Mount Everest, Private Social Networking and Story Telling

A private social networking tool to allow mega-connectors to map out their social graph (yes, graphically). Think relationship discovery tool through graph visualization. Hyper connectors can find new ways to connect their relationships together. Sigma
(related) Voice recognition conversation analyzer that maps social connections by listening to story telling.
Story telling software that uses interviews and writer-supplied programmed techniques to automatically write biographies and life stories. SAAS?
Ebook about how to find abundance all around oneself.
Motivational ebook about goal setting and goal achieving.
Ebook about Mount Everest and the Mount Everest’s we face in life.
Formulate a working plan for helping the homeless in my community.
(related) Create a script for asking, “What is your story?” when breaking the ice with the homeless and pan-handlers.
Dream Big. Come up with big ideas, then give them an exponential boost. Assume ridiculous growth and come up with 5 ideas to achieve it. Assume anything is possible – utilize magic if necessary.
Create study curriculum for teaching brainstorming to kids (including high-schoolers)
Learn how to make early-stage investments in local tech startups.
Tweet more. Focus on substance in fewer words. Deliver value – people (audience) will naturally gravitate to quality and value.

Dream a Little Dream ♫

“Arrgh!! Are we dreaming big enough?”

This is how the CEO announced his presence in my office.

“Pardon?” I said.

“We think we have big ideas, but what if we’re not dreaming big enough?”

That got me to thinking. How do you know if you’ve successfully gotten out of boxed-in thinking? How do we know for sure we’re thinking “outside the box?”

We can’t. I’m certain this is a fact. There is no way we can get outside all mental boxes. The good news is that simply by knowing we are stuck in a box means that we can make the effort required to dream bigger than yesterday.

In a serious planning meeting blurt out something patently absurd. Hopefully everyone will laugh.

One brainstorming exercise I have found useful is joking. In a serious planning meeting blurt out something patently absurd. Hopefully everyone will laugh. If you’re surrounded by really smart people* with a sense of humor** and a desire to dream big, at least one of them will say, “Wait, that’s not a bad idea…” and will offer up an improvement on it. And away we go, with our big dreams.

Another method I use is to question everything. While observing people struggle with answering interview riddles it becomes obvious that being smart isn’t as much about knowing the right answers as it is about asking the right questions. This is a topic for another blog post though so I’ll leave it for now.

* why would you spend your invaluable time with not-smart people?
** life is too short to be with grouchy people – get out if you are!

Big Lists, Mega #Lists and #Idea #Babies

I recently made an idea list that I didn’t initially publish because I was wanting to create a tool that would generate a cross linked list from the original.

This is the result of that.

I started with a big-list of 25 ideas and thoughts instead of the usual list of 10, but with the goal of eventually combining them into interesting combinations.

Bricks & Architecture
Chairs & furniture
Soap
Art
Lighting
Friends
Food
Community
Antiques
Kids
Home Improvement
Craigslist
Games
Traditions
Frugality & Bargain Hunting
Happiness
Family
Service to Others
Date Nights with the Wife
Crafting / Building
Balance
Travel
Environmental Stewardship
Blue Sky
Exploring

Twenty five ideas combine into a mega-list of 600 combinations aka idea babies.

You can find the full 600 item list at the bottom. Here are the ones I found most interesting.

My Top Ideas

Bricks & Architecture and Antiques
Bricks & Architecture and Crafting / Building
Bricks & Architecture and Environmental Stewardship
Chairs & furniture and Art
Chairs & furniture and Community
Chairs & furniture and Antiques
Chairs & furniture and Traditions
Soap and Art
Soap and Community
Soap and Traditions
Soap and Crafting / Building
Art and Chairs & furniture
Art and Soap
Art and Friends
Art and Food
Art and Craigslist
Art and Games
Art and Date Nights with the Wife
Art and Travel
Art and Blue Sky
Lighting and Craigslist
Lighting and Happiness
Lighting and Environmental Stewardship
Friends and Frugality & Bargain Hunting
Friends and Happiness
Friends and Family
Friends and Travel
Food and Bricks & Architecture
Food and Art
Food and Community
Food and Traditions
Food and Frugality & Bargain Hunting
Food and Date Nights with the Wife
Food and Environmental Stewardship
Community and Art
Community and Food
Community and Service to Others
Community and Blue Sky
Antiques and Lighting
Antiques and Traditions
Antiques and Date Nights with the Wife
Antiques and Exploring
Kids and Friends
Kids and Community
Kids and Games
Kids and Traditions
Kids and Happiness
Kids and Family
Kids and Service to Others
Kids and Environmental Stewardship
Home Improvement and Bricks & Architecture
Home Improvement and Lighting
Home Improvement and Craigslist
Home Improvement and Frugality & Bargain Hunting
Home Improvement and Family
Home Improvement and Service to Others
Home Improvement and Crafting / Building
Home Improvement and Environmental Stewardship
Craigslist and Home Improvement
Craigslist and Frugality & Bargain Hunting
Craigslist and Crafting / Building
Games and Friends
Games and Community
Games and Kids
Games and Traditions
Games and Date Nights with the Wife
Games and Exploring
Traditions and Chairs & furniture
Traditions and Friends
Traditions and Food
Traditions and Kids
Traditions and Games
Traditions and Family
Traditions and Balance
Frugality & Bargain Hunting and Craigslist
Frugality & Bargain Hunting and Balance
Happiness and Art
Happiness and Lighting
Happiness and Food
Happiness and Kids
Happiness and Service to Others
Happiness and Date Nights with the Wife
Family and Art
Family and Friends
Family and Food
Family and Games
Family and Traditions
Service to Others and Food
Service to Others and Community
Service to Others and Kids
Service to Others and Traditions
Service to Others and Balance
Date Nights with the Wife and Bricks & Architecture
Date Nights with the Wife and Lighting
Date Nights with the Wife and Food
Date Nights with the Wife and Antiques
Date Nights with the Wife and Games
Date Nights with the Wife and Traditions
Date Nights with the Wife and Happiness
Date Nights with the Wife and Exploring
Crafting / Building and Bricks & Architecture
Crafting / Building and Chairs & furniture
Crafting / Building and Soap
Crafting / Building and Art
Crafting / Building and Friends
Crafting / Building and Community
Crafting / Building and Kids
Crafting / Building and Home Improvement
Crafting / Building and Traditions
Balance and Art
Balance and Friends
Balance and Food
Travel and Art
Travel and Food
Travel and Antiques
Travel and Kids
Travel and Frugality & Bargain Hunting
Travel and Happiness
Travel and Family
Travel and Crafting / Building
Travel and Environmental Stewardship
Environmental Stewardship and Bricks & Architecture
Environmental Stewardship and Soap
Environmental Stewardship and Lighting
Environmental Stewardship and Food
Environmental Stewardship and Community
Environmental Stewardship and Home Improvement
Environmental Stewardship and Happiness
Environmental Stewardship and Service to Others
Environmental Stewardship and Crafting / Building
Environmental Stewardship and Travel
Blue Sky and Art
Blue Sky and Lighting
Blue Sky and Kids
Blue Sky and Happiness
Blue Sky and Travel
Blue Sky and Environmental Stewardship
Blue Sky and Exploring
Exploring and Art
Exploring and Friends
Exploring and Food
Exploring and Kids
Exploring and Traditions
Exploring and Date Nights with the Wife
Exploring and Travel
Exploring and Blue Sky

