The island spirit

oahu-beaches-hanauma-bay-hawaii

I’m currently in vacation mode on a week-long trip to Hawaii, and its been a blast so far.

Getting away is always a good idea, but there is something special about Hawaii. Every time I visit (this is the fourth time), I come away amazed with the culture. Perhaps it is the sun, but I’m fairly sure that it is more than that. I hear it called the Aloha spirit and whatever it is, it seems to be an awesome thing.

People here seem genuinely happier and friendlier than I am used to. They seem to be less preoccupied with the shallow worldly things, and more connected with themselves, with others, and with nature. I say “seem” because that is what it is. I don’t actually know the culture, but from all observations, it seems to be true.

In any case, it is a big change from hustle in Silicon Valley. Innovation is great, but I think it is important to remember that focus should still primarily be on the important things in one’s life: family, friends, fellow human beings, and the world around us.

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P.S. This is post number #86 in a 100 day blogging challenge. See you tomorrow!

Follow me on Twitter @alexshye.

Or, check out my current project Soulmix.

Music and social media

Music is a wonderful thing. It can immediately evoke strong emotions, such as excitiement or feelings of nostalgia. Whatever you are doing, great music can significantly improve your experience.

I love music. The funny thing is, it has never been part of my social media experience. I have shared status updates, location, images, and videos, but I have rarely had a reason to share something with music. That is, until this week.

Recently, I’ve been coming across short videos made by the Mindie iOS app. This week, I’m on vacation on Oahu, and gave it a try myself. For those that haven’t seen them, Mindie allows a user to choose a song from the iTunes store, and then use their phone’s video camera to put together video clips totaling up to 7 seconds. 7 seconds of your chosen song plays in the background.

Mindie sounds like a simple app, but it is the first music-related social media experience that I have ever been excited about. It allows you to stitch together parts of your life, and then use the music of your choice to strengthen the moment. The addition of music is powerful. It improves the video, as well as attaches itself to your experiences within your mind. I’m sure that when I recall the experiences in the future, the songs will be part of my memory.

Want an example? Here’s an Mindie from today 🙂

Awesome, huh?

The 7 second limit is a huge design decision here. It allows the video to be short and fun, but is long enough include a significant number of shots. More importantly, the constraint forces users to use their creativity to maximize the 7 seconds of video. It essentially turns everyone into the executive producer of a short music video reflecting their lives. The result is an exciting video that you don’t mind looping over and over. And because they are only 7 seconds, you don’t mind watching other people’s Mindies also.

I’ve already made 10+ Mindies these past few days, and they have been a lot of fun. It is very exciting. The most exciting part of this, is that I believe Mindie has unlocked the key to adding music into social media. This is great for music lovers and me.. and I’m sure many others in the world.

IMHO, Mindie is the first compelling social app that makes music a core part of the experience. I don’t think it will be the last, and am excited to see what other app developers come up with.

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P.S. This is post number #85 in a 100 day blogging challenge. See you tomorrow!

Follow me on Twitter @alexshye.

Or, check out my current project Soulmix.

Minimizing cognitive load in design

brain

Yesterday, I wrote on the three things I believe to be important in design.

I’d like to delve a little more into minimizing cognitive load. It sounds like a simple statement, but actually means a lot.

Minimizing cognitive load means that you respect the user’s time and attention. They are using your product to get something done, and you want to enable them to do it with as little extra mental processing as possible.

Minimizing cognitive load means reducing extraneous clutter. Clutter makes a page difficult to process. The user must filter through several bits of information before finding what really matters to them.

Similar to clutter, minimizing cognitive load means reducing distractions. The unfortunate part is that for most websites on the internet, ads count as clutter. They provide little value and act as something the user must dodge.

Minimizing cognitive load involves an understanding of the user’s attention and focus. At any given point, what are they trying to do? How do you make it as easy as possible for them to accomplish this? This requires a great deal of empathy for the user.

Minimizing cognitive load involves an understanding of the user’s habits and behaviors. Are there common behaviors performed by the user? What are the most important things your user does? What patterns of behaviors do your users have? How do you design in order to make these behaviors as streamlined as possible for your user?

Minimizing cognitive load tends to imply simplicity. Distilling a product to its core concepts makes it easier for the user to figure out what is going on. However, don’t over simplify. A product which is over simplified can be confusing and difficult to figure out.

Can you think of anything else? The more I think about design, the more I believe that enabling the user while minimizing cognitive load is one of the most difficult parts of design. If you know of any good resources or tips, I would love to hear them.

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P.S. This is post number #84 in a 100 day blogging challenge. See you tomorrow!

Follow me on Twitter @alexshye.

Or, check out my current project Soulmix.

