Mates Of State – Maracas
Month: February 2012
One thing that I find missing is discovery of non-new content. The web is completely oriented around new-thing-on-top. Our brains are also wired to get a rush from novelty. But most “news” we read really doesn’t matter. And a much smaller percentage of the information I actually care about or would find useful was produced in the last few hours than my reading patterns reflect.
If Yahoo was making a legitimate claim on patent infringement, my guess is they would have actually tried to settle things between the two companies first. The fact that they’ve waited until Facebook filed to go public and entered its quiet period, and then handed the story to the New York Times signals something very different. Perhaps following the advice of activist hedge funds who’ve said that Yahoo should use their huge patent portfolio to hobble more relevant, innovative and successful competitors.
Back to Innovation? Scott Thompson’s First Shameful Move | PandoDaily
just when you thought yahoo hit bottom
The Funk
This morning I saw an interesting post on Hacker News – I’ve Lost Enthusiasm For My Startup.
This happens from time to time and it can come for a variety of places. The founder isnt’ happy with the culture. Or the product isn’t taking off as quickly as they had hoped. Or they are fearful of failure. Or there is something else going on in their personal life that has impacted their work life.
Whatever the reason, they are in a funk.
We all go through it. For founders is incredibly hard because as the author of the post states:
I find myself doing things for the startup out of obligation to the investors, who have been awesome.
And as result, it’s hard going to your board members or investors and saying you’ve lost that feeling or you don’t know what you are doing and you are going through a funk. Some investors will understand but many others (unfortunately and sadly) will take that information, forget the founder is a human and decide they are unfit to serve as CEO.
(I once had a founder tell me 6 months after we financed the first round that they dont’ like any of their initial hires. He actually fired the first 4 employees and started over. That wasn’t easy for anyone but looking back it was clearly the right thing to do)
Even if they won’t do something like that it’s still hard to make that confession outloud.
I don’t have a secret silver bullet on how to deal with the funk but I think it’s important to spend the time thinking about what is the cause. Is it work related or personal related?
When I’m in a funk, I try to practice these four things:
1. Work out more
2. Eat better
3. And talk it through with my wife and my coach
4. Patience through the process
In startup land where everyone is hyping their startups and investments, it’s easy to get down on yourself from time to time. The first hard step is being honest with yourself and then take it from there.
How do you deal with the funk?
Arcade Fire – Wake Up (live & unplugged)
i love arcade fire
Leaving today. I’m gonna miss this place
Red Right Hand – Arctic Monkeys (orig. by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds)
I’m fired up to see the Monkeys live next weekend.
Turn it up.
Last day of winter vacation. Taking photos at the beach (Taken with instagram)