Gotta wash the phantom

Oh, wick is coming out for training camp slash nye mess

Great week in Houston. Good to hang with the fam. Back to the job hunt

Christmas Day Rider

Thanks for taking this photo sis. I had a great ride in Houston on Christmas Day. And yes, I still Rock Rock racing jersey. Very good quality gear--despite what you think of the team.

Avatar is bananas. Go see it

Merry Christmas and Cyclocross

My poor nephew cameron coughed pretty much all night. THat kept me up all night. So I was crabby when I woke up this morning. Nothing like a 40 mile ride in 50 degrees and 30 mph wind to brighten your day. At one point today, I was in the 39x27 pushing into the wind with all I had. I tried to go straight into the wind for 20 miles so I would have an awesome time coming back home. I figured I could hold near 30 with that kind of wind at my back. Of course, no chance would the wind direction hold. And I lost my way coming back home. So my 40 mile ride turned to 50 miles. My toes were frozen.

Yesterday, I got in 40 miles in 70 degree temps. I guess Houston can change temps quickly just like anyplace else.

Anyway, Merry Christmas everyone.

The below pics are from SF Golden Gate Cyclocross race and a Santa Rosa (Levi's home) race. Check out the beard! My boy kent is pictured 1st. All photo credits to Veronikalenzi.com

Flip, flip, flipadelphia

Converting my cross wheels to tubeless. Yeah! No tubulars for me!

Great time in Seattle. Time to head back to the bay

Just walked into a strip mall bar for a alumni ch A/N game. Yikes, I was the only grad after '66

Army/Navy football today in Seatlle with the Amazon guys. Go Navy, Beat Army!

75% complete with my MBA

Spent my morn breaking ice puddles with my new pink cassette, RickRoss,Common,Blink182,mtn bike&sunrise

Tim Hurson's Think Better was a decent read attempting to change the way I approach problem solving. His anecdotal stories where interesting. I particularly enjoyed the notion that simple twine around an elephant's leg will be enough to keep said elephant in place. The elephant was chained as a baby and is trained to think that the anklet demands they stay put--despite the fact they they could easily break the twine. Often times, people get caught in this elephant mentality. We accept a small set of circumstances to define our broader environment. This limits innovation, creativity, and the willingness to change to stay ahead of the curve. In business, an unwillingness to look in new directions and "break the twine" will likely spell the demise of the firm. The biggest problem is that most businesses are unwilling to recognize that they are bound by the twine. Other businesses recognize the twine, but are unwilling to break it and move in a new direction.

Hurson quickly moves towards what he describes as the Productive Thinking Model. The interesting thought here is that Hurson believes that one model can be adapted to fit every situation. I tend to agree with Roger Martin's Opposable Mind in that there is no way to model the world. But Hurson makes some valid overarching points. The stepwise structure delivered is:
What's Going on?
What's Success?
What's the Question?
Generate Answers
Forge the Solution
Align Resources

Most of these ideals have been preached consistently throughout the DST class. This gives Hurson credibility. But I am tired of "magic framework" proclamations. The highlight of the book were the quotes Hurson would reference before each chapter. I'll leave you with those and you can feel confident that you have a extracted the most value from the book.

"Creativity is not an escape from disciplined thinking. It is an escape with disciplined thinking." -- Jerry Hirschberg

"Discontent is the 1st step in the progress of a nation or a man." --Oscar Wilde

"We can see the past but not influence. We can influence the future but not see it." -- Stewart Brand

Sway

Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior

Ori and Rom Brafman do a great job of captivating the reader with amazing anecdotal stories that drive home the primary message of the book: people, who normally make rational, intelligent, and calculated decisions, can and will neglect glaring evidence to make a decision that will negatively alter their lives. The wide swath of tales covers enough ground so that all readers should experience the proverbial cooking pan to the side of the head. Perhaps that is why I liked the book. The Brafman brothers state that all people do stupid things. Then, you, as a reader, give them a chapter or two to prove their point thinking that you'd never be caught doing some thing so foolish that it would alter the course of your life. You are then engulfed by the storytelling. And then, bam, the fry pan hits you square in the face because you realize that one of the stories directly describes some recent foolish action you have taken.

