Increments

It’s funny how the “Next Big Thing” always seems to have been there all along. It’s not like somebody came up with some brand new idea… there’s no such thing. You’ve just got to execute the right way.

I mean, look Instagram and Vine. You could’ve done essentially the same things with Facebook, but they made it better. They simplified certain things, added other things, and boom! You’ve got a hot social network.

The point here isn’t that anybody can make the NBT. I don’t believe that everybody is cut out to do that. Anybody can come up with the idea, but only a select few can execute correctly. Next Big Things are just incrementally adding to the Last Big Things. Somebody just decided to execute differently.

Some of the Most Interesting Blog Posts of 2013

As somebody that is constantly on Hacker News, reddit, Digg, and other news sites, I tend to read a ton of articles. If I think an article is particularly good, I’ll save it to my Pocket archive. That said, here are some of the most interesting articles that I’ve read this year. These are not necessarily the best articles, but they’re some that caught my attention (in no particular order). All of these articles and posts are either directly related to programming, technology, or things that I believe would be interesting to somebody with a similar personality to me.

• Why Haskell is Worth Learning
• I wish I’d thought of that. Operation Starbucks.
• Document the Why
• Is it too late to be awesome?
• Learn C, You Cheater
• How to retain more of what you read
• Four Steps to Google, Without a Degree
• ABC: Always Be Coding
• What’s on Malcolm Gladwell’s Bookshelf?
• Microsoft Depicts How We Will Communicate in The Next 5 Years [Video]
• O’Reilly Media Has Lost Its Soul
• Why I Let My Students Cheat On Their Exam
• The Next Facebook
• The McDonald’s Theory
• All The Apps Have Been Written
• Understanding Google
• The Idea Maze
• Please Learn to Write
• Let’s Start a Revolution
• Do Things, Tell People
• A Technique for Producing Ideas
• Nate Silver on Finding a Mentor, Teaching Yourself Statistics, and Not Settling one Your Career
• Jeff Bezos Had His Top Execs Read These Three Books
• Books That Changed My Life
• The Great Books

Please, leave a comment or contact me through email/Twitter if you have any questions, comments, or just want to start a discussion relating to a post I listed, or this post.

Thanks to all of the writers that are listed here, and all the writers whom I had the opportunity of reading this year!