Author: Robert Schouwenburg

Self-Destructive Behavior of Entrepreneurs

The article Why do entrepreneurs engage in self-sabotage? tells something about human nature which in general applies to everyone, but gets super-exposed when starting a company.

How to write engaging stories

Pixar Story Rules (one version) [2012]

This is from 2012 and has been written about many times on the internet, but I came across it recently for the first time. As someone who likes to write but has no particular talent in that, I do find it fascinating how writers think and write. Here’s a summary of the rules of story telling by Emma Coats (Story Artist at Pixar at the time, now at Google)

​Social Media Use in 2018 – PEW Research

PEW Research issued a report on social media use by Americans.Nothing really new under the sun this report, usage is same for the major players and up for the runner ups. They didn't research anything about usage in this report, but I bet the usage has changed significantly over the last few years. I think people create less and more passively consume. In line with we stopped referring to them as social networks but social media - something to passively consume, created by a select group of actors.

Why Blockchain Matters

It's an excellent introductory talk by Muneeb Ali into blockchain and why blockchain matters. He uses very concise arguments, stays away from technology and - more importantly - cryptocurrencies. Even though there's nothing new (for me) in this talk, I found it very inspiring.

Make you feel safe

The Art of Persuasion

First Round Review keep putting out excellent articles, but every now and then one of them is a must read. The post Master the Art of Influence — Persuasion as a Skill and Habit is definitely in this category - especially when you’re pitching or selling something. This article gives a great overview with concise and concrete examples on how to persuade people for your ideas, companies, views or products.

Values inspires and action follows

Why -> How -> What = How Great Leaders Inspire Action

The TED talk “How Great Leaders Inspire Action” is a classic but I came across it quite recently. You could substitute leaders with organizations or companies. The end result is the same. When there is a clear defined WHY, it’s easier to persuade people on your HOW and WHAT. This applies to defining, building and selling your product through hiring members for your team. If you can’t clearly define WHY, then HOW and WHAT does not really matter. It will never be as convincing.

History says yes

Disrupting Facebook and Google

NYMag poses the question if Facebook and Google be disrupted? The writer argues that both have self-enforcing network-of-networks which makes it much harder up to impossible to disrupt them - harder than Facebook overtaking MySpace and Google overtaking AltaVista. The answer is yes and no.

Analysis of credit card transactions

20% Of Customers Bring In 50%+ of Revenue

Second Measure analyzes credit card transactions. In their analysis they found that just 20% of customers were responsible for more than 50% of the revenue for the top 1000 companies they have transaction data available. The average top 20 customer spends 8x more than the average bottom 80% customer.

A tale of email

I won

Three years ago I started on a quest to get rid of all newsletters, retention emails and other commercial (to me) non-relevant emails. My inbox was overflowing with emails I did not care about and I noticed I was mostly idly swiping away to delete these emails without ever reading them. It was time to do something about it.

The Evolving Economics of Bitcoin, Gold and Fiat Currencies

An excellent article explaining bitcoins place in the world, its shortcomings and potential without divulging into speculative or irrational arguments. The base argument is that the deflationary aspect of bitcoin fixed money supply is hampering the ability to support deferred payments.