Lost Control

Yu & Us

The Pramana Collective has been out of the box for about eight weeks. Amidst the typical startup stuff like getting office space (see above), developing a P&L, securing healthcare benefits, and discussing debating logos, we have had the opportunity to talk to a whole lot of people we respect about Pramana’s focus and intent and we’re grateful for the support and wise counsel.

It’s been affirming that folks not only understand what we look to accomplish by building a project-focused communications consultancy that focuses on big moments for organizations, but that they are enthusiastic about it. This has manifested itself in some early projects with innovative companies at unique moments that have been fascinating to dive into. We also continue to look for the best communications people to join us so we can meet our “collective” promise.

Today, we are making a big first step with the addition of Larry Yu as a partner. For nearly five years, Larry has been a key player at Facebook in his role as director of global communications and public policy. There, he built a great team and led the company through some of its biggest corporate and financial milestones. Among other gigs, Larry is also part of the Google and Cisco alum network.

Brian, Brandee and I have all worked with Larry in the past, and we know that his close-to-20 years of experience is a perfect fit for The Pramana Collective and our clients. Beyond being a thoughtful guy who is universally liked and respected, Larry knows how to navigate companies through chaotic growth stages with confidence and calm. And we all admire how he makes financials, process and operations look easy, maybe even fun (well, almost).

We look forward to Larry joining us in June and talking to others who may help fill out our office space and shape our direction.

(Brandee insisted that I add “Go Buffs” since she and Larry share an alma mater. I assume this is some sort of a nudist colony reference. Whatever floats your boat, guys.)

Finding Pramana

Brandee Barker has the calming wisdom of someone who learned a lifetime of lessons in her four years at Facebook. She started the company’s communications team and was its leader during Facebook’s most formative, fast-moving years. Brandee recognized that when you are moving at mind-bending speeds, you have to make 100 decisions a day and, within those, a few mistakes will be made. Brandee recognized and learned from both these mistakes and the many more successes gained by her and her team. She was my inspiration during my own journey of mistake/success reflection after my similar ride at Twitter.

Brian O’Shaughnessy makes things look easy. Yet, once you get past his self-deprecating jokes and his insistence on shining the light on others, you realize that you came away from a conversation with him twice as smart as when you started. And, one of most complex communications job in the last four years was running Skype’s. During that time, the company was owned by eBay, was spun out to a private equity consortium and then was sold to Microsoft. Off the original eBay/Skype management team when Brian started in 2008. He left in February as the last remaining one. This wasn’t easy. It reflects on Brian’s innate ability to bring disparate people and perspectives together to forge successful strategies through leadership defined by bullshit-free objectivity and a mastery of technical knowledge.

Brandee and Brian share an unwavering sense of loyalty, strength of character and a desire to apply their learnings to something meaningful.

I feel the same way. And I’m pleased to join these two people that I have so much respect for as partners and co-founders of The Pramana Collective.

Since The Pramana Collective comes from the same place as the philosophies that I’ve clearly, if infrequently, written about here, I won’t dive into our feelings about the state of communications and the great changes that all corners of marketing are facing as lines between disciplines blur. But, practically, this change will have us focused on client needs and not definitions of marketing terminology or dated dividing lines. For example, whatever ‘PR’ was and currently may be to some is not relevant to us now — nor was it when we ran teams at Facebook, Skype and Twitter.

The Pramana Collective is a project-focused communications consultancy. This means that we will work with an organization to help meet a specific opportunity or solve a particular issue for a finite period of time. Among the offering mix will be branding, messaging, campaign development, and road mapping communications functions. This is the type of work that Brandee and I have both enjoyed doing as consultants since Facebook and Twitter.

What we won’t do is stick around to be an agency of record that provides ongoing support.  We will provide objective recommendations on next steps and, as needed, suggest and help attain ongoing solutions of all stripes (in-house hires, consultants, agencies) to see through strategies. We look forward to partnering with our network of industry colleagues to find solutions for our clients long term interests.

Despite each of us having 20-plus years of experiences, multiple stints running comms teams for high-profile companies where we had amazing internal and external teams; we all would have benefitted in the past from having access to a partner peer set that provided actionable intelligence, straightforward advice and a pure project solution mindset like The Pramana Collective’s offering.

