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herbertl

14,406 karma · joined November 17, 2020

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herbertl··on TikTok Shutdown: Why building on proprietary platforms is a risky game
Building a direct connection with your customers/audience/people is the key. As this piece suggests, an email list is a great way to get started.

It could really be any list of any contact info that you can export and download as a data file at some point. I have seen physical stores leave clipboards out for people to sign up for a mailing list and that works.

I feel extremely passionate about this topic and I've written extensively on it.

1: Going direct buys you freedom: https://herbertlui.net/going-direct-buys-you-freedom/

2: Own your marketing, own your income: https://herbertlui.net/own-your-marketing-own-your-income/

3: Learning to talk to customers, directly: https://herbertlui.net/learning-to-talk-to-customers-directl...

Of course, I'm not the only one:

The Rostra manifesto is also great! https://www.rostra.co/

There are also the filmmakers buying their own theater: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/westwood...

herbertl··on Looking for a Job Is Tough
I like to think of it more as being intentional, and less as desperate/too forward. You want to know what you're looking for and, just as important, what you're not looking for.

In terms of reaching out, here are some things I did when I was job hunting:

1. The classic referral

Find the job post and work backwards from there (e.g., is there somebody I know (1st connection) or somebody who knows somebody I know (2nd connection) on LinkedIn who works at the company?).

If I knew the 1st connection, I'd reach out and ask if they were comfortable referring me.

2. The forwardable email

If it was a 2nd connection, I'd reach out with a forwardable email (https://also.roybahat.com/introductions-and-the-forward-intr...) and ask if they'd be able to forward an email and make an intro if they received a positive response.

3. Job hunting as an occasion

I made time to catch up with good friends. It felt energizing to get the moral support, with the added bonus that sometimes they knew people working at companies looking to hire. For example I would eventually get a job offer from Figma and that was because a good friend's partner worked there and was glad to refer me. I hadn't even heard of the opportunity before we talked.

4. The weak ties

I also made time to catch up with people I didn't know that well. There's some research on "weak ties" that suggest that people who you don't know well probably are exposed to a very different network to you, and will come across very different opportunities. The convo would be an opportunity for us to catch up and I'd talk about being open to job opportunities.

I hope this helps!

herbertl··on I think content is a bad business
> Edutainment and ads dominate the market

Can't help but notice that this piece was also a form of edutainment.

herbertl··on 90 Days – What I learned from quitting my job and going all-in
This was great. I immediately jumped to Day 90, which felt relateable:

> I envisioned 90 Days would be a magical story of a guy who left his job and found his passion, like the many similar stories I’ve read. I even tried for the first month to paint each day in a new light, glorifying what was otherwise a mundane set of 24 hours.... 90 Days paints a more realistic picture of what really happened. It’s not a stunning success or an abysmal failure, but rather something in between.

https://ninetydays.substack.com/p/day-90-90-days

Thanks for sharing, and making time to document the journey.

herbertl··on The best $4 ever spent
Tangential anecdote: When I went to a buffet as a child, I loaded up on mashed potatoes, fries, onion rings, etc. I would be told by family and friends that I was effectively wrong for choosing those foods because seafood, meat, etc., was more expensive and therefore more valuable and worth choosing.

I don't think that was a bad outcome necessarily, because I picked foods that were super unhealthy and cater to thin dopamine hits. But I do think the reasoning (value vs. health) was off as it started instilling a sense of letting perceived/imagined value reign over personal instincts and inclinations.

Reading this felt like a call to be more present, pay more attention to the small things, do things for their own sake, etc.

herbertl··on Humane AI – Pico Laser Projection – AI Twist on an Old Scam (2023)
> I have learned to be suspicious of the Steve Jobs pretender look through the years; it’s not a complete tell, but it should make you suspicious.

Totally agree with your comment, there are several images like this and that note should've been in one of the captions.

On a separate note, even Steve faked the 2007 iPhone demo [1]. It couldn't play entire songs or videos without crashing. It constantly crashed unless tasks were performed in a specific sequence. The team programmed the phone to display five bars, and brought in a portable cell tower, for the demo.

When the iPhone came out, all these bugs had been smoothed over, and the news of the demo didn't break until 2013. I guess that's the difference—people were using the iPhone, loving the screen and interface, and tolerating the flaws (no copy and paste!).

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/magazine/and-then-steve-s...

herbertl··on Advice to young people, the lies I tell myself
"Desire’s a contract you make to be unhappy until you get what you want." https://nav.al/desire
herbertl··on Advice to young people, the lies I tell myself
To your closing note, one interesting narrative (lie?), "Everyone is totally just winging it, all the time" https://www.theguardian.com/news/oliver-burkeman-s-blog/2014...
herbertl··on Advice to young people, the lies I tell myself
It's a really good counterweight to "You're only as good as your last ___," a narrative which leads a person to feel frightened/shaken after a failure.

