Disqus - Latest Comments for daryn

Re: I Miss Writing Here

daryn — Tue, 28 May 2024 10:46:23 -0000

What a pleasant surprise to see this post in my feed reader (do people still use those?) this morning.

The tribalism really is terrible at this point. I hate “keeping quiet” about various topics but it feels like you have two choices these days: fervently wave a flag or face dissection from both “sides” as they try to bucket you and treat any high rung thinking as sign that you may be an enemy and must be taken down.

On the personal side, hope everything is on the up; wishing you a safe and smooth expedition across the Atlantic!

Re: The Best Canned Tomatoes

daryn — Thu, 15 Dec 2022 09:40:23 -0000

Any thoughts on Costco’s Kirkland Signature San Marzanos?

Re: Zoom Fatigue

daryn — Mon, 11 May 2020 10:08:19 -0000

I agree with this suggestion, but also with the fact that it’s hard to cut 30 down much smaller. Unless it’s a super quick check in, by the time you’re done with someone being late and the how’re you holding up chit-chat, you’ll use the full time.

We tried ending hour and second half meetings at the :55, so you’d at least get 5 min per hour to stretch, do pushups, walk to another room, bio break, etc.

Culturally, it had mixed results, so now we’re trying starting every hour on the :05. That seems to be working better, but unfortunately these sorts of calendar tricks only work if you can make the rules.

Re: What I Miss the Most

daryn — Fri, 17 Apr 2020 13:52:53 -0000

Massimo’s Instagram live videos are great! We’re supposed to go to Italy late this summer and stay at his hotel. Unlikely that will still happen (fingers crossed) but these videos are giving me something to look forward to one day.

Re: What I Miss the Most

daryn — Fri, 17 Apr 2020 13:12:04 -0000

I’ve been doing a handful of social zoom meetings and, beyond missing the real human contact, I’ve really noticed the direct impact of the number of participants on the quality of the interaction.

I guess this is true with IRL events as well, but it’s much more friction in zoom to break out into small conversations, and it’s way easier for the attendee list to get bigger and bigger, and tbh I have very little interest in joining another 40+ person “zoom happy hour” again :)

That said, I’ve had some good intimate zoom meetings too, and it’s been really great reconnecting with folks where time and space hasn’t allow that to happen face-to-face for a long time!

Re: Frame Homes

daryn — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 16:29:47 -0000

This is so awesome, I knew you had the steady flow of “construction projects” but didn’t know this was what you were up to. Really interesting stuff - now I want to build another house / building! :)

Re: Celebrating Dori (2011-2019)

daryn — Wed, 13 Nov 2019 10:10:53 -0000

Hi Albert, long time no talk. Sorry to hear of your loss. Sending my best from Seattle!

Re: null

daryn — Tue, 12 Nov 2019 00:12:16 -0000

Jeff, how come mturk never comes up in these history of AWS stories? For me, it was one of the first truly mind blowing services, and I remember fondly when you “announced” it to a handful of people in the room at Andru Edwards’ 1st Mindcamp unconference!

Re: Everything about venture capital . . . you can learn from music lyrics

daryn — Tue, 05 Nov 2019 23:42:19 -0000

bravo!

Re: Nordstrom

daryn — Fri, 01 Nov 2019 23:31:22 -0000

They all look the same, and it’s not great... It’s sad, but even with being a Seattle company and the flagship just a few blocks from my office, I rarely go to Nordstrom unless I’m walking through it to go somewhere else. I’m more likely to grab something at the rack before a trip, as it is connected to the light rail station, but the shopping experience there is so bad with long lines and disorganized merchandise that I’m increasingly better planning ahead by two hours and using Amazon Prime Now.

Lmk when you want to try to reinvent retail one day. Sounds fun :)

Re: Tumblr

daryn — Thu, 15 Aug 2019 10:13:36 -0000

💯. I’d been on all the different social and blogging platforms before, but my time on tumblr was truly special. Amongst other things, I never would have met Fred without it :)

Was just talking about that old MP3 player widget the other day. Good times...

Re: Tahini Cookies

daryn — Thu, 11 Jul 2019 13:37:21 -0000

Is this based on the recipe in Zahav? I haven’t made those yet, but they’re on my list.

Re: Video Of The Week: Solar Roof vs Solar Panels

daryn — Mon, 13 May 2019 13:54:42 -0000

Given your taste (from what I've seen) in real estate, I'm surprised you prefer the solar tiles that much. They seem best for replacing asphalt/shingle roofs on more traditional houses than new construction or more modern.

We have a standing seam metal roof, and the panels are pretty low profile and blend in pretty nicely.

https://uploads.disquscdn.c...

Re: Wills

daryn — Tue, 30 Apr 2019 17:06:22 -0000

"Leaving a will is as important as balancing your checkbook."

I thought this was an interesting choice of comparison, since I don't have a will, and I don't balance my checkbook. The latter is due to two main reasons: having enough in the bank to not worry about over-drafting, and improved technology that allows me to write less checks and to see my bank balance in near real-time. I wonder how the will and life insurance industries can be changed in the same way.

I agree we're being irresponsible (it's my daughter's 10th birthday today, by the way!), but both wills and life insurance have been marred by professionals who seem about as trustworthy as the personal injury lawyers that advertise on TV, we don't have a personal lawyer, and it's hard to know where to start. Definitely seems like there's startup opportunity in this space.

