Here's another shirt design that I created after having a silly little idea at night (to be more exact, tonight! ) 

While deployed to Iraq, I used an Xbox 360 and a M203 40mm grenade launcher to generate a staggering body count. The guys in my platoon tired quickly of my "n00b tube" hijinks, but I was no good at sniping, so I had to resort to less precise measures. The game was Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. 

The company behind this game: Activision is doing something commendable - the Call of Duty Endowment. C.O.D.E. is an amazing initiative that seeks to ensure that veterans "are rewarded for their service with stable, competitive, and fruitful opportunities of employment." 

I applaud the efforts of this organization and love the PR work that they do to encourage employers to pursue veteran job candidates. I was slightly disheartened however, upon looking at their list of participating companies to find very few that I'd be excited to apply for. They have some great names, but they seem to be focused in the defense, energy or logistics fields. Being an entrepreneurially-minded geek from California, this isn't quite up my alley.

Who is it that I'd love to work for? Tech companies - Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Netflix, Yelp or AirBNB.  These are the kinds of companies that will fuel job growth going forward. They are also the companies that are designing the way that the world interacts with technology. These companies are also considered fairly progressive when it comes to social causes. So, I thought that certainly the larger, more established companies would have their own initiatives to hire veterans, but upon searching, I found nothing.

Now some may of you may be thinking, "Tech companies are looking to hire engineers and veteran employees don't really fit their business needs." This holds true for a lot of very small companies, but large companies are hiring candidates from many different disciplines for different product lines. Many small startups need people who will do more with less and work tirelessly in risky circumstances. These prospects won't scare off a combat veteran.

I don't know how typical my experience in the military was, but I do know that it has many applications that stand to benefit potential employers. The small team that I worked on in Iraq was a perfect picture of entrepreneurial hustle. We had to set up shop in burned-out shopping mall and accomplish our mission. We borrowed tools and begged for nails to build our furniture.

We had to pitch our capabilities to other units to convince them that we should be a part of their missions. We had to learn fast and take on tasks that were much too large for us. We stayed up all night trying to head off "show-stopper" equipment problems. In the end, we helped to make a small corner of Baghdad more safe for honest, hard-working families. It was arduous and wonderful and it changed who I am.

One of my favorite Silicon Valley companies recently held a career fair for veterans: Tesla. They recognize the valuable skills and attributes that veteran employees can bruing to their growing company.

If they continue to pursue veterans to staff their new plant in Fremont, I have no doubt that this will contribute to continued growth of this bold, innovative young company. An older tech company, Microsoft, has designed a tool to help match veterans with suitable positions within their operations. Redmond recognizes that there are many "hard" and "soft" skills developed in the military that can help drive their business objectives. 

There is an incredible opportunity in the labor market in the form of a large number of recently separated veterans. These young adults are mature beyond their years, have a broad global point-of-view, and a drive to succeed. They know about sacrifice and discepline. They know how to follow and very often know how to lead. They will very rarely say "I can't." Tech companies of all shapes and sizes would benefit immensely by adding veterans to their ranks. Since most startup companies keep a close eye on what the big guys (Google, Apple, Amazon & Facebook) do, this effort should start with them.

I'd like to extend a call to the leading consumer tech companies to join an initiative like C.O.D.E. or to create their own systems to actively recruit veterans. They have a lot to gain, and can make an impact in the lives of those who have served.

 

 

 

I had this idea for a t-shirt, so I whipped this together and posted it on Zazzle. 

 

Check it out and buy 30 for your closest friends, mmkay? 

Okay, I should be writing a couple of different papers right now, but this recent article really has my dander up.

The Cult of Mac's Mike Elgan laid down the link-bait, and I gobbled it up. His article was entitled "Why Every Child in America Needs an iPad" It should have been called "The Big Bad TV is Ruining Your Kids, So You Should Thank Apple For Saving Them"

The main thrust of Elgan's argument is that television is presently the poison that most parents pick for their children, and swapping it out for an iPad is a no-brainer. If the situation were truly dichotomous, I would certainly wrap loving arms around the sleek aluminum chassis of the iPad and thank it for being a part of my life. Oddly enough, there are more than two ways to spend a childhood.

