IntenseDebate - Charles Hudson

17 years ago @ Charles Hudson's ... - Thoughts on the Real-T... · 0 replies · +1 points

Robert,

Thanks for the comment. I do use FriendFeed a lot, but don't consider myself a power user by any means. We should do lunch - I would like to be convinced on why search is really important.

Charles

17 years ago @ StartupCFO - Is there too much free... · 0 replies · +1 points

Zach,

I think everything you makes sense. For business who understand how free users fit into the overall picture, I think having free users can be an important part of having a workable model. It's certainly the case in the free-to-play gaming space and in a few other areas as well.

I would say that you're in the unique position of being part of a sensible model of how free players eventually become paid customers or lower overall customer acquistion costs by evangelism. And your marginal cost for supporting transactions by free customers sounds low enough that you can carry them at a manageable cost.

18 years ago @ Isaac Keyet - Work Stuff - Intense Debate has lau... · 2 replies · +2 points

Hey Isaac,

I've been running IDC on my own blog at www.charleshudson.net and I have a question for you. Prior to installing IDC, I used to be able to display incoming trackbacks on my blog posts. Since installing IDC, they no longer show up - is there a way to make them appear?

18 years ago @ Charles Hudson's ... - Flock Browser · 0 replies · +1 points

Conor,

Ironically, it wasn't until I installed IntenseDebate that I was able to figure out the problem. Making the blogging functionality work on Flock requires regular access to your xmlrpc.php file if you self-host your blog. What Flock doesn't tell you is that there are a lot of web hosts out there who block access to that file. Making it work requires tinkering with your .htaccess file - not exactly a novice feature. I got it working now and it is very very handy.

18 years ago @ Charles Hudson's ... - Are Smart People Wasti... · 0 replies · +1 points

danny,

wow, sounds like you have some strong opinions about this! i think the process of taking a raw idea and turning it into something is a great learning process and can be really rewarding, both personally and professionally. i just wonder if perhaps the risk meter hasn't gone a little bit too far.

it's really tempting to make ex-post judgments about whether something was a good or bad idea. many times there simply wasn't any way to know a priori. but, that being said, there are some ideas that do have higher odds of success from the start than others.

thanks for contributing to this post!

18 years ago @ Charles Hudson's ... - Are Smart People Wasti... · 1 reply · +1 points

This is a very thoughtful comment - thanks for adding it. I certainly think that many times it's as much about the journey as it is about the outcome. That being said, some paths offer better learning opportunities than others.

18 years ago @ Charles Hudson's ... - Are Smart People Wasti... · 0 replies · +1 points

Hunter,

I think it's actually rational to spend some cycles on those ideas where it's not clear that the payoff will be high, but where your hunch is that there's more to it than the average idea. All it takes is one of those to work out to make the others worth your time.

18 years ago @ Charles Hudson's ... - Are Smart People Wasti... · 0 replies · +1 points

Deva,

Very insightful comment. I agree that the blogosphere can create an echo chamber effect that makes some marginal ideas seem much more compelling than they actually are. Glad to hear that I'm not alone on this - keep up the good work on your blog!

18 years ago @ Charles Hudson's ... - Are Smart People Wasti... · 0 replies · +1 points

Craig,

I agree - I think the Palm Folio was a bad idea and I'm glad it got pulled before it really saw the light of day. Based on what I've seen about the Amazon Kindle, I feel the same way about that product as well.

One of the challenges for talented people is the problem of choice - how do you choose what to do with your time?

18 years ago @ Charles Hudson's ... - Are Smart People Wasti... · 0 replies · +1 points

I think okay ideas that aren't well executed are a tougher call. There's probably more to learn there.

I had an IM exchange with someone earlier today who pointed out that part of the problem at the moment is that the feedback loop is a bit broken at the moment - you get some signals about whether your idea is sticking (monthly uniques, traffic, etc) but not the real signals (revenue, profits, etc) that build big businesses in the long term.

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