Ideas and Form

So cool.

Fri, 18 May 2012 10:31:03 -0400

So cool.

Year One

Mon, 14 May 2012 10:25:15 -0400

A year ago, Dan, Jim, and I wrapped up finals and moved from Philly to a 3-bedroom apartment in the Financial District. We set up shop and got to work. Since then we’ve grown to 14 people, raised $6mm, rebranded, and built a product that’s used and loved at over 600 schools.

It’s just the beginning, though. Here’s to an even better next year.

Explore: The definitive photograph of Earth – unlike NASA’s...

Sat, 12 May 2012 14:54:20 -0400

Explore:

The definitive photograph of Earth – unlike NASA’s iconic “Blue Marble,” a composite of many different images, this portrait by the European Space Agency consists of a single shot and is the highest-resolution image of our planet, at 121 megapixels, or 0.62 miles per pixel.

Available as a (giant) download here.

Explore: The story of Gertrude Stein’s little-known children’s...

Fri, 11 May 2012 09:52:39 -0400

Explore:

The story of Gertrude Stein’s little-known children’s book

Steve Jobs on Recruiting

Sat, 05 May 2012 12:06:26 -0400

Steve Jobs on Recruiting:

When you put two great people together, the result is far great than 1+1=2.

morganmissen:

Excerpts from the book In the Company of Giants: Candid Conversations with the Visionaries of the Digital World, 1997, published in BusinessWeek in 1998.

What talent do you think you consistently brought to Apple and bring to NeXT and Pixar?

I think that I’ve consistently figured out who really smart people were to hang around with. No major work that I have been involved with has been work that can be done by a single person or two people, or even three or four people. Some people can do one thing magnificently, like Michelangelo, and others make things like semiconductors or build 747 airplanes — that type of work requires legions of people. In order to do things well, that can’t be done by one person, you must find extraordinary people.

The key observation is that, in most things in life, the dynamic range between average quality and the best quality is, at most, two-to-one. For example, if you were in New York and compared the best taxi to an average taxi, you might get there 20 percent faster. In terms of computers, the best PC is perhaps 30 percent better than the average PC. There is not that much difference in magnitude. Rarely you find a difference of two-to-one. Pick anything.

But, in the field that I was interested in — originally, hardware design — I noticed that the dynamic range between what an average person could accomplish and what the best person could accomplish was 50 or 100 to 1. Given that, you’re well advised to go after the cream of the cream. That’s what we’ve done. You can then build a team that pursues the A+ players. A small team of A+ players can run circles around a giant team of B and C players. That’s what I’ve tried to do.

So you think your talent is in recruiting?
It’s not just recruiting. After recruiting, it’s building an environment that makes people feel they are surrounded by equally talented people and their work is bigger than they are. The feeling that the work will have tremendous influence and is part of a strong, clear vision — all those things. Recruiting usually requires more than you alone can do, so I’ve found that collaborative recruiting and having a culture that recruits the A players is the best way. Any interviewee will speak with at least a dozen people in several areas of this company, not just those in the area that he would work in. That way a lot of your A employees get broad exposure to the company, and — by having a company culture that supports them if they feel strongly enough — the current employees can veto a candidate.

That seems very time-consuming.
Yes, it is. We’ve interviewed people where nine out of ten employees thought the candidate was terrific, one employee really had a problem with the candidate, and therefore we didn’t hire him. The process is very hard, very time-consuming, and can lead to real problems if not managed right. But it’s a very good way, all in all.

Yet, in a typical startup, a manager may not always have the time to spend recruiting other people.
I disagree totally. I think it’s the most important job. Assume you’re by yourself in a startup and you want a partner. You’d take a lot of time finding the partner, right? He would be half of your company. Why should you take any less time finding a third of your company or a fourth of your company or a fifth of your company? When you’re in a startup, the first ten people will determine whether the company succeeds or not. Each is 10 percent of the company. So why wouldn’t you take as much time as necessary to find all the A players? If three were not so great, why would you want a company where 30 percent of your people are not so great? A small company depends on great people much more than a big company does.