NOTE: As a parent of 3 children younger than 5 years old, I know how hard it is to not just turn on the TV and let them "veg out" for a while - or an afternoon. However, there are a lot of options when it comes to finding things for children to watch that won't rot their brains. But I didn't write this post to defend the TV. In fact, my wife and I have noticed that our oldest daughter has a significant spike in the number and severity of tantrums on days that include television consumption. So we use "TV time" quite thriftily.

What do our kids do instead of watching TV? Kid stuff!

For example:

Pulling branches off of trees

Digging in the sand

Banging sticks on trash cans for music

Playing with the magnets from daddy's busted up speakers

Cutting up papers and making art

Seeing how close you can get to a beehive without getting hassled by bees

Chasing each other

Messing up mommy's garden

Filling in gopher holes

So, back to the iPad.

 

The iPad does do a lot of things better than the TV, this is true. But it is still a poor excuse for experiential learning. One of the arguments for the iPad: "The iPad can be taken outside." Oh, wonderful. So that instead of ignoring carpet fibers and painted sheetrock, my little nature-lover can ignore all of the splendor of the great outdoors! Huzzah!

Just like the TV, the iPad encourages children to retreat from real-life experiences that can be hard and require patience. No wonder a child would much rather sit and talk to their parents at the dinner table, the apps on the iPad won't scold them or (gasp!) require them to apologize for bad behavior. Most apps use well-crafted game mechanics to keep children interested by rewarding them often (and intensely) for playing.

Last I checked, this isn't how achievement works in the real world. Nature teaches a child to be patient and wait a while before they see plants spring up from the soil, but digital worlds do not invite a child to exercise such patience.

 

Learning to deal with different people with different personalities is hard. I remember being intensely afraid to ask adults for anything as a child, even if it was a grocery clerk that I saw on a fairly regular basis. But I had to learn to swallow my fears and interact with the people around me. You can't get that from an iPad.

Basically I can sum up my argument this way: the lesser of two evils is still evil.

If a parent needs to choose an electronic babysitter, the iPad is a better choice. But to me, even saying that feels like saying "If you're going to kick me in the junk, I'd rather have you take your boots off."

Can we not aspire to something better for the next generation? Can't we teach them to appreciate nature (actually in nature, not by watching a movie about nature or simulating nature in an app) ? Can't we teach them to collaborate and imagine with friends? Can't we teach them that their parents might have something interesting to say at the dinner table? Can't we show them that the world can be amazing even if we don't see it through a touchscreen?

More than every child in America needs an iPad, every child needs a real, present, struggling, caring, imperfect parent.

But iPads are easier to manufacture, so maybe we should just go with that.

I just got home about an hour ago from a fantastic time at Startup Weekend San Jose (SWSJ). It was an amazing experience and one that I won't try to fully describe here. (Edit: you can check out my pitch at about 11m 30s, and see my slides.) The title of this post is probably misleading some of you into thinking that I had a negative experience at Startup Weekend. Quite the opposite is true. I can think of very VERY few things that would have been more worthwhile. 

 

But if you're a marketing/business dev/ideaman type of entrepreneur looking to go make things happen at a similar event (like the one coming up in San Francisco on May 6 - 8), I want to help you get the most out of the experience. So, here are a few tips and insights to give you a leg-up before you start-up. 

 

1. You are a dude going to "ladies night".

Why do ladies nights even exist? Because any venue knows that a sausage-fest is no good for anyone. So they try to give ladies lots of reasons to come out and make the scene worthwhile. And when the men-folk hear "ladies night" they think that there will be LOTS of ladies. So the ratio gets all re-sausaged. Ugh.

At Startup Weekend, the technical folks are the "ladies" that have their pick of the crowd. And some of them have come with their own brain children to work on, so you can compare them to ladies who already have a boyfriend and are "just here to dance." They are not available to be persuaded into working on your idea.

So you've got a tough fight ahead of you if you want to snag some tech talent. Please be aware of this.

 

2. Know why you're going

We're not talking 5-year plan stuff here. What do you intend to do? Join a team and help build (sell) something cool?  Do you want to get feedback on your idea? Are you in it to get a huge foamboard check from some fellow who hasn't purchased any of his own groceries for the last 20 years? Do you want to make contacts to land a new job?

