As I’ve dug more and more into how we build relationships online and off, the topic of small talk keeps coming up. It’s pretty easy to beat up on small talk – the weather, traffic, weekend plans – as mindless dribble between people who really want depth. Our muscle of relationship-building is atrophying, leaving us to seemingly only talk about the lowest-common-denominator...
Any piece of software represents the opinions of the organization that produced it. As I look back on the journey I’ve had in engineering, product, and leadership, I’ve come to accept that many products – my own portfolio included – would benefit from being more opinionated. Inherently some opinions are always present – the mere act of prioritization is tied to some...
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I started off my career as a software developer, my main measurement of output being the product of hours in a text editor. Even as I took on management and leadership roles in the early years, writing code was still a substantial portion of my day. But as Contactually took off, I needed to have more leverage, so my time allocation previously spent with my hands on the product was better served...
Most every founder keeps the exit scenarios and potential windfall tumbling around in the back of their minds during the journey of building and scaling a venture. The volume increases as possibilities (real or not) present themselves – a competitor gets acquired, meeting with a corporate development arm, random neurons firing, etc. I was fortunate enough that, as the acquisition went from...
Thursday nights are usually my most stressful, as I’m dreading my call the next morning. I was recently talking to a friend of mine, a coach to some of the top professionals in their field. He noted that most of his job is about holding an individual accountable to their own expectations. I’ve long felt the same way too about my own experience. While I may have lofty aspirations for...
We built Contactually initially to solve a relatively simple problem. While it’s, for many, an important aspect of growing their business and career – keeping track of and staying in touch with key relationships is not an easy task. We were fortunate to yield significant results there, measured not only in the user testimonials about their business growth, but in demand and scale of...
Building on The Age of Belonging David Brooks called it out as clearly as I’ve seen it – “the rampant individualism of our current culture is a catastrophe.” A catastrophe is a powerful word – conjuring images of a town in the American heartland, completely shredded in the aftermath of a tornado. Except the damage to us isn’t as tangible as someone looking at...
I’ve recently been experimenting with the Zettelkasten method for organizing information gleaned from reading and other content I consume. I’m still getting the hang of it, but, boiled down to its essence, the general process is: Quickly capture any raw clippings that stand out to you (a quote, passage, etc) in an inbox.Process your inbox, rewriting the clipping in your own voice...
“Well, Gentlemen, there’s only two ways I know of to make money: bundling and unbundling…” – Jim Barksdale, Netscape CEO If we were to rewind back a handful of generations, to our grandparents or great grandparents, they could look to single sources – namely religion, career, or geography – to form the container for their lives. It was how they found their community...