Hiatus
I'm still alive though this blog will probably be quiet for quite some time...I've been dabbling around in various projects here and there.... Here's my hiatus card:
Enjoy!
technorati tags: best of us, olympics, motivation, dreams
November 9, 2007
October 9, 2007
Yoink'd Mediabox: Changing the Way We View Media Online
I've been idle for a while and actively pursuing a few projects of mine...one of which is Yoink'd.
Yoink'd Mediabox is a fully AJAX / DHTML web media player (like Windows Media Player, iTunes, Winamp, etc..) for finding, organizing, and sharing available online video content (from youtube, google video, etc.). Features include:
- Ability to convert any raw RSS feed into a playlist
- View real-time live yoinks from friends (integrated with Facebook)
- Ability to completely embed the media player onto any website in various formats (Yoink'd Mini and Yoink'd Widget)
- Auto-relinking of dead video links
- Ability to play on any web-enabled device (browser, iPhone, Nintendo Wii, PS3, iPod Touch, etc..)
- Customization via multiple skins
Our core value lies in user experience and our media sharing capabilities. We truly want to change the way we view media on the web.
Enjoy this short demo to the sweet, tunes of Aly and AJ in "The Potential Breakup Song."
technorati tags: yoink'd, yoinkd, mediabox, aly, aj, potential breakup song, yoinkd.com
September 15, 2007
The Real Secrets of Silicon Valley
First Chapter I Flip To
Chapter 9 of The Valley of Heart's Delight by Michael Malone.
First Quote I Read
I think that maybe in every company today there is always at least one person who is going crazy slowly. ----Joseph Heller
A Few Excerpts
...We take a job... and we dream of what might have been. And then we scheme ways to make the career we've found more fulfilling, more rewarding. Ambition colors our lives --- an all-consuming, fundamental ambition to somehow reach a better slot. This ambition is a universal disease. Politicians dream of becoming president, priests of being named pope, apparatchiks of becoming commissar, commoners of being crowned king.
..It's just that when one speaks of work, it always comes back to dream versus reality, to envy and ambition. But most of all, it comes back to self.
This is understandable, but also deadly. Too often we are so busy contemplating our splendid selves, congratulating ourselves over some minor, meaningless victory ("The Boss remembered my name! My future is made.") or chastising ourselves over some inexplicable defeat ("The Boss forgot my name! I'm human trash. I think I'll kill myself.") that we fail to look around. More often than not, that is where our real problem lies.
The Job. The Company you work for. We shed a tear over Dickens' horrific workhouses, then fail to notice that our own company makes Scrooge & Marley seem like Club Med; or that, next to our boss, Fagin is Mother Teresa.
...But when you return to the corporate cave tomorrow morning, do not tell your workmates what you've learned. Don't turn to the person at the next desk and loudly announce, "You know, this place really sucks." Such philosophical honesty may result in your living in a damp cardboard box under the San Fernando Street overpass and wearing somebody else's underwear. Just keep your mouth shut and remember: Given the present state of Social Security, you can never, ever retire...
A Few Thoughts
Hah, I love the author's sarcasm and sense of humor. In any case, skimming through this chapter reminded me of how much my current New York roommates are corporate slaves --- *suffering* through the long hours of investment banking. I barely see them at all since they work well over 100 hours per week. One of my roommates -- Sharon -- ran out of the door this afternoon (practically in tears) since she was called back to do work. I immediately left her a voicemail to offer my support and encourage her to do well. It really hurts me to see my roommates like this.... Why do they even have jobs like this? Employee unhappiness should be a crime!
First Lesson from the "Real World"
Rule #1: The real world is slower, more inefficient. And guess what? You got to live with it. I think I learned this the hard way ;p. I'm naturally an impatient person (which may be good or bad) -- but I have this natural tendency to not only "get things done" but to also get them done fast. I guess you can say I'm very results-oriented ;p....
