The Berkeley Blog

The Lean LaunchPad Educators Class

Steve Blank — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:50:46 +0000

There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come

Victor Hugo

The Lean LaunchPad entrepreneurship curriculum has caught fire. This week 100 educators from around the world will come to Stanford to learn how to teach it.

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Life is full of unintended consequences.

Ten years ago I started thinking about why startups are different from existing companies. I wondered if business plans and 5-year forecasts were the right way to plan a startup. I asked, “Is execution all there is to starting a company?”

It dawned on me that the plans were a symptom of a larger problem: we were executing ... More >

The California Solar Initiative is ending. What has it left behind?

Severin Borenstein — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:00:21 +0000

Nearly all the money has been spent, and the California Solar Initiative is winding down. The direct CSI subsidy for installing photovoltaic (PV) panels on your house, which started at $2.50 per watt (of installed peak capacity) is now just $0.20 per watt. As of last week, the program has spent about $1.68 billion on rebates for 111,271 completed solar PV installations of about 1.2 GW in rated solar PV capacity. That works out to an average rebate of $1.40 per watt of capacity.

The CSI covers from the smallest residential system of 1 or 2 kW capacity up to 1000 ... More >

The two centers of unaccountable power in America, and their consequences

Robert Reich — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 23:49:50 +0000

There are two great centers of unaccountable power in the American political-economic system today — places where decisions that significantly affect large numbers of Americans are made in secret, and are unchecked either by effective democratic oversight or by market competition.

One goes by the name of the “intelligence community” and its epicenter is the National Security Agency (NSA) within the Defense Department. If we trusted that it reasonably balanced its snooping on Americans with our nation’s security needs, and that our elected representatives effectively oversaw that balance, there would be little cause for concern. We would not worry that the ... More >

Happy Father’s Day, Dad

David Zilberman — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 18:52:28 +0000

I enjoy getting calls from my children on Father’s day. I actually get upset if I don’t hear from them on my birthday (or least a post on my Facebook wall). We didn’t have Father’s day when I was growing up and I don’t remember celebrating my own Father’s birthday. No doubt that he was born, but I do not recall the day. I think he was a Taurus, but he may have been another sign. I spoke with some of my friends and they have similar stories as mine. It may be that it reflects on growing up in ... More >

Five reasons why it’s a good time to be a dad

Jeremy Adam Smith — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 00:37:05 +0000

Are you feeling fed up and burned out, Dad?

You’re not alone — a recent study from the Pew Center finds that most men are struggling to juggle work and family, just like moms.

But believe it or not, that’s a sign of progress. And in many ways this is the best of times to be a father. Here are five reasons why.

1. There are more ways to be a good dad than ever before.

My grandfather’s generation showed their love by going to work every day and providing for their families — and woe to the man who dared change a diaper, ... More >

Twenty questions to ask your father

Christine Carter — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 20:09:54 +0000

My friends and family know what’s coming when we’re out to dinner and they see a little packet of white squares come out of my purse, held together with a rubber band. It’s a pile of carefully selected Table Topics — little cards printed with questions — usually from the “Family Gatherings” collection. (Though on date night, I like the “Couples” collection.)

I’ve been structuring our family’s conversations for nearly a decade. For a while, I tended to focus the discussion on what everyone is grateful for. But in the last year or so I’ve been partial to those Table Topics, ... More >

Immigrants and historical amnesia

Claude Fischer — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 16:09:38 +0000

In the debates over social policies, one often hears historical claims roughly along these lines: “Minorities these days want it easy. When my ancestors came they got no help and just did it on their own.” Arguments like this have been raised against programs designed to help African Americans. In his classic 1981 study, A Piece of the Pie: Blacks and White Immigrants Since 1880, Stanley Lieberson showed that, however hard many of the European immigrants had it a century or so ago, they faced nothing like the discrimination and repression American blacks did; the comparison is a false one.

More >

Guns, germs, and steel…and economics

David Zilberman — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 21:56:54 +0000

“Classic” books are few and far between but Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond is one of these rare classic books written during our lifetime. It aims to answer the question why the people of Eurasia fared better than people in other regions.

The explanation takes the reader through human history over the last 40,000 years or so. We learn about the evolution of humans from systems of hunting-gathering to agriculture and how advances in agriculture provided the necessary surplus that allowed for the building of cities and construction of larger units of governance. While Diamond is a physiologist turned ... More >

Fund raising is a means, not an end

Steve Blank — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 15:14:31 +0000

“Not all that glitters is gold.” — William Shakespeare

For many entrepreneurs “raising money” has replaced “building a sustainable business” as their goal. That’s a big mistake. When you take money from investors their business model becomes yours. ———–

One of my ex students came out to the ranch to give me an update on his startup. When I asked, “What are you working on?” the first words out of his mouth was his fund raising progress. Sigh… What I should have been hearing is the search for the business model, specifically the progress on product/market fit, but I hear the fund raising ... More >

The cyber security challenge

Michael Nacht — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 18:19:45 +0000

It is increasingly apparent that cybersecurity is becoming a central feature of the U.S. national security policy debate. The popular and specialized literature is replete with articles analyzing the problem and advocating responses to this challenge. Congress is mobilizing committees and sub-committees to address the myriad of issues that cyber technology has raised. The National Academies have already conducted several major studies looking at the appropriateness of offensive operations, cyber deterrence, and other issues. This is taking place as the executive branch conducts an intensive effort to sort out areas of authority and responsibility so that there is a coherent governmental approach to the challenge.

Simultaneously, however, there is a growing ... More >