When you are moving at a blindingly fast pace while trying to grow a team that’s never quite big enough, it can be a constant battle to stay ahead of being reactive to both external and internal forces and create space to form proactive campaigns around important initiatives and big moments – be they known well in advance or appear suddenly. We look forward to working with all sizes and types of organizations that share our interest in substantive, transparent and integrated communications.

This brings us to our name — The Pramana Collective. For you logophiles the full definition of Pramana is here, but, in short, it’s the means by which one obtains accurate knowledge. We believe that an organization’s sometimes hidden or obscured truths are the most powerful messages to drive a conversation. And, the “collective” will be our employees, clients and partners who both feel and act the same way.

Our first priority is hiring like-minded people from both the traditional comms world and other marketing disciplines who command the respect of entrepreneurs and executives. Indeed, getting the word broadly out to top talent who may be mapping out next moves is our primary motivation to talking about our consultancy’s formation now. If you are interested or merely curious, find me at sean at pramanacollective dot com.

And know that we believe that the best people need to have dynamic careers. As our projects will be diverse in scope, so will be the professional paths of individuals on our team. We may be a long-term opportunity for some and, for others, we might be an opportunity to attain broad perspective in between in-house jobs. Indeed, we plan to borrow the entrepreneur in residence (EIR) model that venture capital firms use.

We’ve got a lot of work to do. Having a basic web site would be nice. Regardless, whether it’s teaming on the small stuff or the profound, getting to work with Brandee and Brian already has made this journey one worth taking.

Sean

++++

Brandee Barker
brandee at pramanacollective dot com
LinkedIn
@brandee

Brian O’Shaughnessy
brian at pramana collective dot com
LinkedIn
@brianosh

Sean Garrett
sean at pramanacollective dot com
LinkedIn
@SG

When Gazelles Cry

The tech PR/media kerfuffle of the week occurred when, and I’m paraphrasing here, TechCrunch, among others, wrote a story based on a fake press release and, after an apology by TC’s co-editor, TechCrunch’s east coast editor posited that, because people on the internet constantly demand new cat photos and don’t reward depth, PR people shouldn’t be hired by companies so TechCrunch can better write stuff fast. Also, that fake press release thing is merely collateral damage. Or something like that. 

About 47 PR people reflexively came to the defense of the collective professional communications world in the post’s comment section and correctly made the point that companies hire them to do many more things than pitching media stories. I even took the bait and tweeted out an allegedly witty (if dated) repost. Everyone moved on. Just another day on the Internet. 

Instead, I couldn’t help thinking later that, intentional or not, it was a brilliant troll job that distracted communications people from the real issue at hand: The implications of firstest, mostest “process” journalism as explained in the aforementioned column that waved this white flag at the realities of the internet:

“Could we post less? Sure. I’d love it if we did. But we have a team of people who want to write. They want to get stuff up. They revel in breaking news even if that news doesn’t seem important to you, specifically. It’s like asking a gazelle to take the bus. So that’s out.”

First, let’s be clear, I don’t think this one thought bubble is now TechCrunch’s journalistic mission statement. There are plenty of well-researched and/or thoughtful pieces from the outlet. I’ve praised them. However, whether TechCrunch engages in it or not, this metastasized form of unrelenting infotainment could become a pervasive reality. 

In this world, those who want communications folks out of their way of filing six stories a day should get their wish. Let someone else take the advice to “spam a bunch of writers who are hungry to feed (the) maw.” Shortly thereafter they’ll get to enjoy their six hundred words of fame. High-fives around the office! Tweet that shit! And, then it’s gone. Replaced by seven stories just like it.

What’s the point? Where’s the deeper meaning and lasting substance? How does this fit into any long-term strategy? If you so truly believe your job is so more than pinging bloggers willing to write about ephemeral corporate moments that you immediately forget, than don’t feed the beast and later triumph to your empty calorie “hit” to your client, boss or persistent product manger who cajoled you into pitching his epic app tweak. 

The reality is that the media relations side of the communications business benefits from quality, thorough journalism. Customers, partners, possible investors or potential employees place aren’t dumb. They can filter for truth and meaning. If a respected outlet or individual writes a balanced analysis on your business that unveils important and truthful positives, than you’ve got so much more than a positive but lightweight hit.

Am I suggesting that communications folks (or entrepreneurs working alone) chase the ghosts of a journalistic era that could be dying? No. For one, I think there is and will always be room for quality, deep stuff. Not all of it will be mass market or highly monetizable, but it will still have impact on the audiences you care about, including those who crank out the short fast stuff.