Rule #2: If you can't live with Rule #1, you have to invent your own rules. This is the path I'm currently taking...Yes, I'm most likely going to be living out of a cardboard box but hey, at least it's -my- cardboard box. Luckily, I still have my underwear :) In the next coming weeks, I'm leaving New York City and moving back to the bay area...
technorati tags: ambition, silicon valley, michael malone, secrets, job
August 30, 2007
Twittering Your Thoughts in REAL Time
I've been taking a closer look at the mobile space and found a number of very well-written blogs. One of favorites is Mobile Opportunity written by seasoned industry expert Michael Mace.
One of his older posts back in April 2007 caught my attention. He points out an interesting ultimate social networking tool, Spitr, a project by Inrvoice LLC being worked on by technologists and biomedical researchers:
technorati tags: twitter, social networking, spitr, bluetooth
August 27, 2007
Analyzing One's Past
Ben Casnocha writes an interesting post titled "Absent Fathers, Supportive Mothers," citing "...there is evidence that many successful male leaders had strong, supportive mothers and rather remote, absent fathers..."
I'm curious as to how much evidence there is on this issue (e.g. how many leaders were examined? how is "leader" defined?). Does anyone know of a link to a study done on this research? One interesting idea (that I believe is already being worked on) is to post biographies and stories of people on the Internet and do analytics on it. (Hah, I'm all about running the numbers.) There's all sorts of connections that can be made by studying one's past.
technorati tags: absent fathers, supportive mothers, leadership
Swimming Across
I just finished Swimming Across, a memoir of Andrew Grove, founder of Intel and Time Magazine's Man of the Year in 1997. This is a truly inspiring and motivational story, a must-read.
After Andris nearly loses his life to scarlet fever at the age of four, his family is forced to deal with the Nazi occupation of Hungary. Fleeing the Germans, Andris and his mother find refuge with a Christian family in the outskirts of Budapest and then hide in cellars from Russian bombs. After the nightmare of war ends, the family rebuilds its business and its life, only to face a new trial with a succession of repressive Communist governments.
In June 1956, the popular Hungarian uprising is put down at gunpoint. Soviet troops occupy Budapest and randomly round up young people. Two hundred thousand Hungarians follow a tortuous route to escape to the West. Among them is the author ...
This story is beautiful. It's a story of courage, dedication, strength, determination, will, commitment, etc. I do want to share one part of the memoir that touched me the most (literally made me teary):
My father brought home some pictures he had managed to keep with him throughout all his years in the war and captivity. They were wallet-size studio photographs of my mother and me, taken before he left just so he could have a picture of us with him while he was away. My father treasured these pictures; they never left his body. They gave him strength when he needed it most. In his darkest moments, when it looked like he would not make it, he used the backs of the pictures to scribble his good-bye messages to us.
I read these notes over and over. One of them that my father wrote near the end of the war particularly touched me. It was dated April 1945. "My dear ones: Now that it looks like the end would be here and the prospect of seeing you again, I have had another setback--- a new disease, some skin ulcers. It's spreading from one day to the next. There is no medicine. They don't know how to treat it. It's slow death. It looks like struggles of the last three years were for nothing. And all I would like is to see you again, to know that you are alive. But I am destroyed. Just my love for you keeps me alive. Gyurka."
He made it home five months later.
For me, this passage reminds us how strong love can be. It truly is a powerful force that makes extraordinary things happen. In modern-day society, things move and change at such a fast pace that I often feel like we don't have the time to really reflect and think about the people we love the most. This is a post dedicated to those who we cherish :)
Are you swimming yet?
Mr. Volenski (his favorite physics teacher) once told Andrew's parents, "Life is like a big lake. All the boys get in the water at one end and start swimming. Not all of them will swim across. But one of them, I'm sure, will. That one is Grof."
Later, the author finishes the book with "As my teacher Volenski predicted, I managed to swim across the lake --- not without effort, not without setbacks, and with a great deal of help and encouragement from others. I am still swimming."
technorati tags: swimming across, andrew grove, intel, love
August 20, 2007
On Motivation: Driven by Love vs. Driven by Fear
Steve Pavlina writes one of the best "motivation" posts I've seen yet. The most fascinating fact for me is that everything in life can be simplified to basic human emotions and desires. Being human, I feel that I'm a victim to making things more complex than they ought to me. (I compare this to the fact that as the years go on, there's more "junk" in the house.) It's hard sometimes though. Perhaps we just aren't wired to be simple people?
