Thrust and lube - Startupfest 2012

COEFFICIENTS
OF FRICTION

SOLVEfor
INTERESTING
OTHERWISE LIFE IS DULL.
Thursday, 19 July, 12

AKA
THRUST AND LUBE

SOLVEfor
INTERESTING

bit.ly/Leanfriction/

2.5% of 20% of your
your weight food & oxygen
100 Brain
Body
75

50

25

0
Body mass Calories consumed


85% of brain
growth
happens in the
ﬁrst 3 years so
you can be
born without
killing your
mother.


YOU WERE LITERALLY
BUILT TO THINK.


We have such lofty
aspirations.


http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/electropod/5327967258

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/ﬁddleoak/6218482933

But your brain writes
checks your body can’t
cash.


Atoms = friction.
Friction sucks.

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/access/2165374689 by Access. Denied

Just about the only thing
we’re great at is long
distance running.


The spirit is eager, but the
ﬂesh is wussy.


Good ideas,
lousy containers.


http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/opensourceway/7496799718

http://bs.cyty.com/menschen/e-etzold/archiv/TV/rca/img/rca1956ad.jpg


Photo by DVIDSHUB on Flickr (http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/dvids/4417086779)

Levers,
pulleys,
wheels.


Photo by ♀Μøỳαл_Bгεлл♂; used under a creative commons license.
http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/aigle_dore/5952302862

We’ve spent the last
100,000 years ﬁghting
friction with thrust.

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/statelibraryofvictoria_collections/5599297439

STEAM WILL
SET US FREE.


Photo by Steven De Polo on Flickr (http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/stevendepolo/4550903693)

Beasts of burden
without the whining.


The industrial era
fundamentally rewrote the
thrust/friction equation.


The means of
(mass) production

Photo by Nevada Tumbleweed (Mark Holloway) on Flickr http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/us_army_rolling_along/4241473639

In thrust, bigger is better
(more thrust ﬁghts more friction.)


Regulation & legislation

How big
Materials Labor Capital
companies
think about
competitive Processes

advantage.
(with apologies to Distribution
Michael Porter.)




Control the Processes

infrastructure.
Distribution




Train the Processes

workforce.
Distribution




Lock up the Processes

capital.
Distribution




Patent the Processes

process.
Distribution




Control the Processes

channel.
Distribution




Lobby the Processes

regulators.
Distribution


Barriers to entry in a
thrust world

Economies Vertical Access to
of scale integration capital


http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/juggernautco/225260288

Which is
why your
org chart
came from
the civil
war.


EFFICIENCY
DRIVES
CONSUMPTION.


Uses 75% less coal

WTF?


Shouldn’t more efﬁciency
mean less consumption?


Now 2010 2009 2007

Server Server Server Server
Server Server Server
Server Server
Server Server
Server
Server
Server
Server

A rack


2007 2006 2004 2002

A row


2002 2001 1999 1997

A data center


Today’s server
is yesterday’s data center.


So why
are we
building data
centers?


Efﬁciency creates demand.


Gates envisioned a
computer in every
household.


SMARTPHONES
(Picard uses Android)

SOFTWARE
EATS EVERYTHING.


Software eats
everything.

Digital Digital
inputs Software outputs


Lube, not
thrust.


THE TRAVEL AGENCY

http://www.flickr.com/photos/uggboy/4158150814

THE RECORDING
INDUSTRY

http://www.flickr.com/photos/saucysalad/3640865387

DVDS

http://www.flickr.com/photos/maladjusted/5207565912

Don’t ﬁght friction with thrust.
Instead, reduce the friction.


Every business that differentiates based
on its ability to thrust is doomed.

The world went from scarce,
resistant atoms to
abundant, frictionless bits.


ABUNDANCE, NOT
SCARCITY.


Because > From

Photo of Doc Searls from Wikipedia.
Or because of it.

Scarcity has value. But so
does abundance.


“...every single thing I’ve done professionally
since 1996 is a direct result of blogging.”

Publishers “see content
as a scarcity we
produce and control.
Facebook and
Google ... see content
as an abundant
resource to learn from,
value and exploit.”

Jeff Jarvis

Frictionless supply means
endless demand.


Make money because of
abundance.


FIGHT THRUST
WITH LUBE.


It’s easy to start something.


Old model New model
Upfront investment Crowdfunding

Infrastructure Cloud

Marketing costs Social media

Delivery, billing, fraud Paypal

CRM, Intranet, IT SaaS

Risk of failure Lean


http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/ecastro/3053916892/

Photo by the US Army. Used under a Creative Commons license.
http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/soldiersmediacenter/4097699857

Ready, aim, ﬁre
is so 1995

Instead: aim, ﬁre, ready


(now bullets are free!)


LEARNING FROM
EVERYTHING, ALWAYS.


h"p://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/pixel_addict/465394708/?

Everything is an
experiment.


EMBRACE YOUR
INNER CYBORG.


How do we make
sense of all this?

Human/machine blends
always win.


HT: Andrew Chen


The vertebrate eye is “backwards The cephalopod eye is
and upside down”. Light travels constructed the “right way
through cornea, lens, aqueous out”, with the nerves
ﬂuid, blood vessels, ganglion attached to the rear of the
cells, amacrine cells, horizontal retina. No blind spot.
cells, and bipolar cells.

Extension of the brain Invagination of the head

THREE CONCRETE
EXAMPLES


http://gothamist.com/attachments/garth/2006_06_17_taxis.jpg Text

Photo by Peak Educational Consulting LLC from http://www.futureeducators.org/goteach/2011/08/09/innov8-ﬂip-it/

Can you get the
best teacher in
the world to your
classroom?
Cloud says yes.classroom
Flipping the

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/emilymills/7228318644

(phew)
CONCLUSIONS


The next (ﬁfty)
Billion-Dollar Companies.


The best time of all
to be a disruptor.


Embrace abundance and
make money from because.


Fire ﬁrst. Scale later.

Live in the data and act like
everything is an experiment.


Build for the day when
friction is gone.


Thanks!
@acroll

bit.ly/Leanfriction/

SOLVEfor
INTERESTING

Thrust and lube - Startupfest 2012

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