As for how to do end runs around media through your own blogs and social media channels, this has been well mavenized by alleged experts wearing Madonna mics. And others. There is no need to rehash here.

However, for every action there is a reaction. The firstest arms race will create an unsustainable trust deficit for both those publishing content and those pitching it. What we need to think about now is not how to cure attention deficits but how to use both transparency and focus to direct limited attention on meaningful truths. In this world, spin is diminished and, in one pointed example, there’s no room for press releases – be they real ones with three canned quotes that all use the word “excited” or fake ones that briefly excite.

Thoughts on AirPR

If you are following the PR industry at all, you might have noticed the launch of a new service called AirPR. PandoDaily understatedly suggests that AirPR “could be the biggest disruption yet to PR”. 

And, the CEO of the new ventures told TechCrunch that ”PR is horribly broken $10 billion industry ripe for disruption” and naturally implies that AirPR is just the fix.

It sounds pretty massive, no?  

Well, when you actually look at what AirPR is doing, no. But, does it need to be? That’s a better question.

The service purports to be a Match.com between companies and PR talent. And, much like Match.com has ended divorce, loneliness and has us firmly on track for world peace, AirPR will solve all the ills of the PR industry.

Here’s what it could actually solve for:

• Helping companies find PR consultants willing to work with them at an agreeable price.
• Helping PR consultants get work.

That’s it.

And, you know what? Assuming it works and has a strong, diverse talent pool, this is a good thing. I could see using it myself to find a skilled writer based in Vermont to work on a discreet project. I could see many small start-ups without VC connections having access to a talent pool that previously was a daunting mystery. Likewise, I can imagine it helping people with a handful of years of experience and without big networks start consulting practices.

The most interesting part of AirPR is not what it is but what it represents. It’s representative of a trend that the big agencies have brought upon themselves — the commoditization of the block and tackle, non-strategic element of PR. Big agencies make the bulk of their profit off of the spread between what their most junior staffers make and what they bill for their hourly work. And, the more this kind of junior-level work is done for companies, the more people assume that their output is PR and that it doesn’t get better than this (or it can’t). 

The bar gets set really low and PR is seen as a series of press releases and pitches.

I fail to understand how AirPR will have a direct impact on improving creativity; the development of strategy and execution of intelligent tactics over the status quo. And, having more first-time consultants reporting to winner-takes-all entrepreneurs, could exacerbate the most common complaints about PR. However, AirPR’s very existence should bring awareness to the delta between the prices that big agencies charge for basic work and what you could get from an insta-team of consultants. This, alone, might drive some positive change in shifting the value structure in big agencies to providing more lasting value.

(Side note: Guru.com was the dot com version of AirPR that covered all types of industries and skills. It still exists after a couple of ownership changes and currently lists nearly 5000 PR consultants.)

Go Away

I just returned from a trip of a lifetime — three months in Costa Rica with my wife and two young children. We experienced amazing wildlife just outside (and inside) our doors; embraced the culture of the small beach town we called home; and, came home with an untold number of vivid memories that will help shape us as individuals and as a family forever.

To make it happen, my wife quit her job as an up-and-coming executive in the financial industry, and I put my post-Twitter next steps on hold.

I can’t recommend a significant break like this enough.

But, I know what you are thinking. I can’t do that. My job/kid’s school/financial situation/home remodel won’t let me. And, it’s probably true. They won’t — because you have established one or more of these things as your priorities already.

My suggestion is to make taking a sabbatical a top priority and then have other things in your life work around it.

Once you do this, you need to look out for a sliver of an opportunity to pounce on to schedule a trip. This could be a change in jobs, for example. In this scenario, you could tell your new employer that you have planned a three-month break in June of 2014 and it’s a condition of your employment. Since 2014 seems so far away, the new boss could very well acquiesce. Or, do the same at your current job when you get a job offer somewhere else and have added leverage. And, so on.

Also, a trip to Costa Rica or another paradise is not required. Just a drastic change in routine. This could mean doing a apartment swap with someone in another city; a stint with the Peace Corp; or, simply staying at home and forcing yourself to get out of ruts. There are innumerable cheap options if you are determined to take the break.

My trip had nothing to do with making me better at my job. That was far from the purpose. But, in reality, it will.

I was able to think more deeply (and slowly) about communications and where the world is headed than in the previous couple years combined. I learned that this slow thinking is essential to being optimally strategic and creative in communications and won’t enter into a future situation where thoughts are only fast and ephemeral.