Explore: Harry Benson’s luminous black-and-white photos of the...

Thu, 03 May 2012 11:35:01 -0400

Explore:

Harry Benson’s luminous black-and-white photos of the Beatles, 1964-1966, many never before seen

Thoughts on Entrepreneurship Education

Wed, 02 May 2012 17:44:00 -0400

I got an email in November from a student at Penn looking for some perspective on making entrepreneurship more of a priority at Wharton undergrad. I was a sophomore there last year, and I’ve since left to build Lore. I sent him some thoughts, and looking back I think they’re worth sharing. Edited for polish and anonymity.

Hey Joe,

I’m a sophomore in Wharton. I’m reaching out to you asking for some help with an initiative I’m working on. We’re currently trying to explore entrepreneurship at the undergraduate level at Wharton. To gain a greater perspective, we’re reaching out to students/grads that were entrepreneurs while in school.

What has your entrepreneurial experience added to your business education?

It is my business education. The efficacy of a scientific, academic business education is questionable. Business is so broad, it’s different to everyone. Sure, there are some who learn their trade before entering the job market, but that’s a small subset of people in business. I like to think that starting a company has bits and pieces of every aspect of business, and it’s the most comprehensive, engaged way of learning it.

Does the process of entrepreneurship add academic value (even for a student that doesn’t plan on pursuing entrepreneurship full-time)?

I don’t think one can “pursue entrepreneurship.” One doesn’t have short stints as an entrepreneur, like one would have a job. It’s a different career path entirely (if he/she is pursuing it in earnest). That said, you do see people try starting a company and then move on to other things.

It’s hard to make blanket statements about general entrepreneurship because deli-owners and high-tech CEOs alike are entrepreneurs. That said, the concepts in managing a shop, all aspects of it – its finances, product, marketing, hiring, firing, logistics – is incredibly valuable from a learning experience. I can’t say for sure that starting a company would add value to anyone, no matter what profession they pursue, but I’m fairly certain that someone who starts a company would be better at banking or whatever they end up pursuing.

What were some resources (ask for extracurricular AND academic) that were helpful?

I hadn’t taken an entrepreneurship course at Penn. My formal coursework, beyond some design and marketing courses, have had little relevance to my day-to-day job. That said, I couldn’t be doing what I’m doing if it weren’t for Penn. A few things:

Professors as resources (even ones i didn’t have)

WEP programs like VIP, WVA, and EIR

Speaker series

Meeting people from other schools at Penn

Student-created meet ups

What are some resources (extracurricular and academic) that you wished you’d had?

I think there are a lot of mechanical things that are teachable and I wish there was a course taught by a part-time instructor, part-time entrepreneur to walk through the stages of launching a technology-based company. I think that we’re entering a new type of economy and that education in this area requires people who have played in it. I think that it’s not as relevant to hear it from someone who has been a successful founder, say, 20 years ago.

Regarding the last question, Peter Thiel’s recent course at Stanford is pretty much exactly what I had imagined. I would have killed to take that course. Luckily the notes are online, and they’re using Lore to facilitate it.

Love this.

Wed, 02 May 2012 08:51:12 -0400

Love this.

explore-blog: Salvador Dalí’s little-known but surreally...

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 19:08:00 -0400

explore-blog:

Salvador Dalí’s little-known but surreally beautiful 1969 Alice in Wonderland illustrations

The Mason Jar

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:13:52 -0400

The Mason Jar:

New York Times:

Before a New Jersey-born son of a Scottish farmer named John Landis Mason patented his jar in 1858, home-food preservation was a tricky affair.

A simple invention that changed how people ate.

explore-blog: An early LEGO patent drawing circa 1958, the...

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 12:31:52 -0400

explore-blog:

An early LEGO patent drawing circa 1958, the building block of a global cult.

The photo above is of Lower Manhattan’s skyline in...