Remembering past successes in times like that can be nice grounding. I've always liked Julia Evans' brag document, which presumes you and your co-workers won't remember your past successes: https://jvns.ca/blog/brag-documents/

herbertl··on Write a Letter to Your Future Self
Reminds me of becoming a magician (2018): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25024132
herbertl··on Hanging by a Strand: Worker dissent brews at an iconic New York bookstore (2020)
Added, thanks!
herbertl··on Exposed RSS
I just recently found out that you can add /feed after a Substack publication's URL and subscribe via RSS. (e.g., https://[publication].substack.com/feed)
herbertl··on The best way to get unstuck
This blog post resonates, and three creative prompts for doing something come to mind:

1. Roll the dice:

“In The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity, authors Robert K. Merton and Elinor Barber quote the late Professor Salvador Luria of the University of Illinois as praising “controlled sloppiness, which states that it often pays to do somewhat untidy experiments, provided one is aware of the element of untidiness.” In any case, the idea here is to trend toward chaos, entropy, and randomness in your work—a sense of controlled sloppiness.”

More here: https://www.holloway.com/g/creative-doing/sections/roll-the-...

2. Relinquish results:

“In his book Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman recalls an art class when he was instructed to draw without looking at the paper. He was impressed with the results, noticing a “funny, semi-Picasso like strength” in his work. He knew that it would be impossible to draw well without looking at the paper, so he didn’t consciously try. He writes, “I had thought that ‘loosen up’ meant ‘make sloppy drawings,’ but it really meant to relax and not worry about how the drawing is going to come out.” The solution is to do something without caring about the results.”

More here: https://www.holloway.com/g/creative-doing/sections/relinquis...

3. Treat your current work as a draft:

“Think of everything you make as a demo, a sketch, or a draft. Remove all ideas of expectations and goals, and focus simply on the process and taking a draft to a state where you declare it finished and acceptable as a working version.”

More here: https://www.holloway.com/g/creative-doing/sections/draft-dem...

herbertl··on Turn your conference talk into a blog post
LLM summaries could make for a good starting point! I just saw this post (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37791002) on the front page and loved what Julia Evans did with the slides and accompanying text (https://jvns.ca/blog/2023/10/06/new-talk--making-hard-things...).
herbertl··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (September 2023)
Thanks so much for the kind words!
herbertl··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (September 2023)
Pasting from our recruiting team: "Unfortunately Puerto Rico is not considered US remote. We do not currently support remote work from Puerto Rico."
herbertl··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (September 2023)
Hello! Copy and pasting from the recruiting team:

> they should apply for the role and we will assess against current and future requirements for the team.

Waiting on a firm visa response. Please feel free to connect at LinkedIn, I can let the recruiters know to keep an eye for your application.

herbertl··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (September 2023)
That should be possible!
herbertl··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (September 2023)
Figma | https://www.figma.com/ | San Francisco, New York City, and US remote | Full Time

Selected job postings here (all compensation in annual base salary range for SF/NY hubs):

- Engineering Director - Machine Learning ($280,000—$381,000 USD): https://boards.greenhouse.io/figma/jobs/4953079004

- Engineering Director - Server Platform ($282,000—$410,000 USD): https://boards.greenhouse.io/figma/jobs/4868741004

- ML/AI Engineer ($168,000—$350,000 USD): https://boards.greenhouse.io/figma/jobs/4756707004

- Software Engineer - FigJam ($168,000—$350,000 USD): https://boards.greenhouse.io/figma/jobs/4339815004

===

Born on the Web, Figma helps entire product teams brainstorm, create, test, and ship better designs, together. From great products to long-lasting companies, we believe that nothing great is made alone. Come make with us!

Figma recently made 200 fixes and improvements to Dev Mode: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37226227

Keeping Figma fast — perf-testing the WASM editor: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37324121

herbertl··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (August 2023)
Figma | https://www.figma.com/ | San Francisco, New York City, and US remote | Full Time

Selected job postings here (all compensation in annual base salary range for SF/NY hubs):

- Software Engineer - Creation Engine ($175,000—$350,000 USD): https://boards.greenhouse.io/figma/jobs/4754116004

- Engineering Director - Server Platform Annual Base Salary Range ($282,000—$410,000 USD): https://boards.greenhouse.io/figma/jobs/4868741004

- Engineering Director - Editor ($282,000—$381,000 USD): https://boards.greenhouse.io/figma/jobs/4904866004

- Engineering Manager - Production Engineering ($233,000—$350,000 USD): https://boards.greenhouse.io/figma/jobs/4814857004

===

Born on the Web, Figma helps entire product teams brainstorm, create, test, and ship better designs, together. From great products to long-lasting companies, we believe that nothing great is made alone. Come make with us!

Figma recently launched Dev Mode: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36420712

herbertl··on Ask HN: Could you share your personal blog here?
https://herbertlui.net/ — I don't write much technical content, I usually cover marketing, creativity, and the human condition.