I spent enough time away to get excited again about digging into work after 20+ years of cumulative impact.

And, mostly, I was able to get perspective. One example: There are insects everywhere in Costa Rica and tons and tons of ants. When we first got to Costa Rica we freaked out at half-inch fire ants running around on our floors and also massive lines of smaller black ants in our kitchens and bedrooms. It was a constant fight for the first couple of weeks.

And, then, a swarm of army ants attacked the house. Army ants look like this or this.  The move in swarms of hundreds of thousands to millions and eat pretty much every insect and small animal in their path. Here they come through one of our windows:

We moved our two little kids and fought a battle to keep them from getting too deep into the house. What we ended up with was many hundreds of dead ants all over our house and a deep stench of Raid.

The next day we learned that Costa Ricans welcome army ants into their home and appreciate the “cleaning” that they do in ridding their houses of dead and living insects. The army ants come in and leave after several hours. When they do, you leave your house and go to the beach or out to a meal. 

After this incident, the little black ants that were ubiquitous on our kitchen walls seemed less of a bother. So did the random scurrying fire ant.

We also go mentally prepared in case we had another army ant attack and devised a plan. And, indeed, we did get one the day of youngest child turned two and hours before her party. This time, we quickly packed an overnight bag and monitored the ants as they entered a back room and feasted on whatever was in a dark closet. While the ants did this, we worked on making guacamole and getting the rest of the house ready. Luckily, the army ants didn’t find much inside our house this time and left to attack the inside of our gutters and the yard around us.

In communications, we always have ants there to distract us. They come in the form of tweets, random emails and news articles about your firm or client or competitors. You can spend all day battling ants and feel good about yourself when they’re dead.

But, you know, they’ll be back tomorrow. And you’ll go through the same routine.

I’ve come to think of this as the unbearable immediacy of now. It’s something tricks us into thinking we’re living in the moment but are really just reacting to small stuff that barely adds up to a hill of ants.

Instead, we’re better off ignoring the little ants and being prepared for the veritable army ant attack — but not even letting them knock us off our game.

Feel free to email me at my name (one word) at gmail if you want advice on checking out for a few months. My experience taught me a ton and so did researching how others did it (even with all the impediments listed above). I can also send you a link to our personal travel blog that covers the more profound impact of the trip.

Advice to the Graduate (Interested in PR)

“Well don’t believe in people who say it’s all been done,

They have time to talk because their race is run”

—“Advice to the Graduate”, Silver Jews

The day after my last college final, I packed up everything I owned, drove a sputtering car six hours and started work doing communications for a state-wide political campaign in Sacramento. That Monday began 22 years of experiences. 

I’ve had the pleasure of working with so many people smarter than me; seen remarkable transformation in how communications is done (my first job was pre-email) and made and learned from thousands of mistakes big and small.

Here’s my scattershot advice for new graduates, anyone else looking enter into the public relations industry or those wanting to change their path from within it:

Big picture

• Your timing is great. But hurry. Marketing and communications is about to go through its biggest transformation and disruption ever. Walls are going to be broken down between traditional marketing, advertising, and PR as social and digital trends agitate and then force change. Money will shift. New winners will be crowned.

Where to work

• Get your tail to San Francisco. Man, there are so many interesting things happening here right now — from consumer Internet stuff to far, far beyond — and so many of them are looking for communications support. Yes, there will be boom and bust cycles. I’ve worked through several of them. But, out of dynamism comes opportunity who doesn’t get caught up in over-optimism or gloom. Get in at the ground floor and make the most of every second of any chance that you get. It will be a lesson that will pay off for decades to come. If you can’t get in at a company, there are plenty of PR, digital and marketing firms who are looking for help. Worst case scenario is a year in San Francisco.

• Work on a political campaign. Nothing quite focuses you like an election day. And because of this, campaigns are generally fairly innovative and proactive creatures along with being tests of stamina and discipline. You can learn as much on a six-month campaign as you would learn in a few years at a big company.

