rmcfeeley

WHO WROTE THIS?

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CATHOLIC

What could possibly go wrong?

Has anyone read "The Circle" by Dave Eggers?

I enjoyed it. Raised a lot of interesting questions that I think we're all going to be debating in coming years. Privacy, surveillance, transparency, etc.

Genuinely surprised how rarely it comes up in these discussions about toxic corporate tech "culture"

Thanks for this comment. Extremely thoughtful.

Would you elaborate on the "super powers" that you hint at here as being reserved for those who have made it to the Post-Depression state?

As a clinically depressed person, I am, in some ways, still very much caught up in the "gauntlet" you describe here. It would be interesting to hear what I can look forward to when I finally.. purchase your online course?

rhetorical 360 slam dunk

Watching now. Pretty surreal

Will he end on a positive note or send countless liberal techies to the self-medication cabinet this afternoon??

Isolation. See The Galapagos + Darwin's studies on the birds there. Also: Madagascar (film + land mass)

Hi James --

Thanks for sharing your thoughts + experiences so publicly.

I've been working on a few resources to help the startup + tech community raise awareness about these issues. Check out blueperiod.co to learn a bit more.

Would love to chat more deeply about this -- my email is rob @ blueperiod.co :)

Best,

Rob McFeeley

Why don't we reallocate some of this effort to teaching humans how to use language more effectively? Or is it better to just delegate the responsibility for truth to a seemingly "pure" logic that we like to think exists outside of our human condition?

Beautiful typo

Have you ever seen a white Seamless delivery person?

Would be more interested in "How Actively Breaking Existing Laws Transformed Airbnb Into a 'Billion-Dollar' Business"

Thanks for the brave post, Seth. Glad to see all of the support here, deserved, and appreciate your honesty. Best wishes for the days ahead

I'm working on a project to boost awareness & strengthen resources around mental health in the startup community.

Check out the basics at

blueperiod.org

Reach out to rob@blueperiod.org if you'd like to help out

Hey, this is fantastic. Kudos

Interesting that few of the comments here address the question: "What is the true goal of higher education?"

One of the root causes of the "college bubble" might just be completely overlooking this question, or taking any number of half-hearted answers for granted... or thinking that the relativistic mindset which has beset academia in the last 50 years is the final frontier.

Currently reading "The Closing of the American Mind" (as an American, wearily) and finding the history of the university as laid out there very interesting.

(Trying to formulate a general opinion but the deeper I go, the harder it is.)

There are countless difficult questions and choices which face man, and in most institutions of higher learning, they've taken a backseat to questions of employability & cost.

On an unrelated note, the new undergraduate business school building at my alma mater cost $55 million.

"Author, please stop taking words so literally" is a wonderful sentence

Ha - well said. Employee churnover in startupland is hilarious. This is not always obvious to those diving into this world for the first time.

Proper = 1 = Black ________ Improper = 0 = White Presumably?

The world is very gray...

Would love to see the results of that test.

Now, if you want to talk about helping people A/B test their lives & careers, I'm interested :)

Good point. "Imposter syndrome" is definitely a thing.

I think a lot about the hyphenated person these days (i.e. artist-programmer-writer-marketer-lover). Your point about retroactively realizing that you were on a path is a good one - my point here is that the notion of a "careers page" implies that you know where the hell you're going... or at least that working for startup X is a natural step along that path.

Most people, plainly, do not (or companies, for that matter), know where the hell they're going. Diving into the startup world is a great way to find that out--FAST. And that's definitely not a bad thing.

But 'career' is too loaded a word, IMHO, to capture all of this..

Thanks for the feedback - though I'd hardly describe myself as comfortable ;)

Quite the opposite actually - the main point here, and perhaps I could do a better job of getting that across, is that the traditional concept of a "career" as a series of deliberate, fairly obvious steps is eroding (if not entirely gone), but the word, and its connotations, remains.

More of a nit-picky linguistic thing perhaps, but psychology & first impressions are important here, and I get suspicious whenever I see what looks like folks labeling something relating to other peoples lives with a loaded term without consideration of its implications.

Stay uncomfortable - R

Hi Joel -- quick search in response to your comment:

http://www.knewton.com/careers/ http://www.shopify.com/careers http://www.quirky.com/about/careers

Simple. Take them out to dinner and see how they treat the servers

Once, I made the mistake of asking a more senior IB analyst the following question at a party (I did not know him well):

"Some junior investment banking analysts work over 100 hours a week. There is no way that anyone is firing at full steam mentally pulling those hours weekly, because science. Why don’t banks just hire twice as many analysts and pay them all half as much to get more intellectual bang for their buck?"

He was not pleased.

Thoughts on what this means for our changing economy (and brunch):

http://robmcfeeley.com/post/65530961398/goldman-sachs-encour...

The kind of feature-focused, "logical" startup messaging that this article takes issue with isn't usually a result of "abort(ing) the creative process." It's probably more a reflection of:

(a) where these companies are in terms of product-market fit

(b) the companies applying an analytical, test-everything mindset to all aspects of marketing, including branding

Most startups at the stage that the article talks about (those in incubators or fresh out of them) are testing out various different messages to see which ones convert the most effectively. A/B testing the headers and supporting copy on your homepage is an obvious way to see which features & offerings are most compelling to visitors, so you'll see a lot of companies change their top-line messaging frequently as they learn more through their various sales and marketing channels and try out new positioning.

Also, the majority of these early-stage companies aren't entirely clear on the emotional and functional benefits that they're delivering. Figuring out the functional benefits is much easier-- we help you "store your photos more securely," "have a frictionless extra-marital affair," etc.--but clarity on the emotional side often comes later, as users develop a relationship with the company and start to give feedback.

With that said, I think most startups wildly underestimate the importance of branding and the role it can play in driving growth. And, for that matter, the amount of up-front brand research that can be done to figure out what kinds of emotional ties they can foster between consumers and their brands from the very start.

Mike Troiano (CMO Actifio, former Principal at Holland-Mark) has a few great presentations and talks about how startups can develop strong, flexible positioning that can adapt through the various stages of a company's lifecycle, including this one:

http://www.slideshare.net/MikeTrap/telling-your-story-115847...

Tl;dr version of presentation: Find a way to squeeze your points of differentiation, functional and emotional benefits and mission into a pithy tagline, but be prepared for it to change numerous times as your company evolves

Tried out a similar service at NYC's La Guardia while waiting for a flight. Not a fan -- a few gripes:

(1) Cleanliness is a concern. If I'm going to be eating a burger or something else with my paws, you'd better believe I'm going to want to clean my hands after touching one of these bad boys.

(2) Novelty for novelty's sake. I have no problem interacting with another human being when I'd like to order a glass of wine or dinner during a trip--in fact, it's often a welcome break from a long day of traveling alone.

(3) Poor functionality. My friend and I were prompted to enter our flight information under the auspices that we'd be "alerted" with updates about our flight--boarding, delays, etc. No such luck... We arrived at our gate and were scolded for being the last ones on the flight. If only they'd known we were distracted by the future of airport dining!

There's no real pain point here. I suggest that E la Carte pivot toward creating more edible food in airports... That's a disruptive mission that I can get behind.