Anil explains how non-VC-funded, 'mom and pop'-style web startups have subverted the traditional path by cultivating slower, more manageable growth.

“Apparently people in their 20s are a bunch of entitled whiners. I also hear we’re afraid of hard work. I’m rather sick of hearing it. Of course we have a sense of entitlement—we had an understanding with the older generation. We followed through with our half of the deal. What happened? Let’s talk a bit about generational justice.” As a commenter puts it: “I’m a tired of hearing a generation that got everything handed to them (I’m looking at you baby-boomers) bungle everything up so badly and then badmouth the generation that has to clean up their mess (e.g. the national debt, the planet, the educational system, and so on).” See also my notes on that NYTimes article: http://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/b:a83c50952510

Finally got around to reading this. I still can't reconcile the problem, but this is a very thorough analysis. My hunch is that it isn't exactly an undiscovered life stage or nothing but spoiled kids, but rather a confluence of factors stemming from stuff like 'extended adolescence' (and the provision thereof by parents, college atmospheres, and the entertainment industry), the recession, the internet, and an increasingly ineffectual educational system.

"I felt like a fraud every day. Here I was, selling a wobbly, buggy tool and pawning myself off as an expert in a field that didn't exist. (My software was the first commercial tool for code review.) Every second I felt like I was putting one over on the world."

How to present and sell design: 1) Don't wing it — postpone until you're ready. 2) Really sell your design — the idea that 'good design speaks for itself' is a myth. 3) Don't get subjective or allow your feelings to get hurt — tell them to tell you when it doesn't work. 4) Don't embarrass the client — make them look good, be honest, listen to them.

How to figure out what a client's budget really is. "Don't be smarmy. Don't be curt. Be respectful, be honest, and inform your prospect during the sales process. If you do it right, right from the start, you'll build mutual respect and communication into the entire project."

Tips for effective sales management. Not particularly useful to me at the moment, since 90% of my work is long-term contracts, but good advice in general. "As my friend said, we are all selling at the end of the day. So, stop being afraid of the S-word. By finding a way to balance your creative role with giving sales the proper attention, you can improve the projects you’re working on and grow your business."

Thoughts and collected quotations on Bandcamp's change of plans.

An International Monetary Fund veteran explains how the US financial situation is like that of a less-powerful nation's developing economy. Oligarchy, corruption, and the financial sector's control of the government — it's not good.

Is it?

I want to revisit this later; it is an interesting retort to Michael Pollan and others' condemnations of current farming techniques.

The always-great Matt Thompson on why episodic news content isn't as helpful as laying a contextual groundwork for a story and then letting readers know about events that happen in that framework.

The extent to which large 'environmentalism' groups are actually destroying the environment with their corporate connections.

On the universal love for Jay-Z and his history as an authentic brand.

"I had this vision of the future — a ruined empire, run by number crunchers, squalid and stupid and puffed up with phony patriotism, settling for a long slow decline."

"The most immediate revelation, of course, is that at some point next year revenues from gigs payable to artists will for the first time overtake revenues accrued by labels from sales of recorded music."

Great, of course.

This is absolutely 100% true and if you don't realize it, you are dumb.

Everything is going to be okay.

Sifting through HRO's sorta-haughty satire is worth it for the occasion post like this, where whoever Carles is gets tired of mocking teenagers and writes something true and intriguing about the state of the music industry and popular music culture (at least for the indie set).

Basically: Publishing solves a problem that no longer exists, and we don't need newspapers; we need journalism. Amen.

Worth consideration. "SXSW is an extraordinary and well-run event. I simply wish that it would give something back to the artists who have made its existence possible." On the other hand, shouldn't artists have to fight tooth-and-nail for attention and acclaim among thousands of others, be poor and go back to the drawing board sometimes? Getting to the point where one can play at SXSW is a feat in itself; shouldn't it be enough of a reward? But then, shouldn't SXSW help these bands as much as it can, as much as it claims to want to?

I want to read this collection of articles someday, but I doubt I will.

I knew this was inevitable! "We aim to re-start production of analog INTEGRAL FILM for vintage Polaroid cameras in 2010. We have acquired Polaroid's old equipment, factory and seek your support."

How young and recently-laid-off media workers are forming mutually beneficial networks of small companies and doing well, considering the ongoing blunders of the new-media-misunderstanding companies they left behind.

On "shortening your workweek" in every way: outsourcing, clever promotion techniques, social engineering, and focusing on the right things.

Eric Harvey on point as usual: "Access to technology ≠ access to actual creative skill that people want to watch, not which is just dumb enough to drive people to iTunes."

Where friend Tom Wironen works (or used to, apparently). Manage The National and Nicole Atkins.

On the price of software.

On why entrepreneurs and health food nuts are living right, and cubiclones are missing something. "In an artificial world, only extremists live naturally."