Super Volatile

I will only give a job if:

1. I can fire you, if I want to.
2. If VAT goes down to at least 20%, better yet 15%.
3. If the state takes away "only" 30% of your money.
4. If higher income is not exponentially punished.
5. If the state punishes corruption instead of decent companies.

An inflammatory post about realities of starting a business in Hungary, that made a splash on Hacker News. It's starts with some outrageous statements, but it's worth reading on till the end. The perception of the article seems to depend whether readers were coming from Eastern Europe or Western countries.

Whoever started the TED Women’s conference is pathetic. Which would you rather say you spoke at? TED? Or the TED Ghetto?

Any article taking a stance in the “women in tech” debate is guaranteed to provoke the accusations of sexism from the other side. This one is no exception. By now I should have learned to avoid paying any attention to this subject.

He's trying to make the point that the only path to success in the software industry is to work insane hours, sleep under your desk, and give up your one and only youth, and if you don't do that, you're a pussy. He's using my words to try and back up that thesis.

I hate this, because it's not true, and it's disingenuous.

Jamie Zawinski criticizes long-hour work ethos he had during his Netscape days and now encouraged by recent article by Mike Arrington. It's the same ethos that got him rich, though.

As CNN reports today, Dorsey has a minute-by-minute plan for pulling everything together, and by his own admission, it requires a great deal of discipline to work a 16-hour day, as he noted during a talk yesterday at the Techonomy conference in Arizona.

Inspiring article on how to effectively manage your suicidal life.

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The article should be titled “How Not Using jslint Ruined our Launch”.

In reality, Microsoft just epitomizes the large bureaucratic environment that seems to confine an engineer to become just that, an engineer.  This typically leads to detailed knowledge in some proprietary technology which is not compatible outside of the company it applies to.  Moreover, larger companies tend to position engineers to remain engineers.  If you want to someday start your own company, you will need to have a network of investors and people with diverse and complimentary skillsets to your own.  And after three years at Googlesoft, the only people you know will be engineers.

How the work for large organization impairs the ability to join or build a startup.

Luckily people in Berlin are beginning to realize the importance of community. Two American entrepreneurs, Schuyler Deerman and Travis Todd, have started making changes  - with movements such as Silicon Allee. Slowly, individuals are building an inspirational setting for us all, and guess what? We’ve now got the startups to boot.

On Berlin startup scene from the inside. What I'm not getting, though, is the European need to emulate US by using silly names. Why can't we just do our own thing without calling ourselves Silicon Allee or, let me make that one up, Krzemowe Podkarpacie? Oh, excuse me, it sounds more respectable in English: Silicon Carpathian Mountains Foothills.

To be in Silicon Valley is to be completely immersed in technology. The building, the pushing, the hacking, the designing, the iterating, the testing, the acquisitions, the funding — it is everywhere and wholly inescapable. Here is a culture and place that emerged seemingly from nothing, and yet over the last 50 years it has developed a mythology deep and inspiring and all its own.

Craig Mod of Flipboard explains why he chose Silicon Valley over New York.

Also — and this is definitely my fault — 205 people filled out the sign up page and then abandoned the process on the Checkout page. Why? Most people probably didn’t realize they had to pay before using it. Sure, the Pricing page said “$29 for Unlimted Access” without mentioning a free account and Step #2 of the sign up process was called “Checkout”, but overall the copy didn’t clearly indicate that you had to pay before you could use the app.

Another problem is that the site doesn’t include a demo. It includes examples, but nothing the user can create on their own. Adding a demo section so that new users can get that “Oh cool” moment would have gone a long way.

Interesting case study on freemium vs. paid-only model for a application.

If the company has taken $10 million of financing (at a 1x preference) that leaves $20 million to be split among the shareholders. You’ve vested half your 0.2 percent, so you get 0.1 percent, or $20,000 before taxes. Since exits are taxed federally as income (~25 percent) and you live in California (~9 percent state tax), you get to keep $13,200. That’s $550 for each of the 24 months you just worked your ass off. Oh, and in many deals, most of this money is not doled out right away to employees. It’s only offered after one to three years of successful employment at the acquiring company, to keep you around. Oy.

Why stock options in a startup are almost always a worse deal than they seem to be.