Howard Schultz, likely one of the most successful entrepreneurs in history, talks about making bold moves that not everyone agrees with, and about having courage in your conviction.

Bye Google Wave! Whatever you were...

Pinterest is hot. If you haven't read at least one article daily about how the social sharing startup has already crossed 10 mm MAU, is more engaging than every other website besides Facebook and Tumblr, and is apparently driving more traffic to retail sites than Google+, then you've been living under a rock. Or at least not in silicon valley.

So what makes Pinterest work? While some people have their bets on shady viral marketing tactics, you cannot deny that Pinterest is an incredibly engaging product. 

Also, while I agree that Pinterest is fundamentally a curation app, I don't think the "curation motive" alone drives this engagement... though it is a big factor.

Here are some of my thoughts on what makes Pinterest so engaging:

1. We are visual animals.

Pinterest is highly visual. In essence its a visual Twitter. Its a simple micro-sharing app where the content you share is not 140 characters of text but an image. As as we all know, images always win over text in engagement... humans are inherently visual animals. Photos are also much easier for our brains to process and react to (like, comment).

Even the simple actions on Pinterest are the visual equivalents of their Twitter counterparts: Retweet = Repin, @reply = Comment and Favorite = Like. But instead of navigating techie syntax, users get visual cues (aka UI) for each action, making them much more approachable and easier to engage with.

And to top it off, the continuous scroll interface gives you an endless (literally) amount of visual porn so you never have to leave, making the site highly addictive.

2. Constrains are an equalizer.

Again taking a page out of the Twitter and Instagram books, Pinterest constrains all pins to the same size (195 px wide, height adjusted to maintain aspect ratio) and column layout. Whether you pin a photo of the interior of a beautiful home or of a shoe, the pins are the same size and are given the same treatment on the site. And just like the 140 characters constrain of Twitter or the square format with filter of Instagram, this brings a sameness to the content, making it an incredible equalizer. It allows everyone to contribute without inhibition... even if they are not a professional blogger (Twitter), photographer (Instagram), or tastemaker (Pinterest.)

3. Closing the consumer-participator gap.

Pinterest turns the classic social-media-user-segments pyramid on its head; or more accurately, evens it out. On Pinterest, its super-simple to go from being a consumer to a participator by Liking or Repinning an item. True, Pinterest didn't invent either. Facebook probably deserves the credit for making the Like button ubiquitous, and Repinning is much like Retweeting or Reblogging on Tumblr (its more akin to the latter.) But where Pinterest wins is making these actions, *how* you consume content on the site: using Pinterest literally means browsing around (endlessly - see above) while liking and repinning items as you go. There is nothing else to do on Pinterest, and that turns out to be a very good thing.

Whatever the reasons for its awesome growth, this is definitely going to be the year of the pin! Oh and one more thing... if I were working on product at Pinterest, my focus would be on building a killer iPad app. iPad is the perfect medium for Pinteresting.

Over the holidays Bob and I went to India to visit my family and we all went to Jodhpur and Jaisalmer in Rajasthan. Some photos below. 

Driving into the desert. Jaisalmer is almost at the Pakistan border. We saw tons of BSF (Border Security Force, a division of the Indian Army) trucks on the way.

Lunch break at a hotel half way from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer. The whole group - my dad (as always glued to his phone), mom, sisters, kunal (brother in law) and bob.

Bob was very jealous of all the Rajasthani moustaches. Here is one of his favorites - the doorman at the lunch place.

Mandore temple and gardens in Jodhpur. This is only one of the tons of beautiful temples here.

Sunset in the desert was really beautiful. The desert camp had tons of peacocks, some of whom watched the sunset with us.

The folk singers at the camp happened to be really good, which helped because it was ridiculously cold and hard to sit around outside for very long. Not that being "inside" helped since we stayed in tents.

Tourists watching the sunrise on top of dunes. We abandoned our camel ride up the dunes after my mom and little sister fell off a camel, and walked up instead. There was a great little chai and noodles cart on top of the dunes.

The Mehrangarh fort in Jodhpur alone was worth the trip. The Jain temple inside the fort has some of the most beautiful sculptures I have ever seen.

The queen's bedroom inside the fort - the balls in the ceiling are from belgium and reflected the oil lamps to light up the whole room. Innovation in the 15th century!

Patwon Haveli in Jaisalmer. Haveli literally means mansion. This one was built for 5 brothers in the early 19th century and is still occupied by their descendents! 

And of course no trip to rajasthan is complete without shopping :) At a textiles shop in Jodhpur.