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I am grateful that PandoDaily had me post this article as a guest blogger.

The startup community has been jolted by a spate of suicides: Ilya Zhitomirskiy at the age of 22, wunderkind Aaron Swartz, and most recently ecomom’s founder Jody Sherman. The startup community is grappling with challenging questions about the toll that entrepreneurship can have on founders.

Paul Graham, one of Silicon Valley’s most prolific angel investors, was once asked if he chooses stable or crazy applicants for Y Combinator. His reply: “There’s some people who are crazy, who are basically manic depressives and somehow manage to keep the depressive part to a minimum. Those are good. But hearing voices kind of crazy? Not good.” (more…)

I almost died this weekend.

I was cycling. As I crossed a street, a car speeding at 30mph grazed my front tire perpendicular to me.

The impact bent my fork and twisted my headset. Somehow I stayed upright, both feet clipped into my pedals. No damage. Not even a pulled muscle.

Had I been ONE INCH further, my face would have smashed into the passenger’s window–and perhaps sucked me underneath the car.

Had I fought for that inch, I could have been six feet deep. So when do we push for that inch and when do we hang back? (more…)

The media is crucifying the Director of Kony 2012 Jason Russell from Invisible Children—and many “establishment” organizations are secretly loving it.

But the real story is not being told.

What’s happening is more than a clash between traditional and disruptive organizations.

(more…)

Malcolm Gladwell asserted that the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted_. He boldly claimed that “social media can’t provide what social change has always required₁.”

He was dead wrong.

“Facebook brought down the regime,” said Sally Toma, a leading Egyptian protest organizer₂. (more…)