This book is outstanding in its own right. My interest was piqued by the book's 1st sentence which describes one of the world's most experienced and accomplished pilots in the world. Now, allow me to diverge. Aviators are an interesting set. Perhaps there are more technically difficult jobs in the world. But the confidence required to be an aviator disallows just anyone to sign up. Aviators must be relentlessly perfect. Surgeons and aviators have to have a certain swagger in their professionalism because mistakes are final. While not everyone knows an aviator, most people know surgeons and are inspired or disgusted by their approach on life and interactions with people. I feel like the same can be said about aviators.

My 9 years previous to b-school were spent flying the US Navy's largest plane that lands on the carrier. Just to reiterate the idea of finality, when landing on the carrier, I had 4 feet of centerline deviation before I started dragging my wingtip through parked planes. If not on centerline while landing, not only would I be causing literally hundreds of millions of dollars of damage as I dragged my wingtip through parked planes, but the likelihood of surviving that event would be slim at best. Plus, the 150 flight deck workers would be subjected to 150 knot flying metal shards. So my plane would be lost, 15 or so other planes would suffer severe damage, and many people would likely not survive. So it was a stressful life. But in my mind (and reality), there just wasn't a better carrier aviator. I was the best. I had to be. Each time I was on final approach to the carrier, attempting to safely crash my plane onto the deck and pray that my tailhook caught a wire, I had to have nerves of steel and the confidence to accomplish my task at hand. Raining? Didn't matter. Snowing and couldn't see? Fly perfect instruments. Windy and the carrier deck pitching plus or minus 19 feet with 9 foot listing? A varsity day, but toughen up. So as you can clearly see, that confidence is required, because beyond open heart surgery, there are few jobs in the world were you absolutely must be perfect, every time.

So I found it interesting that the Brafman brothers would start with the Tenerife disaster that killed 584 people when two planes collided on the runway. Increasing bad weather, crew rest, and a failed cockpit social structure allowed the holes of the proverbial swiss cheese to align and this horrible mishap to occur. All the safety frameworks in place did not catch the circumstances surrounding this event. Many studies were conducted to better understand what went wrong and how to plan to avoid the mistake again. The interesting piece for me is that my years of flight school incorporated these safety improvement ideas so well, that I did not even realize it was happening. Allow me to diverge again.

When you start flight school, you first fly with an instructor. That instructor has thousands of hours flying and you do what they say when they say it. If you cannot perform simple maneuvers, talk on the radio, and understand the emergency procedures, you attrite quickly. There is a knowledge base that you must acquire and prove that you can perform. However, after about 200 hours, a student knows his way around the jet and can safely get off the ground, zipp around at 300 knots, fly formation, and safely land in challenging weather environments. The confidence is building because flying a jet is a difficult task. However, this idea of crew resource management is ever present. There is always someone somewhere that has information that you need. It might be that ATC knows there is a distressed plane behind that needs to land before you--altering your fuel planning. It might be that your a fire-detection system has failed. It might be that your co-pilot sees a very small plane 20 miles out that is CBDR (constant bearing-decreasing range). It is not that anyone one of these things will cause a disaster. But add these circumstances up without the primary decision making (the aircraft commander) understanding what is happening, and the holes of the swiss cheese align. Experience, and the confidence (read arrogance) that surrounds it will never be a substitute for a lack of situational awareness. For this reason, it is imperative that the cockpit be an information depository. As an aviator, you must constantly look for new bits of information. It might be a rate of descent reading, an altitude, a radar blip of another plane, or an ATC radio call describing the weather at your destination. Flight is dynamic and constant, relevant, updated information is paramount. The most important thing to understand here is that things happen quickly and pilots get saturated. Hence, CRM. Crew resource management enables a communication environment where each crew member is incentivized to speak up concerning relevant information. Had the social structure in the cockpit of the KLM flight been different, the greatest commercial aviation mishap would have been avoided. However, the copilot (who was an amazing pilot in his own right) did not speak up when his more senior captain took an action that was reasonable, yet deserved questioning.