I saw there were basically two different paths to a sustained state of peak motivation.
One path was to be driven by love. The other was to be driven by fear. Love and fear are the two fundamental poles of motivation. If you chose to embrace either one fully — really chose and commit to that choice — you’re far more likely to feel inspired, driven, and unstoppable.
...
Someone who polarizes with love becomes a lightworker, and one who polarizes with fear becomes a darkworker.
In actuality the vast majority of people (more than 99% I imagine) are neither lightworkers nor darkworkers because they haven’t made the conscious commitment to polarize. They may have strong leanings one way or the other, but they remain indecisive about what’s most important to them. If you ask them point blank, such people will say they prefer a balanced approach or that they simply disagree they have to make a choice at all. The most driven people I’ve ever met, however, tend to fall very strongly on one side or the other. Either they’re absolutely gushing with a desire to contribute and to make a positive difference in the world (lightworker), or they’ve concluded that doing whatever it takes to make themselves happy is their top priority (darkworker).
...
For example, ask yourself these two questions:
- What’s the best career I can choose right now that would make me happiest?
- What’s the best career I can choose right now that would most benefit others?
August 8, 2007
Typical Tech Entrepreneur?
Here's an excerpt from my recent conversation with a friend online (re: web 2.0 site):
xxx: there's no other site that does what we plan to do
jingaling333: lol
xxx: and our biggest fear is that we'd have to compete with google or ms
xxx: so we want to shock and awe
xxx: have it all done when we start telling people
jingaling333: lol
xxx: and our biggest fear is that we'd have to compete with google or ms
xxx: so we want to shock and awe
xxx: have it all done when we start telling people
In addition, my friend is "paranoid" and will not disclose his idea until it is "finished" (which is not a problem by me, of course. I'm just a curious girl and love to hear about new ideas.)
This post is not to make fun of my friend as he is super-talented and an amazing computer scientist. I just find it amusing as I've heard the same exact lines echoed previously in blog posts I've read in the past year or so. In fact, here are some related, very useful articles by industry leaders and experts:
One of the key lessons I've picked up from visiting TechStars, talking with entrepreneurs, helping build a social web media player, and working at a startup is the importance of speed-to-market and customer feedback. It's so critical to rapidly prototype in order to churn around fast iterations of a product. This process of fast, agile development is advocated by heavily by Eric and Todd of MyBlogLog; it's also a trend we notice with the high influx of Facebook and iPhone apps. Yet, this seems to be at odds with the emphasis in design in my last few posts, right?
Finding Balance
Naturally, there are tradeoffs to everything in life. It's hard to pursue several ideas at once only to "see what sticks" so to speak. However, I feel like what's more important is finding the right balance between all these different choices. I guess, at the end of the day, there must be a final team consensus -- make a decision and move forward.
technorati tags: entrepreneurship, startup, technology
August 5, 2007
Lessons Learned from Janice Fraser
I'm truly impressed by Janice Fraser, one of the founding members of Adaptive Path. She is an entrepreneur, interaction designer, and editor -- all in one! She writes an inspirational blog (hah, she's "clevergirl") and has an excellent podcast here.
Tips for Life
- Partnerships (people) are most important. It's all comes down to trust. Adaptive Path's success is due to the solidity of the seven co-founders. Janice talks about her great relationship with Peter Merholz, President of Adaptive Path, and how even if they did get it into conflicts (ps: constructive discontent is always healthy), the conflicts would be meaningful.
- Make meaning. Not just in the Guy Kawasaki's "Let's Change the World" kind of way. Janice stresses creating meaning for your employees, making sure they want to be there and are 100% passionate.
- Be stingy.
- Financially. The founding members of Adaptive Path spent 6 months arguing over whether or not to buy a printer and lived without an office for a year.
- On features. Less is more. Each additional feature = extra expense = additional design, development, testing costs.
- Alignment = Integrity. Hire for the right characteristics in people. The right people will create the right product vision. The right product vision gets you the right customers. My questions for Janice are: What exactly does "right" mean? More importantly, how do you know what is "right?"
