Techneur

Steve Jobs Biography: Insanely Great

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 03:59:00 -0600

My cobbled notes on the Steve Jobs biography…

First, one of my favorite quotes that makes my hair stand up:

The people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones who do.

This book has a few recurring themes:

Steve Jobs is a dick and seems to be able to exploit others into doing what he wills. This is both good and bad.
Steve Jobs has a reality distortion field; see #1.
Steve Jobs is meticulous about the design of just about anything.

My notes will focus more on Steve Jobs the entrepreneur.

The book establishes early on that Steve Jobs has a disdain for authority. After reading this and some of the anecdotes regarding his family history, I felt as if Isaacson wrote part of the book for me. It spoke to me personally. Perhaps, that means it was well written? Forget the haters.

A quote about religion that resonated with me:

The juice goes out of Christianity when it becomes too based on faith rather than on living like Jesus or seeing the world as Jesus saw it. I think different religions are different doors to the same house. Sometimes, I think the house exists, and sometimes I don’t. It’s a great mystery.

I enjoyed the early tales of Jobs seeking enlightenment and prajna - much like my journey.

Coming back to America was, for me, much more of a cultural shock than going to India. The people in the Indian countryside don’t use their intellect like we do, they use their intuition instad, and their intuition is far more developed than in the rest of the world. Intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect.

Think about that statement for a moment; think about how it relates to products. Of course their are biases, but I think that it could be said that making a product intuitive or one that appeals to intuition far outweighs those that appeal to the intellect. People are not rational, and have different levels of intellect. Products that appeal to intellect aren’t necessarily bad, see: Vim. They are just niche products. When a person wants to have an impact upon the world, like Jobs, this must be considered.

My vision was to create the first fully packaged computer. We were no longer aiming for the handful of hobbyists who liked to assemble their own computers, who knew how to buy transformers and keyboards. For every one of them, there were a thousand people who would want the machine to be ready to run.

Markkula (original investor in Apple) wrote a one page paper: “The Apple Marketing Philosphy”:

Empathy. An intimate connection with the feelings of the customer. We will truly understand the needs of the customer better than any other company.
Focus. In order to do a good job of those things that we decide to do, we must eliminate all of the unimportant opportunities.
Impute. People form an opinion of a company by the signals that it conveys. People do judge a book by it’s cover.

Often attributed to Leonardo da Vinci: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” This became one of the maxim’s for Jobs’s design philosophy.

The Apple II, Lisa, Xerox PARC, and Macintosh stories set the stage for Job’s core beliefs on products:

Design leads engineering. That is to say, the design dictates everything. Engineering must find a way to make it work with the design. Most companies are backwards in this regard.
Simple products are easier to use.
Customers don’t know what they want, Apple must show them.
For the best product experience, Apple must own it end-to-end. Hardware and software in contrast to the PC environment where Microsoft just owns the operating system.

On competition…

Steve had a way of motivating by looking at the bigger picture. Jobs thought of himself as an artist and he encourage others to think this way too. His goal was never to make a lot of money or to be competition, it was to do the greatest thing possible or even a little greater.

Does it feel to you like companies get competition all wrong? They are so focused on what their competition is doing, instead of just being the best at what they can be. Companies lose focus by doing this.

The book doesn’t conclude this, but I wonder if part of the reason he did this was to instill cultural pride in his employees. If they feel they must focus on these details, then they’ll ingrain this philosophy in their heads day in and day out. Thus, being a bit more meticulous about their crafts.

On employees…

I learned over the years that A-plus players like to work together, and they don’t like it if you tolerate B work.

So true.

Jobs had incessant demands for perfectionism in things that most people won’t care about. Two examples:

The inside of the cases and how Jobs wanted them to look neat and clean.
The way his factories look and how he detailed he wanted machinery to look and operate. Even positioning.

Rebel Spirit…

It’s better to be a pirate than to join the navy.

Market Research when asked about launching the Mac…

Did Alexander Graham Bell do any market research when inventing the telephone?

On Focus…

Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what do to. That’s true for companies, and it’s true for products.

On Design…

Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I felt as if I was taking a tour of the mind of Steve Jobs and what made him tick.

Now, imagine what a person could do if they could lead in a more humble manner, giving their employees credit, not stealing the spotlight, but not being afraid of calling people out on their bullshit and pushing them to their limits? Imagine if this person had a rebellious attitude and a disdain for authority. What if this person had an overwhelming desire to be honest, even at his own expense? Imagine if this person had a love of simplicity and art. Imagine that this person is driven with a passion to deliver maximum impact on improving people’s lives. Could this person change the world? We’ll see.

-JP

Steve Jobs 1955-2011: Sharing His Message

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 09:35:00 -0500

I pulled into the driveway after I had just picked up my son Chris from CCD. I told him that Steve Jobs had died. “Who is that?” he said. I was a bit surprised that he didn’t know who he was; other than Jesus, Steve Jobs has been one the most influential persons in my life. [Yes, I may have subtly compared Steve Jobs to Jesus :p]. I wanted to share a few of his quotes with Chris.

The first are from his Stanford commencement speech:

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

…

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

This is an important thought to keep in mind as much as possible. We will all die. When faced with death, we forget the minutia of life but remember what is important. This should be done daily.

As I tucked Chris into bed, I said to him:

Those who are crazy enough to believe that they can change the world are the ones that actually do.

This quote came from an old Steve Jobs presentation.

Much has been said about how we probably heard the news about Steve Jobs’s death via his products. But consider this, Steve has given us wonderful products, wonderful products that we use to improve our lives. Now, what will you do with these products to make a difference in the lives of others and to maybe even change the world?

If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy:

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-JP

Do or Do Not; There Is No Try

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 11:25:49 -0500

Do you remember that seen in Star Wars where Master Yoda is training Luke to become a Jedi? Luke doesn’t believe in himself and he claims that he is trying.

Yoda then says “Do or do not; there is no try.”

Do you want to quit smoking?

Do you want to live a healthy lifestyle?

Do you want to be a successful entrepreneur?

There is no try.

The word ‘try’ is an excuse. You cannot 'try’ to quit smoking. You cannot try to become a successful entrepreneur. You know what you need to do. You need to make the conscious decision and effort to do it.

To be a successful entrepreneur is as simple as this:

Identify a problem.
Build a solution to solve that problem.
Charge money for it.

I realize that this is a bit of an oversimplification. But, there is no 'try’. You should just remove that word from your vocabulary.

Do or do not. There is no try.

-JP

We Should...

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 09:45:00 -0500

How often do you run into someone that you use to be close friends and you have a dialogue that is similar to this:

You: How have you been?

Them: Good! Good… how have you been?

You: Oh, good… so what’s new?

Them: Oh you know… same old… we should get together sometime for lunch or something.

You: Ya, let’s do.

Them: OK, well it was nice seeing you…

You: You too… take care.

How do you feel after a conversation like this? Do you feel like you have renewed your connection with this person? It seems to me that a lot of conversations like this take place solely because it might be considered socially rude to not acknowledge the person. Maybe the intent of the statement “we should get together” is sincere?

