Exploiting Fear on Interwebs

Chuck Patterson was SUP surfing with friends one day when two sharks joined them and circled around for 15 minutes. Rather than have the encounter deter them from surfing there again like it would for mortals, he returned to the same place the next day at the same time with a Go Pro HD HERO camera at the end of 10 foot pole.

- Petapixel

Bill knows I am irrationally scared of carnivorous sea creatures. Bill knows I spent the last two weeks trying to learn a fetish sport in treacherous waters - even as my heart palpitated and I could feel The Fear™ broadcasting the smell of my dangling legs to all teething animals within a 5-mile radius.

So he sends me this.

AdVerve Episode 45: Digitally Speaking

Play the show now.

Kelly Eidson of Ad Age Gen Next fame, of I Need A New Job So I’m Going on a Job Trek fame, now of senior digital planner at Modea fame, joins us for a discussion on the still-there digital divide.

Sighs matter, because we again attack the issue of traditional vs. digital agencies and who gets a shot at the lion’s share of the work. Plus, we cover the skinny on agency life in Virginia vs. New York City, what defines "really good work" and what happens when a client finally decides to take that wild plunge with you.

We *may* have even taken a shot or two at account people. BECAUSE WE LOVE THEM. So sit back and download some digital love. OR download first and then sit back.

Linkage:
– Stayfree Ultra Thin fun!
– Carmichael Lynch/Harley-Davidson fun!

(Image.)

All the French Tech News That's Fit to Print

Hi, honey, I'm home! And with the changing leaves come a new project.

Frenchweb, which covers news in tech among French startups, has launched an English site, Frenchweb News (@FrenchwebNews). I'll be helping get it on its feet, which means you - anglo compatriot! - can expect a couple of articles summarizing news in French tech for that week, coverage of industry conferences, and video interviews in native tongue.

Why read Frenchweb News? I can think of a few reasons:

1. You want to penetrate the European market, so you'll need a sense of the atmosphere and potentially useful partners.
2. You're looking for promising French firms to invest in and scale.
3. You want to broaden your sense of trends that may go global - and not just from home turf.

When I arrived in France a year and a half ago, I wanted to help make European creative more accessible to the American agency audience. To varying degrees I'm still doing that, and the vice versa, over at Culture Buzz, which also has a healthy EU readership.

But I also discovered something else.

Humor me ››

This is an Out of Office Notice.

One of the really nice things about moving to France is the adamant vacation culture. And it's been impressed upon me that seizing your rightful time to disconnect really is something that should be prioritized, no matter how important all the other stuff seems to be. You get human contact, you experience nature, you're reminded of what is important and what must be protected.

So I'm off for the next two weeks. (Where? Roughly here.) Will be back, all fresh and full of delight, around the 29th. Catch you guys then. I swear I'm gonna try not to tweet.

Paul Graham on the Heart of Yahoo's Problem

There's not much we can learn from Yahoo's first fatal flaw. It's probably too much to hope any company could avoid being damaged by depending on a bogus source of revenue. But startups can learn an important lesson from the second one. In the software business, you can't afford not to have a hacker-centric culture.

- Paul Graham

(Have you ever read Graham's Hackers and Painters? It's really good. It'll validate your unhappy feelings about high school ... and make you all obsessed with Lisp.)

Brandon Schaeffer's Movie Posters

There’s something to be said about distilling a central theme or idea of a film down to it’s core and translating it into a simple, iconic image. It’s a nice exercise that shows just how limitation can breed possibility and eliminate distraction: by setting yourself a series of self-imposed obstructions, your focus becomes more refined, and communication becomes key.

- Brandon Schaeffer

See more of Brandon's movie posters, as well as a few more of his thoughts, at Escape into Life. (Thanks for the tip, Candace!)