Brendan's Reflections

  • First 24 hours with the Apple Watch

    It’s a pain in the ass to pull a phone out of your pocket when you’re sitting down -especially in jeans. I pull my phone out of my pocket 30 times/day just to interact with it for 5 seconds: when I get into my car and the kids want to listen to the Disney Pandora…

    brendansterne

  • Hey Geek, Attracted to Buddhism? You should check out Stoicism.

    I have always been attracted to the Buddhism.  Although I don’t necessarily believe that we are part of a cycle of rebirth, I do believe that attachment leads to suffering, and I believe that the Noble Eightfold Path (chose carefully your words, your actions, your livelihood, etc) is a pretty good and worthwhile approach to living. But I have…

    brendansterne

  • Do More Faster, Part 1 – Idea and Vision

    How can you accelerate your startup or new product?  Ship it, share it and get feedback.  “Many entrepreneurs are hesitant to share too much about what they’re doing and, even when they do, they hold back some of their thoughts even when talking to people who could be incredibly helpful to them.”  So say Nate…

    brendansterne

  • The Original iPhone was a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

    In 2007 Steve Jobs introduced the original iPhone.  I wasn’t a big fan of Apple at the time and didn’t notice the iPhone until iPhone 3 was released (I was using Palm phones at that time).  But yesterday I happened to come across the original iPhone release keynote and it was eye opening. The original iPhone was…

    brendansterne

  • How To Become An Engineer With People Skills

    My mother told me when I was young that people get hired for their technical skills, and fired for their people skills (specifically a lack thereof).  And I’ve seen this play out in the real world repeatedly.  Assessing whether someone can code a sudoku solver is a lot easier than assessing whether someone can maintain their…

    brendansterne

  • A Hardware Startup in the Dorm Room Next Door

    We’re crossing a new threshold. Individuals can make real hardware products and bring them to market. Thanks to open and accessible hardware platforms like Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and even ARM processors, Frankenstein prototypes can be hacked together in short time on short budgets. What used to take more than 60 engineering months can now take…

    brendansterne

  • Jeff Bezos: Think Long Term

    It’s a couple of years old, but I love this short talk by Amazon.com’s CEO Jeff Bezos.  In it he presents four things he knows: Obsess Over Customers Invent Think Long Term It’s Always Day 1  

    brendansterne

  • Lean Startup and Lean UX in the Enterprise (Videos)

    I’m always amazed by all the lean startup events and activity that I have yet to discover.  Yesterday I learned about Lean Day West – a 3 day conference that took place in Sept 2013 and dealt with Lean Startup and Lean UX in the Enterprise.   Lucky for us the talks have been recorded and…

    brendansterne

  • Visa is looking for someone to head up their Innovation Incubator

    I noticed this job posting on the wire today (copied below).  Looks like VISA is setting up an Innovation Incubator.  VISA refers to their larger R&D group as VISA Labs, and this group would be known as the Incubator.  VISA Labs doesn’t seem to have a dedicated website (but it looks like their design contractor…

    brendansterne

  • Relationship-building counts as work

    “Relationship-building counts as work.”  That’s a great quote from in the latest article from First Round Capital Review: 23 Tools to Make Feedback Meaningful.  As Phin Barnes writes: A lot of people skimp on the time they spend in one-on-ones or feedback sessions. They might dash off a few notes if they’re solicited, or think…

    brendansterne