A lot of people in my life have thrown out “we should” statements, but with no firm date set. “Hey man… it was great meeting you at that conference, we should Skype sometime” or “Hey, we should get some cocktails sometime.” I’m sure they happen all of the time in your life as well. Maybe you say them a lot?

Recently, I ran into an old colleague at the gym. We had a bit of small chit-chat and I threw out the “we should get some lunch” line, I was even being sincere about it. A few weeks passed. Shit, no lunch. One day, I sent him an email and said “want to do lunch?” He couldn’t, and replied that he was busy for awhile. Not a big deal.

The important take away is this: it’s really important to consider your interactions with others. If you catch yourself saying the “we should” lines, ask yourself if you’re being sincere. If you are, set a date at that moment… if it doesn’t work that’s OK too. When it really comes down to it, if you really care to meet someone, you’ll make it a priority. They’ll do the same for you. If the meeting doesn’t happen, you should probably just accept that this person isn’t a priority to you or you might not be a priority to them. That’s OK too.

If you’re not sincere about meeting this person, please don’t throw out a “we should” line. You’ll save everyone, including yourself, a bit of guilt about the meeting not happening.

What are your thoughts?

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-JP

Forget the Shiny Tech, Focus on the Customer Experience

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 11:45:00 -0500

I’m always amazed when I discover a new piece of technology or software. Usually, thousands of business ideas start pouring into my head on how I can build a cool product. Most recently, the thought of Twilio, Mailgun, and Sendgrid came to mind.

An internal dialogue raged on in my mind:

“SMS and email are some of the most ubiquitous communication tools, not to mention very pervasive.”

"What could I build quickly to monetize and spread virally?“

"Focus, you fool…”

“You’re in the process of selling one company and you just started another. Plus, no one really cares about how you’re using cool tech.”

And then I dropped the thought.

This has happened to me time and time again. In fact, that’s how Reflect7 was founded. I knew the iPhone would be hot. I knew that consumers would purchase them by the ton. I just didn’t know what apps to develop for it yet. Eventually we settled on sports’ apps, but we didn’t consider the customer experience until the end.

I finally had this realization of all of this when I stumbled upon this video:

It was Steve Jobs who made it crystal clear as to what I had done. I was thinking a lot about the technology and how I could sell that, rather than consider customer problems and how I could build products that delivered a superb experience. This is what Gitpilot will do.

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-JP

Big Success Requires Accomplishing Small Goals

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 09:01:00 -0500

I often fall victim to this. I’m very ambitious; typically I have many projects and goals running concurrently. It’s important to remember that you must break down your goals into smaller goals.

Want to run a marathon? Start by running 1 mile, and then 2 miles, etc.
Want to make a 1 million dollars? Learn how to make 1000 dollars first.
Want to write a book? Use Scrivener to write one paragraph a day.
Want to write an autobiography? Write one blog post every day.

It sounds so easy, but yet it’s tough to do this. Lately, I’ve been using the todo iPhone app Do It (Tomorrow) to break up my goals into actionable tasks each day. So far, it’s worked out great.

How do you accomplish your big goals? Do you use any specific tools?

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-JP

Sometimes It Doesn't Matter What the Contract States

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 13:20:00 -0500

Disclaimer: at this time, I can’t write about the details behind the blog post. I will however in the near future.

Recently, I entered into a negotiation to exchange some software for cash. That is, I would develop some software and in return, the prospect would give me cash. Pretty straightforward.

The prospect read over the detailed contract and enthusiastically signed it. A video of the software working was sent. Positive feedback was received. The first wire transfer came. All was well.

When the software was delivered, the prospect was disappointed. They stated that a few things were missing that they didn’t expect to be missing. Despite the fact that the video showed that these features were missing and the contract detailed what was included in the software deliverable, they were still disappointed. It was clear that their perspective and feelings weren’t malevolent.

I feel as if I’m left with two choices:

Acquiesce and change the software to meet their expectations.
Adhere to the contract.

Both sides have advantages and disadvantages. However, you need to do what you think is right considering all circumstances. This could be either #1 or #2.

Think about what you put into your contracts. Do you need to explicitly point out anything while you’re meeting with your prospects? How can you make your contracts crystal clear? What could be misinterpreted?

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-JP

Saddened by Steve's Departure

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 09:20:17 -0500

Who would have expected that many would be saddened by a CEO’s departure from a company? I wouldn’t. But on many of the net forums, people are expressing a bit of melancholy. I feel the same.

It’s not because Steve is some big, bad, powerful man [he is]… no, it’s because Steve took Apple from the brink of bankruptcy to briefly being the most valuable company in the world (currently the 2nd behind Exxon Mobile). He did this all while giving us products that we as consumers love.

You see, Apple represented what we love about a good story. Apple was David the underdog. Microsoft was the evil goliath that could not be defeated. Apple innovated. They help to revolutionize the music industry, the computer industry, and the smartphone. I hope that they are just getting started.

As an entrepreneur, Steve Jobs represents exactly what an entrepreneur should be. One who is focused on the present while simultaneously holding a vision. One who cares about simplicity and not just producing another “me-to” product. One who wants to change lives.

I truly believe that history will remember him as this century’s Henry Ford. Or better yet, he has set a new standard, one that I’ll always be inspired from.

Farewell.

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-JP

What the Restaurant Industry Can Teach Us About Business: Customer Expectations

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 09:05:00 -0500

A colleague of mine dropped by my office to share his wonderful dining experience at the Bonefish Grill restaurant. This colleague and I like to banter about our dining experiences; we use to agree that the Bonefish Grill was one of the best dining experiences. I should be clear, I’ve never had a bad dining experience at the Bonefish Grill. It’s just been inconsistent.

The first time that I went to the Bonefish Grill, I walked into to the restaurant with my wife and I could smell the aroma of fresh seafood. The entry area, where the bar resides, was dimly lit like that of a college bar. It was packed with people like a college bar too, albeit not in a manner liked you’d expect; it was comfortable. Conversation was everywhere, not too loud, not too quiet. Perfect. The night was ripe for an excellent date.

My wife and I were lucky enough to score some seats at the bar while we waited for a table. The bar tender promptly took our order for drinks. Two small TVs were in the bar area. Just enough to check the score of the game, but not enough to distract a table from intimate conversation. The bar tender brought over a shrimp appetizer, Bang Bang Shrip, courtesy of the house. “We call this: making friends” he said. Very rarely does a restaurant give away food to patrons without reason. They set themselves up well. Even better, the shrimp was delicious.

Finally our pager buzzed and we were able to get a seat. The attentive server took our order as if we were her only concern, almost like a private butler. It was amazing. We topped the night off with a dessert.

I walked out of the Bonefish Grill feeling that I had one of the best dining experiences ever. At least, the best in Nebraska.

The restaurant had just become my favorite restaurant. I was now their evangelist. Almost like a Jesus spreading the gospel, but not about eternal life, but the gospel of the freshest and most delicious seafood the Midwest would ever see.

