Alex Ragalie

starting a startup is tough shit!

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 14:21:00 +0400

today it hit me: when you’re working on a startup, you will end up investing a lot of time and effort upfront without any measurable benefits. sure, you learn a lot in the process, the developers learn a lot, but if you do not get results (arguably the only thing that matters), then it’s wasted time!

you as a founder, along with your team of engineers, have to be acutely aware of the fact that you need to be in it all the way to the end to really see the benefits of this upfront effort. i do not personally believe in all the bla bla about how the “journey is more important than the destination” or how the 2^nd place is not a looser but the “2^nd winner”. if you do not get results (users and revenue) than you’ve failed, no matter what mental masturbation techniques you use to justify the failure.

even if you do the whole lean startup thing, use scrum methodology and develop in short sprints, apply customer development and all other startup buzzwords, you still need to invest a lot in the beginning to develop that elusive MVP. i’m talking about very basic things: website design, user management, minimum viable functionalities for the product itself, implementation of measuring tools, setting up the cloud architecture, etc. all this needs to be done before you can do anything, before you can “growth hack” and test the customer response. and it takes weeks!

we’ve spent the past 1 month and a half here in Santiago as part of the Startup Chile program, myself on the product side and my team of three engineers on the development side, and we’re still not done with the MVP of Win the Planet’s new platform.

a bit disappointing, but it’s the truth.

you might argue that it happened because we’re not experienced enough, or not smart enough, or not fast enough. my view is that a team comprised of people completely new at this startup thing simply cannot skip the learning curve. and even if we could have been more productive, we still wouldn’t have been much farther than where we are now, due to the simple mechanics of learning how to do something new.

i’m really hoping that my guys will get to writing their own blogs on the initial experience of joining a startup after being employees all their lives, but here are some of the things i’m noticing and learning from the point of view of a business-side founder (which also understands a lot of software architecture) managing a team of experienced developers:

if this is your first startup, as an engineer you will be faced with the (quite impactful) realization that your experience in the prior jobs as an employee is not extremely valuable in what you’re trying to do now.
after this realization, you get to understand that your startup needs “full stack programmers”, meaning that you should be able to both understand and code on all the layers of the platform (from the html/javascript side, through the service layer, down to the database queries). that means you have shitloads of learning to do, and fast.
you have to accept that you most likely have a lot of habits from your past life as an employee that seriously impact your productivity (mostly in a negative way). getting rid of that is not very easy as old habits die hard.
the startup needs you to ideally work 24/7. as that cannot happen, you need to make sure that your personal time management is very strict, and that you eliminate all distractions from your working day.
accept that there is no notion of personal life, vacations or leisure time. you’ve joined the startup to change the world and become a millionaire in the process, and achieving that will require you to push yourself to do things you didn’t think you were capable of. as someone once said, doing a startup means sacrificing a few years for the prospect of getting to enjoy the rest of your life doing whatever you like.
one of the perks of working in a startup is that you are free to set your own schedule. but don’t overlook the fact that this freedom comes with a great responsibility. as i read somewhere, most people wouldn’t even know what to do with themselves if they were truly free.
do not underestimate how complicated it is to build something from scratch. even if you’re building a simple game (like us), when you add all the layers that need to be created to make that simple game playable by tens of thousands of people, you will end up with something quite complex.
multiply any time estimate you come up with (either yourself as a product/business guy or your engineers) with 3, then add an extra week, and you will maybe get close to a realistic deadline.
as a startup, thinking about outsourcing your software development is similar to being a car manufacturer and thinking about having your engines built by someone else: a very very bad idea! believe it or not, we’re seeing a lot of people here in Startup Chile trying to do that for their own startups.
as a product manager, make sure you think long and hard before you ask your engineers for any new functionality or change to something already built. you will be surprised at how many things get screwed up by changing “just” a check box.
make sure that everyone in the team understand from the very beginning the fact that building a startup is extremely hard work and extremely likely to fail (most experienced founders and investors agree that you have around 90% chances of failure).
there is a HUGE difference between telling your team something and having them internalize it. by internalizing i mean that “aha” moment when what you just heard sinks in and you really “feel” what you understood. for example, make sure that your team understands that “being in the cloud” actually means “if we are lucky enough to get 100k users in 24h, then the costs of the Amazon servers will rip a new one into the bank account”.
be very open with your team about how much money and how much time you have left until you cannot pay the bills anymore. it’s the only way to get everyone to internalize the seriousness of what’s happening.
stress about failure but also make sure you’re prepared for success. it might seem simple to say “hey, if we get 100k users in 24h, then we can easily get $1 million in investment!”; could happen, but keep in mind that those investor money will hit your account at the very earliest in a few weeks or more likely months! so make sure that you do the math beforehand (hint: 100k users might mean you need to pay thousands of dollars in AWS costs at the end of the month). going viral and getting lots of users is awesome, but don’t forget the horror stories of the countless startups who could not handle it.
be patient. Rome wasn’t built in a day and your startup will most likely take years until you reach success. i’ve been working on Win the Planet in one form or another for the past 3 years and i realize that i’m just getting started on building something that MIGHT have a chance of success. i wanted to quit the idea tens of times until now, but somehow i kept finding the perseverance to continue and hope it will all pay off someday :)

to end this post, i want to remind you that i’m just a guy working on a startup which doesn’t yet have any trace of success, so you might want to take everything i’m writing with a grain of salt.

apples, jobs and high expectations

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 06:44:00 +0400

technology and the Internet are the physical and conceptual embodiments of what it means to be human. like it or not, being able to use such tools to make our lives easier constitutes the biggest part of what separates us from the other animals. and your life, from the daily minutia of finding a place to eat or a bar to meet a friend to the biggest things like love, education or spirituality, is impacted enormously by how you use and interact with technology.

with that in mind, what should then your expectations be from the most valuable company in the history of human kind, a technology company? what should you demand from an entity that has more than 100 billion dollars in cash in it’s coffers, a mind-bending profit margin of 30% on it’s products and which operates what is arguable the most efficient production and distribution chain on the planet?

answer: a whole fucking lot!

what i’m talking about is the pure and unadulterated expectation of greatness! i’m expecting the most valuable technology company of our civilization to achieve nothing less than amazing things, constantly and preferable at set times (beginning of each 3rd quarter).

i can already hear the howls of criticism coming from your mind. “it’s not possible, because innovation cannot be only revolutionary, it also has to be incremental. it cannot happen, because consumers always ask for too much. it’s not feasible, because the world is very rarely prepared for technological breakthroughs.”

