Posted by ungraspiness
Thu, 01 May 2008 06:14:00 GMT
welcome back mr. sun (beltaine is here)
This collection of paragraphs is about * BIG SIGH *
...working in startups however much of it might apply elsewhere. (Like there isn’t enough to read about this over-hyped topic on the web already).
Actually the following is definitely worth reading for the even slightly curious reader. It was definitely worth my time to write it (even though it’s one of my least favorite topics)
Here goes…
The middle class mantra, or what parents often tell their children(and what adults often tell themselves and their piers), what employers try to drill into their employees about ‘getting somewhere’ in life. It usually goes something like this, “Son/Employee/Friend, the only way to get anywhere in life is to work damn hard, hell that’s how I got my gold-plated watch for 25 years of service(or my 0.000001% of the company share pool). I’m proud of the fact that I haven’t slept for more than 4 hours a night in the last 10 years.”.
Strange considering that those who usually are truly ‘successful’ never seem to follow such literally brain-dead reasoning. However it’s often shocking that many startups have some kind of reasoning very similar to what our parents may have told us about ‘work ethic’. Not to say that the 20-somethings who get lucky never worked crazy hours or that they don’t work their asses off for 4 years(these days it can sometimes turn out to be even less than that, the youtube founders are a great example of this and who wouldn’t like to be in their shoes ?). They do but it’s hardly the mantra. As if working longer instead of just working smarter means greater success somehow.
The ‘work ethic’ train of logic pushing us to ‘work harder’ usually stops at the dead-end stations of thought such as ‘we need to work more hours !’, ‘our product needs more features !’ or ‘we need to be done today!’ . This is a slow(even sometimes a very quick) poison for most startups. In other words, good luck buddy !
Now by startups the author is hardly referring only to certain companies that describe what they do as ‘social debt-working’, ‘viral carpeting’, ‘crash-ups’ or whatever other 2006 startup-speak jammed so many starry-eyed founders heads that they didn’t stop to think about their clients and product.
That brings up an interesting detour: clients. Now by giving clients what they need or want I don’t mean doing whatever they ask, the gap between those two things are like the distance from earth to Saturn(pretty damn far apart one might say resulting in large time sinks). Clients/Users might say something like ‘please give us a super-widget that can do X to the power of infinity things, pretty please!, if you code it by tomorrow we’re sure that you would put every other startup out of business because OH MY GOD it can do everything and more than any other web site can !!!’.
Yes they may say that type of thing, even get on their knees and beg you for the ONE TRUE ‘DO EVERYTHING’ WIDGET or threaten your web 2.0 being to the core by promising to never visit your site again and to tell all the kids on the playground to do the same.
What I’ve noticed is that no matter how much people say this, often they will do the complete opposite if you give them a few features that they really like using. The widget with the few good features is something they will actually get to see because you won’t run out of time AND they will likely use it long before the ‘DO EVERYTHING’ widget that’s half-baked sees the light of day(if ever).
Successful startups have this in common, they solve one or two hard problems(sometimes they just need to push further toward a solution) to be successful. The ones that aim to solve all the world’s problems usually never make it. Please email me if you know of one.
This leads into yet another little detour: The startups that realize some level of success often have the least management. They don’t need to meet about having a meeting. In fact there will be little evidence(if any) of having to manage programmers or anyone else. If a startup hires good programmers then why do they need management ? If founders strongly feel they need to manage their programmers then why did they hire those programmers to begin with ? Who the heck has time to manage developers in a startup planning on actual success ?
Yes, yes I know, hiring good(never mind great) programmers is very hard. But when you have even one of those kinds of programmers(the good ones also don’t require flattery just simple acknowledgment) you better treat them well, very well, because your company’s success depends on them being happy for a large portion of the time, DUH !
Also, when you have hired one or two of these kinds of programmers you really really really should let them decide on the next batch of programmers to hire. Unless you are as skilled/experienced as they are collectively and you spend most of your time coding in the company then take their advice, you’re paying for it after all !
Ok back to the main track:
An article from CNN dated 2006-03-16 called “Be smarter at work, slack off” had the following nuggets for founders(even though they were probably directed at managers)
“But it’s really, really hard, if not impossible, for the human brain to come up with fresh new ideas when its owner is overworked, overtired, and stressed out.
and..
