Michael Ruhlman held a contest for the best BLT from scratch. The winner, One Hungry Chef, posted this sweet flow chart for how he completed the challenge – checkout how he makes his own sea salt! This makes me wonder though, could I go a month by making my own food from scratch? Also, what other foods can we do this sort of exercise with. I’m very curious.

I read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Meh. Not a whole lot fascinating about it. A few points I thought worth writing down.

• “In transplanting the paesani culture of southern Italy to the hills of eastern Pennsylvania, the Rosetans had created a powerful, protective social structure capable of insulating them from the pressures of the modern world.” [currentblend co-op]
• “practical intelligence” – knowing what to say to whom, knowing when to say it, and knowing how to say it for maximum effect.
• autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward…the three qualities that work has to have to be satisfying.

I found the entire article on Charlie Rose to be extremely interesting. I suggest spending a few minutes to read this if you’re a fan of his show like I am. This quick blurb really captures why I like his show and also how I hope to ask questions.

It isn’t that he doesn’t ask hard questions, but he does it in a way that is designed to give you the best chance to make your case for your point of view.

A skiing/snowboarding alternative to Steamboat, Howelson Hill.

Receiving the same “champagne powder” as the neighboring Steamboat resort, Howelsen Hill is a town-operated training area that has helped send more than 64 athletes, including the 2003 Nordic combined world champion Johnny Spillane, to the Winter Olympics. Howelsen has 15 trails served by four lifts. If the fun runs out on the downhill side, visitors can switch over to cross-country skiing on nearly 13 miles of trails or try out the terrain park. One-day adult weekend lift ticket (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.): $16.

Congratulations, you have a million friends. But what’s it getting you? Marketers have worked hard to make friends online, but the benefits have been elusive at best. The real juice is word-of-mouth referrals from trusted sources, but you can’t tap into that with a sledgehammer.

AdAge touches on what Red Robin is doing, which is closer, but still not where (I believe) things need to be to get that word-of-mouth referrals. Frankly, I’m not entirely sure what the best way to get there is, but I think there is a way to do it (quickly, I can’t figure out the reasoning behind spending all the time and money to get all these Facebook Fans), and I’m constantly trying to figure that out. Stay tuned.

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

– Calvin Coolidge

My friend Dom has photos up of a surfboard he built. His company, Coto Luxe has the Alaia for sale. It looks great. I’d like to just hang it in my living room as functional art.

Calling all Wall Street quants. I just found the perfect job description for the open position of partner at CurrentBlend. I’d add to this that there needs to be a real understanding of “sweat equity”.

I’ve talked to at least four startups in the past two weeks that needed someone to run their web marketing—but not write site copy or do branding work.  They needed some hardcore quants to test strategies for loyalty and affiliate programs, measure ROI on paid search, etc.  Frankly, fine tuning the web marketing strategy and lead conversion of an e-commerce company is not unlike managing a portfolio, trading or doing financial analysis.  It’s putting a person in front of a set of quantitative tools, analyzing large pools of data, goal seeking, and optimizing.  It’s the kind of thing that, if you were awesome at it, you could walk into any startup that sells anything, pitch your ability to add directly to the bottom line and pretty easily get hired to do it.

Somewhat of a differing point of view about the limits people have with Jure Robic is the brain has a limited capacity for self-regulation, so exerting willpower in one area often leads to backsliding in others. Meaning, if you try really hard in one activity you will have less discipline in another activity. For example,

if you do not want to drink too much at a party, then on the way to the festivities, you should not deplete your willpower by window shopping for items you cannot afford. Taking an alternative route to avoid passing the store would be a better strategy.

Be wise with your willpower. There is hope that as you “exercise” your willpower, it will increase over time.