but i do not care.

i do not care about the problems that they’re facing in consumer acceptance. i do not care about the fact that their products genius, the man that built the company, is no longer there. and i also do not care that their market is now more crowded and more competitive than ever.

let me say that again. I DO NOT CARE

when you are, as a company or as a person, at the very pinnacle of the human pyramid, my expectations of you are, and should be, outstanding. if you are the best and the biggest, then all of our expectations should be the highest.

so it’s with a big amount of disgust that i’ve gotten the news yesterday about the iPhone 5. are you fucking kidding me? you had 2 whole years as a company to come up with something revolutionary (as per our outstanding expectations) and all you’re giving us is the same phone but a bit longer??!?!

as a good friend was asking, what the hell was Jony Ive doing after he decided to “photoshop” the iPhone 4 into a longer version? nothing much it seems.

you’ve probably noticed that i’ve been for quite a long time now an Apple fanboy, but i’m now beginning to be majorly disappointed in them. 100 billion dollars in the hands of the best designer on the planet, and this is what we get? a longer screen and 5 icons at the bottom???

i can hear again what you’re thinking. “Ive is just a cog in the whole Apple machine. this is Steve’s legacy, this is what he wanted. how much better can you make a phone. Cook is just a number cruncher, what do you expect?”

I DO NOT CARE

you can put fucking wings and a tail on it, then make it fly in circles while calling it the new PegasusPhone. whatever it takes, but give me real, palpable, mind-blowing innovation. make me go WOW. this is what you’re promising right? this is what you’re branding is all about, this is what Apple is no?

the reality is not marketing though, and it’s much more disappointing. the reality is that Apple is just a corporation as any other, built by a brilliant man, an “illuminated despot” who did whatever he wanted, when he wanted and how he wanted it. he was brilliant and lucky enough to have incredible success, and in the meantime he tried to build a company that will survive after he is gone.

well, now he’s gone. and the company is doing quite a shitty job at it. sure, they’re stock price is as high as ever and they have shit loads of money. but they’ve began to fail at the most important reason for existence: making things that push the human race forward.

i will still buy Apple products, as long as they are really better than those of the competition, no matter how mediocre they’re becoming. but i’m still hoping they will wake up and start doing things worthy of the most valuable company in human history, worthy of our high expectations, worthy of the man who made Apple what it is today.

restitutio ad integrum

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 07:24:00 +0400

two years and a half have passed since breaking my leg.

during this time i ran 2.000+ kms, completed my first marathon, did my first 6h+ run, pulled 13h training weeks and learned that mind-over-matter works only to a certain extent.

even though it was a quite “standard” fracture, it none the less had a major impact on my life, especially during the first year. 15 days in the hospital, two surgeries and a temporary titanium improvement. a very interesting journey, a lot of twists and turns and an ever present sensation of pain.

so you can imagine my joy in letting you know that this episode is now officially over!

today i had a final leg checkup, 8 months after they removed the tibial nail. the doctor’s verdict was the most beautiful latin expression i have ever heard: “restitutio ad integrum”.

doesn’t it sound great? :D

moments that blow you away

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 06:53:00 +0400

you talk to someone, see a photo or watch a video, like any other time in your daily routine. all of a sudden your reptilian brain gets disconnected. all your animal fear and greed fades away into the background. all the worries, the stress and anguish of living life, the muddling throughout of daily misery, everything suddenly forgotten. in its place, a vision of such clarity, such inspiration and such insight that you are frozen in awe for the briefest moment.

that’s when a real miracle happens. a thing so great, so unique and so amazing that it most likely bears no resemblance to anything in the Universe. the product of billions of years of evolution and natural experimentation. it occurred from the randomness of space and time and it will likely vanish in the same way. but while it exists, while it moves and changes and aches and hurts and worries and hopes, while it lives….there’s nothing more beautiful.

the human thought.

stringed together, one after the other, intermingling and intertwining, human thoughts represent the highest potentiality your will ever encounter in your meagre and insignificant life. thoughts make and break things, they create and destroy, they give life. thoughts made everything you see around yourself and most of what you see inside your mind. but all these achievements are like an anthill next to the tallest skyscraper. they all fade in comparison to the most incredible occurrence, the culmination of the merger between the hunger for development of our animal self and the rational enlightenment of our thoughtful self.

the human vision.

and this is when you stand in awe. the very moment after, when you wake yourself from the immenseness of your vision and your rational brain shudders at the realization. it can’t be done. it’s too far, too hard, too expensive, too dangerous. billions of electric pulses ignited instantaneously in your brain, all trying to convince you that it can’t be done. you repeat it to yourself over and over again, in a futile effort to dismiss and discount it. but it’s too late. like a virus of the upper sentient dimension, your vision can no longer be forgotten. for once you’ve seen it, once you’ve felt the cold grip of possibility, there is no way back. your humanity enslaves you to the visceral grip of possibility. like an insect blown in the wind, there is no escape. there is no denial and no hiding. because now….now you know. you know that with enough effort, enough dedication, enough luck then maybe, just maybe …. it could be done.

welcome to the brotherhood. like many who went and many more who will come, you are now possessed by your vision. there is no escape and no hiding. you have only one choice, and it is simple. do whatever it takes to bring your vision to life, or ignore its calling and be haunted for the rest of your days.

it can be done.

Photo credits: Sun, moon, stars by Andre Kuipers, astronaut aboard the ISS

learn to type properly

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 08:55:00 +0400

and your digital life will never be the same again!

sometime in the summer of last year i became annoyed at how much i was using the Delete key. thinking about it, i realized that typing is something i do for most of the day, and that i’m not very good at it. even though back then i was already able to type without looking at the keyboard, which is anyways much more than most of the people, my error rate was still very high (20-40%) depending on speed.

if you really give it some thought, typing is an activity that permeates throughout our digital lives. it’s quite amazing to see that most people still do it in a “hunt and peck” style (with 2 fingers) at a horrendously slow word-per-minute rate. as a comparison, imagine what it would be like if you were to speak with 40% errors? most likely people would still understand you, but your quality of conversation would be very, very bad.

reversing that, you can now imagine how much better your digital conversations would be if you were to take some time and learn to type properly. with that objective in mind, i started looking for free tools/websites/courses to improve my typing.

