tag:getnashty.com,2014:/feed Elliot Nash 2016-03-03T10:27:04-08:00 Elliot Nash http://getnashty.com Svbtle.com tag:getnashty.com,2014:Post/a-lesson-from-the-gym 2016-03-03T10:27:04-08:00 2016-03-03T10:27:04-08:00 A lesson from the gym <p>Exercise sucks - what is it besides physical labor &amp; hard work?</p> <p>It’s a model for how to live your life. You don’t have to exercise, or be in any sort of athletic shape. I mean that exercising over time <strong>physically</strong> teaches a much needed skill-set to achieve a more productive life.</p> <p>If you’ve never been before, your first steps into a gym can be intimidating. Nothing makes sense. How do these exercises work? Which muscle groups should I be working out? Cardio now or later? When will I see results?</p> <p>When will I see results?.</p> <p>When? Over time.</p> <p>Over time, and after a lot of effort - you will see the <strong>physical results</strong> you’ve been looking for, and you’ll have become a better person for it.</p> <p>In an on-demand society, this is the antithesis of what people want - immediate satisfaction. But the only way to be the best version of yourself, is to <strong>keep putting that work in.</strong> Consistently, and over time.</p> <p>I don’t mean working out at the gym - I mean everywhere. You want to become a better designer? Design more. Do side projects. Re-design well know stuff. You want to become a better coder? Code more. Contribute to open source projects. <strong>Sacrifice your “free” time</strong>. The results may not be physical - but the path to success is the same.</p> <h1 id="the-cost-is-your-time-and-the-results-are-you_1">The cost is your time, and the results are your future. It won’t be fast, and it won’t be easy - but nothing of any value ever is. <a class="head_anchor" href="#the-cost-is-your-time-and-the-results-are-you_1">#</a> </h1> tag:getnashty.com,2014:Post/the-first-cut-is-the-deepest 2015-06-29T03:16:54-07:00 2015-06-29T03:16:54-07:00 The first cut is the deepest. <p>When you have something new, you baby it. Preserving its state of “newness perfection” as long as possible. You polish it, park it far away, or have some expensive case for it.</p> <p>And then it happens. A dent, scratch, blemish, whatever.</p> <p>Your treasured possession is ruined in its purest sense. It works &amp; looks fine, but the pristine quality is <u>lost</u>.</p> <p>You care a little less. The next scratch, dent etc. doesn’t feel as bad. At this point its inevitable. More dents and scratches will come, and you’re no longer worried about it. You’ll get a new thing some day &amp; replace what you have now, so who cares…</p> <h2 id="framed-over-any-dev-project-there-are-glaring_2">Framed over any dev project, there are glaring similarities. <a class="head_anchor" href="#framed-over-any-dev-project-there-are-glaring_2">#</a> </h2> <p>You’re building an amazing product. You fucking love this thing. You’re working hard to ship things and make it even better, then it happens. </p> <p>A poorly styled link, unformatted email, ugly error page, or some poorly written code, <strong>a relative nothing in your mind</strong>. And you say, <u>I’ll get to this later - its not important as the feature I’m working on - lets just ship it for now</u>.</p> <p><strong>And that’s it.</strong></p> <p><strong>You have now shipped a shitty product. Thanks for playing.</strong></p> <p>Those “little things” that <u>don’t matter</u> are something that is constantly in the user’s face. Our brains are WIRED to notice differences, and they <strong>will</strong> see it. </p> <h1 id="simply-put-you39ve-told-the-user-you-don39t-g_1">Simply put, you’ve told the user you don’t give a shit. <a class="head_anchor" href="#simply-put-you39ve-told-the-user-you-don39t-g_1">#</a> </h1> <p>Even worse, you’ve set the precedent to allow more of it. Other people on your team see it and think, “its ok - XYZ is just like it.” Or, “no big deal, I’ll just add it to my list of things to fix, like XYZ.”</p> <p><strong>This grows to a backlog of problems you never fix, with a terrible product, that shipped some things too early.</strong></p> <h1 id="fear-the-first-cut-it-can-kill-your-product_1">Fear the first cut, it can kill your product. <a class="head_anchor" href="#fear-the-first-cut-it-can-kill-your-product_1">#</a> </h1> tag:getnashty.com,2014:Post/shipping-projects 2015-06-08T06:39:53-07:00 2015-06-08T06:39:53-07:00 Shipping Projects. <p>You will never reach an unknown destination.</p> <p>It’s that simple.</p> <p>Shipping side projects is difficult. Really difficult. </p> <p>You sacrifice a metric shit-ton of your free time, building a project you may never finish, never use, and never even ship. Its embarrassing when it happens, and it can happen a lot. It feels like you’ve failed yourself, and didn’t have enough brains to not start this thing to begin with (although, I do still see a huge benefit even in un-shipped side projects).