Re: Facial Recognition

daryn — Sun, 21 Apr 2019 14:17:37 -0000

Second, there is absolutely no difference between an excellent algorithm and a live person who remembers a million faces.

There are actually two big differences, both of which favors the AI over the human (besides that no live person could remember a million faces).

First, the algorithm is always on, doesn't get fatigued, and can multi-task much better than one individual. Compare that to the security guard who is bored and half-watching a set of cameras for activity.

Second, we can be more intelligent about biases, by being intentional about the content of the training data and its diversity. There's a lot of work that goes into this process, and there's still a ways to go, but ultimately we'll be better off than with a human.

Re: Rethinking AVC

daryn — Tue, 12 Feb 2019 05:03:56 -0000

The comments are a big part of AVC to me. Don't get me wrong, the content itself is great, I just love seeing people riff on it, and that likely gets lost in a purely broadcast world.

That said, it seems you used to be more involved in replies and it is less bi-directional now, so maybe the discussion lives on somehow as a freestanding community of newsletter readers. Maybe that's just reddit or something similar?

Re: Do You Want to Be a Best, or a Favorite? Linda Derschang, The Derschang Group, Podcast #90

daryn — Mon, 04 Feb 2019 11:01:31 -0000

Linda is awesome. We've only met a handful of times over the years, but I've always been blown away by her smarts and taste-making abilities (she's somehow managed to remain the epitome of cool for 20+ years!). My long-time neighborhood, Capitol Hill, Seattle, in the late 90s/early 00s was ruled by Linda and the Rudy's Barbershop/Ace Hotel guys, and it has been really cool to see their businesses expand and their styles evolve through the years.

My personal Linda story: We lived in the same condo building and worked in the same office building for a couple years. And I still have an ashtray that I or someone else swiped from one of her bars back when smoking was a thing :)

Come up to Seattle!

Re: The Daily Dose

daryn — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 16:31:28 -0000

Fwiw, if you hadn't written about the widget I would have glossed right past it as it looks very visually similar to those garbage content units from Outbrain and Taboola.

Re: Life doesn’t have a playbook

daryn — Fri, 04 Jan 2019 15:36:06 -0000

Really appreciate both of your writings on this. Having never done well with the middle-of-the-road stasis (though I think that’s getting easier with age), I embraced the startup world specifically because of both the higher highs and lower lows. While I haven’t had the meteoric success you describe, there have certainly been extreme peaks and valleys throughout the years.

What’s helped for me, especially as I’ve found the pendulum swinging toward the negative, is remembering that life isn’t one, or even three, dimensional. While X might be spiraling out of control, there are always aspects to balance it out. Sometimes everything seems to be going wrong, and it can be really tough to find the good, but it’s there and forcing myself to search for it has my best way out of the hole. Maybe it’s the 12 years of Quaker schooling in me, but I take “there’s that of God in everyone” to mean “there’s always some good to be found”, and even if I may be fooling myself, it’s better than the alternative.

Re: Feature Friday: Wireless Charging

daryn — Fri, 16 Nov 2018 16:18:24 -0000

There's still a cord, it's just plugged into the stand :)

The wireless charging stands and pucks don't excite me much, but the idea of wireless charging built into furniture and other surfaces does. And I ordered this for my Model 3, which is a pretty awesome use-case.

https://hellonomad.com/prod...

Re: Mementos

daryn — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 13:50:48 -0000

Love it. My wife tries to keep it in check, but I have a "technology museum" box of old cameras, phones, pdas, and gadgets; a box of lots of old hard drives that I'm sure I've consolidated several times over the years, but just in case; and another box of random tchotchkes that would have been tossed in the first year or two, but now have enough nostalgic value to keep around.

I think I've got your old Nexus One somewhere if you want it back :)

Re: Funding Friday: Misen Non Stick Pan

daryn — Fri, 02 Nov 2018 12:08:16 -0000

I love the Field Company skillet I have (also backed on Kickstarter), but handy to have a nonstick as well, primarily for omelettes.

Also, while it's a common KS tactic, pretty wild to see Misen at almost $900k
pledged of $25k goal

Re: 15 Years A Blogger

daryn — Thu, 04 Oct 2018 08:22:10 -0000

Oysters @ Jeffrey’s!!

Re: 15 Years A Blogger

daryn — Thu, 04 Oct 2018 08:19:49 -0000

Congrats! I’m so thankful for this medium.

I’ve been reading for at least a dozen of those years, and it has been a wonderful ride following the family, construction projects, restaurants, recipes, and most of all, the writings in between. It’s hard to fathom that we’ve only met once (and that was 10 years ago!)

Re: Sonos

daryn — Thu, 02 Aug 2018 13:45:34 -0000

I feel the same way.

I don't remember exactly when I bought my first Sonos, but guessing that you / AVC had something to do with it. For the longest time, it was my favorite technology system in our house (Replaced about 3 years ago by the Peloton bike...).

That said, the software updates haven't always gone well, I've found myself going for the ease of "Alexa, play ____ on Spotify" on my echo devices more and more, and haven't bothered to look into their voice integration or any system upgrades in years. Most of the time I use Sonos these day, I trigger it from the spotify app, not from their own app, which is my own fault but disappointing.