The Blog of Matt Gornick

experiments in building businesses, lifestyle design, and social hedging

Social Hedging - More to come...

social hedging - a trick of minimizing risk and maximizing utility in a social or life setting

I had a great talk with the founder and CEO of EatCU.com about the concept of social hedging.  I want to gather some social hedges and start posting them again.  If you have some examples or new ideas, I'd love to have a guest post on your social hedging strategy.

Notes and Presentation from Rework College

Thanks to everyone who attended my Rework College talk this afternoon.  We had a great turnout and an amazing Q&A session.

Here is a copy of my presentation: http://prezi.com/awr5_k5rf1rn/
Here is the book I reference, Rework: http://www.amazon.com/Rework-Jason-Fried/dp/0307463745


Here are some notes and links from the event:

- Its not about creating tons of 16 hours days, but finding ways to optimizing the time you have.
- find a balance to do everything you want while fulfilling your academic obligations
- if CEO's that manage billions of dollars can spend 1.5 hours a day doing yoga, than I can squeeze a few more hours out of my day

Tips, Tricks, and Social Hedges
1. Classes - Ask to get classes you want substituted for required courses.  Ask to work on your own project.  Ask to form your own group.  The worst the professor can say is "No" and you're no worse off.
2. Calendar - Record every event and when that day comes up decide what is the most important thing is.  Study group vs. rock climbing?  You'll know what is most important on that day, not planning a week in advance.
3. Make a list of things to accomplish for today.  Do them.  Its simple but extremely hard to follow.  
4. Speed Reading - I wish I learned about this in high school.  Learn it or at least get started.  Read faster and remember more.  Roshan Choxi recommended this book

5. Between time - if you're driving, walking between classes, etc. load up an iPod with Audiobooks, Podcasts, etc. 
Public Domain Audiobooks - http://librivox.org/
Audiobooks - Audible.com

Pick classes where you can work on a side project you will do anyway.  
I took a Database course at UIUC because I was interested in it and I could work on a project I always wanted to do.

Do More with Less
Stop worrying about "What if".  
What if 1 million users signup?  
What if someone offers you $10 million for your company?  
What if someone copies your product?  
Many of these things cannot be predicted and when they happen you have the best information at that time. 
Stop worrying and start building

Legal/IP/Accounting - find someone to worry about that for you
Slow down your burnrate - buy for $1 and sell for $2
Build the core of your product.  
Focus on less features and instead build a better product.  
Many features are fluff and filler for a lack of a great and usable product.

No "just idea" guys.  Need people who can produce a product or sales or something tangible to the business.  Everyone must be a producer.

(download)

Social Hedging: A Tactical Approach to Life Hacking

2 things I hate:
1. Standing in lines that exceed 3 minutes
2. Wasting time

Yesterday, I was asked to see an opening day movie (Harry Potter) with a group of friends.  I was indifferent to seeing the movie and would normally not have gone if it wasn't for friends going.  As you may guess, the lines at the Harry Potter movies are long and filled with tons of dedicated fans.  I have nothing against people dressing up as wizards, movie characters, etc., but its not my cup of tea so if I can prevent myself from spending several hours waiting in line I'll do it.

(9 p.m. + opening night of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) I needed to fill up my tank of gas.  Show starts at 12:01 a.m. My friends will be getting to the theater around 11:15 p.m. to get tickets for the showing (while waiting almost an hour in a line filled with thousands of people).  I was not entirely sure that they would be able to get tickets at this point as this is a highly anticipated movie with tons of fans: the movie can easily sell out if you aren't in line earlier enough.  At this point, I recalled that I used Fandango in the past when I was in New York City to see the recent Batman movie.  I loaded the Fandango app on my iPhone, purchased a ticket for the movie, and received the email confirmation. 
(9:30 p.m.) I swing by the theater and to my surprise the line for the Harry Potter movie had already started and was outside the theater!  I walked in the regular entrance, grabbed my midnight showing ticket at the Fandango counter and drove back to my apartment.
(11:45 p.m.) I call my friend to find out that they are in line for tickets and they'll get in to see the show tonight.  They mention that I need to hurry up if I want to get tickets.  I left my apartment.
(11:57 p.m.) I arrived at the theater, casually walked in past a few thousand people inline to get tickets, and comfortably got my seat.  At this point, my friends are still in line trying to get tickets, worrying that the show my start without them, and potentially missing the movie.
(12:01 a.m.) Typical movie start
(12:15 a.m.) Moved to where my friends were sitting, watched movie, enjoyed time with friends, etc.

The reason I bring up this story is that so much uncertainty surrounded this event. 
1. If I get there at this time, will the show be sold out?
2. If it isn't sold out, will I miss part of the movie because the line is too long/slow?
3. How early should I get there to get a good seat?

I had made the decision that I will stay at my apartment as long as I could to optimize my utility (getting things done, knocking out email, relaxing, etc.).  I'll go ahead and buy the Fandango tickets not knowing if my friends will get tickets (if the show sold out) and simply wait until either:
a). My friends get in the ticket line about an hour early and do in fact get tickets.  I will drive over to join them.
b). My friends didn't get tickets because the line was too long and now I don't have to waste my time in line but loose the cost of the Fandango tickets.

These decisions are seemingly reminiscent of financial stock options at expiration.  After retrieving the tickets, I had socially hedged my night for either outcome: I am guaranteed to come out ahead or at least protect myself from downside risk (of not knowing what to do or to do nothing).  I try to keep up with the standard life hacking and productivity news, but I feel that combining the right tactics and planning with a mixture of life hacking can be highly effective. 

I'm going to experiment with other strategies as they present themselves as I don't think this is an isolated event.  If you have any other social hedging or life hacking ideas, let me know.