ibagrak

It's just a saying I heard a long time ago from one of my professors. He probably meant it in the academic sense, i.e. the person could otherwise use that mental energy to do great research.

Good chess player - sign of a great mind. Great chess player - sign of a wasted mind.

I think I may have just come up with their new slogan: "The seedless watermelon of mattresses".

Huh? This is gross oversimplification of both APIs and the role of business development. The author somehow conflates deals with API integration. Not all deals (and not all deals are term sheets, whatever) result in APIs integration. Not all API integration coincides with business development activity.

I feel like people who deny the business model of app.net are trying to refute the existence and success of HBO. You don't need to operate at the scale of Facebook, Twitter or cable networks to be successful, mainly because your criteria for success are very different with a pay-for, ad-free product.

Moreover I don't need to be a victim of guns (sorry for referring to a lightning rod of an issue, but bare with me) to advocate gun control. Same way you don't have to be a developer victimized by Twitter and Facebook to think that there might be a better way.

And for the record, I did put my money where my mouth is.

My wife and I live in a ~300 square foot apartment in NYC, although we don't feel like we've got plenty of room, we never feel cramped either. Moreover, we often have people sleep over in our "living room". A lot of it is about light and how high your ceilings are.

I guess what I am saying is that the absolute minimum square footage you think you need is a malleable concept.

I like the idea, but I cannot imagine normals using it en masse. It seems so natural to those familiar with software engineering because it's basically a little language embedded into email conversations. For someone unfamiliar with computer science concepts like translation, languages, compilers, etc, it would be a formidable thing to learn and use.

Thanks. Never thought the name would be a turn off, but you have a point.

I built this little app over the last few weekends. The idea was to help me to organize my thoughts for the different projects I was mulling over. I really feel like writing things down can be a great way to get to the essence of what it is you are trying to do and why.

This is just a simple realization of that idea. Implemented in Python using Heroku's Cedar stack.

Noted. I didn't mean to come off as adversarial or manipulative. This is really a conversation starter, and I rarely just write down the answer and move on.

But I do feel like it helps me learn a whole lot about the candidate without compromising that trust or condescending to them with "what's your biggest weakness?" or some such.

Since I ask this all the time, I can vouch that it rarely results in the candidate criticizing their previous employer (unless the previous employer did something truly egregious).

I admit it's a hack. Or rather, it's just a tool, like many other that helps me learn something about the candidate. So yeah, all those caveats definitely apply.

I understand why someone would hate this kind of question, but ultimately the point of any interview is to evaluate the candidate as a match for a particular role and position. I've always been told that there is not such thing as a bad candidate, only a bad fit. I find that it's helpful to think of this in those terms. Also, I really do mean that there isn't the one "correct" answer.

The conversation at the next table in NY is usually about real estate, hedge funds or some wild combination of the two. In SF, it's about the next Dropbox... for cats... on Facebook. Either way you are screwed. Every city is an echo chamber in its own right.

Wow. I never hoped to get statistically significant results. Thanks everyone for voting.

So it is none of these or is it TwitterContests? Either way is fine. I just forgot to make a None option. You are not being rude, btw.

Well I tried to give away a meetup ticket on Twitter. You just had to be one of the next 10 people to follow me and Tweet about Turn-O-Phrase. It was a pain in the ass tracking all the followers and who said what.

Many businesses already do this. I see hundreds of SMBs running contests on Twitter every day. Usually you have to retweet and follow to enter, but there are some other rules too occasionally. It would be nice to automate that workflow and/or help them define it.

Excellent advice from Matt as usual.

The memories of stressing out over the grad school letters are still vivid after some 8 years. But I did my homework (research with two of the letter writers and TA-ship with the other), and it paid off.

I do remember one episode when a recommendation letter was due at midnight, and I've been emailing reminders to this professor up to the hour the submission was due. He eventually replied saying that his plane was late, and he wouldn't be able to submit until 1am.

It was for a national science foundation fellowship, which I got, so I suppose the late submission was accepted in the end. Fun times.

It's one of those things that you kind of know to be true, but then it startles you when feel its impact on your own work over a long period of time. Thanks, BTW.

http://turn-o-phrase.appspot.com

I suspected that would be a problem for some. I've considered making sign ins optional as they are not critical to the game. To be perfectly honest, it was just a way for me to learn Twitter and Facebook authentication, etc.

It's helpful to think of the flow of capital acquired through privatization of Russian state property into US-based and EU-based businesses as a form of money laundering. It's about legitimizing these assets and moving them farther away from the source of their original dubious provenance. DST investments are yet another instance of that.

From the value perspective these investments don't seem to make much sense, but value is not the primary objective, or not the only objective in this case. It's also about legitimization and moving assets outside of purview of those who could potentially reclaim them.

My wife's radio show on this topic exactly: http://english.ruvr.ru/radio_broadcast/38318922/48746461.htm... (shameful plug). Your points are all valid, but there is more to the "culture of innovation" in Russia than meets the eye.

What I found is that passion is one of those things that always seems excessive in retrospect and insufficient going forward. When I reflect on my periods of professional exuberance, I am always struck by how much I missed out being with my family and friends. Likewise, in the times of lull I am always guilt tripping myself about not being passionate enough, or not giving it my all.

Ultimately, the right balance depends on your own perspective on life, which in term depends on your age, personality, family situation, etc. But the older I get the more convinced I become that you can't go wrong if you err on the side of life.

I had the pleasure of being one of Olin's undergraduate students in his also infamous compilers course. We even worked together on a paper for a Scheme conference back in 2004. Anyways, one of the things I will always remember him say to a group of students: "There are no stupid questions, only stupid students." And he always started a class with a story about his college days. Great guy.

I agree with your observations. I was using "happy" as a placeholder for enthusiastic, passionate, driven, etc, i.e. fulfilled in what they do, whatever that might be.

Startups don't have exclusivity here. I am sure people can be all of those things at a big company, although my own experience differs.

In this context I am primarily looking for role models who are happy/passionate in what they do, i.e. they are fulfilled through their craft whether that's coding, marketing, or embroidery.

I think there is plenty of both types out there on the interwebs. It's just a matter of filtering the right ones.

I read the article and I didn't see a word about career path. The answer to the question is still a "no", in my view.

Once I hire a person, I expect them to approach me with their career aspirations and ideas. It is primarily their responsibility to come up and discuss/suggest opportunities for growth. Failing to do that, I actually think they become one of those idle 6s the article is talking about. I should also note that at this point I start looking for a replacement.

But do I owe them a career path? No. I owe them honesty and transparency, which includes not misrepresenting what the opportunities for growth are for a particular position they are being hired into.

Of course I am talking about those roles where personal ambition is indispensable, and where proactive behavior is highly valued. Genuine desire to grow and evolve is very natural and needs to be accommodated, but it can't take the form of personal interest completely eclipsing team interests and overarching direction and goals. That's a balance every manager needs to strike.