in the research process i learned that the QWERTY layout of our keyboards is far from optimal (it was actually created to slow your typing speed), i flirted with the idea of learning to type Dvorak-style (faster layout than QWERTY), but i nevertheless decided to stick with QWERTY for obvious portability reasons.

after several attempts at cumbersome and complicate desktop-based typing tutors, i ended up on Peter’s Online Typing Course. it is a very unpretentious, extremely smart made and best of all- free website with courses that are of increasing difficulty. at the beginning i was a bit deceived by the apparent simplicity of the exercises, and i estimated that it would take me a couple of weeks to move through all of them. but very soon i realized that improving my speed while keeping the 100% accuracy requirement will take much, much more time than i expected! after about 3 months of at least 1h per day practice, i was at the end of all the lessons.

and boy of boy do i feel happy about this time investment! it’s kind of hard to explain it without seeming to exaggerate, but it opened a lot of “doors” that i didn’t even know were there.

for one, there’s the ability to get into a “writing flow”. no more stopping to correct the text, no more frustration at thinking too fast for your writing speed, no more Delete key.

another thing is the ability to focus on your work instead of your fingers. maybe you don’t realize it now, but if you are like most people, you spend A LOT of time focusing on your keyboard instead of the thing you are supposed to be doing.

then there’s the overall “fluency” of it all. if you’ve ever learned a foreign language and became fluent in it, you will know what i mean. it’s that sweet moment when you move from embarrassing pauses and messed up words to actually making sense and being able to speak your mind in one continuous process.

so, if your line of work is heavily dependent on computers and typing, do yourself a favour and invest some time into a skill that will serve you very well for the rest of your life.

Photo credits: Typing by austin.tahiliani

5 lessons on startup success

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:23:00 +0400

The following is a guest post by John Doe. John is a circus juggler turned entrepreneur. As he didn’t have any success yet with his startup, he is now involved in angel investing and mentorship at one of the newest ~~chicken~~ startup incubators in the Valley.

Right before i started my juggling world tour, my old coach in high school would come up to me, smack me over the head and say “life is like a game of dodgeball: you never know who’s gonna hit you next”. Years later, as i was a CJO (chief juggling officer) for the Guzzini Brothers in Argentina, the lesson was still ringing in my ears, probably due to the eardrum fracture he gave me.
When i was 36 and i was back living in the trailer with my parents, i started seeing on Twitter that more and more of my old friends were getting into entrepreneurship. All these great ideas like next-day puppy delivery, glocal services for octogenarians, video advertising for blind people and many more were being brought out into society, changing the world forever and making dents in all kind of places in the universe. This made me decide to go all in and start my own thing. I then sold my old pair of sneakers with great effort, bought some old army boots with straps on them and took a loan from the local mobster to buy a ticket to the Valley. I knew that my SAAS cupcake juggling platform would change the world, and that’s the only place where it could happen.

Here are some of the lessons the past 5 years of living with AirBnB hippies and sleeping on park benches taught me.

1. Keep your startup lean and don’t get fat, because nobody likes fat people

Staying lean, hungry and foolish is always a good thing, not only because most investors don’t like fat people (how many fat successful entrepreneurs have you seen on TechCrunch? Arrington doesn’t count), but also because it’s kind of hard to match hipster glasses to a belly. It’s a proven fact that wild game meat is better than a serial entrepreneur, so always make sure that you look good.

I cannot emphasize how crucial it is for your success that you and your team look hot. This is one of the reasons behind the recent buzz about having more women get into entrepreneurship: boobs always make negotiations easier!
Another important thing to remember is that being coachable is one of they key success traits of every entrepreneur, the same as for circus monkeys or horses. So make sure that you are always iterating, pivoting and focusating (that’s a new meme i invented for always bringing your attention back to the thing you are doing).

2. In funding as in dating, dumb money are easy and fast to hook up, but smart money, even though not very pretty, will stick with you long term
During the first months, all my mentors at the AA meeting were encouraging me to go out more, meet people in clubs and network with them. I know that many of you don’t like to do it, but networking is the single most important activity one can do before friends come over with their laptops to play Starcraft.

Investors come in two main flavors: dumb and smart. You can recognize them by the amount of blogs that they write, and also based on their Twitter following. The general rule is that you only want to take dumb money for things that don’t really matter, like seed round or series A. After that, as you get closer to the IPO, you need to attract smart money. They will always make you look good and can also help you figure out what is a “peenel” and if your startup is making a loss or not. If you are indeed loosing more money that you are making, which is highly likely and a very good thing, make sure the dumb investors don’t figure it out.

At Jugglingcupcakes.ly, we took smart money from the beginning, and we later regretted it. We always needed to answer to a stupid board of directors about our internal trampoline and the blow-up dolls in the office.

3. Talk about it, to everyone, everywhere, even if they don’t care

As the saying goes, “a loud mouth is always right”. So you should always make sure to brush your teeth properly. A fresh breath is mandatory, because as an entrepreneur you should always talk to people. The train conductor, the lady at the cashiers, the homeless at the corner, each of them can be a referrer of future business for you. The acronym here is ABT: always be talking. Everyone in this world needs to find out about your world-changing startup, so talking incessantly is the only way to spread the news.

Another point worth remembering is virality. I remember when i was still at the circus and the bearded lady caught a nasty cold. The next day all the stable boys and four of the Guzzini brothers were sick, and in one week we spread it to a whole county. You should always make sure that your viral coefficient is above 1, as anything below that will make you seem retarded. And avoid PR agencies. Money on marketing is wasted for an early stage startup, so you should only use free things like word of mouth, word of Twitter and word of Youtube.

4. All successes have an explanation, and luck ain’t it

Now i could tell you a story about one of my great successes in which i leave out the part where i was just lucky to be in the right place at the right time, but i will not. I don’t have any of those, so i will share a story of a friend of mine from Facebook.

Njubela is a young African who started primary school in a small Rwandan village. One day, as he was coming back home, he pointed the right way to a nice American lady who’s Hummer H2 was lost in the savanna. It turned out that she was the wife of a rich VC, so they adopted Njubela and brought him back to the US. When he turned 15, he had the idea of delivering sandwiches through the Internet, so his adoptive father invested 20 million dollars in his startup instead of buying a yacht. In 5 years the business grew and Njubela had an amazing exit for 300 million, after a media conglomerate owned by a rich friend of his dad bought the company. My point is that you can all be like Njubela. You just have to work long hours, sleep under the desk and eat ramen noodles.

