December 31, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Subject to amendment.
- Make chai from scratch
- Spend more time reading (books)
- Work out at least three times per week, consistently
- Learn more about stocks, trading, economics
- Redesign this website
- Write more consistently for this website
- Start doing research within the CSE department at UW
- Get really good at cooking
- Get a spice rack
- Be mindful
- Finish learning CakePHP
- Be able to taste the difference between english and irish breakfast
- Get a drum set
- Play a show
- Keep being independent
- Don’t stir the jam
- Break 15,000 songs
- Be able to lift a respectable amount of weight
- Code more fluidly
- Live more fluidly
- Live by the words you say
- Get out of bed in the morning quicker
- Learn
Personal
December 26, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Among my share of presents this Christmas was Kurt Vonnegut’s Armageddon In Retrospect, a collection of his writings on war and peace. Having so far read only the introduction written by Vonnegut’s son, I’m already ripe with material to write about:
When I complained about being paid fifty dollars for an article that had taken me a week to write, he [Kurt] said I should take into account what it would have cost me to take out a two-page ad announcing that I could write.
The message here is simple: if you are in a profession where your work is viewed publicly, then you should worry less about how much you’re being paid, and more about doing good work.
Why? Because if your work is publicly displayed (be it in print, the web, or whatever), then it serves as an advertisement for you skills. If you’re a designer, the best marketing you can do is to create attractive products that accomplish what clients want. A happy client will be more likely to share his happiness with others, thus shooting business your way. Word of mouth has exploded.
If you’re a developer working for a company of any size, write the best code you can and make sure others know about it. If you’re a writer, write your ass off. Your name is wherever your words are, so every article you get published is active marketing.
If you’ve got the chops, flaunt them and reap the rewards.
Marketing
December 6, 2008 at 5:46 pm
As fall quarter winds down and the rush of finals gets into high gear, I find myself thinking broadly in terms of my place in the world and the economy instead of focusing in on linear algebra, fluid dynamics, and electromagnitism. A diet of Vaynerchuk, Godin, and Calacanis has me thinking about the future of technology and its place in whatever economy emerges from the current downturn. As a wannabe computer engineering major, how can I position myself to not only be ahead of the game, but to be happy doing so?
In his most recent email, Jason Calacanis offers insight into how to achieve the first part of this question:
It was our collective sloth, consumption and sense of entitlement that got us into this mess, and the only thing that will get us out will be lots of hard work.
This bodes well with Gary V’s concept of “hustle” and aligns itself with the positive side of my feelings toward capitalism. Insidious advertising, closed-mindedness, and corruption aside, a capitalist system appeals to me in that (virtually) anyone can “make it” by simply buckling down and doing work. Got an innovative idea? Build on it and capitalize.
One of the exhilarating parts of today’s software/web industry is its tendency to be a catalyst to the American dream. The cost (both monetary and temporal) of innovation in the software space is so incredibly low that the hardest part of the process becomes the search for an idea to act on. A result of this is my train of thought trying to come up with a revolutionary web service when it should be refreshing itself on linear transformation.
In times like this I try to remind myself of another Calacanis bit from TWIT a couple months ago. In essence, recessions are the best time for entrepreneurs because it gives them a quiet period of time to stay in the shadows and build value. While all this economic turmoil and fail is unfolding, you’re given the opportunity to take a step back and improve yourself so that you can rush out swinging confidently when the economy turns around.
In my case, this means buckling down and learning as much as I possibly can in school and at work. As a college student, the best thing you can do for yourself and your future is to suck it up and learn. Knowledge will always be the most valuable resource in the world and if you can increase your share of it, you’ll end up fine. Even in the face of economic meltdown.
Economy