We are experiencing academic inflation. This is a theme I can’t seem to shake and its something that I think is only getting worse. Much worse, so long as our educational institutions keep up the status quo.
If you break it down, the logical train of thought should go something like this:
Go to school
Do well
Graduate
Get a job
Make lots of money
Live your life
Somewhere along the road we ended up at a place that looks something like this:
Go to school – if you can even get in
Take adderall to do well on tests
Do well – assuming the class isn’t beaten up by a ridiculous curve
Graduate
Not qualified enough to get a high paying job so repeat steps 1 – 4 (or you just want more job security)
Graduate
No jobs, student loans, and you realized you were passionate about something completely unrelated to the previous 8 years of school
Take a crappy job, make money and pay off your loans or pursue your dreams as an unemployed entrepreneur
Live your life
I’m obviously exaggerating a bit (or am I) but you get the idea. I think we are at that moment in time when people are beginning to realize that education is more about practical experience and less about theoretical, mental gymnastics that spit out a piece of paper after 4 years.
“A true bubble is when something is overvalued and intensely believed,” he says. “Education may be the only thing people still believe in the United States. To question education is really dangerous. It is the absolute taboo. It’s like telling the world there’s no Santa Claus.”
The post than goes on to say:
Like the housing bubble, the education bubble is about security and insurance against the future. Both whisper a seductive promise into the ears of worried Americans: Do this and you will be safe.The excesses of both were always excused by a core national belief that no matter what happens in the world, these were the best investments you could make. Housing prices would always go up, and you will always make more money if you are college educated.
And this couldn’t be further from the truth. Just ask any recent college graduate and you’ll know what I’m talking about. Fortunately, there are some very smart people doing some very smart things in the educational field but at the end of the day, this will be a battle between cultural expectations and measurable results. After seeing innovations like the Khan Academy, which is in my opinion one the most important advancements in information technology and education, I’m confident we’ll move beyond the status quo and into an era that rewards results, innovation and happiness, and not elitism, cultural norms, and degrees.
Below is a video by Salman Khan, founder of the Khan Academy and perhaps one of the soon-to-be most important figures of our generation.
The situation in Japan is really horrible but perhaps an even worse situation is that rescue workers and aids are afraid to help those within a 12 mile radius of the nuclear power plant.
Aid agencies are reluctant to get too close to the plant. Shelters set up in the greater Fukushima area for “radiation refugees” have little food, in part because nobody wants to deliver to an area that might be contaminated. And with little or no gasoline available, not everyone who wants to leave can get out.
The catch 22 is that all rescue workers and first responders are trained to check for scene safety before engaging in any rescue operation. So what do you do when an entire region is contaminated with radiation? This is the issue many are struggling with and as a result, many more are most likely facing dire circumstances.
When Hurricane Katrina hit the New Orleans I remember getting an email from someone on my ski patrol because they were looking for volunteers to head down and help with emergency rescue efforts. I was literally packing a bag before I got into a big argument with my parents. The short version is I lost that argument and I didn’t go to New Orleans. I did however get to chat with one of those patrollers about his experience in New Orleans. A few years later I also heard his stories from Haiti and its amazing to see what some people are willing to do to help others.
But now I see the situation in Japan. People want to help but they are afraid to. I guess even the bravest and most willing people have their limits but it also makes me think about the people who could and should be contributing to causes within their reach. The situation in Japan makes me think about all those that can be helped and should be helped.
So I guess my point of this post is, if you are able to help or improve someone else’s life you should absolutely do so. If people are willing to put their lives at risk, it shouldn’t be so hard for you to do a simple task of kindness.
“Not every day is going to offer us a chance to save someone’s life but every day offers us an opportunity to affect one” – Mark Bezos
Video below – this is one of the best short talks I’ve seen in a while. Take 4 minutes out of your day and watch.
Most of my friends are either in the work world or are in the process of finishing up some form of school and the following question has come up numerous times – What is LinkedIn?
I’m not saying I know what LinkedIn is, what their vision is, what their roadmap looks like, or what they want to be when they grow up but I do know how I use it and that is what I’ve been sharing with those that ask me, “what is LinkedIn?”
I think it’s as simple as this.