Good design

Apple Macbook Air

I’m not artist or designer, but I have spent enough time studying good products on the web (as well as studying why my past products have sucked) to have some initial thoughts on it.

From my limited experience, design can be boiled down to three main points.

  1. Good design is useful. It enables the user to easily do what they want to do.
  2. Good design minimizes cognitive load. It respects the user’s time and attention.
  3. Good design is beautiful, without sacrificing utility or increasing cognitive load.

Only three things, but it is difficult to accomplish all three. If you product is useful, minimizes cognitive load, and is beautiful, you have done one hell of a job.

What does good design mean to you?

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P.S. This is post number #83 in a 100 day blogging challenge. See you tomorrow!

Follow me on Twitter @alexshye.

Or, check out my current project Soulmix.

Be good (the startup version)

Yesterday, I wrote on a big lesson that consistently pops up in my life: be good. The lesson is simple: if you want something, the only thing that matters is to be good.

Most recently, I have been learning this lesson with respect to startups.

When I quit my job in April 2012, I had no idea what I was doing. I only knew that I wanted to create an impact in the world, and that I probably had to figure it out on my own.

The first thing I did was consume everything I could find on the web and in the bookstore. I devoured books and blog posts. I watched as many videos as I could find from founders I respected. I browsed Hacker News daily, reading a good fraction of all the posts on the front page. At the same time, I started doing a lot. I picked up web programming. I started blogging. I continually networked as best I could, taking coffee meeting after coffee meeting.

In the first year, I met a lot of people, and learned a great deal about the VC and tech world. However, I hadn’t built anything worth anything. I had built and scrapped three prototype products. So where was my startup? At ground zero.

After I scrapped my third code base, I remembered that lesson that I always seem to come back to: be good.

Since then, I’ve browsed Hacker News a lot less. I’ve drastically cut back on coffee meetings. Instead, I spend almost all of my time building and iterating on product.

Why?

A startup is defined by it’s product. Build a great product, and you’ve built the beginnings of a great startup. Fail to build a great product, and there is no startup.

You can have the greatest network in the world, but without a good product, you are just simply good at schmoozing and connecting with people.

You can figure out a way to raise millions of dollars, but without a good product, you aren’t a startup. You are just a bank account.

You can churn out thousands of lines of code, but if it doesn’t turn into a good product, those lines of code are going to be thrown away.

You can build your Twitter and blog following, but without a good product, you are a talking head.

You can read all of Hacker News, Techcrunch, etc. but without a good product, you are just a listener.. most likely listening to a bunch of talking heads.

You can learn all you want about growth hacking, but without a good product, you have nothing to grow.

Only one thing matters in building a startup: being good at building product.

And how do you build a great product?

I wish I could answer that one. I only know that the start of that answer again is to be good. I don’t think there are any tricks. Great products don’t just pop out of thin air. They are created by people who are good at building product that people want.*

Knowing this, there is only one thing to do: focus on understanding great consumer web/mobile products. I’m not good yet, but hopefully if I keep focusing and working, I’ll get there one day.

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* One may say there is some luck involved, and I would agree. But it isn’t all luck, and the best way to maximize your luck is to be good, and be persistent.

* You may ask why I am blogging. First, I am rounding out this 100-day challenge. Second, and more importantly, I have learned that blogging everyday forces me to reflect and think about the big picture on a regular basis. This forcing function has actually been great. So even if I write horribly with typos and grammatical errors all over the place, the writing is really good for me. I’m not sure what I’ll do when the blogging challenge is over, but I may keep writing everyday.

P.S. This is post number #82 in a 100 day blogging challenge. See you tomorrow!

Follow me on Twitter @alexshye.

Or, check out my current project Soulmix.

Be good

I like the idea of using this blog to note big lessons that I have learned in life. I have already written about the most important lesson I’ve ever learned (just do it!), as well as another important lesson on how the world is gray.

There is another big lesson that consistently pops up in my life: be good.

There are so many things some we may strive for in life. We want to be happy. We want to attract the opposite sex. We want that girlfriend/boyfriend, and that great wife/husband. We want that awesome job. We want that next promotion. We want to be socially aware. We want to be great leaders. We want to be powerful speakers. We want to be charismatic.  We want to have a close group of friends. We want to truly connect with others.

There are many ways we can go about striving to attain each of these things. People will give you advice. Experts will publish online, and magazines and books. You will hear tips, tricks, and lifehacks. These are all fine, but there is only one thing that matters: be good.

What does it mean to be good? Simple. Be genuinely good at whatever it is that you want. If you aren’t good, then the only thing that matters is to get good. Tips, tricks, hacks, and advice can be good, but can also be a distraction. They only matter if they help you get good at what you want.

Here are a few examples

Happiness.

