Last week, I discussed Apple and how the iPhone has shifted to being a cash cow that they can use to invest in other products and potential growth areas. Correctly identifying when it’s time to pivot and emphasize a different product is hard. I was generously given a tour and some time with part of… Continue reading On corporate growth cycles, part 2

Recently, Apple has been emphasizing the non-iPhone parts of their business more. Analysts, like the excellent Stratechery, are suggesting that this means that Apple has recognized that the iPhone is done growing as a product, and is entering a new phase of its’ life cycle as a cash cow for the company. A few years… Continue reading On corporate growth cycles and Apple

I enjoy watching snooker. It’s a somewhat-international-but-mostly-UK cue sport. You can see an example frame here: https://youtu.be/uD72UHuevWI?t=195 These events are broadcast live, with a live audience (except for the Championship League), and range from a best-of-7 format (1-2 hours) to the World Championship finals, which are best-of-35 (2 full days of play for one match!).… Continue reading On attending a snooker tournament

There’s a specific flow to the ordering of fast food, and it’s slightly different for different restaurants. I’ve lost those patterns. Some background: I’m an American who lived in the US until I was 24; now I’ve been in Lithuania for the past 6 years. Especially when I was a student, I ate a fair… Continue reading I’ve lost the ability to order Wendy’s

I’ve been fasting in a few different forms (intermittent, water-only, no-calorie) now, and wanted to write up my experiences and thoughts so far. First, I tried intermittent fasting – fasting for 16 hours per day, eating for 8. For me, this meant eating from 11am-7pm. I did this for about 6 months. Of course, there… Continue reading On fasting

Over the past semester, I’ve been part of a committee at LCC which was looking at ePortfolios and how we might implement them as a university. I’ll have another post at some point, probably, about the university/instructor perspective, but here are some thoughts from the student perspective: Some kind of online presence is helpful when… Continue reading ePortfolio from a student perspective

When we moved to Lithuania 6 years ago, I gave up my Amazon Prime membership. In Lithuania, you can buy things from Amazon Germany or UK, but shipping is time-consuming and expensive (and potentially has customs/duty import implications). There are some online shops, especially some new grocery shopping online (Barbora, etc) or electronics (Skytech, etc),… Continue reading I missed online shopping

I’ve long resisted publishing regularly on this blog. I want each post to be good, and this has kept me from posting often. Of course, others note the importance of regularly publishing. Seth Godin has noted that the daily blog post is crucial, from his perspective, for defining your voice and getting lots of ideas… Continue reading On blog publication frequency

It’s always a pleasant surprise when two of your favorite knowledge providers / bloggers / thought leaders talk about the same idea from two different angles. Seth Godin’s Akimbo podcast (Fooled by Spectrum) recently looked at the concept of ideas spreading through media, and the difference between centralized media (TV, radio, etc), and the internet… Continue reading On branding and online platforms

Our semester is wrapping up here at LCC. Part of that process is the thesis defenses for our Senior students. They’re each required to write a ~25-40 page thesis following a specific methodology, and then defend that thesis publicly. Each student has a faculty adviser they work with during their Senior year. For this post,… Continue reading On Thesis Advising