“The physiological effects of tiredness are well-known. You can turn a smart person into an idiot just by overworking him,” notes Peter Capelli, a professor of management at Wharton.
and my personal favorite…
“Indeed, “the notion that busyness is the essence of business can only do us long-term harm,” writes consultant Tom DeMarco in a book called Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency.”
Forget multi-tasking, it’s one of the worst productivity killers. You don’t even need a neuro-scientist to tell you that just go read the excellent ‘Brain Rules’ by John Medina (ok, he is a neuro-scientist but the book is a well-paced read).
Considering the strongest point in the US economy is innovation(and will never be mass production) why do managers prefer to manage as if things were an assembly line ?
Archimedes, Newton, Einstein, Tesla and a long list of other creative guys always started with relaxation to get the mind into a powerful thinking mode.
Another thing that stands out is that the article was written back in 2006 by CNN. If they get it then why don’t many startups ?
David Heinemeier Hansson has posted recently about sleep deprivation : ‘Sleep deprivation is not a badge of honor’. Word.
Let’s wrap this up on a positive note with some basic advice :
Get enough sleep, drink enough water and don’t forget exercise is incredibly worth it not just for your body but also for your mind(not to mention that it leads to the previous two). Increased oxygen flow to the brain cannot be underestimated.
Good luck !
Posted in Programming, Software | Tags startups, Work
Posted by ungraspiness
Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:09:00 GMT
Posted in Life, Philosophy | Tags Geometry, Maat
Posted by ungraspiness
Tue, 19 Feb 2008 03:32:00 GMT
Reading
Robert Cialdini’s “Influence” –
Plenty of social psychology observations that should be common sense if you’re paying attention to the world around you. Read it on recommendation thanks to Scott Adams.
Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods” –
Yea yea, it’s nothing new but got through it last year and realize why his books morph fairly quickly into Hollywood scripts. Not much else to say about it.
“The True Believer” by Eric Hoffer –
Although written half a century ago it’s incredibly contemporary in many ways. More social psychology but from a mass movement perspective. Well written in practical style and very distilled ideas. Some paragraphs are worth more than a few hours of thought.
Frank Herbet’s “Dune” –
In Science Fiction what else come’s close ?
Listening
Trentmoller –
‘The Last Resort’ and ‘The Trentmoller Chronicles’ are simply great albums. Wonderfully lacking in exploratory fear of the electronic genre.
Miss Kittin – Batbox
New directions here on her second album. Diving a little deeper and darker. So worthwhile.
Dust Galaxy – Dust Galaxy
Thievery Corp Garza’s rock side project. Still electronic but psychedelic and even grungy and dub.
Posted in Music | Tags Books
Posted by ungraspiness
Sun, 06 Jan 2008 00:05:00 GMT
UPDATE (2008-01-06) : Here’s a 64-bit build for amd :
firefox-3.0b2-en-US.freebsd62-x86_64-static.tar.bz2
(md5 21bfa5c75d9b3df11f939a07a9bb94bc)
If anyone wants to test Firefox 3.0 BETA 2 on FreeBSD then then here’s a static build. (I’ve only tried it on 6.2 let me know if you have a different version)
firefox-3.0b2-en-US.freebsd62-i386-static.tar.gz
(md5 0a8035908790bfb2d0b1e14eeb8407c0)
I couldn’t find a 3.0b2 build for FreeBSD on the Mozilla site. Pretty normal though I’m guessing most FreeBSD folks just wait for newer versions to show up in Ports.
If you want to compile a build yourself then take a look here .
Posted in Programming, BSD, Software | Tags Browsers, web | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by ungraspiness
Thu, 03 Jan 2008 02:08:00 GMT
A movie with a cast including Ray Kurzweil(as himself), Marvin Minsky, self-help guru Anthony Robbins, Alvin Toffler, Mitch Kapor, Bill Joy, Aubrey de Gray and more.
This is a joke right ? Wrong. It’s near, apparently some time in 2008.
Plot outline : “Computer avatar saves the world from self-replicating microscopic robots.”
On a similar singular note, James Cameron’s Avatar is another sci-fi flick coming soon in the slightly further off but still near future.
