Hi TDWers, I’m Ben Huh, and I run the Cheezburger Network (which includes The Daily What, if you were too Prop 19’d to notice). I have made this offer privately to a few people associated with Reddit, and I’ll say it publicly now:

I believe that Reddit is one of the best communities I have seen on the Internet. I also believe that Reddit would benefit from more resources and less corporate interference. We can offer all of the above. And we’d love to buy Reddit and all those pesky troublesome users that we love so much.

Condé, we’ll be waiting for a call.

Cheers,

Ben Huh.

• Being blind-sided by a competitive threat, whether it’s an actual competitor, or market change.
• Having a competitor out-execute us.
• Market change that will dry up revenues quicker than we can change our model.
• Hitting an invisible ceiling on growth, where our method just stops having any impact.
• Missing the signs of employee apathy
• Saying something really stupid in public
• Taking our community granted (by myself or by the team)
• Not planning or testing enough for a change.
• Planning for too long and taking too long to change.
• Being stuck in a paradox of contradictions

Well, that’s not the full list. But I didn’t want to put you to sleep — which I probably need.

During a recession, it’s necessary, if not fashionable, to be frugal. Eventually, the boom will be back, and those Joneses will be flaunting their new found wealth at your doorstep again. Often, I get questions about how I managed to get out of $40,000 in debt after the first dot com bust. The getting out of debt part had not much to do with the bust, but more to do with the bubble.

This is how I dealt with the temptation to spend at the height of the bubble.

1) I hung out at the mall for fun.
I know that sounds crazy counter-intuitive, but I went straight to the lion’s den. I walked, walked and walked, and bought virtually nothing. Sure, the temptation was crazy strong, but after a while, I got used to it and a sort of numbness came over the desire to buy. Even now, more than 5 years later, the mall seems filled with overpriced things I don’t really need.

2) Used is a beautiful four-letter word.
I do have a weakness for cars — those beautiful, shiny, fun beasts of consumerism. Solution: I became good friends with Craigslist. There are remarkable treasures to be found in the For Sale By Owner Used car market. But then again, there are plenty of overpriced and oversized and overly loaded cars there as well. In 2004, I swallowed my own objections and purchased a sedan with 80,000 miles for $8,000. It was outdated, had scratch marks on the bumper and in a color we never imagined owning. But it was safe, reliable and actually quite comfortable. I was always a “new car” guy, but that used car showed me the virtues of buying less than I “needed”. I haven’t bought a new car since — or paid more than $15,000 for a car (while the average new car now costs $28,400). We still buy used whenever we can and sell our stuff on the used market whenever we can.

3) I ignored raises.
Sure, I got them, but I didn’t let it change my life. In other words, I didn’t grow into my salary. Of all of the things that I did, this little tactic was absolutely the most powerful force. When I was making $35,000 a year, I used to be able to save (or pay down the debt) to the tune of about $2,500 a year. I felt fortunate enough to be able to do that. It meant not buying the new car or that new gadget, while everyone else seemed to do so. But when my income grew to $40,000, that meant I almost tripled the amount of money I saved. In other words, I could get out of debt in 1/3 the time (or grow my savings 3 times faster). As I paid off my debts, we felt our spending power increase even though we were not actually spending any more money — purely because we had less credit card or car payments to make.

The alternative is pretty typical of the pains associated with the boom and bust. As people’s income grows, we end up spending it. That means we establish new spending patterns and establish a “new normal”. When the hard times come, we must cut back, resulting in painful changes to behavior and lifestyle.

To this day, my wife and I firmly believe in Living Small. Living Small (capital L, capital S) means not just spending less than you earn, but resisting the urge to spend more just as your income grows. Instead, find a sustainable spending level and stick with it. This is what allowed us to handle sizable drops in our income.

I know during a recession, it seems like you’ll never be able to save money, but when the day comes when you can start to do so, remember how to Live Small. It’ll help you to Live Large later.

Let’s take a look at my “career” at the Cheezburger Network:

1. Sep. 2007: That idiot who quit his job to run a cat picture site. (Staff count: Approx. 1)
2. Jan. 2008: That idiot who quit his job to run some photo sites. (Staff count: Approx. 3)
3. Jan. 2009: That idiot who quit his job to run a time-waster network. (Staff count: Approx. 15)
4. Jan. 2010: That idiot who quit his job to run a… what the hell are they trying to do over there? (Staff count: Approx. 35)

Every quarter, we embark on a project or come across an opportunity that would fundamentally alter who we are. If you would have told me in 2008 that we’d be running 40+ sites and be one of the largest networks on the Web, I would have not believed you. In fact, I am on the record saying that we could never really see ourselves beyond the 25-sites mark at Gnomedex 2008.

