Jeff Widman (.com)

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Back in March, best-selling author and thought-leader Seth Godin announced a summer internship:

Send your application (you decide what’s on it, that’s part of the application) as a pdf of no longer than four pages…

So I created this PDF.

Unfortunately, the text is only readable in full screen.

There are no shortcuts to wall-able content: creating this took over fifty hours. During the brainstorming process, I filled an entire notebook. Occasionally, I became bored… even frustrated with my lack of direction.

I’ve received nothing but rave reviews.
It’s rewarding to have others say they were inspired to be exceptional.

How can your resume or sales brochure inspire consumer belief?

I never thought of my friend Matt as clairvoyant. Until recently:

“So ABC happened…” - Jeff.
“Of course you did XYZ…” - Matt
“How did you know that?” - Jeff
“You responded that way to DEF and HIJ.” - Matt

Matt pulled together two situations to predict my response to a third situation.
It shocked me; I saw no connection between the three situations–they each involved completely different thought processes. But Matt, knowing my actions and not my thought processes, recognized a pattern.

Marketing researchers spend millions of dollars on focus groups, trying to recognize patterns. It’s hard work. It’s imperfect work. And understanding a pattern is different than recognizing it.

I think people are wired to recognize patterns in two ways:

1. Action–>Reaction. The tangible, concrete people–like Matt–watch life and say: “Whenever ABC circumstances happen, people respond with XYZ actions.” These people identify simple cause-effect relationships where others become distracted by complexity.
2. Thought-Process–>Reaction. The abstract people–like myself–watch life and say “Whenever people go through ABC thoughts and emotions, they respond with XYZ actions.” These people pull together a wide range of scenarios to see patterns when there is no apparent connection.

Neither way works better all the time. And I know from hanging out with Matt that sometimes he recognizes the pattern. Sometimes I recognize the pattern. You need both types because they identify different patterns.  Matt alternately shocks me with the patterns he recognizes and the patterns he misses.

Do you involve the other type of person in your decisions?
(I’m so abstract that I forgot the details of my conversation with Matt. :-))

Here’s the kicker: Patterns are always changing.

The always excellent Paul Graham just published his latest essay… on distractions. Nothing very surprising–the internet is tricky because it’s necessary yet distracting–but as he observes, the key is simply visibility.

I tried the Firefox Time Tracker extension but it was small and unobtrusive. Now I recognize I am 50% split between consumer and producer. So I work to create a lifestyle that ties them together. And I regularly evaluate major timesinks: Bloglines, Twitter, Facebook, and surfing.

I also build moats–low-tech ways of inserting pauses into daily life. I discovered these when my laptop crashed at 2 am, and I’d simply go to sleep rather than reboot it. When my laptop was working, I wouldn’t unplug to fall asleep. When it crashed, I realized my work could wait until morning. Now I try to create pauses. I don’t always unplug from Firefox after a pause, but it refocuses me.

What are your moats?

Doing dishes in the kitchen listening to Pandora.

High-speed inexpensive internet access is here. Right now. (My parents pay $40 a month for Sprint EVDO service.)

With a laptop, an EVDO modem, and a cassette adapter, I can listen to whatever I want. Legally. I can search by author, genre, song title–you name it.

Why XM??

Someone asked me how I ran a marathon without training.

I’m not sure… it’s one of those feats that evokes “I wish I could do that” emotions–only to realize I accomplished it!

The 50 miles in 24 hours (with full packs) came first—that was hard!
(Once you’ve done the first 30 miles, the next 20 seem easy… which is probably why we didn’t worry about tending blisters—which is why we limped the final 5 miles.)

Pushing myself physically strengthens my stamina throughout my life–work, integrity, sports, studying. A marathon is one of the quintessential marks of an endurance athlete (Ironman next), and I’ve always wanted to run one. When my younger siblings invited me to run with them, it was a perfect example of strategy following vision.

How did I do it?
-With others. During the 50-miler, my buddy fell asleep mid-stride. Neither of us would have completed it alone.
-Build your mind. For years I’ve maintained a lifestyle of pushing physically pushing myself “Just a bit further…”
-Pick your heritage. My grandpa tells of being the slowest sprinter, but able to keep that pace forever.

By not training, I meant I hadn’t gone running more than once a month for the previous year. But a summer of manual labor kept me in good health.

