The ".NET Rocks!" podcast did three GeekOut shows this year on nuclear fusion, which will probably make you only more skeptical of fusion research claims.
It should be expected from this kind of personal blog post to be about one's own story, rather than ideas or outward advice. I see nothing particularly negative with that.
There are 48 instances of "I", 19 of "my", and 6 of "me". So on average 90% of sentences have one instance.
Yep its stereotype / baiting but always possible an ounce of truth[1]. the worst mistakes to make are ones that let other people typecast you. so maybe its semi-constructive.
eg, how many instances of "team"?
cmd+f=(team)=1
_______________
Here’s my story:
I left my role at Facebook 2 years ago to build women.com. With wide eyes and beginners confidence, I struck out on my own. I crafted my vision, wore a hoodie, and tried to raise a seed round on a dream and a deck. After 3 months of fund raising, I received term sheets (pre-product and pre-tech <>team<>), but success was fleeting. My partner and I hit the skids, split up, and ended our partnership.
However, this was my dream and a couple of speed bumps weren’t going to crush it. I decided to bootstrap and get a working MVP into the hands of users.
--------------------------
Although this contextual snippet may also explain a bit more regarding both observations. The word 'team' only appears within a parenthetical--and even then only within a vignette of previuous failure.
perhaps, even if nothing but for PR purposes, this type of presentation may be improved by being more even handed going forward?.
This just seems like a leadership coaching pont. If she were in another similar/leadership role (non CEO) it would still be relevant.
I've heard (anecdata alert!) that some men get frustrated and will start sending out "form messages" because they will take the time to craft meaningful messages only to get no reply
This was documented on the old OKCupid blog. I think the post was taken down after Match bought them.
Men grow frustrated and get tired of wasting their time, so they stop sending in-depth messages. Women are then even less likely to respond, which ultimately sends men into a downward spiral of desperation.
I think programming is great, it's people that are terrible.
People write horrible APIs and document them poorly (ugh, Microsoft's SetupAPI put me into burnout mode last year).
People make demands of the programmer but kick and scream about clearly documenting those demands (specifications).
People don't appreciate and thank the programmer for his hard work. Managers and owners are suspicious and resent the programmer for not being grateful simply to receive a paycheck.
Other programmers think the programmer is an idiot for asking a question, thinking that every other programmer must know everything I know.
Yeah, it's been my experience that people make programming awful. If you can surround yourself with good people and the products of good people, you'll probably be a lot happier. I can't advise on how to find that nirvana, unfortunately.
It's my recollection that it was very well designed in almost every way aside from appearance. As in, the creature comforts were good, considerations for rear loading, ease of access, reasonable performance, etc. Unfortunately, when it comes down to it, people really make their vehicle buying decision based upon appearance. They may use a few requirements to pare down the field (e.g. AWD, four doors), but after that it's mostly looks.
I own several ugly vehicles (a T&C minivan for one). I wouldn't have touched an Aztek at the time with stolen money.
It looks cheap. Its front is a single molded piece of cheap plastic that goes from the undercarriage to the hood. It is surrounded on all sides by more cheap looking plastic bits. GM is infamous for putting cheap plastic bits on their cars that simply don't stand up to the elements; so anyone who has ever owned a GM car knows what an Aztek is going to look like after the warranty period is over. As it turns out GM must have improved thier plastics and the Aztek has aged well. But there was no way to look at one when it was new and tell that it wouldn't crumble like an old milk jug after six or eight years in the sun.
Is the appearance really all that bad either? I don't love it, but I've seen plenty of slightly awkward-looking cars and I'm not sure what's supposed to make this one so particularly bad. Maybe the photo in the article is from an unusually flattering angle?
In both of the pics in TFA, the camera is on the ground, so we're looking up at the vehicle. That's kind of an old trick for making any mostly-horizontal object look better. The truly awful angle from which to view an Aztek [really, has no one complained about the spelling of this name?] is from the back.
They actually look worse in person. The first time I saw one of these on the road, my jaw dropped - I just couldn't believe that something this unlovable made it into production. I distinctly remember thinking "GM has gone seriously off the rails". And this is coming from someone that owns a KTM 990A and a Honda Element!
It is quite a bit different than the aesthetics of vehicles that were out at the time. It fits a lot better with current aesthetics with the rise of the crossover than it did a decade ago.
Couldn't one just as simply say "Programmers are toxic to business. They're classically myopic optimizing for 'fun' technical stacks without understanding the business they're working in." That's obviously untrue as well.
Is that untrue? I'd say it's true, and it's exactly why you need a skilled manager to keep an eye on the big picture. Programmers are professional rabbit-hole chasers, and it's extremely easy to lose sight of the business goals.
The difference is that the programmer, if properly wrangled, creates real value. The MBA, in my opinion, primarily creates the impression of value.
If I remember correctly, legislation was passed in 2007 requiring trains everywhere in the US to blast their horn four times (length unspecified) before every crossing. The only exceptions are quad-gated crossing (I believe that means a gate covering each lane of traffic on both sides) or in specified "quiet zones".
In my area, the trains only get active at around 11:30pm, an continue their racket through the entire night. I'm regularly awakened by needlessly long honking around 4am. It's awful.
It's disturbing to see so many people insist that the NFL doesn't "deserve" to be a non-profit, because they don't give enough to charity.
The NFL shouldn't qualify as a non-profit because they promote only NFL football, not football in general. It's qualified as a trade association, but it shouldn't be, as it's clearly a for-profit corporation managing a brand.
That one's actually a fair point, but I'm not 100% sure on how true it is.
First of all, there are plenty of valid uses of 501C6 that the NFL could meet the definition for, but beyond that, they actually do promote a lot of football that has no ties (or at least, only tangential relationship) to the NFL, like Play 60, and working with Peewee league football, etc.
I have an older relative who is still cashing in nicely on his VBA skills. There was a "demand vs pay" graph for tech skills going around awhile. VBA is low demand, but among the highest paid of the technologies.
From a cost perspective it's easy to see this. I've made plenty of trivial VB scripts in large/bureaucratic companies to automate tasks that a customer service person(or a whole department) had been doing for an hour a day for the last decade.
Yeah, the weird thing is how large and critical these VBA applications are that he works on. Lots of local banks and small businesses have, essentially, their entire business wrapped up in an old VBA CRUD app. Not that there's anything wrong with continuing to use the old technology, but all we hear about is the latest and coolest.
I always find stories like this troubling because 1) how much of it was actually driven by the parents? 2) what's going to happen when it's no longer a quirky action by a cute little girl?
Planet Money's podcast 567 covered an assertive, outgoing little girl who was making good money by buying lollipops at retail and going around selling them to adults at a markup. She acknowledges that it only works because she's adorable, and that her sales have dropped as she's gotten older.
Maybe this kid is really driven and will go on to great things, or maybe she'll end up burnt out and miserable because her primary value turns out to be her youth and novelty.
Fusion Power GeekOut: http://www.dotnetrocks.com/default.aspx?showNum=1013
Fusion Power GeekOut #2: http://www.dotnetrocks.com/default.aspx?showNum=1022
Cold Fusion GeekOut: http://www.dotnetrocks.com/default.aspx?showNum=1037