The interesting piece is that 20 years after the Tenerife disaster, CRM has even reached Naval Aviation. As a matter of fact, CRM was such an established standard that I didn't realize that at one point it did not exist. Even as a US Naval Aviation Safety School graduate, I did not understand that there was a generation gap between an aviator trained 10 years previous and myself. A single flight with my commodore (15 years my senior) made it painfully clear to me. I signed for the aircraft as the aircraft commanded, despite the fact that I was seriously outranked. I was the more experienced aviator in in this particular aircraft, but he had thousands more hours overall. We had an oil pressure problem and I wanted to land quickly. He thought it was a false reading and we should press 30 minutes back to base so that he could make his next meeting. My aircrewman and I both agreed that landing asap was the best plan. The commodore pressed his case. I listened to his reasoning and then listened to the aircrew thinking. Because I had signed for the plane, I had 51% of the vote. The commodore was visibly upset that I declared an emergency and landed at the nearest airfield. However, his mood changed very quickly when directly after landing, our right engine failed. His desire to take his next meeting clouded his ability to think clearly about the circumstances surrounding our flight. Because he outranked me by 15 years (a lifetime in Navy), he expected me to immediately fold to his wishes. However, CRM demanded that I accumulate as much information about our situation from all members of the crew. Had the commodore signed from the aircraft, he just would have pointed the plane towards home base and suffered an engine failure. Because I listened to the reasoning of all crew members, I was able to build my situational awareness (unlike the Tenerife disaster) and make a timely decision. It was standard protocol for me to employ CRM in this case. However, the commodore was not interested in my thoughts on the matter. I am happy this generation gap existed.

For me, CRM was a normal, necessary part of aviation. Yes, I was the best aviator to fly my aircraft--that confidence did not escape me. However, unlike the commodore, I knew that I could be better if I had complete information. Older pilots pre-CRM believed that their experience was more valid than any other entity in the aircraft. It seems criminal with hindsight, but in the commodore's era, the confidence/arrogance that was required to be a good aviator was a swiss cheese hole aligning mechanism--and it was encouraged. His willingness to employ CRM in his cockpit set up a social structure that was difficult to overcome. Had I not signed for the plane that day giving myself 51% of the vote as aircraft commander, I wonder how my world would be different.

At HP HQ with Haas@Work making these guys money

Google Interview Completed, now the waiting game

I found this and absolutely loved it. FIX IT! Crawl down to the end of the tunnel, and FIX IT! (skip to 2:10 to listen to FIX IT!)

Interviews went ok. The first interviewer was mechanical and procedural. She didnt seem impressed that I used to land planes on boats or that I have a maverick 150mm travel fork on my "all-mtn" bike. Its hard to impress everyone all the time....

I found out that dylancasey.com of USPS fame is now a product manager at Google. I figure if a guy that used to ride bikes for a living works for Google, I should be qualified (Disclaimer: he was national TT champ and rode the classics, I just upgraded to Cat2)

Say a prayer, interviewing at google today. Plus I just got my cat 2 racing upgrade

Reverse Sampson

No-Shave November almost killed me. This morning I woke up and just couldnt take it any more. I had to shave. I've never had more than 10 days growth in my adult life. This month was absolutely silly. I looked silly, felt silly, and itched like silly.

I was supposed to auction off my beard for charity. But there were 67 other guys doing the same thing this afternoon. I just dont have the time to sit and let that event transpire. Too much to do this week.

Also, I am 99% sure that the beard was some kind of reverse sampson occurrence. I couldnt concentrate all month. I wasnt that fast on the bike. We lost in the 1st round of our intramural basketball tournament. However, I did get a full time job offer with Amazon. So how do I explain that?

Big interview this Thursday. Please say a prayer for me!

Kid's not bad

Last year was such a whirlwind with finals that I couldn't get a tree
up. Well, mom would be proud. I got up on Friday and put up my pre-
lit tree. Not too bad for a house with 5 guys!

Swing a row 16 lakers/warriors ticket tonight. Awesome!

Swing a row 16 lakers/warriors ticket tonight. Awesome!

