the michael galpert experience

What does your product do?

Thu, 17 May 2012 02:01:13 -0400

When someone asks you to explain what the product you are working on, dont reply with the why. Just answer their question with a succinct description your product. If you think the one liner is to broad it’s usually best to describe it in the context of something they are already familiar with; the X for Y.

Based on their reaction you can start to explain why your approach is different than the current offering in the market or how it differs from the other people that have failed trying.

I find that many people who pitch their product want to make sure they cover all grounds before just answering the simple question of the what and get defensive and explain the why.

Usually this defensive strategy comes from a point of insecurity with the current version of your product.

NEWS FLASH

You will never be happy with your product.

That doesnt mean your product sucks or that other people wouldnt find the product offering to be amazing.

It’s important to not let your emotional attachment to the future affect your expression of your present day product.

Louis CK's Nuggets of Wisdom

Wed, 16 May 2012 01:48:05 -0400

Louis CK's Nuggets of Wisdom:

Louis CK took to reddit again to promote his new stuff.

I’m a big believer that the greatest comedians are also the smartest individuals because they are able to see the world for what it really is and express that struggle to society in a way that makes them laugh instead of cry.

There were some real nuggets that Louis shared that I really enjoyed so I highlighted and contextualized for prosperity.

on Reddit & The Internet as a whole:

this is my second time here. I just have to much to do to roam around stuff like this. It seems like a great thing. I just can’t do it. I killed my facebook page years ago because time clicking around is just dead time. Your brain isn’t resting and it isn’t doing. I think people have to get their heads around this thing. All this unmitigated input is hurting folks. My opinion.

On how to achieve success:

well I don’t take things personally, I learn from failure and I don’t give up.

On doing his own show:

How fun it is and that I can do it better if I keep doing it.

"Being wildly successful in tech is about anticipating change, and altering the status quo; being the..."

Mon, 14 May 2012 22:35:29 -0400

“Being wildly successful in tech is about anticipating change, and altering the status quo; being the 14th chief executive of a stodgy old major tech company is about extracting as much value as you can from the success it’s already had.”

- Why Tech CEOs Seem Dumb http://www.buzzfeed.com/jwherrman/why-tech-ceos-seem-so-dumb

eight golden rules of interface design via m.e.driscoll: data utopian:

Mon, 14 May 2012 17:12:42 -0400

eight golden rules of interface design via m.e.driscoll: data utopian: :

medriscoll:

As we dedicate an increasing fraction of our time interacting with software — from airport check-in terminals and parking meters, to desktop and mobile applications — digital interface design is becoming as important as physical architecture in improving our experience of the world.

Here are Professor Ben Schneiderman’s Eight Golden rules for optimally designing that experience (drawn from his classic text, Designing the User Interface):

1 Strive for consistency.
Consistent sequences of actions should be required in similar situations; identical terminology should be used in prompts, menus, and help screens; and consistent commands should be employed throughout.

2 Enable frequent users to use shortcuts.
As the frequency of use increases, so do the user’s desires to reduce the number of interactions and to increase the pace of interaction. Abbreviations, function keys, hidden commands, and macro facilities are very helpful to an expert user.

3 Offer informative feedback.
For every operator action, there should be some system feedback. For frequent and minor actions, the response can be modest, while for infrequent and major actions, the response should be more substantial.

4 Design dialog to yield closure.
Sequences of actions should be organized into groups with a beginning, middle, and end. The informative feedback at the completion of a group of actions gives the operators the satisfaction of accomplishment, a sense of relief, the signal to drop contingency plans and options from their minds, and an indication that the way is clear to prepare for the next group of actions.

5 Offer simple error handling.
As much as possible, design the system so the user cannot make a serious error. If an error is made, the system should be able to detect the error and offer simple, comprehensible mechanisms for handling the error.

6 Permit easy reversal of actions.
This feature relieves anxiety, since the user knows that errors can be undone; it thus encourages exploration of unfamiliar options. The units of reversibility may be a single action, a data entry, or a complete group of actions.

7 Support internal locus of control.
Experienced operators strongly desire the sense that they are in charge of the system and that the system responds to their actions. Design the system to make users the initiators of actions rather than the responders.

8 Reduce short-term memory load.
The limitation of human information processing in short-term memory requires that displays be kept simple, multiple page displays be consolidated, window-motion frequency be reduced, and sufficient training time be allotted for codes, mnemonics, and sequences of actions.

