The Fallen of WWII

This is a powerful video that puts a quantitative perspective on the immense loss of life during World War II.

The Fallen of World War II from Neil Halloran on Vimeo.

Learning from Google ... and the Marine Corps

In 1998, while still serving on active duty in the U.S. Marine Corps, I co-founded what later became a speech recognition web development company. The following year, I completed my military service, moved to Silicon Valley to join my three partners on a full-time basis, and unwittingly launched myself onto a personal and professional path centered on entrepreneurship and innovation.

You would think that the transition from military life to a high-growth startup at the epicenter of the "Internet Boom" would have been jarring. Ironically, it was not. It took me a while to realize that the Marine Corps and High-Growth Tech Startups share a common culture, and so my military training actually helped to prepare me for the crazy hectic life of a startup leader.

In Corps Business: The 30 Management Principles of the U.S. Marines, author David Freedman seemed to agree with my assessment. His research indicated that Marines are uniquely trained to handle quick decision-making in uncertain situations with limited information. Perhaps more important--and contrary to popular misconceptions about Marines--the Marine Corps fosters a culture of de-centralized decision-making that empowers even the most junior enlisted Marines to make significant critical decisions, often with life-and-death consequences or even international policy ramifications.

Years later, former Google executives Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg wrote How Google Works to provide some valuable lessons on how to foster an "Internet Century" culture in a corporate environment. As you can see from their slide presentation below, they focus on the "smart creatives" that are so essential for modern business success.

How Google Works from Eric Schmidt

The environment that enables companies to recruit such talent and allow them to thrive is in many ways the exact same environment that the Marine Corps has been pushing religiously for over two centuries. In this way, perhaps business executives seeking new ideas for how to turn their companies into innovative growth engines should look to both Google and the Corps for some valuable lessons?

Semper fidelis!

Wanderers

A friend of mine shared this video with me a while back, and it continues to draw me in. I am certain it speaks to many people ... and it is also just a well-produced video. Enjoy:

Wanderers - a short film by Erik Wernquist from Erik Wernquist on Vimeo.

NUKEMAP

When the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb, Little Boy, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945, it inflicted a huge number of casualties (~100,000 deaths) and completely leveled large portions of the city.

However, in the big scheme of nuclear warfare, this bomb and its cousin, Fat Man, which was detonated a few days later over Nagasaki, were relatively tame. Their explosive yield (15kt and 20kt, respectively) are a small fraction of the capability of the current American, Russian, or Chinese arsenals.

Fat Man

To give us all a sobering perspective on this, Alex Wellerstein created an interactive web site called NUKEMAP. Simply place the marker on your home (or any other location of your choosing), select a yield (or a specific bomb from the drop-down menu), and see the various damaging effects. Very interesting ...

Star Trek "Enterprise" - The Building

And ... following up from my earlier post about Star Trek Continues ... check out this building designed to look like the USS Enterprise!

Airport Codes

Following up my prior post about state's two-letter abbreviations (i.e., postal codes), here is a cool site that crowdsources the origins of airport's three-letter codes. For anyone who travels as much as I do, you might find this quite interesting.

State's Two-Letter Abbreviations

I am a huge fan of "intelligent comedy", which sometimes requires the comedian to pause while the audience catches up with him/her. My timeless favorite is Abbott & Costello's "Who's On First?" routine.

I recently came across this late-night show performance by Gary Gulman, and I have watched it a gazillion times already. I think it is creative and hilarious. Just FYI ... here is the real story behind the two-letter abbreviations for the states.

More OK GO Videos

Nine years ago, I posted a couple of cool videos from the band, OK GO. At the time, I did not realize how big they would get ... not just for their music, but mostly for their hugely creative videos. I thought I would post some of my favorites here (in chronological order).

This Too Shall Pass - 2010



I Won't Let You Down - 2014



Upside Down & Inside Out - 2016

Star Trek Continues

As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, I thought it would be good to check out Star Trek Continues. This is a fan-created Web series that has been funded by a series of crowdfunding campaigns. The intent was to re-create the look and feel of the original series, while continuing the storylines beyond the final (third) TV season. It really is quite creative, and the team really does a great job. You can check out their episodes here.

Two Entertaining Videos ... and a Photo

It's been a crazy last few weeks, so I'm behind on my posts. More important, it seems like lately several folks have forwarded me some incredibly cool/funny/entertaining videos. Here are a couple of my favorites:





And one incredible photo:

"The Expert"

As the colleague who forwarded me this video lamented, unfortunately I have been in too many of these meetings during my career (and not always as "the expert"!).

Walking the Mast with Alex Thomson

Most folks in the sailing world have heard of Alex Thomson and his prolific racing career. However, his stunts seem to garner much more attention from the general public, especially in today's YouTube age.