Esquire Tuesday

Its been a while. Plus I changed up the blog format. I want to showcase some of the videos I have been taking. Not that any of the videos are anything spectacular, but I know that I will enjoy them in the future. Plus the Flip Video mini HD is so easy to use.

But for my readers who enjoy Esquire, I present ERin Wasson. She's not famous for anything other than being extremely attractive. Bless her heart.

And don't start any sentence with "So," unless it is a one word sentence: "So!."
(but starting sentences with and is acceptable)

Drop then Crash

Spent morning w/ the sunrise, Marin county dirt, my intense 5.5, greenday, joss stone, hot hot heat

Amazing evening with Mary George, the Haas Vets Club 1st speaker! What a dynamic woman! Thanks to all attendees

Brisbane Night time cross race

9 riders jumping in Moab

Moab sole (soul) riding

Jan's On a Boat!

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Brisbane Night time cross race

Night Cross Race at Brisbane Point

Post Race interview on the flip camera

Mtn biking in matin today

Found a cracked bearing on my big mountain bike. Happy to have it fixed

Just got the amazon job offer! Woohoo

Just got the amazon job offer! Woohoo

Drove from 330am to 630am this morning. Saw the sun come up. Unreal weekend. Feel centered again

2 porcupine rim runs. 8k descent. 10 hours in the saddle. Unreal weekend. Sad to leave Moab. Good riders. Amazing time

Wordle what?

Just pumped my resume through wordle.net. Very fun. Very cool. Interview with Amazon tomorrow. Anyone have any insight they'd like to share?

100 miles. 86 degrees. $3million plus raised from The Austin ride. Thanks to everyone who donated!

About to get my 100 mike Ride for the Roses on for Lance Armstrong Foundation

At the airport, headed to Austin. 100 miles for lance Armstrong Foundation

Esquire Wednesday

Kate. Need I say anything more?

Riding in the Lance Armstrong Ride for the Roses Cancer Fundraiser this Sunday in Austin. It'd be great if you could flip 5 or 10 bucks to the cause at

http://austin09.livestrong.org/jwbender

Really excited to ride and to hang out with mom and sis!

Oh yeah, interview tomorrow with Deloitte and Friday with McKinsey. Next week I interview with Intel (where I am the only non-indian white male interviewing) and Amazon. Say a prayer. Kid needs a J-O-B.

Just got crushed on a pretty simple case. Good practice, fail, iterate, fail, find success

Chicago was great. Back to the bay meow

Went to SRAM Corp yestday. In Chicago for MBA Vets conference. Cold wind like Alaska

Velonews just crushed any hopes of being asleep before midnight. Crazy week ahead

Kid feeels like he is I. Thailand

Burned two dirt hot laps at tamarancho with Jordan this morning. Riding before sunup is cool

For some reason, can't get to bed before 1. More time at cisco today

Boom! 1st vets club meeting in the bag. Awesome time with awesome peeps!

Great discussion at facebook about the intersection of problem solving and being nimble/dealing with Twitter

Esquire Tuesday

This past week has been a little rough. But this morning's inbox made up for that. Kate Beckinsale, my #1 Hollywood crush, is Esquire's Sexiest Woman of the Year.

Wow-wow-wee-wow

She's an absolute dream.

I raced my first cross on Sunday. It was very cool. I finally got my ebay bike up and running.


The course was insane climbing followed by more insane downhills. There were so many braking bumps that it was simply a survival of the person who crashed the least. There were so many crashes, it looked like a muddy buddy run. If I would have had any sense about me, I would have just ridden the full suspension mtn bike. I had fun though.

There were the usual banter fans. This one guy put a dollar in a beer bottle and he only let you grab it if you were going fast (more likely to crash). I definitely saw at least 4 boomer crashes there. What fun.

I am taking some time off from training so dont expect to see too many results this cross season. I just want to have fun.

