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 CAREER


  How I Quickly Test and Validate Startup Ideas

Since I’ve technically been unemployed now for a week, I’ve spent most of that time brainstorming some new ideas and putting them into a Google Spreadsheet.This week I began going through that list and pulling out the ones I think have a chance and I narrowed a pretty large list down to just a few.Let’s take one of the examples from my list. It doesn’t have a name, so let’s just call it Patient Connect.The idea behind Patient Connect is that it integrates with any type of scheduling and patient management software any private medical practice or clinic uses t...

5,565 0       STARTUP IDEA CHOOSE VALIDATION VERIFY INVEST


  The Failure of Passive Recruiting: Recruiters

This is an actual conversation I had with a recruiter:Phone rings and I pick it upHim: Hi, is Paul there?Aaron: May I ask who is calling?Him: I have a technical question. Aaron: Ok, what is it?Him: Are you technical?Aaron: Yes. Who is this?Him: Who are you?Aaron: Are you a recruiter?Him: Yes and…Aaron: Great, send us your resumes, if we like what you send over, we’ll let you know if we want to meet with the candidates, other than that, have a good day.That’s the first of several times the same recruiter, or someone from...

1,647 0       RECRUITMENT HR FAILURE RECRUITER HIRE


  What matters in life (and what doesn’t)

I’m probably too young to be writing on this topic but observing countless souls distressed by daily life made me think hard on what is that really matters in life. Undoubtedly, there are happy and sad phases and that’s part-and-parcel of life. But what I’m really bothered about is general, daily bitching about how miserable one’s life has become. You find people complaining about work, commute, relationships, other people’s attitudes & personalities, neighbor’s barking dog, lack of parking space, and, heck, some people also feel stressed...

2,058 0       EXPERIENCE RELATIONSHIP LIFE MATATER MATERIAL POSSESSION EGO


  How to hire an idiot

Wow, I remember how idealistic I was when I was about to bring on my first employee! After dealing with bad bosses over my career, after doing a whole lot of thinking about how I was going to be a great boss, and after doing a whole lot of reading about how to hire effective people, I was really looking forward to it. I was going to:-- Hire people smarter than myself, who get things done!-- Trust them to do their job, let them do their job and give them enough resources to do it!-- Pay them WELL and offer great benefits! Work at home! Sure, why not?-- Give people second chances! Don't throw ou...

1,982 0       EMPLOYEE IDIOT WORK EXPERIENCE PAY PROCESS


  People, processes and tools

Some years ago, one of my managers used to repeat this "Accenture truism" (or so he designated it): to fix or improve something, first you need the right people, then you need the right processes to help those people work together, then finally you need the right tools to support those processes. People, processes, and tools - in that order.This is even more true for tech startups than for corporations. As geeks, whenever we face a problem, we often start by looking for a tool to fix it. "Our team isn't communicating properly - let's set up Campfire." "But I don't like Campfire, why don't we u...

2,219 0       WORK PROCESS IMPORTANCE TOOL PEOPLE PRIORITY


  How to Seem (and Be) Deep

I recently attended a discussion group whose topic, at that session, was Death.  It brought out deep emotions.  I think that of all the Silicon Valley lunches I've ever attended, this one was the most honest; people talked about the death of family, the death of friends, what they thought about their own deaths.  People really listened to each other.  I wish I knew how to reproduce those conditions reliably.I was the only transhumanist present, and I was extremely careful not to be obnoxious about it.  ("A fanatic is someone who can't change his mind and won't change t...

2,163 0       DEEP WORK SMART WORK STYLE STUDY


  It’s Not China; It’s Efficiency That Is Killing Our Jobs

The majority of wealth is now concentrated at the top of the social ladder. This is particularly true in the US, and the gap is widening every year. This, I believe, is because of efficiency, not China. Today the best ideas can efficiently and quickly propagate worldwide, and everyone can efficiently find them and buy them. This makes the owners of these ideas filthy rich, and those ideas that are not the best, can hardly survive. It’s not just transfer of information that is fast; wealth too is transferred very fast and efficiently.Imagine in the future where we have something like Sta...

2,116 0       JOB EFFICIENCY CHINA OPPORTUNITY WEALTH


  Location matters for your startup

18 months ago I relocated from my home town of Glasgow, to London, just 400 miles away. An important reason for the move was because I had just started working on my new startup, Teamly, and I know that location matters, even when running an internet business. Don’t kid yourself otherwise, your chance of success is seriously improved when you’re in a startup hub.18 months later and moving to London has proved to be a smart move, for all the expected reasons, as well as  the unexpected recognition by the UK Government of London’s startups with the launch a year ag...

2,168 0       COMPANY STARTUP LOCATION BRAND POPULAR LOCATION