harjtaggar - Latest Comments

Re: Post-startup school thoughts

Ryan Soh — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 21:34:09 -0000

Hey Harj - have thought about this (perhaps too much!) as well. There's a lot to be said about surrounding yourself with the right kinds of people, and on "being of use" to others.... what do you think of combining the two?

With working with people that can improve me... something I think I was lucky enough to realise was that they may be looking to improve themselves too, and there is some kind of symbiosis/teamwork "You scratch my back I scratch yours" kind of thing going... hmm how to explain it... I think "reciprocity" is a term that captures it pretty well. I guess like if you want something there needs to be a willingness on your part to give something back..... even if it is not immediately evident the person whom is giving it to you expects or even wants it.

Also, with positively impacting a significant number of people's lives, the version that I came up with was more along the lines of "positively impacting significant people in my life".... like, if I really love my friends and my family, what have I done for them lately, have I spent enough time with them, etc etc.

Re: Post-startup school thoughts

petenixey — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:40:21 -0000

Good post Harj, you echoed the exact thoughts that I took from Startup school and I thought that both Tony and Mark's talks were particularly thought provoking.

Most people spend most of their life with their immediate goals defined for them by their job. As a (perhaps a pre-customer?) entrepreneur you get to chose what your priorities are which is liberating but as they say with great power comes great resistance times current squared ;)

The goals that I do now that I think work pretty well are:
1. Make sure I do work that has gratification every few days - not going for weeks or months before something succeeds or fails
2. Make sure I really believe in what I am doing and am rock certain that someone wants it
3. (as you) Work with people who force me to raise my standards (both in terms of smarts and work ethic)
4. Make sure that I live my personal life to the full as well as work life

I'm reading Finding Flow at the moment which was another one of the books Tony mentioned - it's excellent, you'll enjoy it and I know it will resonate with you.

Peter

Re: Post-startup school thoughts

Alasdair Bell — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:03:12 -0000

Hey Harj, great to hear you are back in the wild - I'm excited the hear more about your plans for the future.

I'm also considering next steps. Over the past year and a bit I've been building my experience of startups and investment by helping to run Seedcamp. I'm on the lookout for important projects which attract my attention - I'd be happy to discuss what I've seen to far.

Best,
Al

Re: The Talent Myth

Bernardo Velazquez — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:24:01 -0000

Thanks for this one. I've come across your blog because I came across the story of your friend Anjool Malde. You both have been inspiring in a short way for me today. I hope all is well in coping with your loss.

Re: The Talent Myth

Amity — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 10:33:19 -0000

no matter what u say, he's a moron

Re: Launching Early and Parkinson’s Law

myprasanna — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 03:47:33 -0000

Nice post Harjeet. Though most of the things are said, (4) the seems most staring at the face truth. Easy to miss.

Re: Launching Early and Parkinson’s Law

car — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 11:14:01 -0000

how are thing going at Live Current? How's the cricket biz? Will auctomatic technology be integrated into their platforms anytime soon?

Re: No more poke

Pokeless — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 01:38:11 -0000

I completly agree. NO POKE equals to NO FUN. Nobody wants to poke their friends. Playfully yea but not trying to talk to them. That would just make it wierd. Poking strangers is fun and from first hand experience, poking has gotten me laid many times haha. IN all seriousness no poking is like inviting a person to a party that has a lot of women attending and then telling you you can only flirt or try to talk to only to YOUR FRIENDS. I am not the only one who feels this way about it because I have heard many people say the same thing. So im pretty sure they are going to bring it back

Re: No more poke

John Peden — Thu, 29 May 2008 04:27:19 -0000

@harj

I read that you had said how restrictive facebook was to developers, could you elaborate?

@kul

How do you propose they focus more on entertainment? Less focus on scrabulous and more focus on cinema listings for example?

Re: No more poke

Paul — Fri, 23 May 2008 13:58:04 -0000

I agree with your comments regarding the loss of the poke function. As a result of this feature I was able to make an amazing new friend in England ( I live in Canada) that I would have otherwise not been able to approach (I also have some other ones made the same way). Certainly sending a stranger a random "message" through Facebook is not a desired way to meet someone....a poke is "more casual" and facilitates future messages after poking.

