Sean Blanda (Page 2)

Sean Blanda

Bevel’s Tristan Walker: The Best Ideas Are Brewed out of Authenticity

Entrepreneurship

Bevel’s Tristan Walker: The Best Ideas Are Brewed out of Authenticity

At 18, Tristan Walker had never even heard of Silicon Valley. By the time he turned 30, the New York City-native could boast of successful stints at cornerstones like Twitter, Foursquare, and as an entrepreneur in residence with the legendary venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. It was there, after working

I Had Help.

Earlier this month at the 99U Conference, ThinkUp co-founder Anil Dash spoke on the trajectory of careers: “Someone opened the door for you, they replied to your email, had coffee with you, interviewed you…that’s something that changed the direction of your career,” he said. He challenged the audience

Molly Crabapple: The Best Path Is the One You Build Out of Your Own Dysfunction

Molly Crabapple: The Best Path Is the One You Build Out of Your Own Dysfunction

Matisse once opined that “Creativity takes courage.” Part artist, part journalist,Molly Crabapple [http://mollycrabapple.com/]has both in spades.The New York-based illustrator has reported from war-torn Syria and Guantanamo Bay, among other places, with a unique blend of gonzo-esque essay writing paired with raw portraits of humanity’s

A Troublemaker’s Manifesto: The Benefits of Wandering

Careers Featured

A Troublemaker’s Manifesto: The Benefits of Wandering

Psychologists are now seriously discussingextending the start of “adulthood” to 25 [https://web.archive.org/web/20170703090307/http://www.medicaldaily.com/adulthood-extended-age-25-child-psychologists-uk-257835] . This is because, to them, young people are taking a while to “get started,” or to begin checking all of the boxes that used to define adulthood. To

The Narrative Fallacy: Why You Shouldn't Copy Steve Jobs

The Narrative Fallacy: Why You Shouldn't Copy Steve Jobs

There are dozens of blog posts about Ben Franklin’s strict daily routine (and they all almost always includethis picture [http://cdn.99u.com//wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Ben-Franklin-Schedule.jpg]), advocating that we should follow suit. Writers love to point out how Maya Angelou made sure she wrote in a

Want a Long Career? Zig When Everyone Else Zags.

Want a Long Career? Zig When Everyone Else Zags.

Fred Seibert is the king of downplay. He will be the first to tell you he doesn’t have a ton of skills—that his success is just something that happened to him and wasn’t the result of any calculated plan. But Seibert can afford the humility, because his

Let’s Kill The Job Title

Let’s Kill The Job Title

One of my favorite career lessons comes courtesy of Dave Chappelle in the movie “Half Baked.” In the beginning of the film, his character, Thurgood, tells the story of his career path. As he is mopping floors, he tells us, “I, myself, am a master of the custodial arts. Or

Pretty Much Everything I Know About the News Business

Pretty Much Everything I Know About the News Business

Last month, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen posted what, in his view, was the future of the news business [http://a16z.com/2014/02/25/future-of-news-business/]. Reactions were varied, but everyone had one. I joked that my entire Twitter stream was people replying to Andreessen [https://twitter.com/SeanBlanda/status/432640779115573248]

You Don’t Need To Learn To Code + Other Truths About the Future of Careers

You Don’t Need To Learn To Code + Other Truths About the Future of Careers

There’s a reason most “conventional” career advice sucks: the world is changing at a rapid clip. When well-meaning mentors give advice based on their experiences decades ago, it’s kind of like teaching someone how to drive using a horse and buggy. In his latest book,Average Is Over

10 Tips for an Awesome Coffee Meeting

10 Tips for an Awesome Coffee Meeting

The coffee meeting is the Swiss Army knife of networking. It’s a low-risk way to meet new people, swap advice, and lay the foundation for a more substantial relationship.If the concept of a coffee meeting is foreign to you, you only have to remember one guiding principle: never,

AxisPhilly, The William Penn Foundation, and “Old Philadelphia”

AxisPhilly, The William Penn Foundation, and “Old Philadelphia”

On July 11, Philadelphia’sAxisPhilly, a public affairs news site bankrolled by the William Penn Foundationparted ways with its CEO Neil Budde [http://axisphilly.org/article/axisphilly-ceo-neil-budde-steps-down/], a move which will likely lead to the site being shuttered or significantly downsized. I no longer live in Philadelphia and am no

The Introversion Bubble

The Introversion Bubble

Recently, I attended a conference alone. When it came to the conference’s opening night cocktail hour, I was a bit nervous. I knew none of the attendees, and nobody wants to be the person standing alone at a party, fiddling around on their phone pretending to answer email. After

On Impact, Startups, and Journalism

On Impact, Startups, and Journalism

Last year I sat in the audience at Behance’s 99U Conference (then called the “99% conference”) and listened to Alexis Madrigal’s lecture on what he saw as an unsettling trend in the startup world [http://99u.com/videos/7249/alexis-madrigal-why-startups-need-to-solve-real-problems-again] . Mainly: startups don’t work on real problems

The Universe

In case you missed it,we recently redesigned 99U [http://99u.com/articles/11159/introducing-workbook-and-the-new-mobile-friendly-99u] . And by “we” I really meanJocelyn Glei [https://twitter.com/jkglei],Jackie Balzer [https://twitter.com/jackiebackwards],Eric Snowden [https://twitter.com/ericsnowden], andJohn Refeno [https://twitter.com/threehz]. Besides abeautifulaesthetic upgrade, the redesign added

The Jeff Bezos School of Long-Term Thinking

The Jeff Bezos School of Long-Term Thinking

If you want to know about Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ obsession with longevity, all you have to do is read up about his side projects. You could check out his super-secretive aerospace company, Blue Origin. Or you could look in the Sierra Diablo Mountain Range in Texas, where Bezos is

The inevitable collision of journalism and everything else

The inevitable collision of journalism and everything else

Most of the changes in online media and journalism have a common theme: Journalistic entities are becoming product companies, offering products that turn content into marketing. As a side effect, this creates businesses that follow Jack White’s theory of control: vertically integrated, creating content that markets a product that

The Jack White school of business

Entrepreneurship

The Jack White school of business

Music, of course, is highly subjective. I’m not here to convince you about the musical talent of Jack White and the White Stripes,this video of their performance onConancan do that for me [http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xplo6_the-white-stripes_music]. While the band’s music made me a