Snippet of Thought - exiang/startup-resources GitHub Wiki

Connecting boxes or people?

Daniel Cerventus Lim asked me very good question: what I like about the Rainforest book and I replied what i learnt:

When we connect the dot in the ecosystem, we started by drawing link between [box Academy] to [box Industry].

But in reality, it doesn't work this way. It's always human who connecting with human, not boxes. Only realizing this, we can avoid failure.

TBH, as coder, I hate to deal with human, but my job now is all about connecting people.

image image

Glass box theory

Source: https://trendwatching.com/quarterly/2017-09/glass-box-brands/?fbclid=IwAR3dOCmt2p-p-iMmVgWyB-da_f3UzvvtNvWX26hmXF326W3scKspiXe1D-4

Gossip in the ecosystem

The Rainforest, Tool #5: Create Social Feedback Loops, pg 214

The term 'gossip' sounds pejorative. But it is extremely valuable in social settings. You know that if you perform badly, people will hear about it. Scientist have shown how members of group will spend irrationally high resources to engage in 'altruistic punishment' against violators of social norms. We are wired to enforce the unwritten rules of our societies, even if it costs us.

xxx

Regional Advantage, pg 116. The role of gossip for sharing valuable information in the early years of Silicon Valley, and the lack of such gossip in Boston, was described by Annalee Saxenian.

xxx

Blind, an anonymous workplace community app that has served as a virtual water cooler for many in Silicon Valley since its launch in 2015 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teamblind.blind&fbclid=IwAR2_brItV6_00n6D3cHGMD0kDCoH8_j6DsMi3PI9uPPqPsu0omi0X8SZOt0

Should we clone the Silicon Valley?

Rather than creating more clones of the Valley, leaders should focus on the creation of systems that foster diversity, trust, normative rules and extra-rational motivations.

These systems do not necessarily have to involve the latest web startups or the 'next big thing'. Anastomosis can come in a variety of shapes and sizes.

Why you should not afraid to share idea

image

Veil of ignorance

The friction of getting deals done here is faster. You dont lawyer everything to the nth degree. If you negotiate with a New York law firm, they want to negotiate every detail. They are probably right on legalities, but you can spend hours and days to get everything right. But here, basically, you get it mostly right and then move on. Everything is done with a handshake in the Valley. If it's failure, no one cares. If it succeeds, then everyone is happy.

xxx

The economic function of Trust (Social Capital) is to reduce the transaction costs associated with formal coordination mechanisms like contracts, hierarchies, bureaucratic rules, and the like... No contract can possibly specify every contingency that may arise between the parties;

xxx

There is a big difference when i talk with entrepreneurs in California and those in Midwest. In California, people are generally willing to share a lot about their ideas. In the midwest, entrepreneurs who seek me out for advice are often not willing to tell me anything about what they are doing. They are so afraid of sharing that they end up hurting themselves.

xxx

This is not to say that ideas are not stolen in Rainforests. Or course they are. However, there is a penalty for violations of trust. When a VC forwards a biz plan to another VC, there is the social expectation by all parties that the entrepreneur who wrote that plan has previously approved that transfer. The expectation is maintained in part bcs one might be on the other side of the table tomorrow - today's VC could be tomorrow's entrepreneur.

'Veil of ignorance' - you never know which side you will be on.

Political Theory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-JQ17X6VNg&fbclid=IwAR0Txk1SSkAg7YZheK0D296Oh0v6Nskbbcdie2vBitxT1UxnnE489zA2NNA

Build the best team

Thanks to covid, read some post about conflict between a boss and his employees.

steal a slide from Startup Commons, that's bcs the boss is A while his employees are B. Not everyone works for dream, there are people with commitment and need to work for money.

word from my mentor: an entrepreneur is a risk taker and also opportunity seeker. when make money, he don't have to share with the employee; and when loss money, so he gotto take it as well.

well.. this argument is not new and will never end. time to play my favorite red alert game: Soviet Union vs the Allied

image

Everyone is a born innovator

image

you’ve grown up, learned about the world, and become a self-sufficient adult. Learning to innovate is really re-learning your natural child-like wonder and curiosity about everything.

https://killerinnovations.com/july-5th/?fbclid=IwAR2veUmE6bWNPA2nub0v6rQHXxJ6ctY7_1L-SAL-6dfvDRDbq6niWN_bHc0

Serendipity

image

Serendipity is the keyword here to build a successful innovation ecosystem. Hence, R&D is not something you can easily measure with KPI and control with budgeting.

https://www.trychameleon.com/blog/how-to-create-serendipity-at-your-startup?fbclid=IwAR3JRFzpttLZAR1MpUu2ioIsJQ7rYetBp8Suw1Z6841DWKunnNebPfKhyrY

Knowledge or commonsense?

image

Social Up Design thinking toolkit

Social up open source their design thinking toolkit to help social enterprise innovate.

http://toolkit.designthinking-socialup.eu/en/training-area

Start with Workshop Guideline (http://toolkit.designthinking-socialup.eu/…/Workshop_guidel…)

The produced outputs using this toolkit is as comprehensive as what PMP covers.

== prepare ==

== discover ==

== define ==

== develop ==

== deliver ==

Why developer like to code at night

people who "produce stuff" tend to adhere to the maker's schedule

That's what I m doing now. Shielding my developers from distraction so they can be productive.

Not everyone understand how developers work, it is the duty of manager to manage this. That's also why the industry invented the idea of scrum master.

I avoid coding at least 2 hrs before sleep now. I find it helps ensuring better quality sleep.

https://opensource.com/article/20/2/why-developers-code-night?sc_cid=7016000000127ECAAY&fbclid=IwAR0CBr6Oh5rZ4n9m3FMSduOSdHfFV9iRfanfVcXxIgkmo_oXd3Xphb8PuFw

Why Charity should transform into SE

image

Coding is for everyone as long as you speak english

All u needs is the spirit to learn whatever is needed to make thing happen, the rest are just excuses to me

https://www.wired.com/story/coding-is-for-everyoneas-long-as-you-speak-english/

My mentorship journey in MaGIC

i did 45 mentorship sessions in year 2018 and 26 more last year (not including those ad hoc advice requests came in from whatsapp or phone).

Base on these sessions, i am glad to conclude that entrepreneurs are more open to share their idea now compared to the past. They also have better understanding on the validation stage (I show https://bit.ly/magic-startup-stages to all my new mentee as a guide for their upcoming adventurous journey).

My wish for year 2020, mentees do not come to me and say: 'I have this idea but bla bla bla...'. Instead, they will say 'I have this MVP but bla bla bla...'. We need this kind of can-do and action base culture to move forward.

I believe Lean Startup Malaysia FB group run by my colleague KarSin Ng (she is also one of our top mentor) would definitely helps in making this happen. https://www.facebook.com/groups/leanstartupmalaysia/

Btw, congrats Hasbullah (https://central.mymagic.my/mentor/private/selectSlot/1813…) as the top mentor for year 2019, conducted total of 46 sessions. Good jobs bro!

With this I also likes to thank our existing external mentors for contributing their time giving back to this ecosystem voluntarily without being paid. Your contributions is important and will be remembered.

How to innovate politics

politic is boring, but this will be fun - be at the forefront of democratic innovation and citizen empowerment and engagement.

https://www.sortitionfoundation.org/