The Blog of Matt Gornick

experiments in building businesses, lifestyle design, and social hedging

Quantified Self at ORD Camp

I gave a talk at ORD Camp 2012 on 'Quantified Self and How to hack your body'.  The group was amazing and we captured a great list of tools and tips for tracking and improving oneself.

Below is a list of tools, gadgets, and services that we use:

Sleep:
Food:
Exercise/Body:
Productivity:
Genetics/Body:
  • 23andMe - https://www.23andme.com/ - genetic testing company that provides heath, disease, and other wellness information based upon your DNA.
Home:
  • Nest Thermostat - http://www.nest.com/ - tracks your habits and learns what temperature to maintain in your home.

Remote Work

 

"[In the future] Men will no longer commute, they will communicate" - Arthur C. Clarke

 

 

Several months ago, I though the concept of remote working was rather absurd and wouldn't work for most teams.  Ideas that would normally be shared in the same room on a whiteboard would be poorly communicated in emails, Skype calls, and Basecamp projects.

 

Despite this, I can say that I've been won over some efficiencies of remote working.  This wasn't a choice per se as some of my colleagues were in Chile, St. Martin, Maine, Tokyo, St. Louis, and an arboretum near Chicago when we needed to get work done.  Each time, we adapted, grew, and got things done.  

 

Some tasks may be more difficult if you're not in the same room.  How do you brainstorm together? or feel the "excitement" (read: hustle) in a startup?  I would follow Pareto's principle in saying that 80% of the work doesn't require everyone to be in the same room and 20% of the work might be helpful to be in the same room.  Much like developers get into the zone while doing a pomodoro or timeboxing work, you know that the 20% of time you spend together needs to count.

 

Working within these constraints has helped me focus on the most important things first.

 

Working at a startup (and notes from WashU talk)

This week I had the opportunity to speak with some great students at Washington University in St. Louis.  As apart of "Alternative Career Week", they brought in Aaron Papermaster (Moxie) and I to talk about starting your own company while in college and working for a startup once you graduate.

I've noticed that I keep referencing the same books, videos, and people so I decided to make a page to have all of this information in one place.  

This information can be found at:

Customers hate surprises

Law 1: Tell your customer what you're going to tell them.

Law 2: Tell them.

Law 3: Then tell them what you told them.

Today I went to the barbershop for a quick trim for the holidays.  My hair wasn't long, but just needed to get cleaned up.  I told the barber to take just a touch off the length and trim me up.  He smiled, agreed, spun me around (away from the mirror), and proceeded to cut my hair in complete silence... not a word.  20 minutes later, he spun me back around and I promptly figured out that this wasn't want I asked for.  He tried his best to correct the butchery of a haircut, but as the ancient proverb goes "measure twice, cut once".  There was nothing he could do to fix the haircut.

This is an important lesson because it is a perfect example of what businesses do and try to meet customer demands and expectations.  All too often, you are on the phone with a supplier/vendor/sales person and they can barely contain their excitement to get going, install software, and sell you hardware without truly understanding your needs.  There is a disconnect between what they want to sell and what I want because they aren't communicating with me.  

Going back to my haircut, the barber should be constantly communicating with its customers.  "Trim here, hows that length? Did you see the game last night?"  Without communication, even a seasoned expert can deliver something completely unexpected and unwanted to the client.  Obviously, unexpected and unwanted results are the last thing a paying customer has in mind.

Even Apple Computer who is known for secrecy, telling the customer what they need, and surprising everyone also plays by these laws although a bit differently.  First, they do an insane amount of research (read: listening) to determine what people's problems are with technology.  People are "communicating to" Apple and Apple is doing a great job at listening.  Before a product launch, there will be banners, rumors, faux product pictures, etc. but these are likely setting up the expectation of what they Apple will tell us (Law 1).  The anticipation leading up to the launch brings us to Law 2, where Steve actually tells us they are releasing an iPhone/iPad/etc.  Law 3 is the rest of his talk where he basically makes everyone on earth want to purchase this new gadget.  Law 3 is subsequently reinforced by other people (media, friends, etc) telling you what Steve already told you (e.g. "you need to by an iPhone because it is the greatest achievement bestowed upon mankind").

That being said, we need to either be more strategic (like Apple) or more active when communication and listening to customers and their needs.  Communicate early and often.

Happy Holidays!

Recommendation engines are pretty smart

Yesterday, I decided to buy a book on Amazon I have always wanted to read.  Amazon kept recommending other books and topics that "I might like"... and oddly enough they were right!  Amazon recommended several books that I've heard and wanted to read, but had since forgotten about.  Needless to say, I walked away with a slightly larger bill than expected. 

