Thoughts From Paradise

I just got back from an amazing week down in the Caribbean on St Maarten Island. Those are my pale (now sun-burnt) feet in the sand there.It had been a while since the wifey and I took a serious vacation, it was much needed. I took the opportunity to completely "unplug" and just slow down. I also got the chance to compose my thoughts on a few things. I'd thought I would share some of them here:

• Tune In, Stream Out: Tuning out for a week on Twitter, news, and the web in general helped me realize just how much I was over-consuming these days. Today's activity streams are very easy to get lost in--I should say drown in. I'm hoping to be more mindful of how much time I spend with my various data sources.  I'm also continuing to look for more ways to optimize the experience, to surface the most important items and cut through the time-consuming noise. Less social networking = more actual working.
• Tech Should Probably Get Over Itself: The amount of news coming out of the tech/startup space is staggering. Since we built most of the new publishing tools we certainly love to use them, don't we? Of course it's smart to stay on top of the news, just don't let it consume you. Big moves are big news, but everything is probably not very important. Don't obsess over the details and the latest echo chamber trend.
• My Next Steps: Ever since Mike Jones and Mike Macadaan left for MySpace I've been getting lots of questions about my future with Tsavo. Of course losing some key staff can be devasting to any company, more so when they are as talented as these guys. Truth is, because of their work Tsavo is setting huge records in both traffic and revenue. It would make sense to stay the course and help see this company to a great exit. At the same time, I'm continuing to get approached for new opportunities each week. These are essentially what you might call dream jobs with epic salaries. It's not a horrible position to be in, but a difficult one. Things will either change or they wont. If they do it'll happen next week.
• My Own Thing: A few folks have also asked me why I don't roll my own startup. Especially now that I'm sitting on some cash. Honestly there is nothing I want more. However like with love, timing is everything. I have big ideas, I just don't think you're ready for them. Maybe in 1-2 years.
• The $12 Startup: I received a great response to my story of the $12 startup. As I mentioned in the post, I want to share the details of how I did it. So I'm hoping to release a weekly post that walks you through each step. I'll take you through it all, from picking a good domain name to SEO and even monetizing your website. I can already think of 100 techniques that are sure to help some of you.

As for now, its back to a life behind the screen. Although to me, the Internet has always been a paradise in its own right.You can checkout some of my photos from the trip on Flickr.