Andrew Pay

Scraps collected from around the web, with a dash of my own musings

[andrewpay]

It's stories like this that make you want to become a better storyteller. Not only is Jobs right, but I love the way Tomas has told it. Read Quote of Tomas Higbey's answer to Steve Jobs: What are the best stories about people randomly meeting Steve Jobs? on Quora

[andrewpay]

But my mother used to tell me, ‘failure is not the opposite of success, it's a stepping stone to success.’ So at some point, I learned not to dread failure. I strongly believe that we are not put on this Earth just to accumulate victories and trophies and avoid failures; but rather to be whittled and sandpapered down until what’s left is who we truly are.

Arianna Huffington

FastCompany: 11 Famous Entrepeneurs Share How They Overcame Their Biggest Failure

[andrewpay]

Currently working my way through Harvard's Introduction to Computer Science, CS50. This is how online learning should work. David Malan has created an incredibly engaging course.

I'm taking it through EdX. Well worth a look.

[andrewpay]

The vision was that some day someone should try and help connect everyone in the world.

Mark Zuckerberg, Mobile World Congress 2014 keynote. He sees WhatsApp as a way of connecting "one, two, three billion more people". 

"The thing I think a lot of people miss is more than 80 percent of people in the world actually already live in an area where there’s 2G or 3G access."

[andrewpay]

[andrewpay]

Rock stars courted for curling reality show | Toronto Star

Move over American Idol and make room for Rockstar Curling, a reality television show that may indeed have a rock-star connection.

Disappointed this didn't get picked up - I would definitely have watched a curling-based reality TV show!

[andrewpay]

I think crowdfunding is going to be 15 percent of commerce on the web in five years — it’s going to be so massive. But the only way to really rip the lid off this thing it to provide accessible tools.

Crowdtilt CEO James Beshara

Crowdtilt launches free, open source crowdfunding solution — and it supports Bitcoin

[andrewpay]

In an age of pomp and circumstance around all things startups, the team behind WhatsApp was all about keeping their heads down, focusing on product, and avoiding bullshit at all costs.

MG Seigler telling things in his typical straight fashion.

The Focus On and Of WhatsApp

[andrewpay]

FAIL FAIL WIN: NEVER GIVE UP

[andrewpay]

Wow. Incredible how quickly this one wrapped up. "Let's connect the world together" - a pitch straight from the Steve Jobs playbook.

The Inside Story Of How Facebook Bought WhatsApp For $19 Billion

[andrewpay]

How far can technology replace judges in subjective sports?

This CBC video considers technology's application for snowboarding. It suggests wireless technology, reading things such as height, airtime and rotation, would be able to objectively decide who had the best runs. Can a machine understand grabs, or the cleanliness of a landing?

Maybe its too soon for this, but I look forward to the use of more data to give the viewer a better experience. Last year's America Cup set a high bar with their innovative coverage, I hope to see more when the Olympics move on to Rio!

[andrewpay]

Before Windows 8 and Metro came along, power users and casual users - the content creators and the content consumers - had to share the same space. It was like a rented tuxedo coat - something that somewhat fit a wide variety of people. It wasn't tailored, because any aggressive tailoring would make it fit one person great, but would have others pulling at the buttons.

Our hands were bound, and our users were annoyed with their rented jackets. So what did we do? We separated the users into two groups. Casual and Power. We made two separate playgrounds for them. All the casual users would have their own new and shiny place to look at pictures of cats - Metro. The power users would then have free reign over their native domain - the desktop.

A UX designer for Microsoft has taken to Reddit to attempt to justify the split personality of Windows 8, with its split Metro/desktop modes. The answer is to cater for different users – the casual user, and the power user.

This just about makes sense, until you start to probe it further. If we are creating ‘separate playgrounds’, how do power users access Metro apps? If your ‘computer illiterate little sister’ gets catapulted into the desktop to use Word, then you’ve failed. Way too many people had to suffer the jarring crossover between Metro and the desktop. Microsoft have done a great job cleaning things up in Windows 8.1, and their plans for Windows 9 (with Metro apps in desktop mode) look promising.