It’s mostly mental.
Set a goal.
Strengthen your mind for the challenge.
Reduce the challenge (get in shape.)
Do it!

Several months ago, I was doing some rough conceptual work for a personal logo.

Here’s my steps:

• Need–do I need a logo?
  (I do enough creative content that I thought a logo might enhance my personal branding.)
  
• Vision–what do I want to communicate with a logo?
  (Vision involves injecting yourself–your ability, passion, and experiences into a solution for the need.)
  
• Design–how am I going to communicate my vision with my logo?
  (Create a wall-able design. Understand how shapes relate to emotions.)
  
• Iterate–try something, revamp, and do it again. And again. 
  (Target: 100% reader accuracy in the Retail Alphabet Game.)
  
• Implement–spread the logo love.
  (But please, not on every single slide!

Ultimately, I got hung up on vision, only to realize that a personal logo is a little too corporate right now. It’s a nice touch, but instead I just need something for favicons, the occasional slidedeck, and avatars. A stylized comic of my head is probably more appropriate than a shape-based logo.

Earlier this spring, I created an application for a super-exclusive internship. There was one catch–the application requirements consisted solely of the following: “Send in a 4-page PDF–you decide what’s on it, that’s part of the application process.”

After spending many hours thinking about the intersection of the internship and my goals, I decided to create a resume that anyone would find interesting to read, whether or not they hired me.

I want my creative content to be “wall-able.” Something you post on your fridge, e-mail your friend, and print for your son. Content worth the world’s time.

While I didn’t get the internship, I do have a 4-page PDF that many, many people have enjoyed. (It also landed me some internship opportunities that were even better than the original internship!)

Is your creative content wall-able?

My buddy Brian recently shared a story of clever marketing with me.

Brian goes to college at Washington State University in Pullman–there’s a saying on the western side of the state that “All dirt roads lead to Pullman.” As he got within sixty miles of WSU, he began to notice yellow signs by the side of the road that said “Ask her!”

Apparently, these signs were posted on all the highways, and it was all the buzz when he arrived at the dorms. Over the next week, more yellow signs randomly appeared in halls, on buildings, and throughout campus.

No one knew what it meant.

The week after, there was a group of girls wearing yellow shirts that read “Ask me.” It turned out that a fraternity was trying to recruit members.

What a clever way to stimulate buzz, brand your frat as creative (and connected to pretty girls), and attract new members!

Perhaps the most powerful part of this marketing ploy comes getting the new members wanting to believe.

Two years ago, Dan Grossman posted about the Warren Buffet shareholder letters on his (now defunct) blog.

Finally, I have copies of all of Buffett’s annual reports from 1957-1970. They’re spectacular; if you’d like a copy, let me know and I’ll send them to you. Unfortunately, I was asked not to post them publicly, though I’m told that emailing is OK.

He’d received the letters from Brad Feld.

I commented on the post and Dan graciously shared the letters. I also checked the box to receive e-mail notifications of new comments on the thread. Today, two years later, I continue to receive notifications and direct e-mails from people looking for the letters. (Perfect example of the Long Tail at work.)

(Note: You can find PDF’s of the more recent letters (post 1977) here: http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html)

The letters clearly say it’s not okay to post them, but, like Dan, my understanding is it’s okay to e-mail them. Leave a comment below if you want a copy… be sure to explain why you want them.  (If I’m in error posting them, just let me know.)

I also have a copy of Charlie Munger’s speech entitled “Academic Economics: Strengths and Faults After Considering Interdisciplinary Needs” presented to the University of California, Santa Barbara Economics Department on October 3, 2003.

Update: These are the Warren Buffett partnership letters–not the Berkshire Hathaway letters form 1970 to 1979 or the Bluechip Stamps letters. I don’t have those, and not sure where to get them.

Just ran across this fantastic post–how to deal with the CC: deluge. It’s brilliant!

In manufacturing, the Japanese have this term Poka-Yoke for mistake-proofing a system. Granted, the people who CC’d Chris weren’t making mistakes–they chose to e-mail him. Their mistake was not tactical, but strategic. Poka-yoke’ing the e-mail server is Chris’s way of telling his team, “Hey, I trust you. Do something other than cover your butt.”

What other ways can you poka-yoke technology to prevent strategic mistakes/assumptions/lazy longcuts?

(Here’s a thought–poka-yoke Firefox!)