Notes from last year’s Y Combinator Startup School that I’d never seen before.
Research time. Let’s do some book learning!
I ordered The Illusions of Entrepreneurship and Finding Fertile Ground, both by Scott Shane, from Amazon today. Really looking forward to reading them.
A little more on the web design community
Following up on yesterday’s post ZzZzzzZzZZzzZzZzZZzzzZzz (heh, now that’s a permalink). So, what are you supposed to do when the online community you used to be pretty active in — a community that was once full of really interesting people, work, and new ideas, a community that helped you get work and make money, as well as got you into your current career — no longer holds your interest?
Do you step up and make it interesting yourself, or just move on and participate in something that’s as interesting and inspiring as the old community used to be? Right now I’m leaning towards the latter.
This doesn’t mean I’ll change jobs or careers, not by a longshot, especially since I love them both. Just that I’ll maybe start using my freetime differently than I have the last 6 years.
I just AppDeleted TextMate. Felt good. Long live Coda!
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Is it just me or has the web design community not gotten extremely, teeth-suckingly boring over the past couple years?
Is it because all the buzz has been about startups and programming frameworks and Javascript and scaling and business models — and none of it around tired old web design?
Is it because we’ve been waiting on HTML5 and CSS3 for what seems like decades?
Or is it just because we’ve all been too busy working to write anything interesting?
I’ve just recently come to realize that trying to create a truly profitable business out of web design is futile. Whether it’s freelance, conferences and education, or something like Weebly, it’ll never be anything more than a feature of a successful business — never a business in and of itself. I’ve got to understand that.
How can America’s rich teach their children the value of a dollar?
Susan Bradley, founder of the Sudden Money Institute, once ran a forum for wealthy parents at which one of them reported that their child was paying the housekeeper to make his bed. “And everyone thought this was hilarious and very enterprising, showing early business capabilities and that kind of thing,” says Bradley.
Also this bit struck me:
“[R]esearch on rich adults shows they’re far more likely to feel friendless than poor ones. “Think about it,” says Luthar. “How does any of us know we’re loved by friends? It’s when they come to us in a time of need. If we don’t have a time of need because we buy what we need, how are we going to know who truly loves us?”
Lots of other interesting points about Gates and Buffett planning to hand down only very small fortunes to their children, comparing Manhattan to the United Arab Emirates, etc.
The only curse everyone wishes upon themselves — the curse of wealth.
Weekend Plans. “We have a membership at Gymboree with guest passes!”
“God is a hot niche category on the Internet right now …” God, I hope he’s kidding.
The Email Standards Project and its accompanying article on Vitamin Ensuring your HTML emails look great and get delivered.
Web designers, speak softly and carry a great portfolio.
Ever notice how the web designers who talk and write the most do the least amount of great work? And those — you’ve heard of — who talk the least can do truly amazing stuff? Odd that.
I launched the Design Deadline redesign/realign today. You can read more about it here.
Foamee. I’ve come to the conclusion that Dan’s work consistently stands out because he really is having fun with it. It’s that simple.
Hrm, this Alter Your Temple site looks awfully familiar. Just a tip, Ryan Nalepinski, you probably shouldn’t sign your name to designs you’ve stolen.
Thanks to screenfluent and light on dark for featuring the new design. Things are probably still a little buggy, but thanks for stopping by.
Site reorg and realign
I managed to find a little time tonight to update the design of the site and prune away some of the useless posts I had started collecting.
I think — after several months of designs I weren’t happy with and content I wasn’t excited about — I’m starting to finally get somewhere. Look for more, better content coming soon … fingers crossed.
New Vitamin article: How will OpenID change your site?
My top 5 favorite science fiction movies
From best to fifth best:
- Blade Runner
- Aliens
- Gattaca
- Children of Men
- Back to the Future
Movies that finished just outside the top 5 would be Terminator 2, The Matrix, Brazil, Jurassic Park and The Empire Strikes Back.