The definition of Anecdotal Evidence, via Wikipedia:

(2) Evidence, which may itself be true and verifiable, used to deduce a conclusion which does not follow from it, usually by generalizing from an insufficient amount of evidence. For example “my grandfather smoked like a chimney and died healthy in a car crash at the age of 99″ does not disprove the proposition that “smoking markedly increases the probability of cancer and heart disease at a relatively early age”. In this case, the evidence may itself be true, but does not warrant the conclusion.

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A few days ago, I wrote on Mashable about a new service called iSites, which lets you create your own, self-branded iPhone and Android app. For $25, you can have your blog, Twitter, and social feeds wrapped up into mobile form.

As part of the write-up, iSites was kind enough to help me build my very own iPhone app

I am excited and proud to announce the release of the Ben Parr iPhone App [iTunes], now available in the iTunes store!
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Making a New Year’s Resolution is admirable: it’s an indication that you strive for self-improvement. It’s noble to want to be more charitable, to become physically fit, to quit smoking, or to make one of thousands of different changes that can make you happier and stronger.
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I appeared on CNN Thanksgiving morning with CNN’s Josh Levs to give some quick pointers on how to manage your Facebook privacy settings. Facebook privacy made headlines again when a woman lost her health benefits due to Facebook.

For details about my appearance on CNN, you can check out our Mashable article about it.

It shouldn’t surprise you that the vast majority of the world’s most successful businesses and entrepreneurs didn’t do it alone. Apple’s Steve Jobs had co-founder Steve Wozniak, Microsoft’s Bill Gates had co-founder Paul Allen, and Google was built by two men, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. And any successful startup needs a driven, flexible, intelligent, and passionate team.

What some entrepreneurs overlook though is the importance of mentorship. It’s not just about having a board of advisers, but building honest and long-lasting relationships, long before you start your own company. It’s about realizing that a good adviser is delighted to help when you give him or her a call. It’s also about realizing that, for the most part, you don’t know what the hell you’re doing.
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While this video is a few weeks old, It would be silly for me not to post this awesome video of me on CNN (via phone) on September 26th. The segment actually aired twice that day. I was up at 4:00 AM on a Saturday morning to do it with CNN’s Josh Levs.
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Watch the first two minutes of this speech I gave at Northwestern (I’ve tagged the part of the video where I talk about it), and you’ll see how I picked the title of this article:

Jason Fried of 37Signals has once again brought down the reality check hammer, about something I keep harping about: profit.

Here’s some business 101:

Revenue – Cost = Profit.

It’s not Venture Capital + Growth = Profit, or Pageviews + Buzz = Profit. Yet in web entrepreneurship, this simple equation doesn’t always click. So Jason Fried wrote about it after an NYT article that’s more than ironic. My favorite paragraph from his article:

“If there was an airline that flew more passengers than anyone else, but lost money on each one, would we call it a success? If there was a restaurant that served more people than anyone else, but lost money on each meal served, would we call it a success? If there was a store that sold more product than anyone else, but took a loss on each one, would we call it a success? Would the business press hold these companies up as business model successes? Would anyone? Interesting, maybe. Promising, sure. But successful? Then what the hell is going on with the coverage of our industry?”

No business is a success until it has a profit. Twitter is a success as a platform, but certainly not as a business. If it can’t prove its viability, it will die just like any other high-profile business.

Tech enetrepreneurs: do yourself a favor and read the entire article, and then watch David Heinemeier Hansson’s Startup School 08 talk, which really shows you why you should care about revenue: