November 2011
1 post
Drewbot: The Difference Between Amazon and Apple →
dbreunig:
Let the Kindle Fire reviews wash over you and you’ll notice a theme: the price is mentioned early and often. The price is employed as a caveat for both detractions and compliments.
Reading these reviews has helped me realize, or at least find the words to describe, the fundamental…
September 2011
1 post
4 tags
The $99 "Killer" Tablet →
parislemon:
Horace Dediu:
For the iPad to be vulnerable, it has to be way better than the mainstream users’ needs. Which asks the question of what needs are being served. If it’s book reading, it probably is more than good enough. But if it’s replacing a laptop computer, certainly not. Being too feeble is the most common complaint about the iPad. Being a bloated over-functioned and overly...
June 2011
2 posts
“Just make people better at something they want to be better at. When your goals...”
– Kathy Sierra
via bustr : Amber : Diana Kimball
(via msg)
May 2011
2 posts
The power of networking - Kevin Rose interviews...
Really enjoyed the recent Foundation interview with Brian Wong. Here are some of the notes from it:
Counter Strike was a big help for Brian’s design skills….eye hand mouse coordination helped with his speed of design.
Brian seems like a master at the cold-call email. Just email and get to talk to people, for any amount of time, doesn’t even have to be about stuff related to your...
"Our vision was to be reality TV celebrities"
Here are some of my notes from Justin Kan’s talk about the making of SocialCam at tonight’s Lean Startup Circle. They don’t cover all the things Justin discussed, just stuff that caught my attention. Full video of the talk is available here.
History:
They started with a live broadcast app for justin.tv, but nobody on their mobile was watching the videos live. People’s...
April 2011
3 posts
Is Silicon Valley a meritocracy or rigged by...
The other day something obvious (to some) and shocking (to others) happened. Mike Arrington “updated his investment philosophy“…which is to say that he decided his interests were no longer conflicted, and he was going to more openly invest in companies that he and his staff were covering on Techcrunch.
No surprise right? Arrington’s had a buddy-buddy relationship with lots...
Want to build a site/app with mass market appeal?
Make something that captures a meaningful signal.
For inspiration, here are some existing popular and meaningful signals:
The Query (what I want)
The Social Graph (who I am and who I know)
The Status Update (what I’m doing)
The Check-in (where I am)
And some startups emerging with new valuable signals: Quora, Square, Instagram.
To quote John Battelle:
“I’m on the lookout...
"Inactive" vs. "not yet active" users
There’s been some discussion lately around Twitter’s number of inactive users and what a bad sign it is for the site. Of their 175 million registered users, there over 50 million Twitter accounts following no other accounts, and almost double that for accounts with no followers (stats via lukew).
Despite their hundreds of millions of users (and continued growth), people think these...
January 2011
1 post
Neven Mrgan's tumbl: Redundant data in the Weather... →
mrgan:
If you’re a serious weather junkie, you might use a special weather app to get your daily klimate kick. And if you’re Edward Tufte, you might think the iPhone weather app is “a bit thin”. Me, I don’t mind it - it’s a nice, big dashboard view of the weather features I care most about.
But here’s…
August 2010
4 posts
Criticism isn't progress
says @rands.
But it is so damn easy to critize others’ ideas and worse, insulting others’ idea seems to be one of the main paths I take to prove that I’m smarter than them.
The goal going forward is to try and spend my energy more on highlighting what others are doing right vs. how other people and their ideas are wrong. Not expecting it to be easy because of this:
...
A smartphone retrospective →
This is what high-end smartphones looked like in 2007:
Smartphones were an established consumer-electronics market with devices that people thought were pretty cool, but often frustrating and with serious shortcomings and design flaws.
Then this happened:
Other manufacturers had…
“Creators who consume lots of media as ‘research’ and ‘inspiration’ are generally...”
– Ronen V
(via msg)
“Very few of the top performers at the company had any prior experience with...”
– from an article with a collection of answers to the question: Why did so many successful entrepreneurs and startups come out of PayPal?
PayPal had a strong bias toward hiring (and promoting/encouraging) smart, driven problem solvers, rather than subject matter experts. Very few of the top...
July 2010
3 posts
Is Quora a hole that Twitter can fill?
A while back, Fred Wilson wrote a post about the Twitter platform inflection point, with a takeaway that “much of the early work on the Twitter Platform has been filling holes in the Twitter product”, and that eventually Twitter would take care of filling those holes rather than on relying other companies to do so (see also: the inevitable showdown between Twitter and Twitter apps).
...
Push me
Note to self, as the web shifts to more touch-able interfaces, make use of buttons that look like they want to be touched, pushed, etc…
Fake work: the fuel that powers the Internet
Paul Graham recently shared a post called How to Lose Time and Money and he explained the dangers of losing time and money via “Fake Work”, which is something that feels like work because it isn’t fun, but it isn’t real work in a sense that it’s not necessarily taking you towards any meaningful destinations:
If I spent a whole day watching TV I’d feel like I...
