This is a truly random episode of Random. What has Kevin learned in his new role as CEO of Digg? Which new books, people, and websites are we finding interesting? From management lessons to language learning (and a critique of Rosetta Stone), this episode meanders all over the place.
This is also our first sponsored episode — Sonos! It’s quite cool that we’re now sponsored by a company whose products made a cameo as early as episode 2.
Thanks to awesome readers DynastyDC and Ben, here are the show notes and links…
Tim talks about his week in Amsterdam, the Queen’s Day celebration, The Next Web, the status to his upcoming book and DailyBurn’s business exit.
Kevin Rose, Digg Inc. CEO discusses product development, work frustrations, and the new Digg version with Cassandra back-end. The new version includes 3-5 core features, followed by weekly releases.
Show sponsor: Sonos—http://sonos.com/random
• Reference: The Next Web http://thenextweb.com
• Reference: Queens Day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koninginnedag
• Reference: Tim’s upcoming book http://su.pr/2iZgRr
• Reference: DailyBurn.com Exit http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/20/iac-dailyburn
-Business Exit def. http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/exit.html
Tim’s Recommendations
• Book: How to Break A Terrorist http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Break_a_Terrorist
• Clothing: Cordaround http://www.cordarounds.com/blog
• Person: Nassim Nicholas Taleb http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com
– Taleb’s book: The Black Swan (same link as above)
– Nassim Taleb on Twitter: http://twitter.com/nntaleb
• Website: Livemocha.com- Language learning http://www.livemocha.com
• Product: Pimsleur Direct- Language learning http://www.pimsleurdirect.com
– Turkish: Lonely Planet Phrasebook (Paperback) http://www.amazon.com/Turkish-Lonely-Phrasebook-Arzu-Kurklu/dp/1864503165
• Websites: www.livemocha.com and eduFire.com
Kevin’s Recommendations
Show Sponsor: http://www.sonos.com/random
• Reference: http://cassandra.apache.org
• Reference: Six Apart Co. http://www.sixapart.com
• Reference: Digg iPad App http://about.digg.com/blog/announcing-diggs-iphone-app
• Book: Rework 37 Signals- business minimalist philosophy http://smarterware.org/5373/rework-37signals-recipe-for-running-a-business (includes PDF excerpt)
• Person: Phillip Rosedale- Founder of Second Life, Founder of LoveMachineInc.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Rosedale
– LoveMachineInc.com
– employee 2 employee praise http://www.lovemachineinc.com
– Phillip Rosedale on Twitter: http://twitter.com/philiplinden
Philip’s awesome pants: Cordarounds— http://www.cordarounds.com/catalog
• Website: Evernote http://www.evernote.com
Glenn
• Glenn on tour with Delivering Happiness Book Team http://www.deliveringhappinessbook.com
Elsewhere on the web:
5 Alternatives to Traditional Retirement – US News and World Report
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The Tim Ferriss Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than one billion downloads. It has been selected for "Best of Apple Podcasts" three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it's been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page.
Comment Rules: Remember what Fonzie was like? Cool. That’s how we’re gonna be — cool. Critical is fine, but if you’re rude, we’ll delete your stuff. Please do not put your URL in the comment text and please use your PERSONAL name or initials and not your business name, as the latter comes off like spam. Have fun and thanks for adding to the conversation! (Thanks to Brian Oberkirch for the inspiration.)
Hey! I really liked your suggestions on language learning. I found a ressources which goes a little bit more into detail
Check it out: http://dam-age.com/?p=226
Take care
Gary: Bartering works in small communities but in the big wide world you’ll need a currency to hop on that boat or that train to get the hell out of dodge. You stick to your wheelbarrow of corn, I’ll stick to my gold coins, because the migrant man is a surviving man….
Joey the Bum: The problem with Nassim’s quote is that it’s based on a corrupt economic system that’s on a verge of a collapse. LTCM, housing bubble, toxic derivatives, even September 11th, were not rare nor were they unpredictable, only to people who weren’t paying attention–like your average Facebook user.
Watched Random last night and went and got a copy of Rework and read it today. I enjoyed it, however, the entire book is written from a negative perspective- a continuous list of things *not* to do. Human brains have a hard time learning by constantly telling them what not to do rather than from a positive, do-this-then-that point of view. There was a ton of really helpful advice in Rework, however, its going to be one of those books that wont help many people due to the way it is structured. It will only be one of those kinds of books that seems obvious to people like Kevin who already understand whats inside it, after they’ve had to live through it.
Kevin, I you should still think about writing your book, only, from a positive frame of reference.
Hey Tim!
