With The Band

Wave by wave, technology has brought us amazing advancements.

Problem is, they don’t replace each other, they are cumulative. People still have records, 8-tracks, tapes, CDs, minidiscs*, 8mm reels, VHS tapes, DVDs… All are recently or long obsolete, but still technically operational, and therefore used.

The same happens with communication, particularly recently. Not only do previous methods stick around, they are still used. The ease of each new communication method bring with it additional complication. Which one do I choose? Which one is more appropriate for what?

In the recent era… (skipping over ancient tech, smoke signals, etc )

• Nothing (in person communication) - Can I talk to them?
• … then came telephone -  When is it worth calling them as opposed to seeing them in person? is it formal enough to deserve an in-person meeting?
• … then came e-mail -  Do I have to hear from them now? Do they prefer e-mail? What’s their address?
• … then came text/instant messaging-  can I condense the content into a small enough message?
  
• … then came social media -  Am I “friends” with them? Do I want others to be involved?
  

I’ve been thinking about this recently, with recent discussions of “Inbox 2.0” (e-mail derived social networking), and finally giving in and playing with Twitter. I still use e-mail. I still use IM. I still use text messaging. I still send messages on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc… Each one still has it’s own utility, but with enough overlap that I have to make a conscious decision of which one to use to communicate with an individual.

There is no solution, currently. Just like I still have grandparents who I’m sure still only use VHS tapes with their VCR, there will still be people who “stick” with a particular communication method, and shouldn’t be left behind.

Unless someone were to develop some Communication Aggregator, a marvelous technology that will someway, somehow, link everything. But who knows what that will look like.

*had to throw that one in there, given that I got fooled into buying one, along with everyone in Japan.

Since Wikipedia can be edited by anyone, everything you are viewing is merely reflects a moment in time. You can come back a day later and it’ll be different. While I was doing some searching for the previous blog post, I came across this little gem for the wikipedia entry on Intrapreneurship.

Click here to see it, kinda NSFW.

Looks like Google needs to re-index that page.

If you’re not laughing, it’s late. Leave me alone :-).

I’m sitting here tonight on the brink of launching. The problem is, I’ve been like this for months.

Any geek with a few hours free and a web host (I have 3+) can throw together a web application. Take an idea you have, or just find one online. Buy a domain name for it, upload it, and you are done. Tell a few friends, maybe post in some forums. You stare at the analytics for weeks on end, hoping that the usage break into the three or four digit range. And it never does. I know because I’ve done this at least half a dozen times, know others who have done it more. Moreover, I’ve seen literally thousands of other applications out there, built with care, but then forgotten, lingering online until someone forgets to renew the domain name.

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work” - Thomas Edison

It’s not because they don’t care. It’s fear of the unknown. Building is what we’re good at. Getting people to use it is a totally different thing. So what do we do? We tinker, we perfect. Make some minimal attempts at promoting it. Then say you tried, and give up. I’ve been tinkering with my application for months now, the bulk of the development completed. I am making changes, adding new features, tweaking the site design, getting feedback from people. I like to say I am distilling it. In truth, I am hesitant. I don’t want this one to fail. I have to figure out how to launch it in just the right way so that it will actually gain traction.

“An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew hoping he’ll quickly learn how to chew it” - Roy Ash

But in that I find strength. Knowing that this barrier exists, and seeing countless people that have not yet made it over the barrier, to me shows promise. I’ve been stopped at this point many times before. From that, I know that if I break through this, just jump off the cliff and go, that I’ll be far more successful than I and others have been before. And I hope that somehow, the fear will fade. And results will arise. Powering through “The Dip”, as Seth Godin calls it.

I’ve had a funny idea in my head for a while that if you were to give me a ridiculous amount of money to spend in any way I want, I would go right out and set up a restaurant or a brick and mortar store in a populated area, just to see if “build it and they will come” holds true.

Being a one-person startup makes it even more volatile. I was the only one who brought this idea to fruition. And I’m the only one who has to kill it. Getting bored, moving on to another idea, hitting a roadblock, too many distractions, or even just having a bad day has left my projects folder brimming with “startups.” My one solution to this has been involving other people. I used to, but am no longer aggressively looking for a co-founder. Instead, I’m reaching out to my network (a pretty new discovery for me) for validation, feedback, suggestions, and help. But maybe having someone else who was equally as invested, pushing me along, would help.

Some people dream of great accomplishments, while others stay awake and do them.

I will do this.

Not exactly a positive mark for Washington DC.

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Video below.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, all my friends and family, old and new!

