March 2012
2 posts
another fad
This time it’s the “mobile ambient awareness apps”, like highlight, Sonar and a few more.
SXSW is famous for launching new startups into stardom - like twitter and Foursquare - so every year people speculate who will win SXSW, and this year everyone’s talking about the new class of mobile ambient awareness apps.
What’s that? Those apps basically keep track of your...
how business plans really work
You come up with numbers out of your ass and then spend the rest of your time rationalizing those numbers and convincing others that they’re are realistic and carefully constructed.
February 2012
3 posts
the future of social networks
Hidden inside Pete Cashmore’s post on Pinterest is one of the best insights on the future of social networks and why Pinterest got so big:
As tech entrepreneur Elad Gil insightfully explained in an article on his blog last month, sharing on the Web has been following three parallel trends.
The first is that sharing involves less effort over time.
The second is that social sites are...
where's the money in social?
It’s nowhere to be found…
Photo by 401k.
Brands spend and spend to grow their fans, get more followers and have more impressions but what’s beyond that?
Are those numbers resulting in more sales, actual customers, more retail footfall, etc.?
I bet not. Or at least nowhere near the amounts of money being spent.
Here’s a quote from a recent piece on Facebook and why...
Zuckerberg's "The Hacker Way"
Buried within Facebook’s SEC filing is one of the most profound pieces ever written about Facebook.
It briefly describes the DNA of Facebook, that is responsible for making it the way it is now.
If you’re looking for the secret sauce to build a great company for the future, the below should be your bible:
I’ve bolded some key parts that you shouldn’t miss.
The Hacker...
January 2012
3 posts
what they don't tell you about entrepreneurship
It’s fucking hard!
Harder than anything you’ve done before.
Not only it will test you physically, mentally and emotionally every day, it will push you to your extreme limits, beyond what normal people go through in their worst days… and then some more.
You give it everything you have and yet you have higher chances of failing than making it, statistically speaking of course....
why I'm being a jerk to local startups
In his Wamda piece about Cairo StartupWeekend, Omar has referred to me as “notoriously hard to please”, so it got me thinking about this reputation of mine and how it came to be in the first place.
So, why am I such an asshole to local startups?
Because I refuse to treat them like children.
Everyone claps and cheers for stupid ideas and embarrassing products, because they want...
what entrepreneurship is really about
3 things:
1- making a shitload of money
2- saying fuck you to your boss, and never working for someone else again
3- having the freedom to do whatever the hell you want to
Everyone is going around trying to glorify it by saying things like: entrepreneurship is about solving “real” problems, changing the world or building great products, and so and so… you know, the usual...
October 2011
7 posts
no one gives a fuck about your Klout score!
Seriously… do you think people check out your Klout score before they talk to you or reply to your tweets? get a life…
Try to realize how ridiculous it is that your social self-worth is being tied to some guys writing stupid algorithms and playing with them like kids!
You’re better off seeking some Penis enlargement treatments… at least someone will really care about the...
iPhone 4S
If you’re considering an iPhone 4S, you only need to read those reviews:
David Pogue / New York Times
Joshua Topolsky / This is my next
Walter S. Mossberg / AllThingsD
John Gruber / Daring Fireball
MG Siegler / TechCrunch
I read all of the above and many more so you don’t have to… here’s the final verdict in short:
If you own any phone other than iPhone...
why I'm not going to GITEX this year
because it’s fucking boring
“Every significant invention must be startling, unexpected, and must come into a...”
– Edwin H. Land - The Man Who Inspired Jobs
why I'm boycotting TEDxDubai
because the organizers are a bunch of dicks!
“nominative determinism: the tendency for our names to influence our life...”
– Wired UK Magazine
September 2011
4 posts
#SWAlex Startups
After I published my own list of #SWAlex winners, many of you has asked for descriptions of all the startups that I mentioned, so I went back to my tweets (so many of them!) and compiled the below.
Here’s the startups descriptions (in the order they were presented in):
StoreMate: web-based POS system that saves small businesses the cost of buying POS systems and instead they can use the...
my #SWAlex winners list!
There’s no denying that I was the official asshole of StartupWeekend Alexandria, and went around criticizing and passing judgement on participants left and right. I was just being honest and trying to hold the startups to the high standards that I think our work in the region should strive to match.
I have nothing against any single one of you, it’s admirable enough that you made it...
I’ve got a great idea, now what?
This post is intended to the participants of Startup Weekend Alexandria.
You’ve picked your idea and pitched it to a clapping crowd, you’re filled with all the energy and confidence that you will make it happen… don’t get too carried away and know this: what lies ahead of you is your biggest challenge and the essence of the Startup Weekend experience.
Having been down the path of prototyping ideas...
I'm back!
but for how long?!… remains to be seen.
July 2008
1 post
“The conventional wisdom in our business is that you have to grow and keep moving...”
– http://www.behancemag.com/Stefan-Sagmeister-Life-so-Far/5723
June 2008
1 post
“t’s good to be young and full of dreams. Dreams of one day doing something...”
– http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/004592.html
April 2008
9 posts
Be good and good things will happen to you
If you’re benevolent, people will rally around you: investors, customers, other companies, and potential employees. In the long term the most important may be the potential employees. I think everyone knows now that good hacker are much better than mediocre ones. If you can attract the best hackers to work for you, as Google has, you have a big advantage. And the very best hackers tend to be...
Be good to boost your morale for hard times
Morale is tremendously important to a startup—so important that morale alone is almost enough to determine success. Startups are often described as emotional roller-coasters. One minute you’re going to take over the world, and the next you’re doomed. The problem with feeling you’re doomed is not just that it makes you unhappy, but that it makes you stop working. So the downhills...
Dunbar's Number
Dunbar’s number is the supposed cognitive limit to the number of individuals with whom any one person can maintain stable social relationships. This limit is a direct function of relative neocortex size, and that this in turn limits group size … On the periphery, the number 150. This number was then compared with observable group sizes for humans. Surveys of village and tribe sizes...
“Passion: “They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you...”
“Three Rules of Work: Out of clutter find simplicity; From discord find harmony;...”
“Technology has the shelf life of a banana
Scott McNealy”
Perceptual Blindness
“perceptual blindness” or “inattentional blindness” is a phenomenon that occurs when we become so focused on what we’re doing that we fail to see anything that does not directly play into the task at hand. We basically fail entirely to pay attention to things we don’t expect to see. Skeptical about this? watch this video. Not that we can overcome this...
New Format for Tumblr
Two days ago I decided to stop using my Tumblog as a destination for my links (on del.icio.us and others), and start using it to express my original thoughts, in case I come up with any. And also I changed the theme to a more Cloud-friendly one instead of the more generic previous design, hope you like it.
March 2008
109 posts
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