…I stepped out of John Dory onto Broadway, looked south, and heard a voice behind me “nice hair!” I turned to find two cougars finishing their cigarettes. I thanked them, they smiled and stepped back into the bar.
After which, Sasha introduced me to his friend Tom, who’d taken his first Square transaction earlier in the day—a wholesale batch of his artisanal tonic.
Remarkable territory, this “mid-town.”
Starting July 1, and every day for a year, I will get rid of something. I will donate, discard, re-gift or recycle some bit of debris accumulating in my house. Anything non-perishable considered, exempting books and music.
My climbing partner TJ and I hatched this last week on an (overly encumbered) hike to Alamere falls in Marin. It’s one aspect of a larger goal to apply the philosophy of minimalist alpinism to everyday life: light, fast, with minimal protection—your wits, your experience and the strength of your companions.
Backdated to July 1, the first thirteen: two pair headphones, one Maglite, one pair Pumas. Two pillows, one remote-control wand, a coffee thermos and a padlock. A retired pair of glasses, one cable modem and one rain jacket.
July 1, 2011 is the summit. Or maybe base camp.
Update: Follow #less365 on Twitter (thanks Tim and Caterina!)
Hiking with Lily, Matt, Mike and Susan through the Alakai Wilderness, the highest swamp in the world.
Two friends of mine, both engineers, in separate occasions in the past week:
@rk: “Software is a hypothesis.”
@nk: “The GPL dictated behavior, whereas the authors of the MIT license merely prescribed it, having faith it would succeed on its inherent benefits.”
Holidays at King Walter’s Castle—always baller. Photo courtesy the lovely JZ.
I guess in some ways it was inevitable. A lot of people expected it, and more than a couple asked “what’s taking so long.” So a couple weeks ago, I started nb.io with Eric Case and Cameron Walters. The plan is to make it onto the awesome list. We’re bootstrapping and working on some projects that we want to use.
Tomorrow we’re heading to Mendocino to hack on our first product, away from our usual daily distractions. The plan is to do this regularly—go somewhere with a good kitchen, internets and preferably with a decent dose of outdoors. If you have a house somewhere awesome that you don’t mind sharing for our company hack-trips, email me. We’re currently officing in my house—so trading is definitely possible.
We’re eating our own dogfood—methodically iterating based on the needs of our products’ audiences. In less-buzzword-laden English, this means making stuff that our users want, and really trying hard to not waste time on stuff they don’t. Or as our friend Hans put it, aligning our interests with that of our customers.
But enough about products & companies &c. Time for the Black Kids show!