1. LinkedIn is the new roladex.
When you meet someone in a business setting, you typically exchange business cards. But its very likely that in 2 years that business card is obsolete. With LinkedIn, you can see where people move on to. You can follow their career.
2. Sales Prospecting
Trying to find a new client you want to sell something to? All you have to do is search for the position and the company of the person you are trying to contact and you’ll get a hit list of folks that could be a good fit for your sale. You will almost certainly find the person you are looking for or you’ll find someone relatively close.
3. Recruiting
When you are looking to hire someone to your company you often base your search on a certain skill set you need (e.g. position, title or education) a certain perspective (e.g. industry or company), or a certain degree of loyalty (e.g. avg 3 yrs+ at each company). There could be more attributes you evaluate when hiring but the point here is that most of those attributes can be found in someone’s LinkedIn profile page.
4. Background Checks
When going into a meeting, it’s often helpful to know a thing or two about the person you are going to meet with. LinkedIn is a very good resource in this department considering most people have their schools, past work experience, organizations, awards, groups, and even blog posts all listed in their profile.
5. Introductions
There could be a million and one reasons why you would want to meet with someone in a business setting and LinkeIn prides itself an helping people access the social networks of others.
In summary, I think LinkedIn is nothing more than the new Rolodex but when you consider how dynamic this new rolodex really is, you quickly see how powerful this service can be. Furthermore, their recent acquisition of CardMunch further validates how serious they are about helping you organize your business cards and your business contacts.
In the future, I’d like to see LinkeIn develop strong partnerships and integrations with all of the CRM providers for sales pipelines and account management. For all of you that use Salesforce or equivalent CRMs, I’m sure you get very frustrated having to enter contact information of people you already have in your LinkedIn network. This could be a huge win for LinkedIn but for now, it’s still super helpful for the 4 points above…at least for me anyway.
I’ve been spending a lot of time lately thinking about Facebook and the implications it has on our daily lives, our communications, and our buying behavior. I’m starting to come around to the belief that Facebook truly is, first and foremost a data company in addition to being a portal for social news and activity. That’s really it and its nothing we don’t already know. Facebook will most certainly evolve and offer more compelling features like daily deals, FB credits, or even a mobile OS, but at the core, their foundation is simple. My friend Brad has been thinking about what this means in the context of historical companies and products, so I extended this line of thinking to see what I’d come up with and here is where I currently stand.
AOL vs. Facebook AOL was first and foremost an ISP in addition to being a closed portal to various content and communications channels. Users were able to log in to their AOL account and then immediately access things like their AOL profile (what is now Facebook), their Instant Messaging and away messages (what is now Twitter), their news (what is now every news site out there), their mail (what is now GMail), their games (what is now Zynga), their chat rooms (what is now BBM, SMS, Meebo), etc. What started off as an ISP quickly became a portal for various components of one’s digital experience and to me, this is starkly similar to Facebook.
Facebook on the other hand started out as first and foremost a data company in addition to being a portal to various social content and news feeds. Users are able to log into their Facebook account and engage their entire social network of friends. Perhaps the biggest difference between Facebook and AOL is that Facebook lets users carry their identity with them online, while AOL did not. So today, if a user wants to read the news, or play games, or chat with their friends, they can do so under a uniform identify that is portable across many digital platforms. To me, this is nothing more than a driver’s license for the web which in time will become a credit card for the web.
With this said, I think its interesting to see what happens when you slightly modify the rules of open vs. closed. AOL was a very closed environment and it was only a matter of time before it got hacked up into new, competing companies. Facebook however, although still very much closed, is enabling others to access its rich database thus making it a platform for a greater social web – a Driver’s License. Other than that, I’m not sure what other interesting take aways we can learn from this comparison.
Microsoft vs. Facebook Microsoft was a software company built to manage productivity and utility. At its core, it had an operating system that enabled specific apps which were all designed, in some way shape or form, to enhance one’s ability to be productive by leveraging digital connections on the internet, and within the very PC (between memory, the hard disk drive, CD rom, etc). Productivity was the key word here and it fueled 10 years of growth (e.g. MS word, excel, IE, Powerpoint, etc).
On the other hand, Facebook is a data company built to manage and facilitate social connections. At its core, it is a centralized data base that houses self-declared information (e.g. age, gender, location, interests, etc), and on top of that data base, it has apps that are designed to leverage these pieces of information (e.g. groups, walls, friend recommendations, etc). “Social Connectivity” is the key word here and i think we can agree that it will fuel the next 10 years of growth.
