Dan Lewis

Marc has a well thought-out takedown of a pair of Ethicist posts by New York Times columnist Randy Cohen on ticket scalping.    Cohen defense Miley Cyrus’ practice of instituting anti-scalpling measures by asserting , basically, that not everything should be auctioned off to the highest bidder, and performers should be allowed to license out the [...]

[Update: June 5, 2010: In January, an armed robber held up a jewlery store on Madison Avenue between 75th an 76th, shooting and killing a 71-year old employee. This is the first shooting homicide in the Upper East Side in over seven years, and per the linked-to article, seemingly random.]
The New York Times came out [...]

There is an episode of Sex and the City where Carrie, the narrator/protagonist — a sex columnist for a New York City tabloid — manages to be in a book pitch meeting.  It seems like a natural fit, until the audience (and Carrie) find out that the lady she is meeting publishes children’s books.  It’s [...]

Here’s a great rule of thumb that any good writer will tell you, and has been told to me many times: Know your audience.  If you’re writing a term paper, your audience is your professor.  A legal brief, the supervising attorney/partner and ultimately, the judge.  A Facebook status update, your network of friends.
The problem with [...]

Fred Wilson leads today with a simple point:
Nothing is standard. You either need it or you don’t. Explain why you need it and most of the time you’ll get it or something like it[.]
Mr. Wilson says this in the context of contract negotitations, but it applies elsewhere.   One can iterate on the scenarios all day.
But [...]

Ask yourself: When does the lone guy dancing turn into a mob? Seth’s Godin says it’s the third guy, but that’s not the whole story.
Take a look at the people sitting around. They’re looking at the solo dancer but their attention wanes. The second guy comes and captures their attention for long [...]