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 11:53:16 -0400

The photo above is of Lower Manhattan’s skyline in February 1938. It’s part of a massive trove of 870,000 photos that the New York City Municipal Archives just released. I could spend days pouring through them.

(via Historic Photos From the NYC Municipal Archives - In Focus - The Atlantic)

Coursekit is Now Lore

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 19:49:09 -0400

Coursekit is Now Lore:

When we first conceived Coursekit, we set out to build the perfect supplement to a college course: a product that combines world-class course management tools with the best of social networking. We’ve since come a long way.

It’s been a remarkable first semester. In December 2011, when we first launched the product, it was being piloted at 30 schools. Now, one semester later, it’s in use by courses at over 600 institutions.

As students and instructors engage on the platform, we’ve seen it used in ways we’d never expected. Our vision is to build the platform for learning—a global network of students, educators, and content. We’ve learned that it isn’t just about courses, it’s about people.

Today, I’m very excited to announce that we’re rebranding as Lore; a new name and visual identity that better reflect our ambitions. Lore means knowledge shared between people. The word is short and elegant, but waiting to be filled with meaning.

Our Creative Director, Aaron Carámbula, has done a masterful job designing the new visual mark for Lore. His remarks:

“We took inspiration from publishing imprints—traditional platforms for knowledge sharing—and their subtle, compact marks on the spines of books. The Lore mark represents our belief in challenging norms—a square peg in a round hole. With its stacked letters, it’s about building on what we have.”

While the current product remains unchanged for now, we’ve created lore.com/story to explain the transition and a site to explain our design process.

As we take on this new identity, I’m also thrilled to welcome Peter Thiel as an investor through the Founders Fund. He’s using Lore firsthand in his Stanford course, Startup, this quarter.

A name, and the larger brand, is a vessel. With Lore, we have a new vessel; a bigger, stronger one. Now we have to fill it. Join us.

Amazing job by the whole team.

Photo

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 22:45:00 -0400

Explore: “Invention comes in many forms and at many scales. The most radical and transformative of...

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 14:13:47 -0400

Explore:

“Invention comes in many forms and at many scales. The most radical and transformative of inventions are often those that empower others to unleash their creativity – to pursue their dreams.”

—

Jeff Bezos in a letter to shareholders. Wired’s Tim Carmody has a related critique.

Welcome Matt!

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 12:22:27 -0400

coursekit:

I’m extremely excited to welcome Matt Delbridge to the Coursekit team as our third designer. Matt joins us from Pentagram, where he was an intern. Before that, he graduated from CCA in December, and had stints at Apple and MINE.

You get the sense when you meet Matt that he’s going to be an all star in whatever he puts his mind to. I can’t wait to work with him.

— Joe

explore-blog: On Christmas Eve 1968, Apollo 8, the first manned...

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:36:03 -0400

explore-blog:

On Christmas Eve 1968, Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, entered lunar orbit. When the astronauts—Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders—took their first photographic glimpses of Earth, Lovell exclaimed: “The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth.”

This image of Earthrise endures as one of the most memorable space images of all time, inspiring the kind of awe that makes one lament the grim future of space exploration.

explore-blog: Chinese artist Lu Xinjian’s City DNA paintings,...

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 10:57:39 -0400

explore-blog:

Chinese artist Lu Xinjian’s City DNA paintings, abstracting the shape of cities from Google Earth aerial images – a fine addition to the map as art.

jesuisperdu: robert kaczynski

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 09:06:01 -0400

jesuisperdu:

robert kaczynski

Well said. Tumblr Staff: Name ExploreLocation New York When...

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 11:59:24 -0500

Well said.

Tumblr Staff:

Name Explore
Location New York

When Benjamin Franklin founded the first subscription library in America, he believed that access to knowledge was the key to creativity, innovation, and success. Today, the web is our library, and Coursekit has teamed up with Maria Popova to find the internet’s most relevant and interesting information and synthesize it into knowledge and insight. From TED talks, to vintage maps, to psychology studies, to quotes from favorite books, Explore is a guide through the landscape of the mind.