Luck is just something the European entrepreneurs blame in order to justify their failure to raise capital, but in reality luck doesn’t have any impact on your success. Anyone reading this can make it big in entrepreneurship, you just have to pay your taxes and stay lean.

5. ABCF- always be commenting and firing

The reason why HackerNews was invented is because entrepreneurs need to express their opinions on other people’s mistakes. It’s not something you can stop, it’s just the normal behavior of A types. And A types always want to hang around A+ types, not like the B type loosers who work 9-5 jobs. That’s why you should make sure that you have at least 3 blogs (your company blog, your personal blog, your secret personal blog) and that you post to them often. It creates a ramp for you to launch your brilliant ideas, judgements, preconceptions and prejudices. Also you can use the blogs to talk trash about your competition.

And firing. Firing is the single most important thing an entrepreneur should do. Make sure to meet people often, hire them and then look for excuses to fire them. It keeps your company always on it’s toes and creates a competitive environment. Fire fast and hire slow, especially if you are in a country which has impossible laws relating to work permits.

6. Focusate more on making money and less on making an impact

You might have heard quite often that successful entrepreneurs do all their focusating on impact and not on making money. But that’s just propaganda. Impact is for cars and punching bags. Real entrepreneurs focusate (i think this new meme is really starting to take off) on cold hard cash. It’s the only way you will be taken seriously.

I hope these advices will help move your startup forward and will not prevent you from always doing B/C testing (because testing, as in “the website is down because we didn’t pay the hosting company” or “we have no customers because our product sucks”).

Photo credits: Entrepreneurship by Michael Lewkowitz

how failures suck and successes rock

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:57:00 +0400

it never ceases to surprise me how some people simply cannot see how biased they are!

i was reading this article today about John Ham, the ex-CEO of Ustream. it goes on and on about how Ham was overstretching the company by asking for “ridiculous deadlines that were practically unattainable”, about how he was spending 200k per year on company lunches (from the same catering company as Twitter), how he moved his company to a new and luxurious office building and how he was displaying “erratic behavior” by “wanting the same celebrity status like Biz Stone or Ev Williams”.

i personally have no idea who John Ham is, and as a matter a fact this is just the second time ever i’ve heard about Ustream (i know, i am an ignorant Eastern European too far away from SF). but what struck me as VERY odd is how the description of Ham fits for Steve Jobs and multiple other “erratic” but highly successful CEO’s. but in Ham’s case, because he failed, this is seen as a very bad thing, a shameful flaw of character. in the case of Jobs, because he succeeded, these traits were at the foundation of his achievements.

and what about the “advice” that a lot of VC’s and angel investors give young CEO’s, the likes of “act like a billion dollar company if you want to become one” or “do more faster”? how is what Ham did different that all the BS crap you hear peddled on every startup blog?

Success by Zaraki Kenpachi

this just goes to show that the press will always spin it’s story, and that no matter what you do, how you are or what people think of you, in the end it all comes down to success.

failures suck and successes rock. and so will you in the eyes of the world!

zoom in

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 04:11:00 +0400

have you noticed how a lot of text-heavy blogs and websites are written with very small fonts? i would actually venture to say that most famous content website have too small letter sizes.

considering how much most of us geeks read during each and every single day, i’m convinced that long term wincing at those puny letters is detrimental for eyesight.

Magnify by Anna Leo

as such, i’ve happily began using Cmd-+ (zoom in option for Chrome) in every page which has sub-pleasant font size. and the beauty is that Chrome remembers your zoom level, so next time you’re on TechCrunch or any other blog, the zooming remains. et voila, problem solved!

we have already crossed the point of no return

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 05:37:00 +0400

without sounding pessimistic, i believe that accelerated global warming is already here.

no matter what happens in the next 10-20 years, the effects of humanity having already disturbed the relatively “stable” system of the atmosphere will become extremely noticeable. and not just for the scientists, but for all of us.

to have a mental imagine of what i’m saying, please imagine a piece of rubber stretched between your fingers.

now start pulling gently on it, and then let go. notice how it quickly comes back it it’s initial state, without any noticeable rebound. this is what we have done as a human race to the natural environment, and particularly to the atmosphere, for the past thirty thousand years. we have gently pulled on it, by hunting thousands of animal species to complete extinction and farming a third of the usable surface of the planet. it was no problem though, as the system was capable of coming back to the stable state due to it’s inherent robustness. but this is no longer the case.

in the last 100 years, since the start of the industrial revolution, the power with which we pull on “Nature’s rubber band” has increased by several orders of magnitude.

to illustrate, start pulling harder on the rubber band.

notice how there is a visible increase in it’s bounce? not only does it takes more time to stabilize, but you also see it moving more and more to the opposite side, as part of it’s natural balancing process. this is a natural phenomenon, and also a metaphore for how systems adjust themselves to external influences. the problem for us humans is that we won’t really like these bounces. extremely dry periods followed by constant floods and disastrous rainy seasons, temperatures reaching ever lower ends in thermometers during winter and rising to ever higher peaks during summer months, these are only some of the changes we can see occurring even today. and, to make matters even more interesting, both the speed AND the strength of our societal “pull” on this theoretical rubber band are increasing rapidly. we are not only pulling it more and more out of balance, but we are also doing it faster and faster.

but don’t worry, the planetary string is virtually unbreakable. Earth was able to sustain life for the past 4 billion years into a myriad of forms and shapes, and it managed to pull through (pun intended) all manner of imbalances. so it will still be here after humanity has finished cooking itself into a nice warm stew. not to be all gloom and doom about it, but i don’t really see a way in which we can escape this. politicians playing on the global scale have proven over and over again, from the Kyoto treaty onwards, that they are incapable of even publicly admitting that global warming is occurring, let alone do something about it. and let’s not even pretend that business and industry wants to do something about it.

so we have to take a deep breath, look in the mirror, and face the truth: we have already crossed the point of no return. our planet will get progressively warmer for the next 10 years (by that time the North pole will be ice-free), and afterwards the temperature rise will happen at an increasing speed. within the next century, humanity will have to find ways to survive in a world very different than the one we have today.

it sucks big time for our children, but i’m optimistic about humanity’s future survival prospects. for those able and willing, there are a lot of opportunities on the horizon to help society adapt to this new reality. if i were to start university today, i would focus on engineering+climate related topics. there is a whole new market opening up in the next 30-50 years for self-sufficient cities, closed loop system, artificial environment management and weather control. new developments and discoveries in these areas will create a completely artificial lifestyle, but it will at least insure our survival. and not to mention the biggest indirect benefit of these advances: space exploration!

i can already imagine a human being, one thousand years from now, reading in the history books the subtitle of the chapter about Global Warming: “the cataclysmic occurrence that triggered humanity’s colonization of the solar system”.

specialization is for insects

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 06:07:00 +0400

“The way to professional accomplishment is to demonstrate that you know how to do something unique, which you can repeat over and over and over and over again….until ultimately, you lose interest in it. The consequence of specialization and success is that it hurts you.

