January 2011
1 post
Starting up: the product early days
Several years into my Silicon Valley startup experience, I’ve gathered a few tidbits that are worth remembering. Most of them seem obvious on the surface, but as always, the execution is the hard part. I’ll dive more into how all of this is accomplished in future posts.
1. Focus.
You have limited resources. The most costly mistake any company can make is focusing on the wrong (or...
1 tag
Welcome to twenty-ten.
It’s a new year in a new decade and that means it’s definitely time for some reflection.
2009 was my first full year in San Francisco. Looking back, it seems like it went by in a flash. I ran my first marathon, made tons of friends, found myself a wonderful new girlfriend, inherited the senior engineering position at YouNoodle, moved into a new neighborhood, celebrated my 23rd...
3 tags
Mikeihbe.com
This year, I received my domain, mikeihbe.com for my birthday.
I wasn’t really sure what to do with it, so it will probably be an evolving project. I definitely wanted it to reflect who I am and what I do, but also have the potential to open new opportunities.
Whenever I start a personal project I typically try to learn something new while I’m doing it. Lately, I’ve been...
December 2009
6 posts
1 tag
RT @nallyo “Periodic table of beer styles: http://bit.ly/4vaIlp.” I’m a fan of columns 4, 6, 9 and 20.
Having gone to my local pub’s trivia night, I have determined that I know nothing trivial.
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Funding Clojure 2010 →
Comments
Cybernetic hand successfully integrated with human nervous system: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10408139-1.html
1 tag
Quantum propulsion proposed in MIT tech review: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/24499/
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USPTO takes first step, admits they have a problem: http://tr.im/HCxP
October 2009
1 post
2 tags
Naked Economics - Charles Wheelan
Great book, well written, humorous author, and good explanations of some familiar econ 101 concepts. Well worth the read. The author’s explicit purpose is to make the economic sciences interesting to the masses, because most people take Econ101 and their eyes glaze over at all the charts and then they think econ isn’t interesting, but really it is. And he goes through how governments...
June 2009
1 post
2 tags
4 Hour Work Week - Tim Ferris
I’m already disinterested in this book, so I’m going to be short and sweet in my review. It’s kind of scatterbrained. It’s almost autobiographical in that it’s all about Tim Ferris and all the awesome things he’s done. He does his best to give lots of advice, some of it is practical and some of it is over the top. The entire book is based around ways you can do...
January 2009
3 posts
2 tags
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman -- Richard...
The collection of stories presented in this book were truly an inspiration. For those of you unfamiliar with the author, Feynman is a Nobel prize winning theoretical physicist. He was on the Manhattan project at Los Alamos and helped to develop the atomic bomb. He went on to profess physics at Cornell, and contributed meaningfully in several other fields. The stories range from fixing radios as a...
2 tags
Super Crunchers - Steven D. Levitt
An introduction to statistics for the layman. The book begins with some fun statistical findings, which I enjoy. It was reminiscent of Freakonomics (which Levitt co-authored) in that sense. The only thing it adds to it is a verbose explanation of how “super crunching,” a.k.a. statistical analysis, is changing the world by making better predictions than a human expert would. About 10%...
2 tags
Post-College Dating
As a relatively new card carrying member of the “real world” (read: post-college), it has come to my attention that dating is basically not the same at all. In college, dating was easy. I was guaranteed to have several things in common with any girl on campus. At the very least we were both students and we were hanging out in the same place. More likely, we were studying related fields...
December 2008
1 post
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Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good -- Sarah Lacy
This book is essentially about some of the movers and shakers in Web 2.0, focusing particularly on the human fallout from Paypal. Having had the privilege to meet the author of this book in person, let me start by saying that she’s a charming woman who has a bit of a web2.0 personality herself. She’s online at @sarahcuda (twitter), and http://www.sarahlacy.com/. I was favored enough to...
November 2008
2 posts
2 tags
Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein
This is my first exposure to Heinlein, and I must say, I’m impressed. The characters developed throughout are compelling and the dialogue has moments of sheer genius. The intelligence and wit expressed by the author through his characters is fantastic. This is one of few science fiction books that forces you to question the world as it stands. I found a lot of my thoughts mirrored back to...
1 tag
Why McCain Lost.
How does a war veteran, an experienced, moderate, well rounded, and well supported politician lose an election?
That’s a good question. Undoubtedly, Obama is a good candidate. He’s charismatic, he’s making history, and he brings a message of change, which is something this country feels it desperately needs. Still, comparatively, Obama is unproven, has no gubernatorial...
October 2008
2 posts
2 tags
On the Sanctity of Marriage, California's...
The post is prompted by a raging debate happening on facebook, of all places, started by a friend of mine, Sam Purtill. It’s notable mostly for the number of comments it has (83 as of this writing). It also was enlightening to me just how polarizing an issue this is. It’s easy to ignore the people in the world that disagree with you. I think it’s important to have these...
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Craigslist Adventures
Before getting started, this movie captures the hilarity of CL: I Kissed a Girl (Off of Craigslist) Fortunately for you, I actually have a real Craigslist story. This one is about the quest for the perfect roommate. Phil and I had high expectations, but had nowhere to turn. CL was the logical choice. Having been forewarned about the many crazies, I didn’t have high hopes. Nevertheless, I...
September 2008
2 posts
2 tags
Seasoning an Omelette pan
Among my purchases while equipping my new kitchen was a set of standard stainless steel aluminum cored pots (nobody likes teflon anyway). Not included in the set was the ever indispensable omelette pan, so I had to make a separate purchase. This being my first omelette pan, I made a naive decision and bought one that matched the rest of my pots. Stainless steel sticks to things. Things like...
2 tags
Moneyball -- Michael Lewis
This review is not for you if you: a) Like baseball for its intricacies b) Like the Oakland A’s Feel free to stop reading now if you met any of the above criteria. My first experience with this book, buying it, was a bad one. It was among the recommended industry reading, straight from my CEO, so I thought I’d give it a shot. I looked all over the business section and wandered the...
August 2008
3 posts
1 tag
Memories of a college graduate
For those that don’t know, I’ll give you a little of my educational background. I left high school with 32 AP credits (which can be applied toward college credit). When choosing a university, the acceptance rate of those credits toward my degree was among my criteria. It’s expensive to go to school out of state, and minimizing my post-college debt was important to me. At that...
2 tags
The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup...
The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists, is a heartfelt tale about the author’s (Neil Strauss) experiences joining and working his way up the chain of the pickup community. It describes in exquisite detail the boons of mastering this art, but stresses the debilitating effects that this exploitative behavior causes. The book reads like a good soap opera, constant drama...
Blog Motivations
I don’t like personal blogs that are all about a person’s life, what happened that day, who they met, or whatever. Some of my as-yet-nonexistant readers may care about my life that much, and if that’s the case, you’ll have to talk to me to get that stuff out of me. I would rather share things in a more abstract, useful way. My topics will no doubt be numerous and varied....