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adrianscott

624 karma · joined November 2, 2009

Adrian Scott

Founder, Soma Capital

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Founding investor, Napster

Social networking pioneer and founder, Ryze, the big influence on Friendster, which in turn influenced Facebook

Past CTO on 2 crypto projects

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Past CEO & Founder, Coderbuddy

Twitter: adrianscottcom

email: firstname @ firstnamelastname . com

Strong interest in usability, behavior design as well. Love making things scale.

Ph.D. Math, nonlinear optimization applied to finding protein binding sites on DNA, at age 20 from Rensselaer (RPI)

Co-inventor of U.S. Patent related to use of hashing algorithms in P2P networks

Time zone range: U.S.

http://www.adrianscott.com/

submissionscomments
adrianscott··on Ask HN: Inherited the worst code and tech team I have ever seen. How to fix it?
Before you upload it all to Github etc, for folks recommending that...

Keep in mind that there may be passwords / keys in the spaghetti etc...

iykyk...

adrianscott··on Nicholas Taleb's Amazon Reviews
Most of us call him Nassim, cheers. It is interesting data to see him called Nicholas here.
adrianscott··on He spent 10 days in jail after facial recognition led to arrest of the wrong man
How would that help?
adrianscott··on Container technologies at Coinbase: Why Kubernetes is not part of our stack
Yes, except more like 'in addition to' than instead... unbelievable... #lockin
adrianscott··on YC W20 Online-Only Demo Day
I highly recommend YC use 60 frames per second (fps) for these videos for a better 'real' feel
adrianscott··on I went back working on 24-inch 1080p screen from a 32-inch 4k screen
You definitely want to scale UI to readable. Also need to consider how to take advantage of the extra screen real estate, e.g. code editor in right half of screen, browser for research on the left, console in bottom left for random command line stuff, etc...
adrianscott··on How to Ruin a Company with One Bad Process (2014)
Rather interesting to note the use of "my" rather than "our" and "I" rather than "We" in the article: "Multiply this by all my managers and I was on my way to burning up all my cash and destroying my culture."
adrianscott··on Hand and Wrist Exercises for Computer Users
Read John Sarno's work, also David Schechter's.
adrianscott··on Smart People Should Read Fewer Books and Listen to More Podcasts
Hilariously weak logic... reading has higher information rate than listening. Written content can be parsed rapidly to focus on interesting chapters and sections of books. Main use case for listening to podcasts (incl vs. scanning podcast written transcripts) is in the case of listening while doing another activity (e.g. driving a car).
adrianscott··on Elon Musk’s New Boring Co. Faced Questions Over SpaceX Financial Ties
Nearly $113M raised, wsj article says it owns only 6%

https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/16/elon-musks-boring-co-raise...

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1737630/000173763018...

adrianscott··on How can Bitcoin stabilize if it's a Keynesian Beauty Contest?
agreed
adrianscott··on How can Bitcoin stabilize if it's a Keynesian Beauty Contest?
Would you consider USD also subject to a Keynesian Beauty Contest?
adrianscott··on How can Bitcoin stabilize if it's a Keynesian Beauty Contest?
Bitcoin is stable in reference to itself, just as USD is stable in reference to itself.
adrianscott··on Stripe has frozen Gab.com's account
thanks
adrianscott··on Stripe has frozen Gab.com's account
Really disappointed that the CEO's response has been censored / dead'd here. Not a great moment for HN.
adrianscott··on Native Encryption for ZFS on Linux
s/Merkel/Merkle/
adrianscott··on Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (March 2017)
Location: US Timezone (Panama)

Remote: Yes

Willing to relocate: No

Technologies: Python, Node.js, Java, JavaScript, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, AWS, plus many others (full stack)

Resume / CV: http://www.iShipCode.com

Email: adrian@adrianscott.com

Senior Technologist / Social Product / 10x Coder available to help you move the needle on your key metrics, build your team, and ship code!

- Technical Pioneer of social networking -- Founder of Ryze, the big influence on Friendster, which in turn influenced Facebook

- Founder/Creator of a cloud-based SaaS/PaaS/web-based IDE, Coderbuddy, a 500 Startups portfolio company, recruited team, raised funding, architected product & technology

- Ph.D. Math at age 20, Nonlinear Optimization, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

- Developing software since age 7

- Napster Founding Investor

- Thiel Foundation Fellowship Mentor

I have current availability, and have an amazing Senior Software Engineer coming available on April 1st, plus an additional Software Engineer.