The Full List

Bricks & Architecture and Chairs & furniture
Bricks & Architecture and Soap
Bricks & Architecture and Art
Bricks & Architecture and Lighting
Bricks & Architecture and Friends
Bricks & Architecture and Food
Bricks & Architecture and Community
Bricks & Architecture and Antiques
Bricks & Architecture and Kids
Bricks & Architecture and Home Improvement
Bricks & Architecture and Craigslist
Bricks & Architecture and Games
Bricks & Architecture and Traditions
Bricks & Architecture and Frugality & Bargain Hunting
Bricks & Architecture and Happiness
Bricks & Architecture and Family
Bricks & Architecture and Service to Others
Bricks & Architecture and Date Nights with the Wife
Bricks & Architecture and Crafting / Building
Bricks & Architecture and Balance
Bricks & Architecture and Travel
Bricks & Architecture and Environmental Stewardship
Bricks & Architecture and Blue Sky
Bricks & Architecture and Exploring
Chairs & furniture and Bricks & Architecture
Chairs & furniture and Soap
Chairs & furniture and Art
Chairs & furniture and Lighting
Chairs & furniture and Friends
Chairs & furniture and Food
Chairs & furniture and Community
Chairs & furniture and Antiques
Chairs & furniture and Kids
Chairs & furniture and Home Improvement
Chairs & furniture and Craigslist
Chairs & furniture and Games
Chairs & furniture and Traditions
Chairs & furniture and Frugality & Bargain Hunting
Chairs & furniture and Happiness
Chairs & furniture and Family
Chairs & furniture and Service to Others
Chairs & furniture and Date Nights with the Wife
Chairs & furniture and Crafting / Building
Chairs & furniture and Balance
Chairs & furniture and Travel
Chairs & furniture and Environmental Stewardship
Chairs & furniture and Blue Sky
Chairs & furniture and Exploring
Soap and Bricks & Architecture
Soap and Chairs & furniture
Soap and Art
Soap and Lighting
Soap and Friends
Soap and Food
Soap and Community
Soap and Antiques
Soap and Kids
Soap and Home Improvement
Soap and Craigslist
Soap and Games
Soap and Traditions
Soap and Frugality & Bargain Hunting
Soap and Happiness
Soap and Family
Soap and Service to Others
Soap and Date Nights with the Wife
Soap and Crafting / Building
Soap and Balance
Soap and Travel
Soap and Environmental Stewardship
Soap and Blue Sky
Soap and Exploring
Art and Bricks & Architecture
Art and Chairs & furniture
Art and Soap
Art and Lighting
Art and Friends
Art and Food
Art and Community
Art and Antiques
Art and Kids
Art and Home Improvement
Art and Craigslist
Art and Games
Art and Traditions
Art and Frugality & Bargain Hunting
Art and Happiness
Art and Family
Art and Service to Others
Art and Date Nights with the Wife
Art and Crafting / Building
Art and Balance
Art and Travel
Art and Environmental Stewardship
Art and Blue Sky
Art and Exploring
Lighting and Bricks & Architecture
Lighting and Chairs & furniture
Lighting and Soap
Lighting and Art
Lighting and Friends
Lighting and Food
Lighting and Community
Lighting and Antiques
Lighting and Kids
Lighting and Home Improvement
Lighting and Craigslist
Lighting and Games
Lighting and Traditions
Lighting and Frugality & Bargain Hunting
Lighting and Happiness
Lighting and Family
Lighting and Service to Others
Lighting and Date Nights with the Wife
Lighting and Crafting / Building
Lighting and Balance
Lighting and Travel
Lighting and Environmental Stewardship
Lighting and Blue Sky
Lighting and Exploring
Friends and Bricks & Architecture
Friends and Chairs & furniture
Friends and Soap
Friends and Art
Friends and Lighting
Friends and Food
Friends and Community
Friends and Antiques
Friends and Kids
Friends and Home Improvement
Friends and Craigslist
Friends and Games
Friends and Traditions
Friends and Frugality & Bargain Hunting
Friends and Happiness
Friends and Family
Friends and Service to Others
Friends and Date Nights with the Wife
Friends and Crafting / Building
Friends and Balance
Friends and Travel
Friends and Environmental Stewardship
Friends and Blue Sky
Friends and Exploring
Food and Bricks & Architecture
Food and Chairs & furniture
Food and Soap
Food and Art
Food and Lighting
Food and Friends
Food and Community
Food and Antiques
Food and Kids
Food and Home Improvement
Food and Craigslist
Food and Games
Food and Traditions
Food and Frugality & Bargain Hunting
Food and Happiness
Food and Family
Food and Service to Others
Food and Date Nights with the Wife
Food and Crafting / Building
Food and Balance
Food and Travel
Food and Environmental Stewardship
Food and Blue Sky
Food and Exploring
Community and Bricks & Architecture
Community and Chairs & furniture
Community and Soap
Community and Art
Community and Lighting
Community and Friends
Community and Food
Community and Antiques
Community and Kids
Community and Home Improvement
Community and Craigslist
Community and Games
Community and Traditions
Community and Frugality & Bargain Hunting
Community and Happiness
Community and Family
Community and Service to Others
Community and Date Nights with the Wife
Community and Crafting / Building
Community and Balance
Community and Travel
Community and Environmental Stewardship
Community and Blue Sky
Community and Exploring
Antiques and Bricks & Architecture
Antiques and Chairs & furniture
Antiques and Soap
Antiques and Art
Antiques and Lighting
Antiques and Friends
Antiques and Food
Antiques and Community
Antiques and Kids
Antiques and Home Improvement
Antiques and Craigslist
Antiques and Games
Antiques and Traditions
Antiques and Frugality & Bargain Hunting
Antiques and Happiness
Antiques and Family
Antiques and Service to Others
Antiques and Date Nights with the Wife
Antiques and Crafting / Building
Antiques and Balance
Antiques and Travel
Antiques and Environmental Stewardship
Antiques and Blue Sky
Antiques and Exploring