As the saying goes..."if it ain't broke don't fix it". I think outside of adding new utilities and features Facebook should not take away the things that differentiated itself from other social networking sites.

Facebook should be about being able to communicate with known friends, reconnecting with old ones who you can't find through normal means like the white pages etc... and making new ones (being a social person and meeting new people from different cities, countries).

One step in the wrong direction can lead to more bad decisions...Facebook should be careful. I can't see why they removed the "poke" function. I am certainly a avid Facebook user and love it but if in the future they take away the fun of using it I am sure many of my friends will use it less as will I. Who knows if it will exist and another social networking site take it's place.

Re: No more poke

harj — Sun, 18 May 2008 08:19:31 -0000

yeh i definitely think that has happened over time. i remember the early press from when i first joined facebook in 2004, zuckerberg himself was publicizing how he'd use facebook to contact random people and go party with them at different colleges.

Re: No more poke

harj — Sun, 18 May 2008 08:18:18 -0000

that's an interesting point. it'd be interesting to know if they have data to show what causes people to lose interest in facebook over time and whether the addition of peripheral friends is one (though not sure how they'd differentiate between real and peripheral friends accurately).

Re: No more poke

Rupert Paul — Sat, 17 May 2008 08:41:28 -0000

They are messing around with a fun and interesting concept. Find new people is something which makes facebook interesting. If you remove the ability to interact with new people then what does facebook become? a juiced up hotmail?

Re: No more poke

kul — Fri, 16 May 2008 17:40:20 -0000

fb are overly focused on utility and not enough on the entertainment/fun angle

Re: Addicted to Information

kul — Fri, 16 May 2008 17:39:07 -0000

fag

Re: No more poke

Dan Lester — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:23:13 -0000

Actually, my understanding is that Facebook are focussing on connecting people who already know each other. They're also talking about removing Networks since that's also a way of discovering new people...

I have no idea why they think that's clever.

Although, it is true that once you've collected 100s of people you don't really know, the value of Facebook seems to decrease (for me, anyway). So perhaps they know what they're doing.

Re: Addicted to Information

trevj — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:09:21 -0000

I was talking with a brain specialist the other day, and he was actually the one who brought up the point about multiple media outlets at once. He said that what tends to happen is our heads flip over into 'fight or flight' mode and get stuck there, which leads to the sort of desperate flitty behavior us ADD kids have :-)
Anyway, good luck!

Re: Addicted to Information

harj — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:29:21 -0000

I think your point about limiting the media you consume at once is a very good one, i've definitely noticed that as my ADD gets worse I find myself needing to turn the TV on for no real reason even when I have my headphones in and am working.

I also couldn't agree more about having some offline time each day, am trying my best but have failed so far. Think I'll concentrate on trying to read more.

Re: Addicted to Information

trevj — Fri, 09 May 2008 02:03:17 -0000

I sympathize with you wholeheartedly. I've been there, and am to some extent there still. There are a few things I've found that can help however.

-Make a list of four or five other people who would hear about any really bad or urgent news you'd need to know about and have them agree to actually call you on the phone if need be. That will relieve some of the obsessive email anxiety. After all, if it's something that literally only you would know about by reading an email, how horrible could it actually be that it couldn't wait a few hours?

-Limit the media you consume at once. I used to do TV, music, a magazine and the internet all at once. Ya gotta bring your brain down off that, force it to slow back down and only consume one form of media at a time. After a while you adjust back down to the slower pace.

-Take a "Drug Holiday" I used to take ADD medication, and one thing they advise you to do is to make sure you go without it at least one day a week. Try to set aside a small chunk of "offline" time each day, and a longer chunk on a weekend day, then increase the time away as you get used to it.

-Be outside in nature every single day. The artificial environment provided by a building is sensory deprivation for our brain. Is it any wonder we fixate on
the bright screen? Nature provides our brain with a ton of information to process, but it is of the sort that our heads know how to handle and it does wonders for mental health to be outside.