I didn’t die on that round the world trip

by Steve Hoyt on June 15, 2017

I just haven’t updated my blog in a long while. Don’t worry, I’m alive

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First stop: Bangkok.

by Steve Hoyt on February 24, 2013

Final FantasySo we’re finally headed off on our round-the-world journey! I’ll be posting my stuff here as well as on twitter, instagram, and the like. We don’t have a definite itinerary yet, but we have some plans. Bangkok, lots of Vietnam, Malaysia, Japan, Chiang Mai, Laos, Bali, Singapore, Turkey, Italy, Croatia, Belgium, and Germany are all on the list right now, but that could change. Alyson will be working on several creative projects. I’m guessing some will involve art. I will primarily be working on a startup with my brother.

In Bangkok, I’m looking forward to the infinity pool on the roof of our hotel, the isaan food in some random restaurant that we went to with some friends last time, and an Indian restaurant on the top of a building that supposedly has amazing lamb carnitas. It is 44 degrees warmer than here in San Francisco, so I haven’t had a chance to stress-test my new clothing in the heat.

I’m feeling I’m at the beginning of Final Fantasy 1, which I got for my eighth birthday. I have no idea what to expect, but I’m betting I’ll earn some experience points. Or maybe I’ll be defeated by imps. (the game was a little too complicated for an 8-year old, and my brother and I sucked at it for a while)

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Needs matter far more than market share.

September 30, 2011

I just heard a story on NPR about how Amazon is trying to capture market share in the tablet market from Apple with the release of the Kindle Fire, but the Fire doesn’t have many of the features of the iPad like a camera, 3G connectivity, and Bluetooth so it remains doubtful as to whether […]

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The magnetic pull of the status quo

September 17, 2011

As the Director of Strategy at Drywell Art (the title is tongue in cheek, Alyson really runs the show), I’ve had the good fortune to be able to attend many craft shows. A market like this is a great way to see hundreds of similar businesses side-by-side. It’s not something that you really have the […]

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Japanese pencil-geniuses have an edge.

September 14, 2011

A few years ago, one of my clients brought me an amazing pencil from Japan called the uni KURU TOGA. It looks like a normal mechanical pencil, but it has special powers… When you put pressure on the pencil, the lead rotates a few degrees and the tip never wears down to a flat the […]

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Yet another reason why Apple doesn’t suck.

August 30, 2011

Apple is great at a lot of things. So great in fact, that it is difficult to emulate them with any real success. They are Apple and they are better than everyone else at almost everything that they do. I bet they always will be, even now that Jobs has stepped down.One of the things […]

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Why you can’t pick out dish soap without having a panic attack.

August 24, 2011

There are plenty of categories and markets out there where every competitor has converged and it’s almost impossible for the average consumer to determine the difference between any of the products on the shelf. Walk through the supermarket or the electronics store and it’s easy to spot categories where this has happened. Dish soap… digital […]

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The real reason the BlackBerry sucks

August 22, 2011

The Blackberry doesn’t suck because of the user experience. It doesn’t suck because of its poor design choices. It doesn’t suck because of the marketing or because of its technical inferiority. Those are all symptoms of a much bigger problem… The BlackBerry abandoned its point of view! There’s an abundance of finger pointing among Researchers […]

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