I've been using Amazon and Pandora for a while now and they both seem to know what products I want to buy, books I want to read, and music I want to listen to.  I think there is something to be said for these engines and that they might very well be the norm in the future. 

I don't know the all inner workings of these technologies and collaborative filtering, but I interested in learning more about them.  Time to reread the old lecture notes from CS410 at UIUC.

Why don't US students take a gap year?

I have heard some of my friends doing a "Gap Year" where they take a year between college and the work force to travel the world, volunteer abroad, or study topics that are interesting to them but didn't get time to focus on in school.  A few years ago, I would never have thought of a gap year, but after talking with some friends I'm starting to think it is a great opportunity for our generation.  It is natural to follow the paths of others, but seemingly difficult to try something different.

Here are some of my ideas of a good gap year that I think would be a huge learning experience:
1. Work on or create a startup company
2. Spend 8 months in Italy learning the language and cuisine
3. Live the life of a rock climber and travel through the cliffs in North and South America and learning the culture and dedication of the sport along the way

Why companies engage customers (via Twitter)

I recently wrote an article about getting Schwab and Mint.com to work so you can keep track of your budgets online.  The next day I got a tweet from the Schwab Twitter account (@SchwabService) with a short "thank you".  I feel like more companies should do this and reach out to their customers.  Most communication is one way from customers to companies.  It is refreshing for it to go in reverse.

Finally getting Charles Schwab and Mint to work

File

After months of trying to get my Charles Schwab Investor Checking and Mint.com to work, I've finally been able to get my data imported.  As an extra layer of security, I use the Schwab Token (available here) which generates a unique 6 digit code that you use each time to login.  This makes it impossible for Mint.com to continuously update your account which is aggravating, but a small price to pay for the sense of security.  At the same time, it would be nice to still have the data available in Mint.com if you use Schwab's Bill Pay and want to keep track of your finances.  Here are the steps to get it working (finally):

1. Login to Mint.com
2. Add a new Account - Search then add "Charles Schwab - Banking"
3. Type in your Username
4. Type in your password, press the button on your secure token to get the 6-digit code (e.g. 123456), then type in that 6-digit code immediately after your password.  Example: your password field would have "secret123456"
5. Hit Save and wait for Mint.com to pull in the data.

For your safety the tokens from Schwab expire pretty quick (maybe ~1 minutes).  If you wait too long during step 4 or between step 4 and 5 then your token will expire and Mint.com won't be able to login, so you have to be fast.


Simple ideas can be profitable

I love receiving (and giving) feedback on startup ideas, pitches, and product demos.  It allows people to look for ways to improve their product as well as see their startup from objective eyes.  I think the biggest deterrent to creative feedback comes from people that discount ideas simply because ... they appear to be simple.

I love this quote from Paul Graham's Essay "How to Start a Startup" (http://paulgraham.com/start.html):
"In particular, you don't need a brilliant idea to start a startup around. The way a startup makes money is to offer people better technology than they have now. But what people have now is often so bad that it doesn't take brilliance to do better."

In my experience, some people like to think that all the easy problems have already been solved and thus you should only look at solving the huge and complex problems.  Unbeknown to most, there are tons of horrible (any annoying) solutions for rather simple problems.  Additionally, these companies might have completely solved the problem wrong to begin with and it is just up to you to create a simple and elegant solution.

Here are some great examples:
  • Groupon (http://www.groupon.com/) - People have been able to get coupons before, but never before has a website made it so easy and enjoyable to look at deals and new venues in your city.  The solution is amazingly simple so much so that thousands of Groupon clones are starting to take over internet.  Great idea, simple solution, $1+ billion company.
  • 37signals (http://37signals.com/) - For those using MS Project, you know the pain and angst that is involved with doing the most simple task.  37signals didn't set out to destroy MS Project, but rather just focus on the customers that just wanted to manage a small team or project.  The overhead and headaches of MS Project allowed 37signals to solve the problem the correct way.  
  • Inventables (http://www.inventables.com/) - For years, people scoured big material books, bids, and online to find things like 'squishy magnets' or 'water proof coatings' when building new products such as cars, running shoes, airplanes, etc.  Inventables is changing the way people find these unique materials buy offering a digital marketplace for buyers and sellers to interact and discover new materials.  Buying materials isn't anything new, but enabling people to easily find and buy them is.
  • Snuggie (www.getsnuggie.com/) - As most people on this earth already know, the Snuggie is amazingly well-known and is an incredibly simple idea (essentially a backwards robe or a blanket with sleeves).  Not only was this idea easy to create, manufacture, steal, and reproduce (if someone was so inclined), but it was a wild success and has generated millions of sales.
In a quote from Twitter user heathwblack, "Sometimes the best inventions don't reinvent the wheel, they just make it roll better."