Christian Andrew Borys

[danharmon]

Could you explain your story breaking process?

Start with random IDEAS.  Ideas can be anything - Poop is an idea, America, pickles, the number six, a raccoon, anything.

Some ideas will reveal related ideas, i.e. you may think, upon thinking about raccoons, that you have more than one thought about raccoons.  Clouds of related ideas that your mind recognizes as related in any way are potential story AREAS.  Look for areas that make you laugh and cry.

Draw a circle to symbolize your area, because your story will take the “reader” through related ideas in a path around a central idea.  You don’t have to know what the central idea is.  It’s probably dumb.  For God’s sake, you’re writing about raccoons.

Divide your circle into a top half and bottom half and ask yourself what those halves might be.  Like, your raccoon area might become divided into “positive thoughts about raccoons” and “negative thoughts about raccoons.”  If the division doesn’t feel charged for you, pick something else, like male raccoon thoughts and female raccoon thoughts, or biological raccoon thoughts and storybook raccoon thoughts.  At some point, you will divide your area into two parts that create a personal “charge” for you, like a battery.  ”Ooo, I like the idea that there’s a difference between biological raccoons and storybook raccoons, that tingled when I drew that line, I want to know more.” <— that’s my impression of you nailing it.

Divide the divided circle down the middle and pick another charged dichotomy for left and right.  For instance, biological/storybook raccoon area could get divided into dishonest/honest.  

Now you have four quadrants to your circle, going clockwise: biological dishonest raccoon, storybook dishonest raccoon, storybook honest raccoon, biological honest raccoon.  Any point at which you stop feeling charged, go back a step or start over.  Maybe you had to get this far to realize you don’t give a shit about raccoons.  Please note that at this point, people around you will start to express confusion and frustration, because they thought the idea was fine already.  Depending on your mood and standing, these people are called hacks, traitors, parasites, scabs or successful colleagues.

When you find an area that yields four charged quadrants, experiment with protagonists.  Easy answer first, maybe I’m a raccoon.  So once upon a time there was a dishonest biological raccoon that became a storybook raccoon, which lead to him becoming honest before finally going back to being biological again.  Cool?  If not, go back or start over.  Again, please note that many people will not want you to go back or start over.  These people will one day drown in their own blood while you point and laugh with God.  Or maybe they’re good people and you just have Asperger’s.

Then you keep dividing the pie, adding “curvature” to the protagonist’s path with the 8 point story structure you can find me blathering about elsewhere online.

Create more characters as needed, give them their own stories as needed.

Repeat every day until rich people give you money to do it for them.  Buy a house, become one of them and hire poor people to do it for you.  Somewhere in there try to get a dog and a funny girlfriend or it’s all pretty pointless.  Speaking of which, I just realized I’m the only one at the office. Thank you for this question.

[christianandrewborys]

[kiwiwearables-blog1]

One of the trickiest things in sensor based applications is identifying the trigger for your application. There is a lot of noise that exists to building application and we aiming at simplifying this method.

Currently we are looking at how to incorporate a large number of industry standard method...

[christianandrewborys]

Andrew Kong of Who Knows Inc comes in to talk about the corporate world versus the startup community and how satisfying it is to completely change your life

[christianandrewborys]

