Co-founder

Paul Graham wrote an interesting article about startup the other day (thanks Ashwin for sending me the link) - the focus was on the surprises the startup founders experienced. The first on the list was "Be careful with Cofounders". A certain found said, 'One thing that surprised me is how the relationship of startup founders goes from a friendship to a marriage. My relationship with my cofounder went from just being friends to seeing each other all the time, fretting over the finances and cleaning up shit. And the startup was our baby. I summed it up once like this: "It's like we're married, but we're not fucking." '

I found it funny but at the same time, I think it's very true. I don't have much to add except that I do think building a company is like raising a baby (or is it the other way around?).

Enjoy.

Data

I have been updating my photo workflow for the past few days and man, I really couldn't believe I was so focus on it. Seriously, I was reading everything all these articles on it. Crazy. Anyway, so one of the steps in my workflow is to upload it to Flickr, which is my way to share my best shots and I plan to upload one picture there a day. FYI, Picasa is for sharing non-public pictures with friends and facebook is for sharing public pictures.

Flickr has a free plan or a paid plan (24.95/yr). The free plan has almost everything I want. So what's missing? Stats of my photos (how did people get to my pictures for example). I love to look at data (I am an engineer afterall) so I bit the bullet and paid for the plan. And then you know what, the data is some what crappy. It does tell me how people got to my photo outside; however, it doesn't tell me how people got to my photo inside Flickr. For example, is it based on a search term, is it from a certain group, etc. Feel somewhat tricked by Flickr in that sense. I think I am going to send them a feature request.

Update: Turns out I was just dumb. I didn't realize that you could click on one of those links (I swear I clicked on it before but nothing happened). Anyway, I am now a happy man and think that the $25 is worth it.

Stock market

Stock market is interesting. When I got up this morning, I was pretty shocked to see "115". That's a pretty huge number for a company I have "invested" in. If I had any shares, I would have sold them right now; unfortunately, I sold them earlier this year. Glad I don't work in the stock market or I think I will always have this losing feeling. You can argue that it's all about setting a target price, sell it at that time, and then forget about it. However, when the difference is so huge and it's a difference of a few months, it's kinda hard to stomach sometimes. Anyway, just complaining and get it out of my head :).

Asking questions

For those who have kids, do you find your kids asking a lot of questions? A lot of hard questions? Like why do we have eggs? Where did I come from? For those who asked a lot of questions when you were a kid, do you still ask a lot of questions at work, at home, or during a social events?

When I was a kid, I almost never asked any questions. I was one of those very obedient kid who took whatever people said (yeah, I was very gullible, well, I still am). It wasn't that I wasn't curious but it was more like I was afraid of asking questions. Why was I afraid? I dunno. I was probably worried what others would think of me. For example, "He's such a stupid person." I got through life fine without asking too many questions throughout elementary school, secondary school, and college (thanks to my parents and the crazy Hong Kong education system). Now that I think about, I really didn't know how to ask questions (not that I know now).

In the past few years, I find myself changing though. I think my previous job has something to do with it. Anyway, I find myself asking people more questions. It was like I became the curious kid I was supposed to be. I would "drill" people about a certain topic and try to get to the bottom of it. Come to think of it, I wonder how annoying I am. I don't know but oh well, it has already happened, I couldn't change it :). Actually, maybe I should go read some books on how to ask better questions. That's not a bad idea.

Sorry for cutting this post short, I ended up im'ing at the same time and it's getting very late now. Gotta sleep now. Next time...

Amazed...

As I mentioned before, I am taking a Spanish class online right now and I have a weekly 1-on-1 with a Spanish teacher. The teacher is from all over the world and you know what, the teacher I had today actually from the same city as I am and she's only like 15 blocks from me! How likely is that.

Speaking of Spanish, I think it is messing up my English. Lol... I find myself having a harder time when I speak English (mostly related to mouth/tongue movement control).

Winter sports

I am supposed to work on my slide deck for a presentation next week but I always procrastinate what I should do when I don't want to do them. sigh... anyway, so I have been learning a lot about gears for winter sports and it's pretty interesting. Why do I learn about it? Well, I want to play in more winter sports this year and want to make sure that I am prepared for the cold weather.

I took off work a little early yesterday and went to a sports store (Mountain Hardware in downtown) to ask a salesperson all about it. How should I dress for a winter activity? I should dress in layers for both upper and lower bodies. The first layer is the base layer. It should NEVER be cotton (I wore cotton last time I went snowboarding and I remember it being pretty a horrible experience). It should also be as close to your body as possible as it'll keep you warm. The next layer is the mid-layer. People usually have a fleece for this layer and the thickness depends on the activity you do. The last layer is the outer-layer or the shell. It's usually a waterproof (like Gore-tex) jacket/pants. Depending on what activity you do, you may need one that's durable (for example, if you are going on a backpacking trip).

I only have a fleece jacket so I need to get a few extra items. I started looking at these items at REI and, man, they are pretty expensive (as a side note, I rarely buy clothes and when I do buy, they are almost always on sale, so I really don't know what's normal pricing. How could I get it on sale all the time? Well, it's because of procrastination. I needed winter clothes but I was always too lazy to get it and then by the time I got myself to get it (usually a visit to the outlet with other people), it's already the end of the season and it's sales time. lol...). Anyway, I just got myself a set of base layer from REI ($50). I am now shopping for the jacket. There are WAY too many options. Why couldn't someone just tell me which one I should get.

By the way, I was just thinking about what store I buy non-grocery stuff from in the past eight months and it was pretty much only REI. Maybe I should replace my Amazon.com card with an REI card.

Time to get back to my slides. or maybe I'll sleep and get up early in the morning (it never works for me though...)

