Colin Charles Agenda

No rules in this game | Derek Sivers: “Gurus will say what you can’t do or must do. They mean well, but they’re wrong.

For every rule they tell you, there’s an exception. They are just telling you their specific past, not your specific future.

There are no rules in this game. You change them as you go.”

(Via Derek Sivers.)

Derek is talking specifically about the music industry. I think this applies to more than just the music industry. This is sage advice that applies to any industry.

Remember, be open to advice, but be influenced by none.

I have been involved in communities all my life. From participant to leadership roles, communities are something I grok. 

It was with great interest I read about the “deep tech” team inside of its Developer & Platform Evangelist (DPE) unit. There are several names in that interview that I have crossed paths with – these folk are great developer’s advocates.

The usual folk that we expect are known as “developer evangelists“. There are quite a number of them on this list (rather lengthy).

I reckon the DPE term is overloaded. More than a year ago I was approached to do said job at Microsoft (they filled the position some eight months later). It was made clear that it was a Senior Sales Leader position.

This is a Senior Sales Leader position with responsibility for building a strong public profile which includes press, public speaking and key thought leadership opportunities; to meet with customers and partners across the country; to experience sales and strategic development; and to ensure the success of an exciting and diverse set of marketing programs.

So beware titles as they get overloaded and the original meaning is forgotten.

References: Platform Evangelism, Technology evangelism.

The BlackBerry Q10 goes on sale in Malaysia on May 15 2013. The suggested retail price is RM2,388 (USD$805). In Singapore it is suggested to sell at SGD$898 (RM2,167 – or USD$731). First question, why are Malaysians paying more?

Point to note: I would be upgrading from a Bold 9700, something I’ve used for many years. It has been in my pocket for a long time, there are dead pixels on the screen, it does scream for an update. It should also be noted that my main phone is an iPhone, while my secondary device for roaming purposes, is a Samsung Galaxy SIII.

I asked on Twitter and got some responses. Conclusion? Overpriced and not really value for money. I tend to agree with this – after all, you can get a HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S IV, or an iPhone for less than RM2,388. Don’t forget that with a BlackBerry the premium doesn’t end there – you pay for tremendous amounts of data usage, as they’ve decided to drop BIS.

So what were the initial draws to the BlackBerry for me?

1. BIS and its low data consumption. The idea of data being free was common years ago, but nowadays its all metered. When you’re roaming, some countries have unlimited roaming data, but what about countries that don’t? Do I really want to be paying more to receive my email? I have that with Android/iOS already…
2. BBM. My contact list now has a handful of people still using BBM. They all use WhatsApp or some other messenger service. Even BBM diehards have quit because the rest of the world moved on. Whatsapp does the same thing. And with partnerships on some telcos, you start seeing “free data usage” for services like KakaoTalk or WeChat.
3. QWERTY keyboard. This is useful. This is the only reason why I didn’t even bother to look at the Z10. I like Swype. I like the Android keyboard on my Nexus 7. I like the iOS keyboard too. But at the end of the day, I love a hardware keyboard. Is this worth paying a premium for? I’m not so sure

Key-point: the BlackBerry has never been my primary phone. It was always the secondary device relegated to: email, Twitter, Bloomberg (for stocks), and the occasional WordPress blog entry.

I doubt it is the primary device for many. Social apps that friends use may not be present in record time. Maybe Instagram comes soon. Who cares? App developers are 100% focused on iOS and Android. Convincing them for the third platform is hard for BlackBerry, Nokia, etc.

Free devices to supposed “influencers” aren’t going to help at this price point, when all anyone wants under their Christmas tree is an iOS or the myriad of Android devices up for grabs. Remember that at the end of the day, no one cares about processor power, memory available, megapixel count, etc. – that’s the stuff that excites a tech reviewer but not the end user (I think Nokia learned this the hard way).

My prediction? This device isn’t going to do as well as planned and Brightstar has one million of these devices pre-ordered, so I expect heavy discounting going forward. 

