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Daniel Brusilovsky

Friday, February 5, 2010

Having personally done embarrassing things on the Internet, I can imagine what Daniel Brusilovsky is going through right now. According to Mike Arrington’s post on TechCrunch, an intern “allegedly asked for a Macbook Air in exchange for a post about a startup.” Cali and I thought of Daniel right away. Then Daniel posted an apology on his blog for a line that “was crossed.”

I can’t remember how long I’ve known Daniel, but I think it’s been since 2006. Before he really started making waves around Silicon Valley, he and I used to chat about new media, school and how he was connecting to big names in technology. I remember pinging him on iChat sometimes when he was up too late and telling him to go to bed!.

If Daniel did, in fact, ask for/accept a MacBook Air in exchange for a post on TechCrunch, that’s a bad thing. If he didn’t know it was bad before, he knows it now. The best part about being so young is that he has plenty of time to redeem himself.

Daniel is probably the best networker, I’ve ever met. I’ve admired his ambition. I’ve watched him go to school, work at QIK, attend tech events and put off sleep to accomplish as much as he could as quickly as he could. Daniel has tons of potential and this doesn’t change that. If he learns from the mistake and continues to pursue his dreams, I still look forward to watching what he’s going to do.

I hope the adults that Daniel has reached out to in Silicon Valley will reach out to him and be there for him. Let’s give him the chance to redeem himself and shine like those of us who admire him always thought he would.

Filed in acceptance, blogging, tech culture, tech media | Comments (3)

Future Tripping

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

On the phone this afternoon, a friend told me about the concept of Future Tripping. Wm. Paul Young defines it as…

creating imaginations of what is going to happen and then actually take a mental and emotional trip to live there for a bit.  It is ‘what am I going to do if _________ (fill in the blank), what am I going to say if __________, what would our family go through if _____________.

I rarely Future Trip in a negative way. I typically focus on the pros and ignore the cons. As I plan a project, I anticipate all the success and happiness that will come our way once the project gets going. Imagining life is going to be all good or imagining all that might go wrong is not the best use of time and energy.

Future Tripping activates very real emotions. If you Future Trip about all that can go wrong, you experience much of the fear, sadness or anger that you experience when things actually do go wrong. If you future trip about all that can go right, you might experience hope and excitement but reality will likely bring disappointment.

We can’t control what happens to us, but we can control how we happen to the world.

Not Future Tripping is all about ceasing the day, living in the now and taking no thought for tomorrow. It’s about intentionally controlling how you happen to the world.

Filed in change | Comments (0)

Life is a Forward Moving Force

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

When I was about 12-years-old, I got to see Zig Ziglar speak. Up until Zig, the only people I had seen standing on a stage talking were preachers. Zig is a motivational speaker. He’s funny and compelling. I wanted to grow up and do that.

The desire to become a motivational speaker persisted through college. I majored in psychology because I wanted to understand how people think. I started working on self-help book ideas around the time I fell in love with the Internet and learned HTML. The Internet won out over my dream to be a pop-psychology guru, but my first book was going to start with these two sentences:

Life is a forward moving force. There’s little to be gained by wallowing in the negative aspects of your past.

I was inspired by Milton Erickson in college. He demonstrated that big changes where accomplished when people made small changes in their lives. Start doing something you wouldn’t ordinarily do and you’ll start to notice that everything else in your life will shift to accommodate the small change. Life is a forward moving force is a thought that came to me after taking a completely out-of-character kayak trip down the Buffalo National River in Arkansas.

Luria/Cali and I planned like crazy for the trip. We packed enough dried food and provisions to last a month. We didn’t have much money, so we bought inflatable kayaks and plastic paddles. My grandmother dropped us off on a river bank and we floated away. Before we were out of my grandmother’s sight, our paddles broke and the water pushed us right into a pile of brush where there were several water moccasins coiled up getting some sun. We used our hands and broken paddles to escape from the snakes and back into the flow of the river.

It took us about three days to get to a place where we could get out of the river and walk to a phone. We had to adapt to our circumstances in order to keep the boat moving. We made our way with broken paddles, our hands, and the natural flow of the river. The river was a moving force and nothing we could do would stop it. It pushed us into the snakes and we had to deal with that. We had to cope with whatever challenges the river threw our way and it didn’t matter that our tools were inadequate. We had to adapt.