I totally dig your stuff, man! Just discovered Random Show, great suggestions! Evernote – wow. In the W-2 world I’m a software engineer, and I can’t express to you how many times I’ve instinctively thought – ‘search’ – when I pick up a paper document or like you said a menu or something.
Here’s the thing… I feel like you share too much great info. I’m hooked. Its addicting.
I won’t watch the news… but I’ll find myself reading this blog for hours, haha.
When I was 12, my hero was Wolverine. At 27 its Tim Ferriss.
Keep it up, friend.
– Bret
God, I love Wolverine 🙂
For language learning, the Easy Learn programs from Learning Strategies Corporation are great. The most natural, enjoyable method I’ve tried (besides living in the country.) Unfortunately, they are only about two hours of audio for each language. Not nearly enough. And only Spanish, French and German. I wish they’d make more. I’ve been thinking of taking the basic idea and hiring out to create longer versions of the same thing. Perhaps someday.
In case anyone is wanting to download these random episodes to mp3, I’ve had great luck w/two sites:
– http://www.video2mp3.net (handles all but the vimeo stuff)
– http://www.tubeminator.com (converts both youtube and vimeo)
I’ve enjoyed all the random episodes Tim, thanks so much.
The black swan is a great book, and it works, I often say ‘well, i just don’t know but I can hedge’ 🙂
After watching the RDM Episode I started to play with Evernote. Way too much paper around my desk and Justin Case tell some to hold on to some of it. Scanning with my Iphone 3G and utilizing the OCR on Everynote has been hit and miss. Maybe the iphone4 will make things smoother and faster.
Long story short. In the video you guys mentioned scanners. What scanner would be a sold recommendation for a 1-10 page scan per day workflow? Small footprint desired. Reasonable budget.
Hey Klaus,
See the “gear” section (nav bar) to see what I use — ScanSnap.
Tim
Absolutely concur with what Tim says about Rosetta Stone, they work on the Berlitz churn it out pronciple. The idea that adults should learn a language like children sounds so logical, but it doesn’t really stand up in practice.
I’ve had a go a Live Mocha. It is useful but as pointed out elsewhere by other commentors also suffers from the cookie cutter approach. The best feature is the ability to contact native speakers. However, I must say that even that is hit and miss.
Good stuff Tim. Thanks for the direction on languages. I need to pick up French to better communicate with my wife’s family. (or not) :o)
I’ve done small biz interviews with owners in Marrakech and now doing them in Sens and Paris. What hardware/software/process do you use abroad when you are filming for the web? ie. filming, editing, uploading Your video quality and sound is always excellent.
Thank you for a very useful and inspiring episode. I gleaned a lot of positive measurements of creative mindset that you guys emanate. Plus realistic overview of language products, but the most, I’m taking the evernote. The best of adventure in Istambul!
Sorry guys, but couldn’t get past the first five minutes of back slapping!
Hahaha.. but, but… that’s what we do!
Tim
It was interesting video.I am a Japanese native speaker and currently trying to learn French as second foreign language.I have a question about your comment about Pimsleur series.Did you work on comprehensive course or conversation course for you feel confident enough to speak target language.If you finished comprehensive level three.It costs twice as much as cost of Rosetta stone software level 1 to 5.Well,you would say Pimsleur has better content than Rosetta stone.Pimsluer is each level for 345 dollars is good investment and I don’t want to waste it.
Are there alternative other than Pimsleur learning structure of new language?I do not want to work on conventional book study like I did for learning English.It took loooong time to reach before starting communicate native speakers.
Hi Junji,
Pimsleur doesn’t need to be that expensive. Just start with something simple like I did with Turkish:
http://www.amazon.com/Turkish-Conversational-Understand-Pimsleur-Schusters/dp/074355146X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276924237&sr=8-2
That’s about $40. Once you’re done with that (and you should start reading a basic grammar book after a week or so of CDs), you should move straight to practice with native speakers. Either travel to France for a while or use something like http://www.livemocha.com
Ganbare!
Tim
Tim – huge thanks for the Nassim Taleb recommendation. He’s got tremendously insightful quips on his twitter feed, and I’m expecting his books will be similarly excellent.
Thank you Tim.
Great idea.I joined livemoca.Learning from sound is good idea.Oh,conversational is not hundreds of dollars for try.
I think you should publish the language study reference book.You learned many languages and you know how to learn efficiently.Your experience is shared as a book.It will help so many people study foreign languages.
You can add some materials for Major languages which may be popular among many people.Your experience help many people step up to next level.
About English,I live in California and also I am an immigrant.I need to keep using English and learn it all the time.For communication,I am ok with most of situation but I want to reach to educated native speakers level.
maybe I will be “language Otaku” after I learned French for fun language.