His "Keel Walk" from a couple of years ago has garnered over 2M views. However, I believe his latest "Mast Walk" is even better:

B-24 in WWII: 1 Plane Every 55 Minutes

Someone recently reminded me of a historical fact that stands as an example of human ingenuity: during the U.S. ramp-up for World War II, Henry Ford applied his assembly line techniques to help build 1 new B-24 Liberator bomber aircraft every 55 minutes! Working in two 9-hour shifts, Ford produced over 8,000 aircraft in about two years.

The video below highlights the power of this mass-production effort.

5 Guys - 1 Piano

Here's another example of creative genius looking at life (and musical instruments) just a little bit differently than the rest of us:

Conference Calls in Real Life

Since I am not that creative, I tend to admire individuals who are ... especially when they are truly talented. My latest favorites are the sketch comedy duo of Tripp and Tyler. If you haven't already checked out their red-hot YouTube Channel, it is well worth the visit.

Here is one of my favorite Tripp and Tyler sketches, perhaps because I live through this just about every day of my life? Enjoy!

Perfect Circles

Over the years, I have taught my kids the story of the Italian painter, Giotto. He may not be the most famous of the many talented Middle Age painters, but my kids were fascinated by the story of "the perfect circle". At one point the Pope asked Giotto to draw something to prove his skills as an artist, and Giotto proceeded to draw a circle so perfect that everyone thought he had used a compass.

My kids were naturally skeptical of their father's claims about perfect circles, until last week when my daughter found the following video on YouTube:

I was likewise fascinated, and it turns out that there may be even more background to this story.

Regardless, every now and then I catch myself trying to draw a perfect circle. Let's just say that I don't think Giotto has to worry about my outperforming him!

Surf's Up! Drones for Filmmaking

As much as "drones" have been getting so much bad press lately (for military/spy reasons), we have to remember that there is usually a positive side to all technology innovation. Take the video below as an example.

Surfing is an amazing sport. Athletic. Dangerous. And stunningly beautiful. To truly capture the essence of it on film requires multiple angles. From the water surface. From the surfer's perspective. From underwater. And, yes, from the air.

Historically, this last angle has been difficult to capture, in large part because it required expensive (and loud!) helicopters and cameras.

Now, through the miracle of modern technology, a filmmaker can use a remote-controlled "drone" and a relatively inexpensive GoPro camera to capture footage that was previously extremely difficult to acquire.

Enjoy!

Founder Institute presentation

On January 8, 2014,I gave a 30-minute presentation to a group of local Atlanta tech entrepreneurs. This was part of the Founder Institute accelerator program, which is the largest of its kind in the world.

The topic was "Vision and Ideas", so I spoke primarily about aligning a new venture's vision with at least one of the entrepreneur's personal passions. I also worked through a simple tool for conducting a high-level analysis of new business ideas.

The camera work and audio are not perfect, but ... enjoy!

And the slides ...

The Venus Project

A few months ago, a friend of mine introduced me to the work of renowned futurist, Jacque Fresco. Over the years, he has developed a number of amazing theories about how to structure our global human society in ways that are much better -- on so many levels -- that our current systems.

To showcase his work, he started creating a microcosm community in Venus, Florida. The culmination of his life's work has taken the shape of The Venus Project, which I hope to visit later this year.

Since Jacque is about to turn 98, I want to get there soon. In the meantime, here are some images of the amazing buildings and communities he has designed:

Personal Dialect Map

Over the past week, my Facebook network has been buzzing with conversations about a new "personal dialect map". This is an online quiz that asks you 25 questions about how you use the English language (e.g., pronunciation, descriptive terms, idioms, etc.) and then uses your answers to create a personal map of what parts of the U.S. you're most similar to (and most unlike). The quiz seems to be incredibly accurate.

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the quiz determined that I speak most like someone from ... the San Francisco Bay Area.

My wife grew up in Northern New Jersey, and the quiz determined that she speaks most like someone from ... New Jersey.

The more interesting results came for my 14-year-old daughter and my 12- year-old son (we figured my 8-year-old son was too young to generate valid results). We've moved around a bit, and my kids have been raised in San Francisco, then Northern Virginia (near DC), then Seattle, then South Florida (near Miami), and then/now Atlanta. We were curious what the quiz would say about their dialects.

The quiz determined that Rebecca speaks most like someone from Seattle and that Daniel speaks most like someone from Miami. Interesting. Thinking about this further, we realized that Rebecca spent 5th-7th grades in Seattle and that Daniel spent 6th grade in South Florida. I realize this is only two data points, but ... could it be that Americans today tend to develop their dialects during middle school (i.e., their "tween" years)?

Hmmmmm ....