</p> <p>I’ve shipped plenty, and failed on a few. When I reflect on those failures, I have one strong conclusion (that applies to me personally, and probably some of you).</p> <p><strong>The projects that failed had at least one major thing in common, I had no finished product in mind</strong>.</p> <p>You know how this happens…you have a great idea! You need to move fast! You just need to get something online! You start with a quick mockup, and go go go!</p> <p>Then you realize a big feature sucks, and wouldn’t it be better if you added <u>this</u>? and <u>that</u>? and <u>this and that</u>? and <u>the other thing</u>? Maybe its feature bloat, <strong>or maybe its necessary and your idea wasn’t fully baked to begin with</strong>. </p> <p>At some point what you’ve created isn’t what you set out to do… its become a <u>Featurestein</u> you’d rather hide in the basement.</p> <h1 id="strongsoyou-didn39t-know-where-the-fuck-you-w_1"> <strong>So…you didn’t know where the fuck you were going, how the hell would you know if you arrived</strong>? <a class="head_anchor" href="#strongsoyou-didn39t-know-where-the-fuck-you-w_1">#</a> </h1> <p>My counterpoint is that each of my shipped products I wire-framed / designed / and mocked up every page / interaction before I touched a line of code. It forced those “this feature/that feature” thoughts much earlier and provided me with a guide to a much more defined goal.</p> <p>Will things change? Of course. Things <strong>wont <u>feel</u> right</strong>, and you’ll make mini-pivots - but you’ll still know your final destination.</p> tag:getnashty.com,2014:Post/products-not-frameworks 2015-04-03T09:35:32-07:00 2015-04-03T09:35:32-07:00 Products, not frameworks. <p>Almost everything I read about javascript right now seems to be framework related. Angular this, react that (I know - not a framework) , ember is the worst, meteor is the worst, and on and on.</p> <p><strong>Lots of frameworks are good and bad. But really, who the fuck cares what framework you use?</strong></p> <p>Anyone who is competent in javascript can learn to use a framework.</p> <p>I, like most people, care about <em>what you built</em> - the tools you used are secondary.</p> <p><strong>Many people seem to feel that one framework or another is tied to some level of guaranteed success</strong>. “If only I could find the perfect framework, I could build the next snapchat!”</p> <h1 id="nope_1">Nope. <a class="head_anchor" href="#nope_1">#</a> </h1> <p>Execution is what creates success.</p> <p>If you think a framework has problems, don’t use it. Shouting from the roof tops that anyone who uses it has their head up their own ass, only paints you as narrow minded and inexperienced.</p> <p>Besides infinitely different use-cases, any developer building a product can do their own diligence on the tools they might use, and take necessary precautions. </p> <h1 id="build-things-people-care-about-and-everyone-w_1">Build things people care about, and everyone will want to know how you did it. <a class="head_anchor" href="#build-things-people-care-about-and-everyone-w_1">#</a> </h1> tag:getnashty.com,2014:Post/passive-income-myth 2015-01-20T15:13:23-08:00 2015-01-20T15:13:23-08:00 The Passive Income Myth <p>I love side projects, I’ve written post after post about how important they are. They build your portfolio, grow your skill-set, and make you a better shipper.</p> <p>While following along with the “Stanford meets YC and has a How to Start a Startup baby” <a href="http://startupclass.samaltman.com">http://startupclass.samaltman.com</a>, I had a miniature epiphany. A side epiphany, if you will.</p> <p>If you’ve spent any time on hackernews, you’re aware most developers would love to build something that generates passive income. Its possible, but I think its <strong>mostly</strong> rare for the main reason that side projects, are just that, <strong>side</strong> projects. </p> <p>Some things, like books and products you can sell (fonts, photoshop brushes etc.) probably can earn more &amp; have a longer shelf-life, but are not really broad enough to relate to the point I’m making.</p> <p><strong>The generic idea of “passive income” is that you do some work, and when you’re finished, your work generates income, with minimal if any maintenance.</strong></p> <p>I have projects that do this (the money is pretty minimal). But when I reflect on them, and why they haven’t grown more - one thing that stares back at me, <strong>lack of passion</strong>. I built them to solve a problem, and they accomplished that. But I didn’t care about the problems past a certain point. This lack of passion undermines any efforts to generate substantial income, passive or otherwise.</p> <p>How do side projects become full time projects?