Kids and Bricks & Architecture
Kids and Chairs & furniture
Kids and Soap
Kids and Art
Kids and Lighting
Kids and Friends
Kids and Food
Kids and Community
Kids and Antiques
Kids and Home Improvement
Kids and Craigslist
Kids and Games
Kids and Traditions
Kids and Frugality & Bargain Hunting
Kids and Happiness
Kids and Family
Kids and Service to Others
Kids and Date Nights with the Wife (not a chance!)
Kids and Crafting / Building
Kids and Balance
Kids and Travel
Kids and Environmental Stewardship
Kids and Blue Sky
Kids and Exploring
Home Improvement and Bricks & Architecture
Home Improvement and Chairs & furniture
Home Improvement and Soap
Home Improvement and Art
Home Improvement and Lighting
Home Improvement and Friends
Home Improvement and Food
Home Improvement and Community
Home Improvement and Antiques
Home Improvement and Kids
Home Improvement and Craigslist
Home Improvement and Games
Home Improvement and Traditions
Home Improvement and Frugality & Bargain Hunting
Home Improvement and Happiness
Home Improvement and Family
Home Improvement and Service to Others
Home Improvement and Date Nights with the Wife
Home Improvement and Crafting / Building
Home Improvement and Balance
Home Improvement and Travel
Home Improvement and Environmental Stewardship
Home Improvement and Blue Sky
Home Improvement and Exploring
Craigslist and Bricks & Architecture
Craigslist and Chairs & furniture
Craigslist and Soap
Craigslist and Art
Craigslist and Lighting
Craigslist and Friends
Craigslist and Food
Craigslist and Community
Craigslist and Antiques
Craigslist and Kids
Craigslist and Home Improvement
Craigslist and Games
Craigslist and Traditions
Craigslist and Frugality & Bargain Hunting
Craigslist and Happiness
Craigslist and Family
Craigslist and Service to Others
Craigslist and Date Nights with the Wife
Craigslist and Crafting / Building
Craigslist and Balance
Craigslist and Travel
Craigslist and Environmental Stewardship
Craigslist and Blue Sky
Craigslist and Exploring
Games and Bricks & Architecture
Games and Chairs & furniture
Games and Soap
Games and Art
Games and Lighting
Games and Friends
Games and Food
Games and Community
Games and Antiques
Games and Kids
Games and Home Improvement
Games and Craigslist
Games and Traditions
Games and Frugality & Bargain Hunting
Games and Happiness
Games and Family
Games and Service to Others
Games and Date Nights with the Wife
Games and Crafting / Building
Games and Balance
Games and Travel
Games and Environmental Stewardship
Games and Blue Sky
Games and Exploring
Traditions and Bricks & Architecture
Traditions and Chairs & furniture
Traditions and Soap
Traditions and Art
Traditions and Lighting
Traditions and Friends
Traditions and Food
Traditions and Community
Traditions and Antiques
Traditions and Kids
Traditions and Home Improvement
Traditions and Craigslist
Traditions and Games
Traditions and Frugality & Bargain Hunting
Traditions and Happiness
Traditions and Family
Traditions and Service to Others
Traditions and Date Nights with the Wife
Traditions and Crafting / Building
Traditions and Balance
Traditions and Travel
Traditions and Environmental Stewardship
Traditions and Blue Sky
Traditions and Exploring
Frugality & Bargain Hunting and Bricks & Architecture
Frugality & Bargain Hunting and Chairs & furniture
Frugality & Bargain Hunting and Soap
Frugality & Bargain Hunting and Art
Frugality & Bargain Hunting and Lighting
Frugality & Bargain Hunting and Friends
Frugality & Bargain Hunting and Food
Frugality & Bargain Hunting and Community
Frugality & Bargain Hunting and Antiques
Frugality & Bargain Hunting and Kids
Frugality & Bargain Hunting and Home Improvement
Frugality & Bargain Hunting and Craigslist
Frugality & Bargain Hunting and Games
Frugality & Bargain Hunting and Traditions
Frugality & Bargain Hunting and Happiness
Frugality & Bargain Hunting and Family
Frugality & Bargain Hunting and Service to Others
Frugality & Bargain Hunting and Date Nights with the Wife
Frugality & Bargain Hunting and Crafting / Building
Frugality & Bargain Hunting and Balance
Frugality & Bargain Hunting and Travel
Frugality & Bargain Hunting and Environmental Stewardship
Frugality & Bargain Hunting and Blue Sky
Frugality & Bargain Hunting and Exploring
Happiness and Bricks & Architecture
Happiness and Chairs & furniture
Happiness and Soap
Happiness and Art
Happiness and Lighting
Happiness and Friends
Happiness and Food
Happiness and Community
Happiness and Antiques
Happiness and Kids
Happiness and Home Improvement
Happiness and Craigslist
Happiness and Games
Happiness and Traditions
Happiness and Frugality & Bargain Hunting
Happiness and Family
Happiness and Service to Others
Happiness and Date Nights with the Wife
Happiness and Crafting / Building
Happiness and Balance
Happiness and Travel
Happiness and Environmental Stewardship
Happiness and Blue Sky
Happiness and Exploring
Family and Bricks & Architecture
Family and Chairs & furniture
Family and Soap
Family and Art
Family and Lighting
Family and Friends
Family and Food
Family and Community
Family and Antiques
Family and Kids
Family and Home Improvement
Family and Craigslist
Family and Games
Family and Traditions
Family and Frugality & Bargain Hunting
Family and Happiness
Family and Service to Others
Family and Date Nights with the Wife
Family and Crafting / Building
Family and Balance
Family and Travel
Family and Environmental Stewardship
Family and Blue Sky
Family and Exploring
Service to Others and Bricks & Architecture
Service to Others and Chairs & furniture
Service to Others and Soap
Service to Others and Art
Service to Others and Lighting
Service to Others and Friends
Service to Others and Food
Service to Others and Community
Service to Others and Antiques
Service to Others and Kids
Service to Others and Home Improvement
