Very encouraging and very true. I have been working on some interesting and hard problems which I set out to solve. In the process I can say I have discovered myself on how to think in various ways about a problem, simultaneously coding, looking at market, research papers, broadening, narrowing, thinking laterally and so on...Its a fantastic journey if one could afford to do it.
Mapping the right algorithm to a real world need is lot more difficult as real world needs always have differences with the problems that the published algorithms solve. This is my experience. So, I end up most of the time devise my own method to solve things. When you are hard pressed for time, it is often difficult to run through books and find the right ones. The mind to read and understand complex algorithms is often overtaken by the mind to just go and solve the problem in hand in your own way.
That's the reason why theory should be backed by hard evidence or a product that can be experienced. Without this, a theory of any sort whether it turns out to be right or if it is pure bullshit should not be given undue credit.
I work all days being a single person start-up and thinking, coding, iterating. But what I have seen is I do not work all the time. I keep doing other stuff like household chores, attending to family, going out etc. In short I do very focused work in short bursts, say an hour or two in a day 2 or 3 times. I sleep as well in between if I cannot concentrate. I have found it very difficult to be doing something at a stretch. In fact I shutdown and do thinking with a notebook, fall asleep, wake up and continue thinking where I left and find sometimes interesting and easy way to solve things. Then I go and code it. I have found I cannot fit my thought process in a well-defined time boundary of morning 9 - 5 like I was expected in a day job.
Most of the corruption done by people in India are driven ultimately by politicians (via bureaucrats). These politicians need the money to fund their election which is about giving it to the voters (yes, money is transferred to the illiterate folks during elections). Without money it is impossible to get elected to even a small position. So it indirectly hinges on the illiteracy levels. If people are educated enough to earn their own living without going for freebies and money which again is a Government budget and policy matter which is controlled by politicians. It is a vicious cycle.
I feel an App ecosystem definitely helps to expand the functions. However I also feel it is opposite of a nimble app which does one thing clean. In general we have always had this conflict and it is difficult to choose to stay lean and simple especially when you decide to grow and scale to engulf everything. Its almost like 'Let me grab as much as I can before some one comes' sort of thinking. Only the market can prove if this is the right thinking in the long run. But when you see it in the short span, you do not have much choice.
One example of a evil AI is the fact that the power of all the data out there about people,things and the ability to learn from it allows connections to be made like never before. With the right algorithms it should be possible to even make policy shifts that can impact human lives in a manner that is favourable to the 'super power' Govt. or company who owns this.
The best productivity method is to just go do what you have to do and spend all the time doing it. Every thing else in the name of a productivity method is an excuse for your mind to stay off from what you really have to do.
Absolutely agree. For example, I used to be confused whether to build my product and look for funding or find customers, but over time I have realized, funding is a way to keep your run way extended while you can work on your idea and get customers. But this is something you cannot worry about when you are getting the idea shaped, building a v1 etc. Also you need that ultimate customer who is gonna use this in mind and the value it brings while building always whether you get funded or not. So funding in a way greases your execution and makes it smoother better but never can be thought of as the thing to go for at any point in your journey.
There is so much of do's and don'ts out there for startup advice. Most of them is personal experience that can be applied to only a few. Becoming overtly general takes the point away. This list given by the author is something I have personally realized over the course of last 3 years working on my idea. Its quite good that he could bring this out succinctly. Now I would say go work on your idea and figure your way out rather than looking for advices :-)
Only when user can own his data which means Apps are just logics and user can allow access to whomever whatever selectively we can suddenly find more genuine things reaching the user be it commerce or content.
I have used Google Inbox, but if I read the comments here, the overarching thing seem to be to make a zero inbox. Why cannot you do this with your existing email client? What are the features of Google Inbox that helps you do this? And why do you need to make your inbox zero? Is it like you want the email client to show up the high priority ones that you need to attend to at the top? How does a Google Inbox automatically know what is high priority for you ? Sorry if my understanding is not aligned to what is offered by Google Inbox.
It is a game of survival. You have to try several tricks to keep yourself afloat until you reach what you call as success. Being lean (in my case I am a single founder), fit physically and mentally (I did not do this so aggressively when I was employed:-), keeping track of your expenses (some sort of cash flow), going for little money once in a while in a consulting mode, having sufficient capital to not disturb your family all and more are needed till you think you have reached the point where you have exhausted all options - research, market, positioning, customer demos , partnering and so on.
simplification helps only in the way you start looking at things later. But then when you communicate to another person, he still needs all the data to come to the same level of simplification you achieved. Being able to organize the way your brain looks at it at some point in time and later reconfiguring as things evolve is what may be needed.
It happens with everything you are deeply into. I feel you need to allow it to happen without worrying about it. You can do few things like
Taking up a project that you personally like happening and putting an effort into it. If it is not with coding it is still fine, but it will bring back some energy into you.
I feel programming is only an act like painting. The point is when you are fully into something, it does not matter if you are sitting in the shade of a tree or otherwise. You begin to flow.. and outside disappears.
The difficult part of programming is programming. I mean just sit and dissolve yourself into the code and it engulfs you in a timeless world. I often feel the urge to be on the email or internet or HN kills this sort of dissolution and very rarely I get this. When you get it, it is absolutely delightful!
If Anand had not done this whole thing artistically, there is no way it would have elicited interest. What if every one on the planet did this?. Then this whole thing becomes terribly boring and meaningless no matter how it looks.
I am pretty sure many got attracted by the design rather than the content itself!
I actually don't believe in a rigid system office like. In fact you are self employed because you don't want to be part of a process machine called the office. You figure out what is right for you. If you feel you are reading a lot of web, then go back do some work. If you feel you have cracked a problem after lot of hours of work, go and chill out doing some thing else. If you feel you are doing a hybrid of browsing the web which is not work related and coding then turn off the internet.
I do a mix of all of these. I feel it is ok to be a bit fluidic but only with the end goal what you are working on in the mind. I mean mostly to creative work - something that you are creating on your own from home rather than a customer paid work which I feel the first comment is good enough to follow.
If you are creative, be relaxed and keep thinking on the space you work on, keep diverting your attention from any disturbance and keep going at it...that's the formula