Caterpillar Cowboy

Why Men Work So Many Hours - Joan C. Williams - Harvard Business Review

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 07:51:44 -0400

Why Men Work So Many Hours - Joan C. Williams - Harvard Business Review:

So here’s where we stand. If institutions are serious about advancing women, they’ll have to address the hours problem — that’s the only way to get a critical mass of women poised for leadership. But we’ll never address the hours problem until we open up a conversation about what drives it.

It’s not productivity. It’s not innovation. It’s identity. If you’ve lived a life where holidays are a nuisance, where you’ve missed your favorite uncle’s funeral and your children’s childhoods, in a culture that conflates manly heroism with long hours, it’s going to take more than a few regressions to convince you it wasn’t really necessary, after all, for your work to devour you.

I wonder if the author has ever worked at a startup.

5 years after I left Etsy, shopping is still an awful experience.

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 11:39:54 -0400

How many engineers does it take?

"A Federal District Court judge in Manhattan ruled on Tuesday that Fox Searchlight Pictures had..."

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 22:00:27 -0400

“A Federal District Court judge in Manhattan ruled on Tuesday that Fox Searchlight Pictures had violated federal and New York minimum wage laws by not paying production interns, a case that could upend the long-held practice of the film industry and other businesses that rely heavily on unpaid internships. In the decision, Judge William H. Pauley III ruled that Fox Searchlight should have paid two interns on the movie “Black Swan,” because they were essentially regular employees. The judge noted that these internships did not foster an educational environment and that the studio received the benefits of the work. The case could have broad implications. Young people have flocked to internships, especially against the backdrop of a weak job market. Employment experts estimate that undergraduates work in more than one million internships a year, an estimated half of which are unpaid, according to Intern Bridge, a research firm.”

- Judge Rules for Interns Who Sued Fox Searchlight - NYTimes.com (via dendroica)

This is a significant victory for the rights of interns. Too many companies have gotten away with essentially free work. As I have stated before, unpaid internships are akin to exploitation. Hopefully more companies wake up to the fact that such arrangements are grossly unfair and devalue people and their work.

(via marksbirch)

Our policy is to pay interns $3500/mo. We also require companies who participate in our Apprentice Program (our graduates become their interns) to pay the same.

"In fact, Snowden’s lack of formal credentials made him mainstream, and maybe even the wave of the..."

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 05:03:27 -0400

“In fact, Snowden’s lack of formal credentials made him mainstream, and maybe even the wave of the future. The Brookings Institution reported in a paper titled “The Hidden STEM Economy” that half of the nation’s workers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math don’t have or need a bachelor’s degree. They do their work with an associate’s degree or even just on-the-job training. When you add in these less formally trained STEM specialists, you arrive at 26 million STEM workers, making up one-fifth of the U.S. workforce. The most common non-college STEM jobs include trades like auto mechanics, electricians, welders, and logistics supervisors, whose jobs all increasingly require a sophisticated mastery of both software and machinery. On average these workers earn 10% more than workers at a similar level of education who don’t have a mastery of any scientific or technical field.”

- Edward Snowden Didn’t Have a BA—Why That’s the Future of the Tech Industry | Fast Company | Business Innovation (via infoneer-pulse)

I work for (and believe in) General Assembly for a reason. The traditional liberal arts education is a wonderful luxury for some, but for many it will be the most expensive vacation of their lives. The world needs a vocational alternative.

"Half.com founder and CEO Josh Kopelman once told me that the thing he hated most about being CEO was..."

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 04:59:11 -0400

“Half.com founder and CEO Josh Kopelman once told me that the thing he hated most about being CEO was when two of his smartest people would disagree and he would have to come down on one side: “These decisions were usually 51/49% and I was left having to console the ‘loser’.” He’s right. Arbitrating these disagreements is one of the hardest and most emotionally draining parts of the job, but many CEOs just avoid it and nothing breeds a horrible culture like a CEO who puts offs decisions or, worse yet, makes too many compromises.”

- The CEO’s Weekly Checklist // Scott Weiss (via datainsightsideas)

They should really change CEO to CDO for Chief Decision Officer. Your most important role when leading a company is to make decisions. If you fail at that, your company is heading for ruin.
(via marksbirch)
My life.

"Crack Advertising, or paid marketing, is one way out. You spend money, you make money. You spend..."

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 21:42:19 -0400

“

Crack

Advertising, or paid marketing, is one way out. You spend money, you make money. You spend more money, you make more money. The only problem is the money you are “making” is showing up on the top-line and not the bottom-line.

”

- Startup drugs | PandoDaily

Advertising gets such an unfairly bad rap in the startup community.

(via khuyi)

If LTV > CAC, sign me up alllll day.

I finished the new season of Arrested Development.

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 20:47:24 -0400

fishy:

That was weird.

I felt like I wasn’t smart enough to fully appreciate it all.

disoriented: Final Fantasy 15/Final Fantasy XV Trailer/Gameplay...