Service to Others and Craigslist
Service to Others and Games
Service to Others and Traditions
Service to Others and Frugality & Bargain Hunting
Service to Others and Happiness
Service to Others and Family
Service to Others and Date Nights with the Wife
Service to Others and Crafting / Building
Service to Others and Balance
Service to Others and Travel
Service to Others and Environmental Stewardship
Service to Others and Blue Sky
Service to Others and Exploring
Date Nights with the Wife and Bricks & Architecture
Date Nights with the Wife and Chairs & furniture
Date Nights with the Wife and Soap
Date Nights with the Wife and Art
Date Nights with the Wife and Lighting
Date Nights with the Wife and Friends
Date Nights with the Wife and Food
Date Nights with the Wife and Community
Date Nights with the Wife and Antiques
Date Nights with the Wife and Kids (not a chance!)
Date Nights with the Wife and Home Improvement
Date Nights with the Wife and Craigslist
Date Nights with the Wife and Games
Date Nights with the Wife and Traditions
Date Nights with the Wife and Frugality & Bargain Hunting
Date Nights with the Wife and Happiness
Date Nights with the Wife and Family
Date Nights with the Wife and Service to Others
Date Nights with the Wife and Crafting / Building
Date Nights with the Wife and Balance
Date Nights with the Wife and Travel
Date Nights with the Wife and Environmental Stewardship
Date Nights with the Wife and Blue Sky
Date Nights with the Wife and Exploring
Crafting / Building and Bricks & Architecture
Crafting / Building and Chairs & furniture
Crafting / Building and Soap
Crafting / Building and Art
Crafting / Building and Lighting
Crafting / Building and Friends
Crafting / Building and Food
Crafting / Building and Community
Crafting / Building and Antiques
Crafting / Building and Kids
Crafting / Building and Home Improvement
Crafting / Building and Craigslist
Crafting / Building and Games
Crafting / Building and Traditions
Crafting / Building and Frugality & Bargain Hunting
Crafting / Building and Happiness
Crafting / Building and Family
Crafting / Building and Service to Others
Crafting / Building and Date Nights with the Wife
Crafting / Building and Balance
Crafting / Building and Travel
Crafting / Building and Environmental Stewardship
Crafting / Building and Blue Sky
Crafting / Building and Exploring
Balance and Bricks & Architecture
Balance and Chairs & furniture
Balance and Soap
Balance and Art
Balance and Lighting
Balance and Friends
Balance and Food
Balance and Community
Balance and Antiques
Balance and Kids
Balance and Home Improvement
Balance and Craigslist
Balance and Games
Balance and Traditions
Balance and Frugality & Bargain Hunting
Balance and Happiness
Balance and Family
Balance and Service to Others
Balance and Date Nights with the Wife
Balance and Crafting / Building
Balance and Travel
Balance and Environmental Stewardship
Balance and Blue Sky
Balance and Exploring
Travel and Bricks & Architecture
Travel and Chairs & furniture
Travel and Soap
Travel and Art
Travel and Lighting
Travel and Friends
Travel and Food
Travel and Community
Travel and Antiques
Travel and Kids
Travel and Home Improvement
Travel and Craigslist
Travel and Games
Travel and Traditions
Travel and Frugality & Bargain Hunting
Travel and Happiness
Travel and Family
Travel and Service to Others
Travel and Date Nights with the Wife
Travel and Crafting / Building
Travel and Balance
Travel and Environmental Stewardship
Travel and Blue Sky
Travel and Exploring
Environmental Stewardship and Bricks & Architecture
Environmental Stewardship and Chairs & furniture
Environmental Stewardship and Soap
Environmental Stewardship and Art
Environmental Stewardship and Lighting
Environmental Stewardship and Friends
Environmental Stewardship and Food
Environmental Stewardship and Community
Environmental Stewardship and Antiques
Environmental Stewardship and Kids
Environmental Stewardship and Home Improvement
Environmental Stewardship and Craigslist
Environmental Stewardship and Games
Environmental Stewardship and Traditions
Environmental Stewardship and Frugality & Bargain Hunting
Environmental Stewardship and Happiness
Environmental Stewardship and Family
Environmental Stewardship and Service to Others
Environmental Stewardship and Date Nights with the Wife
Environmental Stewardship and Crafting / Building
Environmental Stewardship and Balance
Environmental Stewardship and Travel
Environmental Stewardship and Blue Sky
Environmental Stewardship and Exploring
Blue Sky and Bricks & Architecture
Blue Sky and Chairs & furniture
Blue Sky and Soap
Blue Sky and Art
Blue Sky and Lighting
Blue Sky and Friends
Blue Sky and Food
Blue Sky and Community
Blue Sky and Antiques
Blue Sky and Kids
Blue Sky and Home Improvement
Blue Sky and Craigslist
Blue Sky and Games
Blue Sky and Traditions
Blue Sky and Frugality & Bargain Hunting
Blue Sky and Happiness
Blue Sky and Family
Blue Sky and Service to Others
Blue Sky and Date Nights with the Wife
Blue Sky and Crafting / Building
Blue Sky and Balance
Blue Sky and Travel
Blue Sky and Environmental Stewardship
Blue Sky and Exploring
Exploring and Bricks & Architecture
Exploring and Chairs & furniture
Exploring and Soap
Exploring and Art
Exploring and Lighting
Exploring and Friends
Exploring and Food
Exploring and Community
Exploring and Antiques
Exploring and Kids
Exploring and Home Improvement
Exploring and Craigslist
Exploring and Games
Exploring and Traditions
Exploring and Frugality & Bargain Hunting
Exploring and Happiness
Exploring and Family
Exploring and Service to Others
Exploring and Date Nights with the Wife
Exploring and Crafting / Building
Exploring and Balance
Exploring and Travel
Exploring and Environmental Stewardship
Exploring and Blue Sky

