we hold these truths to be self-evident…but…

To those who have been watching…you’ll have to forgive me if I put on the kid gloves for this post. I know you’ve come to expect a certain candor on my part (especially, if you know me), but if I’m not careful here, I’m likely to upset some of the good folks who are newly venturing into these parts…heh heh.

Cutting to the chase: As you know, ASN is working on some big ideas. And some days, those big ideas are a little too big (or perhaps just a little too ambitious) for some of the people we’ve pitched them to. Perhaps, we’re just too far ahead of the curve, or maybe it’s just that we’re not good enough yet at articulating the company’s broad vision, its tactical plan, and its methods for executing on that plan. Most times though, we manage to convince ourselves that the vast majority of the folks who have heard the pitch are just not exposed to enough of the collisions we see happening in the our markets to understand why we’re relevant.

Nobody’s fault - folks just need to be educated.

I’m not sure if the metaphor will ring true to anyone outside ASN, but some days, pitching ASN (while avoiding an explanation of certain fundamentals like sovereign identity, or myware, or stupid networks or why any of these things are important to the futures of mobility, advertising, and user experience) can feel Sisyphean. Yet another big idea, sure, but you don’t have to know Homer or Camus to be able to appreciate the sinking feeling that even if you manage to make yourself understood, you can’t always be sure it’s really worth the effort.

Some, just won’t get it.

Ever.

Regardless of what you do.

Man, that sounds exclusive…and ASN is not exclusive. We want everyone to come to the party.

Back to the collisions: there are a lot of them, and even if we ignore the ones mentioned above, a “pitchee” (to have a fighting chance) would at least need exposure to some somewhat disparate nuggets like the work of Surj Patel, or the goals of the SVHMPC, or possibly access to the “open phone” rumors that currently circulate within the mobile value chain. There’s a lot going on before you even get to the sociological and theoretical stuff.

And don’t even get me started on the politics…

Frankly, it’s all pretty daunting. And until we can make it possible for people to become regular readers of ASN’s digital notebooks or concept feeds (neither of which I’m, technically, allowed to talk about), we’re going to continue to have this problem.

So we hatched a solution: we started explaining ourselves…

…from the beginning…in short sentences.

We put together a powerpoint that we called “Building Stuff From The Stuff I Like” and started trying to use it in our pitches. For the sake of clarity, we kept it short, and only focused on ASN’s “secret sauce,” some general observations and core principles. We deliberately left out any real talk about technology and marketing and finance.

You can find a 3-page excerpt here. I hope it proves useful to you in understanding where our “head is at.” In the coming months, we’ll bring more stuff like this online so that anyone who wants to, can get a front-row seat when the sum of the collisions becomes crystal clear.

Welcome to the Nerditude, ya’ll.