Yet, here we are. WTF?

I believe our ability to grow has to do with two things:
1) Having no false expectations about who we are (we’re here to make you happy for a few minutes, nothing more) and,
2) Having no holy 3-year plan. (Few thought we’d be anything, so it was easy to be something).

That meant we could relentlessly chase what our users wanted each and every month — our own visions be damned. Every year, we look back on the last, and we’ve reinvented ourselves as a different company. Perhaps to the outside world, we haven’t changed much (which I see as a huge positive), after all, we still post the same number of lolcats to I Can Has Cheezburger? each day, but the dramatic internal change is easy to recognize in the office.

That constant drive to reinvent means it starts with me. Every quarter, I look back at the last and my “job” has totally changed. Last quarter, I was hell-bent on finding the Cheezburger way to do recruiting and hiring. This quarter, I want to create a lasting Cheezburger culture within the company. The only thing that’s common from quarter to quarter, from “job” to “job” is that I’ve never done it before. It’s scary as hell. But I really don’t have anything to lose. I can always get a new job.

The term Banana Republic is a pejorative term originally used to refer to a country that is politically unstable, dependent on limited agriculture (e.g. bananas), and ruled by a small, self-elected, wealthy, and corrupt clique. (via Wikipedia)

I’d like to introduce the term Ostrich Republic to describe countries like Italy who bury their heads in the sand* when faced with freedom of information. The more we restrict access to information, the more we are likely to stay ignorant.

The prosecution of an Internet host for posting evidence of a crime has a deep chilling effect on the people of Italy. Some have argued that Google should monitor all content posted to its sites and make sure that material like this doesn’t get posted and that it’s just a matter of money that Google doesn’t’ want to spend.

Well, they’re absolutely right. Google could spend lots of money and screen all content that comes in, but freedom of expression should not only be available for those with the funds. This ruling affects everyone, including individual bloggers, universities, non-profits. Will they have the resources to screen every user comment? Or will this ruling just shut down public discourse on Italian websites for the fear of possible liability?

Unfortunately, Italy is not the only Ostrich Republic to apply the laws of the last century to a new world. The fundamental belief in the freedom of expression on the Internet assumes that the user, and therefore society, is made better by it and that we do not need to be protected from information.

(* I know that that’s a myth about ostriches. But work with me here.)

However, when it comes to dealing with the public, the same is not true. Unlike a team environment where people want to learn, the public generally doesn’t care about one particular view or another. It’s easy to pass judgment and paint the other side as a moron, pure evil or a greedy bastard. I do it all the time. And the Internet has made it that much easier to polarize each other.

Jumping into the flame war can have serious consequences. Ask anyone and they will tell you that they prefer a factual and reasoned argument over name-calling and absolutism. But a quick read of pretty much any site’s comments will reveal otherwise.

But I don’t buy the “public is stupid” argument that people use an easy way out to paint the users. I’ve learned over the past three years that the public is in fact quite intelligent and reasonable. When you run a user-generated content network, you rely on the smarts of your audience for everything. Quite the contrary to conventional cop-out, the public is actually pretty awesome — with occasional, temporary, lapses.

The broad stroke of painting the users or the public as “stupid” will only color you ignorant. This is a lesson we drill into our team at every opportunity.

If you’re going to start a public-facing company, here’s a few well-earned lessons I learned over the last several weeks:

• Lesson Number 1 is to not argue with the Internet — there’s really no winning.
• Lesson Number 2 is that I am not as clear of a communicator as I wish I was.
• Lesson Number 3 is that disagreements are impossible to avoid, so don’t fret about it.

Haters gonna hate, but learn to love your haters ‘cuz they’re just like you and me.

OP:
Last month, I filed a lawsuit for the very first time in my life against someone who was trying to mislead our community and profit from it. It wasn’t an easy decision, but it was the first time I had seen such brazen attempt of trademark fraud.

The problem wasn’t the domain name, but that he was trying to confuse and defraud our users by marketing the content and site as his own and profit from it.