Doodling, Drawing and $100 million

Machine learning workflow for documents and specifications
Computer program to create pros from outline or full language text. Should end up being extremely eloquent
Computer doodling
Floorplan generator from photos as an iPhone app
E-book on teaching kids about computers
E-book on structuring LLCs
Blog post about creating personal value by building people up
Draw more
Doodle
Blog my basement remodel
Brainstorm ways to raise capital for different friends. Five to $10 million. But I suppose why stop there let’s shoot for $100 million.

10 Places I’d Like to Visit

Alaska – Homer to be exact. Although Sadie Cove looks interesting too.
India – Homestay sounds interesting
Greenland
Photo by Mads Pihl – Visit Greenland
NYC during Christmas
2014 Bryant Park – Credit: gigi_nyc
Rural Japan Read How Not to Travel in Japan
Parma, Italy (Ham and Cheese!)
Paris
China.
Specifically I’d like to visit rural China – Guilin to be exact

Li River connects Guilin and Yangshuo County – Credit Chensiyuan
Australia I have friends here. I’d visit them, but I’d also like to get into the outback.
Angel Falls – The water fall that was the inspiration for the falls in the movie “Up”.

Is Scala a Business Ready Language?

I’m a great (but not fantastic) developer and certainly no Scala expert so I approach this topic fearfully, knowing I’ll get something wrong.

And although I have decades of professional programming experience, I have zero Scala experience so I will be relying upon the experience of others. You will find a lot of quotes (with attribution) scattered throughout.

I’m both an opinionated and open-minded person so please express your own opinion below the article – you have a good chance of changing my mind.

A business is a team that takes ideas or products and brings them life.

Business Needs are Priority 1

When evaluating a technical choice in an organization, needs naturally fall into one of two categories: Business and Technical.

Even startup founders organize time and hat wearing between “businessy stuff” and technical execution.

The business needs of an organization must come before the technical needs for a simple reason. Teamwork.

A business is not just a bunch of developers and engineers sitting around building stuff. It’s tempting to draw a line of separation between tech and “everything else.” This is not teamwork – it’s silo building and any organization finding itself engaged in the business of building silos is doomed.

