Defrag Blog

Having returned back from the Bay Area distortion field, I promptly allowed the stress of the trip to send a really nice headcold my way. This morning the fog of sniffles and interrupted sleep is still clouding my head a bit, but not so much that I can’t see what Brian’s talking about when he says:

“Now, I’m assuming that Mike Arrington has fallen into this trap of lazy thinking because it makes for a good story. Sorry bud, but pitting the charismatic founders of Web dev firms against each other WWF-style has zippo to do with product take up. Maybe that’s the real thing I’m rebelling against: all the inside baseball that passes for discussion about Web apps and how to make them wonderful. It’s the geek version of Entertainment Tonight: instead of torrid affairs, we have funding rounds. Member bases, page views, buyouts. The discussion takes place at entirely the wrong level.”

There really isn’t much that’s better than when Brian gets going…

“And the Web makes it easier than ever to have this kind of success. I actually think the ‘King of the Mountain’ approach to tracking startups is disrespectful to the idea of entrepreneurship. Like every new thing has to be an ‘x-killer’ or it doesn’t merit review. I believe in the power of unique user experiences to create lots of value and, therefore, lots of new businesses. I believe in the connective power of the Web to create a truly global community and market for the quirkiest of ideas. I believe that lifetimes are measured out in coffee spoons and not deposit slips, and I will talk about the Web accordingly.

And I will fly the flags of my friends who are living examples of just this sort of thing: Ben Brown, Adaptive Path, Satisfaction, Amit Gupta, Mule Design, Dogster and on & on.”

Amen to that.

There is life beyond the “craziness” that is the a-list, power-breakfast, latest-trend world of the bay area. Ironically, during my last trip I had someone tell me that they had chosen to live in Silicon Valley because they wanted to “stay grounded and be away from the city.” Heh.

Not that I’ve figured any of this out yet, but….

Meanwhile, we’re throwing this conference in Colorado…