Nobis, Internets, Life, and Humor

It takes some big ego to start up a personal blog. Really. Twice as much to name it after yourself. Most blogs I’ve read don’t make it past 5 posts; regardless of their agenda. Not only is it a big commitment, but it’s banking on you being interesting enough to hold the attention of random people on the Internet. There’s a lot of competition these days (citing: this, this, this, and that). Like much of any idea, it takes more than a passing thought, it takes the will to build something, and that’s something that most people lack.

I’ve been told that Albert Einstein owned 7 black suits, and only 7 black suits as his full wardrobe (the infinite wisdom of Google seems to back that up). More importantly, when asked about it, Einstein would say that he couldn’t afford to devote his mind to anything beyond what he was set on in that moment.. not even that bit extra it took on what to wear that day. To me that says quite a lot. That we all have ADD. That society’s perception of the word brilliance is really pretty much synonymous with focus. And that this blog is probably distracting me from something right now.

I told myself that I wouldn’t write another blog about my spontaneous 14 day adventure up the west coast, but I caved. Seattle’s definitely my new favorite city. In ten days in Los Angeles, I conversed with maybe 3-4 mostly unfriendly people a day (people I already knew there excluded).. in my first night in Seattle, I met probably dozens of super-intelligent, gratuitously nice people, which kept on all week. Not to mention some of the best seafood, beers, and scenery that I’ve found traveling to date.

It’s also true that technology is everywhere in Seattle; among the most interesting / awesome people I was able to meet was the creative director / family for Zaaz.com on the rooftop pool of the Stadium Silver Cloud. For someone that spends most days looking at websites, the Zaaz AI is one of the best ideas I’ve seen, with wit that rival Bill’s IRC bots.

I hadn’t followed much good from Improv Everywhere really since their amazing Best Buy caper, but I have to say, they’ve been on lately. It looks like their random public freezes have become an absolute phenomenon. And taking a jumbotron, ex-NBC sportscaster, and the Goodyear Blimp to a little league game is a pretty freaking brilliant use of a day in my eyes.

Like all of the people that work with me know, the thing I’m really crazy about is SEO. It’s kind of my thing in the company. Really, with the world constantly moving to the Internet, what better piece of knowledge is there than understanding how the search engines work?

After seeing Google’s Director of Development Kevin Willer speak at ISU a few weeks ago with Chad, I’ve been on even more of a focus on Google that usual. One thing that’s really struck my attention this past week was Stuntdubl’s fantastic post recently on Google Hot Trends and Eliot Spitzer searches. How something this cool has existed for so long without me knowing I have no idea. More dorky / interesting to me than even the hot trends tool, is just looking at the public information they have on searches in general with Google Trends.

First, it seems natural to check the natural pulse of the Internet to look at how much searching has been done overall. We’ll call this our control.

Fantastic. Now you can use this information to find out things that matter. Like, when did it really become cool to rick roll a crowded place with one of those juke boxes that lets you download songs? The answer is actually quite a while ago now..

Or, how about the demand for glittery “Hot Stuff” graphics and other myspace-related Internet pollutants.

You get the idea- give it a try.

In other news, EdibleHost.com, one of the bastard step grandkids of the Nobis company list; now has a really fantastic plugin for instantly checking out domain names in FireFox.or IE7. Go ahead and click on this to get it on your search list; and the next time you have a great .com idea, don’t just forget about it and write it off, find out if you could make it happen.

You’ve been rick rolled!

That title may sound smart, but I promise I can’t spell entrepreneurial without spell check.

Funny things happen when your business ideas all start working out. Oddly enough, a lot of people will warn you about them, but like most things in life, it’s tough to appreciate until you live it. And unfortunately achieving self-awareness over your own quirks doesn’t just prevent them from happening (boo).

As anyone whose found this blog probably knows, it’s linked to on ubiquityhosting.com - which is a little world busting with entrepreneurial ideas, and probably the largest reason for a more personal blog about my professional life to be here in the first place. As I see a lot of these cool websites take off, I’d like to pass on what words of wisdom that I constantly try to live down myself.

1. Time Management

It’s easy to get sucked into something you love doing when it really goes well. There’s nothing wrong with that in moderation - it’s a beautiful thing really - and I was lucky to be warned by more than a few wise people early on that it can quickly take over your life.

It’s not enough to manage a company - what’s important is managing a life. Telling yourself to stop working at a certain point isn’t all that difficult; and if where you’re at allows for it, hiring staff over getting greedy and trying to do everything yourself is a must. Being able to control your thoughts and stop pondering business ideas over that time you’re not working - that can be a little harder.

2. Other People in the Real World

I’ve been told by close friends that at the core of it all, I really haven’t changed since everything took off, and I hope that’s true. A lot of people I can still talk to exactly the same way as I could beforehand as well, but in many other cases it can get a little weird.

People’s actions tend to define their character. What I’ve lived first-hand is that you’re most likely to be characterized by what’s most unique about you… and I have to say, when I start up a conversation with any loose acquaintance, not a single person ever asks me about the last time I went Wakeboarding, or saw a good movie, or to watch a band play as people used to - at least not right away. People know other people that are doing that stuff, it’s old conversation; you can’t blame them, but it sure doesn’t make #1 any easier. Maybe that’s why Richard Branson has such absurdly interesting hobbies.

3. Dude- Take it Easy

To say that business is competitive is one of the most obvious statements I can think of. Most genuinely successful people I’ve observed possess certain qualities. Above all else- they go on unaffected. Most people that come to work for us I think are shocked at how close friends we are with so many of our competitors, and really, it comes down to this: there’s a big Internet out there. If you want to make money from it, there’s more than enough for everyone, and if you let one person put you up into a rage - you accomplish nothing but breaking focus on anything truly productive, and probably looking like a pretty big dxck to anybody that happens to stand witness in the process.

Nobody knows this blog exists yet, but I’ve decided to empty some thoughts into 1’s and 0’s.  Our own “zomg register yourname.com” ads finally worked on me.  Much more will follow soon.