We Grew Up On Facebook

I completely grew up on Facebook. I'd known that for a while but only really realized it after watching a Ryerson student film about social media which premiered at TIFF this year and went viral. Many of my generations formative moments are on Facebook. I distinctly remember when it first came out in 2005. A friend of mine in Waterloo was talking about a girl he liked, and said something along the lines of 'yea, and she posted on my wall!'. I looked back at him with a blank stare and his eyes lit up when he registered that I'd never used Facebook. He then he made it his goal to get me hooked. Now, if you were in university in 2005, you know that getting someone hooked on Facebook was easier than skipping class to play Mariokart. It caught on so quickly. I mean it literally spread across campus like a plague. Maybe it's because discovering its best use case for that point in our lives only took a few minutes. We could find the hottest girls in our school, and every other school. Back then, if you walked into any classroom, 9/10 students weren't using their laptops to take notes, they just had Facebook open 100% of the time. However according to Business Insider, it's quite different now. Now university students are dropping off like flies. Any rational person could see that Facebook losing its strangle hold on this demographic was inevitable. Teenagers do horrible things, and love taking pictures of themselves doing it. All they want is the swiss bank account of social media products, a secure venue to share idiotic pictures with their friends. As soon as you introduce the potential of mom grounding you over what you've posted, it's game over. I think that point came along years ago. Sure people stuck around on Facebook but their behaviour changed dramatically. The only reason they didn't flee en masse was because there was no other product as magnetic as Facebook was in its infancy. Enter Snapchat. I see how people use Snapchat now, and it's with the same sheer and utter joy that Facebook once enjoyed. Snapchat just brings out the happy in everyone. They have no qualms about the repercussions of their actions because they don't really need to. There are no preachy posts from 'friends' to roll their eyes at. No baby pictures. Just the stupidity of your youth on display for your friends to laugh along with. The funny part to me is that Facebook's messaging threads are pretty closely related to Snapchat. My friends and I all stopped posting to Facebook's walls a while ago. I've even installed an extension so I don't see my news feed at all. We may only use messaging threads, but we use them all the time. We get to share stories and pictures amongst ourselves, and we're comfortable being ourselves because we know no one else is seeing the content. Great! So what can Facebook do with its strength in messaging? Nothing. Can you imagine it brought ads directly into private messaging threads. They'd be better off pre-emptively cancelling user accounts. But we're still there. We're all still logging in and using the platform, and Facebook's engineers are probably working as hard as they ever have to figure out what to do about it. What might that be? Who knows but for now they're just going to pump you full of more ads! Is Facebook dead? Well as long as people are still distracted enough by their product to walk off a pier , I would say they've got a chance to right the ship.

[christianandrewborys]

Lykke Li - Velvet (The Big Pink) www.fromgotowhoa.com by Music From Go To Whoa http://ift.tt/HFMY5b

[christianandrewborys]

Lykke Li - Velvet (The Big Pink) www.fromgotowhoa.com by Music From Go To Whoa

[christianandrewborys]

[christianandrewborys]

Ron's back

[christianandrewborys]

Why Your Startup Needs Some Laughter

The way we build our environments is crucial because it will either line you up for success, or for a succession of nights spent crying on the floor of a shower stall. Trust me... We've all heard this though right? Culture, culture, culture.

Well, here's some science for you Champ. See, our brains are designed to feed off of the inputs from our surroundings. The brains limbic system, our emotional centre, is an open loop, which means that it actually gathers information from the outside world and adjusts accordingly. Your circulatory system on the other hand, it doesn't give a shit what's going on around it, it's playing by it's own rules. Now you might be thinking, how the hell does Borys know all this? A) I like to read, and much more so, B) Because this man devoted his life to figuring it out. I'll let him have some credit. How does this impact your work life in anyway, shape or form? Well, of course, we've all heard the old adage that laughter is contagious. What you may not know though is that within a community like an office, anxiety, although is does spread, doesn't do so as quickly, and depression doesn't spread at all. Ever noticed how you're drawn to upbeat people much more so than then sad ones? So if you build a team of positive people, they will be drawn to each other, and attract others much more so than a group of people playing Smiths records on repeat. In short, they'll be happier working together, and that will resonate. Generally speaking, it's not someone's fault they're anxious/sad/depressed. There are solutions, or paths to leave those feelings behind though. Maybe the person hasn't been able to figure that out for themselves yet. They need to realize that not only should they seek help, but they need to. Their livelihoods depend on them finding a way out before the people at work conclude that they're just assholes. If co-workers don't understand the personal struggle, they're likely to develop a bad, undeserved rep. How will that person ever gain their respect and become a leader if their attitude isn't attractive? Luckily, the good people at Yale School of Management have a tip. Try smiling. Smiles almost always get the other person to smile back. Don't fake it though. And don't ever do this to seem upbeat.

Find genuine reasons to smile. If you can't, well I've been there before too, and I'm sorry, I know how awful that can be. Go back a step and seek help. Why smile? Well, gather around while grandpa Borys recounts something he read. Scientists speculate that smiles and laughter evolved as a way to cement alliances. If you think about that in the context of a startup, it means that you guys need to put away the stressful shit once in a while, and laugh with each other every now and then. If the pressure's too intense, you might, sorry, you 100% will definitely start to develop unreasonable and unwarranted tension amongst each other. You'll read more deeply into situations than would ever be necessary. Break the damn tension. Play a game of ping pong. Is it 8pm? Throw in a Rob Schneider movie. Laugh. I don't care what you say, early Schneider was a comedic genius before Sandler put him in every piece of garbage imaginable.

