tag:hackertourism.com,2014:/feedHacker Tourism2016-02-02T09:46:29-08:00Pete Fordehttp://hackertourism.comhello@peteforde.comSvbtle.comtag:hackertourism.com,2014:Post/something-only-two-people-know-about-haml2016-02-02T09:46:29-08:002016-02-02T09:46:29-08:00Something only two people know about Haml<p>Did you ever wonder about the origin of the !!! doctype directive that’s at the top of almost every Haml file?</p>
<p>It must have some deep, historically significant meaning that pays tribute to Turing or Minsky, right?</p>
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yaqQYetCH8U"></iframe>
<p>In May of 2006, <a href="http://hamptoncatlin.com/">Hampton</a> and the of the folks at <a href="http://unspace.ca/">Unspace</a> were really into !!!, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVkx1UzFTWc">The Go! Team</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4YdSt6i8ew">Sunset Rubdown</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NabVxqZJuh8">Tapes and Tapes</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKdspWe-KdQ">Clap Your Hands Say Yeah</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPlQpGeTbIE">Junior Senior</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyCjTj0aAQY">Stereolab</a>.</p>
<p>And now at least three people know.</p>
tag:hackertourism.com,2014:Post/hello2016-02-01T11:31:36-08:002016-02-01T11:31:36-08:00Hello<p>Several years ago I went through the laborious task of switching email addresses. This time I really wanted it to stick, because in addition to notifying everyone that I interact with about the change, it takes literally days to manually change the contact details for every web site I use — and that’s with a password manager providing me with a handy checklist. I can’t even imagine trying to make a list of accounts across the web off the top of my head.</p>
<p>I knew that I was going to use my peteforde.com domain, but that left the small question of what my new email address should be.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="mailto:pete@peteforde.com">pete@peteforde.com</a></li>
<li><a href="mailto:me@peteforde.com">me@peteforde.com</a></li>
<li><a href="mailto:info@peteforde.com">info@peteforde.com</a></li>
<li><a href="mailto:hi@peteforde.com">hi@peteforde.com</a></li>
<li><a href="mailto:hello@peteforde.com">hello@peteforde.com</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Believe it or not, I stared at this list so long that I ended up sending an informal survey to about 40 of my friends seeking opinions. I’ve seen them all used, but there’s no convention.</p>
<p><a href="mailto:pete@peteforde.com">pete@peteforde.com</a> was a contender and I see people follow this pattern often, but the repetition really bugged me.</p>
<p>To my eyes, <a href="mailto:info@peteforde.com">info@peteforde.com</a> looks like a general catch-all mailbox, because that’s how business domains do it. You don’t think that you’re going to reach a human.</p>
<p><a href="mailto:me@peteforde.com">me@peteforde.com</a> is just grammatically awkward, and feels oddly self-centred. On the other hand, <a href="mailto:hi@peteforde.com">hi@peteforde.com</a> feels too casual. You know how it’s hard to trust someone that’s a bit too friendly a bit too early?</p>
<p>In the end and after much deliberation, I went with <a href="mailto:hello@peteforde.com">hello@peteforde.com</a> and I’m still glad that I did. I like that it’s friendly, a bit bold and I can have fun saying it out loud — I always say it “Hello!”, as though I am greeting an old friend. I never have to repeat it or spell it over the phone.</p>
<p>It’s worth noting that two of my friends explicitly did not like <a href="mailto:hello@peteforde.com">hello@peteforde.com</a>, I think because they felt it wasn’t professional enough. So far it hasn’t caused me any issues that I’m aware of.</p>
tag:hackertourism.com,2014:Post/never-estimate-the-size-of-someone-elses-job2016-01-08T18:54:42-08:002016-01-08T18:54:42-08:00Never estimate the size of someone else's job<p>I got your note. I’d be happy to try and refer you to someone that can do your small project.</p>
<p>Here are some questions that maybe you could answer first?</p>
<p><strong>What is the budget?</strong></p>
<p>What is the criteria for a successful project execution?<br>
Is this intended to be an HTML5 web and mobile app? A native iOS or Android app? Or something else entirely?<br>
What is the timeline? Is it a one-off or does it require support?<br>
Is this going to be a new project or does it build on earlier work?<br>
Is this the first attempt or has someone else already failed?<br>
Are you soliciting bids / is there an RFP?<br>
Who is the person running the project on your end and what is their background? Are they empowered to make decisions?<br>
Where will the project be deployed?<br>
Are there any legal or technical constraints which must be considered?<br>
Are there any strong opinions about technology choices on the table?<br>
What languages must be supported?<br>
Is there a branding/communication/art/design director involved?<br>
Has any UI/UX prototyping been done?<br>
Is there existing branding which must be considered?</p>
<p>There is a set of answers to these questions which would reaffirm that the project is indeed “small”. However, people usually underestimate something or several things that seem trivial because they don’t understand the complexities that are hidden if everyone does their job well.</p>
<p>Having learned from hard-earned experience, I never vocalize my estimation about project scope until I’ve talked to the people who are going to do the work.</p>
tag:hackertourism.com,2014:Post/pretty-commonplace2015-03-16T12:00:37-07:002015-03-16T12:00:37-07:00Pretty commonplace<p>“It was pretty commonplace.”</p>
<p><a href="https://svbtleusercontent.com/xpyde3ighdusvw.jpg"><img src="https://svbtleusercontent.com/xpyde3ighdusvw_small.jpg" alt="Lived as kings"></a></p>
<p>There’s always a first time that you see a new turn of phrase enter the common vernacular. Remember when Jon Stewart brought “douchebag” back into regular use?</p>
