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      “Get a New History”: Building the Next Silicon Valley

      Cities around the world want to become "the next Silicon Valley" and the race to be the next Silicon Something is already a bit of a joke. New York has Silicon...

      Early Warning Signs

      Business competition is always interesting, in part because smart companies figure out how to avoid competition by specializing and differentiating their product or service. When Sun Tzu admonished his generals against...

      Denial is Bigger than Amazon

      Talk to a book author, publisher, or retailer about the future of their business and the denials begin. “Never before have there been so many good books to read”. “Books are...

      Manufacturing Myths in Palo Alto and Pittsburgh

      The transition from fields to factories has always been a mix of agony and hope. Families abandon land and traditions that often go back generations, move to cities and reset their...

      The Store is Closing: What Happens to Brick and Mortar Retail?

      In 1997, I thought that this new Internet thing might be a great way to aggregate millions of used, rare, and out of print books from around the world. We could...

      Is Amazon Inside Apple’s OODA Loop?

      John Boyd was a legendary US fighter pilot during the Korean War who later became a fighter pilot instructor. He had a standing bet with his students: he would meet you...

      Will Technology Burst Higher Education’s Bubble?

      Imagine a service business whose core processes have not changed since medieval times, economically dependent on huge federal subsidies, and protected by a system of self-accreditation designed to exclude rivals. Imagine...

      When Protection Makes You Weaker

      A recent best-selling book suggests that people were Born to Run, yet data suggest that between a third and half of runners get hurt running every year. Why is this? Journalist...

      Seven Forces That Will Transform Book Publishing

      During the past few years, technology has transformed the music industry. As music went digital, it was pirated, deconstructed, and mashed. As music stores and labels disappeared, their lobby, the RIAA,...

      Steve Jobs: One Last Thing…

      In preparation for landing at SFO, I had closed the MacBook Air and turned off the iPad, but as I touched down, my iPhone beeped. The text from my son made...

      “We are Going to Pass” The Ten Reasons that VCs Turn Down Startups

      Every few years, Silicon Valley grows strong, flies high, makes beautiful music and then, like the Phoenix of ancient myth, burns to ashes and starts the cycle again. At the moment,...

      Ben Horowitz: Tech’s New Andy Grove

      If Silicon Valley is rich, how come it ain’t smart? How is it that we consistently generate innovative companies but rarely produce management thinkers of consequence? Part of the problem is that...

      Atul Gawande: America’s Doctor

      Who is Atul Gawande and why is he having a bigger impact on your life than any physician in America who is not treating you? Gawande is a cancer surgeon in Boston....

      Billionaire Amazon CEO works in his own warehouse

      He may look like a leprechaun and laugh like a hyena, but do not ever underestimate Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. Back in 2006, Amazon accounted for 5.1% of all...

      The Horrible Choices Facing the US Auto Hospice

      The United States will either lose its car industry and with it much of the industrial midwest, or the federal government will force it to restructure against its will -- something...