Photo

Mon, 14 May 2012 09:56:10 -0400

Working Better Not Longer

Mon, 14 May 2012 08:54:54 -0400

When building something from nothing the the amount of time you spend shouldn’t be the focus, maximizing the quality of output should be.

Some people work better during the day other people work better at night. Some people work better being surrounded by people while others work better in solitude.

It’s very important you know when you are most productive otherwise you end up wasting your time.

You can use these apps to help you become more aware of your productivity:

http://rescuetime.com
http://Idonethis.com

Facetime

Mon, 14 May 2012 01:38:58 -0400

I was chatting with one of my good friends and while we were going back and forth via text I felt that there was too much too discuss and writing out our thoughts was going to take too long so I switched the conversation to video.

He was on gtalk and I was using the messages app on my mac. When he tried initiating the video the machines wouldnt allow us to correspond since we were using different applications. Since the messages app allows you to facetime with others easily who are on their iphones (connected to wifi) I just initiated the call (since I assumed his phone was near him).

Why is there no open protocol for video chat?

Awhile ago Apple said that facetime would be an open standard but I dont think they have given access to other developers just yet.

Its just a reminder of how this whole internet communication thing isnt completely baked yet.

Another question I have is why dont ~~people~~ I video chat more often?

I find it to be a more enjoyable experience than written chat since you can see the other persons facial expressions and hear their intonations.

I guess its harder to multitask while videochating.

Anyways I’ll be making an effort to communicate via videochat more often.

Holler if you want to cybervideo :)

App of the week: Touchbase Calendar If you are the type of...

Sat, 12 May 2012 02:38:00 -0400

App of the week: Touchbase Calendar

If you are the type of person who keeps a calendar I would def check out this app. It hasnt replaced the default calendar app for 2 reasons:

Apple’s ability to change the icon to the current date & it crashes at times making it unreliable.

Today, however, I had an enjoyable experience with the app.

I was running around town for meetings and happened to be running late for one of them so I fired up the Touchbase app and was quickly able to send a text message telling a friend that I was running late.

Simple as that.

I didn’t have to find my friends contact info and write out the text, the app pulled in the # from my address book and populated the sms form with an already written message.

“sorry running 15 minutes late”

Once Siri works properly we will be able to send these kinds of message reliably via voice commands but until then I recommend using this app.

I also like the fact that it has maps integrated with my calendar.

Download: http://touchbasecal.com

"The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it."

Fri, 11 May 2012 18:04:32 -0400

“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.”

- Henry David Thoreau (via themadeshop)

Friends

Thu, 10 May 2012 15:14:49 -0400

We are living in the most connected time in history.

During these times the definition of these connections with other humans we once referred to as friends are blurred.

How I connect to you is not necessarily the same way you connect with me. I may like your witty tweets but loathe your animated gifs you reblog. You may like my photos on instagram but there is no way I’m going to give you access to my Path™.

These connections are meaningful; dont discount them just bc they are based around information, expression, or just good ole dopamine hits.

However the friends that you should seek out and strive to maintain are those that keep you honest and true to yourself.

More and more of the development stack is being built and...

Thu, 10 May 2012 00:42:21 -0400

More and more of the development stack is being built and packaged for developers, making it easier to prototype and build production ready ideas.

The latest addition to this ecosystem is Simperium which takes care of the real time data syncing across multiple platforms. [the video above highlights some use cases]

What happens when everything is, or can be, built to scale, in a matter of months, weeks, hours?

It will definitely open the floodgates with lots of good and bad stuff.

When this happens only the best experiences will survive; allocate resources accordingly.

"We’re releasing this uncomfortably early,” Ljung said. “We’re just not disciplined enough to keep..."

Wed, 09 May 2012 18:36:49 -0400

““We’re releasing this uncomfortably early,” Ljung said. “We’re just not disciplined enough to keep this to ourselves.””

- SoundCloud Hopes Its Slick Redesign Will ‘Unmute the Web’ | Underwire | Wired.com (via david-noel)

"we don’t think of it as Etsy becoming more like the rest of the world, rather the rest of the world..."

Wed, 09 May 2012 12:32:39 -0400

“we don’t think of it as Etsy becoming more like the rest of the world, rather the rest of the world becoming more like Etsy.”

- Notes From Chad: Funding Etsy’s Future | Etsy News

===

Look forward to living in this beautiful world

Motives

Wed, 09 May 2012 01:58:00 -0400

Earlier tonight my good buddy mentioned that he has been appreciating my writing of late but felt weird when he heard ‘the reason’ for my writing.