Life is a forward moving force just like a river. Sometimes it’s relaxing and fun and just kind of carries us along. Sometimes the current is overwhelming and we have to struggle to get back on track. It may feel like changes we need to make are more than we can handle, but sometimes little changes can bring about radical transformation.

Our trip down the river changed my life in a lot of ways. It made me stronger, more outgoing and more willing to take risks. It was transformational because it was the kind of thing I would never choose to do. It’s good to remember the snakes and broken paddles were only a small part of the journey. It’s even better to remember how we made it through.

Filed in change, travel | Comments (1)

A Public Apology to My Wife

Monday, February 1, 2010

Most husband and wife stuff is private, but I disappointed my wife in a very public way and the only way to really apologize is to make it public.

One night last year, I think it was a Saturday, a tweet went out on Cali Lewis’ account about global warming being a hoax. It became a big controversy that ended with Leo Laporte saying he no longer wanted to work with her. People are split on the issue of anthropomorphic climate change so thousands of people rallied around her and thousands slammed her.

There is a major problem, though. She didn’t write that tweet and she didn’t hit the update button. I did.

Since we started GeekBrief.TV, I’ve studied media successes to learn techniques for growing an audience and keeping them interested. Publicly writing something controversial is usually a very good thing to do. You don’t loose as many people as seems logical because people want to stick around to see what you’ll do or say next.

When Cali found out what I did, it obviously it made her angry.  To her, politics is private and divisive. She doesn’t enjoy it in the least.

I apologized, but also argued my case about the benefits of the controversy. We had recently had dinner with John C. Dvorak and he explained how he has used controversy in his long career as a tech writer to keep people paying attention. I thought Cali bought-in to the idea of creating controversy, but I was wrong.

She was deeply hurt by what I did. She is the kindest person in the world and she didn’t want to embarrass me. She’s lived with letting everyone believe it came from her because of our relationship. The only way I can make it right is to publicly apologize.  A private apology is utterly insufficient because what I did pushed her into a public, political battle she didn’t want to fight. She lost friends and business opportunities because of what I did. I hope this blog post will mend some of those relationships.

I also want to apologize to friends of GeekBrief.TV and followers of Cali’s tweets. The controversy experiment just wasn’t worth it, especially without her participation. I’m sorry.

Filed in Cali/Luria, politics, science, tech media, us | Comments (17)

My Take on iPad

Friday, January 29, 2010

Historically, I’ve been an Apple Fan Boy. After Steve Jobs took time off to deal with illness, I started noticing trouble with my Macs. I had problems with things starting to fail that had always worked beautifully, like Final Cut. That could be a coincidence, or it may have been the result of quality control suffering without Steve Jobs. Whatever it was, it moved me into a more balanced view of Apple and the products it makes.

For my personal computing and iSocial needs, I use the same powerful Macs I use for work. It is a lot of power coming along for the ride on tasks that don’t require it. The MacBook Air was an ideal solution for accomplishing the more personal stuff, but the price made it seem like more of a luxury that I could live without.

The iPad may disappoint some, but it is exactly the kind of tool I’ve been wanting. I want to accomplish light processing tasks like writing stories for Geek Brief and interacting with friends online on a lighter, less energy consuming machine. The iPad is light, small and portable while still retaining enough functionality for many people to skip laptop ownership altogether.

The only thing missing that gives me pause is iChat. iChat, for me, is the most important tool on my Macs, apart from video and graphics programs. If AIM and Skype can run on an iPhone, why not voice and text chat on an iPad (and an iPhone)? It must be a decision Apple has made based on all the mysterious reasons Apple makes choices that puzzle those of us living outside the Infinite Loop.

The technology community seems to have greeted the iPad’s arrival with disappointment, just like Cali predicted. Other than with the name, I can’t say I’m disappointed. The lower than expected price makes up for everything missing for me except iChat.

Filed in Apple, technology | Comments (12)

Geoff Smith Documentary Project

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Our friend Geoff Smith is finishing his next album and we were chatting about the process. I got really interested in how he’s doing it because he is such a new media savvy musician. I asked him if I could come to Nashville for a week and shoot a little documentary about it.

Since we started GeekBrief.TV, I’ve gotten a good understanding of producing short-form content. I haven’t really put together anything longer than ten minutes that includes much production but I’ve really wanted to.

