Brian Feener

(I haven’t posted in a while.  I figure I can take 90 seconds to get some new content up.)

I don’t know how worried I should be about the market crisis.  I’ve been purposely kept in the dark by my 401k company.  I have motivation to wonder but dont know how to take action.  Who’s fault is that?  Is there no pain because I have no idea how much $ i lost?

Kanye West had been touring around the country performing an unreleased single, “Love Lockdown.”  On September 7th, he premiered the new single with a liver performance on MTV’s 2008 Video Awards.

Listening to the song performed live, I was excited for the album version without the crowd noise and with a little more “polished” feel to it.

That night I was disappointed when the version released sounded like this:

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*Notice the extra Auto-Tune, extra reverb, and muffled hook.  All-in-all, just sounds like an unfinished song.

Then this morning I check my RSS feeds and, lo-and-behold, Kanye’s fixed the issues and made a hit.

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*Notice that it doesn’t sound like trash.

Sometimes, something you produce will be wrong.  Or have a problem.  Or just not be the way you want it now that you’re using it everyday.  It’s ok to fix it. Sulking is actually exacerbating the problem because you’re losing the time you could be using to fix stuff.

Be more like Kanye.  Stop sulking.  Just fix it.

I will answer any question so long as this is the top post in the stream.  Add the questions to the comments.

McDonald’s has the best hot fudge I’ve ever tasted.

It makes sense when you think that there were millions of dollars invested in finding the formula that the MOST people will like.  Finding the perfect texture that millions of people would pay $1 for.

How about this graph:

Y-axis = % of the population
X-axis = Texture, Flavor
Red area = McDonald’s hot fudge fan
Green area = Not McDonald’s hot fudge fan

Here’s the interesting part… you can make a ton of money working to get into that middle.  Keep in mind that you’re always going to be McDonald’s wheelhouse and they are going to do everything they can to outmarket your product.  But what about those fans that McDonald’s isn’t appealing to?  How much are those fans going to pay for their exclusive hot sauce?

There are plenty of reasons to try to hit that middle sweet spot, but there are plenty of chances to be the best in the world at somewhere else.

It’s Labor Day and it’s ever-more important to stay working for the love of the sport.  Thinking up a new, original blog post every day is hard.  Getting a thought through its arc from beginning to middle to end that’s interesting and important is not easy.  Which is why this post may sound forced, but it comes from the heart.

Today I’m listening to Cipha Sounds and Peter Rosenberg’s podcast “Juan Epstein” and the interview with Nelly.  They breifly discussed the evolutionary aspect of hip-hip that brought it from Sugarhill Gang to A Tribe Called Quest to Wu-Tang Clan and to Soulja Boy.  They’re all in the same genre but with entirely different styles.  They made the point that it’s not right to be unfair different styles of work just because they may not ascripe to your particular aesthetic. Don’t hate on something simply because it’s not what you think Should Be.

Not everyone is going to like what you do, but as long as you are doing what you do well, it’s all ok.  Just be true to what you believe and success will come.  There is a market for everything and it’s about developing that market by delivering what they want to do.

Everyone has a favorite flavor. Just because others don’t like it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t belong somewhere.