What’s this all about?

The inspiration for this blog came many years ago when I noticed reputable magazines and newspapers devoting entire issues to the topic of innovation. I’ve grown accustomed to amateur quisi-journalistic digital native “news” sites waxing poetically about the disruptive new paradigms that are transforming our community-led, digitally converged, customer-centric ecosystems. However, when respectable publishers like WSJ, The Economist, or Bloomberg BusinessWeek started to fall victim to the innovation hype machine, I felt it was time for this young boy (ok… not so young) to pick up a sharp sword and start swinging.

Vorpal Words is a play on Vorpal Sword. The word Vorpal first appeared in “Jabberwocky” – a poem in Louis Carol’s Through the Looking-Glass. Jabberwocky was a poem about a young boy’s quest to slay a dragon.  Like most words in the poem, Vorpal originally had no meaning – though, over the years, it has come to be defined as: “extremely sharp and/or deadly”.

I chose the name Vorpal Word because just like the boy in the poem, I am on a quest to slay dragons. The dragons I seek are the various Innovation/Digital/New Media Influencer Technerati who sit in funky loft offices (or possibly the basements of their parent’s house) and opine about topics they apparently know little about.  Much of what they write, just like Jabberwocky, is nonsense. Just like Jabberwocky their silly words are studied and interpreted religiously by minions of naive followers seeking profound meaning, insight, and truth.

If I am to slay the Innovation Jabberwock, then I need the appropriate weapon – carefully selected Vorpal Words.

 

Why should I pay attention or care about what you write?

Actually, you shouldn’t pay attention or care… in the same way that you shouldn’t care about what any pundit/blogger/influencer says or writes.  Most blogs are the ranting of barely qualified highly opinionated gadflies with excess spare time and excess narcissism.  In fact, I would argue that time combined with narcissism has largely been the fuel that has powered the “Social Media Economy”.

I too like to rant. I’d like to think 25 years working exclusively in the area of innovation at some of the least (and most) innovative companies on earth gives me some credibility over the majority of noise that is out there. This blog is primarily intended for friends and colleagues who over the years have been entertained (or enraged) by my amusing rants and opinions.

 

You have a fulltime job… why are you writing?

Those who can, do. Those who can’t, write. I do and I write.

For about 10 minutes during High School, I entertained the idea of becoming a writer/journalist. There are too many reasons for why this idea did not live long enough to see the 11th minute. While my career path took me far away from journalism, my itch to write never left.

Over the years, I’ve written a handful of articles, an assortment of white papers, a few blog posts and way too many snarky comments on Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn.

The words I write are often filled with snark and cynicism because I’ve watched too many good executives get sucked in by the siren song of various innovation experts whose expertise consists of reading all of Christensen’s books and spewing an endless stream of innovation buzzwords.

This blog is a chance to scratch my writer’s itch and get some of the snark out of my system. I may drop some knowledge or I put my foot in my mouth. Either way, it will be entertaining.

Castigat ridendo mores

 

Is this blog entirely about Innovation?

Generally no.  Over the last couple dozen or so years, I’ve lived in 5 major cities on two continents while working for three management consulting firms, three wireless carriers, three global media companies, and founding two companies. I imagine I may occasionally have an opinion or two on some other random topics.  However, I promise to try to retain most of my vitriol for the mobile social networking new media user-generated native influencer experience innovation economy (MSNNMUGNIIE economy for short).

 

So who are you?

Nobody really… just a guy who tends to be right just often enough to think he might actually know a bit about what he’s talking about.

If you really want to know the details, No doubt anyone wasting time reading this page is also an avid LinkedIn user… so go there to dissect my bio.

However, before you jump to the conclusion that I am an irascible old fuddy-duddy who doesn’t get the New Economy or New Media or New Technologies, I feel I need to share some additional bona fides. I will point out that I was developing Internet sites before most people reading this blog ever even heard of the word. I was innovating back when the word innovation meant something more than the thing you put on your resume to impress a clueless recruiter.

In today’s Millennial-obsessed business environment, the “he’s too old, he doesn’t get it, he is old economy” argument inevitably appears in response to some of my more radical opinions. While I will admit that I am old enough to have been building Internet applications when the founders of Facebook were wearing diapers, I started innovating 25 years ago and never stopped.

Frankly, if you can’t tell me where you were the day NCSA Mosaic launched, you are not qualified to question my “Digitalness”.