Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Startup Geometry Podcast EP 011: Warren Ellis

Warren Ellis is a master storyteller with over twenty years experience producing amazing stories as serials, singles, graphic novels, books and films. He is also a very funny man, in all the best senses of the word.

From his website:
Warren Ellis is the award-winning writer of graphic novels like TRANSMETROPOLITAN, FELL, MINISTRY OF SPACE and PLANETARY, and the author of the NYT-bestselling GUN MACHINE and the “underground classic” novel CROOKED LITTLE VEIN. The movie RED is based on his graphic novel of the same name.
Today, we talk politics, life in the Thames Delta, managing the creative pipeline, quiet technology, glamorless utilities and cunning folk. His new and forthcoming work includes TREES and the new James Bond graphic novels.


Listen on iTunes.
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Show Links and Notes

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Startup Geometry Podcast EP 010: Nicolas Cole



Today, I talk with Nicolas Cole, a Creative Director with Idea Booth, a branding consultancy and think tank. When he was a teenager, he was a  highly ranked World of Warcraft player and blogger, spending hours online as an Undead Mage while skating through high school. Now, Cole is a Quora Top Writer, author, fitness model, and marketing expert. In this episode, we talk about how he physically and mentally transformed himself over the last seven years, and what it takes to overcome the limitations you impose on yourself.

Listen to us on iTunes



Show Notes and Links

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Startup Geometry Podcast EP 009: Alice Dreger

In this episode, I talk with Alice Dreger, author of Galileo's Middle Finger and former Professor of Clinical Medical Humanities and Bioethics at the Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern University in Chicago. She resigned from the position following a dispute over censorship of an issue of the medical humanities journal Atrium.

I first heard about Alice when she livetweeted her son's sex ed class, and in this episode we talk about the state of sex ed today, her work as an advocate for intersex individuals and conjoined twins, how she became interested in studying scientific controversies and contrarians, and answer some questions from listeners.

Listeners who have what used to be called a "sensitive constitution" may wish to avoid this episode, as we speak frankly about several adult topics, including genital anatomy, sexual behavior, and academic funding. Due to a higher than normal amount of email this month, any complaints about this episode must be hand-delivered to our Complaints Department, located in the secret caverns underneath Ulaan Bator, Mongolia.

If you enjoy these podcasts, please use iTunes to download, subscribe, rate and review each podcast, as this helps introduce us to new listeners.




Show Links and Notes:

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Startup Geometry Podcast EP 008: Justine Simonson and Marcus Lehmann of How To Make It In Berlin

Today, I talk with Justine Simonson and Marcus Lehmann, filmmakers and creators of the YouTube series How To Make It In _________.

Simonson Lehmann 2
From Justine &  Marcus:
How To Make It In: Berlin is the premier season of a web series about small businesses and the owners who took a risk in creating them. This season features 10 unique entrepreneurs and small business owners from Berlin's street food scene, tech startups, the service industry and more. Each season will be filmed in a different city around the world; Berlin is the premier location. Part travel show, part business series, How To Make It In:________ presents an in-the-know guide to its location while also delivering helpful tips for anyone who's ever dreamed of quitting their day job and starting fresh.
Simonson
Simonson Lehmann 3
The How To Make It In: Berlin series is available at  www.howtomakeitin.co and  on YouTube

  • What makes Berlin a good city for startups?
  • The essentials of a good documentary funding pitch
  • Ratio of shooting and editing
  • Good, fast, cheap. Pick two.
  • Justine's work on Years of Living Dangerously and Doomsday Preppers
  • Marcus's work on an Antarctic Icebreaker and Punkin' Chuckin'
  • What goes in your gear bag or go bag? Headlamps, a legal release app for filmmakers on iPad, a wireless boom mike
  • Cameras: Canon 5D, Sony FS7, GoPro
  • Where else they'd like to film 
If you enjoy these podcasts, please use iTunes to download, subscribe, rate and review each podcast, as this helps introduce them to new listeners.

Wednesday, September 09, 2015

Witness Me!

If I'm going to die, I'm going to die economic on the Fury Road.

I have an interesting observation about wages and the attention we pay to different types of inflation:



An interesting reaction to prices: we would be terribly concerned about 6% wage growth, yet find 6% energy price growth (or growth in any other volatile price) perfectly acceptable, because we have found a lot of volatility in the latter and less in the former in recent decades. Following decades of increases in worker productivity coupled with an absence of wage growth, we could have 30 years worth of catch up growth in median worker wages before we really need to worry about runaway inflation. Yes, automatic labor price increases embedded into contracts in the 60's and 70's contributed to high inflation in the 70's; however, those automatic increases leading to wage spirals are gone for most workers. Yet, members of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors are having conniption fits over a tight(er) labor market, worried about "inflation" which has not appeared yet.

More than that, there remain substantial pools of workers who have passed in the opposite direction from "employment" to "unemployment" to the invisible category of "discouraged worker" who must be employed before we need to start worrying about labor costs increasing very much. Until then, the Fed should not raise its rates.

Witness me! 

or 

Refute me!



Thursday, September 03, 2015