Buying your kid into college?

Via The Atlantic magazine:

What moves alumni when they write checks to their alma maters? Altruism? School spirit? Getting the kids accepted? Largely the last, suggests a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research: Based on the (perhaps mistaken) perception that cash will grease the wheels at the admissions office, alumni are more likely to be generous to their former school when their kids are applying. The authors studied the donation patterns of 32,488 alumni of a selective university they dub Anon U, using mountains of data provided by the school’s development office. They reasoned that if alumni hoped for a quid pro quo, their donations would fluctuate according to three variables: the age of their children, whether or not their children apply to the school, and the results of the application process. The researchers note that this is a high-stakes game: Alumni contributed $7.1 billion to higher education in 2004–05. The study reveals that graduates with children are about 13 percent more likely to give back to their schools and that they tend to give more as their children approach college age. But donations among this group decline after an admissions decision has been made—and plummet if their kids aren’t accepted. Though the authors note that alumni without a stake in the cycle still often give generously, many alums who are parents “believe that donations buy them entrance into a lottery whose prize is admissions for their children.”

Stamped for Approval: Turn the 3700 Closing Post Offices into Tech Centers/Incubators

Over 3700 post offices are scheduled to be closed as the USPS deals with the transition to an information economy and the horrible economics of their business. Many of these buildings will probably be sold or just plain shuttered. I've got a different idea.

Turn these old relics of information into digital community centers for the next generation. Call it the Rewiring Jobs Act - let the federal government pay for utilities, broadband and minimal upkeep. Open the spaces as local technology/non-tech startup incubators and job training. Grow the next generation of businesses from the heartland.

Yes most of these centers are in more rural areas but that's exactly the point. We cannot give up large swaths of our country. Help creative classes rise everywhere not just in the largest cities and university towns. Technology and entrepreneurism can flourish anywhere. Smart teams of technical professionals can make a living no matter where they're located.

In many ways post offices were the Internet of 100 years ago so it's only fitting we transform these community centers into job creation and learning hubs for the next hundred years.

Great wikipedia list of con games

Anyone who watches David Mamet films will be familiar with at least of few of these. Exhaustive list of con games via Wikipedia. Some of my favorites: the pig-in-a-poke, the Spanish prisoner, the fiddle game.

Venti Indeed! Kenny G was an original investor in Starbucks

So turns out mellow musician Kenny G was an original investor in Starbucks. Similar to 50 Cent's investment in Vitamin Water, Kenny G has gone to the bank - he claims to have made as much money from the coffee chain as he has from his music

Foursquare: Checking Back In

In Feb 2010 i predicted that Foursquare would be the winner of geowars if they could get "beyond the check-in." Sounds simple but this was at a time when folks like Scoble were wondering if 4Sq would survive to see 2011! [my original post also pasted below]

So 18 mths later, let's see what's changed
A. After an August of amazing product releases we can definitely say that 4SQ is an EXPERIENCE not just a way to publish your location to your FB feed. Explore, lists and specials are killer features that have reinvigorated my use of the product. Not to mention subtle workflow and UI enhancements such as in-line pics. The team is ROCKING it.

B. The Game Mechanic outside of mayorships has really taken a backseat. My guess is that the metagame rightfully continues to slumber so that they can focus on.... [see C]

C. Business Accounts. Check-ins and points will become more important as loyalty programs for specific businesses. I think they'll let Businesses make their own badges to be awarded for different tiers of check-ins. This will restore the novelty to badges and create a mini-revival of badge collection & sharing.

D. Escape Velocity - Everyone knows that BD stud Tristan Walker & his team has made 4SQ a household name in the media/brand/business community. I'm going to be a little contrarian though and say despite the current success, they need to accelerate growth - ie they're not across the chasm yet. But i think this will happen at the local level because of local SMBs and list sharing, not because of big media deals like the ones which they started doing last year.

Overall i couldn't be more excited for Dens, Alex, Harry, Tristan, Sioban, Jon, Noah & the other peeps at 4SQ. Keep it up guys and i'm looking forward to the next 18 mths.

---------

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 06, 2010

The Geo Wars: How Foursquare survives.....

With Yelp, Facebook and perhaps Twitter moving into Foursquare's territory, and the start-up already facing competition from Gowalla, MyTown and others, pundits are starting to wonder, "will foursquare survive 2010?"

