The Quarterly Goodies — Hacker Credit Cards, Alpha BRAIN, Refuel Bars, and More

Every three months, I ship out a box of amazing physical products, along with two personal letters explaining everything: a physical letter and a video “letter.”   One of the latter is above.  I do *not* plan on including these the blog, but giving an example is fun. The theme of these quarterly mailings is obsession–I include …

Feel Good Friday: Readers, You Did This — 21,559 Students Helped So Far…

Feel Good Friday: Readers, You Did This — 21,559 Students Helped So Far…

Imagine a huge stadium full of kids like this. It’s a lot, and you’ve helped them all. This post is an experiment. I’m calling it “Feel Good Friday.” There’s enough bad news in the world, so let’s spread a little optimism… Since May 13th, you have directly helped 21,559 high-need public school students in the …

The Magic of DonorsChoose — Join Me and Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian for Dinner

The Magic of DonorsChoose — Join Me and Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian for Dinner

DonorsChoose.org is the first charity named to Fast Company’s 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World. I dislike most non-profits because — good intentions aside — they get little or no results. DonorsChoose, on the other hand, is incredibly effective. In this month’s Vanity Fair, Melinda Gates describes them as “Kickstarter for classrooms.” Here’s her …

Tweet to Beat: Let Me Up the Ante (Plus: Vietnam School Video and Pics)

Tweet to Beat: Let Me Up the Ante (Plus: Vietnam School Video and Pics)

The smiles that greeted us at the preschools you helped build in Vietnam. (Photo: Matt) Thus far, the Tweet to Beat experiment has increased Twitter count from 22,500 to 29,276, which means $20,328 to U.S. public school students via Donorschoose (6,776 new followers x $3 each). This is good by any reasonable standard, but I’m …

The Tweet to Beat: Paying $3 Per Twitter Follower

The Tweet to Beat: Paying $3 Per Twitter Follower

48 hours ago in Hanoi, Vietnam. (Photo: Matt Mullenweg) “Tweet To Beat could generate help for thousands of students in high-need public schools. My colleagues and I are cheering you on!” -Charles Best, CEO of DonorsChoose.org The Ethical Bribe The gist: To benefit U.S. public school students, I will bribe the entire world to follow …

Deadline in Less Than 7 Hours – An Important Bribe (Plus: Happiness Research for Economic Crashes)

Deadline in Less Than 7 Hours – An Important Bribe (Plus: Happiness Research for Economic Crashes)

Take 10 seconds today to fill up your karmic bank account. (photo: woodleywonderworks) Part 1 – The Favor and Bribe This two-part post is interrelated, so I recommend you read both sections. If you take 10 seconds to do the first part, it should — based on the research — make you a happier person. …

Measuring Social Media ROI: A Case Study (Plus: Tweet to Beat Winners)

Measuring Social Media ROI: A Case Study (Plus: Tweet to Beat Winners)

Total Read Time: 10-15 Minutes Have you really seen ROI from Social Media? Social media marketing! Twitter consultancies! Conversational communications! Oh, these are exciting times. It seems like everyone and their grandma are getting into social media. On a whole, I think this is a good thing, but here’s the problem: whenever technology becomes fashion, …