Any twats out there tweeting can follow me on Twitter @wisslindixie - creative, I know.
My best materials is there. As is the case in the bedroom, my best work comes in quick, powerful bursts. Enjoy.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Boardshorts in my backpack, nothing else.
I just booked my ticket to go to Panama in 10 days. I have to say I feel a bit like this guy right now:
Toes
Toes
Friday, February 11, 2011
Innovation = Emancipation
We are enslaved by our own lack of creativity.
Everyday billions of people go to work at jobs they don't like. You are probably one of them, and I may be soon. But what if we were able to innovate our way into better situations?
Apple (hardly enslaved with $50 billion in cash reserves, but go with me) had reached a limit in revenue growth in early 2010. With popular products that would keep selling year after year at a strong growth rate, it would be considered one of the more successful consumer products companies in the world.
Apple needed to add to its product line, so it continued to innovate and created the iPad. The iPad accounted for 17% of Apple's revenues in 2010 in only seven months on the shelves. Apple expanded its pie by 17 freaking percent. Seventeen percent of a shitload is a fuckin' lot. (I learned that in business school.)
The question is: what is your iPad? The status quo exists and will lead to a predictable path. If we develop new ideas and take risks the pie can expand rapidly.
Everyday billions of people go to work at jobs they don't like. You are probably one of them, and I may be soon. But what if we were able to innovate our way into better situations?
Apple (hardly enslaved with $50 billion in cash reserves, but go with me) had reached a limit in revenue growth in early 2010. With popular products that would keep selling year after year at a strong growth rate, it would be considered one of the more successful consumer products companies in the world.
Apple needed to add to its product line, so it continued to innovate and created the iPad. The iPad accounted for 17% of Apple's revenues in 2010 in only seven months on the shelves. Apple expanded its pie by 17 freaking percent. Seventeen percent of a shitload is a fuckin' lot. (I learned that in business school.)
The question is: what is your iPad? The status quo exists and will lead to a predictable path. If we develop new ideas and take risks the pie can expand rapidly.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Surfline Translator App
I am soon to join all you toolbags with iPhones and I need some Apps to take up my time. I have a great idea for an App that many of us shredders will enjoy: I call it the Surfline Translator (Copyright Wisslin Dixie Enterprises 2011). This app uses a proprietary algorithm to take a report from a given spot and translate it into actual useful information. Consider a couple examples from today:
El Porto
This morning's dawn patrol: Clean lines with fun, scattered corners. Larger sets are a little inconsistent and overall shape looks a bit soft, so it might be a good idea to pack a fatter/fuller board today.
El Porto
This morning's dawn patrol: Clean lines with fun, scattered corners. Larger sets are a little inconsistent and overall shape looks a bit soft, so it might be a good idea to pack a fatter/fuller board today.
Translated: Small, closed out and already windy. Crowded as fuck. Go out if you want 3 new dings - 2 from the guy who hits you with his funboard and one from you punching your own board.
Rincon
This morning's dawn patrol: Clean, slow lines looking best for a fatter/fuller board. Workable with good shape but smaller and less consistent than yesterday.
Translated: Really small. If you leave now you can get to Mammoth by the start of the Super Bowl.
Cardiff
This morning's dawn patrol: Sectiony lines with a bit of a wobble/bump on it. Set waves show more definition. Cloudy with dense fog pockets and light winds too.
Translated: Pretty fun out there. You're lucky it isn't sunny or there would be 200,000 guys on longboards. Go rip pre-Super Bowl.
Ocean Beach SF
This morning's dawn patrol: Gusty N wind with some side-offshore funk/crumble to it. Definitely less size on tap today. Shape is just sectiony, crumbly and a bit mixed-up with a rare corner scattered around.
Translated: It's finally small enough to surf and not risk drowning and now it's windy. You're going to freeze you nuts off but go have a slay.
Venice
This morning's dawn patrol: Clean but looking pretty small overall with mainly knee high waves and occasional plus sets. Shape is mainly walled up with the best sets offering a short end corner.
Translated: It's Venice. It's closed out. If you don't know this by now then my Algerian prince friend has some Power Balance bracelets to sell you.
Monday, January 31, 2011
You got your MBA, huh?
An MBA can be a valuable piece of currency. That is one reason I decided to pursue one, in addition to the education and mountain of student loan debt I would accrue along the way.
The worlds of LinkedIn and Twitter can offer creative interpretations of what an MBA is. One LinkedIn user in my network claimed that he got his "MBA" (his quotes) while working on the road as a tour and team manager for a skateboard company. A guy I follow on Twitter an respect for what he has done in the business world recently tweeted that he "got (his) 'MBA' last night from knowledge dropped from" the founder of a large company he works for. (I know he doesn't read this, but I'll protect his identity anyway). Heck, the founder of his company deserves a ton of props because he has built a successful, wildly profitable company that markets its products better than almost anyone in the world. I would love to have a chat too.
