Aug 01
The Extraordinary Power of Self-Reflection —
I recently stumbled across an old document on my laptop. It was a PDF with journal entries from several years ago. While many of the entries were typical day-to-day activities, I also found about 100 short lessons that I had captured during this journaling period and I shared a few
Jul 31
Why Being Real Matters —
> Lying is a requisite and daily part of being a founder, the grease that keeps
the startup flywheel running. No one likes to put it that way of course.
Instead, we use phrases like “hustling” and “fake it until you make it” to make
the idea of lying more
Jul 28
The Little Book of Talent —
Five years ago, I stood in a bookstore for about an hour and read half of a
wonderful book called The Talent Code
[https://web.archive.org/web/20160622022700/http://amzn.to/1Sexp7L] by Daniel
Coyne. It had come out around the same time as a few other books in
Jun 15
29 —
I turned 29 last month. No contest or giveaway. This year we’ll keep it simple.
Three simple lessons I’ve learned as I round the last lap of my twenties.
Just because it isn’t on your resume doesn’t mean it’s not real work. This
includes relationships,
Feb 28
The Success Equation, Untangling Skill and Luck in Business, Sports, and Investing. —
These reading notes began life as an “Ignite-style” 5 minute presentation with
slides automatically progressing every 15 seconds — which I gave on a Monday
morning presentation for Percolate. The words below are essentially what I said
during that talk.
The Success Equation, Untangling Skill and Luck in Business, Sports, and
Jan 05
8 Thoughts from a Techie on SF vs NYC —
We take a quick break from the #WkofBks to bring something a little different for the Your Turn Challenge (Day #5, yes I’m behind). I just spent a week in San Francisco, seeing friends and working out of the Percolate SF offices. While they were fresh in my mind,
Nov 24
Zero to One: Notes on Startups or How to Build the Future —
In spring of 2012, Peter Thiel, cofounder of Paypal and Palantir and early
investor in Facebook, taught a course at Stanford in the Computer Science
department calledCS183: Startup
[http://blakemasters.com/peter-thiels-cs183-startup]. One of the students in the
class, a law student named Blake Masters, took meticulous notes that were
Nov 16
Three Days with MaGIC —
Inspired by Silicon Valley, many cities and nations around the world are trying
to build startup and technology hubs – to spur innovation and economic
development. In Asia, Shenzhen, Singapore, Indonesia, and Bangalore have become
known as startup hubs
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150723075401/http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/
Sep 28
How Google Works —
Today, I’m sharing thoughts from the book How Google Works
[https://web.archive.org/web/20160525213329/http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HUU13Y0/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00HUU13Y0&linkCode=as2&tag=helpyour-20&linkId=PTHPN6KB6TVDYUMN]
, which I
Sep 24
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead —
Disclaimer: as a man writing about gender inequality, I acknowledge my
privileged (and biased) viewpoint in this discussion. I’ve run this post by
several smart, awesome women and incorporated their feedback, but I know I still
run the risk of getting things wrong. Still, this topic is so important
Sep 24
How to Make Sense of Any Mess —
Reading Notes on Abby Covert's How to Make Sense of Any Mess
[https://bookshop.org/books/how-to-make-sense-of-any-mess-information-architecture-for-everybody/9781500615994]
The Book in a Nutshell: The human race is creating more information than ever
before, in the form of signs, articles, websites, apps, and much more — and the
world would
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,
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
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