking Evite.com head on in the party invitation space. They are self proclaimed fun guys who thought that many great parties had bad invites. The feature that I think will set MadeIt.com apart is their “Aftermath” section where the invite automatically becomes a place to upload photos and videos of that party and tie them to on of the parties attendees. On MadeIt.com you can go back and view a list of all your favorite parties and events. There is a large list on invite templates or you can design your own. The invite layout is similar to Evite but the attitude seems better.

In the words of the founders: “We created MadeIt.com for the sole purpose of redefining online invitations as we know them. We were tired of receiving lame invitations for awesome parties, and we had a feeling that we weren’t alone. Thus, MadeIt.com was born.”

TED: Ideas worth spreading

TED

18 minutes is all the time one is allowed to speak at TED. 18 minutes to give the best talk of their life. No pressure…

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader

Richard Saul WurmanRichard BransonChris Anderson

The goal of TED is to spread ideas. The annual conference brings out the worlds most fascinating, motivating, inspiring, thinkers and doers. The talks range from how we will decrease the effect of global warming on the world, to how we should think about tomorrows web search technology. The speakers are activists, innovators, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, professors, CEO’s, artists, musicians, former vice presidents of the United States, founders of non-profs, and the list could go on!

TED include tons of their best talks online for free. The video’s stream quickly and are incredibly thought provoking. TED videos have cause me to experience a plethora of emotions. Everything from being inspired to move to Africa and give my life up for stopping African civil wars and promoting literacy, to being so pissed of at the speakers views I was yelling at my computer and shut down my machine. I love TED.

I was significantly behind the times in finding out about TED but since it has been made available to me I’ve used it as a strong source for through provoking education. If you watch TED or have gained as much as I have from it I encourage you to let us know!



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