</p> <p>Revenue isn’t usually created by <strong>just</strong> having a product. It’s by getting people to pay for the product, and to keep them happily using it. That isn’t passive income at all. That is a business. That’s driven by passion to solve a problem. To help other people utilize your solution, and make the experience amazing for them. It’s everything beyond coding.</p> <p><strong>Choose side projects you’re passionate enough to work on full time - should you be so lucky.</strong></p> tag:getnashty.com,2014:Post/quit-job-you-love 2015-01-12T00:20:12-08:00 2015-01-12T00:20:12-08:00 Quit a job you love <p>I’m lucky. I’ve loved every place I’ve worked. I’ve made lifelong friends &amp; mentors, growing tremendously at each position I’ve held.</p> <p>So why quit a job you love?</p> <p><strong>The one resounding reason: growth.</strong></p> <p>Sometimes, even if you’re still crushing it - you’re not learning as much as you once were. Maybe you’re not trying new technologies as much, or meeting new people anymore… kind of running in some sort of “things are cool…” maintenance mode. </p> <p><strong>Maintenance mode is a trap</strong>, a non-growth purgatory, where you stop creating new awesome things. It makes any portfolio of work you have, increasingly more out of date, and less impressive. People who are still growing, are now passing you by.</p> <p>When you beat a video game challenge, you level up. You don’t stick around admiring the work of what you’ve completed. <strong>You yearn to beat the next challenge and move forward.</strong> That’s how you win the game.</p> tag:getnashty.com,2014:Post/engage-less 2014-07-14T13:54:21-07:00 2014-07-14T13:54:21-07:00 Engage users less <p>Unless you’re making a game, something porn related, a blog, or any other type of entertaining time-sucking app, <strong>your goal is to get people to stop using it as quickly as possible</strong>. </p> <p>Here’s why:</p> <p>Whats our goal when designing an app? <em>Fuck our goal.</em> </p> <p>Its <strong>their goal</strong> we’re concerned with: </p> <ul> <li>Saving time</li> <li>Saving money</li> <li>Enjoyment (time-suckers mentioned above)</li> </ul> <p>The crux of UX - <em>Saving time</em>, should refer to the person’s total available time in the day - not saving time relative to your app. Fuck your app.</p> <p>Every screen, interaction, button, piece of text, invented term, icon etc. All requires space in your user’s “<em>mental inventory</em>”. </p> <p>Navigating your app requires a “mental map” of how to use it - what each swipe/button press does - and what lives on the other side.</p> <p>This mental processing takes time, and is the challenge while successfully following the “don’t make me think” mantra.</p> <p>How many useful + important apps do you have and rarely use?</p> <p>I have many.. a bill manager, square, shazam, task managers etc. The list goes on. I use these apps when I need to accomplish something, and only then. My time is mine, they can’t have anymore - and unless they’re paying me, they don’t deserve it.</p> <blockquote class="short"><h1 id="focus-your-app-on-what-it-does-best-let-users_1">Focus your app on what it does best. Let users in, provide them value, and let them out. <a class="head_anchor" href="#focus-your-app-on-what-it-does-best-let-users_1">#</a> </h1></blockquote> <p>High quality repeat engagement can be much shorter and sporadic than we expect.</p> tag:getnashty.com,2014:Post/scrap-it 2014-06-24T14:18:57-07:00 2014-06-24T14:18:57-07:00 Failing before you launch. <p>About 2 and a half years ago, I built something pretty cool, that I was intensely passionate about.</p> <p>It’s called Cedarstack.</p> <p>You can check it out here: <a href="http://staging.cedarstack.com">http://staging.cedarstack.com</a></p> <p>u: demo<br> p:password</p> <p>Its an app for crowdfunding online startups, and creating a trading market around them.</p> <p>I spent hundreds of hours planning this app, designing it, coding it, and then re-doing everything multiple times, and again and again.</p> <p>I haven’t touched it in about a year and a half (so there are plenty of old bugs, and crufty new bugs)</p> <p>I will never launch Cedarstack in it’s current incarnation though, and I’m really great with that.</p> <p>The idea is too much for what it is, its too complicated, and its not solving a real enough need. As someone who launches their own apps all the time, its not a service I would use (even though I built it to solve my own need). I failed before I ever got it out the door.</p> <p>I’d like to think that, some day I’ll re-do this app, and solve the problem in a much better way. And thats when it’ll launch. When I’m ready, and when its right. But the real truth is, I probably won’t.</p> <p>There is no reason to launch something I’m unhappy with for the sake of launching.