Joining a startup? Read this.
Here’s a braindump of some things I’ve learned over the years. Caveat lector: my experiences inform this, and they aren’t representative of all the possibilities, etc. Ignore this if …
The T in CTO doesn’t stand for Talk
Looks like NZ will get a CTO real soon now. It’s hard to avoid the word “debacle” in describing how it came about: a false start at making an appointment, a whiff of impropriety in …
Proposed Changes to NZ's R&D Incentives
There’s an open consultation about to end, on the changes MBIE would like to make to NZ’s R&D incentives. In particular, they’ll phase out the Callaghan Growth Grants and replace …
Twitter's Summer Reading List
I asked my Twitter friends for recommendations of books to read over Christmas. I said that I’ve already consumed the new Expanse novel and the new Philip Pullman (intended to indicate that I …
On Moving to New Zealand
Hello, American friends! President-Elect Trump has given his speech and begun to redact his campaign website of the obviously illegal and impossible campaign promises, and you look up from your …
"Outcome is a function of process"
I was just catching up on Tim Kong’s excellent blog, when I read this great quote from Dan Carter: “One thing we talk about over and over with this current All Blacks side is about never …
Startups and failure
(Wynyard Group, an NZ tech high-growth company [or, perhaps, not-so-high growth] just entered voluntary administration. On Twitter, a friend was adamant bad luck had nothing to do with it. Instead of …
Job Titles
Job titles don’t matter, because it’s the work that counts. But job titles matter because they get you meetings with partners, interviews for next jobs, etc. They send signals that can be …
Lesson: Moats and Flywheels
It’s bloody hard to build something new into the world. Don’t let anyone tell you it’s easy: there’s a lot of unfunded and unrecognised work that you have to do before you can …
NZ Herald's "News" Is Shit and Lazy
tl;dr: Today’s NZ Herald drove me to this analysis/rant. I’m giving the damn thing up and will get my news from other sites, Radio New Zealand and NewsHub. You should too. I can’t …