A business is more than a product, it’s more than a brilliant technology, it’s more than a team of 10x rockstars. A business is a team that takes ideas or products and brings them life through strategic partnerships, vision, mission, high-level planning, branding, marketing, sales, customer service, human resources and IT.

Business Needs

HR – Finding and Retaining qualified people.

From 2011:

“…it’s effectively impossible to hire people with prior Scala experience (of the hundreds of people we’ve interviewed perhaps three had Scala experience, of those three we hired one)” source

On May 1st, 2015 a quick trip to Stack Overflow Careers Candidate Search yields this startling metric. 56,000 java developers ( no interns or students) to 5,000 scala developers.

searching indeed.com for scala returns 3,733 results.

searching indeed.com for java returns 86,189 results.

Scala and Java are far apart on github.

Conclusion: Scala is the loser. Java is the clear winner with by far the most developers.
I could dig wide and far and come up with countless examples of the disparity between the availability and popularity of Java and Scala. Is this important? Only you and your organization can answer that.

Maturity and Stability of Scala

At 12 years old (internal vs general release), Scala is, without a doubt a mature language but does it’s maturity come with a hidden cost?

This release contains an important fix for serialization, which was broken in Scala 2.11.0 (SI-8549). The fix necessarily breaks serialization compatibility between 2.11.0 and 2.11.1 (this is separate from binary compatibility, which is maintained).Scala 2.11.1 Announcement

Breaking backward compatibility (yes I know it’s not binary compatibility) between minor versions is a negative.

Scala keeps breaking binary compatibility with every new release. In spite of previous promises, compatibility was broken in release 2.7, broken again in release 2.8 and broken yet again in 2.9. Ceki Gülcü – Is Scala worthy of your trust?

Yes, these are old versions and it appears that with the last few releases they have not broken backward compatibility. However, in September 2014, when asked in an interview with InfoWorld about an upcoming release (Don Giovanni – to be released in April, 2017 approximately) , Martin Odersky said: “That’s going to be a more fundamental rethink of what Scala is.”

To be intellectually honest, this is a good thing… technically. I admire the mindset of continuous improvement. This does not lead to stability however.

Conclusion: Should a language be considered mature and stable when these sorts of sweeping changes are planned or necessary?

Bringing Scala into Existing Businesses

There are many testimonials that can reasonably lead one to the conclusion that it is very viable to bring Scala into an existing JVM oriented business.

On Redfin, Alex Payne writes this about twitter

Scala is a lot of fun to work in; yes, you can write staid, Java-like code when you start. Later, you can write Scala code that almost looks like Haskell. It can be very idiomatic, very functional — there’s a lot of flexibility there.

However Julio Faerman writes

Although it is possible to invoke Java methods in Scala code and vice versa, the interaction between languages is not without complications.

Yakov Fain has an opinion about this:

If you have a team of several Java developers and want to introduce Scala, Groovy or any other exotic language, do not hire a person who knows this language. Hire an instructor to teach the entire team how to program in this languages and let one of the developers use it in your project.

Conclusion: Neutral.

Cost of Development

All positions are “senior” The location choice is an affluent community in the midwest which is cheaper than the coasts – adjust accordingly.

Position	Location	Cost
Scala	Overland Park, KS	$105,000
Ruby	Overland Park, KS	$105,000
Java	Overland Park, KS	$99,000
Python	Overland Park, KS	$105,000
Haskell	Overland Park, KS	$95,000
PHP	Overland Park, KS	$95,000

Source

Conclusion: Irrelavent.

Technical Needs

Poor technical decisions have the potential to ruin a product or company completely. Consequently, appropriate care should be given to research and informed decision making.

I’ll be using mostly quotes for this section. Although I have read numerous articles and opinions and documentation pages about various libraries, I have no real-world experience.

Popularity (Google Trends)

Google Trends for Scala, Java, Ruby, PHP and C++

Community

For a language to be worthy of a significant commitment by developers and businesses it must have a quality eco-system surrounding it. Topping the list is the community.

Language	Meetup.com ( meetings/members)	2014 Conferences (lanyrd.com/)
Scala	398 / 109,873	32
Ruby	781 / 324,640	131
Java	1123 / 406,084	115
Python	1052 / 414,303	136
Haskell	182 / 44,821	8
PHP	1311 / 403,544	99

Conclusion: Scala clearly has a lot of work to do here. Only one of these three metrics is looking at numbers of people yet all of them have Scala at or near the bottom of the list.

Good Ecosystem

Node.js has an amazing library eco-system. One that I have yet to see duplicated elsewhere. If anyone involved with the Scala ecosystem is listening, you would do well to emulate npmjs.com

Nobody else so far has mentioned this, but the documentation for just about anything in Scala seems very slanted toward the academic rather than the practical. Most documentation reads like a professor is trying to justify a budget item; it’s all about “why Scala” and not much about “how to do things in Scala.” Reese Currie

Scala has methods to get similar results as npmjs.com but it is complicated and is part of the built tool – a product that some advise against using.

Comparing Open Source Projects By Language

Using GitHub as a data source reveals that the top two languages, by both project count and user count are Java and Javascript with the latter having more users than Java even with fewer projects.

The biggest surprise on this first dataset is the stunning disparity between the other languages and Scala. Scala is barely a blip on the radar.

The next GitHub dataset compares issues reported by language both as a number and as a rate per project. Without looking into the substance of the issues, there are two interesting conclusions that can be drawn. The first is that Java has the lowest defect rate (2.153 issues per project) and Scala has the highest (4.604 issues per project).

