benhuh!com

We’re living in a time of profound change and upheaval. What we build and spread here and now will impact the world for generations to come.

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Via Dweebist.

Since we bought I Can Has Cheezburger? back in September of 2007, we’ve hired roughly one person per month. And each time we go through the process of recruiting, screening, and hiring, it’s a difficult and laborious process. But I know that hiring is probably the most important part of my job.

The job of screening for the right talent has been recently made harder by 2 factors:

1. The number of applicants have skyrocketed due to a) the economy and b) our own growth.
2. The more we become specialized, the harder it gets to find someone with experience.

But frankly, it should be hard.

If you’re looking for top-notch talent — that elusive one-in-a-million candidate — you’ve just got to keep screening, keep recruiting and not lower your standards. Even when you’re growing and hiring, there’s nothing sexy about being an entrepreneur.

Jay Adelson and Kevin Rose were kind enough to surprise the Digg Meetup audience with kittens and buttons at the Seattle Digg Meetup. I went on the stage and joined in the fun.

Hello. Welcome to Washington State. Do you print outdated news on dead trees while fleecing the advertising industry? If you answered “Yes”, we’ll give you a 40% tax break. That’s now the law in Washington.

In the last 3 years, US ad spending shrank from $230 billion to $222 billion. The two most volatile categories was the Internet and newspapers. (Everyone else pretty much stayed the same.) Internet ad revenues grew from $17B to $26B, while newspaper ad revenues shrank from $47B to $34B. In essence, the Internet started eating newspapers’ lunch in the order of $9 billion. Make no mistake. This is an epic battle to the bankruptcy filing.

What’s truly frightening is the idiotic, insular logic that brought us this bill, sponsored by state House majority leader Lynn Kessler.

“The actual newspaper reporting is meant … to get information to the public, and to make sure that our government is held accountable for decisions that government makes, and that the stories that are written are accurate, and they can get this information out to a broad section of our community,” Kessler said.

Unfortunately, she is tragically misinformed. (Maybe she should lurk moar.) Journalism is meant to do what she describes. I should know. I have a degree in it. Newspapers, on the other hand, make a profit from delivering journalism in the form of newsprint.

Wanna stifle innovation? Then give flawed business models an artificial advantage over innovating competitors.

Kessler and her ill-informed ilk have made it that much harder for those small groups of people who are advancing journalism to actually make a living doing so. But then again, a thousand independent media outlets with their own strong editorial voices would only make political life that much more difficult.

Here’s a little “Internets is serious business” moment:

(Thx @mazy)

Some time ago, the world decided that “compromising” was a good thing. Eventually, the thought seeped into corporate culture and even trickled down to the startup world. That’s too bad, since compromising is the stoner drug of choice for gutless entrepreneurs.

Just so that we’re clear, I’m not arguing for the complete opposite. Bull-headed, over-confident blowhards can cause quick, painful death to a dream. But compromising is the plaque in the veins of startup arteries that’s slowly cutting the life blood to our collective balls.

Often, people use compromising as a technique to “meet in the middle”. Unfortunately, if you are trying to do something bold, new, or innovative, this is the opposite of what they should be doing. Compromising has become a barrier again exercising our ability to articulate and innovate. Compromising is now a shortcut to getting something done, regardless of how good that something is — a license to half-ass ideas.

There are effective alternatives to compromise. When faced with different logic and reasoning, the response is to find 1) a simpler solution, 2) a more open and transparent solution, 3) a solution more open to experimentation, or 4) a more flexible one.

Never, give into the temptation to just meet in the middle.

(Creative Commons photo by .mushi_king)

… of the Internet awards that is…

We focus on winning just ONE award per year: The Webby Awards. Being nominated for awards is flattering and ego-boosting, but we’ve learned to settle down and focus on what’s really important to the business — to the goal.

We’ve won plenty of awards from various organizations, and it’s awesome. But when it comes to putting our muscle behind winning something, we focus. There may be some who are critical of the Webbys, but there’s no denying that it’s the most prestigious, expensive and most competitive of the Internet awards. Regardless, what matters to us is that if we win, the Webbys gives us the best and largest exposure — and an excellent return on our investment.

In fact, in 2008, I Can Has Cheezburger? took home not just one, but two Webbys. This year, we hope to take home two more for FAIL Blog. This isn’t about the vanity of recognition, or patting ourselves on the back. (What do we do with the awards once we get them home? Well, the last two are sitting behind the printer somewhere.)

Lance Armstrong, during his touring days, would focus on winning just the Tour de France. In fact, he wasn’t even a regular podium finisher at the other big cycling tours. He was focused.

Because we focus our attention, we can put together a large campaign to mobilize our users to vote for us in the Webbys. And we do this just once a year. And because we all participate, we can share this victory with our entire community.

So go vote for us. I promise I won’t ask you to do this in 2009 again.

And a way to show off Tofulator, our video captioning tool (beta).

My wife and I went photo-hunting at the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival and found something quite surprising. Apparently, ninjas are everywhere, even in IRL.

Here are your normal, beautiful, colorful varieties of tulips:

Then came the Ninja variety.

True to form, they could not be seen…

(More on ninjas…)
Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks for all your emails, tweets and screen shots about me on the New York Times front page. (It was for this article on blogs to books.) The kitteh on mah shoulder is the Happy Cat plushy from Lolmart.com.

At the Denver Wordcamp, I talked about the value of making decisions that matter by focusing only on the most valuable decisions. I believe that the role of the Chief Executive (regardless of the size of the company) is to tackle the HARD decisions, not chase the RIGHT ones. Simply, there’s no way to know if you are going to be right or wrong. But those hard decisions you’ve been putting off won’t get any easier.

After a while, this can get really taxing and stressful. It’s like running a mental marathon everyday, whether you feel like it or not. Running a start-up isn’t a young man’s game, it’s a game for people who love what they do. Because if you don’t love doing it, it’s not worth the pain.

My friend Jeffrey Kalmikoff of Threadless wrote about the time in between the running. Sometimes the hardest thing for me to do is to turn off the brain. Instead of fighting it, I’ve learned to just redirect that energy at something else. I’ve found it extremely important to structure an environment that helps me become more knowledgeable and connected.

When I’m not working, here’s what I’ve been able to structure myself to do:

• Help my friends:
  During the week, I make a list of things I “owe” to my friends and I try to come up with ideas to help them. It’s sometimes a lot of fun to think outside of my world and put myself in their shoes. I found myself learning a lot about my friends and myself that way.
• Read:
  Technology can make a big difference. I purchased a Kindle 2 recently and it’s upped my book-based information intake 300%. Dorky, but I love it. I also found a way to use my credit card points to pay for magazines I like. Cash is king. And saved up points don’t accrue interest. Use them.
• Plan relaxation:
  Personal trips, buying some toys, making appointments for things. This commits me to blowing off steam so that I am sure to do it and give me the mental reward of knowing that there’s a small reward at some point in the certain future.

So, how do you turn it off?

Charlie Todd of Improv Everywhere explains the Subway Art Gallery “prank” at the 23rd street C,E train stop.

Jeffrey Kalmikoff of Threadless and I happened to meet up in Chicago today. After dim sum, Jeffrey gets pulled over for talking on his phone while driving. But it’s not your average traffic stop. Watch idiocy ensue…