I’ve attended Maptime in both NYC & LA. Each location seems to make the event their own. If you’re interested in maps, you should definitely check out a local Maptime event.
In NYC, we worked on different mapping challenges (subway maps, D3.js, etc.). In LA, we went over using git & Github.
At YC’s Startup School NYC, Shana Fisher brought up an amazing resource called SCARF.
SCARF stands for Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness.
With these five areas, stands positive (approach) and negative (avoid) modes of interacting with people. As the title says, SCARF is based on neuroscience research to correlate human interaction & collaboration with physical brain activity.
When you are being threatened with a SCARF metric, you will perform worse (due to “less oxygen and glucose available for the brain functions involved in working memory“). On the contrary, when you have an opportunity to increase a SCARF metric, you perform better since you don’t have decreased cognitive resources.
There are lots of findings and useful applications, so I encourage you to read about SCARF.
Checked out the new Ippudo Westside
Entrance is easy to miss
Dining area
Hirata Pork Buns are amazing and highly recommended
Akamaru Modern Ramen
Earlier this month, I attended a talk at Adorama in NYC that provided great context to Vincent Laforet‘s career. As a photographer who saw the writing on the wall, Vincent transitioned his career from still photography into motion picture.
Vincent’s presentation was statistics heavy and illustrated the amount of content (image and video) that gets produced every day. The future holds even more consumer made content that reduces the role of big media as tastemakers. Also, viewer attention span keeps going down over time.
When Reverie came out in 2008, I assumed that Canon reached out to him to produce it. The reality is that Vincent was at Canon and happened to come across the 5d mk2 prototype. Vincent was rejected several times, but Canon eventually let him borrow it. And history was made.
Vincent said that he takes most (95%) of his photos on his iPhone. As someone who shot for the NYTimes and is a Canon Explorer of Light, I’m surprised he doesn’t use his DSLRs more often. It makes sense since convenience is king, and we always have our phones.
Another point that was brought up during the talk was Constant Photography. Instead of taking THE photo at THE right moment, you could just take a film of ALL the moments and cherry pick the photo that you want. Why would you need a photographer when you have a videographer that does both?
What I got out of Vincent’s talk was that passion and being open to change are important. Vincent could have kept working as a photographer, but changing to a Director/DP was a risky move that paid off in the long run. As a new DP, he doesn’t know everything, but he is able to hire great people with complimentary skills and get it done.
Some Columbus Circle pics:
Waiting in Line
Climbing the stairs
View towards Broadway
View of the entrance line below
View of the entrance line below
View of Trump Tower
The man himself, in his living room
View out the living room window
American wallpaper
Another stair view
All pics taken with the old school iPhone 4.
Taking the road less traveled…
Manhattan to Brooklyn.
Google is notorious for providing their employees free lunch.
Beginning today, certain Chelsea MTA subway stops have free Wi-FI.
Per Transit Wireless (the company Google teamed up with to offer the Wi-Fi), the following locations have Wi-Fi:
Let’s looked at these MTA stops mapped along with Google’s NYC headquarters:
Probably not a coincidence that these stops are the only MTA ones near Google.
Pier 15 is just South of the famous South St Seaport in downtown Manhattan.
Street Side Entrance
With the Winter weather over, Pier 15 is a great place to soak up the Vitamin D on a lunch break for those near Wall St.
Pier 15 with South St Seaport in Background
Pier 15 is a two level structure, and they’ve applied to serve drinks here during Summer.
Stairs up to the Rooftop Lawns
From the upper level, you can see the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg Bridges.
East River Bridges
Upper Level looking Downward
SHoP did a great job here.
Northern Staircase looking towards Brooklyn
Upper Floor View towards Brooklyn
Wooden Upper Floor View towards South
From Pier 15, as well as most of the Southern portion of the East River, you can see the helipad and Governors Island.
Downwards View of Seating and Planted Area
Seating Area View from Ground Level
The design (including furniture) is mostly well done.
Large Open Space next to the East River (Facing Brooklyn)
Small Enclosed Tiered Seating Facing South
Pier 15 has a great, open air dynamic that allows many people to use the space at the same time.
Lower Level Room with South St Seaport Reflected
From Front to Back: Pier 15, the East River, and Brooklyn
With Winter behind us, this park will continue to get more and more attractive to the public.
NYC was about 20 degrees Celsius today, which meant short lines for dinner in the city.
We went to Steak ‘n Shake and it lived up to expectations for a $4 double cheeseburger with fries in NYC.
original double cheeseburger
For such a small restaurant space (typical of NYC dining), the kitchen & wait staff seemed to outnumber the dine-in patrons.
What hours is Steak ‘n Shake NYC open?
The Manhattan Steak ‘n Shake is open from 10 AM to midnight every day.
It’s located at 1695 Broadway in Midtown West between 53rd & 54th Streets. This is right next to the David Letterman studio. The phone is (212) 247-6584.
Time Warner Center
Location, as always, matters.
This excellent Grub Street piece explains where NYC’s wealthiest residents (Upper East Siders) eat. It also goes into why top tier Midtown & Downtown restaurants (like Per Se & Momofuku Ko) have to be so culinarily exceptional to earn those set menu dollars.
Bundle looked at spending habits and explains that NYC’s wealthiest spend their money at pricey neighborhood options:
In fact, all of the places whose clientele consists of more than 15 percent luxury spenders are on the Upper East Side, and all are low-key places like Mezzaluna and Bar Italia — not to mention a surprisingly large number of neighborhood sushi spots.
Less affluent diners in Manhattan (from midtown, lower Manhattan, or outer boroughs) avoid uptown and dine at closer top restaurants as an investment:
When diners do spend hundreds of dollars on dinner at a restaurant in the East Village (maybe after waiting in line, since no reservations are accepted), this data shows us it’s likely a significant investment. And the only way a restaurant will keep customers like that coming back is to offer them an exceptional experience with cutting-edge food.
In addition to non-UES residents patronizing top restaurants, NYC has a huge food tourism industry. Top NYC restaurants are destination dining options for those out of state or out of country.