A Simple (but BIG) Key to Innovation

Want to drive killer innovation at your technology company? Well, there are a lot of moves that you'll ultimately need to master to lead the league in that category, but today I'll talk about one that's fundamental and that I know works, from first hand experience. Best thing about it: it's dead simple… Create the […]

Winter’s come a bit early this year

Winter in this part of the world is our rainy season. Upwards of 90% of annual rainfall in Carmel Valley happens between November and March, typically delivered in the concentrated form of showy winter storms rolling in from the Pacific, some ten miles to our west. Winds, usually from the south, will blow at 60 or 70 […]

Small Within Big

"We need to stay small within big." It was one of the core ideas our founder, Jerry Swartz, preached from our earliest days at Symbol, right through to the point where we had grown to be pretty big indeed (5600 associates, $1.6B top line, $4B market cap). Jerry understood that our ongoing success would depend […]

Happy 57th Birthday, Barcodes!

Opening google.com this morning brought a smile, because this is what greeted me: Since, paraphrasing an old SNL skit, "Bar coding's bin berry, berry good to me," I couldn't help but feel great that, on the 57th anniversary of the patent that started it all, the center of the Internet universe tipped its jolly hat […]

Who Goes There?

Welcome!

I built this site (in 2004) around the idea that the conventional divisions between professional and personal life are artificial. They don't reflect how we live, work, and play today.

I don't shut down my professional responsibilities (with rare exceptions) on evenings, weekends, or holidays. Our competitive environment doesn't permit that, and I'd get bored.

Further, it occurs to me that if you are interested in doing business with me somehow, you should be interested in Rich Bravman, the person.

So, whether you're an entrepreneur looking for specific ideas on how to put your vision into practice, an investor looking for an experienced advisor or board member, a friend, colleague, or simply someone curious about what a fellow human thinks... Welcome!

Warning: eccentricities lie ahead in these pages. (Even at this late date in 2023, I like it that way.)

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GoodReads

Richard's books

Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away
4 of 5 stars
Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away
by Rebecca Goldstein
The Baby Boom: How It Got That Way (And It Wasn�t My Fault)
4 of 5 stars
The Baby Boom: How It Got That Way (And It Wasn�t My Fault)
by P.J. O'Rourke
Alice in Quantumland: An Allegory of Quantum Physics
5 of 5 stars
Alice in Quantumland: An Allegory of Quantum Physics
by Robert Gilmore
Gone Girl
4 of 5 stars
Gone Girl
by Gillian Flynn
We Can All Do Better
4 of 5 stars
We Can All Do Better
by Bill Bradley
Read this and regain at least a modicum of faith in the presence of wisdom among the leadership class in this world. Unfortunately, Bradley is past his impact moment, and his exemplar of a new way forward ("Americans Elect") foun...

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