May 26
28 — Photo by Jagoda Kondratiuk [https://unsplash.com/@jagodakondratiuk?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText] on Unsplash [https://unsplash.com/search/photos/28?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText] A few years ago, I started a birthday tradition on this blog,
Apr 04
The Year Without Pants — One of the few people who can match Paul Graham [http://paulgraham.com/] as writer is Scott Berkun [http://scottberkun.com/]. They have both succeeded as technologists, Graham in Viaweb + YC, and Berkun in Microsoft and Automattic. They both write thoughtful essays on a wide range of topics, like the
Mar 22
How a Potluck Brunch Led to My New Job at Percolate — I actually hadn’t heard much about Percolate before I moved to New York, but like many great opportunities, it emerged out of serendipity.
Mar 15
The Minimum Viable Transaction — In 2009, an entrepreneur named Eric Ries coined at term that would move the field of product development forward. The minimum viable product (MVP) making something that could “collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort [https://www.jasonshen.com/%22http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2009/
Mar 03
Training Makes it Possible — Have you ever looked at someone who was really good at what they did and felt a little daunted? Maybe it’s how they seem to easily make connections with new people, or design an amazing-looking web page over a weekend, or how they casually mention the 6 miles they
Feb 20
Product Design for the Web: Principles of Designing and Releasing Products for the Web (+ Author Interview) — While on my Peru trip earlier this year, I read a great book  calledProduct Design for the Web: Principles of Designing and Releasing Products for the Web [https://web.archive.org/web/20180929085121/http://tinyurl.com/productdesignftw] . As one of two interaction designers who joinedEtsy [https://web.archive.org/web/
Feb 19
Product Design for the Web: Principles of Designing and Releasing Products for the Web — No Silver Bullets: An Interview with Author Randy Hunt While on my Peru trip earlier this year, I read a great book  called Product Design for the Web: Principles of Designing and Releasing Products for the Web [https://www.amazon.com/Product-Design-Web-Principles-Designing/dp/0321929039]. As one of two interaction designers
Jan 10
One Woman’s Incredible Startup Journey in Peru — The other night, while wandering the bustling streets of Barranco, my adopted neighborhood in Lima, Peru, I walked into a Chinese restaurant called Chifa Hong Fu. [1] I was struggling with the Spanish-only menu and was attempting to ask the waitress what was in the various dishes, when this woman
Dec 07
17 Essential Best Practices for Making Things Happen — I previously wrote about [https://jasonshen.com/sarah-allens-little-rules-for-working-life/] my PIF coworker Sarah Allen’s little rules of working life [http://www.ultrasaurus.com/sarahblog/2013/09/little-rules-for-working-life/], which I thought was pretty awesome. I decided to think through some of my own rules, or as I’m calling them, “Best
Nov 24
Becoming a Free Agent — On December 16, 2013 I will complete my Presidential Innovation Fellowship at the Smithsonian. And as I don’t have another gig lined up, it means I’ll be a free agent starting on 12/17. I’ll be a bit of a moving target for a month: packing up
Oct 01
Training to Dunk — Brandon Todd is 5’5″ and can dunk a basketball. At that height, you need a 42+ inches vertical leap to have a chance of putting the ball in the hoop [http://dunkcalculator.com/]. This is pretty insane. Todd trained for three years, putting on 85 lbs of muscle to
Sep 24
The Elements of Content Strategy — Today, we're looking at a fantastic book on creating, organizing, and managing the words, images, and media of our world. It’s called The Elements of Content Strategy [http://www.abookapart.com/products/the-elements-of-content-strategy]. The Book in a Nutshell: Content strategy is a discipline that stems from a
Sep 13
Sarah Allen’s Little Rules For Working Life — I’ve learned a lot of stuff working with the fellows in my program, particularly Sarah Allen [https://web.archive.org/web/20160505230149/http://ultrasaurus.com/] , who’s paired with me on the Smithsonian Transcription Center [https://web.archive.org/web/20160505230149/http://transcription.si.edu/]. I noticed that she’
Aug 12
My Experience with Toastmasters — I always thought Toastmasters [http://toastmasters.org/] was like one of those quaint support-group esque membership organizations, in the same category as  Boy Scouts, Rotary clubs, and Alcoholics Anonymous. And indeed, some quick Googling reveals they were all founded in the early 1900’s [http://www.toastmasters.org/Members/MembersFunctionalCategories/
Jul 04
A New Adventure: Working at the Smithsonian as a Presidential Innovation Fellow — A little over two years ago, I wrote about taking the leap to start a company. Starting and building Ridejoy has one of the most thrilling, challenging, humbling and educational experiences of my life. That chapter of my life is coming to a close and I am embarking on a
Jun 04
27 — So I turned 27 about a week ago. Last year, for my 26th birthday, [https://web.archive.org/web/20170722134846/http://www.jasonshen.com/2012/a-giveaway-for-my-twenty-sixth-birthday/] I had a giveaway where I asked you, readers, to share your biggest lesson you wish you learned when you turned 26 — or who
May 27
Why Practice Actually Makes Perfect — How to rewire your brain for better performance Growing up, we all heard the expression “practice makes perfect” from our high school coach/music teacher. Then Malcolm Gladwell went on to popularize the research that expertise developed over “10,000 hours” of deliberate practice. But how does that really work?
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/