Reading - September 26, 2008

If you're interested in this process, building a community and the like, here are two things I read today that were helpful.

First is Looking for a reason to hide by Seth Godin. It's easy to fall into that trap of doing nothing, of adopting the 'wait and see' because it's almost always safer than taking a risk. I'm super susceptible to this, especially right now when capital markets are crashing, there's a presidential election, I never built a community like this, zomg aliens! It's probably not Seth's best post evar, but it helped to read it first thing this morning and realize "hey, if Godin thinks it's a good idea ... fuck it, let's make some moves, people." If you look at all the reasons I've listed, almost none of them have an actual bearing on what I'm doing, but that's the thing about indecisiveness, it'll grab any reason to keep you rooted in place.

Second is The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric Steven Raymond. I can't believe this is the first time I've read this, especially considering how involved I was with IT but it is. It's awesome and just between you and me, I consider it a pretty good blueprint on how to move forward with this whole project.

And as an aside -- How many people watched the presidential debates tonight? I don't want this to turn at all political, just mention, casually in the comments, if you watched the debates. A yes or no will do. I'll edit any responses that go much beyond that.

Posted by Ben Corman at 7:47 PM

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I watched the debates.

I hope you can keep us up to date on the methodology you're taking in revamping RM. The transparancy of RM is one of the best things about it.

Posted by: Ilan Bouchard at September 26, 2008 09:06 PM

I've only read a portion of the book so far, but if you think about it, times of turmoil, when things are up in the air and most people are hunkered down... These are the times when you have a chance of catching one of those black swans.

I bet a lot of Internet-based companies are nervous right now, wondering if the ad market that supports their content is going to collapse if some advertisers decide to pull out. But right now is probably the best time to be making the big moves.

Or look at the stock market. I've had so many friends and acquaintances panic and pull out of the market. I watch in wonder. The oldest, most basic saying is "buy low, sell high" yet it appears most people are far too emotional to handle even this basic piece of advice. They buy when the market is good, hoping they too can strike it rich like all those business profiles they read about. Then when the market drops, they panic and sell off -- in effect doing the exact opposite.

It takes balls to buy in a market like this and have confidence you are making the right move. It takes balls to make *any* rational move when things are in flux, be it business, investments, creative endeavors, or really anything you encounter in life.

Reading - September 26, 2008

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