Sean Captain

I’ve made enough communication mistakes in my first forty years (especially in the past year) to identify a few rules that I generally don’t follow, but really should:

1) Never use profanity in anger (dirty jokes are up to you). Even if you have a valid gripe or point to make, you vaporize your credibility as soon as you drop an F-bomb.

2) Always use the most personal means of communication possible. Talk in person. If you can’t do that, pick up the damn (whoops rule #1) phone. No matter how bad your iPhone reception, it’s clearer than a text or email that has no intonation.

3) If you have to use text, keep it short and innocuous. Your voice is for real discussion. And if you do end up saying something intemperate (see rule #1), it’s far better to not have a written record.

4) Do not “reply all.”

5) No group emails. That’s why god invented Twitter, and the WInklevoss twins invented Facebook.

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 The new TV season has started, so I’m checking out all that I can. ABC is appealing, because they offer their piliots as free iTunes downlaods. Great to stave off boredom on the eliptical machine. Today, I sweated to My Generation, but it felt closer to vomiting. I wasn’t alone, since ABC dropped that ratings albatross after just two episodes. Let me posit a theory as to why it bombed

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Excerpts from a draft essay I’m writing for my bosses at Iconoculture. What do you think? Am I full of it?

The crash in media value isn’t based on the simple math of supply and demand alone. The founding principles of Web business – give it away in exchange for eyeballs – has taught us to assign little or no value to anything on our computers. Once the price hits zero, it’s not going up again…

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Excerpts from a recent piece I pubished for my clients at Iconoculture. *

Modern technology may make consumers’ lives more hectic. But Web services — and especially mobile apps — also allow them to gain more control by monitoring finances, tracking diet and fitness, providing timely reminders, and even guarding against crime and injury.

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Coke or Pepsi? Rolling Stones or Beatles? Apple or Google? The latest personality-defining choice is between two companies that, a decade ago, were virtually irrelevant.

But today these companies – as different as bacon and ice cream – define the polar-opposite philosophies of tech-savvy consumers (i.e.: everyone under 30, and many older folks, too). Both are economic powerhouses: Apple is the second-most valued company on Earth, and Google isn’t far behind. Both have instant name recognition in popular culture. “Google” is a verb, and “Apple” means the computer and cellphone company, not the fruit.

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Chris Nolan used to make great movies – when he had no money. Memento — shot with a couple of cameras, no special sets, costumes, or visual effects — was captivating because Nolan’s only tool was his script, so it had to be damn good.

Inception (which I, like everyone else, was dying to see) is as far from Memento as possible. The visuals are so stunning that you can actually forget, for a while, how poor the script — and editing — are. But they are painfully poor.

WARNING: All kinds of spoilers ahead…

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In my life, I’ve been asked to explain why I left many things: relationships, popular cities, the Catholic Church (and soon after, the very notion that supernatural creatures exist).

But I think I’m struggling most with understanding, and then explaining, my inclination to leave the iPhone religion.

In short, I’ve simply grown tired of it. I didn’t leave San Francisco because it was a boring, ugly town. I didn’t end (most) relationships because I stopped caring for the person. I simply felt that it was time to move on, have new experiences and adventures.

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