<p>Most of the time it’s much more subtle than that. It could be regional or perhaps it’ll seem like a phrase is taking off but then it doesn’t. The first time I ever heard the term “no homo” was in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJnlPP7jm5s">an awesome Jay Smooth video</a> explaining why we shouldn’t use the term — it’s not funny anymore and it wasn’t funny originally. Noted and check!</p>
<p>Suddenly I started seeing “pretty commonplace” everywhere. It sounded British and therefore a bit exotic and sophisticated. I liked that it seemed to be used in contexts that seemed contrary to the emphasis the speaker appeared to want to convey. Ironic self-deprecation? I was reminded of my lifelong difficulty remembering that to “luck out” was a really good thing.</p>
<p>One day my Facebook newsfeed was dominated with Mark Zuckerberg introducing a hyped new Facebook feature. He said it was pretty commonplace. I felt something like pride? Good for you and your pretty commonplace team, Mark.</p>
<p>Then I read the first big address from Microsoft’s new President. In his note, he used the term “pretty commonplace” no less than three times. He’s younger and arguably cooler than Ballmer, so it makes sense that he might go hard on trendy new slang.</p>
<p>And yet, something didn’t sit well with me. What kind of speech writer would use the same semi-ironic slang term three times in one letter? That’s just tacky.</p>
<hr>
<p>Have you figured it out, yet?</p>
<p>I’d installed and then forgotten about a Chrome plugin called <a href="http://downworthy.snipe.net/">DownWorthy</a>.</p>
<p>DownWorthy changes the wording of UpWorthy-style linkbait titles from “Will Blow Your Mind” to “Might Perhaps Mildly Entertain You For a Moment”. It changes “You Won’t Believe” to “In All Likelihood, You’ll Believe”.</p>
<p>And yes, it changed “amazing” to “pretty commonplace”.</p>
<p>I had a good laugh at myself. All things equal, it was an interesting experience and it was subtle enough that I didn’t notice how I was a gullible frog being slowly boiled in a pot of increasingly less-likely colloquial vernacular.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if the plugin was intended to work on every site or just on Facebook, and I’m not sure that there’s much of a useful lesson to be observed here beyond “be careful what dumb shit you install”.</p>
<p>However, the whole idea that my whole reality was being subtly re-shaped by an over-eager browser extension is something that sociology majors could have a field day with.</p>
tag:hackertourism.com,2014:Post/two-things2014-09-01T13:00:53-07:002014-09-01T13:00:53-07:00Two things I wish someone had told me about starting a consultancy<p>I made lots of mistakes building <a href="http://unspace.ca/">Unspace</a>. Advance warning will not give you immunity, but G.I. Joe taught us that “knowing is half the battle.”</p>
<p><a href="https://svbtleusercontent.com/jqy8akgac3t7ha.jpg"><img src="https://svbtleusercontent.com/jqy8akgac3t7ha_small.jpg" alt="Billable Viking Hours"></a></p>
<ol>
<li>
<p><strong>There is a chasm of sorrow that starts the moment you hire your first employee and lasts until your team is roughly 10 people</strong></p>
<p>How many founding partners do you have? Call that <em>n</em>. Stay <em>n</em> big as long as you possibly can. You will soon look back at this era as simpler times that you wish you could go back to.</p>
<p>If any of your founding partners are not going to stick around, this is precisely when you should figure that out. If you stay <em>n</em>-big for two years, that’s not a bad thing. You’ll figure out what your values are and one day notice that you have a culture.</p>
<p>It’s very rare for a company to suddenly become design-first if there’s no founding design partner. During the early days you might notice that you don’t have a marketing genius or a deal closer. You don’t necessarily need these people to succeed, but if it feels like you do this is when you should recruit that person. A company that wasn’t co-founded by a closer might have a hard time keeping the sales pipeline full. If something isn’t in the founder DNA then it’s unlikely to ever be a significant aspect of the company.</p>
<p>Eventually you will want to make your first hire, and hopefully it’s because they are the smartest person you’ve ever met and you have enough client business that you can’t not hire someone. That’s good, because from this moment on you have hungry mouths to feed. They are your wards and their entire family is now counting on you to keep the gears turning. You will feel a constant state of anxiety from that moment forward.</p>
<p>From <em>n</em> + 1 (your first prodigal hire) to <em>n</em> + 6 you will be in a constant state of resource / income imbalance. You are still billing yourself as a resource because there’s nowhere near enough surplus for you to stop even if you wanted to. You are now responsible for both keeping your deal pipeline full and acting as the de-facto client liaison / team leader. Those projects never end at the same time (or if they do, it’s never a good thing) and you’ll still be juggling support requests for “finished” projects even while you’ll be trying to bring the next clients in.</p>
<p>There will be shortfalls. Your employees must get paid even if you don’t.</p>
<p>Sometimes it’s slowdowns. Expect December to rain havoc upon your cash reserves. You will silently wonder why the phone isn’t ringing while putting on your most positive face for your team.</p>
<p>Sometimes clients change their mind at the last minute. Some even decide to just not pay you, or pay you next year. Or pay you in livestock.</p>
<p>The point is that you will feel sorely overtaxed, as though you are working three jobs (production, team lead, biz dev) and that doesn’t even include all of the networking, recruiting and marketing you’re supposed to be doing. Why do you think so many team blogs are so quiet?</p>
<p>This pain lessens when your company regains its billing equilibrium, usually around 9-11 people. However, this won’t happen before you realize that…</p>
<p><a href="https://svbtleusercontent.com/iiag9el6usgmdq.jpg"><img src="https://svbtleusercontent.com/iiag9el6usgmdq_small.jpg" alt="Lowered Expectations"></a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>You don’t get to do the thing you are supposed to be good at anymore</strong></p>
