I recommend heading over to Grant Achatz Memoir site to read a few of the excerpts of his book, Life, On the Line. I’d like to pick up a copy to read, but, more importantly, I need to get myself to Alinea, Next  Restaurant and Aviary.

Part of the excerpt on his tryout at The French Laundry with Thomas Keller,

I entered the French Laundry kitchen and saw a tall lanky man sweeping the floor. His back was toward me and he didn’t hear me enter, so he kept doing his job for a few seconds. I peered past him looking for chef Keller, waited a few seconds for the sweeper to notice me, and when he didn’t, approached him. “I’m Grant Achatz, here for a tryout. Is chef Keller in?”

“Yeah. That’s me,” he said, letting out a laugh. “You’re early, Grant.”

He stuck out his hand and shook mine vigorously with an exaggerated up and down motion.

I thought to myself, “Holy shit. He’s the first one here, and he’s sweeping the floor. What kind of restaurant is this?”

I’ve golfed in my Vibram Five Fingers and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. A professional golfer did the same. Combine those two items to see how TRUELinkswear evolved and you’ll see why I REALLY want to try the TRUELinkswear shoes.

When you do things that feel organic and natural, it’s not like you’re selling something to people. The problem with a lot of advertisement is that it feels forced. And for kids, they can see it. They can smell it a mile away.

—Pharrell Williams

Here’s another example of drink prices adjusting to supply and demand. This one coming from Michigan brewer Bell’s.

The prices will never go higher than around 10 percent the base cost, but will drop to as much as 50 percent below base cost.  For example, a Bell’s Two-Hearted Ale may be $3 normally. But, depending on the “market” activity (i.e. patrons buying tendencies) it could be as much as $3.25 or as little as $1.50 (prices fluctuate in increments of 25 cents). The prices will change every 15 minutes and there will be, at random, a “stock market crash” — signified by air horns — when all 28 beers are sold at a low rate for five minutes.

I think coffee shops could employ this strategy as well.

ps, Bell’s Two-Hearted Ale is gooood.

Having read the book and seen the documentary, Unforgivable Blackness, I’ve been quite interested in boxer Jack Johnson. However, one thing I had no idea about was that he still hasn’t been pardoned for bogus charges (!!).

Johnson’s life story is worth learning about. He’s been said to have influenced Muhammad Ali, in both personality and style of fighting.

The future will be well-tailored

Nothing to note here, except Tyler Brule said it. I just like how that sentence sounds. One thing I will say is that I do believe our lives will be very curated and tailored as we continue to see the digital culture evolve and the globe shrinking.

There is evidence of an association between being distracted and creativity/open-mindedness. Yay for ADD! Look, squirrel.

Our goal shouldn’t be to ignore everything beyond earshot – that would inhibit our creativity, and keep us trapped in a very narrow world. Instead, we should keep on searching for those smart voices, so that we can remix the right data inside our head.

Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends, fads and popular opinion.

—Jack Kerouac

Great question to think about regarding applying social media to a business.

Are we focusing to much on helping clients build a conversation around their business rather than the business itself?

It’s important to remember that while conversation is good, building and supporting the business is the goal.

I just blacked out reading about Michel Richard’s tater tot recipe, the chef at Citronelle in Washington DC (best meal I’ve ever had, ps).

I decided to make my own by mixing things like cheese and truffles and diced vegetables with the grated potatoes, forming them into balls, and frying them in clarified butter.

Here’s his spuddies recipe.