Salary & Spouse

Came across this news a few days ago. Basically, about 1/3 of couples in HK don't tell their spouse the exact income they are making. Thought it's interesting to share.

Farewell Red Sox 2009

Not sure if you follow baseball. In case you don't, Boston Red Sox got swept by Los Angeles Angels today and I was so upset. I consider myself a rather calm and emotionless person. But you know what, sports is the only thing (so far) that can get my emotions going up and down like a roller coaster - from super excited to super depressed within a 3-hr span. Seriously, I don't know how those very emotional people live their lives. It's so hard to deal with it. I basically didn't do much after the game for a few hours.

Anyway, so these games were broadcast live on TBS; however, I am too cheap to pay for cable so I couldn't watch the games at home. Fortunately, MLB is one of the most technologically advanced league and you can actually watch the games live online (when can I watch NBA live online?)! They have this service called postseason.tv. It's not exactly the same as what you see on TBS but it's good enough for me (with many angles and the live commentaries). So what's the catch? I needed to pay $9.99 for the whole postseason. It was a no brainer for me as I could watch my favorite baseball team live. Well, turned out this $9.99 subscription was only useful for 3 games (I was hoping I would watch Red Sox against Yankees). Regardless, I think this service is AWESOME and all the other sports should just do online streaming especially playoffs. I won't pay for cables as I don't watch enough to make it worth but I would pay to watch these post season games at home.

Now that Red Sox is done, my focus will be on NBA. Who am I rooting for? Heat, Suns, and Celtics (sorry, Yao-less Rockets isn't that interesting).

Peace

Most of you have probably read the news about President Obama getting the Nobel Price Peace award. As with a lot of people around the world, I am not sure why he got the award. Regardless, I think Obama is now forced into a somewhat difficult situation. For example, regarding Afghanistan, should he send in more troops to control the violence there? Sending more troops isn't exactly a peaceful thing but then if he doesn't send more troops, Afghan may get even messier. It'll be interesting to watch.

Constuctive / Negative feedback

I miss the days when someone would tell you honestly that, "You are not very good at it", "You are doing a crappy job", or "You are completely screwed up". Some of you may think that's just negative feedback and it's not constructive. Maybe it's true; however, these negative (and non-constructive) feedback can sometimes get you think and get yourself to ask questions. The thing about human beings is that we get complacent when we don't have to deal with adversities or challenges. These negative feedback can act as challenges or adversities to get yourself to validate your direction or get yourself motivated.

I had a lunch with someone who told me in my face that whatever I said wasn't very good. I wasn't mad and we ended up having a very good discussion. And you know what, I think that's probably the most motivating conversations I have had in the past year (maybe even the past 2 years). I thought that was a really good kick in my bottom conversation.

Hmm...

My closest aunt has been having some health issues in the past month (it was very strange; she rarely gets sick throughout her lift but went very sick in the past month) and has been to hospitals 3 times already. The first visit was to remove a brain tumor; second time was for some other issues; and the last visit was for some hormone issues. My aunt was fine after the third visit; unfortunately, the drama doesn't end there.

During her last visit, her doctor took a full scan of her body while trying to diagnosis the root cause of the hormone problem. In one of the photos of her lung, the doctor saw some "dark patches". What is it? I was told that some cells don't like right around those "dark patches". What's the next steps? Well, go through some more tests to find out what it is. So, the tests were done early this week and I just called home to check what happened. And, as expected, it is lung cancer. Good thing that it is still at its early stage so it should be curable. A surgery will be done next week and if the cancerous cells don't spread, my aunt will be good; otherwise, she'll have to go through chemotherapy. So one question I have is what caused the lung cancer given that my aunt doesn't smoke and none of her family members do.

I don't really know how I feel right now. I am not sad but then maybe I feel that my closest family members are starting the stage of their lives when they need more medical help. It'll certainly be strange if one day you can't see the people who are very close to you. I guess, it'll just be like breaking up with your bf/gf or going through a divorce :). Anyway, just some random thoughts.

Don't underestimate the homeless

Disclaimer: I am not discriminating any type of people but I thought it was an interesting observation and I learned from this observation.

There is this female homeless person (or I should say a beggar since she may have her own home or apartment) asking for money at the intersection right outside my office building. I see her every time I go out for lunch and I ignored every single time as she's too well-dressed to be homeless. So what's so funny about her? Well, so a few weeks, I actually saw her walking from around where I live to her "workplace" (the intersection where she begs for money). How did I see her? Well, I walk halfway to a bus stop and then take a bus to work. It was so happened that she was right in front of me while I was walking to the bus stop. And then I saw her again an hour later at that intersection! lol...

I thought that was already pretty interesting (or funny). Then when I went to a bank today, I actually saw her making a deposit (I could be wrong but it certainly seemed like that)! I was like... that's interesting. I guess "begging" is really her job and that's how she gets her income. Since she's self-employed, she needs to deposit the money to the bank herself.

Anyway, I find it pretty humorous and all my assumptions about beggar / homeless people are wrong! Lesson learned.

An interesting read

An interesting read here. I like this comment:

"... when you are ready to make your leap of faith, the temptations appear; the tremendous opportunities that for some reason only come out of the woodwork when you are ready to walk out the door."

I totally agree that it does happen. It's hard enough to get yourself ready to make that leap of faith and then all of a sudden there is this easier (and probably more comfortable) opportunity tries to tempt you away from what you were ready for. Now, you'll doubt about your faith and redo the whole thinking process. That's horrible. Some people said it's good to have options (even though none of the options is what you really want); however, I think it's worse than having no options. Why? If you don't have any option, you'll be creative in coming up with something you may actually want more. The process may be tougher but you could get to what you want. Anyway, just a random thought on a nice Sunday.

Should have gone hiking today instead of staying at home...