<p>Tobi is the CEO of Shopify. He’s likely the smartest, most creative developer at Shopify — he was on the original Rails core team, created a half-dozen tools like migrations and Liquid — and he doesn’t get to code anymore. He’s too important as the executive decision maker and holder of the vision.</p>
<p>A company will start to stabilize right around the time that there’s no practical way for the founders to continue to actually work on projects anymore.</p>
<p>Most of us will fight this, tooth and nail. How dare you suggest that I can’t do what I want in my own company? Hell, this is why I started a development company, so I could lead my team on really fascinating projects.</p>
<p>Past a certain point, you’ll be lying to yourself. Your team will increasingly find your half-in, half-out contributions more of a nuisance than an asset. If they respect you, they’ll tell you… and if they don’t tell you, they are afraid of what you’ll do if you hear the truth. Meanwhile, you’re getting rusty and it’s harder to read all of those tech blogs posts like you used to. You’ll be in a permanent state of catch-up.</p>
<p>And if you’re really stupid, like I was, you’ll just work all night and make yourself sick. Please don’t do this. Burnout is not an achievement.</p>
<p>Once you finally accept that your role is to lead the company, everything suddenly gets emotionally easier for everyone involved.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<hr>
<p>I do have a bonus tip:</p>
<p><strong>Always have an exit plan.</strong> Nobody should stick around forever. It will take three years to groom a worthy successor, so get started or your hard work will evaporate if you need to move on. There’s no shame in wanting to try something new, so be honest with yourself and your team about what the next five years is going to look like.</p>
<p>This thing that you’re trying to do? It’s very hard. You’re going to have some of the worst days of your life. When you look back on everything, you will wish you’d handled some things better. It’s just a given.</p>
<p>And someday, you’ll find yourself leaving advice for the next folks up to bat.</p>
tag:hackertourism.com,2014:Post/how-to-tell-your-friend-that-their-startup-idea-sucks2014-05-18T11:28:39-07:002014-05-18T11:28:39-07:00How to tell your friend that their startup idea sucks<p>Someone on Hacker News asked “<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7761946">How do I tell my friend his startup idea sucks</a>” and as it happens, this is something I have a lot of experience with.</p>
<p>Your friend is lucky to have a friend that is willing to tell them the truth; most people are cowards when it comes to saying the most important things until it’s already too late. We’re trained from birth to tell people what we think that they want to hear because it feels good to tell someone that they’re brilliant.</p>
<p>Giving someone the hard truth feels awful. Yet if we only ever tell someone that their idea is great, what do we do when their next idea is actually great? “This one is really really great!” “Last time I was lying but this time it’s actually great!”</p>
<p><strong>A startup is a temporary business structure that exists only to prove or disprove a hypothesis about a market opportunity with the fewest number of steps</strong> (time, money, resources).</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Do you need a friend that will give you honest feedback about your startup? Contact me at <a href="mailto:hello@peteforde.com">hello@peteforde.com</a> to discuss how you can test your market opportunity.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I strongly recommend the book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Difficult-Conversations-Discuss-What-Matters/dp/0143118447">Difficult Conversations</a> to everyone, period. It’s one of the best books on negotiation ever written. It’s hands-on and practical, making giving honest feedback much simpler.</p>
<p>Instead of telling your friend that their idea sucks, you should instead tactfully tell your friend that after consideration you don’t think his idea will survive a customer development process. Then suggest he read <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Four-Steps-Epiphany-Steve-Blank-ebook/dp/B00FLZKNUQ/">The Four Steps to the Epiphany</a> or <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lean-Startup-Innovation-Successful-Businesses-ebook/dp/B004J4XGN6/">The Lean Startup</a> (or paraphrase the important concepts) and urge him to validate his concept before becoming too emotionally invested, lest he invest in a solution in search of a problem.</p>
<p>Dane Maxwell makes a great point about retiring from having ideas in favour of what he calls “idea extraction”.</p>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/a2F-2-I2-5k"></iframe>
<p>Rookie founders are often trying to do WAY too much. Maybe there’s a gem of an idea there that’s good, and it just needs to be simplified to its essence. Almost every concept can be tested before you build it.</p>
<p>Many founders want to build a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-sided_market">two-sided market</a>. It’s near-impossible to execute because it’s actually two businesses at once (usually one B2B and one B2C) that both need to hit critical mass at the exact same time. This is not a trivial feat with startup marketing budgets.</p>
<p>You might ask your friend “why you?” because he might not have any business starting this company. Investors like to see an unfair advantage; wealth, political connections, celebrity status are all examples… but the best is having someone on your team that has deep experience in the domain. Starting a real-estate site and nobody on your team has worked in real-estate? Good luck.</p>
<p>Also in the “why” category is a literal “why are you doing this?” question which many people glaze over. Sometimes people just have a flight of fancy and do things that seem like a good idea without it actually being something that they truly care about. Simon Sinek explains that <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action">people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it</a>.</p>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/qp0HIF3SfI4"></iframe>