I am riding 100 miles for the Lance Armstrong Foundation 2 weeks from Sunday. I would very much appreciate any donation that you can muster. You can donate here:

http://austin09.livestrong.org/jwbender

Cancer is a funny thing. It can strike at any time. My roommate lost his mother last week to colon cancer. She only started complaining of pain in Aug. Then, in just a few short weeks, she is gone. My life is so busy with MBA-land, looking for a job, and trying to do as much as possible, I am happy that I am able to get away for a couple days to pay my respects, raise some cash for cancer survivorship, and just think about how fortunate I am to have my health.

Be thankful for your health today.

Ari Gold: "you're finally a real asian, err agent". Classic Ari banter

Great discussions bout the Haas vets club this am. Good things on the horizon!

bartape.net

Livestong is happening at the end of the month. I am headed to Austin to ride in the Ride for the roses. Donate at

http://austin09.livestrong.org/jwbender



One guess as to who rides this bike.


Uncle, me, and "I dont own a collared shirt" Jeff

Dream bike.

As most of you know, last week I traveled to Vegas to Interbike, visit with Uncle and Jeff, interview with SRAM, and race.

Uncle, Jeff, and I scored an amazing steak dinner. We ate at N9ne steakhouse and had surfnturf. I'm not sure Jeff loved it, but I did.

Interview with SRAM went well. The MBA I spoke with wanted me to think more about what I want to do next year. I think he's right. I need some focus.

Interbike was silly awesome as the pics indicate. Just look at all that craziness. I witnessed it all. I scored some sweet shimano PRO gear for the cross bike (and watched cross-vegas). So cool.

My race brought great satisfaction. We raced in the mandalay bay parking lot. IT was more or less covered in silty-slick sand. So there were many crashes. At one point, I was gased and was taking a breather near the back. For no reason other than carelessness, this guy low-sided and then another guy just barreled into him. I avoided that crash. There was the usual lull through the 5th to last corner and I used my momentum to push up to 3rd wheel. This was a perfect position as there were 4 corners to go. The guy on the front was pinning it and I thought he left a little early. I jumped with 2 corners to go and had the choice line through the last crash-prone corner. Just as I had imagined, I felt my rear end start to slide and by the grace of God, I managed to hang on. By the time I caught traction and started going straight again, two guys got around me. The guy who went early won. I managed to get back in the fight and pick up 3rd in the 2/3 USA Crit finals. Thats a result to hang my hat on for the season. I was pumped.

I also won two primes and scored 2 pair of radars. If anyone wants a brand new pair of Livestrong radars, let me know! I'm selling em cheap.

Today I finished my work at a respectable hour and had 90 mins until my late evening meeting with my new product development team. The cleaning lady was vacuuming and I wanted to enjoy my dinner in peace. So I went to my room. I happened over to bartape.net to watch the Cervelo test team ride the early season. I have a new found respect for those boys. Wow, what a tough life. I highly encourage anyone--even non riders--to go spend some time watching the 8 min episodes.

The stories of Hausler and Hushovd are simply inspiring. I'll never forget watching Henrich get pipped at the line for Milan-San Remo. I hope he gets another shot. When I saw him at interbike, I decided that I absolutely hated his hat. But I forgive him. He also wears double diamond earrings. But he's one tough bitch on the bike. And I respect that. He knows how to suffer, and that skill will serve him well. He might be my new Jens Voight.

She took a couple years off to have a couple kids. But God bless Jen Garner's return to hotness. Are you serious? Approved. YEs, this one if for Jeff K.

Monday class is almost over. Happy to have talked about improv and observation

3rd in the vegas finals 2/3 crit! Finally a result. Could have won but my wheel slipped coming out of the last corner. It was a crash fest. I won two pair of Oakley glasses in primes

I have pinned a number hundreds of times. But never on the bed in a 3
room suit in Vegas. Pray that I keep the rubber side down.