The second and third time that I went there. The experience was just average. It wasn’t bad, just average. Slow staff. Messed up sides, etc. I expect this sort of stuff to happen at Applebee’s, not my beloved Bonefish.

The restaurant became just another restaurant to me.

As I was writing this, I’m reminded of when I use to work as a cook at the local restaurant Lazlos 12 years ago. When I was packing up an order, I put an extra serving of french fries for a to-go order. The owner Jay Jarvis saw this. “What are you doing?” he said. “I wanted to put a smile on their face.” I enthusiastically replied. He then told me that I had put too much fries in the order; I was just thinking that he was being a cheap owner. He then went on to say that the next cook might not put in as much for that same customer. The customer will feel let down. What matters is “consistency”, he said. That was my first real lesson in consistency and customer expectations.

So many restaurants struggle with this. Maybe they don’t train their staff enough to think about providing a consistent experience?

I didn’t write this article to complain about restaurant inconsistencies, but rather to get you to think about the experience you’re delivering to your customers. How can you be more consistent? What tools and processes can you implement to improve this?

But don’t forget about the paradox of expectations:

Better than expected might be the level of quality that’s necessary to succeed. Of course, once that becomes the standard, the expectation is reset. - Seth Godin

Seth also writes:

Have you noticed how upbeat the ads for airlines and banks are?

Judging from the billboards and the newspaper ads, you might be led to believe that Delta is actually a better airline, one that cares. Or that your bank has flexible people eager to bend the rules to help you succeed.

At one level, this is good advertising, because it tells a story that resonates. We want Delta to be the airline it says it is, and so we give them a try.

The problem is this: ads like this actually decrease user satisfaction. If the ad leads to expect one thing and we don’t get it, we’re more disappointed than if we had gone in with no real expectations at all. Why this matters: if word of mouth is the real advertising, then what you’ve done is use old-school ad techniques to actually undercut any chance you have to generate new-school results.

So much better to invest that same money in delighting and embracing the customers you already have.

Think about this. Be consistent.

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-JP

What Does Your App Do Again?

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 12:03:00 -0500

Dear Fellow Entrepreneurs:

When sending out a launching announcement, please include a blurb to remind your mailing list users what your app does again and why we signed up in the first place. This would really help us to remember in our busy lives how your app can help get your users laid.

Your friend,

Seriously though, this happens a lot. Most recently, this happend when Bushido sent me such a welcome invite. I had no clue what Bushido was as I had probably signed up months ago. Fortunately, this opened up for a nice dialogue with the founder who agreed with the point.

Some get it right though. BufferApp’s founder Joel Gascoigne did this when he validated his app. Joel writes:

What I did with Buffer is treat the emails as people who were happy for me to get in touch and discuss the idea with and whether it solved a problem for them. As soon as someone put their email in the “you caught us early” page, I sent out an email which was from my own email address and shared more details about the product which weren’t on the landing page. It also ended with a very welcoming paragraph explaining that I needed their help to shape the product into something truly useful. This triggered off a lot of communication and let me ask people what a fair price would be for example so I could decide on my pricing, and also decide on the priority of some features. In my previous startup I did the right thing of launching early but I made the mistake of having around 6000 users and never asking any of them what they thought about the product and whether it solved a problem for them.

So, attach a blurb in your launch email. Even better, tell your potential users how this app improves their life. I know that I’ll remember this point when we launch Gitpilot.

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-JP

You're Only as Good As Your Word

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 09:30:00 -0500

I say this to my son a lot…

Son, a man is only as good as his word.

One of my favorite bloggers is Sebastian Marshall. He writes a lot about self improvement and entrepreneurship. When you read his writings, you feel a sense of integrity from Sebastian. That’s why when I read one of his recent posts Let’s Be Honest About Lying, Shall We?, I felt a bit let down.

Sebastian writes:

A couple days ago, I told a Nigerian engineer to “Work online. Use freelancing sites. Lie about the country you’re in. […] There’s a big stigma against Nigeria. That’s just reality, and you need to deal with it.”

…

Most people don’t own up to the fact that they lie, yet almost everyone does so. A lot, actually.

I think that he’s right on his assertion that a lot of people lie. In my own anecdotal experience, I’ve found that most people lie and find white lies acceptable. Because most people do this, does that make it acceptable? [I realize that Sebastian is not arguing this point. I wanted YOU to think about it though.]

Sebastian goes on to point to study that finds that a lot of people lie, and that these lies aren’t evil vicious lies, but pro-social lies.

Sebastian then quotes a comment by Nostradeamons on Hacker News that’s worth posting the whole comment:

Common sense is nothing more or less than tacit knowledge that you learn implicitly through observing your peers within a culture. If there’s nobody in your peer group with that knowledge, that sense won’t be very common.

Here’s an example from the startup world. Imagine that you have this great idea and you’re desperate for funding. You’re approached by a key investor, and they ask you “Is anybody else interested in your startup? Have you been talking to other investors?” Nobody else has expressed interest, and you haven’t been talking to any other investors. How do you respond?

If you spend any amount of time with successful entrepreneurs, the answer is common sense: you lie and say “Oh yes, we’re talking to a bunch of people and everyone’s pretty excited.” This is the answer the investor expects you to give: it shows that you know how to drum up interest in your product from nothing, and if you can’t do that with him, you probably can’t do it with anyone and you’ve just disqualified yourself in his eyes.

But if you grew up with a typical middle-class upbringing, this advice will seem very strange, even evil. Because you’re lying. And more than that, you’re lying to a powerful person about a business deal that directly concerns him. What would your mother think?

It’s even more complicated because there’re specific, unwritten rules about what you can lie about, and nobody ever explains this. If a journalist asks you “Are you working on X?” and you are, you’re perfectly within your rights to lie and flat out say “No.” If you lie about how interested people are in your product, that’s fine, and people even expect that. But if you fudge the numbers in a due diligence audit, you’re guilty of securities fraud and can go to jail for that. It’s an awfully fine tight-rope with no clear guidebook.

Sebastian then writes in regard to the commentary:

Indeed. Pro-social lies (niceties, tact, spreading the credit around, highlighting people’s good points) are not just tolerated, but mandated by society. There’s also a class of lies, especially during adversarial situations, that you’re expected to make. When I’m in a city for only one day, I sure as hell don’t say that to someone selling me something. If they ask if I’m a tourist, I’ll often say “No” or “No, I work here” or “I used to live here” – even if it’s a bit of a stretch (see? I say “even if it’s a bit of a stretch,” not “even if it’s a lie” – nobody wants to own it when they do it, myself included).

…

Then there’s the “kind of lies we find most detestable are those with a malicious intent of some kind: lies designed to swindle or hoodwink us, lies that will cause us some pain down the road” – that’s the securities fraud type stuff. You don’t want to do that.