Conclusion: Between Java and Scala, Java is the clear winner.

Code Readability

Read the comments on this StackOverflow answer. Where is the community consensus?

Readability, readability, readability. Scala supports many programming paradigms(and has features to enable those), they combine into hundreds of idioms making it possible to write code in myriad of ways. Given the possibility, it’s hard to stop developers from going crazy and trying clever tricks, resulting in very unreadable code in the end.

It’s definitely possible to write beautiful code in Scala and then it’s the most beautiful language in the world but practically most people won’t do that. Scala libraries are written by very smart people but somehow even the best get carried away and go blind to code readability. If the best people write difficult to read code there is no way to control others. – Pankaj Gupta

Scala is a lot of fun to work in; yes, you can write staid, Java-like code when you start. Later, you can write Scala code that almost looks like Haskell. It can be very idiomatic, very functional — there’s a lot of flexibility there. –Alex Payne

“Scala is so flexible that you can write code in it that’s utterly impenetrable. You only have to look at Perl scripts to see the downside to that. Programmers who have to work together are happier if there’s only one or two clear ways to do something, not lots of different ways.” John Purcell

–

“My style changed gradually over time from object oriented to now completely functional” –Quora Review

Conclusion: Caution. Scala allows for code that is “utterly impenetrable.” Scala enables both functional and object oriented code. Without discipline and enforced standards a code base will become a mess – each developer contributing in their own evolving style.

Does Scala Lower the Defect Rate?

In spite of the conclusion drawn by the GitHub analysis that Scala projects have more issues per project, what is the conventional wisdom when it comes to answering this question? Perhaps in an enterprise environment things are different.

But most importantly, Scala taught me to program and reason about programming differently. I stopped thinking in terms of allocating buffers, structs, and objects, and of changing those pieces of memory. Instead, I learned to think about most of my programs as transforming input to output. This change in thinking has lead to lower defect rates, more modular code, and more testable code – David Pollak

This is a deep read on the subject of code quality as relates to programming language.

functional languages are generally less defect prone than procedural languages
A Large Scale Study of Programming Languages and Code Quality in Github

Conclusion: Yes. Probably. Temper this conclusion with the issue data from GitHub.

Performance & Scalability

Scala is named with the word scale implied in the name. While scala works well for large-scale projects, the intent of the name is more about your experience with it – it scales to meet you at your skill level.

“Scala is deep where other languages are broad.”
Martin Odersky – Slide 11

This means, scalable is meant in terms of flexibility and expressiveness. You can create your own control structures. E.g. the actors frameworks is a library, but it looks like it uses language features.

This means that Scala will scale according to the needed abstraction, not necessarily in terms of “answering 1.000.000 requests in a second” – Michael Kebe Programmers.StackExchange

Aleksey Shipilёv has an interesting article about benchmarking Scala vs. Java.

I should add that per amount of time spent programming, my Scala code is usually faster than my Java code since in Scala I can get the tedious not-performance-critical parts done with less effort, and spend more of my attention optimizing the algorithms and code for the performance-critical parts. – Rex Kerr

Java and Scala both compile down to JVM bytecode, so the difference isn’t that big. The best comparison you can get is probably on the computer language benchmarks game, which essentially says that Java and Scala both have the same memory usage. Scala is only slightly slower than Java on some of the benchmarks listed, but that could simply be because the implementation of the programs are different.

Really though, they’re both so close it’s not worth worrying about. The productivity increase you get by using a more expressive language like Scala is worth so much more than minimal (if any) performance hit – ryeguy

Intangibles

I think startups tend to underestimate the potential benefits of picking atypical technology stacks: learning new things is a powerful motivator for engineers—disproportionately so among those you’re most likely to want to hire—and having an interesting and thoughtful tech stack can help a lot in recruiting – Patrick Collison

Final Word

I’ll close with this series of quotes from Alex Payne of Twitter.

So what were our criteria for choosing Scala? Well first we asked, was it fast, and fun, and good for long-running process? Does it have advanced features? Can you be productive quickly? … And did Scala turn out to be fast? Well, what’s your definition of fast? About as fast as Java. It doesn’t have to be as fast as C or Assembly. …

Scala is a lot of fun to work in; yes, you can write staid, Java-like code when you start. Later, you can write Scala code that almost looks like Haskell. It can be very idiomatic, very functional — there’s a lot of flexibility there.

And it’s fast. The principal language developer at Scala worked on the JVM at Sun. When Java started, it was clearly a great language, but the VM was slow. The JVM has been brought to the modern age and we don’t think twice about using it.

Less Personal Social Media and Situation Context Detection

10 Tech Ideas

Given enough live video feeds (Periscope are you listening?) a person could “walk” around an event switching from stream to stream. Even better would be if it wasn’t just switching streams but actually 3D transitioning between streams – literally walking around the 3D space.
Less personal social media. This expands our world view – Much of social media is bragging. Instead, enlighten me, enrich my day, educate me, but don’t brag about your kid, dog, or food.
Facial recognition, body language, facial expression recognition. Situation context detection – piped into social media upon user defined triggers.
Video demographic metric collection – clothing brand detection, clothing style detection, car detection (from parking lot). Age and gender detection. For brick and mortar stores this would offer an interesting data stream about their customers. Could update offers in real time in store.
Theft detection, loss prevention using real time video feeds and body language detection (from #3) stores could intervene before a crime takes place.
Video and smoke detectors to monitor quality of pizza in oven. Speed up, slow down conveyor. Crust bubble alarm. Utilize as many sensors as possible – does food off-gas as it cooks? Measure it.
Technology (SAAS) company that specializes in the ultimate in privacy – corporate shielding of average citizens for super cheap. LLC? All aspects automated.
SAAS company that APIs life. All of it. Life metrics
SAAS company that provides market flattening technology generically. Everybody wins when a vertical market removes middle men and becomes more honest.
Gamify tech ideation. Create tools (website) for collaborative brainstorming.

