gary's blog

“When I look at Kickstarter, I see small businesses that have been funded by their customers. I see the acceleration of this shift away from the industrial manufacturing ideology to more of a maker economy. And I also see an idea so powerful that the company name has become a verb.”

“Millennials are increasingly viewing life through a game lens, even just [using] #winning or #fail. Game vernacular has become a part of youth vernacular. By putting that competitive layer on top of it — a lot of people are inherently competitive, so if the path to winning is being informed, there could be a really great civic benefit.”

“If someone doesn’t value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide to prove that they should value it? If someone doesn’t value logic, what logical argument are you going to provide to show the importance of logic?”

“Brace yourself for the initial angry wave of criticism: how dare you, I hate it, it’s ugly, you’re stupid. The Internet runs on knee-jerk reactions. People will test your work against their pet theories: It is not free, and thus has no value; it lacks community features; I can’t believe you don’t use dotcaps, lampsheets, or pixel scrims; it is not written in Rusp or Erskell; my cat is displeased. The ultimate question lurks beneath these curses: why wasn’t I consulted? You take the criticism into consideration no matter how much vitriol wraps it, file away bug reports where appropriate, reply politely if it’s worth it, and shrug. Then wait a few days. Now comes the more significant feedback—possibly praise, and, if you are lucky, not opinions but problems—things that you can think about and fix. Some people are trusting and friendly; others swear and append “I AM VERY UNHAPPY” to their emails in misdirected righteousness. Again, you must shrug. People are used to complaining to faceless organizations that don’t respect them, and often assume an offensive posture, expecting that a display of anger will gain your attention. They don’t understand that you are the team in I. The only option is politeness—remember always that you are dealing with other primates.”

“The success rate of a first-time venture-backed entrepreneur is about 18%. If that entrepreneur fails and tries again with another company, their success rate only improves to 20%. Not much. BUT, if that entrepreneur succeeds in their first company, their success rate for their second venture goes up to 30% — over a 65% improvement in expected outcome.”