In a cab with mountain bike movie star Paul basciglotta. He'll jump off anything. Sacrifices his life for very little pay. Check out née world disorder mtn bike movies

Jamie driscoll beats world cup champ, Canadian champ, and American champ to win cross Vegas. Awesome fun. Crazy alley catters after the race almost killed themselves in Vegas traffic

At crossvegas (cyclocross). This is nuts. Trebon and wicks are 7 feet tall. 14lb cross bikes. Thousands of fans. Such a better choice over the walk out of class that will happen at uc Berkeley tomorrow

At crossvegas (cyclocross). This is nuts. Trebon and wicks are 7 feet tall. 14lb cross bikes. Thousands of fans. Such a better choice over the walk out of class that will happen at uc Berkeley tomorrow

Interbike, uncle and jeff, interview with SRAM, cross-Vegas, cat2/3 USA crit finals, then back to berk, international biz dev debrief, then Annapolis 10 year. No time for class in there

design and system's thinking blog entry

This past weekend I read Bill Buxton's Sketching USer Experiences. A fantastic book, it took me on a thinking journey through avalanches, tribal norwegian navigation, ipod development, trek top fuel mountain bike design, and convergent vs divergent thinking. I enjoyed the manner in which Buxton used historical quotes and relevant products to help me better understand effective design. In a sentence, iteration and pencil on paper design produce amazingly fruitful results. Buxton is not afraid to pound his chest claiming that few can design in the way that he can. But by the end of the read, one starts to believe him.

My takeaways are that design can be hard and is paramount to the success of products and processes. Attempting to design solutions before the problem has truly been defined will cause headaches. However, taking the time to sketch the entire process will pay dividends in cost savings and quality. Moreover, truly understanding the challenge is usually the greatest design deliverance.

Lastly, the most important takeaway: simple is beautiful. So, make your blog entries short. 6 words on a power-point slide is more powerful. Brevity is next to Godliness.

Tour of Oakland

Already been up for 90 mins as I watch the sun comeup today. Silly bike racing. Headed 180 miles to Chico for the last crit of the year

Awesome ride with stads, Bernie murph, & @kentnewman. Ahhh MBA life. However, taking my life in my hands by eating on telegraph

Just got a surprise paycheck from cisco for pto (paid time off). What a blessing

Your voice sounds like a mix of fergie and Jesus--step brothers

Wick nasty flew out to ca for the weekend. He's still a mess

Placed 4th in the time trial yesterday. Raced like a little girl today. Would really like to have a team at some point

Wick Flew out to CA

Kid flew out to Berkeley and surprised me. He brought his new addict and built it in my garage while I took a solid nap. We are racing in the Folsom City Omnium this weekend. I'm a little nervous about the kid riding my TT bike before me tomorrow. Pray he doesnt crash. I'd like to have a fast bike for my race.

Looking forward to a great weekend. We'll keep you posted here, FB, and twitter.

What do you think of the new flip video camera? Cisco purchased Pure Digital earlier this year. THe HD video camera is super easy to use. I am still working on uploading and data management. I'll keep you posted.

Just learned in power and politics class that 5:1 is the optimum positive interaction to critical feedback ratio. Husbands take note!

Had a great metromint tour of San Francisco. Was third wheel with two corners to go. Scored a flat tire and had to sit up. Heartbreak

'Nana Bread

Yesterday was a great day. I rode 45 miles with Scott Sowry of the Brian Maxwell Fellows program. We started from his place in Marin and enjoyed a 43 mile jaunt out to the Point Reyes. We pedaled over some good sized hills and past George Lucas' place. We left early and enjoyed cooler weather. On our way back we must have passed at least 300 riders. Very cool.


I came home and "crashed hard" as my mom would say. Translation: I took a nice nap.

Then I went over to Brooke and Ryan's for a nice evening of Cal Football. I was pumped to learn that Navy took the option offense to within 2 points of beating Ohio State. Thats good for Navy, the perennial underdog.

I also booked my tickets to my 10 year Annapolis reunion. Wow. 10 years? Where did that time go? Have I really progressed at all since then? The "what next" question has been weighing very heavy on my lately. Say a prayer that I'll figure it out.

Plus, say a prayer for all those effected by cancer. I signed up to ride in Austin's Ride for the Roses in October. Basically, its a 100 mile ride to raise funds for the Lance Armstrong Foundation. I would love it if you could throw $10 (or more) to my fundraising effort at:

http://austin09.livestrong.org/jwbender

Lastly, I was delightfully surprised to learn that Brooke spent the morning putting old bananas to good use. I ate the entire loaf of banana bread in one sitting. It was absolutely awesome. God bless the Browns!