It hurts you because it basically doesn’t aid in your development.”

Milton Glaser – on the fear of failure

I’ve been struggling with this realization for years now, and it’s comforting to know there are world-renowned “specialists” (Milton Glaser is the graphic designer who came up with the I love NY logo) that are perfectly aware of the robotizing outcome in being the best at something.

Even though i recognize the need for specialization, and am not opposed to it by any means, my rational being cries out against the mind-numbing prospect of doing the same thing over and over again, for the rest of my life. Somehow it doesn’t seem natural that humans, as the pinnacle of evolution on Earth, should forcefully narrow their horizons for the sake of “efficiency”. Robert Anson Heinlein put it best in his famous quote: “Specialization is for insects”.

Doing mainly the things that you are passionate about, at that particular time in your life, and then changing what you do depending on how your overall desires and wants change….now that’s something i’m very much in favour of!

some (actually most) companies simply don't get it!

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 07:33:00 +0400

you know the famous “Hi i’m a Mac, and i’m a PC” video ad?

well, after my 6 months experience of switching to an Android-based phone, i feel that the word “PC” in the videos can be replaced at any time (and with a clean conscience) with the word “Android”.

for those of you who were following me back when the switch started, i got off quite excited.

i was just moving from two years spent on an already-aging iPhone 3G to a top-of-the-line, “iPhone 4-killer”, proud representative of the Android nation: the Nexus S.

just to make it clear from the start: the iPhone 3G was my first love. we were both young and crazy, and the stuff we did together is now the fabric of legends. but, as it always happens, my young blood wanted more, it wanted a “change”. so i broke it up with the iPhone, and got myself into a new relationship. and boy, what a ride we were going to have together!

first, it was the contact management. imagine my utter surprise when the Nexus told me that i needed to clean ALL of my Gmail contacts list if i wanted to have a “normal” address book. you know what that meant? hours upon hours spent cleaning out my almost 5-years-old contact list in Gmail. Gmail which, as i hope you are aware by now, creates a new contact for every person you have ever exchanged an email with. ok, i also admit a cleaning was in order, so i went along. it’s not like transitioning the address book from my Nokia 3310 to the iPhone, 3 years ago, was a piece of cake. some called it the “contact-tranfer-purgatory”, so i also gave Android some slack.

then came the battery life. even though i was using my iPhone quite a lot for apps, music and email, i never had any problems going a full day on a single charge. actually my average battery life was closer to 1day+1night.

so you can imagine my dread when, after a couple of weeks with my shiny Nexus S, i began to take the charger with me every day. i understand that there are people out there who are accustomed to doing this no matter what phone they have, but let’s get one thing straight: with average use, by an average user, a mobile phone, no matter what brand it is, should last at least 16 hours on a full charge. it is the least an educated consumer should expect from a piece of 400+ euro smartphone. i mean, this is why it’s called a “mobile” phone right?

then came the Android Marketplace. the best comparison i can make is going back to the first line of this post: imagine the difference between the look, feel and functionality of OSX versus that of Windows XP. for those of you who don’t get it, please sell your PC right now and change your life for the better in a Mac store :)

to be fair, there is quite a number of (crappy, buggy and unfiltered) apps available in Android’s marketplace, a sufficient enough choice of (cumbersome and “i-was-on-Apple-store-first”) solutions to your every day gaming and personal management needs, and a decent base of (“hired-after-the-iOS-guys”) developers working on the Android front. but it all seems like a bad joke compared to the breadth, depth and overall quality of Apple Store.

at this point, our relationship was getting sour. my Nexus did not like me anymore, and i for sure was beginning to drool after every sexy iPhone 4 i saw on the street.

and then fell the drop that filled the glass: i tried listening to music on my phone.

ever since the iPod was launched in November 2001, the world at large was shown, with proof beyond any reasonable doubt, the best way in which a proper music-listening experience should be done. and the secret was not rocket science: you create a piece of software that is fully compatible with the hardware, you implement it as the hub around the user’s multimedia experience, and you make sure that it transfers music to and from the hardware in a smooth and frictionless manner. simple right?

ten years went by, and the closest competitor of iOS cannot even synchronize my playlists!!!!!! i mean, WTF!

the sheer horror of having to work with an imbecilic, unintuitive, unintegrated, Windows-like interface in order to get my (neatly-arranged-in-iTunes) music to the phone was not even close to the heart-stopping realization that when you delete a playlist from the phone….something i might do a few times every month……. the playlist is gone, but all the individual songs are still there!!!! the only solution is to go in and delete…… manually……. each song that used to be in that playlist from the music/media folder on your Android phone. oooor, you can completely delete all your music, and start adding all the playlists again.

let me say it again: TEN YEARS HAVE PASSED.

by now, i guess it’s clear for you, my dear reader, that our man-to-phone marriage was about to end. even though i sincerely tried to make it work by holding on to our good moments (SwiftKey is by far the best on-screen keyboard experience i have ever had), my phone had become a subject of frustration and scorn, instead of pleasure and admiration. my mind and soul were yearning for the life i had before, for the times spent with my first love.

as such, with the birth of the 4s, i decided to bite the bullet and come back, hat-in-hand and bowed head, to my dearly beloved iPhone. i know it was not the “5” we were all expecting, but hey: i’m switching from 6 months spent in “gadget-hell”, carying “gadget-Satan” in my pocket all day long! so anything beginning with an “i” will make me happy.

before finishing the story, please let me make myself perfectly clear: Apple, iOS and the iPhone are so good in creating tools which simply work, are so experienced at generating a holistic, productive and immersive experiences, and so apt at making you feel pleasure when working with any of their products, that they are light years ahead of competition!

sure, Apple is not a perfect company, and there have -and will always be- times when they will drop the baton and release buggy software/hardware. but let’s face the harsh reality: if you think that is “bad and embarrasing”, then you can always go and buy yourself an Android, bootup your PC, and sync it via Windows.

