plusbryan

Ah, I’m sorry if I came across in that way, that these days where gone. I believe that all things go in cycles. And I believe opportunities exist all around to find what we want. I myself experienced a beautiful opening in my own life that required bravery, which has nothing to do with tech.

The freshness of a thing cannot stay that way - it must go stale and be renewed. It is this cycle that gives us contrast. When a thing goes stale, you can choose to either stay in that energy, wait until the freshness returns, or forge a new path.

My answer may go in a different direction than you might expect. But The most important gift I’ve ever given myself is being brave and facing my fears/demons. Taking a break from the flow of life, stepping outside of expectation, and turning inward. Of going to therapy for the first time, learning to meditate, and working through the childhood conditioning that was causing me to choose a life of “imprint” rather than “blueprint”. The imprint allowed me material abundance for which I am grateful. But the blueprint has given me my life’s purpose, my true calling, which is no less scary than the choice I made in 2006, but more valuable than anything on paper.

I’m always happy to connect more deeply and provide guidance if this resonates with you - PM me.

No I believe you are right. It’s all related.

Passion is love. Love is the force of creation. When we love something unconditionally, we pour the energy of creation into it.

When we love with conditions/incentives (ie I love this be because I’m making money), that pure energy is distorted/blocked. The most powerful way to create something is by unconditionally loving it.

But how do we filter on passion, when incentives seem to be required to attract anyone these days?

I welcome this opening, thank you for the opportunity to teleport. Since this delightful memory popped up earlier today, I've actually been contemplating this very question. Tomorrow I embark on a brand new venture (outside of tech), one that has me again drawing outside the lines. And so of course, in this moment, I am given the opportunity to reflect on another time in my life where I did something outside the norm.

I don't think it's easy to appreciate just how "weird" it was to be in tech in 2004-2006 from our current perspective. I recall sitting in for a talk at UC Berkeley by PG in around 2004, promoting his "crazy" new idea. There were maybe a dozen people there at most. And I remember thinking "I don't really know what this startup thing is, but I know I want to be a part of this movement".

And doing something like starting a startup then was actually really hard. My family definitely judged me for making this choice, many of my friends didn't understand why I would go this route. But it was an excellent filter - the people who came to this space at that time were passionate about building something amazing. Very few of us had dollar signs in our eyes at the time, and yet many of the big names of today were forged in that fire.

None of us knew what we were doing, and that was the best part! Everything was new, exciting. But you also had to build most everything from scratch because the SaaS ecosystem wasn't there. In this early time, despite the challenge, there was room to explore and forge new paths. To make mistakes and be creative.

LikeBetter started as a dating app. The concept was simple - I thought that current dating apps at the time were stupid in that they asked users to fill out profiles (eHarmony, Yahoo Dating). You essentially had to trust that everyone was being honest, which was never the case. What if there was a dating site that "knew you" better than you even knew yourself, and matched you with people that were actually like you?

So we build a bifurcating personality classifier with the simple and addictive prompt "What do you like better?" and the choice between two distinct images. We had a responsive interface which felt unbelievably fast for the time, and people were just so drawn into this concept. We were featured on the front page of Digg (lol) and got a lot of press too.

We also launched with no data model whatsoever - we just presented "guesses" and allowed the users to correct us if we were wrong. But over time we were able to accurately guess all sorts of interesting things about a person's personality, just from their choosing between 20 or so pairs of images.

But as with many things, the course of my own life forged a different path. We were part of YC Summer 2006, back when it was in Boston. We relocated back to SF, my cofounder and I had a falling out, and we decided to shut down the company rather than raise capital. We had hit upon an exciting spark, but were not the right torch bearers to see it through.

The path in startup land that began with LikeBetter eventually led me to successful outcomes, and for that I am forever grateful. And it all started by being brave and joining a movement that I felt passionate about.

In your own life, it's so easy to follow the "head": what makes sense and will make me the most money? But I encourage you to look for those moments of passion and inspiration, even if they seem strange - for they will lead you to great things.

Wow! What an incredible and surprising portal into a personally transformative time. Article #4 was my startup, LikeBetter. While the course of history flowed elsewhere for me, I have gratitude for the reminder in this moment. Thank you for sharing.

Agreed. Onlyfans is probably large enough that if they told their customers they could only accept visa or crypto payments that they would lose a lot less business than if they jettisoned their (core?) business.

In fact, MasterCard might lose enough business that they might reconsider. So this can’t be the full story.

Don’t rely on a “they” to solve a problem you’re passionate about. If you feel passionate about it, you should solve it!

This is really distressing, especially considering the ongoing public behavior of the original founder. Kicking out Paul seems like the opposite reaction for YC to have. It would be helpful to hear a public comment from them about this situation.

You can call 311 to report issues like this to the city. However, I quickly realized that the crew isn't too happy about being called out for such matters. After reporting yet another dump on the sidewalk in front of our home, I saw the city crewman pull up, take his power sprayer, and blast the feces under my fence and all over my side yard - effectively rendering it no longer his problem.

Agreed. A "guest" could target popular listings and hide a camera without the host knowing.

If you have a dedicated group of players, like a group at work, one fun way to play Game of Thrones is to only do one round per day (usually about 30-60 minutes, perfect for a lunch break). It actually breaks the game up well, and builds the intensity. Up to you if negotiations are allowed away from the table!

As much as I’m a fan of meaty strategy games like Diplomacy and Game of Thrones, the best games are the ones you actually take out of the closet to play!

Usually I find myself playing in groups where some people are unfamiliar with a given game, so I also prefer games that are fun for new players. For me, those games are:

Pandemic Original or Legacy: one of the best cooperative games I’ve played. Fun for groups or just two players. My wife and I had the best time playing Legacy Season 1 over many months. There’s something so magical about a game that changes AND self destructs as you play it.

Acquire: easy to learn and set up, with the right blend of luck and strategy so that players of mixed skill levels can enjoy together.

Carcassonne: same positives as above with slightly higher learning curve.

Puerto Rico: quite a bit more complex than the above, but relatively accessible and quite fun once you learn the strategy. Takes a game or two to really enjoy.

Blokus: a fantastic informal game for a lunch break. Easy to learn with deep strategy. Quick game best for 4 players.

Eight minute empires: fast paced and easy to learn civilization building game.

Agreed. Even if I choose to have recording devices in my home, and then rent out on a temporary basis, it would be trivial for me to take them down before renting it out. Plus, I have the financial incentive to do so.

Allowing hosts to have cameras inside the rented space, regardless of recording state, seems like a bad policy indeed.

The only "legitimate" reason a host would want active cameras in the home is for protection against bad guests. This belies AirBnB's supposed "host guarantee" which should prevent this concern in the first place.

Unless AirBNB solicits more fine-grained reviews to elicit feedback on such things, or enacts a policy around consumables, this is the direction many hosts will go. As long as it doesn't reflect in the photos, corners will be cut.