Chapter 46. Sparkbuyâs Story
Deals are like toddlers. Their natural inclination is to fall apart. Only careful tending, deliberate attention (or strategic inattention), and a large measure of luck can prevent a meltdown. And even then it happens more often than not.
Google Discovers Sparkbuy
I hate talking to people on airplanes.
Iâm not a natural misanthrope. Under normal circumstances I enjoy talking to people. I love social events with friends. I donât care for the forced mixing of ânetworking events,â but I have become accustomed to them. But airplanes... all I want to do is sink down in a seat and thumb some dead trees; maybe pay too much for WiFi and plunk my way toward inbox zero. I never talk to people on planes.
With two exceptions.
First, if Iâm flying to and from the Valley. Second, if I catch a lucky upgrade to first class.
So it was with a heavy heart that I realized, as I slouched into the oversized leatheresque chair in Seat 7F in the first-class cabin of Alaska Air Flight 327 nonstop from San Jose to Seattle-Tacoma, that I had a conversation ahead of me.
My seatmate saved me the trouble of making the first move. I pulled out my phone and went through the press-and-hold ritual to set it in airplane mode, then shut it down.
âIs that a Nexus One?â he asked.
It was indeed a Nexus One, a svelte and sturdy phone that marked Googleâs first experiment with radical carrier disintermediation. It was a brave experiment, but they didnât sell a lot of phones. ...
Get Hot Seat now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.