DISQUS

I like the idea of tagging the link itself and having it capture tag metadata, rather than using hashtags, that alone would be a good improvement over the current shortening.

With respect to the sticking chopsticks in rice, I was always told that it was because it resembled incense sticks in a bowl of stand, which is typically used in memorials and other rituals.

Another no-no is for two people to take food from a single bowl at the same time, or someone holding down a piece of food as another pulls from it (say separating pieces from one another), again for the same reasons as why you shouldn't pass food from chopstick to chopstick

Great notes on etiquette though, you don't see many people write about that enough.

You're right, it's amazing how things change so quickly and how we have to make decisions in a period of time we probably don't think is long enough. Though, I find that my best decisions when I have the least amount of time. One good thing is that the process has been fast and not drawn out, right?

It was great meeting you at Elite Retreat, fun getting called out in the crowd (that's what you get when you make eye contact haha), it's what life's all about man.

Last birthday, I didn't have them delivered though, I picked them up and delivered them myself. :)

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I think twitter has really helped introverts reach out to new people. It's hard to insert yourself into a conversation at a conference if you know no one, it's much easier to twitter from the safety and comfort of your home.

One thing I've always believed is that you have to pick a direction and go with it, either you're about social media branding or you're not. It's like a DB in football, either you're going at the QB or you're back in coverage... you can't be in the middle. If you're in the middle, you get nothing! You don't pressure the QB, you don't cover the wideout, you're stuck in the middle and you're dead.

We live in the United States of America, the best freaking place on the planet. You can start a business in your boxers sitting at home, you don't have to bribe some official for some BS license, you don't have to deal with government corruption, and you don't have to fear that some band of roving lunatics is going to bust down your door and steal everything you've worked hard to achieve. The United States is a beautiful place and I'm thankful every day that I was born here, that my parents emigrated here on a dream, because there are plenty of other places that are not as forgiving.

I now use Chrome and I switched from Firefox because it's a monster of a memory hog.

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As the author of the 13 tips, I have to say neither contract killing or baking qualifies as quick. :)

I'm even later... but I'm game too. :)

I write a personal finance blog at http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/

I'm even later... but I'm game too. :)

Very well put.

It's a pleasant reminder that this is still America. The contestants in this Presidential election and primaries was simply a testament to our diversity. You had a woman and a black man as the two leading candidates of the Democratic Presidential primary, you had a Mormon and a 72 year old man as the leading candidates of the Republican Presidential primary... THEN you had the winners of each contest plus a female VP candidate of a party often painted as a bunch of old white men.

I have to say the whole process, not just the final result, was amazing in its own right.

Information advantage is a crucial component in earning money anywhere. One book that I really enjoyed reading is similar to Liar's Poker, it's called Trading With The Enemy and it's about the experiences of someone who worked at Jim Cramer's hedge fund.

One of the best stories in there is about how analysts would sometimes tell Cramer about a downgrade a few minutes before their official announcement. Cramer paid 6 cents a share on trades, way more than regular investors, but he was given an information advantage that was impossible to for the SEC to track and gave him a serious leg up.

Would you rather be inundated with unqualified calls or not get any calls whatsoever? Some problems are good to have.

Hmmm that is a sobering thought though... 11 years just to make it back to 2007? Wow.

You have the unfortunate luck of being whalloped by equities AND international because of the dollar strengthening (or should I say, other currencies weakening faster than we are)... yikes.

Yeah I think an MBA will have less value but I think there are two reasons for that:
1) Every business school is offering an MBA. One from harvard or Wharton will still carry weight, along with the network of business contacts, but one from some random place... nah, not anymore.
2) Financial companies are hurting, so the demand for MBAs will be lower as is their value to a company simply because the pie is smaller.

A couple House Republicans did. :)

If you aren't as passionate about your online empire as you are about your television shows, movies, or video games... you shouldn't go full time. You should find something that you love so much you'd rather do it than watch TV.

zach - My dad came to the US on a student visa and a one way ticket from Taiwan, because he could only afford a one way ticket. When asked what would happen if things didn't work out, he asked "why wouldn't it work out?" It's a modern day story of Cortez burning his ships. It sounds like a lot of our fathers did that, kudos to you!

It was a pleasure chatting and a lot of fun! :)

Tim, this is in regards to the retirement media opportunity and your book in general. I'm 27, married, and recently left corporate America to pursue my online ventures full time. I actually did so after reading the Four Hour Work Week when I realized I was being irrational in my fear of both the unknown (I realized I was more afraid of going 40 years in corporate america wondering "what if?") and not having to fill up an 8 hour work day to feel "safe." I was always aggressive in saving for retirement (maxing out Roth IRAs and 401(k)s) but now I'm enjoying a far richer lifer because I have enough money to keep me happy but, more importantly, time to spend it on the things that matter to me. Unfortunately, one of those things is golf so all this free time might be fleeting. :)

Thank you.

Great notes, thanks for sharing them.

WRT how I would invest, I think that unless you're willing to get knee deep in investing and doing lots of reading, you have to go with an index fund. Many mutual funds judge their performance and manager alpha vs. indices and a majority of the actively managed funds lag indices. If the majority of professional managers with their resources cannot beat their benchmark, how could you do it consistently and hold down a full time job? (even if it were only 4 hrs a week?) Index funds is the answer and they're cheap to boot. (The Fidelity Spartan 500 index fund has an expense ratio of only 0.10%)

As someone in that group, I agree. It's not so much that I want more political news or economic news or whatever, I want more depth in current events. With the millions of bloggers out there, it's amazing how "close" you can get to current events as they unfold because people who are geographically close are writing about them.

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Icahn you expect but you know you're in trouble when Detroit doesn't like you too.

jim's last blog post..Usefulness & Utility Trump Asset Value