February 2010
2 posts
The Buzz Feels Good, But Funny
I was lucky to get to try out Google Buzz pretty soon after launch and after using it a bunch there are a lot of things to be excited about, some to be patient with, and others to be hopeful for. Overall, I’m bullish on Buzz because without a doubt it’s going to enable more people to share more things more often.
I’m excited about:
For the first time, there isn’t a huge gap between my real life...
Decisions & principles for the first version of...
Some interesting design thinking coming out of a new startup called Quora (drop me a comment if you want an invite). One of their designers shared their thoughts here. These notes stood out:
Picking a starting point is important because it will be the axis the rest of the design revolves around — but it’s not always the first page in the flow. You should start with the page that...
December 2009
1 post
What type of tools do we need?
ie: Twitter:
And what types of problems will we need the tools of the future to solve?
(images found on Zachary Taylor’s tumblr (1,2)
November 2009
1 post
Coming soon to your Twitter feed - tweets from...
via Ev Williams, in his post describing the ReTweet feature:
“The perfect Twitter would show you only the stuff you care about—relevant, timely, local, funny, whatever you’re most interested in—even if you don’t follow the person who wrote it.”
Determining the stuff I care about is going to be quite a challenge, especially with the character and metadata limits that...
October 2009
3 posts
“Before there’s a market there’s a community.”
– via me (after being inspired by a post from John Battelle).
3 tags
How to get where you want to go...it's as easy as...
Inspiring stuff from Doug Dub, talking about how he got his job at Twitter:
“Alex, I have noticed you are running what amounts to a one man show on the API front, and tend to a lot of developer relations when I assume you would rather be developing. That said, is Twitter looking for someone to help manage the developer community (answer API questions, serve as liaison to development, ...
How would David Foster Wallace explain the Twitter...
While reading Infinite Jest and Eating the Dinosaur, I stumbled upon two quotes that seem to do a pretty nice job of explaining why Twitter has become such a phenomenon… First up, David Foster Wallace in Infinite Jest:
“you get to believe you’re receiving someone’s complete attention without having to return it.”
Then, on the train home today I came across this from Chuck...
February 2009
0 posts
1 tag
John Carmack on making games
Lots of solid advice from John Carmack (of id fame) in an old Slashdot thread:
“There is not a hell of a lot of difference between what the best designer in the world produces, and what a quite a few reasonably clued in players would produce at this point. This is the “abstract creativity” aspect. This part just isn’t all that valuable. Not worthless, but it isn’t...
January 2009
8 posts
1 tag
Any definition of success is bound up with time.
From an interview with Demetri Martin: We live in time. So any definition of success is bound up with time. With other things you can say, “Can I yo-yo? Can I juggle?” Usually you have a pretty small window in which to get your answer. The question is - “Will I enjoy this?”
Because by enjoying it enough, now I have a nice big window. You can suspend judgment and make that hole very big. If I make...
2 tags
“We’re living in a world where the ability to imagine and generate new...”
– via Thomas Freidman.
This quote is probably the main reason I got into product management in the first place. If you are a person who’s capable of helping people make things (either dreaming things up or making existing things faster, better, etc…) then your skills will always be in...
3 tags
“That’s why most designers make awful team members. It’s why, when the biz dev...”
– via Derek Powazek’s “Things I Learned the Hard Way”
2 tags
Work on Stuff that Matters (aka: how we can turn...
Tim O’Reilly’s got a great New Year’s themed post out, titled “Work on Stuff that Matters”. Here a few of my favorite quotes from it:
“You should regard money as fuel for what you really want to do, not as a goal in and of itself. Money is like gas in the car — you need to pay attention or you’ll end up on the side of the road — but a...
2 tags
“Every great business is founded on a thesis, a statement of what should be true....”
– via John Battelle.
I think this could also apply to careers or individual roles. What argument(s) would you put on your resume?
2 tags
How do you solve problems?
Came across an interesting post by Matt Gemmel on the decline of real problem solving among software developers (and probably our Google-ified society overall)
The problem is that this person’s problem-solving technique is to ask for the solution. Not to seek advice on how to approach the task, or ask for the names of likely classes to look into, or a link to an example - but to just ask for the...
2 tags
“Learn to make non-fatal or reversible decisions as quickly as possible.”
– via Tim Ferriss
October 2008
4 posts
2 tags
Once you have learned how to speak, what will you...
Lots of great quotes and career advice from this talk, titled Beyond Flash, including:
You will become known for doing what you do. Many people seem to think they must endure a “rite of passage” which, once passed, will allow them to do the kind of work they want to do. Then they end up disappointed that this day never comes. Find a way to do the work you want to do, even if it means...
2 tags
Building Web Apps Together →
notes from the talk above:
• technical wife and a design husband: and 9 months later a website is born • product development is more like sculpting not painting • must know the spectrum of technologies that we use to build the web • make revisions while the mocks are “easy to throw away” • we have to win lots of arguments as to why we make decisions • everyone...
2 tags
“What separates us from other camera companies is that the vision guy is the...”
– via a Wired Interview with Jim Jannard
2 tags
“The best measure of a blog is not how many people it reaches, **it’s how much it...”
