The market size, talent pool, ambition, work ethic, focus, energy, scale and momentum in China (just based on my little experience so far) is amazing. In my experience the rest of the world has no idea what's going on here - and they ignore it at their own peril.
Product & Startup Builder
Startup Grind Talk in Shenzhen
My high level prediction for the future
Someone asked me what the future is going to be like. This was my off-the-cuff answer...
It's very simple - the future is going to be More.
More open, more connected, more transparent, more abundant. And more chaotic, more scary and more dangerous.
The art of introductions
Elon Musk: When He Proved Everyone Wrong
Inspiring
On Being Developer Obsessed
Being Developer Obsessed is not about giving them what you want (things that are safe, self-serving or incremental), but rather giving them what they need (real utility, distribution, revenue and empathy).
The result: Outsized impact and new innovation. You get to be more than a product - but rather a fundamental part of the durable, long-term stack.
Remember when people used to compare FB and Twitter?
Facebook now has 2 billion monthly users… and responsibility
And yet people still compare Twitter, Snapchat and Facebook. No comparison. One's a ubiquitous social operating system with a portfolio of massively popular apps - the others are gimmicks that never crossed the chasm (sadly).
The same will be said for false comparisons being made about today's crop of unicorns.
EU Monopoly laws. A fine line.
So what's the line between search results and shopping comparison? Seems to me that this is a matter of difference from a starting point (e.g they started as a list of blue links instead of structured shopping data) and branding (instead of just making it a knowledge graph snippet they branded it as Google Shopping).
This kind of thinking (EU monopoly laws) can really stifle innovation if misapplied - very fine line.
Also can you imagine the schadenfreude if other companies had this kind of ruling against them?
Amazon's retargeting ads are not smart enough to know I already bought the thing.
Trump's Hostilities Grow
Hah! It seems that this place is becoming generally hostile to entrepreneurs as well as immigrants
(Link to WSJ article: “Trump Administration to Rescind Obama’s Foreign-Born Founder Rule”)
On Travis' Ousting from Uber...
I've asked many people. The answer is always the same. This article really (finally) captures it
“I’m not discrediting Susan at all because I think that’s very brave what she did and the situation was completely regrettable,” said Alan Price, who worked as a recruiter at Uber’s Europe headquarters in London from March 2014 to October 2016. “But a lot of those situations are isolated incidents and not representative of the overall culture. Everyone was so motivated to work for Travis. It was never like you were cracked by a whip.”
FB Summit In Chicago
I've never seen such a long term, carefully orchestrated ramp. Breathtaking vision and execution. He either wants to be President of the United States, or realizes he needs to start acting like President of the United Nation of Facebook (Bigger!) for his company/platform to transcend to the next level.
Amy Sun: What I Learned From Working at Uber
What I Learned From Working at Uber
This was Uber 1.0. What will Uber 2.0 be like?
Leadership is mostly about listening - the rest is about helping
On Managing Misunderstandings
When people want to willfully misunderstand your intent and actions you have 2 options.
A) Avoid them, or B) over-communicate.
If A is not possible then B is obviously the only way to go.
Communicate the context, contributing factors, high level intent, specific decisions and your hopes and dreams for what might happen next. Invite them into your world. It won't always work, but the opposite won't ever work.
Absent this, your audience is free to fill in the blanks with their own worst case scenarios and tell your story for you.
Platforms as a Pillar of Product Strategy
For a major Silicon Valley tech company - the only way to win is to have APIs and developers as a key pillar of your product strategy.
Poverty isn't a lack of character; it's a lack of cash
This has broad and deep implications - but going to be a fascinating period of exploration to fix work/economy during this era of disruption
‘Now it’s on our watch’: A chat with the new Uber executive who believes the company can change
‘Now it’s on our watch’: A chat with the new Uber executive who believes the company can change
Truth. "This is an organization full, full, full of earnest, smart people who want to change the world and want to be part of an organization that’s world-class. So we’re going to provide the ability for them to do it" h/t Ann Bordetsky
Life gamification
App idea:
Life can be modeled like a video game with various numbers acting as inputs to your overall score.
Years studying, Your GPA, bank balance, credit score, something equivalent to your Klout, steps taken, Miles run, years worked, age, kids, etc. etc.
Some apps like Gyroscope aggregate already a lot of this data in one place.
But it would be really cool to add a layer of gamification to the whole thing. It might help kids who derive great motivation from the immediate feedback loop of a game engine, and be a fun casual game for adults. Who knows it might even help focus the energies of those who feel a little lost.
Levels, power ups, skills earned etc. Extra points for velocity. All in one place. A common language by which the kids (and adults) can compete with each other.
The key will be to use the instant gratification techniques of gaming like real time, regular feedback when earning points and leveling up. Also a leaderboard.
No idea what the business model would be though. Might need to be a Wikipedia style project.
Amazon is gobbling Whole Foods for $13.7 billion”
Amazon is gobbling Whole Foods for $13.7 billion
Wow. That's one way to bootstrap your vision of a contactless grocery store.