Anybody following bitcoin will know that the cryptographic currency had a huge run up recently that has brought with it an increase in fraudulent activities, including a DDoS attack on Mt. Gox and an epic theft of $3.5 million worth of bitcoin described in Felix Salmon’s long piece. I have been skeptical about bitcoin because of the built in deflation and because I have a growing concern about the use of crypto more generally. And it is entirely possible the bitcoin will be to crypto currenci...

Anybody following bitcoin will know that the cryptographic currency had a huge run up recently that has brought with it an increase in fraudulent activities, including a DDoS attack on Mt. Gox and an epic theft of $3.5 million worth of bitcoin described in Felix Salmon’s long piece. I have been skeptical about bitcoin because of the built in deflation and because I have a growing concern about the use of crypto more generally. And it is entirely possible the bitcoin will be to crypto currenci...

This morning’s NY Times has a couple of interesting stories. The first is that apparently the rate for bribery in NY State and City legislatures is as low as $20K. But the one that really caught my attention was the headline titled “Crosswalks in New York are not Havens.” Having three children who walk to school in Manhattan, this is a topic very near to my heart. The article starts out with the following quote:Pedestrians struck by cars are most often hit while in the crosswalk, with the sig...

This morning’s NY Times has a couple of interesting stories. The first is that apparently the rate for bribery in NY State and City legislatures is as low as $20K. But the one that really caught my attention was the headline titled “Crosswalks in New York are not Havens.” Having three children who walk to school in Manhattan, this is a topic very near to my heart. The article starts out with the following quote:Pedestrians struck by cars are most often hit while in the crosswalk, with the sig...

Last Tech Tuesday I wrote about evolving your technology as you grow. As, if not more important, is how you grow your engineering organization. They after all are the ones who need to make the right choices about the technology! Here I have observed three common mistakes: staying flat too long, not investing early on in devops and missing the co-founder to manager transition (if such a transition turns out to be necessary). Most startups begin with just a couple of engineers who tend to be en...

Last Tech Tuesday I wrote about evolving your technology as you grow. As, if not more important, is how you grow your engineering organization. They after all are the ones who need to make the right choices about the technology! Here I have observed three common mistakes: staying flat too long, not investing early on in devops and missing the co-founder to manager transition (if such a transition turns out to be necessary). Most startups begin with just a couple of engineers who tend to be en...

Tonight I am giving a brief talk at a Publishing Point event organized by Susan and Jenny. Here are some notes that I pulled together in preparation, written up as a blog post. At USV one of our big investment thesis is that the internet is resulting in massive unbundling of existing business models and value chains. Newspapers are a great example of this process with different sections, including crucially classifieds, now being unbundled across many different web sites with breaking news on...

Tonight I am giving a brief talk at a Publishing Point event organized by Susan and Jenny. Here are some notes that I pulled together in preparation, written up as a blog post. At USV one of our big investment thesis is that the internet is resulting in massive unbundling of existing business models and value chains. Newspapers are a great example of this process with different sections, including crucially classifieds, now being unbundled across many different web sites with breaking news on...

A while back I had stopped worrying about bee Colony Collapse Disorder because it had been out of the news for a while. From this morning’s New York Times it seems like I was wrong. Apparently if anything the rate of bee colonies collapsing has accelerated. This could turn into a very serious threat to the food supply for anything that needs pollination by bees which includes many fruits and vegetables. One of the potential culprits here are genetically modified plants that include so-called ...

A while back I had stopped worrying about bee Colony Collapse Disorder because it had been out of the news for a while. From this morning’s New York Times it seems like I was wrong. Apparently if anything the rate of bee colonies collapsing has accelerated. This could turn into a very serious threat to the food supply for anything that needs pollination by bees which includes many fruits and vegetables. One of the potential culprits here are genetically modified plants that include so-called ...

I have started reading Antifragile by Nassim Taleb (review coming when I am done with it). As an early example of a system that gets better under stress he mentions city states (presumably as they existed in ancient Greece). At USV we have been thinking about jurisdictional competition as a way to run more experiments during a time of change. We have focused on small countries such as Iceland and Singapore which might pass progressive Internet legislation but there are relatively few of those...

I have started reading Antifragile by Nassim Taleb (review coming when I am done with it). As an early example of a system that gets better under stress he mentions city states (presumably as they existed in ancient Greece). At USV we have been thinking about jurisdictional competition as a way to run more experiments during a time of change. We have focused on small countries such as Iceland and Singapore which might pass progressive Internet legislation but there are relatively few of those...

The last two Tech Tuesdays were about choosing technology as a startup. Today we are talking about what to do once you are up and running. Let me start by categorically stating what you should never, ever do: rewrite everything from scratch. There is a terrific piece on why this is a bad idea written in 2000 by Joel Spolsky that you should go off and read right now (Joel is a very entertaining writer). Etsy early on made this mistake and it almost killed the company. When I first invested in ...

The last two Tech Tuesdays were about choosing technology as a startup. Today we are talking about what to do once you are up and running. Let me start by categorically stating what you should never, ever do: rewrite everything from scratch. There is a terrific piece on why this is a bad idea written in 2000 by Joel Spolsky that you should go off and read right now (Joel is a very entertaining writer). Etsy early on made this mistake and it almost killed the company. When I first invested in ...

While Moonwalking with Einstein isn’t a new book – it was published in 2011 – I only just got around to reading it. The book’s subtitle is “The Art and Science of Remembering Everything” and it uses modern day memory competitions as the hook for examining the history, cultural significance and to some degree science of memory. I highly recommend reading it if you haven’t done so already! There is lots to like here. First, Joshua doesn’t just cover memory competitions from a bystander’s perspe...

While Moonwalking with Einstein isn’t a new book – it was published in 2011 – I only just got around to reading it. The book’s subtitle is “The Art and Science of Remembering Everything” and it uses modern day memory competitions as the hook for examining the history, cultural significance and to some degree science of memory. I highly recommend reading it if you haven’t done so already! There is lots to like here. First, Joshua doesn’t just cover memory competitions from a bystander’s perspe...

A couple of weeks ago I heard Brian Greene state there is no scientific basis for free will. It was a powerful statement because he made it quite categorically and tersely. And it really jolted me into thinking about this longstanding philosophical problem that I hadn’t really spent much time thinking about since College. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect as I have been studying up on neural networks. As I have thought more about it I find myself agreeing with Brian. At any one momen...

A couple of weeks ago I heard Brian Greene state there is no scientific basis for free will. It was a powerful statement because he made it quite categorically and tersely. And it really jolted me into thinking about this longstanding philosophical problem that I hadn’t really spent much time thinking about since College. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect as I have been studying up on neural networks. As I have thought more about it I find myself agreeing with Brian. At any one momen...

One of my favorite New York City conferences is back after taking a 1-year hiatus. GEL'13 will be on from April 17-19 with Thursday, April 18th being the main day for presentations. Fittingly, this year’s theme is “Back to Life” and GEL is taking place in a much smaller venue than before (so get your tickets soon as they will sell out, also: early bird ends this coming Monday). What makes GEL so special is that Mark Hurst who organizes the conference always brings together a wonderfully ...

One of my favorite New York City conferences is back after taking a 1-year hiatus. GEL'13 will be on from April 17-19 with Thursday, April 18th being the main day for presentations. Fittingly, this year’s theme is “Back to Life” and GEL is taking place in a much smaller venue than before (so get your tickets soon as they will sell out, also: early bird ends this coming Monday). What makes GEL so special is that Mark Hurst who organizes the conference always brings together a wonderfully ...