He heard the reason for my writing was for a bet and therefore joked that he stopped reading and unfollowed me. I was bothered by this sentiment because what he didnt hear was the reason for the bet in the first place.

Last month I suggested to a good friend of mine that she start writing daily and knew that it was going to be hard for her to do because it seems overwhelming. I have wanted to write more frequently myself and so I suggested we compete on who can keep the longest streak. I knew her competitive nature would be motivated to win this be and therefore would be a win win. When another friend heard I was making an effort to write daily and wanted to do the same I offered to make the same bet with him to motivate each other as well. aka win win win :)

I didnt take up writing because I want to win the bet, I’m writing because I want to become a better writer. I’ve found that being accountable to someone else is a great way of tricking yourself to getting stuff done.

We all have our own motivations for doing things, sometimes we may not even understand the motivations ourselves; then why do we care so much about peoples motives?

If you appreciate the other person for their expression why does it matter why they are expressing themselves?

Is it because we feel its tainted in some way, unauthentic, or does it make us second guess our own feelings when our assumptions are proven wrong? It’s probably a little bit of everything.

Anyways, in case you were wondering I fell asleep this sunday while writing a post on tumblrs mobile app (which is in desperate need of an update) and didnt get a chance to publish original content and lost the bet but I did win 2 days prior with my other friend.

I will continue to write daily because… :)

"Tumblr likes to party! This network shows a drastically different pattern of usage from Facebook and..."

Tue, 08 May 2012 15:51:39 -0400

“Tumblr likes to party! This network shows a drastically different pattern of usage from Facebook and Twitter. One should wait until at least 4pm to post. Also postings after 7pm on average receive more clicks over 24 hours than content posted mid-day during the week. Friday evening, a no-man’s land on other platforms, is an optimal time to post on Tumblr.”

- bitly blog: Time Is On Your Side

===

interesting data report published by the folks over at bitly. read full for breakdown of facebook and twitter

Knowing my surroundings

Mon, 07 May 2012 15:41:26 -0400

Yesterday I planned to have a productive day but I didnt account for the pollen count being a 10/12. As a result my sinuses were congested and pressed against my skull and was quite annoying. I become a different person when this occurs.

I have downloaded a couple pollen count apps and will begin taking into account this data in terms of my daily planning.

Today the count is a 9.8 which I knew before bed so I made sure to take claritin as soon as I awoke.

I also rescheduled all meetings because nobody likes interacting with irritable people. I’ve also coordinated my schedule to include less creative projects so as to not waste my time. I’m also limiting my time spent outdoors.

By keeping a log of the stuff I do daily hopefully these optimizations will provide a noticeable difference in terms of my productivity and well being.

paul.bz: Embracing risk

Mon, 07 May 2012 13:29:55 -0400

paul.bz: Embracing risk:

Two things paul learned from his experience -

Praise well-calculated risk (not laziness), especially when it fails.

If someone knows they’ve screwed up, don’t remind them. Instead, spend the energy highlighting what was done right and help them troubleshoot what went wrong.

I went to check out the Keith Haring exhibit today at the...

Sat, 05 May 2012 22:30:09 -0400

I went to check out the Keith Haring exhibit today at the Brooklyn Museum, it was lovely.

One of the things that I most enjoyed about his work was his use of sumi ink. He would hold the paint can in one hand and the brush in another and would just express his message on the canvas in flow and didnt care that the paint dripped. The imperfection is what made the artwork real.

What was also kind of wonderful was that he had 25 different shapes that he would practice with and use in a bunch of his designs. When he practiced those shapes they were more defined but in practice it didn’t seem he minded the imperfection it was all about just getting it done.

"An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail. Scientists made a great invention by..."

Sat, 05 May 2012 02:11:06 -0400

“An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail. Scientists made a great invention by calling their activities hypotheses and experiments. They made it permissible to fail repeatedly until in the end they got the results they wanted. In politics or government, if you made a hypothesis and it didn’t work out, you had your head cut off.”

- Polaroid inventor Edwin Land on embracing failure, among other insights on what it takes to innovate.

Also see Land on the 5,000 steps to success.
(via explore-blog)

Storytelling

Sat, 05 May 2012 00:23:52 -0400

Building a solid product is no longer good enough.

If you cant tell a good enough story to get people using your product they will get distracted with what they are currently used to.

Keep the story simple and tell it early and tell it often.

Two companies that I’ve admired their storytelling abilities of late have been Fab & Path.