Archive for 2014

Politely decline an SEO/copywriter pitch via LinkedIn mail to rewrite and optimize my websites. This is the response: “read ur website… ur english sucks… u need to learn how to right… u should hav hired me to write it… ur loss…” Words fail me. /picard

The Minimum Viable Product is what you should build. The Maximum Viable Product is what you can actually build. Never confuse the two.

The system that does not reward excellence will only encourage mediocrity.

Starbucks. MIT. Hagen-Dazs. Stanford. Levi’s. Harvard. Nike. Brand names don’t convey quality, they convey uniformity. “We can make this uniform experience for you for this price.” It’s comfort. It’s familiar. It’s the same reason people eat McDonald’s. If you are basing your hiring decisions on brand names you are hiring for uniformity, not extraordinary.

Experience. Equity. Exposure. Three things you should never do work for unless you are getting a quantifiable amount of it.

You cannot develop amazing people in your organization if you don’t give them permission to fail.

Knowing where other landmarks are is often more important than knowing where you are. This applies to marketing, engineering, sales, personal development. Almost everything.

You cannot find and hire great people if you only expend the effort necessary to find and hire mediocre people.

It is not bravery to do something voluntarily that a million people before you have done. Bravery comes from when we voluntarily do something that few have done before, or are compelled to do something that many have attempted before yet failed.

You know what’s really annoying? No matter how many video monitors are attached to your computer, your cat will always insist on sitting in front of the one you are using.

Potential Client (being very serious): “We were really looking for someone who is a bit more proficient with mobile development.” P.S. I teach week long corporate training classes covering very advanced mobile development topics for iOS, Android and Windows 10 Mobile to senior engineers at companies such as Facebook, eBay, PayPal, Samsung, Qualcomm, Intel, Microsoft…

Whoever came up with the idea of a “Master bedroom” as a room that consumes 20%+ of the space of a dwelling really needs their head examined.

If you believe you are “in a war for talent” perhaps you should spend money like you are in an actual war.

“…and we’ll pay you when the SaaS starts making some serious profit.” Sorry to say it, but this is not how the real world works.

You are no longer the person I fell in love with, but you are the person who broke my heart.

A lot of software developers believe that their day-to-day job is to write as much code as is necessary to justify their pay cheque.

The probability of hiring and retaining a new engineer is inversely proportional to the number of junior engineers you have in your organization. And it isn’t because the senior engineers don’t want to work with junior engineers.

Never regret trying.

Steve Wozniak why u no accept my LinkedIn request!? And after I bought one of your Apple II computers too! 🙂

“The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something.” Nolan Bushnell I love you! I want to have your babies!