tag:blog.michellelaralin.com,2014:/feedMichelle Lin2013-07-31T08:20:00-07:00Michelle Linhttp://blog.michellelaralin.commichelle@michellelaralin.comSvbtle.comtag:blog.michellelaralin.com,2014:Post/like-shit2013-07-31T08:20:00-07:002013-07-31T08:20:00-07:00If you care about your company, stop treating yourself like shit.<p>Startup stories tend to glorify the ramen-eating entrepreneurs who have “no time” to exercise and get no more 4 hours of sleep every night. This sort of glorification runs under the assumption that time spent working is positively correlated to the success of the company…</p>
<p><img src="http://img42.com/L0Qm8+" alt=""></p>
<p>That is B.S.</p>
<p>The reality is closer to this:</p>
<p><img src="http://img42.com/CSeZD+" alt=""></p>
<p>Where productivity is:</p>
<p><img src="http://img42.com/skPiL+" alt=""></p>
<p>The ramen-eating entrepreneurs defend sleep deprivation and poor health with the hackneyed line:</p>
<h1><i>“I have no time.”</i></h1>
<p>This is a shitty excuse.</p>
<p>Yes, you need to spend time to get results for your company. But your productivity is subject to exponential decay over time. The more time you spend continuously working, the more your productivity wanes. </p>
<p><img src="http://img42.com/52oSB+" alt=""></p>
<p>Furthermore, if you’re in poor health and sleep deprived, your productivity will just suck. Period.</p>
<p>So if the sheer awesomeness of being healthy is not enough to convince you to be healthy, then realize this: <b>when you sacrifice your own health, you also sacrifice the health of your company.</b></p>
<hr>
<h1>Take an hour a day to completely unwind</h1>
<p>An hour of Instagram cruising is not a real break. An hour of Tinder swiping is not a real break. Neither is Facebook stalking your ex. Take an hour a day to <strong>fully disconnect</strong>. </p>
<p>Go for a run. Do some yoga. Go biking. Do activities that help ease distractibility, irritability, the tension on your shoulders, and the tension in your mind. Exorcise all that mental clutter. </p>
<h1>Eat well</h1>
<p>Food is meant to energize you, not drain you. If you feel drowsy after you eat, you’re eating the wrong food. If you eat shit, you’ll end up feeling like shit. Crappy food affects your mood more than you could imagine. Cut out as much crap as possible–sugar, gluten, processed foods… etc. Your mind, body, and company will thank you.</p>
<h1>Take care of your mental health</h1>
<p>Understand yourself and be self-aware. If you suffer from mental illness, then you need to take extra precautions to make sure it doesn’t affect your company. </p>
<p>Don’t be afraid of social stigma. A bunch of notable entrepreneurs have all spoken out about their struggles and advice for staying healthy on <a href="http://entrepreneurialdepression.com/">EntrepreneurialDepression.com</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>tl;dr by Evan Williams:</p>
<blockquote>When you don’t sleep, eat crap, don’t exercise, and are living off adrenaline for too long, your performance suffers. Your decisions suffer. Your company suffers.</blockquote>
<p><img src="http://img42.com/b2PyU+" alt=""></p>
tag:blog.michellelaralin.com,2014:Post/share-this-everytime-the-media-reports-something-sensational-and-your-facebook-feed-wont-shut-up-about-it2013-07-13T21:54:00-07:002013-07-13T21:54:00-07:00Every time the media reports something sensational and your Facebook feed won’t shut up...<p>1.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[Media coverage] is itself biased toward novelty and poignancy. The media do not just shape what the public is interested in, but also are shaped by it. Editors cannot ignore the public’s demand that certain topics and viewpoints receive extensive coverage. Unusual events (such as botulism) attract disproportionate attention and are consequently perceived as less unusual than they really are. The world in our heads is not a precise replica of reality; our expectations about the frequency of events are distorted by the prevalence and emotional intensity of the messages to which we are exposed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>2.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>An availability cascade is a self-sustaining chain of events, which may start from media reports of a relatively minor event and lead up to public panic and large-scale government action. On some occasions, a media story about a risk catches the attention of a segment of the public, which becomes aroused and worried. This emotional reaction becomes a story in itself, prompting additional coverage in the media, which in turn produces greater concern and involvement. The cycle is sometimes sped along deliberately by “availability entrepreneurs,” individuals or organizations who work to ensure a continuous flow of worrying news. The danger is increasingly exaggerated as the media compete for attention-grabbing headlines. Scientists and others who try to dampen the increasing fear and revulsion attract little attention, most of it hostile: anyone who claims that the danger is overstated is suspected of association with a “heinous cover-up.” <strong>The issue becomes politically important because it is on everyone’s mind, and the response of the political system is guided by the intensity of public sentiment.</strong> The availability cascade has now reset priorities. Other risks, and other ways that resources could be applied for the public good, all have faded into the background.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– Daniel Kahneman, <em>Thinking, Fast and Slow</em></p>
tag:blog.michellelaralin.com,2014:Post/why-startups-are-like-modern-art2013-05-03T12:28:50-07:002013-05-03T12:28:50-07:00Why Startups Are Like Modern Abstract Art<p>I find a lot of modern art intolerable. Especially abstract art. Back in New York I used to frequent the MoMA and Met, and whenever I walked by an abstract painting, I’d sneer: <br>
<em>“Really? You call this art? A 5 year old kid could have done this.”</em></p>
<p><img src="https://www.filepicker.io/api/file/if5DPsGRQEqhEXzHPDPS" alt=""> <br>
<sub>Josef Albers, <em>Homage to the Square: Soft Spoken</em>, 1969. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.</sub></p>
<p>If I went with a friend, things would get amusing. I’d feign art history expertise and start overanalyzing every Rothko, Pollock, Newman, and Reinhardt piece with a subpar British accent:</p>