The issue is the idea that a 45 minute chat constitutes an MBA. An MBA is not just some inside information. It is a series of seminars with different business professionals from different backgrounds. It takes years to complete, full dedication, and over a thousand hours of work when it's all said and done. It is meant to prepare one for any business situation that may arise, not unlike a law degree prepares one for any legal situation. You don't hear people claiming they got a JD after having coffee with Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Please stop this, people. No doubt you have had experiences that are probably much more valuable than what is offered in business school, but you don't have an MBA. If you mean it as a joke it's a dumb one, and the joke is on you.
Elitist rant ends here.
The worlds of LinkedIn and Twitter can offer creative interpretations of what an MBA is. One LinkedIn user in my network claimed that he got his "MBA" (his quotes) while working on the road as a tour and team manager for a skateboard company. A guy I follow on Twitter an respect for what he has done in the business world recently tweeted that he "got (his) 'MBA' last night from knowledge dropped from" the founder of a large company he works for. (I know he doesn't read this, but I'll protect his identity anyway). Heck, the founder of his company deserves a ton of props because he has built a successful, wildly profitable company that markets its products better than almost anyone in the world. I would love to have a chat too.
The issue is the idea that a 45 minute chat constitutes an MBA. An MBA is not just some inside information. It is a series of seminars with different business professionals from different backgrounds. It takes years to complete, full dedication, and over a thousand hours of work when it's all said and done. It is meant to prepare one for any business situation that may arise, not unlike a law degree prepares one for any legal situation. You don't hear people claiming they got a JD after having coffee with Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Please stop this, people. No doubt you have had experiences that are probably much more valuable than what is offered in business school, but you don't have an MBA. If you mean it as a joke it's a dumb one, and the joke is on you.
Elitist rant ends here.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Searching for things that don't exist
I enjoy people, especially smart ones.
Paulo Coelho wrote "The Alchemist" and other rather quixotic novels, and he always seems to have a (sometimes annoying) positive message on Twitter. However, I enjoy Mr. Coelho. So do 4.2 million other tweeters. He interviewed Napster founder, early facebook contributor and guy-who-was-played-by-Justin-Timberlake, Sean Parker.
Parker and Coelho discuss facebook, The Social Network and happiness in general. Coelho and Parker ask each other if they are happy. Instead of dishing out some boiler plate bullshit on happiness being the only thing that matters, seeking the light, etc, Coelho says,
"No. I'm never happy... It was not one of my goals to be happy. One of my goals in life was to have challenges. It was to have joy. At the end of the day it was to have fun, which I have and I'm sure you have... in the sense that you and I are never satisfied. We need the next step, the next mountain to climb."
I like this. It's simple to make happiness a goal, but that is like making wellness a goal without focusing on our health.
People like Paulo live in a state of perpetual dissatisfaction. I feel like I constantly need challenges as well to attain any state of happiness. I will never surf as good as I think I can. I will never travel to enough places or have enough knowledge of all the things I am passionate about. My career goals are impossible to define and thus impossible to achieve.
I know how to find happiness and simple satisfaction. I am easily pleased, but I am looking for more. I am working toward something I will never get and I don't plan on changing that any time soon.
Paulo Coelho wrote "The Alchemist" and other rather quixotic novels, and he always seems to have a (sometimes annoying) positive message on Twitter. However, I enjoy Mr. Coelho. So do 4.2 million other tweeters. He interviewed Napster founder, early facebook contributor and guy-who-was-played-by-Justin-Timberlake, Sean Parker.
Parker and Coelho discuss facebook, The Social Network and happiness in general. Coelho and Parker ask each other if they are happy. Instead of dishing out some boiler plate bullshit on happiness being the only thing that matters, seeking the light, etc, Coelho says,
"No. I'm never happy... It was not one of my goals to be happy. One of my goals in life was to have challenges. It was to have joy. At the end of the day it was to have fun, which I have and I'm sure you have... in the sense that you and I are never satisfied. We need the next step, the next mountain to climb."
I like this. It's simple to make happiness a goal, but that is like making wellness a goal without focusing on our health.
People like Paulo live in a state of perpetual dissatisfaction. I feel like I constantly need challenges as well to attain any state of happiness. I will never surf as good as I think I can. I will never travel to enough places or have enough knowledge of all the things I am passionate about. My career goals are impossible to define and thus impossible to achieve.
I know how to find happiness and simple satisfaction. I am easily pleased, but I am looking for more. I am working toward something I will never get and I don't plan on changing that any time soon.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Aught
At the risk of closing the barn door before the horses are back in, I am going to close off 2010. In many ways the year has been a wash and write-off. Things have been strange.