Sharing a few posts that have resonated at hn, and highlighting the discussion (which I've found just as interesting—if not more so—as writing the post):

https://herbertlui.net/dont-think-to-write-write-to-think/ hn thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32628196

https://herbertlui.net/bill-watterson-picasso-and-hn-on-self... hn thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32124964

https://herbertlui.net/for-productivity-geeks-futility-is-a-... hn thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31941472

https://herbertlui.net/conference-talk-blog-post-transcribe/ hn thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31914395

https://herbertlui.net/quitting-art-careers/ hn thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34857488

herbertl··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (April 2023)
Merge | https://merge.dev/ | Staff Backend Software Engineer and Engineering Manager | San Francisco and New York City | Full Time

See the job postings here:

- Staff Backend Software Engineer ($200,000—$250,000): https://boards.greenhouse.io/merge/jobs/4828404004

- Engineering Manager ($180,000–$260,000): https://boards.greenhouse.io/merge/jobs/4613674004

===

Merge is a single API to add hundreds of integrations to your app. In 2022, our company announced we'd raised a $55 million Series B.

Here's a cool write up about Merge's business and product: https://www.apifirst.tech/p/one-api-to-rule-them-all

herbertl··on Call yourself titles
If it works for you, you should totally do this. Though I'd suspect it doesn't work for most people in the long-term, because the title/scene/prestige starts distracting from the process and work.

“I don’t believe in titles, I believe in work.” — Virgil Abloh

Also! Paul Graham on keeping your identity small: http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html

herbertl··on Ask HN: What has your personal website/blog done for you?
There are a lot of great comments here, though I agree with the sentiment that starting a blog will not guarantee a wild career trajectory change.

I've found the benefits of writing at a blog to be much more intrinsic (I practice every day). Sure, it did lay the groundwork for my career in tech marketing, but it also keeps me in the groove of "just writing"—easier said than done, and it makes me much happier. More here:

https://herbertlui.net/what-my-personal-website-and-blog-hav...

herbertl··on Why Write?
I don't know if starting with what the reader desires makes for great writing, though hackery definitely starts with what the writer expects or guesses the reader desires. Those are two different things.

It reminds me of David Chang starting Momofuku and putting dumplings on the menu because he thought people wanted them. It turns out he guessed wrong—they didn't—and neither did he, so the dumplings didn't make anyone happy. More here: https://archive.md/twtqo#selection-1433.165-1433.384

Perhaps one idea to unify this difference is: Who is "the reader," in this case? I remember reading Neil Strauss propose his idea on the Tim Ferriss podcast (https://tim.blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/15-neil-strauss....):

> My reader is me, as a reader, probably. I can be reading a book and thinking, “Oh, my god, will this guy just get on with it?” If you're reading a book and thinking, “You know what? This guy is not even living up to what he's writing and saying that he's doing. He's a total hypocrite.” – Whatever I'm thinking when I'm reading. So, my reader is just me the way I would read a book critically.

Average writers stop after typing what they want to say, and they don't consider what they, as a reader, would think (or even bother to read it themselves).

herbertl··on Becoming a Magician (2018)
I'm glad you mentioned this. Sarcasm (and grift) aside, this intersection and practical application is a topic that's caught my curiosity. (I posted both!)
herbertl··on Lucky girl syndrome and the endless rebranding of “The Secret”
That's a great point, and this is a documented effect in education:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem_effect

Generally, people treat us differently when they expect more or less from us (based on what they've seen from us or facts they know about us). People also experience a tendency to rise to high expectations or fall to low ones. See also:

https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2018/10/hi...

herbertl··on On quitting, failing, and, “I find a lot of people who should quit don't”
Thank you for the original comments. They were well-written and punchy, and definitely prompted some introspection.

I was considering posting to the original thread, and sensitive to it looking too self-promotional. I'm glad you saw this, it'd be great to hear if you had anything to add.

herbertl··on On quitting, failing, and, “I find a lot of people who should quit don't”
This is so cool! I had no idea, thanks for sharing.

On the journey to find the primary source (https://sive.rs/2008-08-tim-ferriss), I came across this fact that Reznor started NIN in 1998 and was the only permanent member of NIN until 2016.

Projects like the Foo Fighters (Dave Grohl), Bon Iver (Justin Vernon), and Tame Impala (Kevin Parker), all started as one person bands, too! (I write more about one-person restaurants, one-person plays, etc., here: https://herbertlui.net/the-simple-truth-behind-successful-cr...)

It reminds me of Diagram is doing (https://diagram.com/) with Magician, Genius, Prototyper, etc.

herbertl··on On quitting, failing, and, “I find a lot of people who should quit don't”
Oops, that wasn't entirely what I was intending to communicate! (art vs. Art is a big topic—who/what defines what is acceptable as art, etc.? Duchamp's Fountain comes to mind)

Perhaps I'd suggest it's your effort to make the work shine, not just in the actual creation of the work, but in the contextualization of it as well. (This is connected to your point on narrowness—if your vision is narrow, you can't contextualize.)

The most literal example that comes to mind is Virgil Abloh feeling the need to prove what he was making was art, and relying on his research and the work of his inspirations as evidence or "proofs." He discusses further here: https://youtu.be/zKYp1t0-xYw?t=1313

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