Apr 24
Hartl's Ruby on Rails Tutorial —
Tell anyone you’re learning Ruby on Rails and you’ll soon get a recommendation
for Ruby on Rails Tutorial
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150723051439/http://ruby.railstutorial.org/ruby-on-rails-tutorial-book]
by Michael Hartl. After spending 6 weeks working with Treehouse
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150723051439/http://teamtreehouse.com/
Apr 08
There's Nothing to Complain About —
Photo: My father reunited with some of his old friends
My father was born in China as the middle of three brothers. His father rose
through the ranks in the local college to become the Dean of Foreign Languages –
the only one without a PhD. When he was 16, the
Feb 04
Learning to Code with Treehouse —
1) Have a learning plan
I signed up for Treehouse
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150729102019/http://referrals.trhou.se/jasonshen]
(referral link) in late December and have been going through their modules for
the past 6 weeks . You can see my progress here
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150729102019/
Jan 27
Why Learning to Code Matters to Me —
One of my goals for 2013 is to learn enough about programming to build and
release publicly a simple web application that does something interesting.
I’ve been working toward this goal for about a month and wanted to share some
thoughts on it so far. In this post, I’
Nov 20
I’d Rather Be Prolific than Perfect —
In Silicon Valley, there is a great deal of worship around Steve Jobs and the
altar of perfection, so allow me to explain my preference.
Being Perfect
As a former gymnast, I know what it’s like to pursue perfection.
Being perfect means practicing the same skills and routines over
Nov 05
Smart Choices: A Practical Guide to Making Better Life Decisions —
I recently read and finished taking notes on a book called: Smart Choices: A
Practical Guide to Making Better Life Decisions
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0767908864/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0767908864&linkCode=as2&tag=helpyour-20]
Oct 03
Crafting the Ridejoy Mobile App —
GUEST POST: Suelyn Yu is an interaction designer at frog (see her portfolio
[https://web.archive.org/web/20140619103736/http://suelynyu.com/]) and worked
closely with the team at Ridejoy to help craft our iPhone application
[https://web.archive.org/web/20140619103736/http://ridejoy.com/mobile]. I feel
very lucky
Sep 29
Good Strategy / Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why it Matters —
Good Strategy / Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why it Matters
[https://www.amazon.com/Good-Strategy-Bad-difference-matters/dp/1781256179/ref=asc_df_1781256179/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312407247347&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8131963954033570292&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=
Aug 01
How Coffee Meetings Power Silicon Valley —
I just had a coffee meeting with a friend in San Francisco today.
Well, he’s not quite a friend, more like a guy I find smart and interesting, who I’d like to stay connected to. We first met when he was working at Twitter and applied to work
Jul 17
Earning Co-Founder Trust —
I recently heard the story of how my friend met his cofounder and had to share
it. I think there are some great lessons here for business folks looking to team
up with smart technical people. I changed the names and am vague about certain
details because they don’t
Jul 04
Listen to everyone, then make up your own mind —
> “Don’t take too much advice. Most people generalize whatever they did and say
that was the strategy that made it work.”Ben Silbermann, cofounder of Pinterest
[http://web.archive.org/web/20170514110114/http://allthingsd.com/20120313/pinterest-ceo-ben-silbermanns-lesson-for-start-ups-go-your-own-way/]
When we raised our seed round for Ridejoy
[http://web.archive.
May 21
26 —
People fall into two camps about birthdays – either a socially-acceptable time
to feel entitled to special things because you were born a certain number of
earth rotations ago, or it’s just another arbitrary day and nothing to get
worked up about.
I generally side more with the latter – but
May 12
A Request (and Giveaway!) for My Twenty-Sixth Birthday —
Photo credit by Solo [http://www.flickr.com/photos/60648084@N00/2234406328/]
People fall into two camps about birthdays – either a socially-acceptable time
to feel entitled to special things because you were born a certain number of
earth rotations ago, or it’s just another arbitrary day and nothing to
May 12
26 —
People fall into two camps about birthdays – either a socially-acceptable time
to feel entitled to special things because you were born a certain number of
earth rotations ago, or it’s just another arbitrary day and nothing to get
worked up about.
I generally side more with the latter – but
May 12
A Request (and Giveaway!) for My Twenty-Sixth Birthday —
Photo credit by Solo [http://www.flickr.com/photos/60648084@N00/2234406328/]
People fall into two camps about birthdays – either a socially-acceptable time
to feel entitled to special things because you were born a certain number of
earth rotations ago, or it’s just another arbitrary day and nothing to
May 08
Eleven Compelling Startup Pitch Archetypes —
Over the past few weeks, I’ve helped a handful of startups work on their YC
applications and interviews. I spent much of the time brainstorming with the
founders on the best way to explain their business in the most clear and
compelling way possible. These founders knew a lot
Apr 05
Gymnastics Lessons: Performing Under Pressure —
Gymnastics is a sport about delivering under pressure. Even though you can make
it a team sport by aggregating scores and swapping out players, there is
actually not interaction between your teammates outside of them cheering for you
and helping you prepare for your performance, or even between you and
Jan 18
How to be Relentlessly Resourceful —
Relentlessly resourceful.
This is the essential quality of a good startup founder according to Paul
Graham, cofounder of Y Combinator. When asked by Forbes what he looks for in
founders, four out of the five elements [http://paulgraham.com/founders.html]
relate to resourcefulness. He’s written two essays (Relentlessly
Dec 21
Great By Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck—Why Some Thrive Despite it All —
Summary: Great by Choice describes the results of a deep investigation into how
young companies can survive and thrive in chaotic, turbulent environments to
achieve spectacular results. The book is of great value startups and
entrepreneurs seeking to build enduringly great companies. In this blog post, I
look at how
Sep 30
How to Give Your Product Personality —
There’s a really great post on Fred Wilson’s blog (AVC
[https://web.archive.org/web/20160320050249/http://avc.com/]) about building a “
Minimum Viable Personality
[https://web.archive.org/web/20160320050249/http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/09/minimum-viable-personality.html]
“. Of course, this is a play on