The facts:
- The Cheezburger Network launched Failbooking.com on January 5, 2010 (The idea was based on Facebook fails posted on Failblog.org as early as 2008).
- A few days later, the owner of Failbook.com iframed Failbooking.com and attempted to auction off the domain for more than $50,000. (Failbook.com was registered in 2006, but it was a parked page until he iframed our site.)
Screenshot: Note that nowhere does he mention that he’s not related to our site, Failbooking.com, but the title of the page makes it look like Failbook is in fact Failbooking.com (click image to enlarge)

- The owner of Failbook.com tried to market our content and site as his own by promoting on social news and networking sites as Failbook.com
Screenshot: Here is the owner of Failbook.com, trying to promote his domain as if he were us. (click image to enlarge)

- The owner of Failbook.com, who runs an Internet marketing agency in Mexico also even bragged about the “easy traffic” he was getting due to Failbooking.com on Twitter. (Which appears to be missing now.)

- As soon as we were able get his attention, we sent him a settlement asking him to reimburse us for our legal expenses (approximately $9,000) and to agree in writing that he would not violate our trademark or promote others to violate our trademark. He refused and tried to rewrite history and is now levying personal threats.

When we first learned about this, we had a few choices:
1) Go after the domain via the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy.
2) Send a Cease and Desist.
3) Take the case to court.

Our logic?
1) We had no problems with someone else owning a similar domain, especially since he had registered the domain well before us and our problem was NOT with the domain name itself, but the fact that he was trying to confuse our users into thinking he was operating our site at Failbook.com. So we didn’t pursue going after the domain name.
2) Sending a C&D would not stop the domain auction in progress. He would still benefit from the fraudulent activities he committed.
3) Suing was the last choice, and the most costly one for us, but it would mean that we would stop him from profiting from the fraud. So after some serious thoughts, we felt this was the right choice to make. Iframing an entire site and marketing it as your own is not the same as linking to another site, and doesn’t even fall anywhere near fair use. Traffic is nice, but if our users were becoming confused about the ownership of the site and we had no idea what Failbook.com’s owner planned to do with the site once he did amass our users’ goodwill.

I know from a PR and legal perspective, I probably shouldn’t be writing about this, but I realize that I am a public person and that the Cheezburger Network is company based on the goodwill of our users. Suing someone doesn’t feel like being a good Netizen, but I feel that the owner of Failbook.com got caught red-handed while trying to commit fraud and is trying to rewrite history.

I hope this helps people understand why we decided to sue and hear both sides of the issue. We are continuing to reach out to settle the suit that would ensure that he will not try to mislead our users again. We are not looking to profit from the case, but if he continues to apologize to us in private and then threaten us in the next breath, we’ll have no choice but to continue with the suit.

I’m blessed enough to have endured some of the most humiliating lessons of my life early on in my career.

To top it off, the postings clearly lists $8.55 to $10 per hour for these jobs. So far, I’ve received more than 4 applications, out of more than 180, suggesting that I kiss the candidate’s derriere. One applicant wrote: “I don’t even wipe my ass for $10 an hour” and then wrote about how great he’d be for the job.

We advertise lower wages for entry-level positions because the worst candidates focus on money the most. Believe it or not, advertising lower-than-market wages actually helped us yield better candidates. Higher advertised wages resulted in much higher level of noise from candidates who really didn’t care about the job. (FYI: Advertised pay and actual pay are two different things.)

It’s become clear to me that bad candidates focus on money like that’s the only thing they’ll get out of the job. The best candidates just want to do the job that’ll make them happy. In fact, for our entry-level positions, I believe that our biggest selling points as a company are our shared vision of making our users happy for 5 minutes a day and the huge opportunity for growth.

Every manager and CEO has a story about the lazy-ass, unqualified pisser who demanded a top salary and a raise every 3 months. But those same mangers and CEOs will also tell you about the butt-busting, entry-level employee who never complained and eventually rose to become the team lead or an executive. Guess which of the two they recruited away to their next company? And the next…

If you’re a hiring manager or CEO and you’re reading this, I encourage you to summarily reject a candidate if they bring up compensation (unless you prompt the topic) in the first interview. To me, it’s an indication of the following:

1. The candidate’s inability to control their personal expenses, which inevitably leads to drama and demands at work.
2. The candidate’s lack of belief in his or her ability to succeed and grow within the ranks.
3. The candidate’s inability control the diarrhea of the mouth, the leading symptom of the disease called poor judgment.

So what should a job seeker do?

If the economy has dealt you a bad hand, I am truly sorry to hear that. I know what it’s like because I’ve been there. If you have high financial requirements in order to absolutely survive, I don’t really know what to say than go get a job at a bank (you know what I mean). But if you really want to have a great career, don’t worry about how much you’ll be paid now. Instead, focus on finding a company you’d love to work for and a job you’ll enjoy doing, then find a way to live within your means. That’s the recipe for growth both financially and personally.