<p>Finally, you might want to explain to your friend how an investor evaluates a startup. In order:</p>
<ol>
<li>Market opportunity</li>
<li>Team</li>
<li>Traction</li>
<li>Product</li>
</ol>
<p>Most founders HATE this because they don’t want to hear that product is the least important criteria for a term sheet. Obviously you need a great product; that’s table stakes. Investors have to first be convinced that there is a real market opportunity, and it has to be big enough to matter if the company succeeds (to offset all of their other bad investments). This is why so many pitches lead off with nine figure projections; an idea that considers a few million dollars in profit to be a best-case scenario are not going to be funded with VC money.</p>
<p>Bad pitches start with a focus on the product and promise that the market opportunity is there. Good pitches are all about how you’ve put together a great team to attack a large, demonstrable market opportunity. Great pitches are about great teams with a great opportunity that have demonstrated strong growth.</p>
<p>In the end, products frequently change between pitch and launch, and investors expect this. Very occasionally you can convince an investor that your product vision is so important that it needs to exist even though you have a questionable market opportunity, an unknown team and no sales to date. However, at this point <strong>you’re actually competing with every other startup pitching that investor because no matter how brilliant that they think you and your idea are, they have a fiduciary responsibility to their LPs to make the best investments that they can</strong>. If a VC backs a product they like over a boring product with great traction, team and opportunity, then they are not doing their job properly.</p>
<p>In the end, most startups fail and your friend is awesome for being willing to try anyway. Despite his fancy MBA, if this is his first rodeo he owes it to his future self to be honest about the risks he’s about to take. He might consider spending a year at another startup, learning by osmosis before he makes his move.</p>
<p>And if, in the end, he’s crazy enough to do it anyhow — maybe he demonstrates customer validation, or perhaps he’s just been told that anyone with a dissenting perspective is just a jealous hater who wants you to fail — he should commit to firm definitions of both success and failure for his new venture… and he should stick to them. If he succeeds according to his own metrics, great! Congratulations are in order. <strong>If the day comes when his company has failed to demonstrate growth and his runway isn’t long enough to pivot, then he must give himself permission to fail.</strong></p>
<p>These are all strong opinions, strongly held. Strong opinions are one of the most valuable things someone can offer. My job is often to tell business leaders awkward truths; anyone who suggests you should not “pile on negativity” is not someone you should go to for business advice.</p>
<p>And if you do think that you are smoking your own dope, I invite you to <a href="mailto:hello@peteforde.com">email me</a>. I will help you figure this out.</p>
tag:hackertourism.com,2014:Post/watches2013-12-18T12:30:12-08:002013-12-18T12:30:12-08:00How many watches can one person wear?<p>Forget “eyeballs”. With so many eager Pebble clones on the horizon, could wrist real-estate bottleneck the Internet of Things?</p>
<p><a href="https://svbtleusercontent.com/op5byxl4prp3yq.jpg"><img src="https://svbtleusercontent.com/op5byxl4prp3yq_small.jpg" alt="Synchronize Swatches"></a></p>
<p>At 35 years old, I just barely sneak in at the tail end of Generation X — and most of my friends that are similar in age don’t wear watches.</p>
<p>“Kids” younger than me? They really don’t wear watches. Like… at all.</p>
<p>I didn’t wear a watch for many years, but I grew to really love the design aesthetics of the Nixon Rotolog:</p>
<p><a href="https://svbtleusercontent.com/f49z0wfthbrdea.jpg"><img src="https://svbtleusercontent.com/f49z0wfthbrdea_small.jpg" alt="Nixon Rotolog"></a></p>
<p>Later, I fell hard for the LIP Diode:</p>
<p><a href="https://svbtleusercontent.com/iij3uu4xmvu8kw.jpg"><img src="https://svbtleusercontent.com/iij3uu4xmvu8kw_small.jpg" alt="LIP Diode"></a></p>
<p>Both of these beautiful watches now collect dust because I’m completely dependent upon my Pebble. It’s dorky looking, but it has dramatically improved the quality of my life in a very simple way: my phone no longer rings or vibrates, ever.</p>
<p>There are two dramatic ramifications of this, both of which massively over-shadow any particular “feature”.</p>
<p>First, when I’m meeting with someone and my job is to give them my full attention, it’s incredibly rude and distracting to pull my phone out of my pocket. And yet the feeling of vibration cannot be ignored. What if it’s an emergency? The Pebble has given me the ability to make sure the house isn’t on fire while giving me so many opportunities to stretch my arms without breaking the flow of conversation.</p>
<p>Second, I’ve never had a phone that vibrated strongly enough to be felt when I was walking or biking. It seems like there’s a cruelty in the universe, such that all received messages are trivial and all missed messages are vital.</p>
<p>It’s fair to say that I’m a Pebble fan, but it’s not clear why I’d ever need to upgrade before this one wears out. I’m a geek, so the idea of <a href="https://blog.getpebble.com/2013/12/18/the-pebble-appstore-coming-soon/">watch face apps</a> and the Internet of Things is seriously cool to me. And yet, the most important benefit the Pebble gives me is that I know what’s happening without having to touch it.</p>
<p>I honestly don’t know how many non-geeks are going to rush out to buy 80’s-looking, chunky smart watches, given that they don’t wear watches now and if they do, it’s for aesthetics. I’m sure I’m not the only person with the “don’t distract me, but don’t let me miss anything either” problem, but do <em>most</em> people have this? Based on what proof?</p>