now if you’ll excuse me, i just placed the Nexus S back in it’s box, and i feel the need to go and wash my hands.

one more iteration to Alexandru 2.0

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 03:09:00 +0400

there are some moments in your life when you KNOW that things will be different. most of the times this is only a feeling, other times it comes together with some sort of occurence. for me now it’s both. that’s why i got to calling 2011 the year of my transition towards Alexandru 2.0.

i know you are curious as to what does the “2.0” mean, and in due time you will find out. but for now, let’s just say that it’s something better than the current Alexandru (1.0).

what i can share though, is that a major part of this transition is the fact that i’m now titanium-free (applause). during the past few weeks i’ve been recovering from the surgery i had at the end of August to remove the tibial nail and the 4 screws inserted in my right leg in December 2009. i’m now at around 80% of capacity with the leg, and getting better by the day.

i want to thank my doctors for the very good treatment, and also pay my respects to the Austrian health system and to the professionalism of the AKH hospital in general. the whole one and a half years experience was excellent, and many ligh years away from what i could have expected back home in Romania.

on a more technical note, as you can see from the new design, i changed my blog from WP to Posterous. this what was one of the smoothest and fastest (30min) blogging transition i’ve ever done. the reason for the change is that WP, even though it is by far the best CMS platform, became very tiring for me to manage and the constant tinkering kinda took away the pleasure in blogging. hopefully Posterous, with it’s very simplified and mobile-friendly platform, will be conducive to me posting more often.

selling my Leica Digilux 2 camera

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 12:22:00 +0400

update 29th of April: this beauty is now SOLD to another Romanian Leica fan.

those of you passionate about rangefinders and street photography will surely be able to appreciate this offer. praise, description of capabilities and an explanation as to why this is considered one of the best and most afordable “digitals” Leica ever manufactured, can be found here, here, here and here.

Info about the camera

Model: Leica Digilux 2
It’s one of the “new” serial numbers, not prone to the sensor replacement issue seen in earlier production batches
Well used and in very good condition
I am it’s second owner; bought it on eBay from a person in the UK who has barely used it, at the end of last year.
Shutter action: there is no in-camera counter, but I estimate aprox. 5.000 shots (previous owner+myself)
ISO: 100 to 400
Lens: 28-90mm, f.2 (one of the best zoom lenses ever produced by Leica)

What am I selling?

Camera + ”upgraded” strap (has an anti-scratch pad, not present in earlier production models)
Normal lens cover + lens hood + lens hood cover
Leather Leica bag specially designed for the camera
2 batteries (for those long street shooting sessions)
battery charger (it has a UK plug, so you might need a universal adaptor)
2 SD memory cards of 2GB each (the camera can only take a max. 2 GB SD card)
cable for computer connection

Why am I selling it?

Just bought another rangefinder which became my main camera. As such, the Digilux 2 will not receive anymore the love, care and passion which it rightfully deserves. And because, as a matter of principle, no Leica should ever sit on a shelf, unused :)

What can you do with it?

Just to give you a feeling for this camera and it’s superb lens, here are recent shots from my portfolio.

And here she is, in all her splendor: THE Leica Digilux 2

selling my triathlon bike + all other cycling gear

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 13:10:00 +0400

update 21st of June 2011: all the gear was SOLD to a fellow Romanian triathlete.

as my priorities for the next period have changed, i decided to sell most of my triathlon gear. i’m selling a complete bike + all other things you need to start training immediately (assuming that your foot is size 41) for any tri distance. for a beginner/serious amateur this is a very good offer and one i wished i had when i started.

the price for the total package is 1.650 EUR. please keep in mind though that there is no delivery (you have to pick everything up yourself from my place in Vienna, Austria).

Merida Warp 5 (size 53 cm) - 1.100 EUR

bought it at the end of 2009. first ride outside in May 2009, currently has less than 1.000 km.

9.8 kg total bike weight
Colour: Black/white
Frame: Triathlon-Smooth (all aluminium)
Fork: Carbon Aero
BB set: FSA Mega Exave
Brake levers: FSA Vision BL-RO-150
Brakes: FSA Vision BR-RO-6020 Road
Rear derailleur: Shimano Ultegra
Front derailleur: Shimano Ultegra
Shifters: Shimano BS-78
Chain: Shimano CN-5600
Chainset: FSA Gossamer Triathlon 53-42 Mega
Freewheel: Shimano CS-5600 12-25
Tri bars extensions: FSA Vision HB-RO-A400-OE-26
Handlebar: FSA Vision HB-RO-B250-OE
Bar tape: Merida White
Stem: XM Comp CEN
Headset: BB410 Neck
Pedals: No Wheels: DT Swiss R1900 Wheel set
Tyres: Vittoria Rubino 23 60 WHT/BLK/WHT
Saddle: Selle Italia NT1 Gel
Seat clamp: AERO Allen
Seatpost: Warp Aero Wing

On-the-bike accessories - included for free

under the saddle small tool bag (CO2 canister + pump + multi function bike tool + spare tyre camera)
water bottle + carbon support
aero tri water bottle + support
top-of the frame Ironman pouch with water-proof cover (for gels, bars, ID, mobile phone, keys, etc.)

Floor bike pump - included for free

Kooby Tri Saddle - 40 EUR

imported from the US in November 2009
already mounted on the bike
one of the best and most comfortable saddles for long distance training

Suunto Cadence Pod and Suunto Road Bike Pod - 75 EUR

already mounted on the bike
top spec. skewer made by Mavic
ANT technology, works with Suunto HRM’s and might work with others as well (not exactly sure of this)

Shimano Ultegra Racing Pedals - PD-6620 - 45 EUR

already mounted on the bike

Sidi Zeta cycling shoes, size 41 - 50 EUR

with the Shimano cleats for the Ultegra pedals already mounted

Giro Atmos racing helmet, size M - 100 EUR

the best “non-alien looking” racing helmet (256 grams)
2008 model

CycleOps Indoor Trainer + Carpet + Front Wheel Climbing Block - 200 EUR

the carpet provides vibration dampening and also protects your floor from sweat
the climbing block raises the front wheel at the same level with the trainer, and optionally higher as well

Kryptonite New York Fahgettaboutit bicycle chain - 40 EUR

the best bike chain in the world in terms of resistance to cutting
weighs 5kg

the complete set of photos can be found here.