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 14:41:12 -0400

disoriented:

Final Fantasy 15/Final Fantasy XV Trailer/Gameplay (by GamesHQMedia)

To watch later…

LukeW | WWDC 2013: Just the Data

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 14:35:11 -0400

LukeW | WWDC 2013: Just the Data:

Over a million people per day visited Apple stores in 2012. (source)

There are 471 Apple stores worldwide. (source)

There are over 900,000 apps in the Apple App store. 375k apps have been designed for iPad.(source)

50 billion apps downloaded in less than 5 years. (source)

There are 575 million credit card accounts on iTunes. (source)

….

“There are 575 million credit card accounts on iTunes.” is the most important stat here, IMO.

lickystickypickyshe: iOS 7 will make my iphone look like one of those fugly Androids that remind me...

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 21:45:48 -0400

lickystickypickyshe:

iOS 7 will make my iphone look like one of those fugly Androids that remind me of tacky gamers.

Steve is dead and if this is the trend the apple will rot soon enough.
I might just totally cut off phone communication from my life.

FYI: I am not interested in opinionzzzz from Android fanboys or Apple fanboys.

Totally agree with Z here. It looks very Android and I’m not a fan.

I didn’t get them. Got these instead. (via Schooner Boat...

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 20:07:58 -0400

I didn’t get them. Got these instead.

(via Schooner Boat Shoe - Shoes -> Casual | John Varvatos)

Should I get them? $36. (via Soho - GBX Shoes - Footwear :...

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 17:40:45 -0400

Should I get them? $36.

(via Soho - GBX Shoes - Footwear : JackThreads)

Sigur Ros makes such beautiful music.

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 15:58:58 -0400

Sigur Ros makes such beautiful music.

"Much of what I saw in Geneva really disillusioned me about how my government functions and what its..."

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 15:19:40 -0400

“Much of what I saw in Geneva really disillusioned me about how my government functions and what its impact is in the world. I realised that I was part of something that was doing far more harm than good.”

- Edward Snowden, the just-revealed NSA whistleblower, on his 2007 stint with the CIA in Geneva, Switzerland which he describes as formative in his decision which eventually led him to blow the whistle on the NSA’s security programs. Snowden publicly outed himself in The Guardian, the publication which initially published the documents which showed the federal government asking for metadata records from Verizon. (via shortformblog)

Go watch the video.

The real story is the collapse of journalism

Sat, 08 Jun 2013 22:13:27 -0400

The real story is the collapse of journalism:

parislemon:

As many of you know, I rarely agree with Ed Bott on anything. But here, we absolutely see eye-to-eye. A well done and justified criticism of this fiasco.

I’ve gotten whiplash from all the corrections, non-corrections, denials, “non-denials” — I’d just skip it all and read Declan McCullagh’s piece, which seems like the most thoroughly reported follow-up yet.

christine's brain: How To Be More Productive

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 21:18:10 -0400

christine's brain: How To Be More Productive:

christinetsai:

There are tons of productivity tips out there. Here are my top 5.

Be present. Multitasking is dangerous and causes you to feel frazzled because you’re never fully concentrating on one thing. If you’re on a phone meeting, don’t plow through email or Facebook or Twitter. If you’re in an…

The only thing I would add is getting used to saying “no”.

3-D Printer Firm MakerBot in Acquisition Talks - WSJ.com

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 06:41:57 -0400

3-D Printer Firm MakerBot in Acquisition Talks - WSJ.com:

Wow, this would be great news for Bre if it happens!

(15 months ago, I turned down Bre’s offer to be Head of User Experience because I disagreed that a free and CC-licenses Thingiverse.com could compete with Shapeways. So far, I think I’ve been right, but this exit would be a fantastic alternative to Bre’s stated vision of “a 3-D printer in every home”.)

"I raised eight million dollars over four angel rounds from over one hundred angel investors to keep..."

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 22:47:56 -0400

“I raised eight million dollars over four angel rounds from over one hundred angel investors to keep us afloat.”

- The Risk Not Taken — I.M.H.O. — Medium

#hustle
(via jryu)
I raised $900k from almost 30 angels. I feel your pain.

Jason Shah: The 800 Pound Gorilla Amazon Tried to Kill is Google's Trojan Horse

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 23:18:43 -0400

Jason Shah: The 800 Pound Gorilla Amazon Tried to Kill is Google's Trojan Horse:

jasonshah:

OK. So I just got access to Google Shopping Express. Google and Amazon are dancing closer and closer together in the e-commerce / same-day delivery space. But I didn’t think much about Google as a threat even though with Wallet, Shopping, Search, Maps, self-driving cars, and other tech, it’s a…

Any physical retailer that wants to compete with Amazon on price and selection will lose, if you use a long enough time horizon. Target might be cheaper now, but just how long do you think they can sustain lower prices with higher operating cost? What percentage of their inventory is actually lower?

Jeff Bezos LOVES races to the bottom and tiny margin businesses. I would never want to compete directly with him on price.

Just got back from seeing The National at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 22:53:57 -0400

Acoustics were TERRIBLE. Lots of echo muddying the sound, way too much bass, backup vocal mics were too low. St. Vincent came out for one song. Allegedly she sang, too, but you couldn’t hear her. Only good thing to say is that their drummer is incredibly talented.

Anyone know if the sound guy is supplied by the venue or travels with the band?