Failing Successfully Using Rowboats.

I’m a failure. I fail a lot. All the time, really. And in lots of ways. I’m not as patient with my children as I’d like. I’m not as productive at work as I’d like. I’m not as good of a husband as I’d like. But this is not about any of the specific ways I fail because I’m far more interested in flipping failure on it’s head.

“What is failure? How do we make it useful? How do we keep it from hurting us? “

I asked a local bartender “What makes a shift successful.” His answer, “Nice customers and good tips. Restaurant people are the best customers – they’ve been there before and always tip well.” Makes sense. A friend defined success as “on time and on budget.”

I don’t want to focus on success because total success is elusive – seemingly downright impossible. We are frail creatures, after all, and are prone to coming up short. I write this not as an excuse but as a realization. Knowledge is power and knowing where we are currently gives us the power to grab failure by the collar and demand it tell us how we can do better.

I’m the senior software developer where I work and I’ve been wondering, “Organizationally what is failure? How do we define it? How do we make it useful? How do we keep it from hurting us? How do we move beyond immediate negative reactions and take a long term view? More importantly, how do we create a culture that doesn’t punish failure and instead seeks to find the value in failure?“

Failure is worthless when you fail to learn from your failure through accident or ignorance. The worst kind of worthless failure is produced by a culture that structurally prevents learning from failure. Not knowing if you’re failing, or at what rate you’re failing means you have no hope of making meaningful change.

Everything else is useful. Think about conversion metrics. For online businesses this is the ratio of visitors converting to customers. People tout their conversion rates like they are some measure of success. “Oh, we have a 30% conversion rate!” Wait, did you just tell me you lose 70% of all visitors?

In baseball failing most of the time is acceptable. Failing half of the time is ridiculously good. If you convert 30% of the time in baseball you’re going to make millions. I don’t know what good conversion metrics are for an online business. You probably have some idea what is acceptable for you. It all depends on your acquisition cost and the lifetime value of a customer for your business.

But here’s the thing. If you’re not learning from your failures be they a 2%, 10%, or 30% conversion rate (a 98%, 90%, 70% failure rate) you’re being hurt by your failure. It’s time to turn that situation around and figure out how to learn. The answer is shockingly simple, but requires dedication and discipline.

Anyone can flip failure on its head,

Find yourself some third-class levers.

Did you know 3rd class levers even exist? (I didn’t.) A third class lever allows you to gain speed or distance at the expense of effort. Put another way, the effort we use to improve our success rate can move it a lot (distance).

Rowing Team Row boats use 3rd class levers – effort translates into speed and distance.

It logically follows that you would pick areas of your business that have a high rate of failure – they represent the areas that can experience the largest amount of improvement. In addition to the high rate of failure, you would also want to identify those areas that are frequently repeating and easily testable.

If you have a business that is profitable with a 2% conversion rate – a 3rd class lever can make a huge difference to the bottom line – you don’t have to move the needle much to get a doubling or tripling of revenues.

The exact details of your testing greatly depend upon your industry, your goals and the hypotheses you decide to test. For example, to improve customer acquisition you might try changing the amount of information required on sign up forms. For trial accounts try testing a decision to not require a credit card. For project management you might try testing a new methodology or technique. For a pizza restaurant you might try a new approach to special prices or offering a more interesting pizza.

As a father I could try different approaches with family chores and rules. I could gamify things. Yes it’s more difficult to measure, but anecdotal evidence is acceptable in this situation. The important thing is to be trying and measuring – in whatever way is appropriate.

When it comes to failing when you learn from your mistakes you are honestly improving. If you are not learning you have truly failed and are doomed to repeat the past.

Anyone can flip failure on its head, in any industry and in any human endeavor.
Do you want to?

People Want to be Heroes, not Commodities!

Lots of technology is created in an effort to systematize or commoditize existing sectors and business professionals – software developers, artists, writers, lawyers – the list is seemingly endless.

Technology has proven itself to be one of the greatest liberators and equalizers of human existence.

This perpetuates a paradigm of subjugation and enslavement. People don’t want to be commodities they want to be heroes – they want to be Free – (Libre!)

It’s all wrapped up using a false value proposition; i.e. if you join you will have more work, stability, etc. But at commodity prices? No thanks. But at loss of individuality ? Not a chance.

The next 500 years is just beginning and it’s going to be another period of enlightenment.

The idea is thus: technology has proven itself to be one of the greatest liberators and equalizers of human existence. We must find the areas of human existence in most dire need of liberation and bring technology to bear on the problems of injustice, inequality, and the commoditization of humans.

This is done through a transcendent, transparent and kind application of technology to level playing fields removing barriers blocking greatness. We design systems and redesign human institutions in ways that eliminate hooks, greed, fear and coercion; we recognize the need to create an organization and system that outlives our great grandchildren’s generation.

Join the conversation and let’s talk about the sectors and paradigms that need reforming. The next 500 years is just beginning and it’s going to be another period of enlightenment.

treehousetim – Christian, human, technologist

Life, Faith, PHP, Technology

Month: June 2015