Noise Between Stations

Victor

  • The importance of being silly

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    3 min read

    I recently had a good conversation with Sara Beckman of Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Comparing what MBA students do in relation to designers, it’s hard to identify what skills they’re missing — other than hard skills like illustration — that designers have. What business students learn in courses like product development is surprisingly similar…

  • Martin Fisher is my new hero

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    1 min read

    Martin Fisher Martin is co-founder of Kickstart (formerly Approtec), an organization designing products for the bottom of the pyramid. As opposed to C.K. Prahalad who tends to describe the poor as consumers (see sachet marketing), Martin views the poor as investors. I met him at the ID Design Strategy conference this past week where he…

  • What is design thinking?

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    1 min read

    I’m hesitant to offer a definition of design thinking because there’s probably no one definition everyone could agree on, as with design and its many sub-genres. But after hearing more and more people having trouble referencing it I figured a half-baked blog post couldn’t hurt. I’m reminded of how Lao Tzu said “The tao that…

  • Niti Bhan

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    1 min read

    I finally met the lovely and vivacious Niti Bhan at the ID Design Strategy conference. She gave me one of her hilarious business cards and I discovered she has a blog, check it out.

  • Stephen Johnson & flow

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    1 min read

    Stephen Johnson @ TED Salon Stephen Johnson’s new book, Everything Bad is Good for You is getting warm reviews, particularly from Malcolm Gladwell in the New Yorker. Listening to him tonight, I particularly liked his comparison of video game levels to the concept of flow (though he didn’t use that term). Games progressively get harder,…

  • Green tipping point: competition

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    1 min read

    Recycled paper products Even my tiny Manhattan food market now sports two different brands of recycled paper products.

  • Green tipping point: organic foods

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    1 min read

    Annie’s has grown from one product (organic macaroni and cheese) to 80, fueling a $34 million company. The Organic Trade Association estimates the $12.25 billion organic food market will double by 2008, assuming an 18.4% annual growth rate (WSJ, March 29, 2005). With a $20 million investment from Solera Capital, Annie’s (and others on the…

  • Green tipping point: national tv

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    1 min read

    A recent edition of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition focused on the use of sustainable building products, hybrid cars, and efficient appliances.

  • Green tipping point: product cool

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    1 min read

    Nike’s Considered line eliminates waste & toxics, uses less energy to produce, and reduces waste at the end of the product’s life.

  • Green tipping point: celebrity cool

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    1 min read

    LOS ANGELES, Calif. – February 18, 2005 – Joining the ranks of celebrities choosing to bring an environmental conscience to the Oscars, Leonardo DiCaprio, Charlize Theron, Robin Williams, Orlando Bloom, Salma Hayek, Penelope Cruz, Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins are among those arriving at the 2005 Academy Awards in high-mileage, low emission, Prius hybrids as…

  • Green tipping point: business green

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    1 min read

    GE pledges to invest billions in being green: “Ecomagination is GE’s commitment to address challenges such as the need for cleaner, more efficient sources of energy, reduced emissions and abundant sources of clean water,” Immelt said. “And we plan to make money doing it. Increasingly for business, ‘green’ is green.”

  • Mad Hot Ballroom

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    1 min read

    NYC school kids learn ballroom dancing, wonderful.

  • Google buys Dodgeball (yay!)

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    1 min read

    Google has acquired Dodgeball, a neato mobile social networking app. It was co-founded and developed by my friend and former mentee Alex, so I’m thrilled for him. Congratulations Alex!

  • Aromatherapy tipping point

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    1 min read

    I knew scented candles are incredibly popular because I have trouble finding the unscented variety, but it turns out scented pencils are also quite popular, based on some sales data I’ve seen. I wonder if the flower trade is worried?

  • Manufacturing crisis

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    2 min read

    Innovation sometimes springs from crisis: a company sees a dire threat and takes drastic steps to recover. But what if one person perceives this threat before it becomes obvious to the organization? Can this person manufacturer crisis to initiate change? It seems that’s what Thomas Friedman is doing with his book The World is Flat,…