Recent submissions

Comment · 11 years ago
it is sad that he is in AA, this video from him is probably one of the 12 steps he has to go thru
Comment · 13 years ago
Oh, I would love to see a michaelochurch comment on a VC video :)
Comment · 13 years ago
Comment · 13 years ago
I think this is cool and in my opinion has nothing to do with the workaholic culture.

I never did a deliberate 120 week, but I can attest that when I constantly do >12 hour days for a limited(!!) period my focus was much better. While there may be a cognitive decline because of the hours I believe there is a positive counterbalance when you do not need to worry about food, emails, laundry or any mundane tasks and basically you never unload the problem from your head. For certain type of coding tasks that gives much more than what is removed because of the tiredness.

This is something like an ironman. You can do it a few times, it puts you into a zen state, but obviously you don't run an ironman every day or every week of your life.

Comment · 13 years ago
this article says "the average American family with a pre-tax income in the mid-$50k range".

Is that household income or individual income? 50K for a whole family seems too low.

Comment · 13 years ago
Comment · 13 years ago
Your tagline is quite a paradox. Making deliberate practice simple is just the opposite what is deliberate practice. Which is difficult and hard.

My issue is that this is a generic tool. I also think you get the feedback theory wrong. Paying $7 for measuring myself againt some arbitrary concentration level is a joke. And also that function times out for me.

But the main question, why does this help me to do deliberate practice? I don't see any feature you have that would help:

- a list to remember for myself what areas to practice, schedule that and did I do that? but that is nothing more than a todo list

- I think the feedback concept is wrong. I understand you want to capture that somehow, but eg. for a tennis player or musician, in a session there are feedback every second, what you observe an correct in the minute. It's not a 1-5 scale for the whole session and not something you measure this way.

- go to calnewport.com , he has some good stuff on this

In my opinion the biggest problem with deliberate practice is to find out what to practice and with what framework. A gut feeling, but from a business perspective I don't see a business here. How many ppl did you interview?

Comment · 13 years ago
I know the feeling, but I think your brain fools you. You drank the kool aid of changing the world song.

Anyway I recommend two ways to go. First, list 50 companies and/or research areas in the world who you think does really world changing stuff.

Second, don't measure yourself just by the work you produce. You want challenges, then maybe try an extremely healthy lifestyle or extreme self discipline.

Third, you said you want to cure cancer. Well, if that's the case then fully understand what your role could be in that as a sw engineer. Then go for it and forget any other world changing ideas.

Comment · 13 years ago
thank. I found few post where you mention ISO certification. Just curious, are you in that space?
Comment · 13 years ago
can you explain this a little deeper?
Comment · 13 years ago
what would be the churn rate?
Comment · 13 years ago
from the article: "I am also far more satisfied doing this. My customers are very happy and that makes me feel good about what I am doing."

a true entrepreneur, good customer service, customers are happy. customer lifetime value may be low if they die.

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