StarBucks is getting into MicroLending in hopes of Job Creation. He knew that small businesses created most new jobs, but that many small businesspeople couldn’t hire because they had lost access to credit after the financial crisis. He thought about Starbucks’s involvement in microlending programs in some of the countries where it bought coffee. He wondered if there was some way that that could be applied to small business lending in this country... It didn’t take long for Starbucks to find the perfect financial partner: Community Development Financial Institutions, or CDFI-s. These are lenders, mostly under the radar, that specialize in underserved communities. Most, but not all, CDFIs are nonprofit, and their loan default rates are extremely low. This may be good for SmallCo-s, but I doubt it will create jobs.

Boston Beer Company, makers of Sam Adams Beer, is working with Accion International to do hospitality-related MicroLending. Helping other small businesses — even other craft brewers — keeps his company in the mind-set of a start-up and close to its entrepreneurial roots, he said. (more)

Providing small amounts of Business Credit - a new Capital Market? (more)

In Systems Of Survival ISBN:0679748164 Jane Jacobs defines Civilization as a society with a reasonably workable guardian-commercial symbiosis, meaning a combination of two opposing (Culture War) Moral systems/syndromes. Not that you just mush them up (which leads to Monstrous Moral Hybrids), but rather that you follow one Syndrome when acting in that capacity. (Society Design) (more)

see Agile Product Development, Agile Software Development, Business Agility, Strategic Agility

Interval training is a type of discontinuous physical training that involves a series of low- to high-intensity Exercise workouts interspersed with rest or relief periods.[1] The High Intensity (HIIT) periods are typically at or close to Anaerobic Exercise, while the recovery periods involve activity of lower intensity... Interval training can refer to the organization of any Cardiovascular workout (e.g., cycling, running, rowing). It is prominent in training routines for many sports, but is particularly employed by runners. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_training aka WindSprints, WalkBackSprinting (more)

Steve Yegge's Blog Rants: Done, and Gets Things Smart. Everyone knows and quotes Joel Spolsky's old chestnut, "Smart, and Gets Things Done." It was a blog, then a book, and now it's an aphorism. (more)

There's been a resurgence of the Software Craftsmanship (Craftsmanship) meme (Peter McBreen's book was from 10 years ago). Martin Fowler follows the debate, as it relates to the Agile Software Development meme.

Baritone Sax player (more)

While smartphones have been heralded as the coming of the next generation of communication and collaboration, they are a step backwards when it comes to personal security, Anonymity and Privacy. The Guardian Project aims to create easy to use apps, open-source software libraries and operating system modifications, and customized mobile devices that can be used and deployed around the world, by any person looking to protect their communications and personal data from unjust intrusion and monitoring (WireTap). http://guardianproject.info/ (more)

Cal Newport idea from How To Be A High School Superstar. (more)

multi-column twitter client webapp

W. Ross Ashby (6 September 1903 in London – 15 November 1972) was an English psychiatrist and a pioneer in cybernetics, the study of the science of communications and automatic control systems in both machines and living things. His first name was not used: he was known as Ross Ashby. His two books, Design for a Brain and An Introduction to Cybernetics, were landmark works. They introduced exact and logical thinking into the brand new discipline of cybernetics and were highly influential. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Ross_Ashby (more)

Model of paying for content-access in an a-la-carte way - one viewing of a TV event/episode, 1 article from a magazine, etc. (more)

Very small charges (less than $0.10, maybe less than $0.01) for services (typically for content, or use of an application) on the internet or web. (more)

Text media, typically longer than a blog post or typical magazine article. Long essay, novella, maybe even a full book.

Epic Games raises $1B for long-term metaverse plans, with $200M from Sony. I asked Sweeney what the killer attraction of the metaverse would be. He said the killer feature is simply getting together with your friends to have great social experiences, like going outdoors for a walk. That’s more fun than just sitting on a couch and talking. (more)

Zvi Mowshowitz: Covid-19 4/15 : Are We Seriously Doing This Again. THIS IS LITERAL ONE IN A MILLION AND MUCH LESS THAN THE BASE RATE WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU DID YOU NOT SEE WHAT HAPPENED LAST TIME ARE YOU COMPLETE MORONS OR ARE YOU MUSTACHE-TWIRLING VILLIANS YOU CAN’T NOT BE BOTH (more)

2020-2021 real-time audio-only social network https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clubhouse_(app) (more)

a Third Place where you get Coffee (more)