Consider the above: a plug from a respected member of a community interested in our products (Svpply) produced roughly the same number of sales as a site driving 10x the trafficThat, in a nutshell, is the promise of social commerce: the right recommendation at the right time from the right person.
My dad drove over from Indiana to hang out and tinker this weekend. We replaced some deck boards and made a table for group dinners.
Svpply’s autocomplete in comments now includes your contacts from Facebook and Twitter.
Skillshare is a service founded by my friends Malcolm and Michael that allows people to host and take classes with each other. Anybody can register to teach a class about virtually anything, you can offer it for free or charge an admission fee if you’d like.
I haven’t taught a class yet (it’ll go up in a couple of weeks), but the first class I took was organized by a guy whose family runs a small bag company — they design, source manufacturing and market their bags. He taught us about running a small family business and how to design and produce physical goods in large quantities. His most interesting anecdotes involved going to Asia to build relationships with factory owners to find just the right partner to assist with material decisions and produce the bags. What I found most fun about the experience was meeting a couple dozen of other people interested in the same esoteric topic. I have this feeling that Skillshare classes could become a very dependable way to make new friends, collaborators, or for some people to find dates. The evening cost me $10, a better experience than going to the movies.
I’m optimistic about peer to peer education. On behalf of Founder Collective, I led investment in Skillshare’s seed round earlier this year, and it’s thrilling to see just a few months later hundreds of teachers and thousands of students participating in NYC, and the service nearing its launch in San Francisco and Philadelphia.
To kickstart Skillshare’s adoption even faster, I’m personally committing a thousand bucks to compensate anybody for fees related to taking a class. I’m certain that this investment will eventually pay dividends back to me in the form of a wider community of teachers and students for me to learn with and from.
I’ll pay each individual up to $20 for any class they pay to attend. If you want to participate:
The offer is good up until Aug 19 or until I’ve contributed $1000 in scholarships, whichever comes first.
One last thing. If you’re interested to teach a class, do it. It’s great way to supplement your cost of living, to meet people passionate about a similar subject, or to promote the services of your own business by sharing knowledge and skills. Create a class here.
jstn:
Gold is fantastically rare, not just on Earth but throughout the cosmos. All the gold ever mined by humankind would fit into a 20 meter cube (about three swimming pools full). As far as we know, the only time gold is created in the universe is during a supernova, in the last few seconds of the death throes of only the most massive stars. As the core collapses at one quarter the speed of light, temperatures reach 100 billion degrees and for just a moment the conditions are right for a supply of loose neutrons to be pushed into existing atoms and synthesize not just gold but every other element heavier than lead. When the star explodes all these heavy elements are ejected into the surrounding cosmos at up to 10% the speed of light, perhaps eventually winding up in a protoplanetary disc and baked into planets and other celestial bodies like our own.
The amount of gold on Earth is believed to have been the result of several supernovae, which are thought to occur in our galaxy only every 50 years. The last supernova observed as it happened was in 1604, visible to the naked eye in broad daylight for three weeks and leaving the remnant shown above.
Let’s mine that shit and make some jewelry.
The Empathic Civilization
(Source: youtube.com)
My friends Brian and Grace are building a cabin supported partly by trees at Beaver Brook.
Jace’s photo of my cabin.
Court and I are headed up to New Hampshire tonight to pick up this International Harvester Scout that was designed by Ted Ornas and manufactured in my hometown Fort Wayne in 1973.
I’m listening to The English Riviera by Metronomy.
Morning
My friend Nico’s opera Two Boys opens in London on June 24th.
(Source: vimeo.com)
My summer job.
Me and C.
oats:
My favorite picture from Sarah and Pete’s wedding. That’s Zach Klein in the background giving the Best Man’s speech. I also posted some videos - aisle exit, Bride Entrance, Courtney Commentary, etc.
Congrats, y’all.