• Don’t work in a big conglomerate agency. Hey, some of my best friends are in big agencies. But they are mostly old like me and a big agency is the right step in their current career phase. But, in one big over-generalization, if you have a choice, I don’t think it’s the right step for you. Here’s why: Junior folks at big agencies are commoditized profit centers. Their low comp structure combined with their high billablity (the amount of time you spend on client work) and relatively high hourly rates goes a long way in satisfying regional profit and loss statements and, ultimately, shareholder interests. I personally don’t think this creates the optimal environment for professional development. And, despite their sidecar digital and social media efforts, I don’t believe that big agencies are as well-positioned to take advantage of the coming disruptions in the industry as others. Yes, you will learn things from working at a big agency — especially if you are a street-smart type and/or had the opportunity to master the system at a big public university. I, for one, learned that it wasn’t for me. 

• Don’t work in PR to eventually work in communications. You can chose a first or new job that covers an important facet of emerging communications and marketing but isn’t at a PR firm or for a corporate comms team at a company. At Twitter we hired a fantastic guy who’s primary experience was working as an intern at an ad agency and who understood how to bring social, video and guerrilla marketing elements to the table.

• Treat your first (or next) job as a step toward your dream job. Along the lines of the above, know what you ultimately want and make it a criteria of your first (or next) job to contain a tangible element that helps you get there. As you make further career steps, build out these experiences until you ultimately have everything needed to get your dream job. Don’t go sideways or backwards but realize that once you get your dream job you many rinse and repeat this process.

Once you get the job

• Trust your instincts and provide succinct recommendations. I once worked with a nationally-known consultant who has been a key player on presidential campaigns. When we were teaming on providing strategy to a client, I would often give long, analytical answers that brilliantly covered every possibly angle of a situation and provided a winding path to success. I would get some positive murmurs and that was about it. This guy would turn my monlogue into a bumper sticker; say it loudly and pound his fist. The room would erupt in agreement. My initial reaction was that my colleague dumbed things down. But, he really didn’t. He took a solid strategy and sold it in the only way that would allow it to move forward. As you move higher up the ladder in working with busy people and places, you, ironically, have less time to provide thoughtful strategy. Learn to be simple, sharp and don’t equivocate. (This is a lesson that I will always continue to work on in my career).

• The easiest advice ever: Tell the truth. Perhaps one of the biggest misconceptions about PR is that practitioners are professional liars at worse and masters of obfuscation at best. A good comms person knows that truths are the most powerful messaging and doesn’t back down when seeking them within an organization.

• Write well. This takes practice and repeatedly asking for advice and help. Do these things. You will always have a good job if you can apply quality writing to sound strategy.

• Don’t work with assholes. Ever. This is a good rule for any industry and life in general. But, it’s really important in your job. Unlike, say, law or finance, assholes tend not to be good at PR even if they are in a position of power. Working with assholes — be they your boss, clients or peers — twists your perspective on the right thing to do and eventually makes you hate your job. Keep your perspective and deal with the issue quickly and forthrightly. You’ll be respected for it. Even better, you’ll respect yourself for it.

• Relationships are not built on schmoozing. It’s a schmoozy industry but don’t let it pull you in. Spend quality time getting to know an interesting colleague, a reporter or someone you respect and do it with no agenda in mind. Spend very little time glad-handing. You’ll be amazed by the meaningful contacts that you can make when you aren’t keeping score.

• Reporters will complain about what you do. Or, rather, what some of your peers do. These complaints will revolve around two categories: Giving them unwanted information and not giving them (and only them) wanted information. Learn how to not do the former and that you will never be able to fully please on the latter. Even better, challenge old constructs of media relations and begin to adapt them for a more open, transparent, and fast-moving world. Treat discussions of things like “embargoes” and “press releases” as if they were conversations about cigarettes being a wise complement to dieting.

• The industry is insecure. Don’t be. The only thing worse than ad hominem attacks on PR is the cycles of self-hating that come from it. Separate helpful lessons from navel gazing and quickly move on.

• Don’t try to define PR. This is related to the above. Remarkably, there are all many people in the industry who spend a lot of time worrying about the definition of PR and work to come up with something “measurable” and “actionable” that gets them a “seat at the table.” Another great way to get a seat at this proverbial table is to do a really good job and not care about definitions. In fact, the more you set parameters about what you do and can do, the harder it will be to evolve your role as all things marketing change. You are better off not knowing what PR is supposed to be and simply doing whatever needs to be done to be successful.

• You own the future. I don’t. I’m pretty good around The Twitters and other social media whatnots, but I’ll never be a digital native. (I used something called “microfiche” to research my college papers). Don’t take this standing for granted. You need to aggressively keep aware of both technological and marketing trends that impact communications, teach yourself about new tools and techniques and, most importantly, get solid context on what’s a passing fad or a waste of time and what actually will leapfrog what others my age are spouting off about. What’s critical is that you learn to do things that your boss (or even your peers) either can’t do or doesn’t have time/inclination to do. 