Sebastian then codifies lying from a societal perspective:

1. Expected and demanded in pro-social situations.

2. Tolerated and understood in adversarial situations.

3. Despised and punished when done maliciously outside of an adversarial situation.

Phew, that was a bit long.

My take…

Let’s first address lying from #3. It is indeed wrong to lie in an attempt to deceive someone for malicious reasons. I don’t think most would disagree with this.

How about white lies? Where do they fit? Perhaps they belong under pro-social situations? Let’s say that you’re running late to work because you woke up late because you were out partying all night long. You get to work and your boss asks you why you were late - you respond that you got a flat tire. Is that wrong? Does society “demand” (as Sebastian writes) that you do this?

What about if your friend asks you if you like their new haircut? Do you tell them that you do, even if you think that they look like Nick Nolte after he got arrested for his DUI? [Pictured above.]

How about in the case of the Nigerian engineer? Should he lie to potential prospects about being from Nigeria? Sebastian’s response was that he should. Then Sebastian says that after a working relationship has developed, you should reveal the truth. Admittedly, I may be an outlier on this perspective, but I’d consider this wrong. If I were the client, I’d feel that if the person couldn’t be honest about his location then perhaps the stigmas about Nigeria are true: maybe they are all dishonest? At the very least, this thought would be running through my brain.

See, I think that the Nigerian engineer should start coding like a mad man. Build up a repository of projects and make a name for himself. Leave location out of the equation. If asked, be honest about it. Be honest about your realization of the reputation of the country of Nigeria, and that you’re trying to be the one who changes people’s perspective about Nigeria. This engineer would build a lot of credibility by doing such a thing.

How about the case of the entrepreneur seeking investment? Should he lie to the potential investor if asked about other interested investors? I’d say no that he shouldn’t. The entrepreneur should optimistically claim that he’s trying to seek out interested investors. Hell, reframe the situation in a positive way!

“Mr. Investor. We are looking to build a relationship with interested investors. We think that you might be a good fit (Only say this if it’s true) and would be honored if you’d consider this… blah blah blah.”

Naive of me to think? Maybe. But, I believe that we are to live and strive to the highest of standards. If you do this, people will take notice. You’ll earn respect.

In short, I think pro-social lies are wrong, whether they are white lies or not.

How about adversarial situational lies? This is where I do agree with Sebastian. Let’s take the classic proposed case of you living in Nazi Germany. You just happen to be hiding some of your Jewish friends in your basement. Nazis knock on your door and ask if you’re hiding any Jews. You can fully anticipate their intent. How do you respond?

Some would say that it’s intrinsically evil and wrong to lie. That you should be silent, or that you could use wide mental reservation and say something clever like “they are not at home” - implying the Jews’ home. To quote the British: bollocks! In this situation, I think that it’s OK to lie to the Nazis. You are potentially saving the life of your Jewish friends.

OK, how about cases that don’t have as drastic of consequences? Sebastian mentions a scenario where maybe you’re traveling and you’re asked if you’re from around the area. You retort back that you are because you might question your safety if you respond differently. I think this perspective is sound.

Let’s codify whether a lie is morally permissible or not. I borrow this completely from the Catholic Catechism pre 1997 [Catechism changed their wording after 1997, could change the interpreted outcome].

Borrowed from Eric Sammons:

“Speak or act against the truth”: In other words, the words or actions have to be not true.
“In order to lead into error”: A misspoken word or erroneous statement said in ignorance is not a lie.
“Someone who as the right to know the truth”

#3 is the key point in regard to the adversarial situational lies. The Nazis didn’t need to know whether their were Jews in your home or not, you knew their intent. Same thing with a shady stranger who might question you if you travel.

Does this also apply to the interested investor or the Nigerian engineer? I’m sure some of you would argue that it does. I think that in those cases, the questioner could arguably have a right to know.

If you want to read a fascinating exchange on the morality of lying, I’d encourage that you read this post. It’s not his conclusion that is important, a conclusion that I disagree with, it’s the dialogue between the commenters that can help you to determine your moral integrity framework for discerning what you find acceptable to lie about.

In summary, I think that you should avoid lying at most costs. Especially in the pro-social/white lie situation. Challenge yourself to be a better person. People will notice your honesty and you will gain respect. Trust me! :p

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-JP

Victory for the Nerds: A Tale of Recovering a Stolen Laptop

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 16:00:07 -0500

Brace yourself, this is a long one. Scroll to the end for the TL;DR.

Before

My wife and I got back home from our honeymoon on Monday morning (July 4th) at about 3:30 AM. We went to our bedroom and immediately hit the pillows. Slumber never felt so good. I awoke at around 12:30 PM, anxious to get to the gym, as I had been eating grease and alcohol for over a week straight. My body was begging me for activity.

When I go to the gym I bring my iPad so that I can easily read books and run on the treadmill. (As an aside, the soaking of knowledge via a book and the sweat caused from running is like an injection of heroin for the day. Try it.) I looked around the house for my iPad, which is typically in my laptop bag. My laptop bag wasn’t anywhere. Mind you, our house looked like a tornado came through and decided to drop off a bunch of wedding gifts, clothes, and misc. crap from my old house (I had just moved in right before we left for the honeymoon). I figured that the bag was around the house somewhere. Right before we left, I also noticed that two other laptops were missing from our computer room. “No big deal.” I thought, surely they’re around here somewhere.

As my wife and I were traveling to the gym, I started to entertain the fact that maybe they could have been stolen. I still wasn’t convinced though, as we still had our flatscreen TVs, my wife’s laptop, an older Dell laptop, our bikes and other misc. valuables. Surely the thieves would have taken everything valuable? I couldn’t workout at the gym; you see, my MacBook Pro is like my baby. It felt as if I should notify an Amber Alert for my silver aluminum child.

As we were driving home, I recalled reading internet stories of nerd vigilantes hunting down the culprits of their stolen goods. I briefly fantasized about such a scenario. I remember reading that it’s common for thieves to put stolen wares on eBay or Craigslist. What could it hurt to search?

Craigslist

I walked into the door and grabbed my wife’s laptop and fired up the browser to Craigslist. I started browsing the For Sale section on computers. I quickly stumbled into some MacBook Pros. My MacBook Pro was the late 2008 model (pre-unibody). I found an ad!

Macbook pro $775… need the money. Willing to trade for…

I swiftly called.

“Do you have that, uhhh… Apple laptop for sale still?”

“Yeah, you want to look at it?”

“You bet. Where at?”

“Just come to my house… my address is ########”

“OK, I can be there in about 45 mins or so. See ya.” (At this time it’s about 4:00 PM or so)

The person sounded like a teenage kid. A kid that talked like he had a bit of exposure to the inner city. This is Lincoln, Nebraska. Population: 275k. There isn’t much of an “inner-city” here. Even the closest big city, Omaha (pop 500k) doesn’t have much of an “inner-city.” But I remember at that age, acting a bit “gangsta.” Maybe that’s what he was doing.

I scrolled even lower to older laptops on Craigslist. I found another that looks like my model MBP!

