Yuppie Nomad

Month

June 2013

2 posts

“BUILD STARTUP IS JUMP OUT WINDOW, INVENT WINGS ON WAY DOWN. BUILD COMMUNITY IS JUMP INTO WHIRLWIND, MAKE IT A HURRICANE. JUMP NOW.” —HOW TO SOCIAL by @fakegrimlock http://t.co/5NPyyCoA8q via @fredwilson
Jun 17, 2013
#social
Play
Jun 17, 20137 notes

May 2013

7 posts

May 19, 2013
May 19, 2013574 notes
May 17, 2013
#arrested development #data porn
“Please think of me like an endangered species and just observe me quietly from far away,” he said. “If you try to talk to me or touch me casually, I may get intimidated and bite you. So please be careful.” —

I would love to sit down next to @haruki_murakami and read books quietly

Caution: Murakami bites | Matador Network

May 17, 20132 notes
#murakami
“After finishing my last semester of university (carefully planned to be a study abroad), I holed myself up in a one-room apartment in Bangkok, a city chosen mostly because it was easy to be isolated in. And I read. Like an invalid stuck in a hospital bed watches television, so I read—from the moment I awoke, clutching my book as I fell asleep on a thin mat, surrounded by the sounds of heat, and dishes being washed on a balcony.” —

Psyched one of my favorite curmudgeons is penning his hacker-videographer-traveler insights on @Medium. Go Alaric!

You’re Never Going to Write that Novel

Alaric, my co-founder for Imagist, has recently taken to Medium. It’s the first platform that’s gotten him to write again as he’s more inclined towards long form. I’m super happy to see it.  As someone who works in technology, we feed off creativity from all parts of our lives, and the best products come from our inspirations that oftentimes flash in the horizon far from our comfort zone.

Without us knowing it - while Alaric was hacking it as a writer in Bangkok, I was a few hundred miles away, trying to hack it as a writer in Hanoi. Both of us came to technology haphazardly  - both found inspiration in the writer-heroes of our youth and aspired to be storytellers - and both of us continue to chase that dream, to be narrative weavers, in our current work of commits and pixels.

I’m excited to be working on Imagist with Alaric. We started as friends interested in traveling and foraging and biking.  I’ve found that our differences have complemented our work, but more important, our similar motivations and passions have made getting up and working an everyday joy.  

(via joshuanguyen)

May 16, 20138 notes
#hacker writer
May 7, 2013
May 7, 2013

March 2013

8 posts

Swapping C.R.E.A.M. for STEM: Wu-Tang's GZA Helps Kids Learn Science With Hip Hop → flip.it

Liz Dwyer, good.is

Thanks to the Wu-Tang Clan, C.R.E.A.M—Cash Rules Every­thing Around Me— may be the most famous acronym in hip hop. But these days Wu-Tang mem­ber GZA is switch­ing things up and rap­ping about sci­enc …

Science Genius via @GOODfeed

Mar 29, 2013
“The cost of convenience, in other words, is spatial orientation.” —

Is Google Maps Changing Our Behavior? - Eric Jaffe - The Atlantic Cities

Huge personal concern of mine. There’s something super human about a sense of direction, not that mine’s great. I just don’t want it to get worse!

Mar 29, 2013
User Types: The Tourists and The Explorers | Elou Design → elouwebdesign.com

A good metaphor, if you can remember that being a tourist isn’t always bad

Mar 26, 20131 note
#ux #user research
Mar 21, 201351 notes
Mar 21, 20135 notes
#mobile apps #mobile #user behavior
Report: “Digital omnivore” population grew 160 percent last year | VentureBeat → venturebeat.com

Higher than I thought: a quarter of Americans own a smartphone, tablet, and laptop.

Mar 21, 2013
Mar 13, 201354 notes
Play
Mar 4, 20139 notes

February 2013

3 posts

Play
Feb 20, 2013
#space #chris hadfield #cooking show #intergalactic
Feb 12, 2013
#mobile apps
Community & Control

I started at Flipboard last week and one of the traditions I’ve already grown to appreciate are the brown bag lunches. Friends from other start-ups come to talk about topics they’re passionate about. 

Something I’ve missed about living in the Bay Area is trading start-up war stories - that’s how you learn how as an entrepreneur, outside of making those mistakes yourself! Lucky me, I caught the week with Caterina Fake, the queen of these stories (and random fact: she is also the progenitor of ‘FOMO’). Our conversation centered around how Flickr’s community got started and grew to be one of the first successful ones online.

I boil it down to control - how much you dictate, suggest, and leave up to your community.

Your community is defined by what you encourage…

Caterina said the two big features for Flickr that opened the flood gates were (1) making photos public as default and (2) allowing sites to embed photos. Such a simple concept but so powerful - encourage the activity you want by making it super easy, default and shareable. You also encourage by leading by example. At the beginning, everyone at Flickr wrote comments back to the community and the rule was they had to say something meaningful - something they would say as participants, not as Flickr staff. This set the tone. I know most Flickr folks of yore and they are all super passionate about photography. They were a huge part of the community and kick-ass photographers too! (the anti-Charles Barkley, I’m not a role model rule)

…and what you tolerate

The tough side of community is how you deal with the ugly. Caterina was adamant about pulling the weeds and doing it from the get-go. Communities devolve quickly so you have to be vigilant and encourage users to be involved in maintaining the community. (the broken windows rule)

… and users will always surprise you

You will never know what your users will do until they use it, for worse and for better. Flickr is the classic example of this. It was a failed game that had photo sharing as a feature. When that feature became overwhelmingly popular, they thought, ‘maybe this is something’. (I call this the kid with a box rule. Give a kid a present wrapped in a box and you’ll get a fort or a spaceship or a house for Optimus Prime back <— real example, courtesy of my nephews).

My major takeaway is that we are at the very beginning of this. Flickr, The Well, etc sound like ages ago, but in reality, we are still solving, resolving, refining a lot of the same problems with social software today. The idea of community is much more nuanced, complex, and rich then what we see on the interwebs.

It’s a great reminder as I kick off at Flipboard. The synapses are throwing off sparks.

Feb 11, 20134 notes
#community #caterina fake #brown bag lunch #product thoughts #social software
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