Could you explain how you get around the knowledge silo problem? Fungibility across the team is useful for resource allocation and can prevent bottlenecks - for example if a part of the codebase is higher priority or someone is ill or on holiday.
Loose partitioning seems like it would work if either:
1. the partitions were similar/simple enough for other members to grok easily
2. the documentation and code sharing were thorough and extensive
I don't know how feasible it is to rely on (1) and (2) seems like it would cost an investment in time that would subtract from the efficiency gains of partioning. If it is (2) what are the exact reqs/mechanics for docs/PRs that seem to have worked?
I'm especially curious as "how to structure development teams" is something I am beginning to actively learn about.
The word "literal" here is slightly more complicated than in the usual commonplace misuse of the word.
The author is trying to distinguish between "wallflower" the "socially awkward person" and "wallflower" the "person who stands near a wall". They are using a slightly more literal definition, but not the most literal (i.e. the plant).
The justification is that "being near the wall" =/= "being in a high-traffic area".
I think the "life" in life-style is the same "life" from work-life balance: ie, priorities outside of work. Therefore a lifestyle business is one where (supposedly) you sacrifice growth for time outside of work.
The problem with the phrase is that it's become an insult in many corners of the startup world, as if bootstrapping a business on your own to survive decades is not ambitious enough.
The parallel I thought of is getting in shape: becoming a body-builder (by living at the gym and taking steroids) or just be in good shape (by eating healthier and exercising regularly).
I work in London at a startup with international markets. I believe in the ideal of free movement. I think the EU is a bit of a mess conceptually and mechanically, but in general a step forward for Europe.
This is really the beginning of a very long, tedious and ultimately unsatisfying couple of years of dissatisfaction and instability as we negotiate with the EU and the rest of the world.
I am generally in favour of the idea of phone-free events, and I've been to one where where my phone was stapled in one of those "static-free" electronics plastic pouches.
However, how far down the rabbit hole are we going to go here? Security gates/screenings for phones? Some engineering innovation of a cross between faraday cage and EMP? Centralized reputation profile for events (a la Uber, eBay, AirBnb)?
I would love it if everyone just played ball, but one bad apple 'n' all that.
I've come to recently replace Twitter with Snapchat, having replaced Facebook Timeline with Twitter.
The process is definitely cyclical, but there is at least one new emphasis that's changed:
Content is treated as low-value, which makes it low-pressure. Mainly because:
1. it has a short life span (it expires in 24 hours)
2. the lack of per-item ratings (e.g. likes or favourites)
3. it is always packaged non-individually (i.e. as a bundled "Story")
4. pictures are not dressed up (ie not "Instagram photos") and videos are short
5. simple UI promotes content creation as central and valued over content judging/consumption
Add to that it offers the best visual blogging UI (and specifically vlogging).
Whereas with Facebook and Twitter every new post would bring thoughts like "is this good enough? Will I regret this post down the line? Will people like it?", Snapchat promotes the "just do it" attitude. Is this interesting right now?
I expect my personal use of Snapchat will wane as it did with the other platforms. When something becomes too big it becomes too public, and brings too much pressure to be idyllic. Right now Snapchat feels closed and personal.
> If you know that some percentage of your friends on social media are using "surveillance" tools, then you'll be more careful about what you post, because you will understand the true meaning of "public." Whereas if all the surveillance continues to happen in secret, you will continue to post recklessly, blissfully unaware of just how "public" your posts are.
This may help reduce the asymmetry of power, but is it not a case of "throwing the baby out with the bath water"? We lose the exact freedom we are trying to protect - the freedom to act so-called "recklessly" or "inappropriately" in respect to popular opinion.
Many of the use-cases for ads have been replaced by search engines, marketplaces and aggregator sites. There's troves of information and access out there for a consumer to make informed purchasing choices.
If I need something, I can actively find it.
The use-case for ads is:
1. I don't need the thing
2. I am not aware of my need for thing
Advertisers probably claim (2) when almost certainly it's just (1)
Unfortunately this is socially positioned more like a TV or a games console, rather than a smartphone (used every day all day), which have much longer lifespans than a smartphone (5-10 years vs 2-5 years).
The interesting question is how long before this version of the Rift becomes obsolete, or will Oculus provide a contract-based upgrade plan (like for phones).
One of the reasons why it may lack real-world interest is lack of content.
People need to believe in the medium and pioneer content in spite of lack of interest, in hope to generate that interest, or it will remain an unsolved chicken-and-egg problem.
I believe Newell and Carmack do want to make high quality "games" in the sense of interactive experiences, and they see VR as an opportunity for that. What's required is patience and dedicated resources, fuelled by early adopters/aspirers.
Why does it have to be fear, rather than preference?
Maybe there's no data you're afraid of leaking, but you would prefer never to leak that data. It's a consumer choice - the problem here is lack of transparency/information to the consumer.
The cultural standard is what we accept to be appropriate - do we want to accept a cultural standard of everything you use is tracked and logged by default?
It started off as a curated newsletter and became a portal. It never fully embraced a community-driven approach (as evidenced by their opaque curation policy) nor a pivot to a more search engine/yelp-like community. In essence, they have yet to conquer their scalability problem: how to maintain quality while increasing quantity of products. It's a bloomin' hard problem to be fair to them.
What I am most disappointed by is that with network effects, it is beneficial for a community as a whole to have one dominant portal. The one thing you want for a dominant community platform is transparency (there's an argument for decentralization too), a requirement that has yet to be met.
It seems to be a case of always having a solution that's "the best of a bad bunch" rather than a "good" one. Like Churchill on democracy.