Everyone wants to be happy, but many expect it to happiness to happen to them. That isn’t the way life works.

If you want to be happy, you have to get good at being happy. It means actively recognizing and finding reasons to be happy. It means creating happiness, and exchanging it with others.

You are only happy when you get good at being happy.

Career.

We all want great jobs. We want that promotion. That great title. That startup exit. Or that position of respect and influence.

To get there, you will hear all kinds of advice. Dress this way. Network this way. Communicate with your boss like this. Manage your team like this. Build your product like this. Follow these steps to gain leverage in your organization.

What always gets lost in the mix is the most important thing: be good.

That is all that matters. So many people are looking to be promoted to that specific job title so that they can have influence. They have it the wrong way around. You gain a position of power when you have influence.. when you are good.

Whatever our job is, you will almost always be best served by focusing on your craft. Be good. And when you are good, figure out how to get better.

Personal relationships.

People spend an amazing amount of time thinking about how to attract a partner. They will expend an incredible amount of energy, change how they dress, how them act, how they talk, etc. As an example, just take a read through The Game, a fascinating book on the world of pickup artists.

Again, only one thing matters: be good. In this case, simply be a good person. Have a set of values. Stick to them. Genuinely care about others. Respect others and respect yourself.

If you want that great girl, be a great guy. If you aren’t a great guy, she will find out. And vice versa. You can’t trick someone into thinking you are someone else.. at least not in the long term. If you are smart about it, your best bet is to just focus on being awesome.. and then that awesome person will like you.

See the pattern here?

I could go on and on.

I often go through the same pattern. First, I find myself wanting something. I find myself thinking about it, reading material, and trying tips and tricks. After investing some time in it, I realize that only one thing matters: be good.

It happens time and time again across many aspects of life.

I’m now in the process of trying to imprint this lesson into my head. Writing it down helps.

Is there something you want to be or achieve? Be good. That is all there is to it.

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P.S. This is post number #81 in a 100 day blogging challenge. See you tomorrow!

Follow me on Twitter @alexshye.

Or, check out my current project Soulmix.

Startups, money, and happiness

money-happiness

A commonly cited Princeton study on money and happiness claims that money correlates to happiness until you reach a 75K/year salary. Past that, money doesn’t make you much happier.

You can argue about locations, standards of living, etc. but I think it is easy to agree that money provides decreasing marginal utility. That is, the amount of happiness you gain per dollar decreases as you make make more money.

People often think about the marginal utility of money with respect to an annual salary, but there is another interesting way to look at it: the marginal utility of money earned in a lifetime. This becomes particularly interesting for people making the decision between their tech job, and their desire to give the entrepreneur/startup thing a try.

Let us use an example of Jeff, a fictional dude that has 30 years of work in him. He has the choice to either work at a company for 30 years, or to give up 5 years of salary to give a startup a try. If we assume Jeff makes the same amount each year (which obviously isn’t true, but please just go along with it for now), Jeff gives up 16.67% of his lifetime income if he goes the startup route.

Is this a good tradeoff?

I’m going to argue that going the startup route is the right decision (granted that deep down, he really wants to try it).

Jeff only needs a certain amount of money in his lifetime before reaching of point of diminishing returns with respect to happiness. At that point, the only way to significantly increase happiness is to significantly increase the total money earned.

If Jeff’s cushy tech job pays anywhere near 6 figures (as many in tech jobs do), he is way above the 75K/year number in the Princeton study. If he gives the startup thing a try, he doesn’t stand to lose much lifetime happiness when reducing his lifetime income by 16.67%.

However, by trying a startup, Jeff gains the chance to significantly increase his happiness in two ways.

First, he gets the chance to chase a dream. The impact to happiness here is hard to measure, but it can be significant. In the short term, there are benefits to having purpose and hope while chasing your dream. In the long term, there are also big benefits. Whether he succeeds or fails, when Jeff is on his death bed, he will be proud that he gave the startup thing a try.

Second, should the startup actually make it big, he has the chance to significantly increase his lifetime earnings. By “significant”, I mean 2x, 5x, 10x , or possibly more. At these multiples, the increase of lifetime earnings can significantly impact your life happiness, and change your life style.

Yes, this example is rough, but it should be enough to get the picture. I believe that for a knowledgable and skilled person who wants to try a startup and optimize for life happiness, the rational decision is to take the plunge and go for it.

Obviously, I would say this because I’ve done it. What do you think? Does it make sense?

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P.S. This is post number #80 in a 100 day blogging challenge. See you tomorrow!

Follow me on Twitter @alexshye.

Or, check out my current project Soulmix.