This is the advice I took when I shut down my first start-up at the age of 23 and found myself $40,000 in debt. I went from being a CEO to minimum wage “consultant” working for another start-up. It was less than a year before I found myself back on my feet.

I am not what I earn. I am not the balance in my bank account. I am not even my title. I am what I accomplish and that makes me happy.

If this makes you want to work with the like-minded, talented and passionate people at the Cheezburger Network, our jobs can be found at http://jobs.cheezburger.com

The Cheezburger Network’s Board of Directors is the one and only boardroom experience I have. While things are going well, I feel that it’s important for me to know how other Boards operate (so I can get ideas, experience something new, and make meaningful contributions) but I know that being on the other side of the Boardroom allows me to see myself with more objectivity.

As a board member, here’s what I can offer:
1) Everything I know about being a start-up CEO and growing it to profitability.
2) Everything I know about making the hard decisions as a person.

So, I am actively looking for a board seat at another startup as an outsider. The criteria for me is simple:
1) It cannot conflict with my responsibilities at Cheezburger.
2) The startup must have E&O insurance.
3) The company must be committed to good corporate governance.

One of the fundamental changes that technology brings us is a change in the way we do business. One of the least-understood impact of such change is a change in culture.

When I went down to Las Vegas for CES, I was invited on a tour of Zappos by two Vegas social media starlets Bill Cody and Chris Rauschnot. I started the Zappos tour with a healthy dose of skepticism: “they can’t really love working there that much, could they?”

I’ll cut to the chase: I walked out a believer with a handful of business books from their free library and an appreciation for the blank slate technology has given entrepreneurs like us.

The most important thing I learned is that Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos, had an opportunity to reinvent the way shoes are sold as a result of the Internet revolution. But rather than using technology to define the business, he used the technology to enable a new culture in customer service — by re-examining every little detail. (If you want to read more about the Zappos culture, I would recommend that you Google it. There’s been enough written about it to fill several books. Then go take a tour and see for yourself.)

The most direct reaction from my revelations at Zappos would have been to run to the airport, draft a long email on the flight and implement the practice by edict. Wouldn’t that have been easy and effective? But most importantly, it would have been a waste of time. Cultural changes don’t work that way.

Coincidentally, for weeks before visiting Zappos, I have been obsessed with finding The Cheezburger Way to do recruiting and hiring. It’s been priority #1 for me for weeks.

So, on the way home from Vegas, I took a deep breath and decided that culture was best built by the people who work here — so I started asking our team questions about what kind of a company we wanted Cheezburger to be and we started experimenting on our recruiting process, because that’s where it all starts.

It may be subtle and hard to notice, but this job listing for a “Supercharger” is the result of 6 weeks of interviews, research and soul-searching. Can you spot the difference?

Then we end up with:

Don’t tell me I do nothing at work…

The Cheezburger Network (bringers of I Can Has Cheezburger?, FAIL Blog, There I Fixed it and like 30 more) are looking for a superstar editor to manage their new cute-oriented blogs:

Are you a content professional? Have you managed editorial teams and freelance writers? Have you grown consumer-focused communities? Negotiated content exchange and traffic development deals on the Web? ARE YOU AWESOME?

More info and application is here: Apply at http://cheezburger.simplicant.com/job/detail/4040-managing-editor-of-cute

The job DOES require relocation to Seattle.

I received several good candidates via our online job application management system. But I also received this webgem of a reply. While the email contained more professional information about this candidate, this was the very first line in the email:

From your ad copy, you sound like you have no money, and are goofy to work with…if you are (hopefully) a little more together than your copy would indicate, than maybe we should talk.

Let me count the wrongs…

1) No greeting. Hello. Hola, OHAI, or even YO! MTV RAPS would have been acceptable.
2) “you sound like you have no money” LOLWUT? Assuming makes an ass out of U. Not me. Maybe you’re saying that we’re poor as a compliment, but as a communicator you should know better than to lob ambiguous compliments.
3) “if you are (hopefully) a little more together” I assure you Mr. Jobseeking Professional Communicator, that this is potentially an explosive accusation. We are VERY much together and the use of a search engine would probably help. Also, RTFMing.
4) “than maybe we should talk”. Than? No Mr. Accomplished Communications Professional. The correct word to use in this case is “then” not “than”. Even, I, the runner of massibly misspellinged web network of kittens linguistics knows this.
5) You sent me an email. I provided a link to an online application site. As much as I enjoy a rule breaker now and “than”, but being a lazy jackass doesn’t win you any points.

