Looks like a lot of value here, and congratulations to the author / editor for shipping! One niggle though: no audio format (and if there is I didn't see it).

Anecdotally, I saw noticeable jump in sales to my eBook No Budget Budget: https://leanpub.com/nobudgetbudget when I added an audio book with it. Some people either don't like to read or don't have the time.

Something to consider.

I like cats.

The evening I heard about the elephant killing, I moved all my domains from GoDaddy and swore them off forever. By the time SOPA happened, they were already dead to me.

Here's the answer to all your worries: The Sex Pistols.

Yes, the punk band. Those misbehaving misfits that couldn't play their musical instruments and yet went on to change music forever.

The Sex Pistols succeeded with barely a shred of skill or talent because they were on a mission and executed it with ferocity.

No talent is required to make a difference. Just piss and vinegar and a grand vision. The Sex Pistols prove it.

It's a nice story, but for every Sex Pistols there are a bajillion other talentless bands who executed their vision with ferocity and never went anywhere.

This is assuming one accepts your definition of talent. Is it true that they had no talent? If they couldn't play their instruments, sing, or write lyrics, why did anyone listen to them? There had to be something there. If anything I might say it requires substantially more talent to overcome an utter lack of skill in order to excel.

Also, all else being equal, additional skill or talent won't hurt.

Bottom line: the stories you hear about people who go from nothing to incredible success are outliers. I think determination is absolutely underestimated relative to raw talent, but that determination should be leveraged in service of developing skill and/or harnessing talent, not in lieu of skill or talent.

Frontman Johnny Rotten did eventually get good at singing, but he made history and a million bucks along the way.

...as long as somebody else is telling you what to do.

The Sex Pistols were really the creation of their manager Malcolm McClaren. Which really is kind of apt, because if you don't cultivate your talents, your successes all depend on someone or something else.

Piss and vinegar definitely helps though.

Not true. We can still have electric cars almost in perpetuity if the source of energy is the Sun... the current untapped carbon-neutral energy producing byproducts (hydro, wind, waves); we can also use the Moon (tidal hydro); the Earth's molten core (geothermal). et al.

Progress (as someone said upthread) is refactoring away from internal combustion engines that only operate by burning stored fossil fuels, to engines that operate by storing electrical energy... then we can start to spend the next couple of decades innovating on the electrical production problem and find a way to bend physics and the abundant energy in the system to our advantage.

(and I say all this as a bit of a doom and gloom cynic) OK, admittedly, we make batteries from finite, rare-earth batteries. That's ultimately a problem.

You forget that batteries can be recycled.

I like the idea, and the design is fantastic, but I question whether the quotes you chose are thought provoking (and maybe even preachy to some) rather than inspirational.

Thanks for the feedback. We normally go for a topic (event, person etc) on a particular day - a topic that has relevance to that day. I then select appropriate quotes for that topic and the quotes are determined by which ones are most popular on GoodReads. Will review them though, thanks.

Here's my thought:

1) write a list of 10 things you like to do

2) Now pick one from the list that is most viable for you to do right now, where you are.

3) Do it. This discussion is not worth anyone's time, including yours.

Hope you feel better and get some perspective.

I have a WP8 (please hold your applause). Its an awesome phone and a refreshing break from the iPhone (which seems kind of dated with it's gaudy skeudomorphic icons). The transition wasn't as jarring as a thought it'd be either. I've been able to find replacements/substitutes for every app.

That said, I see opportunities for app developers here. I'd like to see more diversity. The freedom to purchase on the phone with one click using PayPal (I know, I know) also makes it even easier to support developers on this platform

Slashdot, big time.

Seriously? They seem to post the same stories a day or two later than everybody else.

When I remember how awesome it used to be, and then see the javascript-laden discussion pages I'm quietly sad.

I used to check it daily, commenting frequently, but I can't think of the last time I've visited the site.

Thoughtful tribute by Mr.Sivers. Love the baseball quote.