Brett Hutley's Blog » Interesting

Grayclaves and Henry the Lion

brett — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 21:55:01 +0000

I read two articles on a similar theme this morning. Firstly there was Scott Adams' post Startup Country, about creating a small, elite, light-weight country inside another country and using it to bootstrap the economy of the larger country. Secondly I read The Politically Incorrect Guide to Ending Poverty, published by The Atlantic. This article actually talks about Paul Romer's ideas on "Charter Cities" - a city governed by it's own charter, rather than national laws. According to The Atlantic, this idea goes back to the 12th century with Heny the Lion and the idea of Imperial Free Cities.

If I squint, I can maybe see this happening. Maybe it will be more along the lines of a Burbclave - a franchised nation nestled within a gated community (as envisaged by Neal Stephenson). Of course, by the time all this happens we'll be old and decrepit, so I think they'll be more like Grayclaves. We'll all be trading bio-engineered medicines with the Grayclave next door.

Coombe Abbey

The Future is Addictive

brett — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 22:15:49 +0000

I read Paul Graham's essay on the acceleration of addictiveness this morning, and it really struck a chord. I feel as though it is almost impossible to become bored these days, there is so much to do. Is this because the world is getting more addictive, or just because I have gotten older and have much more control over my life so I tend to do only those things I want to do?

If he is right and the world is becoming a more addictive place, then there are obviously many interesting implications for society as a whole. What will happen if most people are too addicted to the many pleasurable activities available to actually contribute to society? How can we make economically productive activities have the same level of addiction as those that consume economic capital? Definitely food for thought.

The Death of Blogging

brett — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 12:09:05 +0000

The Economist recently had an article on social media's impact on blogs, especially how sites like Facebook have meant the death of a large number of blogs. I have been thinking recently about this myself. I haven't posted on my own blog for over 6 months, partly because Facebook's status updates has fulfilled part of my communication needs. Partly because I've been going through a phase of focusing on work and reading, and haven't been interacting much with my social network.

I do think that blogs have a part in our future - I just think that the people who used blogs as a telephone will move to Facebook, those that used blogs as a form of SMS will move to Twitter, and those that feel the need to expound on a particular topic, and want their missives to have a greater scope and longevity will continue to use blogs.

Making your application viral

brett — Mon, 18 May 2009 19:43:31 +0000

Daniel Tenner has written an interesting post on how to make you application viral.

The core model for viral growth is the following: viral coefficient = (average number of users invited by each active user) x (proportion of invited users that actually join or become active) x (proportion of such users that invite others). Daniel provides a checklist of techniques designed to optimize the viral coefficient. The general techniques are as follows:

Make inviting people a core part of the process.
Keep pulling people back in
Be useful even if there are no other friends using the application.
Remove artificial invitation limits.

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Detroit – Ground Zero for Economic Collapse

brett — Mon, 11 May 2009 10:55:04 +0000

Here is a video showing how badly Detroit has been affected by the collapsing housing market. Towards the end of the video you can see some amazing mansions in the worst-hit areas of Detroit that you can supposedly buy at a massive discount.

Rehearsal for the Serenity’s bar fight scene

brett — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 22:31:47 +0000

This is a rehearsal for the bar fight scene in the move "Serenity" (found via Reddit). I think this is actually better than the final scene in the movie.

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