Advice For You (Hey, I'm Not Using It)

I've always been good at giving useful advice to other people. I've always been terrible at taking my own advice. Consequently, I've developed a habit of not giving advice to others just because I don't take my own. Sometimes, though, my advice might actually be useful. Here's some examples:

• Small Sili Valley startups: want your company to get some attention? Here's the answer for you: onesies. Get your company/product logo printed on a bunch of them, and hand them out to, say, Ollie and Sonnet and so on and so on… Honestly, can you imagine a world where those kids don't continually have a camera on them? Forget the choice between XL and XXL shirts—instead, decide how many 6M and 12M shirts you need.

• Speaking of Sili Valley startups, I don't know that I could ever start one, simply because I'm much better at coming up with companies for other people to start. Let's see… Teresa Nielsen Hayden says here that she's "embroiled in some kind of project she’s not talking about." Over here, Chuq von Rospach announced that he's left StrongMail. The answer is obvious (to me): the two of them should open up a consultancy that help corporations learn how to create and foster online communities. Hell, I've been working with online communities for about 15 years, and the two of them individually make me look like a piker. Together, they've been doing it for longer than most people online have been alive.

• Random advice for a corporation that's not a startup: Given that Eudora is dead, and given that Qualcomm hasn't actually open-sourced the code (ref: this page, where it says that their new app will be "based on Mozilla and Thunderbird"), and given that that same page makes it clear that they still haven't even developed a roadmap as yet, I think the answer is clear. Bare Bones Software should try and take over that segment of the market. How to do that? It's simple: park Rich Siegel in Adam Engst's office for a week. End of story. And along those same lines, Bare Bones should change the name of MailSmith to BBMail. It's just a better name.

• This one's for Kathy Sierra, just because I miss hearing her voice: Kathy, go talk to the folks at Lynda.com. Travel to Ventura, record some of your presentations, and let the rest of us watch them whenever we want. Do your blog posts as videos instead of text. Hell, go look at their call for trainers where it says they're "looking for teachers with expertise, passion and teaching experience." I think you qualify, and then some. But come back soon in one form or another, 'cause we miss you.

• According to Robert Scoble, if you live anywhere near Silicon Valley and know JavaScript and Ajax, people will be knocking down your door. And given that Robert, ahem, "borrowed" a JavaScript and Ajax book from me at iPhone DevCamp, could you please go knock down his door? Update: in the comments, Scoble has said that he gave it to Christopher to give back to me. Sorry about that, Robert; I asked around several times (I badly needed to refer to it that evening) and no one knew the book's whereabouts other than, "Robert had it last."

• One of Apple's biggest failings for many years was in estimating demand. They always had either too many of the turkey products or too few of the hot ones. I don't know who the guy was in charge of estimating iPhone demand, but Apple, whatever you're paying him, double it. Triple it. He's worth every penny to you, so don't skimp.

So now it's your turn: got some advice for me? Leave it in the comments.