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acabrahams

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www.alexabrahams.co.uk

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1. The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

2. One L by Scott Turow

3. The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu

4. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

5. Believer: My Forty Years in Politics by David Axelrod

6. The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells

7. Augustus: First Emperor of Rome by Adrian Goldsworthy

8. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (re-read)

9. I, Claudius by Robert Graves

10. Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks

11. The Fear Index by Robert Harris

12. Red Dragon by Thomas Harris (re-read)

13. The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris (re-read)

14. Hannibal by Thomas Harris (re-read)

15. Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin (re-read)

16. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (re-read)

17. Claudius the God by Robert Graves

Re-reads take hardly any time at all, so I'm not sure whether to count them. If you're not, then 11 books read so far.

Nothing that happens between twelfth grade and death decreases the percent of women interested in computer science one whit.

Statistics [1]: 56% of women in technology leave their employer mid-career, and 24% of these women take a non-technical job with a different employer. "This is double the turnover rate of men."

It would appear, then, that actually something does happen between high school and death which decreases women's interest in CS. It is not due to women leaving their career for family either, since many of this 56% decide to continue working, but in a non-technical role.

Thoughts?

[1] http://www.techrepublic.com/article/the-state-of-women-in-te..., no 10

YC Fellowship 11 years ago

This quote caught my eye from the FAQ section of the fellowship page:

Can a single person apply for funding? Yes, but the odds of being accepted are lower. A startup is too much work for one person.

A statement such as "A startup is too much work for one person" seems unusually stark and absolute for a company as progressive as YC. There are always exceptions, as mattkrisiloff as noted below.

I never used the Homejoy service, but I was in the audience for the Startup School Europe talks last year where Adora gave a fantastic speech (Notes: http://theinflexion.com/blog/2014/07/26/notes-from-startup-s...) about going through so many ideas and working so hard to get to Homejoy. The talk's ending had a 'And look, we made it, so you can too' feel, and I had no idea that they were doing anything but crushing it after all those years of grinding work.

Its hard not to be disheartened when a pair who seem to have worked as hard as they have still don't make it with an idea. I just hope they keep going.

I'm sure this is a stupid question, but after a few minutes of googling I am still unclear on the answer so I thought I'd ask it here. I am about to start studying in the US (college), so I was wondering if the USDS accepts non-American citizens? Even without a green card? (I'm British, btw).

"Also, the sooner "pull" payments become a rare exception, the better."

Credit card charges that are pull-based are generally a bad thing, but not all pull-based payments are bad for consumers. For example, the Direct Debit scheme in the UK requires the consumer to be notified 5 working days before payment is taken, and the consumer has the right to get a refund from the bank without dispute; it is then the bank's job to go and get the money bank from the merchant. This latter feature in particular is important, and should be implemented for credit card pre-authorisations as well.

I've done a full-time 5 day course at Steer on iOS and a 10-week evening course at General Assembly on Ruby. Both were useful, but IMO not worth the cost. I have friends who have completed the GA full-time bootcamp, and some who have done the Makers Academy one. MA seems to be better for helping you become a real software developer, rather than someone who knows a bit about apps.

Yes. You are generalizing. Massively. There is no possible situation in which a VC I had met could ask me out without making me feel extremely uncomfortable, to put it lightly.

There are lots of logical reasons for this reaction, and I will list some of them briefly. 1) Power of VC network is implicit threat to 'play nice' and go along with it, even if VC in question has no intention of being nasty in any way. 2) The power imbalance already implicit in VC/founder relations makes 'asking me out' incredibly tense. 3) It would make me doubt myself- "Is every other VC I am talking to (since they are 90% men) just interested in me for that reason?".

So follow the OP's advice. And just don't do it.

Announcing UberPool 12 years ago

I've been waiting for something like this to arrive for a while. In Israel and the West Bank, services called sheiruts act as mini-buses; they're taxis that pick up multiple passengers going in the same direction, usually for the same price as a public bus ticket. When buses are scarce, they are a really useful service. Could UberPool be like this?

Valuations 12 years ago

A coincidence that sama has published this the same week that a single-feature app like Yo! announced that it raised $1m...?

I remember seeing some statistical evidence that women in particular are more responsive to ads to 'learn to code' than 'learn to program'[1], which would ring true with my personal experience where I notice I often describe myself as 'learning to code' rather than to program.

[1] But I can't remember where I saw it and googling hasn't helped me to find it... :/

I use Treehouse for learning web dev and they have a course on business fundamentals e.g. what type of company to incorporate, accounting fundamentals. Haven't tried it yet myself, but their programming stuff has been good so I reckon it would be worth a try. You can get a 2-week free trial to check it out.