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About five years ago, when I was still in college, a friend of mine invited me to go to an LGBT rights event. I’ve forgotten what the event was, but it was something large like a protest rally or the Pride parade. I said “no,” and I still regret that decision.
Our company bought each employee an iPad Mini as a holiday gift, but mine has been sitting on my kitchen table, unopened, for over a week. I think I will end up opening and using it, but I am conflicted.
12/15/2013: Added note about --no-default-middleware.
We’ve now run two batches of Hacker School and we’re about to start the third. We’ve learned a lot and I want to take some time to write down the most interesting and surprising lessons.
In most professions, a college degree is a prerequisite for a job, even if doing the job doesn’t strictly require one. Your degree is used as a proxy to figure out whether you’re qualified because there is no better measure: “Oh, he went to a good school, he must be smart. Let’s bring him in for an interview.”
It’s common knowledge that Apple doesn’t get the web in general and social in particular. I’ve been thinking a lot about the social part recently and I think Apple’s failure to execute there can shed some light on their failure with the web in general.
I’ve met a lot of people who tell me they want to start a startup, but they’re not sure when they should do it. My answer is always that they should do it right now. In response, I usually get a range of excuses, almost all of which are invalid. There are only two valid excuses for not starting a startup: debt, and not wanting to start one.
So you have an idea for a startup? Awesome! The world needs more people like you. You’re going to have to start by finding a technical cofounder. This is hard because you’re not a programmer, so I’m going to teach you how to do it.
I was recently asked to tell someone about myself via email. Here’s what I came up with.
I want to get rid of my iPhone. Just about every move Apple has made in the last 3 years with the exception of making absolutely gorgeous products has pissed me off (think DRM issues, closed App Store, removing apps months after they’ve been approved, the Google Voice fiasco). I want desperately to vote with my wallet and buy something new, but I just can’t bring myself to do it.