The problem with righteous entrepreneurship

Recently, there have been a lot of press on the troubles of VC firm Kleiner Perkins. They were once legendary in their pick of tech companies, as early investors in Amazon, AOL, EA, Google, Intuit, Netscape, Sun Microsystems, Tandem, etc. More recently, they went all-in with cleantech, and did not come out smelling so great.

Linked to the article from Gigaom is another good article this, and on the problem with righteous investing. VCs play a large role in innovation by picking and choosing the right startups to fund. However, this choice is critical. VCs can’t just pick a lofty mission, and dump money into it. As I’ve been learning (and wrote about in a prior post), the market always wins. Lofty visions are great, but there must be a market, and the market must want your product.

However, VCs are only one side of the story. The other side is the entrepreneurs. And the same law applies: lofty visions are awesome, but at some point the vision meets reality, and the reality of the market wins.

This is critical for entrepreneurs to think about. Passion matters in entrepreneurship. Most people don’t leave perfectly good jobs (with perfectly good paychecks) unless they have a passion for something. The most passionate are often driven by the largest missions, and there are many great missions out there: world peace, feeding the poor, educating the world, etc. Clean tech may be one of these (although I’d bet that timing was the real issue). These missions sound great, but can be huge traps. Maybe they would be great as a non-profit, but as a startup? Tread lightly.

This has been one of my biggest lessons so far in my time as an entrepreneur. Look at yourself and make sure you aren’t being a righteous entrepreneur. Passion is great, but the market always wins.

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P.S. This is post number #79 in a 100 day blogging challenge. See you tomorrow!

Follow me on Twitter @alexshye.

Or, check out my current project Soulmix.

The startup of headlines

The power of headlines has been known for quite a while in the publishing world. No matter how great a piece is, it doesn’t matter if the headline is bad. If a headline is good, you can easily 10x your page views. None of this is new.

Here is what’s new. Headlines may be much more powerful than we ever thought. As it turns out, headlines alone are enough to power a startup.

The best example here is Upworthy. If you use Facebook, I am certain you have come across Upworthy. They are the posts with super-clickable titles like “At first I was only  interested, but two minutes later, my mind was blown”. Have you seen any like those? And then clicked? I sure have.

Upworthy has a fairly simple business. It (1) chooses great shareable  content, and then (2) slaps a great headline on the content, and (3) shares it out on Facebook. A great headline compels the user to view the content, and great content compels the reader to share. That is all you need for massive growth. I have also come across Viralnova, which seems to be doing the same thing.

Isn’t that amazing? These are full VC-investable startups that are built on choosing great content, and writing great headlines. Yes, choosing great content is a value add. But it isn’t like they are creating the content. It is all out there. If you hire enough people, you can easily find great content, and then slap a new headline on them.

Can you write great headlines? You may want to consider a startup 🙂

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P.S. This is post number #78 in a 100 day blogging challenge. See you tomorrow!

Follow me on Twitter @alexshye.

Or, check out my current project Soulmix.

Blogging styles: more questions or more answers?

I’ve been thinking a bit today about blogging styles, and what my style might be.

One way to differentiate between bloggers is on whether they seem to ask more questions, or answer more questions; that is, whether they are askers or answerers.

When I look out at many of the big bloggers out there, many of them seem to answerers. They will tell you how to get rich, Or how to get in shape. Or how to get girls to date you. Or, how to run a startup.

Being an answerer means that you provide thereader with actionable advice. People are searching the web looking for solutions to their problems. If an answerer can provide a solution, they can gain quite a large following.

Being an answerer allows you to become an expert on something. Professionally, it is always good to be known as an expert; it is good personal branding.

The most followed answerers seem to write in a confident, self-assured tone. They know the answers, and will tell you that you should read on. Not only should you read on, you should make sure to go back. They will have even better answers for you next week. Is this disingenuous? I don’t know, but it seems to work extremely well.

If a blogger is looking to game huge following, it seems advantageous to pick an area and become an answerer.

Being an answerer sounds great. The problem is that it isn’t me.

I’m fairly sure I am an asker.

I view the world as a big gray area. Why do I want to give you advice? These posts can be fun to write, but am I right? Is any advice online right? Most likely, sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn’t.

I’d rather ask some questions that seem interesting without claiming to have the answer. I’d rather discuss the shape of a problem without claiming to completely understand it. I’d rather provide a food for thought, instead of a solution for your problem. I want to think with you, but them let each of us go our own ways and come to our own conclusions.

What does this mean? I’m not totally sure: I just know that I prefer to be an asker, and over time, I’ll probably have less solutions and more questions.

What is your take on this styles? Do you have any favorite bloggers that are askers?

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P.S. This is post number #77 in a 100 day blogging challenge. See you tomorrow!

Follow me on Twitter @alexshye.

Or, check out my current project Soulmix.