You’ve picked a great career path. Stick with it. Once you get past some of the most mind-numbing entry-level stuff, it gets interesting and it stays that way as long as you keep your perspective on right and wrong, keep reinventing yourself and speak-up.

The Full Story — Or one side of it anyway.

It’s common practice for PR folk to take notes during an executive interview with a reporter. Some companies take this at step further and either record the interviews or practically transcribe them. When a reporter is working on a feature and interviewing multiple execs, detailed notes obviously provide good insight on the direction a reporter is taking and how well the exec is responding and leading the company story. Read holistically, they also provide a current and deep view from all corners of the company that can be quite helpful in a fast-moving business for employees well beyond the comms team.

Of course, all this depth and breadth invariably gets boiled down into anywhere from a few to a dozen quotes. Twenty thousand words become a small part of a two thousand word story. When things turn out well, the essence of the conversations carry through to the story. Things don’t always turn out well.

My question: Why not post the transcripts all of the on-the-record interviews somewhere once the story does come out and regardless of whether its positive, negative or neutral?

You’re proud of the intelligence and the viewpoints across your company that were so neatly summarized in a series of closed door interviews. You have the notes in a handy Google Doc. So why not make them public?  Others will be free to create their own stories from the conversations. People will learn more about how stories are formed. More insight into the humanness of the interview subjects will be had.

Who “owns” the interview anyway?

Whenever I bring this idea up, I get the immediate: “Well, reporters would think you are a dick and never want to work with you again.”

Well, maybe we need to think deeper about supposed rules of engagement. And, there’s no reason why this should be a antagonistic thing. The first couple times that you tell a reporter in advance that you will make the transcripts public once the story comes out will likely be an interesting conversation. But, if it becomes your thing to provide more transparency and openness to the dynamic of closed door media access, then it’s a pretty simple calculus for all parties discussing a future story.

What do you think? Insane? Useless? Helpful? 

Personally, I think that the dance between media and companies can be about as antiquated as the jitterbug. It doesn’t mean that it’s all wrong. But, it can’t hurt to occasionally rethink and evolve elements of it that even the most social/blog friendly companies (and reporters) still twist and turn to.

Fascination Street

So let’s cut the conversation,

And get out for a bit…

-The Cure, “Fascination Street”

The fascination with the SF Weekly column on how right-thinking people shouldn’t be fascinated with self-fascinated tech bloggers is, well, fascinating. 

I’ve long wondered why so much attention is given to the small stakes ego-driven drama that emanates from certain tech blogs. My theory: They are painfully human - magnificent flaws and all.

Many of these blogs flipped out at the thought of a reality TV show about life in Silicon Valley. But, the truth is, they are already our reality show and are perfectly cast to generate conflict and interest.

Human nature cuts both ways. For example, along with remarkable insecurities also comes heart-felt honesty (intended or not). When many of these bloggers write passionately about a topic, they can take you beyond an intellectual exercise and make you feel something a product, industry or company that others may only discuss in the most saccharine terms.

It’s not always pretty. You may need to take a shower after reading the self-involved crap. But, it keeps people coming back because they actually get that this isn’t supposed to be Syria-heavy. They get that this great, transformative industry that is changing the world is somehow run and powered by tremendously flawed human beings. We only deserve (and secretly want) people like us to chronicle this insane ride.

It happens sometimes. People just explode. Natural causes.

Hey guys.

Since I was at Twitter, one of the things I have been doing a lot of is pontificating. Those who know me would say that this isn’t too different any period in my life. But, when it comes to the state of the marketing/communications industry, there has been an actual point, edge and timeliness to my rants — as opposed to my more typical babblings about the dangerous threat of dubstep, the SF Giants’ lack of hitting or foodie restaurants that have some sort of political agenda against serving non-artisan soft drinks.

To spread the pain away from my friends and Twitter followers… this blog.

I blogged a lot from 2004-2009 and got burned out on it. It became a chore and something that was always hanging over my head to do. That shouldn’t happen here. There’s so much happening with the evolvement of communications, the internet industry and media landscape that available time will be my primary inhibitor to the creation of words and obtuse references to movies from the early ’80s.