<p>There are literally dozens of smart watches coming to compete with Pebble, ranging from no-name Russian Kickstarter projects to potentially Apple.</p>
<p>I think we’re going to look back on this era and wonder what the hell they were thinking.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hotsmartwatch/hot-watch-complete-smart-watch-w-revolutionary-pri-0">Hot Watch</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/a-i-watch-smartwatch-the-new-intelligence-life-is-here">AI Watch</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.t3.com/reviews/samsung-galaxy-gear-review">Samsung Galaxy Gear</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.techradar.com/news/portable-devices/apple-iwatch-release-date-news-and-rumours-1131043">Apple iWatch</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.sonymobile.com/us/products/accessories/smartwatch/">Sony Smart Watch</a></p>
<p><a href="http://reviews.cnet.com/watches-and-wrist-devices/wimm-one/4505-3512_7-35332545.html">Wimm One</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.engadget.com/products/metawatch/strata/">Meta Watch</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.cookoowatch.com/">Cookoo Watch</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.engadget.com/products/motorola/motoactv/">Motoactv</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.imsmart.com/en">I’m Smart</a></p>
<p>I made this list in under two minutes.</p>
<p>They’re going to need a lot more wrists.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, I’m saving my right hand <a href="http://www.wired.com/design/2013/10/an-ingenious-wristband-that-keeps-your-body-at-the-perfect-temperature-no-ac-required/">for science</a>.</p>
tag:hackertourism.com,2014:Post/gun-bag2013-12-15T15:00:24-08:002013-12-15T15:00:24-08:00Gun bag: good art makes us uncomfortable<p>Last year, I bought my ex a purse that could get her killed.</p>
<p><a href="https://svbtleusercontent.com/epoicnf1meywma.jpg"><img src="https://svbtleusercontent.com/epoicnf1meywma_small.jpg" alt="Guardian Angel, by Vlieger & Vandam"></a></p>
<p>She’d seen <a href="http://www.vliegervandam.com/women/bags/guardian-angel-classic-l-deluxe-dark-blue-black.html">Vlieger & Vandam’s “Guardian Angel”</a> bag <a href="http://www.vliegervandam.com/about-vlieger-vandam">at MoMA</a>, and finding the one she wanted to surprise her with became a quest. She was a design expert living in Netherlands, and I don’t know anything about handbags but I was happy to be with someone quirky enough to appreciate such a polarizing accessory.</p>
<p>As soon as we had it in hand, I started to get nervous. The bag was in the US and we live in Canada. I was afraid that shipping it would result in customs cutting into it like morons, so we planned to bring it home from a wedding. That’s when we saw the warning tag attached to the bag with a little chain:</p>
<blockquote class="short">
<p>To avoid any problems don’t take your Guardian Angel bag on a plane as hand luggage or to a bank to get cash</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Jesus Christ: we’re trapped in the most paranoid country on earth with what is essentially a fake weapon to a really dumb person.</p>
<p>Sure, we can check it in a suitcase, but what if it comes up on the x-ray and we’re not there to explain? I emailed the designers of the bag in a panic:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>X-Ray will not be a problem, since there is no iron or other material than foam in the gun form. Customs will ask for what use the bag is and what material it is made of. We then indicate it is a leather bag for personal use, tariff code 42022100.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Before heading to the airport, we went to the bank. We were taking money out of the ATM when I suddenly realized that it’d literally taken us less than a day to walk into a bank with a very realistic looking not-gun, proudly displayed for all to see.</p>
<p>There was a security guard ten feet away, and this felt like the longest cash withdraw in history. The guard never looked at us, but my heart was pounding in my ears. I started sweating profusely.</p>
<p>We made it back to Toronto just fine, and to the best of my knowledge all of my concern hasn’t translated to real problems. However, I did get an email:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Hey so I got a weird look from a car passing by and realized my bag was facing gun up on my passages seat, it totally looked like I had a black hand gun sitting beside me. Haha wow I really have to be carful </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Haha, indeed: no more handbags for you!</p>
<hr>
<p>I’ve thought a lot about the bag since. Originally I saw it as a clever piece of fashion that has been deemed “art” by the experts, which to this INTP gives it a lot more cred than something that’s expensive just because it’s got the right brand attached.</p>
<p>I’ve since realized that the reason that the Guardian Angel is art is not because it’s stylishly designed. It’s art because it forces the owner to remain mindful and aware of the fact that they are carrying something that could seriously upset people nearby. It’s art because it cannot be ignored… because it is uncomfortable.</p>
<p>An expensive bag that actually makes the owner less comfortable than if they didn’t have any bag at all is a potent satirical statement on the compromises we make between style and comfort.</p>
<p>And let’s throw this one out there: the owner of this bag is an attractive, well-dressed straight white woman. You can’t evaluate your relative risk in carrying such a thing without considering how a police officer might choose to evaluate <em>you</em>.</p>
<hr>
<p>I love to debate this blog post, <a href="http://flippingpencils.typepad.com/blog/2008/02/good-art-makes.html">“Good art makes you uncomfortable”</a> with my friends. Go ahead and read it, then come back. I’ll wait.</p>
<p>The key insight is that you cannot simply walk past art that makes you uncomfortable; it demands to be observed and contemplated.</p>