At the current time, people speak of “two-state” solutions. I propose instead a “two-star” solution, Two Stars for Peace. When America welcomes Israel and Palestine as the 51st and 52nd states of the union, the age-old dream of peace and prosperity in the land of milk and honey will have been achieved.

Wait… what?

Based on the trailer, 21, the movie based on MIT’s blackjack team captured in the book Bringing Down the House, looks like it’ll be pretty good. Trailer below.

One of my friends pointed out to me that a search for dc metro times on Google shows my lil’ web app in third place. Nice!

Peter of iStrategyLabs recommended that I get it it’s own domain name, no more piggybacking off skeevisarts.com (which I redesigned by the way, check it out!!) and see what I can build out of it.

I had been planning on writing my thoughts on this for a while, but spurred on by the announcement of a local tech incubator launching in the coming months, I felt it was time to write something.

Tech entrepreneurs, who dedicate so much of their lives to connecting people regardless of geographic location, still rely on real-world networking and face to face interaction. Online companies still need real world offices (with some exceptions). VCs and angels still want face to face presentations. And so on and so on. For things like this, the more local resources there are, the better chance of success. It’s long been said by seasoned tech entrepreneurs that the only place
to start a company is in Silicon Valley. I remember talking to the
founder of a now very popular company, and for him, the one thing that he felt he needed to make his company successful was pack up shop and move out West. He did that, and now they are huge.

It’s become crystal clear in my mind in recent months that my main focus is to launch my own startup. I’ve spent considerable amounts of time considering what’s necessary to accomplish that goal, and what resources are available to me. Persuaded by others, and backed up by reading article after article, I became convinced that what I really needed to do, before doing anything else, was move to Silicon Valley. But I like it here. Here is where I call home. Not to say I won’t ever move back out to California, but I refuse to think that I can’t accomplish anything here, solely because of where I am. If I were in Texaco, New Mexico, it would be one thing, but this is Washington DC, our nations capital.

Here is what DC has.

Talent - Step into the labs of any government agency, defense contractor, or consulting firm, and you’ll meet some of the smartest people around. Experts in their respective fields, they often remain unknown outside the confines of the entity they work for. I know this because I work around them. In this area, the way of life is working for a large firm or agency, as opposed to a startup.

Job Security - The government and contractors are always hiring talent. Coming out here with a solid technical background (citizenship a plus), you are guaranteed a job at any of these places. Depending on market forces, startups and established companies may thrive or whither away, but the government always runs, and will always need people. We’ll never see a mass exodus of talent away from this area, even if every startup dies up.

Education - I’m pretty biased here. I graduated from Maryland. I know the caliber of the students entering and graduating from Maryland. Fine, Maryland is no Stanford/MIT, but it’s already highly ranked, and climbing. I’ve seen what students like me can and have produced. Why have we not seen more come out of Maryland/GWU/American/etc… technology grads? Because the dominant recruiters at universities have been government and contractors. Most graduates never thought of anything else, other than choosing which branch of government to go for, or which firm to join. I can only think of one startup that I saw at a career fair in my four years there. None of my colleagues have gone to work for a startup, nor thought of it. As the DC tech community starts to focus away from government and more towards startups and the like, this will change. I’ve spoken with a recruiter for local startups about this a bit.

Access to Resources - New York, Philadelphia, Richmond, Delaware, all within a few hours drive. Boston a little bit further. All of these, in addition to those right here in DC, have significant capital, large companies to partner with, and people. People, people, people.

The one big thing we are missing? Experience. Yes, we have AOL (for now) and a handful of other dot-coms, but not an established ecosystem. Experience brings knowledge of how to launch and run a startup. Experience helps break away from the perception that it can’t be done out here. Experience shows kids like me and younger that something else can be done other than rising through the pre-defined ranks of a big company or branch of government. I know that some of the experience is out there, but it just needs to come out. Talk.

It’s an exciting time to be in the DC area.

Having such lofty goals, and so little time to do it, maximizing my productivity is crucial. Every minute has to be devoted to doing something useful, and I have to ensure I have the mindset and the motivation to do it. You could spend hours on Lifehacker and similar sites, reading other people’s productivity secrets (including celebrities), but it takes time to discover and tweak what works for you. If only I had these tools available to me when I was in school.

There’s one tactic I’ve developed which has worked wonders for me, so far. Every day, you have to accomplish something towards your goal. Every single day. Mark it off on your calendar, don’t go to sleep til it’s done, whatever you need to do. Even if you only have five minutes, spend five minutes working towards a greater goal, and you’ll accomplish wonders over time.

It may seem a million miles away - but it gets a lil’ closer every day. - Moshav Band

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