It’s Velocity Dinner May 29 2014 and the guest speaker is Michael Worry from Nuvation.
When he graduated from uWaterloo in ‘97, he and his cofounders moved to California to do a startup, which led to Nuvation. Today we have him as a guest speaker and he’ll talk about his startup experience. Here are some things I found interesting.

Flinch price

This negotiation strategy focuses on trying to get the most money for the seller. How it works is, as a seller, ideally you want to name a price that is so high that the buyer flinches at the thought of buying it at that price. The buyer needs that product — but at that price, it is painful to think about. Starting a sale like this maximizes the amount you can sell.

Decision made on information

Make decisions based on information. If there are no new information, do not change the decision.
Opinions are not information; but may lead to new information.

Crab bucket mentality

The story goes that if you put one crab in a bucket, it’ll attempt to climb out. But if you have two crabs, when one tries to climb out, the other would pull on its legs and try to prevent it from leaving.
This is analogous to one trying to do a startup — when you want to get somewhere, you’ll have people drag you back. I.e. your parents want the best for you and they want that to be a safe and secure route, which typically is a steady job for steady income.

Fundamentally different skills

Engineers, management, sales are different skills. Those who are good at being engineers may not be good at the others. Michael’s story is that when he initally wanted to scale, he naively promoted his three best engineers to become managers. This was a poor decision in hindsight.

CEO gets the blame

As ceo, when things are going well then my staff gets the credit. When things go poorly, it’s ceo fault.

Principles summarizing experiences that I have accumulated through pushing myself to be more effective and efficient on time management. These selected topics are by my personal experience and my attempts to manage time.

Principles of Effective Efficient Time Use

1. Hidden-cost nature of activities

Relaxing can be very costly. Take gaming, for example – gaming is enjoyable and fun. When we want to relax, we’d like to play a game. Sometimes you have things to do on-hand, and even still, you say to yourself “I could probably have time for an hour of game”. No! Incorrect. With things to do on-hand, it is important to finish those tasks on-hand before taking pleasure. This is the most hard to resist (but do try) because it involves self-discipline – which is a subject that humans are generally bad at enforcing against themselves. The hidden-cost of delaying what you need to do is because they accumulate and stack up. If you have the mindset of “this is only a little delay, I can afford it” every time something favorable to you comes up, you’re not enforcing effective efficient time use. Think of this as an investment – for every dollar you can invest early, the rate of return on that dollar is exponentially higher than if you were to take the same dollar and invest it later.

2. Scheduling tools are very important

The tool I’m talking about is a calender. Your mind is limited in what it can remember daily. You easily overestimate your own capabilities in what you remember to do. Fact is, we forget about things we wanted to do. The simple process of trying to recall what you were planning to do takes brain effort and can be avoided by spending 30-seconds to add things to your calender. It is counter-productive to have to recall and recollect what you wanted to do. This problem can be avoided through the use of a calendar, which means that as a corollary – if you don’t use a calendar, you not using your time effectively and efficiently.

3. Productivity Enhancements

We need exercise to be productive. This cannot be skipped. It is very important to have daily exercise, even if you think high doses of caffeine, energy drinks, and good amount of sleep can keep you alert and functional! In my experience, human body can focus better with exercise than not. Exercise increase metabolism and trains your body to effectively use and deliver oxygen. This is important because your brain uses over 20% of your body’s oxygen, despite taking a much more portion of it physically. You will feel more alert because of exercise and be more productive. You can keep alert and to the problem on hand better, and in that respect, be more productive (effective and efficient time use). This principle also helps with countering #1 – you need to view exercising itself as a form of relaxing. Then you are hitting two objectives at once, and win!

I’ve been on internship since September, and I’ve not had this feeling for a while. Not since when I was on vacation in August and finished reading the entire course materials for CS 458 Security! I was wondering how to get it back… reflecting back to my exam cramming days, where I’d be up till 3 or 4 am and in a trance, studying. I thought coffee/tea/energy drinks would help get this kind of concentration, but it doesn’t. This kind of concentration is rare, and magical. I think it stems from curiosity!
Continue reading Internship and curiosity

I’m reading up on amateur radio licenses. I’ve always been curious about it, I’m planning to get a radio set – and talk to other people. Similar to the way it was done in the movie Contact. I’m fascinated by space, and radio is one of the things the space shuttle predominantly uses to communicate with earth. Also the thought of being able contact with aliens is nice – however unfeasible.
Continue reading Five year vision