<p>This is not about the talent of the artist or the beauty of the work; nor is it about art that is over-the-top gross, pointlessly gory or just lacking in good taste. It’s not a statement on what constitutes art.</p>
<p>Art that makes you comfortable gradually becomes invisible. It doesn’t challenge you. It is a decoration.</p>
<p>Art can be beautiful and uncomfortable at the same time.</p>
<p>For me, this is why high-concept, abstract or seemingly minimalist art completely makes sense to me: it sends away many onlookers in a state of confusion, angry that good money was paid for a red dot.</p>
<p><a href="https://svbtleusercontent.com/5qlfytkkyh61g.jpg"><img src="https://svbtleusercontent.com/5qlfytkkyh61g_small.jpg" alt="Ellsworth Kelly, Red and Blue, 1951, MoMA"></a></p>
<p>Angry that something they or anyone else could do, except that red dot is in the MoMA.</p>
<p>Angry that it’s the red dot that they are still thinking about, weeks later.</p>
<p><a href="https://svbtleusercontent.com/vuzscpxsz2qfg.jpg"><img src="https://svbtleusercontent.com/vuzscpxsz2qfg_small.jpg" alt="Modern Art"></a></p>
<hr>
<p>Earlier this year I weighed in on a debate about <a href="http://hackertourism.com/is-the-worst-better-than-the-best">flatware</a>.</p>
<p>Dustin Curtis carefully researched <a href="http://dcurt.is/the-best">his ideal knife, fork and spoon</a> before purchasing a set of Yanagi flatware from MoMA’s shop. White Dreads <a href="http://www.thoughtcrime.org/blog/the-worst/">took issue</a> with rich hacker kids in SF talking about buying $55 forks with a straight face.</p>
<p>I haven’t changed my position on the debate; Dustin should be able to spend his money on whatever makes him happy, so long as it doesn’t hurt anyone. And if he blogs about buying Samurai spoons, he’s probably going to take heat from people like White Dreads.</p>
<p>However, in light of our adventures with the fucking gun bag, I can’t help but see the Yanagi flatware as a statement on class politics. It’s the relationship between the poor artist that quietly mocks their rich patron, who lust after shiny new objects which promise to give their lives deeper meaning.</p>
<p>Do you have what it takes to carry a handbag that might get you shot?</p>
<p>Subversive politics and excellent mouth-feel, together at last.</p>
tag:hackertourism.com,2014:Post/highly-sensitive-introverts2013-11-21T13:00:34-08:002013-11-21T13:00:34-08:00Introverts: you probably aren't crazy (but you might be highly sensitive)<p>Susan Cain’s “Quiet” educated people about the introvert’s social interaction patterns, specifically our need to balance social time with time alone to recharge. While accurate, this is a narrow perspective that ignores the role of what Dr. Elaine N. Aron <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQLBnUBKggY">describes</a> as the “highly sensitive person”.</p>
<p>Paraphrasing from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highly_sensitive_person">Wikipedia</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A highly sensitive person (HSP) is a person having the innate trait of high sensory processing sensitivity. HSPs comprise about a fifth of the population (equal numbers in men and women) and may process sensory data much more deeply and thoroughly due to a biological difference in their nervous systems. This is a specific trait, with key consequences for how we view people, that in the past has often been confused with innate shyness, social anxiety problems, inhibitedness, social phobia and innate fearfulness, and introversion. Although the term is primarily used to describe humans, something similar to the trait is present in over 100 other species.</p>
<p>The attributes of HSPs can be remembered as DOES:</p>
<ul>
<li>Depth of processing</li>
<li>Over aroused (easily compared to others)</li>
<li>Emotional reactivity and high empathy</li>
<li>Sensitivity to subtle stimuli</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://svbtleusercontent.com/9ayxofbdbrqq.jpg"><img src="https://svbtleusercontent.com/9ayxofbdbrqq_small.jpg" alt="Stuart Smalley"></a></p>
<h1 id="aesthetic-sensitivity-low-sensory-threshold-a_1">Aesthetic Sensitivity, Low Sensory Threshold, and Ease of Excitation <a class="head_anchor" href="#aesthetic-sensitivity-low-sensory-threshold-a_1">#</a>
</h1>
<p>Or in my case: <em>YES</em>, <strong>YES</strong> and <strong><em>YES</em></strong>.</p>
<p>A fortuitous conversation with a woman named Ginger at <a href="http://xoxofest.com/">#xoxo</a> in Portland opened my eyes to the bigger picture. See, while <a href="http://hackertourism.com/leave-an-introvert-alone">I’ve always been pretty outspoken about about my introvert status</a>, it wasn’t until I started reading about HSPs that a lot of frustrating things in my life seemed to fall right into place: <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/3019758/dialed/offices-for-all-why-open-office-layouts-are-bad-for-employees-bosses-and-productivity">my (relative) inability to be productive around other people</a>, the complex furor I feel when people invade my space at concerts or talk loudly while following me on the street, how laughably easy it is to startle me.</p>
<p>No, really: you can make me jump if you’re standing beside me, don’t talk for a while and then start talking again.</p>
<h1 id="test-yo39self_1">Test yo'self <a class="head_anchor" href="#test-yo39self_1">#</a>
</h1>
<p>Here’s my adaptation of the <a href="http://www.hsperson.com/pages/test.htm">short HSP test</a>. I’ve tweaked and/or removed a few of the questions from the original because they seem redundant or unclear. Just think about how each statement makes you feel, and unless your brain says YES then you’re probably a NO for that question. We’ll discuss your score below.</p>
<ul>
<li>I am easily overwhelmed by strong sensory input</li>
<li>I seem to be aware of subtleties in my environment</li>
<li>Other people’s moods affect me</li>
<li>I tend to be very sensitive to pain</li>
<li>I find myself needing to withdraw during busy days; into bed or into a darkened room or any place where I can have some privacy and relief from stimulation</li>
<li>I am particularly sensitive to the effects of caffeine</li>