- Companies are designed for people. Firm culture is critical. Janice says, "If work is not fulfilling, people will not have loyalty." What I admire most about Janice is her brutal honesty. She's not afraid to admit "she's human" and makes mistakes, too. As CEO, Janice says she "has no power" and instead must empower others around her. She cites a specific example with a newly hired PR person where she took more control than she was supposed to. This PR employee approached her about it, and she accepted the feedback and immediately apologized and let go. For Janice, her employees are her partners.
- You are employed by an industry, not a company. Think about the bigger picture. Take the long view.
technorati tags: janice fraser, adaptive path, design, ceo, entrepreneurship
On Design Thinking
I came across a great Fast Company article titled "Strategy by Design" by Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO, written back in June 2005. Tim emphasizes the importance of design thinking as a catalyst for innovation productivity. "Where you innovate, how you innovate, and what you innovate are design problems."
People need to have a visceral understanding -- an image in their minds -- of why you've chosen a certain strategy and what you're attempting to create with it. Design is ideally suited to this endeavor. It can't help but create tangible, real outcomes.
Because it's pictorial, design describes the world in a way that's not open to many interpretations. Designers, by making a film, scenario, or prototype, can help people emotionally experience the thing that the strategy seeks to describe. If, say, Motorola unveils a plan to create products that have never existed before, everyone in the organization will have a different idea of what that means. But if Motorola creates a video so people can see those products, or makes prototypes so people can touch them, everyone has the same view.
Unfortunately, many people continue to think of design in very narrow terms...
Ideo's Five Point Model
- Hit the streets. Go out there and be observant. Get original insights from your market.
- Recruit T-shaped people. People with breadth and depth. Expertise in one area that can be applied to many disciplines.
- Build to think. Focus on problem solving. "Design thinking is inherently a prototyping process....The goal isn't to create a close approximation of the finished product or process; the goal is to elicit feedback that helps us work through the problem we're trying to solve."
- The prototype tells the story. Generate feedback and make corrections. Visually describe your strategy.
- Design is never done. We live in a changing world. "The market is always changing; your strategy needs to change with it. Since design thinking is inherently rooted in the world, it is ideally suited to helping your strategy evolve."
Some Thoughts
- Is design often overlooked? Even in my undergraduate computer science courses at Penn, I've remembered that the "specification" phase was often rushed through or , worse yet, done -after- the coding was completed.
- How easy is it to sell design? Of course, from a business perspective, people like to see numbers and quantify the value of a feature, project, idea, etc. Adaptive Path has taken a look at this issue by applying ROI methodology to user experience design, ensuing that companies are only investing in high-value projects. The truth of the matter is that it's almost impossible to appropriately capture all the "value" derived from design and user experience. If this is the case, how do design consultant shops effectively pitch to new clients who don't recognize the benefits of design thinking?
- Design thinking is here to stay. Just watch the trends. Emerging design schools (Stanford's d.school and Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design). iPod/iPhone phenomenon. Google and importance of simplicity. Less is more. "Web 2.0"-style design.
Related Articles
» Interview with Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO (by Brandon Schauer of Adaptive Path)
technorati tags: design, design thinking, design strategy, ideo, tim brown, business, innovation, adaptive path
About CuriousGirl
» Her name's Jing.
» Jerome Fisher M&T '07
» LinkedIn Profile
» Visit her portfolio: Aquinox
Interests: meeting passionate people who want to change the world, taking action, emerging technology, business, art/design, start-ups, web 2.0, photography, running, exploring new cultures/cuisines
Contact Me: Click Here
» Jerome Fisher M&T '07
» LinkedIn Profile
» Visit her portfolio: Aquinox
Interests: meeting passionate people who want to change the world, taking action, emerging technology, business, art/design, start-ups, web 2.0, photography, running, exploring new cultures/cuisines
Contact Me: Click Here
Categories
Recent Posts
- Hiatus
- Yoink'd Mediabox: Changing the Way We View Media Online
- The Real Secrets of Silicon Valley
- Twittering Your Thoughts in REAL Time
- Analyzing One's Past
- Swimming Across
- On Motivation: Driven by Love vs. Driven by Fear
- Typical Tech Entrepreneur?
- Lessons Learned from Janice Fraser
- On Design Thinking