Can anyone convince me why I should ditch the Bold 9700 (for the Q10) going forward? 

I turned 29 on Sunday. Coincidentally it was Mother’s Day this year. I made sure I was home for the celebrations, having arrived back from Seoul on Saturday. 

I feel incredibly lucky to be back to celebrate with my loved ones. It started with homemade kaya in the morning, a wonderful lunch at The Lobsterman (coincidentally the bill had 512 in it!), and a dinner that consisted of a couple of homemade pizzas. Sara is becoming a great chef.

It didn’t quite hit me that this is my last of the twenties. This time next year I would have embarked on my thirties. I’ll think about that next year, but in the meantime, there are 365 days to be wonderful and amazing, right?

Yesterday, Monday, I took some time to myself. I spent a significant amount of time in the gym. Followed by a great long swim to clear my mind. And a trip to the sauna. All in, using the facilities at the club to the fullest. It was invigorating to be able to do all that.

Today I awoke at about 5.15am almost naturally. That says a lot. I might continue with a vigorous exercise regiment, without the need for excuses like “I have no time”. I might not. Who knows. All in, I’m reminded by the bit of propaganda: pain is weakness leaving the body.

But the remaining days till my thirtieth, I expect to be achieving the goals I set out for myself. They are tall orders some of them, but I think I’ve made relatively good progress in my twenties to achieve them. As humans we always set milestones, and like a politician, I’ve generally set 5-year marathons.

Here’s to a great year ahead!

I cannot say this better than Dustin Curtis can, so read it: What a stupid idea.

They saw the future and they built it. But for some reason, my first reaction to their earliest attempts wasn’t to give them the benefit of the doubt—it was to immediately find problems and then dismiss their ideas.

The future is extremely hard to see through the lens of the present. It’s very easy to unconsciously dismiss the first versions of something as frivolous or useless. Or as stupid ideas.

We all talk about being disruptive, but how many people say things like “the relational database market is a $9bn market, I want to reduce it to a $3bn market and take 1/3 of that”? Saying is one thing, having the vision is another. That was me paraphrasing Marten Mickos (former CEO, MySQL – exit $1bn) speaking to Danny Rimer (partner, Index Ventures).

I live by the mantra that the best way to predict the future is to engineer it (via Alan Kay) and that the future is wide open.

I read with great zeal the article about Y Combinator in the NYT titled: Silicon Valley’s Start-Up Machine. I think there are a few important takeaways, especially with people trying to build this kind of thing elsewhere.

1. People take the $100,000 at a 7% stake because of the whole experience. Advice from seasoned entrepreneurs (like pitch improvements, etc.). The importance of the network they bring (which is hugely underestimated by many clones). Dumb money remains dumb.
2. “The general public doesn’t understand start-ups at all,” Buchheit said. “They’re mystified how a company with no revenue can be worth a billion dollars. It’s because of this power law: If a company has a 1 percent chance of being a hundred-billion-dollar company, then it’s worth about a billion dollars. That kind of thing doesn’t happen in your normal life experience. If I get a cup of tea, it’s a cup of tea – there isn’t a chance that it’s actually made out of solid gold. But that’s how this works.” – direct quote from Paul Buchheit
3. “One of the reasons,” he said, “is because there’s nothing else to invest in. If you have money, there’s nothing to put it in. Bonds return nothing. And the stock market – what public company do you feel reasonably assured is going to go up at historical norms of 8 percent a year? It could all just fall apart. . . .” If, on the other hand, you discover the next Google, you can increase your investment by “a thousand X.”

Nothing else to invest in. Interest rates in the USA are low. In Malaysia (or Singapore), you have property as an investment that should return more than 8% per annum. Refer to my old post about the startup ecosystem in Malaysia.

Its nice to see lots of funds and accelerators pop up, but without the experience, the lack of vision, and other investment vehicles that return sufficiently, I’m not sure how even the angel incentives help.