With this said, I think the Microsoft vs. Facebook comparison is a little better than the AOL analogy but I’m still not sure it does us justice to understand the full effects of Facebook. I don’t think we should look at Microsoft as the comparison to gauge what Facebook means, but instead, I think we should be looking at historical events that involved social movements. Things like voting, protesting, activism, wars, diplomacy, fundraising, emergencies & triage (healthcare), events, etc. I think the next wave of innovation (on the consumer side of things) will be about taking timeless human events (like buying things) and overlaying a precise data set and pure social connectivity layer (e.g. Facebeook). Because in each one of these social events, there are very different use cases, with a very different way of using and looking at the data.
As we continue to build our business at spinback we continue to engage in a number of very interesting conversations on the topic of product recommendations and sharing. Jared Spiegel, a friend of mine and someone who is currently participating in the Brooklyn Law Incubation Program (BLIP), made the following point that I thought really highlights the core of why product sharing is so valuable. His point is this:
Suppose you are interested in purchasing a new bike. The single most important thing that you are looking for is durability and reliability. That is, you don’t care about looks, design, or wheel style – what you do care about is the frequency of repair. As a reasonable and sensible person, you consult Consumer Reports and learn that the bike with the best repair record is clearly a Schwinn. No other bike even comes close. Naturally, you decide that the next day you are going to buy a Schwinn bicycle.
Suppose that the night before you are going to make your purchase, you are at dinner with a few friends where you announce your intention to buy a new bike. One of your friends at the table says “I just bought a Trek bicycle last week and I love it! It’s much better than my rusted, beat-up Schwinn. In fact, I’ve never been so happy with a bike in my life!”
Let’s suppose that the ranking you read on Consumer Reports was based on a sample of 1,000 bike owners. Your friend’s preference for his Trek bike (and distaste for his old Schwinn) has increased the size of the sample to 1,001. It has added one negative case to your statistical bank. Logically, this should not affect your decision. But a large body of research indicates that such occurrences, because of their personal character and connection between the purchaser and the source of the information, assume far more importance than their logical, statistical status would imply. All other things being equal, most people are more deeply influenced by one clear, personal example than by an abundance of statistical data.
So even if there is a large data set that crunches consumer reviews looking for the very best product, it really only takes a focus group of one and a personal connection to influence someone’s buying decision.
My friend Jeremy suggested that people take his blog post titles and write their own story. Considering I just finished drawing pictures and diagrams on a whiteboard for 4 hours, I thought this title was most appropriate. And the fact that I’m writing this post at 3am on a subway should add a little more color to just how much mental lubrication white boards can account for.
Truth is, ideas come and go. I know this because I have an ongoing ideas spreadsheet that has many, many ideas but I also know 98% of them will never see the light of day. At least not because of me. And this simple truth is really the difference between an idea and something that is tangible. It’s being able to take the lofty, grandiose idea and turn it into reality. And doing that is not easy. At all. Its hard, risky, time-consuming, and it’s entirely probable that it will fail.
So what do you do? I say, “fuck it” (as I listen to dirty south hip hop on my iPod). Win or fail, I’ll at least try, and it will start with a 4 hour, lubricated white board sessions. KY style.
A family friend of mine owns a large men’s clothing store and for the purpose of this story, we’ll call this store TuxMan. For years, TuxMan would sell suits, ties, shoes, belts, tuxedos and the like to hundreds of customers. He had great products, great customer service, and great tailors. In fact, his service was so good that customers wanted to bring in their own non-TuxMan clothes to get tailored, but he said no. His store policy was that TuxMan would only tailor clothes that were purchased in the TuxMan store. This logic made complete sense and it worked for years. After all, why would he want to do some tailoring for someone else’s product?
Well in the midst of the financial crisis his sales were on a decline. All of a sudden, businessmen no longer wanted to buy new suits. There were fewer customers in the store and lots of suits just hanging around.
So what did TuxMan do when sales started to slip?
Advertise more aggressively?
Offer insane discounts?
Nope…
They let customers bring in their non-TuxMan clothes and have them tailored by his team. All of the businessmen who no longer wanted to buy new suits wanted to get more use out of the suits and shirts they already had. So sure enough, new customers came in the door, got their suits tailored, refitted and upgraded them and then, something great happened. These new customers that did not want to buy anything new ended up buying new accessories for their non-TuxMan suits they were having tailored. Instead of shelling out a few hundred dollars for a new suit, they bought new ties, shoes, and shirts to make their old suits look new. And all of a sudden, sales increased, the number of loyal customers increased, and eventually, more suits left their hangers and went home with happy customers.
As of today, I’ll be leaving the Lotame family to pursue a new endeavor called Spinback.com.
Like all hard decisions, this one was not easy but here’s the story:
When I first started Lotame I was in the midst of building a business called TheCampusAtlas.com with three of my engineering buddies from school. But through a coincidental encounter at Mount Snow I met Andy Monfried who was also in the midst of starting a new business called Lotame. At the time I wasn’t quite sure what to do. We had already launched on 5 schools and had about 10 more on deck. So the question was, do I pick up the dice on Campus Atlas and join Andy’s new business? Or do I ride out the true startup wave with my friends and see where the Campus Atlas could go? Well, after living with and interning for Andy for those 2 months in the summer of my junior year the answer was pretty clear.
When I finished the Lotame internship, I ended up working remotely from Madison while finishing up school and as soon as school was done, and as soon as I was able to actually work, I was in the Lotame office cranking out phone calls, emails and all other sorts of tasks. During my time there, we went from a little office in Maryland with just a few folks and $0 in revenue, to almost 70 employees with offices in Maryland, New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, London and quite a few dollars in revenue. I helped create new partnerships, new strategies, and new products, but most importantly, I created new relationships with great people. People that I consider family and people who I would do anything for.
And in all my time at Lotame this was the most important thing I learned from Andy. That no matter what happens in life or on any journey you take, the most important part is the people you are with.
But like any journey, there are crossroads and I am presently at one of those crossroads. I now have the opportunity to start a new business with two friends from school in a space that is just beginning to really innovate: the e-commerce sector. So as of today, I’ll be officially teaming up with two of my Badger friends on a new journey that involves technology, retailers, word of mouth marketing, and crazy amounts of hard work.
One of the things that has been evident my entire life is that purchases are never made in a vacuum. Whenever we look to buy something, whether it is a TV, a plane ticket, a new movie, or even a meal at dinner, we almost always ask trusted friends or family for advice. We ask for their opinion. Better yet, we sometimes get contacted out of the blue by our friends with new recommendations and suggestions. In my opinion, this method of product discovery or information acquisition is the single most important way we learn about new things or new products. And now with new communication mediums like Facebook and Twitter, the velocity by which this information can be shared is exponentially greater. At spinback, our mission will be to help retailers leverage the power of this medium in a trustworthy, efficient and innovative way.
So that’s what I’ll be doing in this next chapter of my life. At the same time, I’ll be rooting for everyone at Lotame. Thanks Andy.
If you are in college you should start your own business because there is no better time to do so.
When I was in college working on thecampusatlas.com I remember thinking how great it was to have the flexibility of a student and to have the resources of a college university in order to get things done. I was surrounded by exceptionally bright people from all different backgrounds and areas of expertise who were willing to provide guidance.
“There is no better time to start a company than when you’re in school,” he said.
After all, college students don’t require a lot of money, their housing often is paid for, and their peers often are willing to hustle at all hours to meet deadlines. “You can’t beat that when you need to have your attention focused on the company,” he wrote in an e-mailed response to a question.
Furthermore, academic institutions have the resources to educate entrepreneurs on any single area of a business or topic and by leveraging the various academic resources to build your business, you actually obtain a wider knowledge base of information then originally intended.
As a student, you have the ability to build your own business in a safe, low-cost, resource-rich environment and if it doesn’t work out you still hedged your bet because you’ll most likely graduate with a degree.
As a grandson of a holocaust survivor, I have a very specific lens by which I view the religion of Judaism. As a student of technology and media, one of the millennial generation, I also have a specific lens by which I view the intersection of religion and our present day culture. A culture that is driven by real time communications, personalization, social networking and extreme amounts of multitasking. This post is about that intersection between religion and present day culture as it relates to philanthropic outreach in the Jewish community.