Posted in Video, Philosophy | Tags Avatar, Hollywood, movies, Nanotechnology
Posted by ungraspiness
Tue, 18 Dec 2007 07:10:00 GMT
(watch the complete interview)
’ Restoring the Promise of the World Wide Web “Commercial aspects of the web have diverted its potential. Firmage wants to untangle the web and inspire young minds,” concludes Doug Fabrizio about his interview with Joe for KUED’s Utah Now. ‘
A very optimistic(and a seemingly very much needed) attempt to bring the internet back in line with it’s original purpose and to lessen the outright commercialization of this important and quite recent breakthrough for us all. However I’m not quite certain how that implementation might pan out for such a project.
What if the web were more like PBS in some ways ?
(please come up with something more than suggesting that wikipedia fills this role already).
check out ManyOne Networks / Digital Universe
and more about the guy behind this, Joe Firmage
Readers may recall that there was some controversy around his personal beliefs that he made public back in 1998 shortly after getting very rich from a successful Silicon Valley startup called USWeb. This led to media types calling him the ‘Fox Mulder’ of Silicon Valley.
Posted in Science, Philosophy, Life, Software | Tags Internet, web
Posted by ungraspiness
Fri, 07 Dec 2007 06:21:00 GMT
Zyzyxx Rd., Mojave Desert, California
“
... the commercial software community has developed one particular response to resource limitation: a fevered, workaholic approach to software development—error prone, hectic, family-destroying, health-degrading, night-haunting. If you are undermanned by a factor of 2, add a second 8-hour workday per physical day. If you are operating under a schedule 50% too short, add in another 32 hours per week by working weekends. Then pray for luck or push back on features and quality.
Scarcity breeds a commodity or exchange economy. Until almost 1980, there were essentially no markets for software. Before 1980, most computers were owned by companies and used for “large tasks.” When computers were commoditized, the resource limitations inherent in software development became an opportunity for exploitation, and any relief to those limitations meant less wealth to go around. Draw your own conclusions.
“
- Richard P. Gabriel & Ron Goldman, ‘Mob Software: The Erotic Life of Code’
Posted in Software | Tags Ecomony
Posted by ungraspiness
Fri, 30 Nov 2007 05:26:00 GMT
Some Haskell fans seem impressed with better performance for a fibonacci function compared with similar implementations in Ruby and Python. They should be.
Read this and this before going on.
Impressive. Yea I thought so too until I implemented a fib function of my own in Lisp and ran it on SBCL.
Here it is…
(defun printfib-trec (start end)
(format t "n=~D => ~D~%" start (fib-trec start))
(if (< start end)
(printfib-trec (+ start 1) end)))
(defun fib-trec (n)
"Tail-recursive Fibonacci number function"
(labels ((calc-fib (n a b)
(if (= n 0)
a
(calc-fib (- n 1) b (+ a b)))))
(calc-fib n 0 1)))
and here are comparable results for N=45.
* (time (printfib-trec 0 45))
...
n=43 => 433494437
n=44 => 701408733
n=45 => 1134903170
Evaluation took:
0.001 seconds of real time
8.66e-4 seconds of user run time
4.4e-5 seconds of system run time
My machine is a core2 duo macbook. i.e. it’s similar to a dual core machine.
Now it gets even better here are the results for N=4500
* (time (printfib-trec 0 4500))
...
