Stupid Primate!

We all are. Some less than others, but many, if not most, issues of human consequence resolve to this simple equation: human primate = not very bright. Perhaps the best example is the current debate suggesting, basically, that we are NOT stupid primates. Only a stupid primate could arrive at that conclusion based on the overwhelming evidence available to suggest that in fact we . . . . are.

Now, you might suggest “hey, we invented spaceships, computers, and toasters – you call that NOTHING!?” That’s something for sure – but more a legacy of the fact we have a sense of history and a feel for technology than because we are really, really different from, say, a mountain gorilla.

To get a sense of how we’d live without shiny tech history, just check out the lives of aboriginal folks in Borneo or South America. They live pretty much like the rest of us would live but for our “developed world” history of lots of shiny things like cell phones and cars. But more important than shiny things is our tendency to carry on as if thousands of years of observing the world and people around us were for naught.

I’m not a doomsayer and think things are slowly improving in the world, largely thanks to clever innovations in shiny technology, but I’m really frustrated by our inability to solve – or even think much about – the serious problems that face most of our fellow stupid primates ….

…Whoa! Gilligan Island reruns are on – gotta go…

Sure, I like Google a LOT …. but Gooogle Golly Gee ….

I’m getting tired of people explaining how Google will take over the internet and then the world of commerce. This is the nonsense we heard back in 1999….except they were saying AMAZON was going to take over the world.

What’s Amazon? Oh… right…. it’s a book selling site.

True, Google’s innovations are far more profound, their people are brilliant, and they have approached things in incredibly innovative ways. But there is a challenge for Google that is rarely discussed even though it’s the most significant thing about the company:

Almost ALL of THEIR MONEY comes from ADVERTISING!

Google-y eyed analysis seems to miss the fact that Google is not making money because they are profoundly innovative in search and internet, they are making money because they came online at the right time with the best search to date. They combined this with the brilliancy of contextual advertising invented more by Bill Gross of Overture than Google. Read “The Search” by John Battelle for this interesting story as well as a great history of search with a strong emphasis on Google.

With Yahoo now equal in search quality and MSN and AskJeeves equal within months or a year at most, the division of advertising revenues will challenge Google, making it hard to grow faster than the rate offline advertising money pours online.

Sure they are GREAT, but the key questions relate to how they adapt to the ever changing marketplace as much as the ever changing search landscape.

FOX News is good entertainment but terrible journalism. I tend to watch it more than CNN because it’s more entertaining to hear Bill OReilly or Sean Hannity (not to mention some of the news anchors!) ranting about “those darn lib’rals!” than the somewhat more balanced and thoughtful reporting I find on CNN. The BBC is better than either by far but it’s on the radio and I’d miss the car chases.

“THIS IS A FOX NEWS ALERT –
A POLICE DOG HAS BEEN FOUND TO BE SNIFFING MICHAEL JACKSON’S BUTT”

But what REALLY intrigues me is that during the MONTHS of coverage of a news story such as the Peterson murder or the WEEKS of Natalie Halloway in Aruba, hundreds of thousands died from horrible diseases caused mostly by the lack of abundant clean water in the poorest countries. A fool will suggest “well, that type of ongoing, tragic, and catastrophic death is not really NEWS”. Oh, really?

Wow, blogging sure is fun and educational. Now I see why it’s catching on SO FAST. Sure helps not to have a regular job. More on that later…

I’ve linked to my favorite blogs: Jeremy Zawodny is a Yahoo Engineer, blogger extraordinaire, and all around great guy. Matt Cutts is also a fine guy and one of Google’s top search Engineers. He’s been called the “Mick Jagger of Search” but I think he’s cooler than Mick, who is a spooky guy! John Battelle is a professor at Berkeley considered by many to be one of the top technology watchers in the world. Recently authored “The Search”. Rob Spooner is my pal and business partner in Online Highways LLC. Mathematician, computer programmer, publisher, and a proverbial font of provocative notions.

Some seem to feel that this type of publishing represents the cornerstone of the “new” internet. I love the fact that blogging is fundamentally democratic and has virtually no barriers to entry other than a moderate level of literacy and enthusiasm. Yet I also worry that a lot of intellect and time is getting squandered in favor of self absorbed nonsense. BUT NONE OF THAT HERE FOLKS….

By the way did I mention I just bought a new shirt?

Wow, setting up the blog was HARD work

Well, not all that hard …

I had to review my entire life for the profile, record duck talk, and find a good picture to post.
It is a neat picture though. Me and Dr. Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google. I actually wrote his office to ask permission to post it but they never replied so I figure it’s OK.

So, why am I hanging with the CEO of the most interesting technology company ever? More on that later.

P.S. Actually started setting this blog up months ago but now it’s time to start blogging like everybody else – daily rants and raves and irrelevant insights into my silly concerns.

Wow, I’m finally contributing to the collective effort to publish every thought everybody ever had.

Certainly it’s a finite number of thoughts, and when enough of them are online the internet becomes conscious … right?

I wonder what it will do then?

ONE BIG important thing and a ONE little crappy thing that bugs me about we of the primate persuasion.

BIG THING:
The number of people who died today from (mostly easily preventable) infectious and parasitic diseases: 41,000. Most think issues of clean water and poverty are “complex”, but that’s a copout and largely untrue. Certainly resources now put to questionable uses could do far more good combating global poverty. Contrary to what some think, higher living standards lead to LOWER birth rates and LESS population pressure, thus it’s in everybody’s interest to address extreme poverty far more proactively.

Liberals are mired in mostly exaggerated concerns about environmental collapse and the luxury rights of those living in capitalist democracies. Meanwhile, conservatives exaggerate the importance of military dominance and only seem to talk about reckless Government spending when it’s in the social sectors. Where are the founders when you need them?

LITTLE THING:
Fox News. It’s not so much the conservative bias, it’s that they rarely cover anything of substance and when they do it’s often from a perspective so steeped in patriotic nonsense that the story is effectively lost. An interesting exception was the reporting “on the scene” during Hurricane Katrina. It was conspicuously critical of the government, poignant in it’s representations of the poor, and courageous. Even Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity were sounding like journalists!

It’s certainly true that I can talk like a duck, but there’s more to my life than that.

For those bored enough to continue I’ll share some details of a life … partly examined….and somewhat disorganized by design….