For those of you still looking for me at this location... please note that I've moved to a new Wordpress-powered site here, which consolidates previously separated professional and personal blogs. I'll see you over there... Continue reading

Didn't someone once say that "the only difference between boys and men is the cost of their toys?" LandingFinal from Richard Edward Bravman on Vimeo. Continue reading

Continue reading

"If you already know what recursion is, just remember the answer. Otherwise, find someone who is standing closer to Douglas Hofstadter than you are; then ask him or her what recursion is." Continue reading

Further to my last post, here's the video short I produced, after significant distillation: Continue reading

The third weekly challenge in the "Creativity: Music to My Ears" MOOC I'm taking was to brainstorm and document a series of 100+ ideas as to how music might address some social or personal problem. I chose to do so around the theme of "Make Congress Work Better." You can download a full-size PDF here: Download Make Congress Work Better), and view an image below: Continue reading

As I explained in my last post, I'm taking a MOOC at Stanford, entitled "Creativity: Music to My Ears." Each week we have to tackle a "Challenge." This week's was focused on developing skills in observing and capturing details from your environment, in line with the idea that creativity starts with paying attention. Our particular task was to find a place to capture all of the sounds heard over a half hour, and organize them into a mind map, and (optionally) into a soundtrack / video. I chose to visit the nearby Avalon Park & Preserve, a stunningly beautiful place,... Continue reading

I'm taking an online course, "Creativity: Music to my Ears," taught by Tina Seelig of Stanford. The first week's assignment: create the cover art for "the album of your life." Here's my effort... For extra credit, we were challenged to whip up a playlist to put inside. Mine can be found here: Continue reading

Continue reading

I worked from our place in Carmel Valley for ten days in late August, returning to NY last weekend, sad to leave it, and Ellie, behind. Our plan was for her to follow a few days later. Fate intervened however, when a business trip back to the west coast had to be organized at the last minute... a clear message from God. Result: a very nice long anniversary (35th!) weekend in paradise with my loving bride. Continue reading

Continue reading

For an early stage company (certainly), and likely for any enterprise, the only interview question for candidates should be, "Tell me a story about how you've made something GREAT happen, and why you believe you can make that happen here." Life is short. Fiscal years are short. Investor patience is short. Incremental results are... incremental. If you want to make something special happen, hire toward nothing less. Demand nothing less. Most importantly: set a standard, by your actions, toward nothing less. Continue reading

We all have our favorite places where, just like in Cheers, everyone knows your name, and it's like a second living room. We're blessed to have a few of those, gathered up over the years, and nestled near to left and right coasts. Here are a few images from one of them, near our place in Carmel Valley... Continue reading

I spent Sunday morning at what many consider the most prestigous gathering of motor car enthusiasts in the world, Pebble Beach's Concours d'Elegance. While the logistics of getting to and from the venue (the 18th hole of Pebble's course) involve a bit of hassle, the sights and sounds there make it all worthwhile. I thought that I would share some of them with you here. Enjoy... Continue reading

With whatever weird analogical reasoning as may be going on in my head, I think of Tumblr as the online equivalent of Park Slope. I've opened up an outpost there. Continue reading

Continue reading

Continue reading

Continue reading

Continue reading

Continue reading

You gotta love this: The Powerful Overestimate Their Own Height Abstract In three experiments, we tested the prediction that individuals’ experience of power influences their perceptions of their own height. High power, relative to low power, was associated with smaller estimates of a pole’s height relative to the self (Experiment 1), with larger estimates of one’s own height (Experiment 2), and with choice of a taller avatar to represent the self in a second-life game (Experiment 3). These results emerged regardless of whether power was experientially primed (Experiments 1 and 3) or manipulated through assigned roles (Experiment 2). Although a... Continue reading

The way the greatest companies extend and elevate their leadership? Stick with bedrock principles (here: the power of great design), while aggressively challenging the status quo of specific instantiations of those, regardless of their origins. Continue reading

HAD I the heavens' embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half-light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet, Tread softly because you tread on my dreams W.B. Yeats As Sir Ken noted in a related TED talk, everday our children spread their dreams beneath our feet. We should tread softly. Continue reading