<li>I am easily overwhelmed by things like bright lights, strong smells, coarse fabrics, or sirens close by</li>
<li>I have a rich, complex inner life</li>
<li>I am made uncomfortable by loud noises</li>
<li>I am deeply moved emotionally by the arts or music</li>
<li>My nervous system sometimes feels so frazzled that I just have to stay home</li>
<li>I am <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscientiousness">conscientious</a>
</li>
<li>I startle easily</li>
<li>I get rattled when I have a lot to do in a short amount of time</li>
<li>When people are uncomfortable in a physical environment I tend to know what needs to be done to make it more comfortable (like changing the lighting or the seating)</li>
<li>I am annoyed when people try to get me to juggle too many tasks at once</li>
<li>I try hard to avoid making mistakes or forgetting things</li>
<li>I make a point to avoid violent movies and TV shows</li>
<li>I become unpleasantly sensitive when a lot is going on around me</li>
<li>Being very hungry creates a strong reaction in me, disrupting my concentration or mood</li>
<li>Changes in my life shake me up</li>
<li>I notice and enjoy beautiful things others walk past</li>
<li>I find it unpleasant to have a lot going on in my life at once</li>
<li>I make it a high priority to arrange my life to avoid upsetting or overwhelming situations</li>
<li>I am bothered by intense stimuli such as strobing or bright lights at concerts, perfumes, having something sticky on your face</li>
<li>When I must compete or be observed while performing a task, I become so nervous or shaky that I do much worse than I would otherwise</li>
<li>When I was a child, my parents or teachers seemed to see me as sensitive or shy</li>
</ul>
<p>Did you agree with 14 or more of these statements? Congratulations, you might be an HSP.</p>
<h1 id="treat-yo39self_1">Treat yo'self <a class="head_anchor" href="#treat-yo39self_1">#</a>
</h1>
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/-K4if6QkDbo"></iframe>
<h1 id="conclusion_1">Conclusion <a class="head_anchor" href="#conclusion_1">#</a>
</h1>
<p>I’m excited to know that the things I experience don’t make me a freak, but the reality is that they can still make me very annoying if I’m not careful.</p>
<p>Ultimately this is all just theory and it’s not like I can explain to strangers why their probably-normal-to-them behaviour is driving me into a panic attack without sounding like I’m mad. My nervous system is wired in a unique way, but I can’t use that as a crutch to excuse my occasional rudeness, terse conversational manner or outrageous demands on the people I share space with. <strong>Sometimes I’m just being an asshole.</strong> It’s usually because I haven’t eaten lunch yet, and I’m grumpy. I can’t blame genetics for being a dumb ass.</p>
<p>That all said, thinking about my HSP tendencies has given me a new empathy for people who are struggling — especially because it’s likely that they don’t understand why they’re having troubles not shared by their friends.</p>
<p>Like mental health, I hope people talk more about this. It’s not restricted to introverts, either; apparently 30% of HSPs are extroverts. Hopefully the terms and test I’ve presented here give you new tools to understand yourself and the people you share your life with a bit better.</p>
tag:hackertourism.com,2014:Post/value-pricing-is-easy2013-06-26T13:30:08-07:002013-06-26T13:30:08-07:00Value pricing is easy<p>I used to be a dyed-in-the-wool true believer in “time and materials” hourly billing. I’ve now come full circle, and you should too.</p>
<p><a href="https://svbtleusercontent.com/peteforde_24700924848618.jpg"><img src="https://svbtleusercontent.com/peteforde_24700924848618_small.jpg" alt="The Price is Right"></a></p>
<p>You already have an hourly rate, so take that number and multiply it by your best estimate of the number of hours it will take to do the work.</p>
<blockquote class="short">
<p>$150/hour x 100 hours = $15,000</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Now, take that number and double it. Then round up to the nearest 4, in thousands.</p>
<blockquote class="short">
<p>($15,000 x 2) + $4000 = $34,000</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That’s it; you’re done. That’s what the project will cost.</p>
<p>Everyone is happier.</p>
<hr>
<p>My rationale in support of time and materials was reasonable: estimates are guesses and in a fixed price project, one party always wins and one party always loses. It’s usually the vendor that ends up taking a bath. If you do great work for your client on an hourly basis, they will happily to ask you to do more.</p>
<p>On paper, this sounds great and sometimes this is exactly what happened. Unfortunately, there were many other less fun situations where, due to miscommunication and mismatched expectations, the original scope would be blown out and “going back to the mountain” to inform the client that they’re going to spend more money was horrible for everyone.</p>
<p>My battle experience made me feel very confident that I really knew it all, which made reading <a href="http://www.winwithoutpitching.com/">The Win Without Pitching Manifesto</a> even more jarring. A <a href="http://pauldowman.com/">smart friend</a> recommended it, and I decided to skim the first chapter out of respect for his opinion. Three hours later I had finished the whole book in one go; standing in the same spot, vibrating with excitement. Few books can truly turn your entire professional outlook on end, and this was one of them.</p>
<p>Amazingly, you can read the entire book free, <a href="http://www.winwithoutpitching.com/the-manifesto/">here</a>.</p>
<p>I’ll wait.</p>
<hr>
<p>Let’s say that you have an opportunity to work on an exciting project with a new client. You bill $150/hour and you want to work up some concepts to start things off, but all the client hears is “expensive and unknowable”. They can only make guesses about how reliable you are, and what kind of value they get for their money. If you can’t make good estimates, how can they? This relationship starts with fear.</p>