– via an interview with Seth Godin.
May 2008
2 posts
2 tags
The small things add up
via Joel Spolsky’s post on User Interface Design:
That’s what days were like. A bunch of tiny frustrations, and a bunch of tiny successes. But they added up. Even something which seems like a tiny, inconsequential frustration affects your mood. Your emotions don’t seem to care about the magnitude of the event, only the quality.
UI is important because it affects the feelings,...
2 tags
Reverse engineer your job description
One of the best things I did during my recent job search was to collect key bullet points from my favorite job descriptions (see: http://jobs.37signals.com/categories/3/jobs.rss). Subscribing to the job feeds was an easy way to see what was out there, and it made my procrasting with RSS reading somewhat productive :)
Even better, if you’re lucky you’ll get asked what key things...
April 2008
3 posts
1 tag
Twitter is what Blogger wanted to be when it grew...
In thinking about what I want to do on the web (professionally and in general) I started reading thru a lot of the Evan Williams archives (hence all these recent finds) and a couple of things have crossed my mind so far:
Reading Evhead is a lot like reading a non-fiction version of Microserfs…only Microserfs was written in 1994 instead 1999 (well done Mr. Copeland).
The majority of posts...
1 tag
It's totally easy
Being both a follower of the tech scene and a non-coder can often be a painful combination. When reading the news about Google App Engine it’s easy to get really excited about all the potential for future apps and then very quickly get depressed when you see developers do things that seem quite challenging to you and yet they get described as being totally easy. Bret’s a good guy and I...
2 tags
Maybe the ultimate example...
of a non-coder creating/running a technology company…Steve Jobs. From an interview with Steve Wozniak:
He couldn’t design a computer — he was never a designer or a programmer — but he could understand it well enough to understand what was good and what was bad.
Got any other founders of tech/web companies that aren’t coders? (did Kevin Rose write any of Digg?)
...
March 2008
6 posts
2 tags
How can non-technical people add value to a...
Paul Buchheit has a great post on Ideas vs. Judgement and Execution that I think indirectly raises an interesting question…
Imagine that products are mountains. To build a product, you will need to climb that mountain. Some mountains have a big pot of gold at the top, and some do not. In order to make money, you will need to pick the right mountain and then successfully climb to the top...
1 tag
Need an idea for a webapp? Start here
A…way of thinking about how to choose web projects is to take something that everyone does with their friends and make it public and permanent. (Permanent as in permalinked.)
When I came across this quote from Kottke it helped to give me some confidence that there was real potential in my idea…after letting things marinate for a long while (months/years) I’m finally starting...
2 tags
No permission required
Have had to remind myself of this lately…The Way to Learn X is to Do X.
Rather than waiting to get hired at your job of choice, start trying to do whatever it is you want to do on your own. Of course it’s easier said than done, but it helps to have a vision of a finished product to help you learn some new skills rather than picking up a bunch of manuals and plowing through them...
2 tags
Ditch the resume to get hired?
As usual, Seth’s got some interesting advice for those hoping to do interesting things…this time around it’s resume advice, or more accurately, advice on why you shouldn’t have a resume. Some notes:
I think if you’re remarkable, amazing or just plain spectacular, you probably shouldn’t have a resume at all. Here’s why: A resume is an excuse to reject...
2 tags
How can I guarantee I’m not missing anything?
A couple of posts ago I ended with a question related to Friendfeed…”how can I guarantee I’m not missing anything?”
Well, reading Susan’s post on Connection vs. Purpose I think I found my answer…it doesn’t matter.
Quoting Susan:
The consistent, ongoing nature of the updates is a great screen for the fact that I am wasting time doing something that...
3 tags
Abridged version of Pmarca's Guide to Career...
Marc Andreesen’s blog is chalk full of fantastic advice from someone who’s been there, done that with regards to the web world….in this post I’ll share a summary and some notes from reading his three part guide to Career Planning.
Part 1, Opportunity:
Career planning = career limiting. Instead of planning your career, focus on developing skills and pursuing...
February 2008
4 posts
1 tag
A difficult (or not) balance
First off, wanted to thank Susan for the very kind (and unexpected) shout-out…looks like Friendfeed officially launching is helping to drive traffic.
Related to Friendfeed, et al - there’s a problem with webland….it’s too damn interesting (see: I feel crazy! I am paralyzed!) People are starting to notice that if you don’t occasionally shut this stuff out it’s...
1 tag
It really is a hunt
I had a realization yesterday that searching for a new job (particularly at a startup) really was more of a hunt than I originally thought…as in, if you look in the right places (not Craigslist) you can find better opportunities that aren’t always obviously available.
Here are some of my favorite treasure chests so far:
Browsing Crunchbase by location
Checking VC firms pages for...
2 tags
What'd you create today?
Part of my training to get into the world of product management is to start making more things….not specs or plans or wireframes - actual finished products (ie: today I made a t-shirt on Zazzle).
I can’t fully articulate my beliefs on the benefits of creating, but thought this Vonnegut quote summed it up nicely:
I always say to people, practice an art, no matter how well or badly...