I am racing the San Francisco MetroMint Giro tomorrow in the city. Its kind of a goal for me in that I want to score well. I just need a "W."

What a morning

Esquire Tuesday

Vera Farmiga

Was Matt Damon's love interest in The Departed. At the time, I wasnt sure that if I loved her for hotness, or hated her for beign into Matt Damon. Time has passed since I've seen the movie and I have decided that I will forgive her for the Damon misstep.

Whaaaaaaat?

New product design class was not really awesome in that it was more
arts and crafts rather than theory. However, I did score some awesome
cat material. As little John would say -
Wwwwhhhhhaaaaaatttttt!?!?!!!???

random thoughts

Scaling and stickiness.

Why is it that it has taken me my entire life to truly understand these two concepts mean?

Think like this:

Stickiness. What are things that you need everyday? Food, water, shelter--Yes. Comraderie, fellowship, news, justice? There are primal necessities and social designs in which you participate every day. Stickiness is the concept that you will continue to spend your time doing these things. Everyone needs to eat, sleep, and receive input. So food has been important throughout time. Fellowship has also been important (no man is an island). Information flow or access to information has been paramount. Every person on the planet engages in these things. Hence, scale.

Scale. Networks of great size increase in complexity and richness. That ability to scale builds the network. The network in itself, is not valuable. It is the sometimes the size of the network alone that is valuable. The ability to rapidly scale enables wealth migration, value creation, and stickiness.

I urge you to consider stickiness and scale in all that you do today.

I hate grocery shopping so much that I am considering leaving the grocery store now so that I can return later

Spent the morning at a hedge fund. Rode 45 miles in Marin. Then Q-tip. Now Pearl Jam. Wow

Design and systems thinking class was good. Looks promising. Prof was at HP and is energetic. Still need one class that fits into my schedule

Usaa let's you deposit checks using the camera on your iPhone. Anywhere, anytime. Banking disrupted

Esquire Slash GQ Tuesday

The cover of GQ has a youthful micheal jackson pictured when he used to melt hearts all over the world. I could care less.

More interesting was my "I havent bought groceries in a month" trip to SafeWay for cereal, milk, and bread. I was waiting for Grandma moses who was at least 97 to find her credit card to pay for her daily groceries. I picked up GQ and was amazed to find out that Andy Roddick was married to Ms Brooklyn Decker (pictured above). An absolute stunner, I was happy that she went to a seemingly standup guy.

I have no idea how relationships work and will never pretend that I do. I wonder how you make it work when your husband is the best tennis player in the country and you are an SI swimsuit model. I guess that people like that just dont have to worry about finances, time management (models work a day a month), or progressing their careers. So I find it interesting that these uber couples form.

I went to a good friend's wedding this past weekend and I understand why they will work. They are both pretty low key and not too much gets either of them excited. They dont piss each other off and they both understand what gets the other one going. That all makes sense. I wonder if that exists for everyone. I think it prob doesnt.

Anyway, I got a Flip camera when I left Cisco. Much to my dismay, I still had to pay for it. But I'm gonna do my best to start posting some videos. You can check out flips at

theflip.com

Keep your head up jarrett. You'll figure it out. This is a good life lesson you are facing.

The Navy? Wick, talk to as many people as possible, but you need to understand that service is hard work with little financial reward. I was lucky, invested wisely, and love bikes--so it looks like I have more than I do.

Also, I need a new universal joint in my truck. Anyone have any idea how much that should cost me?

School tomorrow. What?

Esquire Tuesday

This photo of Kata Mara reminded me of the red-neck-dom that wick projects on his facebook profile pic. Then I remembered that Wick doesnt look anything like Kate--the football betting betty.

Esquire thinks she's not bad to look at and neither do. So thats cool.

Track race in 1 hour. Two days of the internship left and my clock couldnt tick slower.

Big ups to jarrett for racing in belgium today. Wow.

And danny, I left that light on for over a week. So my truck batt probably wouldnt make it through that drain.