As a leader, if you don't hear any laughter in your office, you're not doing your job. When I wasn't this old, my hockey team would go out and build bonds amongst ourselves outside of the rink. We'd see movies together. We'd go for dinners. We'd go shoot each other with paintballs. We'd ride the bus to some terrible town far away for games and use that time to tell stories and build inside jokes. Inside jokes are especially great because they strengthen that us vs them mentality that builds super strong relationships within your team. Do that. Take your team on a road trip. Why not? Who says you can't do that? Your 'mature' persona prevents you from being spontaneous? Or pull a prank on a another office in your building. Shoot a video of it. Put it up on youtube. Go viral. Shoot any type of video with your team, except porn. Have you ever been on set or watched bloopers. Think about how hard those people are laughing. Get your people laughing together. The bonds they will form are priceless. Yes I know that you're super passionate about whatever you're working on, but if it's too intense, you're taking the wrong approach to building a team. Inspire laughter. Find a way, but whatever you do, for god's sake, please don't become the office comedian. Don't ever strive to be "the funniest guy in the office." Please don't be the guy staging a poor reenactment of a Louis CK bit, or worse, one of Chris Rock's most famous bits. Laugh. Life's short. The whole concept of a joke is to set someone thinking in one direction, then stop and completely blindside them with something they hadn't seen coming. Isn't that life? You only get so much time to do something incredible, and then one day, out of nowhere you just disappear. Think about that. That's a great joke in itself, albeit a cruel one, that's pretty funny.

[saroff-nyc]

“Find a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.” - Confucius

To my mind, Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits were just paraphrasing Confucius. :)

Last week I sat on a career panel for recent JD/MBA grads from sixteen schools. It was a great night and I was thankful...

[almostalwaysalliteration-blog]

Hey, if it ain’t broke…

[nuggetsapp]

Nuggets from Startup School 2013

Read More

[christianandrewborys]

Quit Until You Find Something You Can't Leave

"Quit as Often As Possible Until You Find Something You Don't Want To Leave" - Bobcat Goldthwait Bobcat Goldthwait probably isn't the first person who jumps to mind when you read an inspirational quote. Frankly, most of you probably have no idea who Bobcat Goldthwait is, but in the unlikely case that you do, please get in touch because we'd probably be good friends. Honestly, in the context of this write up, It doesn't really matter who Bobcat is, but do yourself a favour and watch the man talk on this episode of the Joe Rogan podcast for more insight. Now back to the message, "Quit as often as possible until you find something you don't want to leave." It's the type of quote you look at and think, "yea, no shit" In reality though, how many of us will ever put that into practice? It's just a terrifying proposition. It's sad (but also kind of funny to me) that even if we despise the direction our lives have taken, the fear of change alone will paralyze us from trying something new. Disclaimer: This is funny to me because I have a weird, fucked up sense of humour I know. I've been there. My life only changed when I realized that I'd become so depressed that sticking around was scarier than leaving. If you can avoid hitting that point by having the courage to quit as soon as you realize you need to, do it. I can remember exactly how I "pivoted" my life. It seems weird to apply that cliche to my personal life, but that's exactly what happened. I'd been going down one path and although I became increasingly more disillusioned with it, I'd set my goals, and I was going to nail them. Then I reached each one of those goals, and then I started to crush those goals, which is when I realized, 'oh shit, accomplishing these things has made me 0% happier'. That was a painful moment. I knew I had to take stock of my life, and in a very real sense, research myself. The man who was instrumental in helping me make my transition is actually someone I've never met. Richard Branson. I was reading an interview in which the interviewer asked Richard if there was just one piece of advice he'd give to anyone trying to achieve his level of success. He quickly responded "just start working out everyday". A lightbulb when off in my head, unfortunately, my fat lazy body wouldn't accept the message. When my brain said, 'work out', my body said 'ah, fuck off'. I frankly don't know how I ever let myself get to that point. I'd played varsity and rep in hockey and soccer, and been the president of my high school. I always thought of myself as a "go getter". Might as well keep throw cliches into the pile of shitty cliches I've already started. However, when things started happening in my life that were way out of my control, I began to struggle immensely. Depression's a weird thing. It's like someone's put a blanket over you, and it's eerily comfortable until you realize the blanket's suffocating you. Time's flying by and one brutal day just merges into the next. When I found myself in that position, I had no idea what to do and because my family is Eastern European, mental health wasn't a topic of discussion. The way I was brought up, depression is a sign of weakness, and that's that. You don't 'get help' for those types of things. You go to the doctor when your leg is broken, but not when your mind is. Although I struggled immensely at first, I knew that there was no quick fix. I needed to sacrifice and bust my ass. I knew from my previous experience of training for hockey in the summers, which is awful, that if I went to the gym three days in a row, I'd be hooked. So I did. Not only did I go to the gym. I ran. I ran in the mornings and I ran when I was hungover as hell. I'd been smart enough to start getting rid of the negative influences in my life a while before, so I decided to end it in one pretty thorough sweep. I probably burned a lot of bridges, but I didn't care. I needed to be selfish. Then a random encounter with an old friend in a Starbucks during Christmas time led to a long life talk. He offered me a place to live in New York for as long as I wanted while I worked things out. I knew opportunity doesn't usually kick you in the face like that, so I went home, booked a ticket, packed up my bag that night and flew out of the island a couple of days later. Since I was in a consulting role, I didn't have to give two weeks notice. I actually emailed them from New York to say I wasn't going to be working with them anymore. I didn't know what I was going to do, but I knew that a) I needed to get away and b) I wanted to live in NYC. Insane right? Yes. But since then, I've had some of the best experiences of my life in New York, met the smartest and funniest people I've ever met (shout outs to UCB), learned how to code, and just got offered a job in Palo Alto this morning. So go be insane. It'll work out, and if it doesn't, can it really be as bad as those god damn TPS reports?

