Oct 06 2008
∞
Why should I buy Instapaper Pro? It only adds a few features.
Why Instapaper Free has almost all of the features of Instapaper Pro, and the kind of customer relationship I’m lucky to have.
Oct 05 2008
∞
“ To really stand for something, you must make difficult decisions, mostly about what you don’t do. We don’t ship products like that, we don’t stand for employees like that (“you’re fired”), we don’t fix problems like that.
—
This is one of the biggest improvements that startups and busy people can make. By defining what you aren’t, you can specialize and produce great work.
This is especially personal because I used to have a big problem turning down money and work. As one step toward fixing this, I gave up computer-fixing and I’ve been a far better developer since. I’ll also no longer work on an hourly-only basis — I want the possibility of reaping benefits from my work even during the hours, days, and years I’m not actively working on it, so I’ll only do personal projects or jobs in which I have equity.
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∞
We had a Lavazza Blue cartridge-espresso maker in the room. It’s like they read my tumblelog and knew exactly what to give me to make me happy, given what cruise ships can reasonably have available.
(Interestingly, since the food is only restocked between trips and is probably kept frozen, a giant ship floating on the ocean is a terrible place to eat seafood.)
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∞
I didn’t think the huge cruise ship would fit under the Verrazano bridge. Fortunately, I was wrong. But not by much.
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∞
Tip: When going on a cruise, get the best room you can afford.
(I’m not going to go nuts and post 500 pictures here that will force everyone to unfollow me. But I will share a few good ones.)
Oct 04 2008
∞
Timelessness and the value of content
Editing the submission queue for Give Me Something To Read has reinforced my increasing realization that hardly any professional-content sites (news sites, high-profile blogs, etc.) actually have anything to say of lasting value.
Two weeks of submissions accumulated during my vacation (over 600 links). Normally, I put 4-6 articles per weekday on GMSTR, and I try to be very picky, so I should have a buildup of 40-60 great articles in these submissions. But many of them are time-sensitive, so their value two weeks later is greatly diminished. I’ll probably end up getting around 25 good picks, but there’s a lot of subject-matter repetition within my picks so far, having pruned through about half of the queue.
The internet and blogs are great platforms to deliver news and related commentary. But can’t we find more to say that will still matter in two weeks, two years, or two decades? I’m going to try.
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∞
Wow, this was an expensive time to leave society for 2 weeks
I just lost a lot of money in stock-based accounts.
Even the most conservative stocks and mutual funds have bombed recently, and there’s no end in sight. I’m fairly new to this world, but I don’t want to ride this down any more… I think I’ll pull most of it out soon/now and buy back in when the market’s in an upswing.
Is my only hope a 4% CD at this point, or am I missing better options?
(Also, screw taboos. I’m talking about money. Next, I’ll address religion, politics, and whatever diseases killed your loved ones.)
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Declaring Dashboard bankruptcy
The wedding was great! Thanks for the unexpectedly large number of reblogs on that last post.
For the first time since Tumblr started, I have to declare Dashboard bankruptcy. I absolutely cannot possibly catch up with everything since I was last here 2 weeks ago. This bothers me more than you probably expect, unless you have the same must-see-everything RSS-reader-like compulsion that I do.
So I’m starting here:
I have to skip everything between this line and 2 weeks ago. Let me know if I missed anything really cool.
(And don’t even get me started on email…)
Sep 24 2008
∞
Getting married, brb
Sep 21 2008
∞
Google is terrible at making interfaces, HTC is terrible at making sleek and high-quality hardware, and T-Mobile is terrible at everything.
Why does anyone think their collaboration will result in anything great?