I’ve heard a lot of talk in the lifestyle business blog and podcast circles about how it is better to have your money available to you in cash rather than tied up in investments. They often refer to Mark Cuban (entrepreneur, blogger, owner of the Dallas Mavericks) saying that he keeps all of his money… Continue reading Cash vs. Investing for the Lifestyle Business Entrepreneur
Notes on Negotiation
The current inability of our elected representatives in Washington D.C. to reach agreements got me reflecting on a topic that many of us haven’t given much thought to–the process of negotiation. Two of the best lectures I’ve ever listened to were delivered by Joel Peterson and Stan Christensen at Stanford as part of their Entrepreneurial… Continue reading Notes on Negotiation
Backing up files and databases to Amazon S3
Very few people learn the importance of backups before having a stomach churning loss of data at the most inopportune time (right before a presentation or the night before your thesis is due). Some, such as yours truly, need to have multiple hard drive failures before they learn their lesson. Luckily we are now where… Continue reading Backing up files and databases to Amazon S3
Please Stop Complaining About How Busy You Are
I imagine this Harvard Business Review article, “Please Stop Complaining About How Busy You Are“, hits home for many of us. We’re all just so “busy” these days. “Slammed” in fact. “Buried.” Desperately “trying to keep our heads above water.” While these common responses to “How are you?” seem like they’re lifted from the Worst Case… Continue reading Please Stop Complaining About How Busy You Are
Want to become a billionaire?
I thought this list from the Harvard Business Review of company mission categories was inspirational: Making the world more beautiful. Making the world more fun. Making the world more efficient and smart. They go on to highlight some billionaires whose companies fit those categories. They all fit my personal mantra (which I think I stole… Continue reading Want to become a billionaire?
New dashboard widgets for Dashing
I just released my first three of hopefully many widgets for Dashing (the dashboard project released by Shopify). It is also my first time contributing to an open source project. Google Analytics Visitor Count: This is actually a fork of the original widget. I modified it so that I could view the data on multiple… Continue reading New dashboard widgets for Dashing
Amazon product searches
I think this site is too cool not to share. MerchantWords shows you what Amazon users are searching for and how many are searching for a particular term. If you produce/sell a physical product, or are thinking about doing so, then it should be your next stop on the web.
Resources for Startup Engineering Students
There are a bunch of great resources on the Internet for people interested in startups. A lot of people have made the journey before and shared their success stories, mistakes, and wisdom. Many of them share freely and I’ve collected some of those below. Podcasts: Startups for the Rest of Us is a podcast hosted by… Continue reading Resources for Startup Engineering Students
Business Lessons from Ender’s Game
I finally read Ender’s Game in anticipation of the upcoming movie. (I have a lot of sci-fi to catch up on after almost exclusively reading business books for a decade.) I enjoyed the book and found that there were some lessons in there that would apply to business, careers, and personal relationships. The overall theme… Continue reading Business Lessons from Ender’s Game
Zero-Item Inbox Bliss
I finally did it. After years of dreaming about a zero-item inbox I actually decided that I was going to achieve it by the end of the day. That didn’t happen. I was able to achieve zero-inbox bliss within a week of making that decision. And the closer I got the better I felt. I… Continue reading Zero-Item Inbox Bliss