dwlt.thinksOutLoudRSSHomeArchivesLudometricsMade in ScotlandNatural ApproachMar 12th, 2015Blogging as external memory:It’s what I once called the “SimCity” model of growing. I used to often play the game years ago. I would take two approaches. One was to use the “FUNDS” cheat to get all the money I needed to build everything at once. But in doing this, I often found my cities built that way didn’t thrive. Instead, naturally growing my city slowly over time allowed it to stablize and do well.Danny Sullivan After GigaOm, the Non-VC “SimCity” Approach to Growing a Media BusinessThe most amazing thing about getting to go to TED was discovering that all the people I admire are farmers. The doctors and DNA-researchers and dancers and chocolate-makers and oceanographers and cosmologists and investors all have one thing in common: they are total nerds. They work on the thing they love literally all the time. You can’t talk to them without talking about their passion.Wil Shipley Success, and Farming vs. MiningOn TimeDec 16th, 2014If we are going to ask people, in the form of our products, in the form of the things we make, to spend their heartbeats—if we are going to ask them to spend their heartbeats on us, on our ideas, how can we be sure, far more sure than we are now, that they spend those heartbeats wisely?Paul Ford 10 TimeframesWhat would feel arrogant to me would be asking you to spend 10 or 12 hours of your time a year watching my shit, and delivering something where we didn’t hold that time precious.David Simon Arrogant? Moi?Genre LineageDec 11th, 2014“Don’t follow in the footsteps of the ancient masters; seek what they sought.”Matsuo BashōIn my previous post, I made reference to films “quoting” other films, which made me think of some advice I’ve heard given to musicians several times: find out who your influences listened to; who influenced them? And then find out who influenced those influencers, tracing the lineage of your music.The same should be true for game makers – what games influence you? Who made them? Who and what influenced those makers? What were they trying to achieve?Doing so can be a vital way of understanding your genre, what you’re building on, what’s come before, and what you can make of it now: your own thing, with reference to what’s gone before.Nostalgia Is UnderratedDec 3rd, 2014A comment I’ve often seen or heard from “gamers of a certain vintage” is something along the lines of “when I go back to the games of my youth, I’m always disappointed. Some things are best left with positive memories.”I certainly understand and have experienced that sentiment, but I also think it’s missing the point.Watching the recent documentary on Jim Marshall and the invention of the iconic amp (Play It Loud), Pete Townsend talks about John Lee Hooker putting a mic inside the guitar to achieve distortion on a track called Devil’s Jump i