The Robot Co-op

Well, maybe that puts it too strongly. It isn’t that we are ready to throw our influential endorsement behind John Edwards but we do fully support his campaign’s use of 43 Things. You can see the John Edwards profile page on our site with a list of goals that reads like a political platform (well, actually, that platform doesn’t say much about alternative energy, Iraq, or North Korea, but it is a start). Not only can you see his goals, his Flickr stream shows what he’s up to on the campaign trail.

We never considered how your goals on 43 Things could become a platform to campaign on, but it actually works great. Best of all, limiting any politician to 43 goals is almost certainly a good idea. Instead of letting a politician be for everything, we ought to ask “What are your 43 Things?”

On this day, with the Edwards family in the news, we wish them our best. We hope for a cure and that Mrs. Edwards beats this thing once and for all. We hope too that we’ll see more candidates, from all parties and all levels of government, join 43 Things and make their goals public.

Hey Seattle peeps—if you’re looking for a great little authentic Mexican restaurant in Seattle I suggest heading over to El Quetzal on Beacon Hill. It’s not crowded (yet) and the food was simple and great.

Lunch topics today revolved around many things (some unmentionable) including the benefits and challenges of marriage. But mostly the benefits and ill-conceived challenges of freedom and variety. Anyhoo … everyone should get married. At least twice.

Here’s an entry I ran across on 43 Places that is actually something of a review of 43places.com – and in it, I found some insight into what sort of place we’ve all been building together.

43 Places Entry of the Day

0 people want to go to 43 Places

“Chronocide“, an entry by
cranberrygoddess:

Highlights:
1. bragging to people about where you have been
2. thinking of cool places to go
3. reminiscing over old travel stories
4. working out for yourself what’s good about where you live
5. killing time at work
6. being cheered by random people for no good reason
7. the irony of place like this
8. feeling superior to travellers who dont’ see the real ‘[insert place here]’
9. finding out where you should have gone but missed
10. discovering that you are not alone in this stupidity

Yeshna and friends are organizing a 43T meet-up:

Sunday, April 23
5pm
Bryant Park

I created an event page for this meet-up—go ahead and click the “I am going” button if you intend to be there. Be sure to take pictures so we can see y’all post-meetup on 43T!

I was blown away by this list—1,000 Places To See Before You Die which is based on Patricia Schultz’s book with the same title. A few observations:

1. Stacey created a 1,000+ item list and added photos for quite a few of the places. This is an amazing feat in itself!

1. I realize I haven’t been many places. I’m currently at 4% complete, but I think that’s likely higher as there are plenty of places where I’m not sure of the name so I’ve errored on the side of caution.

1. I learn a lot about the people I know as they mark places off this list. I didn’t know half the places Josh had been … and I sit about 2 feet away from him.

Try this list out and show it to a few friends. Happy travels.

While a few of us were in Austin for SXSW, the Google Current people asked to interview us, and it’s finally available online. I got to say “poop on a dolphin” on television and Daniel got to be articulate about everything else. Doing this interview was super fun… we got to hang out with Daniel Freed (he was behind the camera) and Kinga a bit more later in the week and they’re awesome.

Check it out! Yay 43 Things!

43 Things Entry of the Day

24 people want to Find 10 people in 15 cities who are passionate about their city and want to help with a new project for 43 Places

“Looking for locals“, an entry by
Josh Petersen:

We are starting work on a new version of 43 Places – codenamed “Wingsong” – and this release is all about “locals”. We are still in the early stages of developing our vision for this release, but it would be great to hear from some passionate locals who have some ideas about how to make 43 Places more fun and useful. Our top cities in terms of users are Seattle, New York City, London, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto, Boston, Austin, Vancouver, Atlanta, Portland, Houston, and Sydney – but who knows if those are the cities with the most passionate users?

If you are interested in helping us develop the new version of the site, adopt this goal and add an entry with your city as the title. If you see your city listed already, add a comment to that entry. When we have a city with 10 people who are game – we’ll get in touch about getting your help with “Wingsong”.

Thanks Locals!

I’ve signed up as “willing to help others” on countless 43 Things goals. More often than not I’m amazed at what great answers people get to their questions. This question was simple enough: How much a year should you be earning before you consider buying a house?. The answers were stellar in my opinion. Clicking the “Ask advice on meeting this goal” link at the bottom of the page is one of my favorite 43T features. An honest, informed community is a wonderful thing.

43 Things Entry of the Day

2979 people want to Buy a House

“How much a year should you be earning before you consider buying a house?“, an entry by
jordanholcombe:

43 Things Entry of the Day

253 people want to Start a company that survives longer than 2 years

“200,043 users on 43 Things“, an entry by
Josh Petersen:

Now here’s a milestone. Today we shot past 200K users of the website we built. It took us almost 300 days to reach 100K users and less than 100 to double that.

I love that the simple idea for this site is catching on. Making a list of what you want out of life helps you to focus on what is really important. Going public with your goals helps you find support and connect with people who will cheer you on. Once you meet with success, you can share your story with others and give advice on how you met your goal. It’s a simple, life satisfying cycle.

Here’s a dream for the future. Five years from now, people will be hired based on their 43 Things. Ten years from now, degrees will be granted based on completing your 43 Things. What you’ve done in the past matters, but not as much as what you want to do in the future. The performance review, the prenuptial agreement, the resume, the transcript are nothing compared to a well crafted list of what you want to do with your life, a thoughtful collection of entries and the support of your fellow human beings.

We just launched a new feature on All Consuming today that’ll show you 5 or so people who are consuming the same items as you. It’s cool! Try it out by going to your profile page, scrolling down a bit, and keeping an eye on the right column. Or, check out Josh’s page for an example.

Also!

Added “People consuming this item are also consuming these items…” to product detail pages, just as they are on 43 Things and 43 Places. Should we add it to 43 People too?