Recently, there has been debate in the philanthropic Jewish community about how Judaism can be relevant and provide substantive educational opportunities to its members. It is the idea that by using smart outreach programs the Jewish religion can become a more important role in the lives of many. A recent article by Edgar M. Bronfman frames this debate by discussing intermarriage while referring to the recent marriage of Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvkinsky and ultimately, he concludes that:
We must do more than open the doors to newcomers in the Jewish community: We must reach out to them.
But I’m afraid this point is of little practical use to the folks in charge of doing the outreach and to the folks that must ultimately create meaningful connections with the members of the community. To date, the philanthropic Jewish community has relied heavily on issues such as the Holocaust and antisemitism to create a connection, but in a world where survivors are less in numbers and in a world where antisemitism is as commonplace as air, finding new “issues” to leverage is becoming increasingly difficult. Add in the fact that today’s communications are literally living off of 140 character messaging systems (e.g.Twitter) and new languages like, “idk how 2 make sense of all diz, LOL” and you have a recipe for a, dare I say, indefinite fast of successful outreach programs.
So, what are the Jewish Federations, the Hillel’s, the Jewish Day School, the Yeshivas, or any other religious entity for that matter supposed to do in today’s environment where the goal is outreach?
Ultimately, I think it boils down to 3 main components that if understood, could help shape the future for these groups and its respective communities.
1. Understanding Judaism, Facing Reality – Cultures and Traditions vs. Religion and Laws
I was recently asked the following question by a coworker of mine:
Which is more important to you and Why? The Culture and Traditions of being jewish or the religion?
What is important about this question is not the question itself. What is important however is the fact that there is a distinction between culture and religion. It is the fact that these two topics are viewed as very separate entities. With that said, the very first thing that must be done when asking questions like “How do we keep our children Jewish?” or “How do we make Judaism relevant” is to understand what in fact it means to be Jewish.
When I was on birthright this past year it was very clear that people were there for different reasons and people connected with Judaism for different reasons. As I said earlier, my “Judaism Lens” is painted with dark colors due to my connection with the Holocaust but there are many instances of bright colors as well. And those bright colors, for me, circle around family, traditions, culture, and love for one another. This is a very different view than someone who attends temple every day for daily prayers.
With that said, I believe that Judaism today fundamentally falls into two groups: Cultures and Traditions vs. Religion and Laws. And before any “outreach” can be organized, it is necessary to understand which group is being targeted. So which group matters? Asked another way, which group is bigger and can make a difference through network effects? When I was asked the earlier question by my coworker “which is more important,” I responded with “Culture and Traditions, hands down” to which she responded, “Couldn’t agree more. I dont believe in religion. I do however believe in Community and tradition.” This is the reality we live in and it must be understood and embraced.
2. Understanding Cultural Influences – Mass Media and “Push” vs. Personalization and “Pull”
America is a Santa Clause nation. Just look outside and you’ll see Christmas trees and Christmas decorations. Turn on the TV and you’ll see advertisements that wish you a Merry Christmas while other, less frequent advertisements wish you “Happy Holidays.” And like the Jewish religion, there are no doubt those who celebrate Christmas that really don’t have an affinity to the religion itself per se, but do in fact love the traditions, holidays and customs. Let’s face it, when I was younger I remember asking my parents for a Chanuka bush due to the cultural influences around me. We also hung up blue Chanuka stockings above the fireplace.
Now let’s consider these two, brief stories as a contrast: Neil Lazarus, an “internationally acclaimed expert in the field of Middle East” and strong advocate for Israel gave a talk and in it described his relationships with Judaism while he was growing up as a child in Britain, and later, described his relationship as an adult and as a father. He said that as a child he had no real connection to Judaism and as adult, still had little connection to the religion itself. However, as a father, one day his children came home from school and touched their hand to the mezuzah upon entry. This was not something he taught them, yet due to their cultural surroundings, his children absorbed this cultural act and subconsciously ingrained it into their daily lives.
The second story is about a colleague of mine who is not Jewish, although he still sends his children to Jewish day school because that particular school is one of the best in the area in terms of pure academics. His children came home from school one day and begin to sing Jewish songs. Again, this is another instance where the daily cultural surroundings affect the behavior of an individual. The song singing is second nature and happens as a result of cultural surroundings and influences, which in this case, is a day school that conveys Jewish traditions from the early morning until the afternoon.
