biastoact

An old idea I’d love to see come back would be the mashup. There was a moment where it appeared possible that all the ‘next big things’ would be built using a mix of services. Gmail mixed with Facebook chat mixed with RSS feeds all overlayed on a Yahoo Map with contextual YouTube pops. In the end all we really got were Google Maps next to physical addresses on websites, social share buttons, and Facebook Logins. (I know there are more but wide adoption is scant).

It would be killer to see a collection of micro-mashable services emerge to expose data, manipulation, visualization, sharing and interactivity (and probably billing).

It should, for example, take a day to build a page that lets you analyze real estate deals based on proximity to McDonalds locations, crime events, R v D political donations, and mentions (or lack of mentions) of Kanye West by local Social Media users.

By the way, I’m not saying this is a good idea, it is probably a bad idea. I’m just saying ideas like this should be almost as easy to hack together as a formatted blog post.

It is not unlike Prime Video and Prime Music (among others). When you run a membership program you create offers that increase the perceived value of the membership and engagement with your ecosystem. Similar is Costco gas, people wouldn’t drive out of their way for the discount if they didn’t already pay the membership. And while you are there you might as well pick up four times the bread you need, more milk than you consume in a week, a new camera (that was probably cheaper online), and a hot dog on your way out. Getting the value out of that $100 membership leads people to consume far more than they normally would.

Without dates and metrics you can’t measure progress. Like mile markers along the road (back before GPS / Smartphones). But without continuous, high trust, collaborative conversation you can’t actually make progress. That’s the gasoline powering you down the road. The goal should be Disneyland (shouldn’t it always be Disneyland?), not the next mile marker.

I more take some time to roam each day and if people aren’t deep in activity or meetings check in at that point. Afternoons are great as folks tend to be low blood sugar and more opt to be pushed back from their desks, etc.

As far as I can tell they like it. If it is a topic area we've previously discussed or tried to reason the best way forward they will now often proactively reach out when they need help or want someone to tell them how awesome they just were.

I find that as long as it isn't every day and I show up to ask about their public deadlines, compliment them on progress, and offer to help where they are stuck that people don't react like it is a disruption.

I set a goal of using my feet to walk around and engage team members in 5 work conversations (unscheduled) each day. The change in culture and the identification of problems, road blocks, oppertunities has been eye opening. As a natural introvert who’d rather be heads down it has made me much more effective in the team.

QuotWizard | Backend Engineer | Full-time | On-Site Seattle, Sacramento, or Denver | http://quotewizard.com

We're looking for three (3) reporting and analytics focused engineers. We are on an Azure and .NET stack so the more SQL Server, Power BI, and C# you know the better, but we'll take people coming out of other software stacks as well.

Company is very successful, boot strapped from $0 to over $100 Million in revenue and growing very quickly. Still a great startup culture and a lot of future opportunity.

careers@quotewizard.com and mention Hacker News

Insured by the book Brunch is Hell I’ve started a soup in game night for friends and should-be-friends forvthis very reason: create a platform where we can put in the time to build closer friendships.

I once created a similar problem. I built a tracking and split testing system designed around a list of features activated during a page load. So a single page load might be described like:

root,signin,bluebutton

Where bluebutton was a design we were testing for our signin page. Of course once bluebutton worked and had run for a while everyone was afraid to change it in case there was a dependency of some kind. So the Facebook login that replaced the old signin would look like:

root,signin,bluebutton,fbookredirect

Even though no sign in page was shown let alone a bluebutton.

Late last year I started getting up at 5:05, driving to the gym while listening to scripture, swimming, showering, driving back, and then starting coffee for the wife, breakfast for the family, and lunches for the kids. The exercise and alone time really feel like they slow time down and let me get a lot more done for the rest of the day. But it is hard to get up that early.

I love that idea!

I've turned my phone to gray scale. Everything is a lot less interesting.

Been thinking along the same lines but having a hard time moving the family fully in that direction. What are your core belongings.

Good stuff. Do you use a particular extension for that? Any fall out?

Some general thoughts:

1. Look at the product. Can you describe what it is, what value it creates for customers? Is it exciting? It probably shouldn't be. In 9 out of 10 cases boring products in boring industries will lead to steady work and chance to add real value to the company, get raises, etc. Small company unicorns can raise money, but they don't last. Successful companies ship products and create happy customers. 2. You want a company that is high trust with their team - including in interviews. How many customers do they have? What is their runway? How much money do they make? What are the biggest complaints from customers? Do they have any raving fans, what do they say? Who are the dominant personalities in the business, who leads? If the company isn't willing to go into detail even over the phone on this stuff then tred carefully. 3. Read! Don't give up an being business-savvy. There are a lot of good online lectures, tons of great books, podcasts, etc. You don't need to be an expert to start to develop a nose for what is going on. Listen or read something once a day and you'll gather the tools, vocabulary, and emotional perceptions to ask better questions and even help companies execute their strategies. Believe me, having a developer who cares about product, customer, and execution even half as much as they care about code can be the difference between life and death for a small company.

Some resources: Entreleadership (good, easy book on leadership and business): https://www.amazon.com/EntreLeadership-Practical-Business-Wi...

Tropical MBA Podcast (will touch on sales, product, marketing, teams, and more): http://www.tropicalmba.com/podcasts/

Gimlet Startup Podcast (start with Episode 1 to go behind the scenes of what the business leaders are feeling): https://gimletmedia.com/startup/

Harvard Business School Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk8n46m74K5XWfdeBzOXDfA

I bought through Redfin five years ago.

Actually, we offered on two houses, backed out after poor inspections, and then purchased the third house in a competitive multi-bid environment all in a few months. With Redfin I never felt the kind of sales/relationship pressure to close a deal that I did when buying with traditional realtors. The only reason we didn't sell our Condo through Redfin is I wanted someone in the neighborhood who could help coordinate painting, staging, etc in the lead up to the listing.

All and all a great experience.

"Our feelings are not a reliable indicator of personal value, especially after burning out."

This is awesome advice for any situation brilliantly sumerized. Thank you!

They remodeled the Seattle Northgate location and put in screens. Was not an easy experience despite some pretty slick software. They will have to retrain their customers to the new system (much like they trained us to use the extra value meal numbers back in the 90s).

Thanks for sharing. I really liked the idea behind https://hypothes.is in particular, but I haven't found any site that really is enhanced by it. With the right user base though it could be awesome.