<p><em>“The black space that occupies a large part of the canvas represents the uncertainty and acquired synesthesia of visions in moments of frenzied distress. Isn’t it remarkable – the tension that is distilled from the simultaneous decadence and synergy from the canvas? The temporality of human existence is corroded in the violent strokes of paint on the canvas, that are visible when you stand at a 34 degree angle adjacent to the painting while kneeling 4 inches below the lower margin, serving as a dialogue between the viewer and the cacophony of black space that is akin to the existential void that frequents the works of Nietzsche, Kandinsky, and Bachmansteingold.”</em></p>
<p><img src="https://www.filepicker.io/api/file/f0zVIVpTfWETTs5qDA1b" alt=""> <br>
<sub>Ad Reinhardt, <em>Abstract Print</em>, 1966. Museum of Modern Art, New York.</sub></p>
<p>I visited the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) once. There was more brilliant art than I had anticipated, so by the time I reached the room with all the minimal and abstract art, I was exhausted. I sat on the first empty seat I saw.</p>
<p>It happened to be in front of gigantic red Rothko painting. I gave the painting a dismissive glance and started to check my email. It was my passive-aggressive way of insulting abstract art. </p>
<p><img src="https://www.filepicker.io/api/file/Wds5c1mNQES0DRqnoyaF" alt=""> <br>
<sub>Mark Rothko, <em>White Center</em>, 1957. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California.</sub></p>
<p>A lot of people walked by the Rothko. It was amusing to watch. Some of the people did not explicitly comment on the paintings, but you could tell from their furrowed brows that they were thinking the same thing as I was. </p>
<p>Then a mother and child walked into the room. The mother was trying to explain the artwork to the son. The son looked a bit frustrated as well.</p>
<p>They approached the painting and the son wailed, <em>“This is art? I could do that!”</em></p>
<p><em>“Ah!”</em> The mother’s eyes lit up. </p>
<h1>“But you didn’t.”</h1>
<p><img src="https://www.filepicker.io/api/file/OogDdOsSPiGIsPwilzPU" alt=""> <br>
<sub>Jackson Pollock, <em>Untitled</em>, ca. 1948–49. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.</sub></p>
<p>What the mother said hit me hard. She was right. Her son could do it. I could do it. You could do it. My hypothetical future baby could do it. We could all splash some paint over a canvas. We could all slap some bombastic philosophy behind the painting and land a full wall for it in the MoMA. We all could sell it for $75,000,000 at Sotheby’s or Christie’s. We could all make art so hideous that art history students would slave for weeks writing papers about it. But none of us did it. </p>
<p>I laughed about how I could make a fortune by being a lazy abstract expressionist. I laughed at how easy it must be to live my life splashing paint over a canvas. But I hadn’t done it. I had not painted an ugly work of art that had been hung up in a famous museum.</p>
<p>The difference between Rothko and the rest of us? </p>
<p>Rothko did. The rest of us did not.</p>
<p><img src="https://www.filepicker.io/api/file/zR64GM94SGaKIaTfO8tE" alt=""> <br>
<sub>Mark Rothko, No. 13 (White, Red, on Yellow), 1958. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.</sub></p>
<p>So how does this relate to startups? I’ve noticed that a lot of “criticism” directed towards startups wanes to the level of pointless sneering. It’s true, criticism paves the way for improvement. We need criticism to innovate. But when I read tech blogs and online discussions of startups, I feel like I’m hearing the same sort of jeering that goes on in front of a Rothko painting:</p>
<p>(These are all things people have really said.)</p>
<p>“This is a horrible idea and the startup will fail miserably. The founders are delusional and can’t even rap.”*<br>
<br><sub>*RapGenius is doing well, and perhaps the founders can’t rap but with the $15,000,000 they received in funding, I’m sure they can afford to take courses.</sub></p>
<p>“What a lame idea.”</p>
<p>“Isn’t this just like a clone of Tumblr?”</p>
<p>“It’s a really easy idea. Nothing too amazing. Facebook will probably squash it soon.”</p>
<p>“Uh. This has been done before. Check out Treehouse.”</p>
<p>“What a stupid app.”</p>
<p>“I could do that.”</p>
<p>I used to be guilty of the very same thing before I started working on <a href="https://www.quotesome.com">Quotesome</a>. Actually working on a startup has made me realize that even a seemingly <em>easy</em> idea takes extreme devotion and effort to implement. It’s so easy to predict the imminent failure of every new startup. It’s so easy to say that a startup sucks. But the difference between the people who call apps “stupid” and the people who push out these “stupid” apps, is that the latter gets it done.</p>
<p>And to the former group, I can’t help but secretly wonder:</p>
<blockquote class="short">
<p>By the way, what have you done that’s so great? Do you create anything, or just criticize others’ work and belittle their motivations?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– Steve Jobs</p>
<p>I’ve long cut back on this sort of behavior, but yesterday I caught myself mentally dissing <em>Bang With Friends</em>. I found it a stupid, easy app that wasn’t solving a real problem. But then I realized that I was falling into the Rothko trap again. After thinking about it, they were solving a major societal problem: people obviously aren’t getting laid enough. They were also doing society a favor by challenging the ridiculous, outdated taboo that still surrounds a biological instinct as innate as wanting to eat or take a crap. </p>
<p>And sure, it’s an easy app to build. I could totally make something like that. <em>But I didn’t.</em></p>
<p>Seth Godin wrote in his entry, The Critic Stumbles:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>No one has ever built a statue to a critic, it’s true. On the other hand, it’s only the people with statues that get pooped on by birds flying by.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Life is short. Don’t waste your time being that bird who does nothing but poop on statues. It won’t be long until the rain washes all your poop away.</p>