If this was the plan, why couldn’t Microsoft be more open with it? Power users are going to be your early adopters, and shout loudest if things don’t work. Maybe Microsoft could have focused some of their $1.5bn marketing budget engaging with those power users.

[andrewpay]

I think it’s pretty well documented that we were not very good at mobile — terrible, in fact. … We had to learn, [and we were] definitely under the microscope. What we learned to do is start with the [mobile] platform and make the best possible application for it and to the extent that the web has things that are useful to bring them over — but don’t start from the web and try to bring them over. Start from mobile, and take what’s good from the web.

Jocelyn Goldfein, engineering director at Facebook

VentureBeat: Facebook Home isn’t dead yet & more surprises from engineering director Jocelyn Goldfein

[andrewpay]

My motivation in all of my companies is to be involved in something that I thought would have a significant impact. When I was in college, there were three areas that I thought would most affect the world: One was the internet, the other was sustainable energy—both production and consumption—and the third one was space exploration, particularly making life interplanetary. As things have turned out, I have been able to be involved in all three.

Elon Musk on his life goals (as stated in numerous places, such as at D11 - this formulation is from his 2011 chat with Charlie Rose)

With a lot of chat about a meeting between Musk and a senior Apple executive generating articles on an Apple/Tesla tie-up, it is useful to go back to this idea of impact. 

Steve Jobs was an inspiration to many for the impact he had on the lives of millions - but would taking the top role at Apple now (or in the future) allow Musk to do the same?

Whilst there are undoubtedly exciting things Apple could get involved in over the next decade or so, the possibility of 'making life interplanetary' is in a totally different league.

It's not surprising Tesla and Apple might want to have a chat. One is talent. Musk subsequently hired Apple VP Doug Field. As Techcrunch notes, Tesla's VP of Sales & Ownership George Blankenship is another Apple veteran. Another is battery technology. Tesla's expertise in the area could help power a new generation of iDevices. A third is in car entertainment, although Elon may have settled on Android. 

[andrewpay]

Supporting athletes

Every session of these Sochi Winter Olympics are providing us with endless entertainment, watching the best in the world have their moment in the sun. Athletes suddenly find themselves centre stage for a fortnight every four years, before returning to their day-to-day graft. For all athletes, this will involve committing yourself to training. For some, however, they also have to fight financially to continue to live their dreams.

Crowdfunding can provide part of the answer. Sites such as MakeAChamp and RallyMe give users the opportunity to contribute to their favoured athlete or cause. The Jamaican Blobsled team (immortalised in the 1993 Disney film Cool Runnings) raised over $125,000 from another crowdsourcing website, CrowdTilt.

But athletes can also provide knowledge and inspiration, and it's great to see athletes providing this. I was gripped by Great Britain's Zoe Gillings' efforts in the Women's Snowboard Cross - just missing out on a place in the final. But what was even more impressive was her story to get to the Sochi Games, including founding two online businesses. Her second is ExpertHealth.me, described as a 'health/lifestyle' website, providing nutrition and exercise plans. 

I'd love to see this idea expanded - see a full range of current, future and former athletes offering a range of products -  coaching, advice, motivational talks.

This must exist somewhere, surely? The same kind of model would work for aspiring musicians, offering music lessons and personalised songs. Get in touch if you know of anything like it.

[andrewpay]

René Meulensteen is a seriously unfortunate manager.

He lasted only two matches as manager of Anzhi Makhachkala at the start of the season, and has now been sacked after 17 games in charge of Fulham. I can't think of a job more perilous than that of a top-flight football manager.

[andrewpay]

Helen Glover (left) won Olympic Gold in the women's coxless pairs at London 2012, having taken up the sport in 2008. That's an improvement on Lizzy Yarnold's five years to Olympic Gold. I will keep my eyes out for any better, but both are stunning achievements.