With Cali’s blessing, I’m heading out after the Apple announcement on Wednesday. If there is anything worth sharing I’ll post it on the blog. We were able to replace the stolen 5D Mark II so I should get some good stuff.

Filed in Uncategorized | Comments (1)

Getting Stuck, Getting Un-Stuck

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

In life, we fall in to patterns. Something we do kind of works for us one time, so we do it again. It kind of works again, so we keep repeating that particular way of doing it until we get to the point where we don’t even think about it. It’s second nature.

Some patterns are helpful. When I was learning Final Cut Pro, the interface seemed overwhelming. I learned the basics, did them every day the same as the day before and soon enough I *knew* how to edit a video in Final Cut. I added skills every day, but the basic pattern or workflow was the same. After awhile, something that took me 3-4 hours started to only take me 1-2. An extra three hours knocked off a days work leaves time to go to a movie. :)

Other patterns turn out to be harmful. They still start the same way though. You do something and it works so you continue it. I grew up enjoying politics as a game. It involves strategy and debate, and if you get good at it, you get to play on the cable channels on TV. When I first developed an interest in politics, I guess the people around me shared it because I never initially experienced playing the game as a negative thing. Fun, lively and even aggressive debate was something that once only brought me positive experiences.

As an adult though, I’ve been surprised to discover most other adults do not pay attention to what is happening in Washington for hours every day. The Sunday Morning political roundtables may be the place I bonded to my grandfather, but they’re not on most people’s radar. In the past few months it has been a revelation to me to learn that chances are more likely someone won’t want to argue politics with me than that they will. Good to know.

The first step in overcoming a negative pattern is to understand it as a problem. If you don’t regard it as a problem, you won’t fix it. If you’re stuck, but are blissfully unaware that you’re stuck, why would you try? You’re in a pattern because it initially worked for you, but when you learn that it causes problems for people in you life, you begin to understand it wasn’t working for you after all and THAT becomes your motivation to get unstuck–to change.

Unless there is a physical addiction or emotional dependence involved, change isn’t really as difficult as we want to make it. Finding out it is a problem is a beginning, but understand how it is a problem for people you care about is the key to getting unstuck. You want to get unstuck because you care.

The way to change is to change. You set your mind to a different course and you follow it. You walk in that new direction and find new positive patterns that work for you AND for the people around you. It takes some time before you are not inclined to fall back into the old patterns, but you’ll find getting unstuck is almost always as hard or as easy as you expect it to be.

Filed in change | Comments (1)

How to Succeed in New Media

Saturday, January 23, 2010

I ended my last post with a question: What can I do for you? Shamir Katsu asked what he could do to reproduce the “Geek Brief miracle.” If you already know the GeekBrief.TV Story, jump down to the last paragraph.

My wife and I used to do Web design and development during the time Internet culture was starting to bloom (before the dot com bubble popped). Tech TV was a cable channel about technology that drew geeks together, and for the first time, geeky people started to feel like we could be cool too.

After the bubble burst, we kind of burned out on tech. We stepped away completely and took a job in the glamorous world of self storage. The company we worked for was called Extra Space Storage and although we thought it would be a temporary job, they treated us well and let us open new stores so we could move around the country. Before we knew it, we had been there almost five years. That was 2005, the year podcasting started to gain attention.

We loved the idea of podcasting for the same reasons we were drawn to the Internet. We listened to Adam Curry’s Daily Source Code, then Dawn and Drew and the list just kept growing. When Dawn and Drew quit their job to Podcast full time, we decided that would be our goal.

Around the same time, Steve Jobs announced the first iPod with video. It seemed like there was room for new content. Everyone always said podcast about what you love. The thing Cali and I love in common is technology. We loved Engadget and Gizmodo so we decided to create a gadget video blog.

My idea was that Cali Lewis would be the International Head of the Geek Intelligence Agency and she would issue regular “Briefs” about gadgets and technology. We had no experience with video production, but we were laser-focused. We wanted to make the best looking show we could make and improve it every day. We also wanted to make it a business that would succeed.

It has been very successful, from our perspective, but it has been hard work. The first two years, as we were really learning how to get the show done, we often worked 14-16 hours a day at least six days a week. Mevio, our partner for distribution and advertising, has been an unseen force in what we’ve been able to do too. They made it possible for us to do the show full time and have connected us with advertising dollars that have kept Cali in T-Shirts and both of us in gadgets. It’s been good.

