Ideas are worth little to nothing, execution is everything. So in light of that, here are a few ideas I simply do not have time to work on. If anyone wants to use them or build on them, go for it, if you want to join forces, send me an email at jbrun@jonathanbrun.com Update: there [...]
I just purchased a one-way ticket to Toronto on the Via Rail website. The experience was decent enough, though one thing did baffle me. Take a look at the screen-shot below of the last screen before the purchase. It states that the ticket is “Non-exchangeable and non-refundable” and below it says it is “Fully refundable [...]
Earlier this year, I had to service my bike. Tire was crooked and I had not done a tune up in two years of intensive use. Not knowing better, I went to Vélo Villeneuve on Villeneuve and St. Urbain. The team there is very nice and quite knowledgeable, but very expensive. They overcharge for both [...]
A June article in Harper’s magazine was fairly negative on the prospects of alleviating world hunger through the development of commodities market. Basically, the article outlines why markets do not work to alleviate poverty, citing examples such as the Irish Famine, Ethiopian famine and last summer’s spike in grain and other prices. The author is [...]
I work in environmental law, but I am also a web designer. Designing for the internet and it’s wide variety of users is very challenging, no one does it perfectly. That being said, it is becoming indispensable to design websites well. Users have many places to go for information, if you do not design well, [...]
Two interesting articles came my way today, one from the New York Times explaining the challenges with bringing talented foreigners to the United States to work. The other was an essay advocating for a new type of visa for people who want to found a business. It seems obvious to me that Canada should open [...]
I have been an avid Jay Peaker for years. Deep snow and a 250$ college ski pass was an easy sell, but they have lost their way. A couple years back, Jay Peak owner and my neighbour Jacques Hébert passed away, I think his management style went with him. In many ways, Jay seems to [...]
I think there is a real business opportunity for building a new type or marketing company. One with much lower costs and a different corporate structure/culture. It would be a marketing company tailored to SME’s who cannot afford the big agencies and who do not fully understand the power of the internet. Essentially, “participative marketing” [...]
Many people have recently asked me what I am doing, by which they really mean are you employed, getting dressed in the morning, and abiding by the rules of upper-middle class society. So here is my rough explanation of what is occupying my time these days. Until recently, I worked for EEM, an environmental consulting [...]
The graphic above provides a quick overview of the magnitude of the tech bubble in the late nineties. And the following – a very similar graphic for the housing market. The housing crisis is obviously dominating the news right now and is likely to continue to do so for the forseeable future. To get a [...]