“macbook 15” $850… willing to trade, need to pay off my car!“

It was weird that this listing used the same red backdrop for the laptop as the other listing but the phone number was different. I called. No answer. Not even a voicemail recording that says "this is so-and-so, please leave a message…”. Odd.

The phone then rang. It was the person that I just called.

“Yo, you just call me?”

“Uhhh… yeah, um, do you have an Apple laptop for sale? Wait, did I just talk to you?”

“Naaah man, I didn’t talk to you. But yeeuuuh, I got da laptop.”

“Can I see it to check out how it works and the condition?”

“Meet me at Best Buy at like 5:30”

“Cool, I’ll see you then.”

This person had the same sort of speaking style as the first person. This is a bit weird, I thought.

I jumped into the shower and planned how this might all work. I’d go to the first guy’s house around 4:45 PM and then go to Best Buy at 5:30 PM. “Perfect”, I thought. I’d be home just in time for dinner. (Douche bag alert ;p) I got out of the shower and instead of putting on my sandals and shorts, I put on sneakers and jeans. I’m 6'1" about 235 lbs. I’m fairly built. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t consider myself to be some tough bad ass or anything like that. I’d just thought that I was going into someone’s house alone that I didn’t know. This person may have my stolen property; I wasn’t sure how I’d react. Would I grab my laptop and run? Would I get angry and call the police right there? Would he and his friends be there? Would they threaten me? I felt that if for some reason I wore sneakers and jeans, I’d be me more prepared to fight or defend myself if needed to.

I walked downstairs telling my wife my plan on visiting the kid’s house and then Best Buy and my anticipated return time. She told me that I got a text. It was the guy that I was going to meet at Best Buy.

“U gonna pay full price for the laptop”

“Ya, that might work if it’s in good condition.”

“K, cuz u said u talked to me alrdy so I didn’t want the price to get messed up”

“Oh, haha. I’ve been looking at a few others so I got confused.”

“Lol. I fell yeah. its in good condition. The only prob is that it has a black scuff in the right corner”

“K, that shouldn’t be a problem.”

“K c ya”

My laptop had a black scuff in the righthand bottom corner! I knew this was my laptop. At this time my wife was pleading for me to call the police. I hadn’t had a police report filed yet. I’m a libertarian, so fundamentally, I like to rely upon myself to solve problems and accomplish things. Calling the police felt premature. “Honey, you know my beliefs and how I feel towards these things.” I retorted. “But, it’s OK to ask for help when you need it.” my wife incessantly pleaded. “When the time is right.”

I left and got in the car to drive the kids house. As I was driving I started thinking that it seemed pointless to go to the kids house since I was sure he didn’t have my laptop. I was also starting to think that I shouldn’t go to Best Buy alone.

Meeting at Best Buy

I called my business partner and friend, Corey, and asked him to tag along. Corey is always up for an adventure.

I arrived at his house. We quickly schemed up a plan. We both knew that if we could verify that it was my laptop we had to have the police come immediately, as the guy could ditch the laptop somewhere and it’d be tough to prove that he was in possession of stolen property.

Our plan was for me to pretend like I was a computer idiot and Corey was my friend the computer guru that came along to help me. I didn’t think I’d be alright holding the laptop and then opening up the About window to verify it was mine. I wasn’t sure if in a fit of panic I’d run with it or do something else stupid. So, Corey was going to open up the About window and I’d tell the guy that I needed to go inside Best Buy and get some cash out of the ATM machine when in reality that’s when I’d call the police. Our plan felt solid.

My wife texted me the MBP serial number found on the MBP box. Corey and I memorized it.

Just before we were about to leave I got a call from the kid whose house I decided not to go to.

“Hey, you coming over?”

“Shit, sorry, I got stuck doing some stuff. How much longer will you be there?”

“Not much longer… you can come tomorrow.”

After I hung up the phone, about 30 seconds later the guy that I’m meeting at Best Buy calls.

“You still good to meet at Best Buy at 5:30?”

“Ya man.”

“K, I’ll be there in a bit.”

Odd that shortly after I talk to the kid, the other guy calls.

Corey lends me one of his goofy hats, ya know like that hat the kid wears in the movie Sandlot. We thought it’d be a good idea to put on a hat in event that anyone saw pictures on my hard drive of me. I considered sunglasses, but that seemed to be an overkill. Corey took the sunglasses.

We left felt like we were undercover detectives who were about to bring down and entire crime ring of thievery, drugs, and prostitution. Adrenaline was pumping.

We got there; I parked in the front. I texted him. (There were some other texts related to the minutiae of meeting, etc. During these I realized, that he was texting like a person that would cause grammar and spelling Nazis to order a holocaust on him and others like him. I’m anal with grammar and spelling in my texts to strangers. I decided that I should change my texts to be more like his so that he doesn’t suspect anything. I know, I know, I deserve the citizen’s badge of honor for such awesome undercover work.)

“U at BB yet?”

“Imma be there in like 5 min”

“K, coo”

The front of my car was facing the building. Many cars were coming and going. Could he have seen us and decided to not show up? “Corey, turn around man… let’s not be too obvious.” Corey kept turning his head around, for some reason, I believed that by him doing that, it’d blow our cover. Dumb, I know.

“Im pulling in, where u at?”

“Right front side of bldng”

“Dont see u”

No cars were coming in. Shit, he must have been camped out here. Fuck, he got scared and left, I thought.

“Still dont see u”

Finally, I saw a black Lexus with tinted windows that you couldn’t see through. The front two windows were rolled down. Corey and were relieved that he came alone.

“I think I see u, were walking to the cntr of the lot”

The person parked the car, we were approaching the passenger side. The driver looked to be Eastern European, maybe 2nd generation, with short black hair and olive colored skin wearing a white tank top and loose basketball shorts that were down to his shins. I’d guess he was in his late teens to early 20’s. As Corey and I approached the car we noticed that he didn’t come alone. There were two guys in the back seat. One looked a lot like the first, Eastern European, only younger. The other looked like a first generation immigrant from Africa. [I hope these descriptions don’t sounded bigoted, I’m just trying to accurately describe what we saw.] They were all wearing loose baggy clothes.

We walked around to the driver’s side of the car. The guy got out and tossed the laptop onto the hood of his car.

“I’m Nico. What’s yo name?”

“Jon.” (I go by JP, but for some reason I thought I’d go by Jon at that moment.)

“Cool. Here’s the laptop.”

(As Corey open’s it up)

“Corey, what do you think? Will this work for me?”

“I think so…” (As he opens up the “About this Mac” screen)

I then saw the serial number. It was really my laptop! At this time, I had no idea how these guys got my laptop. I felt like I was in the movies… the black Lexus, three thugs, and my stolen property. I was pissed that they wiped it with a new copy of OS X. (Anyone know of some good file recovery software for OS X?) I asked a few more stupid question about OS X to throw him off.

“So how much do you want for it?”

“I’m asking $850, but that’s negotiable.”

