Category: Random

I’ve had this blog for over ten years, and I’ve never called anyone an idiot on it. Until now. Darrell Issa is an idiot. Have you ever been in a crisis, maybe with your family or at work, and someone responds with calmness and clarity to that crisis? That person is prepared, knows what to…

I had a chance to crawl around the Renovo Coupe and take lots of pictures today – it’s such a gorgeous car: And a quick video of turning on the ignition:

Hiten Shah Give faster feedback by easily editing any webpage Facebook Rooms, Mobile Acquisition and Distribution Bets 7 lessons learned growing SaaS companies Culture isn’t a chore It’s easier than ever to acquire customers for your SaaS business 5 hacks to increase your daily consumption of information Michael Galpert Distrust for credit cards October Music…

Tomorrow marks the start of another WordCamp San Francisco. It’s the 9th one, if I counted correctly. The look of the WordCamp site has changed a bit over time: WordCamp 2006: WordCamp 2014: But amazingly, most other things have stayed the same. The first WordCamp was somewhat spur of the moment. It was in early…

I listened to an interview today with a German doctor who is part of Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). He talked about Ebola and was impressively clear and convincing about the topic. I learned more in 20 minutes than in all the previous weeks of Ebola coverage in the news here. For example that…

Colin tagged me to reveal what podcasts I listen to. I’m subscribed to a few, but these three are the ones I listen to frequently: – The Slate Gabfest, a weekly political roundtable, smart, witty, occasionally subversive. – Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History, multi-hour long, epic history podcasts, told in a gripping and conversational style. –…

For my blog post today, I’m going to point at some work I’ve done over on Diane’s blog. I switched her site over to the Sketch theme and created a portfolio of her officially finished art pieces. Took a moment to figure out the portfolio feature, then was a piece of cake!

This summer I got the chance to travel down the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River. The trip was organized by a friend of ours, Tom Huntington, a former river guide who has traveled rivers all over the world. Our group was 18 people plus guides. Most of us knew each other from having our…

Michael Galpert: Dollar a day Cyclones of SF Define Success Toxic Employees iOS Keyboards (must read) Hiten Shah: Love it or change it It just works 17 books every startup founder should read Everyone on the same page (must read) Do hard things that scare you My favorite interview question for early stage startup candidates.…

Ash Patel, my former boss at Yahoo, told me yesterday that Yahoo’s offices these days feature all open space floor plans. When I worked there 10 years ago, everyone was in a private cube. The pros and cons of open floor plans vs private offices have been discussed at length over the years and big…

I’ve been at a conference for the last two days and a topic that’s been coming up a lot is deep linking for mobile apps. Three separate people have mentioned a company called Branch Metrics as someone who is doing interesting things in this area. Deep linking helps app developers who are looking for more…

UPDATE 10/17: This Kickstarter was canceled. I found a Kickstarter yesterday that promises to anonymize your internet browsing in a simple way – it’s a small box that sits between you and whatever internet connection you are using: the Anonabox. It’s designed for people who need anonymity, like dissidents and whistleblowers, but I’m guessing it’s…

When I was in 2nd grade, I was convinced that I would grow up to be a boat designer. I have a pretty clear memory of drawing lots of boats for a couple of years. Last week, I moved offices and found my 2nd grade drawing book. Sure enough, it’s full of boats (plus a…

Yesterday, I discovered Pete Warden’s post “Why nerd culture must die“. I agree with much of it. From Google bus protests to the treatment of women in Silicon Valley, there have been many recent events in the tech world that have appalled me and made me worry about the culture and practices of our industry.…

Here’s a wrap up of Om’s #30daysofbloggingchallenge with the first week’s posts from Om, Hiten, Michael and me: Om: 20 years of SAJA 3 things to read this weekend Hard Things A perception of anonymity Backchannel One week, two cities – Sofia and Stockholm Hiten: Feedback is a gift Learn faster than you think you can! You don’t…

Earlier this summer, I was asked to submit an essay on how organizations will become more distributed in the future as part of a report on the future of work by the Economist. Here’s what I wrote: A distributed company I ran a software startup company called Automattic for eight years. We had a unique…