Thanks for the consideration,
Ben Huh

• 4 Moderators
• Managing Editor of Cute
• Sr. Developer
• Automated Test Developer

Two of these positions can be applied for on-line: Moderator and Managing Editor. Both positions are based in Seattle.

Kudos, Automattic.

What looks like this on TV:

Actually looks like this from the point of view of the talking heads:

It’s amazing what you can do on TV. Also, Aussies are just so adorable!

I’ve been on both sides of the system. As a relatively young man, not being insured doesn’t appear to be much of a problem. Medically, young males have very few things to worry about. On the other hand, as a husband, I can’t imagine putting my family through a financial disaster that is possible under the current arrangement. I’ve seen my mother survive cancer and enjoyed the benefits of company-paid healthcare. And then watched her become worried and desperate for coverage after she was laid off and became uninsured.

As a CEO, I’ve come to realize that lack of healthcare is a barrier for employees from leaving jobs and starting new businesses. That’s a problem for a small business / startup like ours. Its not unusual to run in to very talented employees working at large companies who feel that they cannot leave a job they dislike because our company’s health plan is not as good. I’ve met many people who would love to start a new business but can’t, because they would be unable to get coverage for pre-existing conditions until they reach a certain company size.

Effectively, unequal healthcare serves as a barrier to innovation. It’s entirely possible that our own employees may quit and start their own companies because guaranteed heathcare coverage may allow them to do so, but I have no desire to be the man that keeps an employee down. Increasing costs in healthcare also means that annually we face the choice of paying more in premiums or cutting benefits.

This will probably be the last time in a long time that we’ll be able to have an intelligent public debate about how we can safeguard our family from healthcare costs. So please, don’t be afraid of the complexity and start asking questions.

Today, we received the biggest gift we’ve ever gotten in the form of four American Apparel boxes from Dov and Ryan. Here’s the chaos that ensued after I opened one of the boxes and said “Hey! Free clothes!”

*Warning: Transgender apparel outfitting*

Thanks American Apparel!

If the crowd’s job is basically to follow orders from well-funded visionary authorities… and kinda look all crowdy-like while doing so — then what, exactly, does crowdsourcing mean?

I love Rob’s question. I think most other people miss the big underlying reason why the video was so amazing and enjoyable to watch. There’s been a trend and pattern among viral videos that leverages “Obsessive Houdinism”. (I’m going to call it that.) “Obsessive Houdinism” is the theory that by using technology and a big helping of obsessive coordination, we can transform what appears to be an impossible feat into an entertaining event.

The Sour music video almost maximizes this theory by using amateurs and hence people’s awe of “amateur aesthetic”. I say almost because if the video had been performed by the users’ puppies and kittens, the Houdini act would have been more impressive.

That video is not crowdsourced. Just massively awesome.

Turning the question upside down also raises an interesting question. Consider Hollywood, where millions of struggling amateur writers are creating new shows and some get made, is that crowdsourcing? If not, what about American Idol?

Watch the promo video where Christian dresses up for the first time in his life:
Watch live video from PC Hookup on Justin.tv

And next Tuesday at noon eastern, I’ll be on MTV’s It’s On with Alexis Chung.

These people have the MAD skillz: Masashi Kawamura + Hal Kirkland + Magico Nakamura + Masayoshi Nakamura

<goosebumps>

</goosebumps>

Via Dweebist.

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.

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.

(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)

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.

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…)


see more Lolcats and funny pictures

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.

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?

Eaten at this amazing restaurant:

Ben Huh on Sound Magazine Cover, April 2009

My very first cover. It was a fun, crazy, cat-filled photo shoot (half kitler, btw). Here’s the link to the digital version of the mag.

I know that Macbook looks totally HAWT on my head. I should wear it more often. I did get a little nervous when I read that title “Seattle’s Internet King.” I’m sure some Seattle Internet folks are asking “Who died and…”

[4:23:06 PM] Kiki: yo dawg
[4:23:16 PM] Scott: ‘sup?
[4:23:27 PM] Kiki: i heard you want access to mah servers
[4:23:50 PM] Scott: indeed. all your servers are belong to us now.
[4:23:58 PM] Kiki: NEVAR!
[4:24:16 PM] Kiki: I can’t make you a new account, butI can lend you mine
[4:24:31 PM] Kiki: Ben is root
[4:24:40 PM] Scott: ok, i’ll get it from ben.
[4:25:40 PM] Kiki: KTHXBSAI
[4:25:43 PM] Kiki: heh
[4:25:46 PM] Scott: thanks!
[4:25:51 PM] Kiki: hard for kttens to typ

Here’s a picture of the invitation being delivered to the office.