adrianscott··on Encrypting Windows Hard Drives
Certainly there is 0% chance that the author is asking us to read between the lines here... #FaceValue
adrianscott··on College Is Much More Than a Means to a Higher Salary
It's not a binary decision of college or "no-college"... It's a matter of considering the "space" of portfolios of other experiences you could assemble for potentially greater value (including non-financial value) at lower expense.
adrianscott··on Reddit launches harassment crackdown
Interesting to see this post drop off of HN front page from #2 to #70+ very quickly despite 80 comments and 40 points at the time... #curious
adrianscott··on Reddit launches harassment crackdown
Is this Reddit's Digg 4.0 moment?
adrianscott··on Why Scotland looks like the canary in the independence coal mine
Plenty of independence. Panama, for example, does not have an independent currency, has significant 'independence', and has one of the fastest-growing economies in Latin America (and beyond).
adrianscott··on Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (May 2014)
SEEKING WORK - Remote, U.S. Time Zone

Social Networking Pioneer / Napster Founding Investor

Full-Stack Dev, Math Ph.D.

Recent projects in Python/Django, Java/Play Framework/Hibernate, Node.js; Some Android

Strong Passion for Analytics, A/B Testing, Habit Creation

Extensive AWS / Cloud experience

Can build/provide capital-efficient dev team

Find out more at: http://www.iShipCode.com

adrianscott··on Google Video Quality Report
well played, Google.
adrianscott··on How to guarantee continued operation for an SaaS startup
Have you considered A/B testing showing vs. hiding the warranty to measure any diff -- positive or negative -- in conversions to both click-throughs to the signup page, and also paying customers?
adrianscott··on Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (November 2013)
SEEKING WORK -- remote, U.S. timezone

Full-stack architect / senior developer; a pioneer of social networking ( Ryze ); Recently created web-based IDE & cloud-based app testing infrastructure for one startup. Experience co-founding several funded startups, managing product, setting up analytics and A/B testing and growing metrics. Looking for next adventure...

Ph.D. in Math, nonlinear optimization, at age 20...

Python, Java, Android, PHP, MySQL, Node.js, MongoDB, ...

http://iShipCode.com/

adrianscott··on Ask HN: How did you move from a salaried job to contracting?
I made the move from salaried to on-site contracting to startup co-founding, and am now doing remote contracting and/or part-time cofounding (heard that term yesterday :).

I got into contracting by applying for a contract in the SF Bay Area from Florida, did a phone interview,received an offer -- to contract at Hewlett-Packard. I believe I found the contract on dice.com, which also helped me find other contracts. I already had experience building software for my parents' company, and had built some of my own sites, including CGI stuff that I had to pay $125/month for a shared account for, back in those days! I didn't realize what my market rate should be on the first contract. I then got recruited away by a startup to help build the first online yellow pages site. HP asked to make a counter-offer but I (foolishly) didn't let them. After some time at the startup (which later turned down an acquisition offer from pre-IPO Yahoo, doh!, and finally basically shut down), I returned to contracting, this time to Schwab. Then I did some freelance, and then returned to help the same group at HP for a short-time. Then contracting at Bank of America. Then a short contract for a web dev shop, and then got into angel investing (Napster), and co-founding startups (social networking pioneer Ryze).

Now several startups later, I've returned to a combination of remote contracting and/or part-time co-founder (heard this term yesterday :). Some companies I've helped on a cash basis (hourly/weekly rate). In many cases, it is combination of cash plus equity. I'm just wrapping up a contract where I built out the server and dev-ops infrastructure and code for a new startup, as well as helping w/ analytics, product, etc. (and where I continue to be a senior adviser).

My experience has been that the on-site contracting market in the SF Bay Area is quite efficient and dynamic, and networking is not necessarily needed. Although I did a lot of networking in the early days, which has been great in opening up opportunities over the medium/long-term, the networking was not a factor in getting leads for on-site contracting. However, it led to some resume bullet points that may have been helpful in landing some of those contracts (e.g. landing the BofA contract was helped by my experience coding some of the first Java applet ads for Symantec back in the day that was a freelance project that came from networking).

adrianscott··on Ecomom is liquidating and shutting down
and PandoDaily turned off comments and hid the existing comments... interesting, pandodaily...
adrianscott··on 500 Startups Open for Applications
They may be selecting for companies and teams that are more analytical, than looking for a 'psychologically better' deal.
adrianscott··on Dear brilliant students: Please consider not doing a PhD.
Wow, I disagree with almost everything in the article. I finished up my Ph.D. Math at age 20 in slightly more than 3 years. It was a challenge and it did take focus to finish it, but by no means was it soul-destroying. And with the fellowship (on top of the tuition coverage) I received, I felt rich... Yes, you can end up with (choose) an advisor that is not a good match for you (or for getting finished in a reasonable time), but still... It's so much easier than doing a startup, for instance...
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