thinks

I like Seth Godin. I like Darren Rowse. Apart from the similar haircuts, I learn from each, all the time. I’m not necessarily trying to start a pissing match here - as fun as that may be - but their posts come across a trifle contradictory today, no? The real key when you run across things like this is to figure out how they go together. Either/or doesn’t cut it. This and that, that’s the ticket.

I’ve been tied up lately with transitioning from my current day job to a new one. As such, I haven’t been keeping up on my reading much this week. The funny thing is, I don’t feel I have as much to say when I have fewer inputs. Put another way - one that matters to your business - if you want to have something to say to your customers, you need to listen to them first. Brilliant conversations, whether one-to-one or in conversational marketing, depend on brilliant conversationalists. And brilliant conversationalists listen more than they talk.

Om Malik broke a story this past weekend that TechCrunch has hired a CEO. And the blogging community is having a field day with it, debating what it means for TechCrunch and the blogging community itself.

Here’s the thing. Michael Arrington went shopping for an executive who used to do the shopping for Fox Interactive Media. The question on everyone’s mind is what Ms. Harde and Mr. Arrington will shop for together. While Henry Blodget and Om Malik aren’t entirely what out there is worth shopping for - and let’s enjoy the irony of Blodget tossing wet blankets for just a moment - the really smart folks know you’re best buying into a down market. Arrington’s timing may seem like the most irrational of exuberance. Or, he might be setting the stage for a post-burst shopping spree. As I proposed late last year, microdeals and the marriage of old and new media look like the latest thing. Of course, everyone assumes an M&A specialist came aboard to help him find things to buy. Maybe Arrington’s long-term strategy revolves around finding someone to buy him.

I asked a couple weeks ago what you open first. Increasingly, it doesn’t matter, does it? Even phones are getting in on the act.

Of course, Anne points to a counter-argument.

Seth Godin wrote the other day that “Good is not almost as good as great.” Turns out, sometimes, it ain’t remotely close.

I wasn’t the first to suggest that Microsoft and Yahoo will merge in 2007. I’m still not sure that they will. But John Battelle - yes, the fellow who wrote "The Search" - has the most up-to-date suggestion on how MSN and Yahoo might actually succeed in competition with Google. At least in Yahoo’s case, it would beat what they’re doing today.