The point is, in both stories the cultural influences are a result of “mass” media. It is the situation where for better or worse, a certain theme dominates the others due to its sheer size of distribution and presence. It is no different than listening to the radio and all you hear is Kanye West when pretty soon, you subconsciously begin singing “and I ain’t messing with no gold digger.” This happens because the content is “pushed” to you over the airways. This same concept applies to other mass media channels like broadcast television and print.
But we now live in a world where “mass” media is on the decline and “me” media is on the rise. Sites like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube let you personalize your experience and “pull” in the content you desire. In today’s world, people are able to curate their own experience and define their own cultural existence from behind their computer or from their mobile phone. Consider the fact that, according to eMarketer:
Consumers now spend as much time on their mobile devices as they spend reading print newspapers and magazines—combined. And while time spent on mobile devices grew 28% in 2010 to reach an average 50 minutes per day, time spent reading print magazines and newspapers decreased 9% in 2010.
We are now at a place where the conversation is bi-directional. This is a place where we can easily engage and interact with small groups or large groups of people in very unique, customized, and personal ways. But in order to fully leverage these new mediums for outreach, activists must be smaller, nimbler, more tactical, and must be prepared to experiment with new forms of communications.
3. Actionable Measures to Influence Personalized Culture
Now that we understand the need to properly segment the audience and understand the need to adopt newer communication strategies, we must look at some specific examples and consider their implications so we can learn from them and use them to influence future philanthropic outreach strategies. These will all be brief.
Example A: A Public Service Announcement not approved by AJWS (link here – embedded below)
Watch the video below. It’s great. It’s funny. As of this writing there have been about 630,000 views of the video with most views coming from the United States. If we assume that there was about 1 view per person, than that’s about 630,000 people that watched this video. Furthermore, if we assume that all of these views were by people who are Jewish, than that means about 10% of all Jews living in America saw this video. Not too bad if your goal is to strengthen a relationship with a Jewish audience.
I heard a story recently of someone who, after seeing this video, disclosed the fact that they were Jewish to another person. That’s power. This video is powerful. It illicits strong personal feelings of emotion and joy to the point of public action. From this example, we can see that humor is a powerful motivator and should be considered in outreach programs.
Example B: Candlelight – The Maccabeats – Hanukkah (link here – embedded below)
My sister sent this video to me. She is 20 years old. At the time of this writing there have been 3.6M views and if we use my logic from above, that means roughly half of all American Jews have seen this video. More powerful than the video above perhaps. But more importantly, I think the value of this video lies in its creation. This was a group of students that banded together to express themselves in song and video using Judaism as the content. There are a number of other examples of this artistry as well. Take for example the Wu Tang Clan’s member, Remedy Ross. A Jewish rapper who created a song called “never again” referring to the Holocaust. Or the more famous example, Adam’s Sandler’s “Chanuka Song.” But the artistry is not the important point here. The important aspect is that it is very easy to create independent and creative content and easily share it with the world. This sort of behavior can be used in classrooms and can be used as incentive to drive behavior. This concept should also be considered by philanthropic activists.
Example C: e-Cards & Digital Notes
There is an entire library of Hanukkah cards available at Someecards.com. It is dead simple for people to send each other messages using these types of lightweight technologies. This same tactic can be used with text messages as well because after all, who doesn’t carry a mobile phone these days? The point here is that lightweight, easy to use, easy to deploy notes and messages should be considered to stay top of mind and should be used on a frequent basis.
Facebook pages are not the end all be all. They are simply a way to aggregate a group of like-minded individuals in one place. A focus group of sorts. From there, it is up to the group moderator to stir up the conversation.
Twitter is just a short message real time communication system. Some people using twitter, like Amare Stoudemire, have a pretty decent amount of followers. This is a powerful tool if the right person is saying the right things to the right people.
Example F: Other
There are plenty of other tactics that can be used for Judaic outreach, but unless comprehensive strategies are used on the right people, in the right way, and with the right message, successfully deploying philanthropic outreach programs will be nearly impossible. I hope this blog post helps paint a better picture of Judaic Philanthropy in the Facebook world.