“Would you take $700?” (For some reason, I felt that if I told him I’d give him $850 that’d seem too weird and maybe he’d suspect something)

“Would you meet me at $775?”

“Sure, but I don’t have much cash on me. I need to go inside to the ATM.”

“How much ya got on you?”

As I pulled out my wallet and started counting the cash…

“Ughhh… like $50.”

“Ohh OK. We’ll just wait.”

“Corey, you just wanna stay out here?”

The hope was that Corey could distract them and keep them occupied so that they didn’t worry about me taking along time.

I started to walk towards the entrance of Best Buy. “Shit, I forgot to get the license plate number.” I thought. “It’d be too obvious to turn around and get it now.” As this internal dialogue about the license plate was raging on in my head I approached the area with the Mac laptops. Beads of sweat were forming on my forehead. I was hoping that if they saw me, I could say I was looking at a few Macs for comparison. I picked up my iPhone and had the police pre-programmed in so that I didn’t have to locate the number.

“Lincoln Police service desk” a woman said.

“Hi, uggh, these guys have my stolen property. It’s my laptop. They have it now at Best Buy! You have to send some officers RIGHT NOW!” I felt that I needed to sound frantic to make the situation have a sense of urgency.

“Sir, are you with the guys?”

“They are outside, my friend is out there talking to them. They have my laptop! I think that maybe I should just grab it or something because it’s MINE.” At this point, I wasn’t planning on this, but I really felt the need to make it clear that she should send some officers immediately.

“Sir, you’ll have to stall them a bit, but I’ve sent two cruisers from the nearby station.”

“OK, we will be standing by a black Lexus. You can’t miss us. I’m wearing a hat and my friend is wearing sunglasses. The other guy has on a white tanktop and two guys are in his backseat.”

I thanked the woman and headed over to the ATM. I wasn’t sure if any of them came inside and may have watched what I was doing, so I felt the need to withdraw at least some cash. I withdrew $200. I could claim that was the ATM limit and I was thinking that it could potentially give me an excuse to have to go the bank or something if the police didn’t show up.

I looked out the window and saw Corey walking away from their car and Nico was getting into the car. “Fuck, they are leaving!” I hurried out. Fortunately they saw me and got out of the car.

“So what’s the deal?”

“Hey uggh sorry. I was looking at other laptops inside. What’s the processor in this laptop?”

“It’s an i7 man. The best!”

“Corey, can you look at it…”

“It says Core 2 Duo.”

“Ohh sorry, thought it was i7”

“How many processors are in there? Are there 8? Some of those inside have 8.” I felt the need to start asking stupid questions to stall.

“Maaannn, those are like $3000!”

“I don’t know about this Apple operating system. I’m a Windows guy. Will this do my photo editing and allow me to make Powerpoints and write papers and stuff?”

“Yeah man, I got a disk I can sell you too to make Powerpoints.”

“Cool!”

Finally, I saw two cruisers pull in the parking lot. The guys were oblivious. The two in the back seat were busy texting while Nico was frustrated with my idiocy. I kept pressing with stupid questions.

One cruiser pulls behind his car and another cruiser pulls in front. The guy was a bit startled.

“That’s my laptop” I said.

“No it’s not, I’ve owned this for three years.”

“No I have the serial number to prove it.”

As the officer cuffed the Nico, he proclaimed that he had bought it from an African girl a week ago. Five more cruisers pulled in and surrounded the car. The two other guys were cuffed. The look on their face was if like one of a child who just got caught shoplifting at a grocery store. The ‘oh shit!’ look on their face was priceless. They knew they were caught.

Victory for Corey and me.

Aftermath

An investigator came over that night. Shortly before he came, we realized that all of our wedding gift cards were gone and our PS3/games/controllers. We were convinced that someone knew our garage code and that’s how they got in. With the investigator we inspected possible break-in points. When we walked in the backyard and look at the back of the house it became clear. One of the screens was cut in half and the window was unlocked.

The next day we were told that the three guys did indeed buy the laptop from an African girl. I guess they met her on Facebook or something along those lines. Nico spent the night in jail since he was 19. If you recall from the beginning of the story how I was going to go to that kid’s house before I went to Best Buy, well it turns out that kid was Nico’s brother. [Found out later his name wasn’t Nico] He was sitting in the back of the car at Best Buy. The officers were able to search the African girl’s house. They recovered my iPad, PS3, some of the games, and one other laptop. My netbook is still missing. Unfortunately the African girl is saying that she broke into my house. She said that she just walked up to the door and it was unlocked. The police believe that she’s covering for someone.

Overall though, I’m not pissed anymore. It’s all just material stuff anyway. I have my health and a great life so I can’t complain too much. Plus, this will be a story that I’ll tell indefinitely.

TL;DR 3 laptops, iPad, PS3, and wedding gift cards were stolen. I found my laptop on Craigslist and busted the thugs in the Best Buy parking lot.

If you’re a software developer come checkout the startup that Corey and I created. It helps you with project management and simplifies Git.

Follow me on Twitter: @jprichardson

If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy:

-JP

I'm Back

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:05:00 -0500

It’s been an interesting couple of months. Quite a few things have happened in my life.

I got married to a wonderful woman and my best friend.
Reflect7 has been put up for sale.
I started two new companies.
My biological father who I haven’t seen in 26 years has contacted me.
My house was burglarized. Three laptops, an iPad, a PS3, and wedding gift cards were stolen. More on this in another post this week.

Why did I stop blogging? I wanted to use all of my free time to either focus on my business activities in the name of increased productivity or spend my free time on wedding related activities. You see, some blog posts would take up to two hours to write. Many would take over an hour to write. It was a massive commitment that I didn’t want to stress about. So it seemed reasonable to take a blogging sabbatical.

I missed writing though. There is something magical about writing that really helps a person to organize their thoughts and bring direction to one’s life.

I’m back and I feel better than ever.

If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy:

-JP

Fight the Rewrite

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 08:50:00 -0500

Image Source: XKCD

An old boss invited me to lunch yesterday. As we were sitting there waiting for our food we were reminiscing over the early days of his company. He made a statement that made me want to cringe:

Ahhh, JP… I remember when you were looking at the code that Dan [the first dev at the company] wrote. You said: “This code is crap, it needs to be rewritten!”

I unfortunately didn’t have the gumption to tell him that I made a mistake claiming that the code needed a rewrite. It’s true that I thought the code was messy. But, in my anecdotal experience, it seems to me that most developers that look at the code written by other developers, think that the code is crap. Actually, developers that look at their own code years later think that their own code is crap. They are probably right; the code is crap.

But, to believe that a rewrite is needed, is a junior mistake.

There were business assumptions made that you can’t possibly know now. Plenty of undocumented business assumptions that the code will handle just fine. You can’t possibly account for all of them.

I like what Joel Spolsky writes on this, Things You Should Never Do:

We’re programmers. Programmers are, in their hearts, architects, and the first thing they want to do when they get to a site is to bulldoze the place flat and build something grand. We’re not excited by incremental renovation: tinkering, improving, planting flower beds.

