HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

socalsamba

511 karma · joined December 10, 2007

submissionscomments
socalsamba··on Don’t Hire The Smartest Guy
Excellent observation. There is also a bit of that in there. A part of working on a small team is learning to learn. It doesn't matter that you can lift mountains with your pinky if you can't deal with anyone else as a peer.
socalsamba··on Don’t Hire The Smartest Guy
Like most of the little essays I put together (author here, thanks everyone for reading) it was a reaction to an observation. That observation was that lots of small going on medium sized companies tend to inherit something from the Microsofts of the world, and that is resume myopia.

For everyone who said it's commonsense, I agree completely. Unfortunately, commonsense is not quite as common as you might believe. Around here, this seems obvious but I can say there are plenty of people struggling with the balance.

tptacek summed up my point really well. Thanks again for the feedback!

socalsamba··on We're Not Rock Stars Anymore
Online advertising management, social media (whatever that means), branding and image building in digital. Knowing how to deliver your content (video, blog post, product) effectively online and in the best of cases making it so people -care- about that product.

That's my definition, at least.

socalsamba··on We're Not Rock Stars Anymore
Good points (I wrote the article in question).

I'd like to put this out there -- I am talking to people on the business end of things a lot more than the technical talent (I've been on both sides).

Also, I am responding to the video that was embedded that implies that the sky is falling and everyone is going to be out of a job soon enough. I've always been opposed to that sentiment because it ignores what you so elegantly put at the end of your comment -- people doing good stuff (from both a technical and a business perspective) will continue to do well.

As for "digital marketing expert," ugh . . . I think it follows the same line, us "experts" will need to relax or panic as quality dictates.

socalsamba··on [dead]
An interesting adjunct to this is whether the criminals actually did -believe- a three year old would have a cell phone and be festooned with a headset.

Especially in LA, that might not completely crazy assumption.

socalsamba··on 26 innovations that have defined the last 20 years
Cell phones are more than 20 years old. In fact, the first commercial mobile phone service is from 1978.
socalsamba··on 32 Sci-Fi novels that you should add to your reading list
So why did Timeline make the list?

I was thinking about leaving it off because it is really, really bad for anyone who actually reads Sci-Fi. I put it on the list because despite the fact that it's almost completely unreadable because the Wal*Mart set needs their Sci-Fi too. I wanted the list to cover as broad a spectrum of sci-fi as I could without making it 100 items long.

I left off a lot of greats including:

Vernor Vinge Dan Simmons Arthur C Clarke Iain M. Banks

and other works by Stross and a few others

Why is Rand on this list? Well, besides the Bible (go figure) Atlas Shrugged is apparently the most influential book ever written. Do I agree with the whole Objectivist shtick? Not hardly but it is still worth mentioning.

The Giver? Like Anthem it's Sci-Fi for grade schoolers, worth mentioning because a lot of people were introduced to Sci-Fi with books like this.

Leave suggestions, as many as you want. If you don't see it on the list it probably would have been there if I had remembered it while I was compiling.

socalsamba··on 40 Web Applications You Might Actually Find Useful
Let me field that (I put together the list). The numbers are just a count (20 sites) and they are grouped by type (news / multimedia etc . . .)

The Runners Up are sites that I use a lot that were similar (enough) to the winners that I thought deserved a mention.

Sorry about the weird formatting.

socalsamba··on You Will [Commercial Break]
It's also interesting how small a part (though they did participate) AT&T had in all of that innovation.
socalsamba··on Doctors At West Penn Are Using A Robot For Surgery
Thanks for the information, I actually had no idea that there is only one option.
socalsamba··on Doctors At West Penn Are Using A Robot For Surgery
The da Vinci is actually the robot mentioned in this piece.
socalsamba··on Ask YC: What's Your Favorite Startup Resource?
Good point, added.
socalsamba··on Ask YC: What's Your Favorite Startup Resource?
Ack. I'll take care of that. Thanks for the heads up.
socalsamba··on Ask YC: What's Your Favorite Startup Resource?
They're already on there. ;)
socalsamba··on Ask YC: What's Your Favorite Startup Resource?
Hopefully this is helpful to some of you. I took some time to compile a list of startup resources ranging from Marketing to Hiring. This list is by no means exhaustive,but it isn't bad.

