He describes the process of coming up with new flavors as tapping into similar innovative urges as writing and directing. “Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory has the same eight flavors and they’ve never changed. That would make me want to shoot myself,” the wiry Smith says while seated at a table shellacked with ’50s ice cream ads at Ample Hills’ single location. “What I needed was to wake up every morning and say, maybe today I’ll make peanut butter, banana, and honey ice cream, and maybe tomorrow I’ll make coffee and donut ice cream.” … [Read more...] about When Innovation Makes You Drool: The Hand-Made Story Of Ample Hills
How old was steve jobs when he died
Creative Cultures: MailChimp Grants Employees “Permission To Be Creative”
Here, MailChimp takes a page from the playbook of some other tech world notables. Google’s Sergey Brin, for example, has been known to show up to job interviews wearing a cow costume. Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak, a legendary prankster, once called the Vatican posing as Henry Kissinger and tried to convince a friend that there was a state in Mexico called Jalapeno by creating doctored maps using digital tools unheard of at the time. Wozniak has been quoted as saying that the kind of humor involved in pranking goes to the creativity and inventiveness that’s indispensable for a company like Apple. And, incidentally, it was MailChimp’s head of user experience, Aarron Walter, who was behind the impromptu tagline. … [Read more...] about Creative Cultures: MailChimp Grants Employees “Permission To Be Creative”
IAmA Community-Focused Innovator: The Secret To Reddit’s Success
Ohanian, who was very vocal in his protest of Congress’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) earlier this year, stresses that the purpose of this tour is to show the country–in a nonpartisan way–how important Internet freedom is. “The stories of farmers in Kansas who rely on smartphones, people who take care of families with the profits from their Etsy stores, a retiree who makes extra money renting out his home on Airbnb, I want to show all the demographics. I want cameras on those people, I want tweets quoting these people, and I want to show them telling their own stories.” It’s basically one long Reddit IAmA, but this time with a flesh and blood community. … [Read more...] about IAmA Community-Focused Innovator: The Secret To Reddit’s Success
Burnout put me in the hospital. This is what I learned about healthy work-life balance
When I burned out to the extreme, I thought I’d be perceived as weak compared to my colleagues who seemed to be coping. The stigma around burnout led me to compare myself to others and perceive burnout as a weakness. But behind the scenes, we all have very different things to deal with including our upbringing, definitions of success, boundaries, motivations, expectations of ourselves, etc. We can get so caught up in our own experiences that we forget this. Did you ever consider that burning out is like lighting a bonfire to burn away all of the beliefs and ideas that aren’t serving you anymore? … [Read more...] about Burnout put me in the hospital. This is what I learned about healthy work-life balance
We dissected nearly 100 devices to study e-waste. What we found is alarming
We also see a need for responsive e-waste laws in place of today’s dated patchwork of state regulations. Establishing convenient, certified recycling locations can keep more electronics out of landfills. With retooled operations, recyclers can recover more valuable materials from the e-waste stream. Steps like these can help balance our reliance on electronic devices with systems that better protect human health and the environment. … [Read more...] about We dissected nearly 100 devices to study e-waste. What we found is alarming