Had my chain too tight and 120mm stem was too long on we'd night at the track. Loosened the chain and put the original 100mm stem back on and I had a ton more power

Jumper

I left my glove box open and the light there drained my batt. Had to
get a jump from my roomate's ultimate Berkeley car. The prius jumped
me no prob. At least he's not pius like the rest of Berkeley prius
drivers

7 more days at cisco. Final push. Had no power at the track last night. I dont think i ate enough throughout the day. It was cool to have my first cheerleader in attendance

Just had lunch with cisco senior vp Don Proctor. Cancer survivor, father, billion dollar biz manager, and amazing person

Just had lunch with cisco senior vp Don Proctor. Cancer survivor, father, billion dollar biz manager, and amazing person

Sidi carbon mtn shoes half off. I have a serious probleM in that my cycling shoes are worth more than all my other shoes combined

It was really good to talk to Sonny on my drive to work. Congrats on the twins. "I'm crashin Jimmy!"

Esquire Tuesday

I like Rachel Weisz because she's not manufactured and seems like a real girl. Some of these other girls would never go to a baseball game, or watch a bike race. Crit racing is hard, crashes are real, and people get hurt. That element of violence has always been a draw for me. Just ask Elliot with hishelmet-shaped dent in his forehead after hitting a drain draw-down in a twilight crit. Heal up quick pal.

It was really good to talk to Sonny on my drive to work. Congrats on the twins. "I'm crashin Jimmy!"

Esquire Tuesday on Sunday

I missed last tuesday. TOns to write here, but I need to share the following. I made it home from Hot August NIghts Old Timer's Car show in Reno in time to watch Entourage. One question: who the hell is E's new GF and why would he choose her over Emmanuelle Chriqui? WTF? Well, after looking at the above pics, I have decided that her 'alien-I dont ever eat-and I weigh 87 lbs" self is fine with me. What do you think? Women (read: mom), I expect to hear your opinion.

I loves justice and I love files

2 40 lap track points races. Won the first. Took 2nd in the next. Won a pound of peets coffee. But I don't drink coffee

Fallen rider

Ryan is a former Navy surface warefare officer now at the Haas school
of biz with me. His fiancée Brooke has been begging me to take her on
a ride for months. Yesterday was nice enough so I took her down the
treacherous wildcat canyon. Wanting to look "cute," she opted out of
gloves but said a helmet was ok.

Well, she made it down the very curvy descent with no problem. Worked
her way back up the hill with a goodsweat,"this is just like spinning"
she proclaimed.

Just as her confidencewas peaking, she took a flat corner a little too
fast and drifted outside. She got to the brakes late and was already
in the gravel just off the road before she napped a handful of
brakes. Front tire locked up and she looked like menchov jn the last
k of the giro. She tore up her hand and knee (no big deal if you ask
me) and milked the whole crashng thing for quite a while. I have
crashes Like this on the mtn bike
2 or 3 tines a ride. Bit I took it easy on her because she is getting
married in a couple of weeks.

I kept telling her that the men at the wedding would respect her more
if she shows up with a nice scar and some road rash on her leg.

Treebeard

Pictures really didn't do this tree justice. How did you start your
day?

Jarrett, jordan's dad is interested in the intense you have for sale.

Trees

I spent the night at jordan's place in Los gatos. We woke up at 6 and
rode Santa Cruz dirt. It was absolutely the best way to start the
day. Jordan's dad rolled string with us and took this photo for me.
Check out the size of this redwood. What an amazing way to start the
day. Now I gotta get to work!

Say some prayers for tyler's dad and on-going surgery. And count your blessings

Super Early esquire tuesday

My friends. For the 1st time ever, I give you esquire tuesday on a monday night. Boom! Emmanuelle Chriqui is an Entourage regular. I have been watching her grow up for years. Bless her heart.

Had an absolutely amazing weekend mtn biking in Downieville. Took 3 showers in a river. The rides were very hot and favored full face helmets. I am happy I had one and only took one serious digger.

I cant believe I am even saying this right now, but I have to get some work done tonight before bed. Ahhhh how life changes.