</p> <p>Startup culture is all about shipping often, which I agree with. Side projects are not startups (yet) - and as such they can be afforded much more consideration. </p> <p>Launch something that kicks ass, that you love. Don’t launch shit, the internet already has plenty.</p> tag:getnashty.com,2014:Post/building-value-stage 2014-02-03T02:25:41-08:00 2014-02-03T02:25:41-08:00 The "build value" stage <blockquote class="short"> <p>Underpants<br><br> <strong>+</strong><br><br> ?<br><br> <strong>=</strong><br><br> Profit </p> </blockquote> <p>That <em>hilarious</em> question mark is what I like to call, the “build value” stage.</p> <p><strong>A common example of this</strong><br> is any product where you have two types of users (any kind of marketplace, social network, job board, community etc.).</p> <p><strong>There are product users</strong> who use what you built and become your product (think facebook or twitter users).</p> <p><strong>And there are customer users</strong> who pay you money to access the “product users” (think advertisers). These people aren’t buying a product or service, they’re buying a return on their investment.</p> <p>Here are a few insights I’ve picked up from each of the times I’ve reached this stage.</p> <p>Once you’ve identified your user groups, there is absolutely no chicken and egg dilemma - you must build value for the <em>product users</em> before your <em>customers</em> will arrive. <strong>This is the quintessential idea behind building your value.</strong></p> <p>So lets say your product is the users on a forum, or the viewers of a job board. It might still feel like a chicken and egg issue at its heart - after all, people won’t view a job board without jobs, and nobody wants to be the first person to join a community, ever.</p> <p>First <strong>shrink your market.</strong> A single category, subject, geography, whatever. Something where even a few product users (10-100) is a lot. Define and control your initial growth, and you wont appear empty.</p> <p>Then, you fake it.</p> <p>If it’s a job board, find and post the jobs for free. <br> If it’s a message board/social network, start the community by starting the discussions.</p> <p><strong>You need to personally be the most active person on your product.</strong> You can even create multiple accounts to make your community appear to be even more active. <em>Don’t continue this practice (multi-accounts) once organic growth begins (as it cheats your customers).</em></p> <p>If you think this is crazy, its also how reddit got going, and they’re doing alright.</p> <p><strong>Consider</strong> </p> <ul> <li>Investors like past success because history repeats itself.</li> <li>Good execution is not luck. Build everything with an actionable strategy. </li> </ul> tag:getnashty.com,2014:Post/own-your-identity 2013-10-18T15:20:20-07:00 2013-10-18T15:20:20-07:00 Own your identity. <p>6 months ago I started blogging.</p> <p>A week ago something funny happened. A friend’s company attempted to recruit me. The friend had no idea - until he received recommendations from two different people, independently, in an extremely short time period. It happened because I’m slowly building my brand.</p> <p><strong>This is why you absolutely must own your online identity.</strong></p> <p>There is such great hubbub around online privacy, and I don’t mean NSA privacy, but the kind we abandon by over sharing on facebook, twitter, foursquare etc. I’m here to tell you the opposite: <strong>Worry about under sharing</strong>. Worry about people not being able to find you. <strong>I can say with confidence, I want to be the <em>only</em> Elliot Nash online.</strong></p> <p>Like most people I’ve <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKEw7JNVcnw">googled myself</a>, and I’ve gone through my namesake dopplegangers. My concern is people looking for me, might find them.</p> <p>Here are three high value points of creating your own brand:</p> <p><strong>Its like a resume</strong><br> Writing, sharing, and building your brand makes your experience and value public. The more you do this, the higher presence you’ll have in front of potential customers. <em>Self branding isn’t about creating a resume, it’s about putting your resume on a flag pole to hang above the rest.</em></p> <p><strong>It helps you recruit</strong><br> In the same sense it helps you be recruited - it’ll help you recruit a better team. The better known your brand and self-identity has become, the more other talented individuals will want to work with you. I can’t emphasize this enough.</p> <p><strong>Its a better experience for those who come in contact with you</strong><br> Lastly, anyone who may come in contact with you in any way, will have a much better experience googling you if you’re easy to find. It’ll also promote their confidence in you - as seeing your brand is like a positive review on amazon and a confirmation in your ability to get shit done.</p>