the land of promise

Sun, 13 Mar 2011 04:39:00 +0400

some time ago, one of the wisest persons i ever met gave me Atlas Shrugged. the sense of belonging, the complete understanding and agreement with what Ayn Rand instilled in that book, constituted one of the most beautiful and immersing literary experiences i ever had. and the few weeks i spent reading it were so illuminating and inspirational that i ended up shaping a clear vision for my life as a result.

but ever since, i felt that somehow i’m missing something, that the whole experience was not over yet. the circle was still open.

fast forward four years, and now on the other side of the world. as i’m walking the streets of Chicago, the warmest feeling of purpose and determination explodes from within. and i instantly know it. my journey of understanding “Ayn Rand” is now complete.

and with it, a newfound respect for the land of the free. setting aside all prejudice, stereotyping and politics, the level of human achievement that America has helped create is simply amazing. maybe it’s just me, or maybe it’s because of Ayn Rand, but the few days i spent in the US of A have been amongst the most inspiring in my life.

dwarfed by the immenseness of the skyscrapers towering above, a single though kept coming back: our potential as a civilization truly is endless!

technology, changing our lives. right now.

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 16:51:00 +0400

as an “Internet child”, i very rarely have moments when i sit and marvel at how much better my life is made by technology. somehow for me it seems natural. but there are some of these moments, when the naturalness of it is so striking that i take notice.

this evening, i had one of those.

as i was sitting in bed, reading a book on my Kindle (on which i can now store no less than 3,500 of them), i wanted to know what a word means.

one click, a bit of scrolling, and the explanation from the Oxford Dictionary was nicely overlaid at the top of the page.

but then i wanted to know more about that word, so with another click i was on Wikipedia reading an extensive etymological explanation.

sitting back in amazement, i took a moment to let it sink in: in 4 clicks, without moving an inch from where i was sitting, i expanded my knowledge horizon two fold.

THAT is amazing!

so yes, technology does change my life, yours and everybody else’s as well.

it’s one of the single most important contributors to humanity’s constantly accelerated rate of development.

what was your most recent moment of marvel regarding technology?

———————————————————————————————————————-

as a side note, even though it’s been said innumerable times, it bears repeating: to bridge the inequality between the have and the have nots, we need to make these life-changing technologies universally affordable!

if you want new proof, just look at Egypt to better understand the beneficial effects of simple, user-shared information diffusion tools (Internet, Twitter, FB) on a society’s struggle for betterment. and take a good look, because it’s among the first of it’s kind: a digital-age revolution!

a year that changed my life

Fri, 24 Dec 2010 18:48:00 +0400

looking back through time has something special to it.
it’s the moment when you rationalize decisions that were not based on reason, when it all makes sense and the dots are connected. the time when we all delude ourselves that there must be a meaning to it all.

also, some of the nicest stories in our civilization are told by looking back in time. it’s in our human nature to do it.

so, here goes my story.

(you might want to grab drinks, popcorn and some tissues).

it’s the 24th of December 2009 and i am alone in a hospital bed.

i have been here for the last five days, after breaking my right leg while skiing like an idiot. and yesterday i had to make a decision that will affect the rest of my life.

because both of the breaks in my tibia and fibula are done in a clean way, there are two options for treating the facture:

number one- the doctors can put my right leg in a cast, which i am supposed to keep for the next eight to twelve weeks. it means that by the time my leg will be out, it would have lost virtually all of its muscle. i would need to re-learn how to walk, and it will take at least six months until my leg will be normal again. the risk of having a cast is that the fracture might not heal properly.

number two- they will perform surgery on my leg, inserting a thirty four centimeters long titanium rod in my tibia, which will be fixed in place by four screws: two close to the ankle and two close to the knee. i will be able to put pressure on the leg immediately after surgery , and there will be no need for a cast. the only small detail is that they will have to take the whole thing out in the next 2 years. the risks are multiple, some of which associated with having surgery and general anesthesia. and i will also need a passport for my leg when going through airport scanners.

and did i mention that all of this happens in Vienna, Austria, in a hospital where almost no one speaks proper English and where my German skills are close to zero?

all i had to do was take a simple decision.

so, in a characteristic manner for me, i started categorizing: the easy way and the hard way.

the easy way involved no surgery and meant that i will not be able to function properly for the next year. at the same time, it meant that the leg might not heal properly, that they may have to break it again, or i might end up with a “defect” leg for the rest of my life.

the hard way involved staying more days in the hospital while having doctors use drilling machines, screw drivers and hammers on my leg. it meant that i will take the risk of having general aneshesia performed on me (never did it before), infection after surgery as well as the possibility of my body rejecting the implant. also, i will need to come back again and have the same thing done all over again in 2 years. but, the chances of proper healing of the bone will be the highest, as well as keeping almost full mobility right after surgery.

so what to do? everyone close to me was afraid to have any opinion (not that i would have taken anyone’s advice anyways- i tend to be fiercely independent). only my mother offered her point of view.

as i was staying in bed that night, lots of questions came about: “which option seems to be the easiest?”, “which one am i most afraid of?”, “which one feels right?”, “how fast will i be able to start training for triathlon again?”, “what if this kills me?”, “i need to take a piss, when will the nurse be back with my plastic bottle?”

it’s now 5th of January 2010.

i am unable to get myself a glass of water, and even going to the toiled is an adventure. and to top it all up, my fiancee chose not to be with me for my birthday.

the saying “laugh, and the whole world laughs with you. cry, and you cry alone” rings true in my head.

i decide to use the weeks that i’ll spend mostly in bed for something productive: creating the website for Win the Planet.

19th of January.

still in crutches, i just came back from a check-up at the hospital. it seems that the bone is healing up well.

i have a strange feeling of hate and envy for the people on the streets that can walk normally, ignorant of the value of having two healthy legs.

February is here, and time to give the crutches back.

as i leave the hospital, limping on my own legs, life seems different. and how different it’s going to be.

at a personal level, this month is the time when some things are ending for me. together with the person who was supposed to be my wife, we decide to end a four years relationship and break our engagement.

entrepreneurially, things are looking very good. Win the Planet is officially launched, with a very nice looking website and a press release.

i also need to go back to the office and start churning again useless excel reports.