To me, three things all successful new media projects have in common is compelling content, professionalism and a sense that they all just keep doing it and doing it and doing it. Constant content production plus laser-focus is what seems to work.

UPDATE: Shamir Katsu asked two follow-up questions…

(1) How did you get hooked up with Mevio?

It’s easy now. Anyone can sign up for an account and launch a show on the network. They look at shows that perform in terms of audience growth and they reach out with advertising opportunities. Jeff McCord, the host of the Moxie Mo Show is a perfect example. He watched GeekBrief.TV, wanted to do a show of his own, asked us for advice, launched his show and he’s making extra money from it.

(2) How do you maintain that focus and drive to keep going when things are not going well?

There are two different ways to go with that. Some pursuits aren’t worth the effort. If you start something and it doesn’t ever start clicking, it’s probably best to let that go and move on to something else. If you start something with merit, you’ll see some signs of success and you’ll want to focus on what works and abandon what doesn’t.

When things aren’t going well it’s time to be as objective as possible. Sep back and work to understand the problem. Make adjustments a pay close, close attention to the things that bring positive results and do more of those things!

Filed in GBTV, PodShow, podcasting, tech culture, tech media | Comments (2)

A Hard Reset and Fresh Install … personal edition

Friday, January 22, 2010

Even though I have a Masters Degree in Psychological Counseling, it didn’t equip me with objectivity about myself. I have stuff from my childhood and teenage years that I brought to my adult life and marriage that I used as an excuse to be shy and self-loathing. None of my personal baggage is big enough that it would have been that hard to overcome, but I’ve still allowed it to cripple me socially.

I’ve been reaching out to a handful of friends, and I started personal counseling this past week. I’ve learned a lot and had some breakthroughs that have allowed me to come outside my head for the first time in a long time.

I grew up listening to gospel music and always liked those songs about laying down burdens and moving on, but never really took them to heart. It turns out, it’s a lot less hard than I thought it would be.

I gave up alcohol at the end of last year and it’s just been amazing how quickly years of missing joy rushed back into my life. I buried all the baggage I carried in drinking at night and obsession about doing a great job with GeekBrief.TV during the day. I can’t exactly give up work, but I am taking a couple of weeks off. Except for helping out with the writing, Cali and Dave Curlee are taking up the slack so I have the opportunity to perform a hard reset on my internal OS.

Last night, I went with social media guru, Giovanni Gallucci to hear a guy I admire so much in the world of new and social media, Chris Brogan. It was my second time to hear him speak. The first time, I walked away inspired to think about what he said. The second time I walked away inspired to do what he said. His message is pretty simple: do things for people without any expectation they’ll do anything in return for you. In two words … BE NICE!

So here’s my question for anyone who reads this. As I take time off work to reset, what can I do for you?

Filed in acceptance, alcohol | Comments (11)

Existential Crisis at Work

Saturday, October 3, 2009
I’m going through an existential crisis. It ultimately feels like it’s going to be a good thing, but it’s not all that fun right now.

The Wikipedia entry about what an existential is crisis sums it up well:

Existential crisis, derived from existentialism, is a stage of development at which an individual questions the very foundations of their life: whether their life has any meaning, purpose or value; whether their parents, teachers, and loved ones truly act in their best interest; whether the values they have been taught have any merit; and whether their religious upbringing may or may not be founded in reality.

For me it starts with the question, “What is my life going to be about?” and I guess I started asking the question when all my gospel music heros started dying. It really feels like I spent much of the last couple years in mourning. It’s been too much, but I don’t know how I could have not gone through the mourning. After Michael Jackson died, I started to finally understand what I was experiencing.
After I understood what was going on internally, I started dealing with it and coming out of crisis mode. Well, last week a dear friend’s mother passed away and the funeral was yesterday. Loosing people is my trigger. I turned on the gospel music and went to the dark place where I feel isolated and uncertain about the meaning of life.
Right now I’m bouncing around in a state of cognitive dissonance where what I think and believe doesn’t fit into any of the political, religious or social systems I know about yet. It’s a process of discovery and hope, but comes with a bit of fear since I can’t know how the story will end.
The best part about the journey is that my wife loves me and inspires me with an infinite sense of optimism that it’s all going to be okay.
Filed in GOD, acceptance, alcohol, beliefs, gospel, love, musings, rant | Comments (1)