To make it better, I need your help.

Are there any sites/templates/blogs that you would recommend to young entrepreneurs? If so, what are they?

I want to include as many of your suggestions as I can.

(P.S. - offline "resources" are also welcome)

socalsamba··on How Do You Deal With Stress?
Good choice, I've always found some Pogues helps as well.
socalsamba··on How Do You Deal With Stress?
I actually upmodded this because I think it might be worthy of note. All snark aside, "universal" as it may be it's the simple stuff that people deal with everyday that has meaning to them.

Not every post can be a treatise on HMM based speech analysis. Nor should it be.

As always, if something isn't meaningful to you - no one forces you to read it. If you had suggestions for stories you feel are more interesting, feel free to reach out to me (I can't speak for Zenhabits, but I imagine they would say similar).

socalsamba··on Ask YC: Grooveshark Lite, What Do You Think?
For people with trouble streaming -

http://www.grooveshark.com/blog/2008/04/22/update-grooveshar...

socalsamba··on Ask YC: Grooveshark Lite, What Do You Think?
That it was
socalsamba··on Ask YC: Grooveshark Lite, What Do You Think?
The boilerplate goes like this:

Lots of labels have distribution deals with GS, and more are signing on everyday. They have an escrow system set up so that as the deals are signed, the labels can collect any money that has accrued.

socalsamba··on How Can Creatives Best Interact With The Web?
I think that's the pertinent question. Can you web really be used to rise above the noise or is it still a mainstream media world?
socalsamba··on 5 Elevator Pitches: What Do You Think Of Them?
That could work. Nothing like reading a few pitches to help you put your own business into perspective. Taking a broader look at the landscape and all that.
socalsamba··on 5 Elevator Pitches: What Do You Think Of Them?
That sounds like a great idea. I wanted to start some discussion around this. So far the experiment has been really successful.
socalsamba··on 5 Elevator Pitches: What Do You Think Of Them?
These are a part of a program that HTSAA is running to help new startups learn some of the nitty, gritty details of starting a business. These 5 startups have volunteered to act as case studies. What I am really looking for are your thoughts, as entrepreneurs, on their pitches.
socalsamba··on The Growth Of Collegiate Entrepreneurship
I think finding a team is still the primary reason to join one of these programs. Around here (FL), the startup culture is still not such that our entrepreneurship program really gives deep insight into starting a web-based business.

There is a lot of cross-over between the web and more traditional markets, but a lot of the details still need to be culled from experience. As you said, the really nice thing is that you find a lot of like-minded, entrepreneurial people -- which is often one of the harder parts.

socalsamba··on How Are We Going To Make Money?
Exactly. The meaning is not to "sell lists" but to use trending statistics you might acquire.

Compete Quantcast iTunes Music Store Amie Street Alexa

all built models on their data.

socalsamba··on Hard Lessons For Entrepreneurs - Why We Fail
Hey! I actually wrote this article, so I wanted to make a point -- angry is the very last thing I am.

Other than not really having any context to be angry within (I am not speaking about any startup in particular), I generally agree that anger doesn't make innovation.

My point was that many young entrepreneurs have strong misconceptions about what it means to build a business. Every single one of those points are things I have heard from other entrepreneurs, things they -wish- they had known when they first started.

The point is not to discourage people from building business', that's absolutely ludicrous. The point is to get people to see what they are doing without the rose colored glasses and to bring up some common traps that entrepreneurs the world over fall into.

If you have been in business for any length of time, I am sure you realize that putting yourself in perspective is absolutely crucial to your success.

Cheers!