Competing together, not against each other

Posted on August 30, 2019

In many instances people think they should sink the other ships to win the race but that -as it turns out- this is not true. They think in this way because they are thinking about a zero-sum game. However, that is not always the case, there are many environments where you can benefit more from collaboration than competition. There is the case when the technologies are mature enough that standardisation works for the competitors. Competitors will work together to createRead More→

How to estimate a market size using facebook?

Posted on August 22, 2019

It always fascinated me how could estimate the market size. Many times, you have this wonderful idea but it turns out that no-one was asking for it. So here I’m going to explain how to estimate the market size using available resources in a very “rule of thumb way”. So, the reason why I’m using Facebook in this case is because, like it or not everyone is there, and the big brother knows everything about us. Where we live, age,Read More→

Complaining about a problem without posing a solution is called whining

Posted on August 14, 2019

“Complaining about a problem without posing a solution is called whining” – Theodore Roosevelt Roosevelt seemed to be a very interesting persona. With many wonderful quotes and speeches like the man in the arena, April 1910. This speech I would say is the long version from today’s quote. Complaining about things does not help. We already live in a highly reactive world. Making this world better is not about someone else’s responsibility, it’s everyone’s. So, if you’re not improving it,Read More→

Hiding API keys in python using anaconda environment variables

Posted on August 6, 2019

First you should have anaconda 😉 Then we need to find out where the environment is located echo $CONDA_PREFIX We’ll create create the sub-directories cd $CONDA_PREFIX mkdir -p ./etc/conda/activate.d mkdir -p ./etc/conda/deactivate.d touch ./etc/conda/activate.d/env_vars.sh touch ./etc/conda/deactivate.d/env_vars.sh We’ll have to input the variables in ./etc/conda/activate.d/env_vars.sh For example here we will add a secret key and a path #!/bin/sh export MY_KEY=’secret-key-value’ export MY_FILE=/path/to/my/file/ Also important to unset the variables when we deactivate the environment we will need to edit the file ./etc/conda/deactivate.d/env_vars.shRead More→

Summary: Pre-suasion by Robert Cialdini

Posted on July 29, 2019

Dr. Cialdini is the writer who brought the influence to the mass market with his first book Influence. Towards the end of 2016 he then later published a new book: Pre-suasion. He intended to extend and build upon his previous work. Overall the book was quite fast to read, full of examples and stories that made the ideas memorable. It is well written. Lesson 1: You can lead the answers with your questions For example, if I ask you: “GivenRead More→

Business model navigator

Posted on July 23, 2019

I the Business Model Navigator pdf article one can find the 55 business models that exist now. Any company that generates revenue is using at least one of them (if not more). This may become handy sometimes.

External vs internal motivators

Posted on July 16, 2019

Recently I did a post on why do people follow the rules ‎which is tightly linked with this one. One could say that the external motivators may be the rules and the internal motivators the discipline. But in my opinion it does not work like that. External motivation comes from others cheering you but also from environment changes -laws-, the market, etc. Internal motivation is the motivation that people should aim for. You should do things because you believe inRead More→

We follow the rules

Posted on July 9, 2019

We follow all the rules is the sentence that rises a big red flag. If a company has to advertise that they follow the law that means that there is something sketchy about it. If a person says that he or she follows the rules be wary that they may be playing on a thin line. But also, when companies say they follow the rules it may also mean that they do not want to build a better product butRead More→

Hell yes or no

Posted on July 3, 2019

Most of the time we roam around earth without a clear direction. We let the winds guide us, we accept everything, we take up activities because some friend asked. Just because we don’t dislike something it does not mean that we like it. Yeah, I could read this book, but it’s an ok book. Wouldn’t it be better to read that other awesome book? Just because it is there does not mean that you should take it in. We shouldRead More→

We live in a society where we put each other's genitals in our mouth but we don't like the black spots on the bananas

Posted on June 28, 2019

We are full of contradictions. You think you’re smart because you are able to point out the contradictions of the others but you don’t escape them either. Some examples: Work so we have money for our retirement vs. Be with our families and enjoy them now. We need to do both. Democracy vs. People making bad choices. Democracy is not perfect and not good for every society. The problem is what system works better? Enjoy every day vs. Live careful,Read More→