Best Article You’ll Ever Read and Not Understand

Being a web entrepreneur, yet not a hacker, is a bit of a strange place. I’d have to imagine it would be comparable to training to be an astronaut. I know that I’m heading into a certain direction, the rules will have changed, but it cannot simply be explained to you. And moving in that direction, you’re constantly obsessed with the unknown.

It’s in that mind frame that I am posting a great article from Joel on Software. Joel presents a (would seem to be strong) case for an Ajax standard helping to make a tremendous fortune for a developer and changing the web for everyone.

Whether you are a programmer or not the article is worth reading. At least stick around until he talks about Google and Paul Graham’s Ramen noodles.

But then, while you’re sitting on your googlechair in the googleplex sipping googleccinos and feeling smuggy smug smug smug, new versions of the browsers come out…

Cheers, be sure to let us know if you understand the article. Check out YC News for additional comments.

Ohio Voting Machines

I’m not sure if this story has made the mainstream media because frankly, I don’t watch or read  televisions and newspapers. This story regarding Ohio Republicans blocking the testing of voting machines has been a big headline online.

I am linking to the story on Daily Kos who quotesthe NYT talking about the issue. This story has been bouncing around online for days – which is a very long time. It often seems that with the Internet stories come and then go and can never seem to stick. This is rather important, so I am glad to see it stay in the headlines a bit longer and I’d like to see some resolution.

CEO “My company should have failed”

Denny K Miu is the CEO of Gigamon Systems, a 2 year old technology company. In his extremely honest post about Why Startups Fail he takes a look at the turbulent times that he was building and leading his small business. He speaks very frankly about his potential shortcomings as a CEO.

It turns out that in a startup, it is not about making the right decision but about making the decision right. In other words, it is about the CEO truly accepting the awesome responsibility of being the ultimate “Decider” while refusing the temptation of being a dictator.

The author talks extensively about the dynamic in his startup, but I wish he focused a bit more on the lucky breaks or determination to overcome certain obstacles.

Long Tail + On Demand

We are huge fans of Seth (isn’t everyone) so we’ll link to his site and his articles often. His writing style, philosophy and the volume of his output align very well with what we are trying to do at ShelfMade.net. We kind of stole our idea from Small is the New Big.

Today Seth talks about Sweet Spots in marketing – the product built for the masses that the big guys, NYT and Oprah, want to talk about. I think what he is really talking about are the not so sweet spots, after all the sweet spot is a very small part of the tennis racket. What if we are not in that spot?

Bloggers around the world are discovering that it’s cheaper and faster and more effective to build their own media channel than it is to waste time arguing with the old ones.

When you are not in the sweet spot, you’re in the long tail. The great news in 2007 is that as long as people can find you, and you are doing/saying/selling something worthwhile, you don’t need to be in the sweet spot.

10 Life Changing Articles

The theme of this blog is to highlight Internet articles worth saving and sharing. We’re starting off strong with a great article by from Life Reboot by Shaun Boyd. ShelfMade is all about great articles and in this post Shaun talks about 10 articles that changed his life, I assume for the better.

The #1 article is hard to disagree with, Steve Jobs Commencement Address at Stanford 2005. Shaun tells us why the article is important to him.

For teaching me to stop attributing value to unimportant things, and start trusting my instincts. Before reading Jobs’ speech, I was working a job I hated because it was really the only thing I ever tried. It was what I knew. Jobs says “You’ve got to find what you love.” His article helped me realize that I was wasting my life living someone else’s dream. If I settled for someone else’s dream, I’d grow old and die without ever seeking my own.

Many entrepreneurs can relate to the desire not to work for someone else. Shaun points us to Steve Pavlina’s 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job.

For teaching me that working for other people is stupid. Self-employment using passive income is the best way to earn money without trading away life’s freedoms. In other words, Steve helped me understand it’s possible to be “Happily Jobless.”

Shaun echoes the ideas behind ShelfMade.net.

Everyone has their own “gems of the Internet” just waiting to be discovered.Think about it. Life-altering advice exists online. Advice to help you get out of debt, leave a dead-end relationship, or whatever type of self-improvement you can possibly imagine. All you need to do is consciously seek it out.

We hope ShelfMade can help.

About this Site

 

ShelfMade is a new business bringing together the blogosphere and traditional print magazines. We allow users to create personalized, On-Demand magazines featuring articles that they select from around the Internet. ShelfMade is currently in development and you can check for updates or sign up to hear about our launch at ShelfMade.net.

The ShelfMade blog has started to highlight posts that are shelve-worthy. Articles and links on this site point to online content that is insightful, entertaining, and worth saving and sharing in a print magazine.

Any questions or feedback can be sent to mike@shelfmade.net.