Jeff Widman (.com)

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 Buffett 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.)

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 on this post if you want a copy and I’ll email them to you… and thank-you comments are always appreciated. (If I’m in error posting them, just let me know.)

(Note: You can find PDF’s of the more recent letters (post 1977) here: http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html, and the text of the 1969-1976 letters here: http://stableboyselections.com/2008/08/25/the-missing-berkshire-hathaway-letters-1969-1976/.)

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 the Bluechip Stamps letters, and I’m 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!)

Sitting in the APICS student chapter at WWU. There’s a lady from Fluke here talking about cover letters.

Make it easy for readers to scan your letter by beginning each paragraph with a topic sentence.

What if you replaced “letter” with “blog”?

Recently, my Facebook profile status started saying Jeff is twittering:…

No–I’m not a twit.

I’m using Twitter, the trendy service attempting to fill the void of personal, daily updates about a person. If you haven’t heard of it, this Commoncraft video provides an intuitive explanation.

Why have I started Twittering?

1. To understand the medium–I’ve observed that those who don’t regularly use Facebook don’t understand how it can be useful to a busy person. Since I started using Facebook, I tell marketers they can’t afford to not use it–not for the social side, but to understand consumer mindsets. This is also true of Twitter: many bloggers and early adopters are jumping on the band wagon, so I hopped on too.
2. It’s platform independent–Twitter has taken off because it’s so portable! I use Twitter Tools on my blog, and it allows visitors to see that I’m active online, despite posting irregularly to my blog. I use the Twitter Facebook widget to tie my Facebook status into my Twitter status.
3. Build broader relationships–So often I know people online in a single dimension–business, hobbies, etc. Following them on Twitter allows me to see a broader slice of their life, and vice-versa.

Things to keep in mind for Twittering:

• All public tweets are searchable–this is good/bad. Use a site like Tweet Scan to be notified whenever someone writes a tweet that includes specific words. (Like your name.)
• It isn’t unless you post regularly–get a tool/widget that provides easy accessibility for Twittering.
• Post too regularly and you’ll overwhelm your followers. This is why I stopped following Scoble.
• Put your audience first. Post content useful to them–whether friends, business acquaintances, or online followers. Ben Casnocha does a great job of posting useful content for both his friends and his online followers. 
• Don’t forget the personal nature of Twitter. Even more than a blog, people expect (and want) a personal voice.  
• Many find Twitter addictive–control it, or it will control you. (It distracts more effectively than e-mail!)
• The technology is easy; however, there’s a content learning curve–the what, why, and when you’ll post may take a little time. Commit to it for two weeks, and then re-evaluate.

Interested? Follow me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/jeffwidman

Want to learn more?

Check out Michael Hyatt’s take on Twittering. He’s the CEO of a Thomas Nelson, a major book publisher… if anyone is too busy to Twitter, it should be him.