If you like Pimsleur, you should check out “Fluenz” at fluenz.com. In a nutshell, it’s the Pimsleur method of spaced repition plus video and exercises. I’m a visual learner, and seeing the words on a screen definitely helps retaining them. Also, a teacher explains how the language works. I’m better at understanding rules and applying them instead of mindless memorization.
Downsides: It’s a little expensive (though not expensive as Rosetta Stone) and the language selection is rather limited.
Agree with most other comments, more videos, hurry up with the book, and dont take Glen’s cat.
To.
Hi Tim –
Thank you so much for all you do. The Four Hour Work Week literally changed my life. More on that later. I truly need a recommendation from you, your staff and your online community.
I am beginning to market a new supplement using a zero employee company concept. Things are moving along well and we truly ready to start production. I would love your recommendation as to what company to use to create the private label product. I am familiar with private label companies inside the USA, however not familiar outside the USA.
The question directly : If you were to package and sell a supplement product today, what company, in what world location would you use to produce the product?
Thank you so much for your input. Full story to follow really soon.
I think Digg still has plenty of innovation and game changing opportunities lurking within … it’s got enough tribe and crowd-source power to move multiple metaphorical mountains.
I’ve been surprised lately how some old apps have spruced themselves up and you can *feel* the difference … for example, LinkedIn is way more Facebook’ish now, and even Wikipedia’s facelift helps … it’s Web-based urban renewal in action.
Hey Tim…
Yo… you and Kevin are total badasses. I very much dig your vibe and philosophy on life. I’ve watched all the randoms, and am going out to get your book!
I have a quick question: (I’m a musician/music business guy sitting on a super crusher of a business plan for a new way to distribute independent music… although I have no capital and can’t code.)
If you were me would you?:
A) Go directly to angel investors and pitch the business trying to find seed money for a web development guy and not give % to them?
B) Give a smaller % to a web development guy, and pay a little bit?
C) Make full partner with web development guy and lose controlling interest of company?
I’ve done a shitload of market research and am ready to crush… I’m just nervous step 1 (setting up the business and finding seed money)
Keep killin’ it.. you’ve been a major inspiration and I watch you closely.
Peace,
Vincent
Hey Tim,
Awesome post, I wish I knew when more of these were coming out, and I wish, you and Kevin would schedule the next recording so we all knew when we could get our fill of the random podcast again!
Lets see some more of these. Kevin and Tim are two people I love hearing their perspective from. Read a lot of Tim’s stuff, some of its BS, lets be honest, but his perspective is awesome. I’ve been a Kevin Rose fan for a long time too.
Hey Tim,
I’d just like to say FINALLY! lol
I mentioned in a comment on an age old posting of yours (maybe an old episode of random) where you were talking about language learning (possibly chinese) and i had referred to you Live Mocha. Glad to see that you are now using the system and it is proving useful!
cheers,
Victor
Can I suggest 2 alternatives for some of the products/services you’ve mentioned?
Streaming (and downloading) music for free: http://www.soundcloud.com
It’s myspace done right and absoluyely great for discovering new artists in all genres.
Taking notes (with optical recognition) everywhere and store them into the cloud: Microsoft Onenote 2010
It’s a pretty decent alternative, especially for the corportate readers amongst us who have been bounded by their IT department to Microsoft software. Use for free at office.live.com
do they have the four hour work week in chinese … cause ive been looking for it … if anyone can help … thankyou
I love these episodes of The Random Show. It’s a mixture of it now having built up a reputation that you will actually learn at least 5 nuggets of wisdom and the fact that you guys make it personal.
Keep up the great work and I’m looking forward to the next episode!
BTW Tim, did I read you were a hurling champion over here in Ireland ? 🙂 Bring it on 😛
Hi Brian,
Not a hurling champion by a long stretch! I just trained and played a little over in Galway. What an awesome (and brutal) sport. Love it.
Tim
Tim was also National Chinese kickboxing champion! Not to mention that he holds the Guinness Book of World Records’ record for the most consecutive tango-spins in one minute.
Who’s your partner at that time Tim?
when it has a camera like the iphone on the upper right corner (as it should have when this tablet came out) i will get one… hell i will even get my grandmother one so she can ‘face talk’ with it
tim!
i’m really into language learning as well, so thank you for the lovely link!
also, if you’d like to practice some pronunciation for turkish, i’m a native speaker, i would love to help! your chinese sounds great!!! i’m behind on my japanese.
love the 4 hour workweek book btw, it’s been amazingly motivating. thanks!
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