[jordansowunmi-deactivated202211]

[christianandrewborys]

Taking a Risk To Learn @Bitmakerlabs

The one constant you can definitely take to the bank at Bitmaker is everyone's disdain for the traditional education system. I can tell you that the guys sitting on either side of me right now are here because they've taken an indefinite hiatus from their degree programs to pursue Bitmaker. Not only is that a slap in the face of their universities, but a testament to the size of their, as Tony Soprano would say, "stugots". It takes a lot, and I mean, a lot of courage to jump out and do something like Bitmaker. People thought I was a lunatic, especially when I told them that I was about to attend a school that had once been shutdown by the government. The thing is, for me at least, it made way more sense to jump out and take a chance at something as innovative as Bitmaker than spend my life merging into the traffic of the corporate world. Maybe I'm a crazy person? I actually hope I am because I've always felt like the wilder the idea, the more exceptional the outcome. For example. I don't want to stop learning, so I've begun planning a 12 month tour of 12 cities in the world in which I'll work at 12 different startups, VC's and not for profits. Seems insane right? Probably impossible too. Who the hell would want to bring someone on for one month? Well. I feel like the skills I've been acquiring at Bitmaker, of which I can tell you coding is just one, will allow me to step in and make an immediate impact anywhere I go. You might argue and say, "that's bullshit, there's no way you've been able to learn that much in 6 weeks." Well, you try dedicating yourself to something for 7 days a week, at least 12 hours a day, with 35 other people and see where you're at. It's also been done before. I got the inspiration during a talk at Bitmaker given by the wonderful Aron Soloman. He spoke about the equally awe inspiring Victor Saad's journey which you can read more about here . Victor didn't shun education. he shunned the traditional format, and so do we. We all love learning and want to learn as much as possible. Just know that there are other ways. What will be the result of that journey? I can't say. I have no idea, but when I set out to join Bitmaker, I looked at the Singularity University's mission as my inspiration. Tackle humanity's greatest challenges. That's why I want to go away. I want to meet people and find a big problem to work on. Imagine helping to solve one of those problems. Imagine if that was the result of that journey. Is there a greatest risk/reward payoff? If my dumb blog post doesn't have any impact on your beliefs about Bitmaker, maybe this one will, Generally speaking, a New York Times Best selling author knows what he's talking about.

[christianandrewborys]

Kiwi Wearables Co-Founder visits @Bitmakerlabs

We've had the opportunity to listen to and learn from some inspiring people in the past five weeks, but Ashley Beattie's talk was particularly special. Why? Well, you see, Ashley's one of us. Ashley's a first cohort Bitmaker grad who's quickly gone onto build a Tech Crunch award winning startup. How quickly? Well, Bitmaker's first cohort started in January and Kiwi was winning awards by September. If you're interested in learning more about the product you can check out this video from a little Mom and Pop news shop called USA Today. Ashley and his work ethic are the personification of one of my favourite quotes about choosing to work over everything else, "I've got an opportunity to make a dream become a reality." (That's a quote from 50 cent by the way. I don't care what you think about that man, he's one hell of an accomplished human being.) That's neither here nor there though. The point of all this is to say that I love what Ashley's been able to accomplish because it reinforces my belief that as long as you're willing to bust your ass, and put in the time, anything is possible. Now go check out Kiwi's website before this gets too preachy! Twitter: @ItsBorys