That's So Morin

I have long had it on my to-do list to write a post about some of the underlying reasons I decided to leave San Francisco after just nine months. The primary reason, of course, was I decided to go back to Second Gear full-time, and paying nearly $3000 a month in rent isn’t worth it when you’re self-employed.

Under the surface though, the toxic startup culture and attitude is what did me in. Vanity Fair’s interview with Path’s Dave Morin more than sheds some light on the subtleties of the toxic valley culture than I think most imagine. With things so quotable as:

I don’t use a ring of any kind on my phone. This is so that I am always on offense and never defense .

And so sad as:

I’m in meetings all day and all night.

Morin exhibits the traits of so many people I met in my short time out there.

It wasn’t enjoyable for me to be surrounded by founders who believe so much of their own bullshit tech press that they become completely out of touch with reality, and developers who felt they were well on their way to achieving that same status.

Yes, I’m aware that not everyone in San Francisco fits that generic mold, but when you’re in a profession with so many that do, I found it more reasonable to escape to the mountains of Colorado than fight a battle I didn’t care to be a part of.

Posted on March 27, 2013

How Math is Changing the Sport of Basketball

Sports Illustrated’s Pete Thamel has an interesting piece about how Butler University, the second greatest university in the state of Indiana behind Purdue, utilizes a trained statistician to get a competitive edge on their opponents before even setting foot on the basketball court.

[Drew] Cannon’s greatest value is with lineup analysis, as [Butler Coach Brad Stevens] terms his work “unreal.” “It includes every player, pairs of players, groups of three, big lineups, small lineups, etc.,” Stevens said. Cannon will also include the offensive and defensive efficiency of Butler’s players from previous matchups with an opponent, which Stevens said, “Will help me determine probable sub patterns, late game lineups, etc.”

Sports isn’t just for jocks anymore.

Posted on March 24, 2013

Zack Arias Reviews the Fuji X100s

My current camera of choice is the Fuji X100. It’s small, easy to take with me everywhere, and shoots high quality photos. It also has abysmal autofocus performance and unusable manual focus, which is why I’ve been looking forward to Fuji’s updated X-100s that was announced at CES this year.

The reviews of the new X-100s are coming in. Zack Arias says it is the greatest camera he has ever owned.

After my first day of shooting with the new S I realized something. Fuji really listens to all of us. Every single complaint that many had about the original x100 has been addressed. Everything I have seen people request in the update is there. The autofocus is leaps and bounds beyond what it was. Manual focus… get this… actually works! Image quality is fantastic. Same perfect focal length on the 23mm f2 fixed prime. It’s just an awesome camera.

See also David Hobby’s review.

My camera isn’t scheduled to ship until the middle of next month, but I’m planning to write up a review from the perspective of someone who spends a lot of money on a camera, but really doesn’t know what he’s doing.

Posted on March 22, 2013

Purging the Back Catalog

David Smith, creator of personal favorite Check The Weather, wrote a piece about how he wishes Apple would begin culling the “back catalog” of apps that that are no longer actively being developed.

The App Store currently has around 800k active apps listed. I suspect a significant number of these haven’t been updated in more than 12 months. An app that is listed for sale but is no longer under active development creates the possibility for bad user experience. It is like a grocery store that leaves expired produce on its shelves. The best situation for customers is a marketplace where whichever choice they make results in a great experience.

The idea of expiring apps is centered on Apple’s recent announcement that they will no longer accept apps in the App Store that are not retina ready and updated to support the 4” screen of the iPhone 5 and latest generation iPod touch. I can only think of one app on my phone still not updated for the latest devices1, but I am not as heavy an app shopper as many.

While I don’t believe Apple will likely do this because the app count metric is still worth something, it is something I believe is a positive both for the ecosystem itself, as well as independent developers personally.

Back in August of 2012, I killed both MarkdownMail and the elder statesman of the Second Gear catalog, Today. Both were still bringing in a small amount of sales, but the emotional burden of having apps in the store that I know could use improvements, but have zero interest in working on anymore is heavy. It’s also difficult for me to get over the gross feeling that I would be taking someones $3 - $10 for an app that worked, but really wasn’t actively supported going forward. Financially, it wasn’t my wisest move, but I’ve done way dumber things with money.

This is also why I was more understanding of Google’s decision to axe its Reader project in favor of focusing on other projects. While I sympathize with the people losing a utility they were fond of, tossing rotting software in the dumpster makes room for future innovations from other developers in that space, and allows Google to focus on the things it’s most interested in.

  1. Looking at you, Boxcar.↩

Posted on March 22, 2013

The Benefit of the Doubt

For all intents and purposes, Tim Cook has been the CEO of Apple for two years. In his tenure we have seen the iPhone 4S, the iPhone 5, a new iMac, Retina screens on laptops and the iPad mini. Not bad for a company that has lost it’s ability to innovate.

Also during Cook’s term, we’ve seen interesting staffing turnovers. There was the retirement and subsequent “Nevermind. I’m back!” of Bob Mansfield. The keeper of iOS, Scott Forstall, was given his walking papers because he wasn’t a team player. Cook also hired John Browett, the former CEO of Dixons, to replace Ron Johnson as the head of retail stores. Nine months into the gig and Browett was out because “he wasn’t a good fit”.

Which brings us to Cook’s latest executive hire: the guy who did a corny Mythbusters parody making fun of the iPhone for not having Flash. Kevin Lynch comes to Apple from Adobe to be the new “VP of Technology”. I’m not sure what a VP of Technology does, but given his track record at Adobe, I am assuming he’ll be involved in beefing up Apple’s cloud services in more technical ways than Eddy Cue already does. The general consensus on the hire though is that it stinks. Convincing Apple shareholders, users, and enthusiasts that the guy who spent years selling Flash’s snake oil to be on board with the hire is an uphill battle that Cook likely weighed before pulling the trigger.

For the most part Tim Cook’s leadership at Apple has been without question fantastic. He’s introduced new products that have broken sales records and began to shape Apple into his company rather than Steve’s with things like the giving matching program and stock dividends. When it comes to hiring, however, the benefit of the doubt is starting to run out.

Cook can’t afford to have Lynch leave Apple in nine months because he too wasn’t a good fit. As the person charged with leading and shaping Apple into a company that can stand the test of time without Steve Jobs storming the hallways, hiring the leaders of the company is almost as important as the products they produce. You can’t change the world without the right people to do the changing.

Posted on March 20, 2013