So Many Metaphors, So Little Time

The great thing about being in China and not speaking more than about 20 words of Chinese is you tend to have lots of quiet time if you're going anywhere alone. On my flight from Beijing to Shenzhen I realized I didn't say a word for about six hours. I also realized that swine flu came from America thanks to people mixing too much with their pigs and birds. I learned that from a cartoon starring some rapping pigs.

The great thing about going from mainland China to Hong Kong is you suddenly get to see Twitter, Facebook, your own site, and every YouTube video people have been trying to send you for a week. This one below is just ripe for a million metaphors about reporters covering a story, me-too-start-ups, VCs, huge opportunities in emerging markets (although the steak would be bigger than the cats I guess) and so many other things. Whoever leaves the most original metaphor in the comments will get a copy of my book and a TechCrunch t-shirt that I'll swipe from the office when I get back in town. (Don't worry, Michael Arrington never reads my personal blog.)

Oh, speaking of, here's my personal metaphor: The steak is my waking hours and the three cats are BusinessWeek, my new book, and TechCrunch. TechCrunch is the subtly aggressive one in the middle who keeps nipping at the steak, steals a piece and runs away, and immediately comes back to rip it away from another cat. My new book is the big orange one who pwns the poor calico and then decides to back off sadly in defeat, hoping another steak will land before the August 2010 deadline. The more passive, patient cat who just stays around is BusinessWeek. Speaking of, I owe my BusinessWeek editor some edits on a column. Guess I should do that now.