Jason's Notes About Stuff

About a month ago, before the big Cambridge Analytica scandal , I wrote that " Facebook is over ." My feeling was strong enough that I divested all FB holdings the same day. Glossing over the details at the time, I simply stated that Facebook had "lost its way." After posting, several of my friends and relatives (on Facebook, of course) suggested that I should create the Next Facebook . Funny enough, I'd already been there and done that. My reply: " I started a project called "FriendPortal" in 2003 that was to be a simpler, better alternative to Friendster. Before I could finish it, some scrappy Harvard kid beat me to the punch. Somebody will make the "next" Facebook. Odds are decent that it won't be me  :) " I thought it would be interesting to go a bit more in-depth on this topic. History Lesson In my mind, the first modern "social networking" site was Friendster (2002). It was quickly followed by M...

Some of my friends are big fans of WhatsApp, and have noted that I don't (and won't) use it, so I just wanted to briefly provide the major reasons why: It's owned by Facebook (and connected to the Facebook platform) and there are some major  privacy  concerns Since acquisition by Facebook, there have been major  security  concerns Due to similar problems, I advise  against  using similar apps like Apple iMessage, Google Hangouts, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, etc. If you're really keen on using a "Whatsapp-style" secure messaging app (with group messaging, voice calls, etc.), there is an alternative that is free, open source, and run by a  non-profit organization . It's called  Signal  and can be found at:  https://signal.org/   I have it installed, so feel free to send me a test message to try it out, and let me know if you have any further questions about the various privacy and security...

Alright folks, I'm calling it. It's quite sad, but as of 6pm Pacific on Feb 21, 2018, Facebook is officially over. Soon it will join the ranks of MySpace, Friendster, Slashdot, Digg, Orkut, and Google+ as dusty old sites that nobody really uses anymore. It had a good run. For a while, it was the perfect way to keep in touch with friends and relatives, but somewhere along the line, it lost its way. And unfortunately, I don't see a simple way back. Let's hope they can prove me wrong. But otherwise, I'm looking forward to seeing what's next. What is next? Twitter? Snapchat? Instagram? I feel like they're all mostly dead too. What's coming down the pipeline to help us all connect online? Or are we all slowly moving back to our smaller, more manageable offline groups? RIP Facebook, 2004-2018

Last week, I was hanging up my laundry, listening to a great business podcast about consulting, and was hit by a wall of wisdom: "Your reputation in business is in large part based on your ability to make commitments and fulfill them. If you can make commitments and fulfill them, people trust you. That's what trust is based on. If you and I are developing a relationship, and the first thing you tell me you're going to do, you do, I go, "Ok, that's cool, he did what he said he was going to do." Now, I'm not going to trust you with my life at that point. But then, the second thing you say you're going to do, you do. A few weeks, a few months, then years, if you continue the habit of doing the things you say you're going to do, then I trust you with more and more. And that's how our reputations are built." [1] I think this applies equally to business and life in general. So many people fail this simple test. It really comes down to ...

5 years ago, in July 2010, I made a bold prediction that Microsoft would purchase Blackberry . The Past At the time, Blackberry was still the clear leader, with over 40% of the market: Even then, however, the trend was crystal clear. Apple had already caught them off guard, and Blackberry was slowly bleeding away market share. Meanwhile, Android was gaining quickly at everyone else's expense. Just look at the monthly increase in the graph above. At the time, it was obvious to me that Microsoft and RIM needed to combine forces if either one was to stand a chance. There were lots of rumors to that effect -- in 2011, 2013, and even earlier this year, but no deal ever panned out. Instead, in 2013/2014, Microsoft bought Nokia -- one of the few phone companies in worse shape than Blackberry. Predictably, this turned out to be a dismal failure, with Microsoft writing off $7.6 billion . The present Meanwhile, the market shifted much faster than I ever could have...

Thought of the day: Graphical information takes much longer to produce than text, but is interpreted faster and more accurately.