We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

[Being Midwestern] never meant anything to me until I traveled to the coasts and realized there are people there who don’t have any idea that anybody lives in between.

-Wilco singer Jeff Tweedy

(BTW, anyone who says “flyover country” in my presence without irony automatically wins a big douchebag-for-life award from me. I have plenty of them to go round.)

It sounds so obvious, but I’ve lost count of the number of writers I’ve heard complain that it’s hard for them to do X or Y, and wonder aloud how to do X or Y without effort. Where they got the idea that writing isn’t hard work, or that it’s supposed to come easily, I don’t know. Everyone laughed when Francis Flaherty, during a Q&A session after his reading in New York last night, put it as bluntly as this:

Writing ain’t easy.

Frank, as everyone calls him, has been an editor at the New York Times for 16 years, and spent five years on his daily train commute between NYC and Long Island writing this wonderful book. If you’ve put the majority of your attention as a writer (and reader) on style and grammar, why not turn your attention to what makes a story great? I was especially interested in this as someone who is perhaps unreasonably frustrated with the number of scribes who take pride in having Garner’s rules memorized…and then spit out work that is boring, without tension, or just plain bad (but it’s grammatically correct!).

Whether it’s fiction or non-fiction, there are specific ways to engage readers and make them as much a part of the story as what is written on the page. In The Elements of Story, Frank writes beautifully on just how to do that, including plenty of examples. It has all the benefits of reading a textbook, with the right amount of interactivity to keep the endeavor out of boredom’s way.

Wednesday night at Jackson-McNally bookstore in Soho, Frank whipped out what I referred to as his “old school Power Point” - a single page of a flip chart - and led us through the components of chapter 22 of his book. It was a new spin on the traditional reading and hugely enlightening. I was happy that there was a full house, with many people left standing after all the chairs were filled, to spend time learning from this wise man. But the best part may have been seeing his proud wife videotape proceedings from the back of the room. Thanks for a memorable night, Frank!

It’s almost enough to make me feel sorry for him…if I forget how many lives he’s destroyed and will continue to ruin, what he’s done to a once-great nation, and how much I wish him to fail at everything he turns his mind to.

via Guido

Too Big, Too Fast: Joost hired too many people, too quickly. It never behaved like a startup but instead always felt like a grown-up company with too many bureaucratic layers.

One of my biggest fears is that I’ll end up working again someday in a “grown-up company” that doesn’t allow a small team of smart people to exercise their own autonomy, be flexible, and move quickly to take advantage of opportunities. I’m sure this was a key issue at Joost which led to another item on Om’s list:

Chasing Its Own Tail: Joost also made some basic mistakes, such as not having a good SEO strategy. It never quite figured out a social media strategy in order to garner viral growth, either. It was like a tech company from the 1990s — out of sync with today’s web environment.

I’ve been surprised by how many people working at many online companies don’t seem to live in the space they seek to cultivate. Rather, they (and the company as a whole) talk about “strategy” (sorry, Om, but this is a really Business 0.5 term that marks an organization out as amateurish when it comes to the web) and still view the internet as just another broadcast channel through which they can shout out their “messages” to “consumers“. Unsurprisingly, they’re not doing too well online.

The handicapping of the intellectual capacity of the country has definitely given the children of the privileged, who were able to buy a better education, great advantages.

-Guido Fawkes

First up was the Nokia N97 launch party at the legendary Marquee. Qik is pre-loaded on the N97 and just announced a really important milestone in our partnership with Nokia, as well as being a featured app in the Ovi Store. (All photos are here, click thumbnails for full-sized photos.):

Me with Ilan Abehassera, founder + CEO of Producteev

Just around the corner was a party thrown by Ning (did you know that, with Qik’s Ning integration, members of your Ning social network can Qik straight to your Ning site?). All pictures from #ningnyc are here, click thumbnails for full-sized shots.

Me with Ning co-founder + CEO Gina Bianchini - one of my tech and business heroines.

Me with Sandi Bachom - what a life she lives!


Best view from a party EVER

Qik is fortunate to have such fantastic partners, and I’m glad they throw parties as well as they build products and services!