I started the year in the clutches of a wiry and lovely Asian girl named Swam somewhere in San Francisco. She resisted my urges and I was left looking for a cab to the afterparty. It was fun regardless.
Next was getting fired from my job and getting shut down by a girl I had been seeing. In the same day. Then paddling out and surfing some of the best waves of the winter. The same day.
I decided to go to business school and took the GMAT. I was sick for the week before the exam and studied in bed wrapped in blankets and sweatpants, high on Day Quil. I went to some job interviews and watched the Olympics for hours on end. My favorite athlete was the Canadian Curling Cougar.
Baseball season began and I watched one game. School started in May and my class was really easy. I figured I would coast through b-school. I filed my first-ever small claims lawsuit.
Next came the World Cup. I got up early every morning and watched almost every game. The US was awesome, but not quite awesome enough. The French Open was on at the same time and Rafa won. He is so charmingly handsome with his pirata pants and goofy smile. Plays some exciting tennis too.
Spain won the Cup (I picked them and bet $0) and I was pumped. I booked a ticket to France for August. I was served a lawsuit. Sued for the first time, yay!
August came soon enough and I was straight into organizing some surf events. The whole time was a blast. I came close to staying to work on some other events around Europe. In retrospect, I probably should have done so.
I began my first full semester of b-school with the taste of baguette still on my tongue and sunk my teeth into some interesting material.
I needed to get back on a plane so I went to NYC to visit LeJay'De. I landed and went straight to a bar, then drank until 5am before eating a lamb sandwich and going to sleep. I repeated for the next 3 nights. Word is I missed the best East Coast swell of the year from Hurricane Igor, which was spewing perfect surf a PBR's throw from the apartment we stayed in. C'est la vie.
My brother moved to Northern California to go to school and play baseball. I flew up just after my birthday in October to visit him. Some fun times.
The last 2 months have flown by like a swift penguin. Maybe more of a crash, burn and blur. SB Beer Fest, World Series, Halloween, finals, a road trip to the Bay Area and then Christmas.
Randy Pausch said, "Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want."
I suppose 2010 was a year of experience for me. I felt like I was in bed with a hot chick and couldn't get a chub. Some great times and near misses. I learned that things aren't always "fair." Maybe I should have learned that by age 25...
However when I count my blessings I need to take my shoes off - they are many. Compared to the things that have happened to those around me my life is going pretty smooth.
Wheels up. 2011 is on.
I started the year in the clutches of a wiry and lovely Asian girl named Swam somewhere in San Francisco. She resisted my urges and I was left looking for a cab to the afterparty. It was fun regardless.
Next was getting fired from my job and getting shut down by a girl I had been seeing. In the same day. Then paddling out and surfing some of the best waves of the winter. The same day.
I decided to go to business school and took the GMAT. I was sick for the week before the exam and studied in bed wrapped in blankets and sweatpants, high on Day Quil. I went to some job interviews and watched the Olympics for hours on end. My favorite athlete was the Canadian Curling Cougar.
Gi. Gi. Ty. Gooooo!
Baseball season began and I watched one game. School started in May and my class was really easy. I figured I would coast through b-school. I filed my first-ever small claims lawsuit.
Next came the World Cup. I got up early every morning and watched almost every game. The US was awesome, but not quite awesome enough. The French Open was on at the same time and Rafa won. He is so charmingly handsome with his pirata pants and goofy smile. Plays some exciting tennis too.
Spain won the Cup (I picked them and bet $0) and I was pumped. I booked a ticket to France for August. I was served a lawsuit. Sued for the first time, yay!
August came soon enough and I was straight into organizing some surf events. The whole time was a blast. I came close to staying to work on some other events around Europe. In retrospect, I probably should have done so.
I began my first full semester of b-school with the taste of baguette still on my tongue and sunk my teeth into some interesting material.
I needed to get back on a plane so I went to NYC to visit LeJay'De. I landed and went straight to a bar, then drank until 5am before eating a lamb sandwich and going to sleep. I repeated for the next 3 nights. Word is I missed the best East Coast swell of the year from Hurricane Igor, which was spewing perfect surf a PBR's throw from the apartment we stayed in. C'est la vie.
My brother moved to Northern California to go to school and play baseball. I flew up just after my birthday in October to visit him. Some fun times.
The last 2 months have flown by like a swift penguin. Maybe more of a crash, burn and blur. SB Beer Fest, World Series, Halloween, finals, a road trip to the Bay Area and then Christmas.
Randy Pausch said, "Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want."
I suppose 2010 was a year of experience for me. I felt like I was in bed with a hot chick and couldn't get a chub. Some great times and near misses. I learned that things aren't always "fair." Maybe I should have learned that by age 25...
However when I count my blessings I need to take my shoes off - they are many. Compared to the things that have happened to those around me my life is going pretty smooth.
Wheels up. 2011 is on.
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