March 11, 2010

I’m questioning the availability of many of these fast food secret menu items as I’ve attempted to order a couple of them and been told it’s not available/possible. It’s still worth noting that there are some items available, but not listed on a menu. A few of items I want to try:

• Arbys Wet Fries – Hot fries smothered in cheese sauce.
• Burger King Mustard Whopper – This is a normal Whopper with one difference, mustard is spread onto the sandwich instead of mayo.
• Dunkin Donuts Turbo Hot Coffee – An extra shot of expresso in your coffee.
• McDonalds Chicken and Waffles – This is a McGriddle sandwich with chicken in the middle.
• McDonalds Fries with Big Mac Sauce – Fries smothered in the secret and special big Mac Sauce.
• Sonic Frito Pie – This is a southern favorite with layers of chili and fritos.
• Starbucks Short Drink – This is a less expensive version of any Starbucks drink. It is smaller than a tall with a lower price.

Previously and related: In-n-Out’s (not so) Secret menu.

March 10, 2010

I love the idea of curated maps. The New York Times is pretty close to what I want to see with its Coffee Bar map. Foursquare is close to what I want. But this is at a closer level of what I’m after. Soon enough we’ll see the curated map down to a level of demographics (for lack of a better word) where I can go to places that similar-minded people have curated and recommended previously. I hope to have something built with that for men soon. Essentially, I’m after a city guide that has been curated by a group of similar-minded individuals.

If I had to do it all over again, I’d have stayed in the finance world. I miss it. It was extremely fascinating to me (and still is). I’d opt for more of an investment route versus the audit role I had. Regardless, I still enjoy reading about investing, finance and other money matters, especially if it’s written by Liar’s Poker author Michael Lewis as this article on Dr. Mike Burry is. Note that Burry is featured in Lewis’ The Big Short.

Burry seems to be the sort of investor I like to read about: a value investor (read: like Warren Buffett). By betting against the banks lending practices, he’s been one of the success stories through the investment troubles widely publicized. Combine that with the fact that Burry is a one-man business, prefers writing letters to human interaction and has made most of his investment decisions based on 10K’s and public information and he’s my sort of guy. I wish I could find his old website letters – some are on the Scion Capital site. I’ve selected a few blurbs from the article that further explain why I’m fascinated with Burry.

By his late 20s he thought of himself as the sort of person who didn’t have friends. He’d gone through Santa Teresa High School, in San Jose, U.C.L.A., and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and created not a single lasting bond. What friendships he did have were formed and nurtured in writing, by email; the two people he considered to be true friends he had known for a combined 20 years but had met in person a grand total of eight times. “My nature is not to have friends,” he said. “I’m happy in my own head.”

…

Buffett had had trouble with people, too, in his youth. He’d used a Dale Carnegie course to learn how to interact more profitably with his fellow human beings. Mike Burry came of age in a different money culture. The Internet had displaced Dale Carnegie. He didn’t need to meet people. He could explain himself online and wait for investors to find him. He could write up his elaborate thoughts and wait for people to read them and wire him their money to handle. “Buffett was too popular for me,” said Burry. “I won’t ever be a kindly grandfather figure.”

…

“I hated discussing ideas with investors,” he said, “because I then become a Defender of the Idea, and that influences your thought process.” Once you became an idea’s defender, you had a harder time changing your mind about it.”

Edward Tufte will be joining President Obama’s staff and will be bringing his infographic expertise to the mix. This is exciting news as I believe we’ll better (visually) understand some of the data we constantly hear from the White House. Combine this with how well designed Obama’s campaign was and we’re beginning to see how important branding and design are.

March 9, 2010

Digital shops can bring not only the expertise of management consultants, but also the tech chops to execute, he said. “Our model is more powerful because not only can we come up with these ideas, but we can build them,” he said. “A lot of great ideas would fail if they’re not well designed.”

Well said (oh yea, hi!).

March 8, 2010