<p>So you come back and say that you want to spend 100 hours doing these concepts, for “about $15000”. Now they are going to get scared that they have to spend $15k (or more! it’s usually more!) before even finding out what the true scope of the real project looks like. Worst case scenario: their kids don’t need to go to college.</p>
<p>This is usually when the client browbeats the vendor to come to the table with a detailed proposal, and they want to know what the overall budget is going to look like, even though you haven’t defined the project. The only way to come up with this budget is to do enough of the (unpaid and unappreciated) ideation work so that you can ballpark a timeline. Because you rush the planning, the budget and timeline is never accurate.</p>
<p>All of the risk has now been assumed by the vendor and the power will be held by the client, who doesn’t know they are ruining your life. This was my story; I kept doing it and expecting a different result each time.</p>
<h1 id="or-it-could-go-down-like-this_1">Or, it could go down like this: <a class="head_anchor" href="#or-it-could-go-down-like-this_1">#</a>
</h1><blockquote>
<p>Dear Bob,</p>
<p>Our team has discussed the project and we are excited, with ideas already surfacing. It’s a green light on our end.</p>
<p>The way I see this working is three distinct steps for a Phase One discovery engagement:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>A kick-off meeting with 2-3 of your team leaders to ideate and transfer domain knowledge while establishing a friendly relationship. We suggest going off-site to a local hotel to reduce distractions.</p></li>
<li><p>We will design 2 or 3 interface concepts. You will direct us to either channel our creative energy into 3 outlines with less detail, or 2 prototypes that are more fully realized. We might have a better idea of which direction to choose after the kick-off meeting.</p></li>
<li><p>Demo day! We would present our concepts to the stakeholders without ego or preference. Feedback can be gathered in a way that allows us to incorporate ideas into the design.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Start to finish, this process would take 3-5 weeks and cost $34,000. We are available for the kick-off meeting on or after July 15th.</p>
<p>Once your team has chosen a design direction, we’ll be able to assess the scope of the finished product and we can discuss Phase Two.</p>
<p>Let me know if you have any questions. Can we set a time to discuss this tomorrow? I am free at 10am and 2pm.</p>
<p>All the best, </p>
<p>Pete</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The target hourly is still $150 and I still think it will take 100 hours to come up with some great concepts. However, the cost will be $34,000 and we’re in control of the relationship.</p>
<p>In doing this, I have done the client a huge service: <strong>I’ve given them a reasonable sounding round number that assigns a price to something that is utterly unknowable to them.</strong> I give them a realistic schedule for completion, while giving my team the ability to decide how long they need to do an excellent job without the client counting hours.</p>
<p>I repeat: value pricing gives your client the ability to make a purchasing decision based on <em>knowable</em> values for time, quality and money. Any investment in technology that doesn’t return 5X is a charity, so presumably you wouldn’t even be having the conversation if they didn’t think the end result will make them a million dollars or more. In the end, there’s no real difference between $15,000 and $34,000 to a good client; someone you actually want to do your best work for.</p>
<p>It’s not the hourly rate that stresses out a client, but the unknowable and terrifying risk that the project they initiated will fail and they will be humiliated to their family, friends and co-workers. Imagine the stress of taking your car to the mechanic and having them come back with a long list of questionable repairs that you don’t know enough about to dispute. You’re not an expert, and it’s embarrassing to admit that you have no choice but to trust them.</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs">Maslow’s hierarchy of needs</a> suggests that people are terrified of losing their jobs and/or being humiliated. You know that saying, “nobody ever got fired for buying IBM”? That’s what this is about. The only reason enterprise support contracts exist is that they are ass-covering insurance so that there’s someone for the Board of Directors to blame when things go wrong.</p>
<p>Given the two scenarios I present for the same client relationship above, the client and vendor will both be happier with the value priced engagement every time:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Your team gets paid and appreciated for the concept work required</p></li>
<li><p>Your estimates are likely closer at 2X than they were at 1X</p></li>
<li><p>Your client doesn’t care how hard you worked to get it done</p></li>
<li><p>It’s nice to decide that you want to put more time into a project, and not have to weigh every idea so heavily against the clock</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Rounding up to the next 4 in thousands is just a hunch that I borrowed from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Business-Essentials/dp/006124189X/">Robert Cialdini</a>. I think it looks non-threatening and is less than 5, which is more likely to be a spending cliff.</p>
<p>If you don’t think the client can manage $34,000 instead of $15,000 then you should break down the scope of the project into multiple smaller projects.</p>
<p>Remember: you are the expert. They came to you because they want <a href="http://usistwo.com">someone to solve all of their problems</a>. The best way you can help any client is to remove complexity and unknowns from the equation so that they can focus on doing what they do.</p>
<p>They’ll love you for it.</p>
<hr>
<p>This essay was inspired by a conversation I had with <a href="http://twitter.com/jelleprins/">Jelle Prins</a> about women.</p>
<p>If you enjoyed this, <a href="http://twitter.com/peteforde/">follow me on Twitter</a>.</p>
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