My opinion: yes - and they'll be big - if they can execute the following two tricks:

1) Make sure 4SQ is an experience, not just a utility
If checking-in is predominantly just a way to publish your current location to FB or Twitter, then 4SQ will ultimately lose to those services. But if 4SQ can build an experience on top of checking-in, they will create a differentiated use case. Examples of what this experience could be incl:
a) GAME: extending the mechanics of badges, mayorships, leaderboards, etc
b) RECOMMENDATIONS: using my personal geo data to not just track where i've been but provide me suggestions of where to go
c) COMMERCE: Discounts, sweepstakes, etc for checking-in at locations

2) Hit escape velocity fast!
We always overestimate the ability for bigger companies to staple on yet another use case to their product. Consumers often want simple tools that satisfy a need. Now at over 1m check-ins/week, 4SQ needs to throw everything they can at growing quickly and getting adoption in order to cross over to the mainstream - to become the snowball. This means eliminating frictions to sign-up even if it means collecting less info on users in the nearterm or relying more on FB Connect; accelerating a partnership or two for distribution even if it means paying to seed distribution; or being ruthless about delaying advanced user features in order to make sure the basics work across multiple platforms.

As an early 4SQ user I want the innovator to win - they can leverage my loyalty to help them out - put me to work - Dens, whatcha want me to do? Invite five friends this month? Update five listings? Mobilize us!

Once escape velocity is achieved you gain two advantages:
a) network effects of new users
b) competitors are playing catch-up, building the product you were as opposed to the product you're becoming

If they get reduced to being a utility ("publish location") or end up focused on too narrow a group of users, they'll get passed by general purpose geo services or social networks on one side and out innovated by gowalla, mytown, etc on the other.

Alright, gotta run and check-in somewhere....

Palin's the 3rd party nightmare

'I'm not a Democrat, I'm not a Republican. I Am One Of You. I Am An American. And today I'm announcing my candidacy for the US Presidency. You betcha.' - Sarah Palin, October 2011.

While speculation tends towards whether Palin is going to jump into the GOP race, the more curious question is whether she runs as a third party. The Republican primary field has very little oxygen left as Bachman and Perry take the position of outsider forcing Palin to either repudiate them or move even more to the extreme right. There's no way she enters the primary unless she feels she can truly win - the loss of the primary on top of her failed VP candidacy would not just close the door to future political aspirations (which we do not know if she harbors) but would kill her commercial/influence value. Furthermore, if she makes if our of the primary, you get Palin v Obama general election. She doesn't win this, even with Obama's sagging poll numbers. Independents push towards Obama, unable at the end of the day to trust Palin in the White House.

But as an insurgent third-party cabinet none of these issues matter. She floats above the primary fray forcing that Republican candidates to beat one another up while Palin campaigns as an independent. A three-way presidential race with Palin as the underdog creates interesting dynamics, depending upon who comes out of the Republican race. If Palin is already known as a third party candidate you're more likely to see someone like Romney emerge given a tea party vote which migrates off of the Republican base and towards Palin. While most mainstream independents split their votes between Obama and Romney. [There's an even stranger scenario where she holds back until GOP chooses Perry and then jumps in.]

Is there any scenario which creates a big enough gap for Palin to squeeze through as a third-party winner? I almost think it doesn't matter -- as a third party candidate Palin increases her influence from outside of the system. A third party candidate is not expected to win the election and so losing to either the Republican or Democrat but gaining a large showing puts her back in play for the next decade. Something that being the second place finisher in a Republican primary or the losing presidential candidate would never deliver.

So basically i can't see a reason for her to jump into the Republican primary but wouldn't be surprised if Palin's camp teases a 3rd party run.

Narcissist Bosses Flame Out Quickly

via WSJ:

When narcissists get assigned to leadership roles, they impress their charges with authority and confidence. But they also underperform, a new study finds.

One hundred fifty students were divided into 50 three-person groups, with one person in each group randomly assigned to be leader. Each group was supposed to choose, among three candidates, who would be best for a specific assignment, after considering several dozen personality traits and talents. (The assignment: "secret agent"!) Researchers shared some candidate traits with all members of the team, while other traits were provided to individuals. The only way to choose the best candidate was to share information, a task the leader facilitated.

Leaders took a personality test designed to gauge self-absorption, responding to such questions as "I am going to be a great person."

Workers assigned to narcissistic leaders tended to report that they were authoritative and effective. But, in fact, narcissist-led groups shared information less effectively than the others and picked the wrong candidate more often.

The study offers a cautionary tale to businesses, the authors said: Narcissists are equipped to ace job interviews, but might not to live up to expectations.

"Reality at Odds With Perceptions: Narcissistic Leaders and Group Performance," Barbora Nevicka, Femke Ten Velden, Annebel De Hoogh, and Annelies Van Vianen, Psychological Science (forthcoming)