Photo:

Radiohead's Never Sounded So Good in My Entire Life

by

Thomas Hawk

Great shot!

Thank you.

This image brings to mind "All that's important is what comes out of the speakers, everything else is a footnote."

"Life is easier to take than you'd think; all that is necessary is to accept the impossible, do without the indispensable, and bear the intolerable." Kathleen Norris

"What a fool he must be who thinks that his El Dorado is anywhere but where he lives." Henry David Thoreau

"Power is not revealed by striking hard or often, but by striking true." Honore de Balzac

Enjoyed catching up with Art Vuolo yesterday. He's out of the cold cuts emporium and safe back at home. We remembered a wonderful dinner at Cafe Milano. If you are ever in Wash DC and would like a good Italian plate we highly recommend Cafe Milano. Art and I were able to arrange for a table in the wine room. It's upstairs and much better than the main floor if you want to have a conversation with the good food.

Dave Winer has nailed it, again. His take on Yahoo! is pitch perfect including..."The business of the valley is not publishing. It is not advertising. It is not retailing. It is not pet food. It is cool packages of technology that thrill people with empowerment and novelty." Exactly! Bravo Dave. Read the entire post here.

The lessons of Yahoo! are, as Dave points out, instructive. Let me add a few points...

1. Incumbency is meaningless in everything but American politics.
2. There is no advantage in being the first mover, nothing gained in acts of preemption without market acquiescence.
3. Success always buys a ticket to a much tougher competition.
4. Don't focus on getting better, focus on getting different. Differentiate or die.
5. All that's important is what's on the screen(s), everything else is a footnote.

Dave suggests that Yahoo! getting together with Microsoft would be death. My sense is Microsoft doesn't need anything that Yahoo! has with the possible exception of search.

Congrats & cheers: Susan Decker on being named Yahoo! prexy. Jerry Lee on being honored with the NAB's National Radio Award - well deserved recognition and praise long overdue. Google on their acquisition of Zenter, very cool.