Being prepared.

"If you're going to make a mailing list, at least make it a self-aware one."

— Me, like a month ago, when I first set this mailing list up.

Starting.

So.

Pathing.

• Brad Feld: "I Invest in CEOs Who Are Learning Machines." Yes please.
• John Foreman: "Defending PowerPoint Against Tufte." This is excellent, though I might nitpick a few of the details (I don't like slides.)
• Marc Andreessen: "The only thing that matters." On market size. Worth noting that Andreessen is specifically interested in really big companies.
• Mark Suster: "How Many Times Should You Tweet Your Blog Post?" This is better than it sounds. 
• Danny Crichton: "Disappearing Ladders." On the atraditional career path.
• Chris Dixon: "The next big thing will start out looking like a toy." Old but good startup advice. 
• The Wikipedia page for "Rubber duck debugging." Plain words, man. 
• Derek Sivers: "Ideas are just a multiplier of execution." A good theory of the value of work. 
• Matthew Hutson/The New Yorker: "The Power of the Hoodie-Wearing CEO." I'm glad that this doesn't psychoanalyze this issue; it's really a behavioral econ piece. 

Developing.

• Tyler Benedict/BikeRumor: "Empire Cycles X Renishaw - World's First 3D Printed Complete Bicycle Frame." Pretty self explanatory. The photo of the build plate is totally cool.
• The Wikipedia page for "Nickel titanium." Shape memory? Superelasticity? Dayum.
• CompositesWorld.com: "Canadian group: 3D printing of continuous fiber composites within reach." Seems a little far off to me, but pretty interesting tech.
• Danny Crichton: "Why elitism still matters in crowdfunding." Good piece on new SEC rules on general solicitation. 

Evaluating.

• Backblaze Blog: "What Hard Drive Should I Buy?" Really great breakdown of failure rates for popular consumer grade hard drives. Makes me want all Hitachi (now owned by Western Digital).
• Sheryl Canter: "Chemistry of Cast Iron Seasoning: A Science-Based How-To." Flaxseed oil!?!!
• Bill Simmons/Grantland: "Daring to Ask the PED Question." IMHO this is good journalism. 
• Nicola Twilley/Edible Geography: "Spaces of Banana Control." This is literally about a banana distributor, and it's great. 
• Felix Salmon/Reuters: "Adventures in art-market commodification, enhanced hammer edition." The difference between hammer price and price paid is apparently significant. 
• Joshua Hunt/The New Yorker: "The iPod of Prison." There is apparently a ubiquitous and very high quality AM/FM radio that most of us have never seen. Great story. 

Reflecting.

• The Wikipedia page for "Thagomizer." This is an actual term in paleontology, but it came from The Far Side. 
• Marc Hedlund: "Why Wesabe Lost to Mint." A great postmortem on a startup's failure. 
• Paul Offit/The Atlantic: "The Vitamin Myth: Why We Think We Need Supplements." This piece is like twice as long as it needs to be, but it's still worth reading. 
• Gregor Weichbrodt: "On The Road/for 17527 miles." This is a turn-by-turn list of directions that mirrors the route taken by Kerouac in "On The Road." Great meta-art. 
• Anonymous/Craigslist: "We were married for three days in 1989, and I saw you on the subway - m4w - 43 (L Train)." This is really heartbreaking. It'll be removed from CL at some point - if you can't find it, *definitely* google the title. 

And.

Love... Spencer.