n=4498 => 4752485956810555875004869018963973043700525724009578868769474882879459154152204647915407885135917631883990751157075912405221725368578720671564885897475897464613262304334914241607212435329497497641975738086751054186028251736658640131563596639794912789288873499340565150498450487979214802149192686689502839297300024458433225040572133069627134796358948692382679582705607173927112950805086075483639678885680596072818462793625622001172877975597935926640708898109961081915885811381688288593609679366923395036172748038315089504487795839374129751161426896402825970560364499274889268094208129756388749789034972452896098894495061580172690522720566378084685514727191994472473978536748311552532810887686013014142033821544140905176979343962968937988421450684068500158256897979615387686994353406906126123537769868642652059566362453067042981495901311000274164675176218086106464588110191710522184013092019809003619950257701727043382807151105254869074540999
n=4499 => 7689683809176044218107840158125230568446917722620919869236097185282672128990041547590451591499923310831823312141560648669244546575977267500013883217226532696996235625233074842634247978888031960169238969830083697466087304886911697471293091037341927771010057257419268694905456568117577378610866026860700484139627056952202998275203723635146181775748103435107099441981319375329968495793847287994466423823519958759013902933218530884486180862708252747927806488609582304095221977753080257381254319632253228943480013647285929110384030236906149951249019234788386174626368178393351733619384777746723301965464502113374050814595527544612527282323355098641401340340217066221028727128338402433420088106126843822136543545984881453537808419762831343814403375221726100769180787258588643276099557741697382968654545681825708651265429233690200167736105425793517509595122050585308615226674843578205297740460920468000168395676735878604229024852582106840990153001
n=4500 => 12442169765986600093112709177089203612147443446630498738005572068162131283142246195505859476635840942715814063298636561074466271944555988171578769114702430161609497929567989084241460414217529457811214707916834751652115556623570337602856687677136840560298930756759833845403907056096792180760058713550203323436927081410636223315775856704773316572107052127489779024686926549257081446598933363478106102709200554831832365726844152885659058838306188674568515386719543386011107789134768545974863998999176623979652761685601018614871826076280279702410446131191212145186732677668241001713592907503112051754499474566270149709090589124785217805043921476726086855067409060693502705665086713985952898993812856836278577367529022358714787763725800281802824825905794600927437685238204030963093911148603509092192315550468360710831791686757243149232006736793791674270298268671415079814785035288727481753552940277003788345934437605647611832003687361710064694000
Evaluation took:
8.698 seconds of real time
4.731282 seconds of user run time
0.361252 seconds of system run time
Yes it only took under 9 seconds running in slime/emacs. Would probably be closer to 8 seconds on the command line.
As for the argument of Haskell being the easiest platform to benefit from multiple cores due to it’s parallel and concurrent libraries. The evidence contradicts that.
No changes were required to the Lisp code above to have sbcl use all cores on my system. What would be easier ?
Also the readability of the Lisp code is far simpler.
Oops. Sorry Haskell…
BTW – Haskell is not faster than a C implementation either(at least one that imitates Lisp) but Haskell would be far more readable beyond a trivial C implementation like this—>
#include <stdio.h>
unsigned long fib_trec(unsigned long n, unsigned long a, unsigned long b) {
if (n==0) return 0;
if (n==1) return a;
if (n==2) return b;
return fib_trec(n-1, b , a+b);
}
int main() {
int i;
for (i=0; i <= 45; i++) {
printf("n=%d => %d\n", i, fib_trec(i, 1, 1));
}
return 0;
}
$ time bin/fib-c
...
n=43 => 433494437
n=44 => 701408733
n=45 => 1134903170
real 0m0.004s
user 0m0.001s
sys 0m0.003s
UPDATE :
Thanks Don and the other guys for giving me a hard time for using an O(n) algorithm !
Maybe I’ve accepted the following quote for too long now ;-)
“The key to performance is elegance, not battalions of special cases.”
- Jon Bentley and Doug McIlroy
Posted in Programming, Lisp | Tags Haskell
Posted by ungraspiness
Tue, 06 Nov 2007 22:48:00 GMT
On Oct. 9, 1903, the New York Times wrote:
“The flying machine which will really fly might be evolved by the combined and continuous efforts of mathematicians and mechanicians in from one million to ten million years.”
On the same day, on Kill Devil Hill, N.C., in his diary, a bicycle mechanic named Orville Wright wrote:
“We unpacked rest of goods for new machine.”
Travis Louie – Unusual Circumstances / minty
Posted in Philosophy, Life, Art | Tags opinion, popular
Posted by ungraspiness
Thu, 13 Sep 2007 06:51:00 GMT
According to this telegraph article : “an Ipswich-based businessman invented a £190 bottle that makes foul-smelling water drinkable in seconds.”
That’s about US$380 over here. Each bottle can filter 4000 or 6000 liters without changing the filter.
Also the bottle can make fecal matter safe to drink because it filters anything longer than 15 nanometres. This means that bacteria which are smallest at 200 nanometres(filterable by conventional water filters) and even viruses which are usually smallest at 25 nanometers can be filtered.
If it matches the claims then it’s probably worth even more than that price.
Apparently this is similar technology to that used in high-quality Stillsuit production by the Fremen of Arrakis. Specifically how feces and urine are filtered in the thigh pads of the suits.
Posted in Science, Life | Tags water