There’s a subtle reason that programmers always want to throw away the code and start over. The reason is that they think the old code is a mess. And here is the interesting observation: they are probably wrong. The reason that they think the old code is a mess is because of a cardinal, fundamental law of programming:

It’s harder to read code than to write it.

This is why code reuse is so hard. This is why everybody on your team has a different function they like to use for splitting strings into arrays of strings. They write their own function because it’s easier and more fun than figuring out how the old function works.

As a corollary of this axiom, you can ask almost any programmer today about the code they are working on. “It’s a big hairy mess,” they will tell you. “I’d like nothing better than to throw it out and start over.”

When you hire a developer, and he wants to rewrite code that seems to be working just fine, fight it. He may claim that Java is old and slow and that Ruby on Rails is cool. Maybe he’ll throw a bunch of buzzwords at you. Either way, really consider it.

What do you think?

You might also enjoy:

You should follow me on Twitter: @jprichardson

-JP

Metaphors and Marketing

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 09:15:00 -0500

I just stumbled upon an article titled: “How to Create Advertising that Sells.” Point 29 is about having a lot of words in a headline. Whether there is merit in this or not, that’s not my point. My point is one that I’m surprised isn’t listed in one of the articles 38 points. Point 29 has this statement:

“At 60 miles an hours, the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.”

Prospects don’t care about the length of the headline. In fact, it’s not the length that matters (hehehehe… see what I did there?). It’s the imagery that the statement or picture portrays.

Is the following statement better or worse?

“Our Rolls-Royce is really quiet.”

It’s worse. But not because it’s shorter. This statement does not paint a picture in your mind.

Metaphors paint pictures in the minds of people. Pictures aid stories. Stories sell products. Use metaphors in advertising.

You might also enjoy:

Since you made it this far, you should follow me on Twitter: @jprichardson

-JP

Literature and Life

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 09:50:48 -0500

I love literature. It wasn’t always that way. In fact, before high school, I hated reading. Something in high school changed. I credit a lot of it too one of my high school English teachers.

I first met Mr. Hansen when I was a freshman. He just so happened to be the lineman coach for my high school football team. Mr. Hansen, a portly man with a bit of a double-chin and a military haircut, had an irresistible sense of humor. He wasn’t a person that you’d call funny, but witty. As we pushed the hit sled, the 300 lb bastard would be standing on the back of the sled, sweating over us, yelling: “MOVE! MOVE! MOVE! CHOP! CHOP! CHOP!… MOVE YOUR FEET!”

When I walked into his class sophomore year, I figured that he was just another football coach forced to teach a class that he didn’t have much passion for. I couldn’t have been more wrong. He used literature to relay stories and life lessons. I remember him professing that if us young minds could, we should move across country; we need to get out of our comfort zone to learn more about ourselves. This has always stuck with me. I remember the stories of A Farewell to Arms, The Great Gatsby [I was kinda bummed that they are tearing down the house that inspired the novel], and All Quiet on the Western Front.

“Get out of your comfort zone.” This has since stuck with me.

Read this piece: The Sad Beautiful Fact That We’re All Going to Miss Amost Everything It’s about how so much literature and media is produced that we can’t consume it all. I’ll highlight the most important points:

The vast majority of the world’s books, music, films, television and art, you will never see. It’s just numbers.

Consider books alone. Let’s say you read two a week, and sometimes you take on a long one that takes you a whole week. That’s quite a brisk pace for the average person. That lets you finish, let’s say, 100 books a year. If we assume you start now, and you’re 15, and you are willing to continue at this pace until you’re 80. That’s 6,500 books, which really sounds like a lot.

….

Now, everything gets dropped into our laps, and there are really only two responses if you want to feel like you’re well-read, or well-versed in music, or whatever the case may be: culling and surrender.

Culling is the choosing you do for yourself. It’s the sorting of what’s worth your time and what’s not worth your time. It’s saying, “I deem Keeping Up With The Kardashians a poor use of my time, and therefore, I choose not to watch it.” It’s saying, “I read the last Jonathan Franzen book and fell asleep six times, so I’m not going to read this one.”

Surrender, on the other hand, is the realization that you do not have time for everything that would be worth the time you invested in it if you had the time, and that this fact doesn’t have to threaten your sense that you are well-read. Surrender is the moment when you say, “I bet every single one of those 1,000 books I’m supposed to read before I die is very, very good, but I cannot read them all, and they will have to go on the list of things I didn’t get to.”

It is the recognition that well-read is not a destination; there is nowhere to get to, and if you assume there is somewhere to get to, you’d have to live a thousand years to even think about getting there, and by the time you got there, there would be a thousand years to catch up on.

What I’ve observed in recent years is that many people, in cultural conversations, are far more interested in culling than in surrender. And they want to cull as aggressively as they can. After all, you can eliminate a lot of discernment you’d otherwise have to apply to your choices of books if you say, “All genre fiction is trash.” You have just massively reduced your effective surrender load, because you’ve thrown out so much at once.

The same goes for throwing out foreign films, documentaries, classical music, fantasy novels, soap operas, humor, or westerns. I see people culling by category, broadly and aggressively: television is not important, popular fiction is not important, blockbuster movies are not important. Don’t talk about rap; it’s not important. Don’t talk about anyone famous; it isn’t important. And by the way, don’t tell me it is important, because that would mean I’m ignoring something important, and that’s … uncomfortable. That’s surrender.

It’s an effort, I think, to make the world smaller and easier to manage, to make the awareness of what we’re missing less painful. There are people who choose not to watch television – and plenty of people don’t, and good for them – who find it easier to declare that they don’t watch television because there is no good television (which is culling) than to say they choose to do other things, but acknowledge that they’re missing out on Mad Men (which is surrender).

I do indeed surrender. I’ve heard that Mad Men is a great show. This clip alone makes me want to watch the show. In short, the main character is pitching a marketing campaign to Kodak for their product that they called “The Wheel”; the main character redefines “The Wheel” as the “The Carousel” as he shows pictures of his family and how the “The Carousel” is like a time-machine that allows us to go forward or go back to relive our memories and to take us home again where we long to be. The clip is very moving and powerful. So, yeah, I’d like to watch Mad Men someday.

I miss fiction. I miss a lot of it. As I said, I surrender. Maybe watching TV isn’t a waste of time. Maybe reading fiction isn’t a waste of time.

It’d be a bit naive to believe that by only focusing on our businesses and things related to our business, it’ll make us better entrepreneurs. Really, it’s our life experiences and our reactions that help to define who we are, and perhaps, help to govern our decisions and actions. Don’t you think?

You might also enjoy:

If you made it this far, follow me on Twitter: @jprichardson

-JP

Fear and Loved Ones

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 12:15:13 -0500

I’ve learned something important recently. I’ve learned that the ones closest in my life will doubt my aspirations and dreams. It’s not that they don’t think that I can live out my dreams or accomplish my desires, it’s that they are afraid of me failing and getting hurt. This all seems very normal.