March is when i officially start training again.

well, training is a big word for walking 10k in more than 2 hours, but it’s a start. and i decide to train as hard as my leg allows.

my recovery rate throughout the month is impressive, ending it with the first real run of the year: 4km at 8min/km.

another small point to mention: i take the crazy decision to run, by the end of the year,120km in less than 15 hours.

this is also the month of the media appearances for me, as i get a first page cover article on hotnews.ro about Win the Planet.

it’s now the end of April, and the doctors take my leg’s final X-ray for the year.

they tell me the fracture looks very good, that i can keep training and that the next exam will be in January 2011.

i listen to them talk and cannot imagine in what state my leg will be then, considering that i am still limping slightly.

May is the month when training really takes off, with my first bike ride outside the house as well as constant and increasingly longer and faster runs.

it’s also when i buy the domain aragalie.com, a place where all raving fans can come and bask in my glory.

June and July are fully dedicated to training and a lot of “first” for the year: first 32km run, first 10k under 1 hour, first barefoot run. i also got to participate in the support team at Ironman Austria 2010, which proved to be a very good motivator.

August is a very busy and rewarding month.

endurance wise, i achieve my longest sustained effort ever: running continuously for 6 hours.

motivated by this feat and by the 3 days spent with a friend training in our self-organized triathlon training camp, i push confidently for the next milestone: running for 60km in less than 10hours.

that proved to be the perfect occasion to receive a humbling lesson from my leg.

from the athletic point of view, September was the year’s high, culminating with my first ever marathon.

but it also was the time when things started going downhill.

after so many months of hard training, i guess i slowly began to feel the buildup of mental fatigue. even though physically i was fine, as the weeks went on i started feeling less and less motivated to run.

maybe it was due to the constant running in the 2 and 3 hours zone or maybe it was from the realization of the fact that i will not be able to run the 120km as i initially thought.

no matter the reason, looking back, i can now identify the finish of that marathon as being both the best and the worst moment of my athletic 2010.

October, November and December have been great months for some aspects of my life and increasingly worst for others.

i started cultivating more and more my passion for photography, as well as getting an even bigger appreciation of the architectural beauty of Vienna.

entrepreneurially, it has been a very challenging end of the year due to the process of distilling my vision for Win the Planet, implementing fundamental shifts in the business concept and reacting to changes in the team structure.

and by dedicating so much effort to Win the Planet, i was training less and less. December was the third month (after Jan and Feb) in 2010 when i did not train at all. i simply did not feel like allocating the same amount of time as i did in the previous months to the athletic side.

another aspect of my life which got less and less attention was the job. i got increasingly disappointed with my work as Financial Analyst for a big corporation and i got to realize that being in the back office is not for me. for that matter, being a small and insignificant cog in the workings of a huge corporate machine is as well not something that i feel comfortable with.

as such, i started having waking nightmares about me working in a warm and cozy job, uselessly clicking the mouse all day, waiting for the paycheck and always complaining about the company and the boss, all this while life slowly drips away and you realize that you did nothing of value, that you lived your time on this planet without any purpose, mindlessly consuming without producing anything in return……aaarrrgghgghghghg.

the good thing is that this helped me accept once and for all that i’m at my best in small teams of individuals determined the change the world.

in a word: entrepreneurship.

it is now the 24th of December 2010 and i’m alone in my apartment.

a year has passed since the even that changed my life.

a year in which i got to be stronger, more determined, more positive and more focused.

a year in which i got to be less extreme with myself and people around me, less willing to compromise and less patient with mediocrity.

a year in which i took important decisions, in which i won a lot and lost a lot.

2010 was the year when i consciously and purposely started walking my own path.

my deepest gratitude to all of you who supported and kept close to me during this year.

i know i’ve been a pain in the ass, but hey, all great people are! (modesty is one of my strong points).

enjoy the holidays and take care of your legs.

self-interested philanthropy

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 20:09:00 +0400

The vision is quite simple, and it will revolutionize the way society helps the less favored.

We believe that people living in the developed world, in today’s consumerist society, need a stronger incentive than the soft-sided “because it feels good” in order to give constantly.

We believe they need to have a self-interested motivation, a pragmatic and measurable benefit.

We believe they need to stand the chance to win something valuable in return for their constant giving.

This is what self-interested philanthropy is all about.
Helping others, while having something objective, material and valuable to gain for yourself.

Join me in bringing this dream to life, and the world will never be the same again.

the only constant in life is change

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 20:39:00 +0400

new opportunities, new plans, new beginnings.

change…..even if you do not realize it, it is the only thing that makes the passing of time bearable.

it’s one of the many wonders of life, and the main reason why you wouldn’t want to be immortal.

so, keep close.

exciting times are ahead.

first night out in town

Sun, 03 Oct 2010 22:06:00 +0400

this evening i had my first street date.

me and the lovely Canon EOS 400D with it’s fabulous 50mm f1.4 prime lens went out in the 1st district of Vienna and tried our hand at street photography.

as it was the first time i am doing this, i had no expectations. thus i was very happy when, after 2 hours and 577 shots, some decent images emerged (full album here).

it was a very educative session as i am beginning to understand the limitations of the camera and also why “proper” street photography is done with small and silent rangefinders instead of big heavy noisy dSLR’s.

even though i started with a bit of apprehension, pretty soon i was getting more comfortable being in people’s faces with the camera. so comfortable in fact that i almost got in trouble (after taking the photo of the Husky dog, which belonged to a typical bunch of Viennese drunken loiters). thankfully we were in a crowded public place and nothing happened.

as i am a beginner in this type of photography, i guess the lessons i am learning are “classics”, so if any of you have more practical experience, please share it with me in the comments.

auto-focus is not a very good idea with close subjects (dogs, shooting from the hip, etc.), especially if you have a big slow lens
having a loud shutter sound does not help very much in not being noticed
bright clothes attract attention (i had a flashy blue jacket), and you might want to avoid this
smiling at owners before photographing their dogs helps a lot in getting their cooperation
at night, shooting in automatic mode (aperture priority in my case) offers mixed results due to the differences in light intensity between subjects and lit backgrounds
shooting from the hip, or any other way besides putting the camera to the eye, requires a very (and i mean very) good feel for the framelines of the lens
the bigger the lens, the more people notice you and shy away (the 50mm is a good compromise)
next time i should take a small bottle of water with me and also make sure i pee before leaving the house

i leave you with a very interesting documentary about street photography (which also features a viennese photographer named Severin Koller).

Street Photography: Documenting the Human Condition - Part One

Street Photography: Documenting the Human Condition - Part Two

Street Photography: Documenting the Human Condition - Part Three