Notes from the work
An archive of product, engineering, startups, and the decisions behind building software. Older posts stay dated; they are here as a record, not a publishing schedule.
Yesterday – For the first day in over two weeks, I didn’t post anything. I hate breaking this habit, but sometimes other things have to take priority. I was on the phone for 4 hours yesterday talking to all kinds of people. I was trying to plan my future. The search is on. I didn’t […]
I had a lot of trouble with focus today. Today was a day of political turmoil. It was hard to put my phone down. I tried diligently to study ruby, work on a side project, and plan my week of phone calls and meetings. I did my best, but it was a difficult day. I […]
No Sleep I couldn’t sleep last night. I’m not sure if it was related to this work situation. The lack of sleep didn’t affect my day today. Side Project I worked on a side project building a chrome extension and backend API in rails. I think I’m getting close to a launchable beta. My goal […]
I’m starting to understand what stress is. I’m a very calm, laid back person, so stress doesn’t hit me too much. But sometimes you feel stress. You feel it in your chest underneath your heart. There’s a little bit of a tightness. Your heart beats a little faster. I can tell I’m stressed right now. […]
Yesterday, I said not everyday was a writing day. Today – that idea is true more than it was yesterday. I was laid off today. In fact, half of the company got laid off today. I’m not sure if there is a lesson to be learned. If there is, I would say it is this: […]
Crap or Gold? Sturgeon’s Law says that 90% of everything is crap. However, it’s hard to know the difference between crap and gold sometimes. Writing about how not everyday is a writing day might not seem great to me, but it might change someone else’s life. Maybe what I write seems like crap to me […]
My Morning Ritual Before I do anything in the morning, I read in a book. Before I grab my phone, before I go to the bathroom, before I brush my teeth, before I take out the dog, I read at least a page. I don’t have any empirical evidence, but it makes me feel better […]
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” -William Shakespeare “All is opinion.” -Marcus Aurelius Living in a digital age where everyone has strong opinions, its nice to remind yourself that no one ever really knows how things will turn out. With that being said, here is the story of the […]
How Not To Be Wrong Lessons in mathematical thinking I recently started reading How Not To Be Wrong by Jordan Ellenberg. It was recommended by Bill Gates in 2016. The book starts out by talking about mathematical thinking. They explain an example of a math problem in war. How do you most efficiently armor an airplane? […]
Why I’m a horrible software consultant I try to help entrepreneurs – I don’t just take their money I was talking to a potential client earlier today. It made me think about one of the hardest parts of consulting – charging money. It’s very easy to take a client’s money and build something. That’s not […]