It’d be easy to listen to them. After all, they care about me; it’s easier to trust someone when they know that they care about you. When you were a child, if your mother told you not to put your hand on the hot stove, it was for a very good reason. You trusted her, because after all, she is your mother.

But, It’s important to not let the fears of our loved ones permeate our drive. Our loved ones are not us. They are not entrepreneurs. They don’t have the same thrill for risk that we do. They seek safety and refuge in a steady paycheck, whereas we seek the hustling of business. They seek promotions, benefits, and raises. We seek growth, the emotional roller coaster, and profits.

They are not us. Their fear must be seen as just that. Ignore it and prosper.

You might also enjoy:

If you made it this far, you should follow me on Twitter @jprichardson

-JP

On This Day...

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:45:29 -0500

… 28 years ago, it was a snowing evening, I was brought into this world. By most of my peers, friends, and family, I’m considered a success. I have a stable job, a healthy son, and loving fiance. Do I consider myself a success? Not at all. Why? Because I won’t allow myself to settle. I have enough. It’s not that I necessarily want more, it’s just that I truly feel that I’m called to do something great. I feel like I am not like anyone else that I know. I feel different. I feel special; yes, in that cliche bullshit sense. Do you feel this way?

Don’t ever settle.

So, a toast to myself of much success within the next 10 years.

-JP

The Two-Device Productivity Solution

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 08:48:00 -0500

I’m Catholic and ‘tis the season of Lent. Cue the jokes about fish and priests. It’s common for Catholics to sacrifice something during the time of Lent. So when you are jonesing for a fix of what you sacrificed, you can reflect upon the life of Jesus. Along with the snooze button, I gave up Reddit and Hacker News.

I spent *a lot* of time on these sites. At least one to two hours a day. Did I come out a better person after looking at these sites? In mosts cases, I’d say yes. Although, I know that there were a number of times when I’d click “compile” or “run tests” and if it took more than 5 seconds or so, I’d head over to those sites after I had already visited them for the day and look for articles to read. Doing this ended up becoming an excuse to waste time. Hence the need to break my addiction.

After a few days I started to really miss the quality content on Hacker News. The content that I actually felt that caused me to learn. Fortunately, Seth Godin wrote an intriguing article titled: Are You Making Something?

Making something is work. Let’s define work, for a moment, as something you create that has a lasting value in the market.

…

More and more, we’re finding it easy to get engaged with activities that feel like work, but aren’t. I can appear just as engaged (and probably enjoy some of the same endorphins) when I beat someone in Words With Friends as I do when I’m writing the chapter for a new book. The challenge is that the pleasure from winning a game fades fast, but writing a book contributes to readers (and to me) for years to come.

One reason for this confusion is that we’re often using precisely the same device to do our work as we are to distract ourselves from our work. The distractions come along with the productivity. The boss (and even our honest selves) would probably freak out if we took hours of ping pong breaks while at the office, but spending the same amount of time engaged with others online is easier to rationalize. Hence this proposal:

The two-device solution

Simple but bold: Only use your computer for work. Real work. The work of making something.Have a second device, perhaps an iPad, and use it for games, web commenting, online shopping, networking… anything that doesn’t directly create valued output (no need to have an argument here about which is which, which is work and which is not… draw a line, any line, and separate the two of them. If you don’t like the results from that line, draw a new line).

Now, when you pick up the iPad, you can say to yourself, “break time.” And if you find yourself taking a lot of that break time, you’ve just learned something important.

TL;DR: We trick ourselves into thinking that browsing the internet is real work since we often use the computer for real work. Solution: find another device to do your browsing.

I’ve since done this. I use my iPad for iPhone for Facebook, Hacker News, CNN, etc. Essentially anything that could be considered consumption. My laptop is now used for only production and real work. The only exceptions are research or browsing APIs which constitutes research.

The image for this blog post is of my hosts file. I have set my favorite sites to point to localhost so that I can’t access them. This protects me if I were to slip up. All major operating systems use the same syntax, use this Wikipedia page to find the location of your hosts file for your OS so that you can protect you from yourself.

Let me know how this goes for you.

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You should follow me on Twitter: @jprichardson

-JP

What the Successful Will Do that You Won't

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 11:20:08 -0500

Watch this short Stephen Colbert interview of Mark Cuban:

Did you catch the part about how Mark Cuban sold milk powder door to door? According to his Wikipedia entry, he’s sold garbage bags, stamps, and even started a chain letter that netted him over $1000. Richard Branson sold magazines out of the trunk of his car. Felix Dennis started a small magazine on Bruce Lee eventually building the publishing empire behind Maxim, Blender, and The Weekly. Gary Vaynerchuk sold baseball cards and operated a bunch of lemonade stands. Steve Jobs returned Coke bottles for money!

Sebastian Marshall calls this the “knack for getting money” or “hustling”. He uses 50 Cent as an example:

Look at 50 Cent – he’s sold around 40 million records… I don’t know what his cut is per album sold, but he probably made more money from the Glaceau Vitamin Water deal than he has from records.

He’s got skills, he’s got drive, and he works hard. But lots of musicians have skill, drive, and work hard. What sets him apart is that 50′s got no hangups about getting money.

How many platinum selling artists are willing to go shovel snow for 100 bucks?

Probably the biggest thing that holds people back from getting money are hangups about it. How do you get over that?

Practice? Philosophy? Desperation?

Probably all of them. But I’d bet on the guy with no hangups about getting money and a little drive getting more money faster than someone with tons of skills but hangups about it. There’s silly amounts of opportunity all over the place.

Most of these odd money-making methods were done out of desperation and necessity, with the exception of 50 Cent of course. But that’s just it. The successful don’t have hangups about making money. They’ll just do it without thinking about it.

You can become good at making money too. It just takes practice. Jason Fried founder of 37Signals wrote an article in Inc magazine on how to get good at making money:

Like I said at the outset, it’s all about practice. Whether you’re playing drums or building a business, you’re going to be pretty bad at something the first time you try it. The second time isn’t much better. Over time, and after a lot of practice, you begin to get there.

So here’s a great way to practice making money: Buy and sell the same thing over and over on Craigslist or eBay. Seriously.

Go buy something on Craigslist or eBay. Find something that’s a bit of a commodity, so you know there’s always plenty of supply and demand. An iPod is a good test. Buy it, and then immediately resell it. Then buy it again. Each time, try selling it for more than you paid for it. See how far you can push it. See how much profit you can make off 10 transactions.

Start tweaking the headline. Then start fiddling with the product description. Vary the photographs. Take some pictures of the thing for sale; use other photos with other items, or people, in them. Shoot really high-quality shots, and also post crappy ones from your cell-phone camera. Try every variation you can think of.

I love doing this, because there’s no real risk involved. If you already have a business, you don’t need to dream up a new product line or rock the boat with crazy experiments. If you don’t have a business, it’s a perfect way to work on your chops.

You might also enjoy:

You should follow me on Twitter: @jprichardson

-JP