 

Whatever your reason is, keep it in mind as you choose what to do with each precious hour. 

 

3. Half of the battle is being remembered

You've got to find a way for people to remember you. They should also associate you with your idea. One fellow at SWSJ had a fedora with a sponsor sticker on it. I very quickly could recall his idea and had associated it with him. When you pitch your idea, try to connect it with something about YOU. Then you won't have to deal with so many annoying queries like this: "Oh, and what was your project again?"

When you do your final pitch, please swing for the fences. You aren't contemplating entrepreneurship because you like to play it safe. Do some stuff that is unconventional. You're supposed to be the one that can sell.

 

4. Get yourself a posse

You've got to have at least a wingman. If you aren't going with one, find one quickly once you arrive. When the time comes to form teams, it may be a free-for-all. In the case of SWSJ, it was. Here is where social proof kicks in. The biggest, most productive teams at SWSJ were the ones that had a core group formed before the team-forming time started. These teams were not explicitly declared, but the people clicked, the bonding occured, and an expectation was developing. Then, once the formal "team-building phase" occurs, the agreement is verbalized, and wedding bells clang. 

And once there are 2-3, it becomes much easier to bring on numbers 3-7. 

Put yourself in the place of a hacker who can do everything from backend-frontend-mobile client development. Would you want to be responsible for doing all of that over the course of a weekend? Doubtful. Would you want to build a rockin' architecture for some biz monkey that didn't have a designer on board to drape that architecture in glossy sex appeal? Uhh.... not so much. 

So what's the point? Find someone with some dang tech/design and get them to tag along! Pay for their ticket if you have to. 

 

An aside:

 You may be handed the unfortunate circumstance (as I did) of having a great idea that gets chosen for "Pitch Day" and not attracting any tech folks to your team. So what are you going to do? Pack it up and go home? Join another team? Build a mock-up? There is no blanket-statement to give the right answer here. But to meet my objectives for SWSJ, I pushed ahead and did a mockup demo that IMO was pretty slick. Some thought this was a rash decision, and that it would have been wiser to join a team and collaborate on an idea that actually had tech talent.

Maybe there's too much Ol' Sarge braggadocio left in me from the Army days, but I had to push forward with the intended mission, even if it meant going it alone. Fortunately a brilliant dev stepped in and donated a few hours to give me a slick-looking Appcelerator-made iOS app. That made a world of difference!

 

 

5. Prepare your "Contacts Pipeline"

Even if you're not "in it for the connections," you'd be dumb to throw this opportunity away. Think carefully about how people can find you and how you can connect with others. Everyone prefers different services (LinkedIn, Twitter, FB, GitHub) , so see which ones you can use to connect with interesting people. 

So there you have it. The best idea I could pump out before my eyes rolled back in my head from exhaustion. I hope you have the time of your life! 

 EDIT:

Upon waking up this morning, I remembered a few more points I wanted to add:

6. Shut up and ship

First, shut up. Just shut up. We biz folks are way too chatty. This is not the time to expound upon the future of connected devices or the virtues of the Android ecosystem. Be very judicious with your use of words. Maybe in your day job, you spend lots of time "getting things done" by collaborating or discussing strategy with colleagues. This is not the time or place for it. Every time you start a discussion with one of your tech people, you may be interrupting their thought process, or stopping them from a good run of actual building. Don't be that guy.

Now, ship. As a bizdev type, you DO have product to ship. So don't just sit back and think that your job is to manage the team. Wrong answer. If at the end of the weekend, the idea is the most valuable thing you've brought to the project, then you've been a lazy chump. You'd better be talking to potential customers, making contacts, doing real, impactful research, etc. Nail down your value proposition and get it validated. There may be some serious pivoting to do (or maybe moderate veering.) Know what your product is, personally. Then make sure that you're pumping it out as much as you expect your tech cohorts to.

6. Make your own luck

Tools. Only the most clever animals use them. You've only got so much time to get work done, so you don't want to spend time fighting your tools. I lost seriously about 7 hours trying to get an important piece of software working. Others had similar issues.

Prepare your tools carefully. Think about getting a trial version of Photoshop. Don't wait until crunch time to try to download the iOS SDK. Get a bank of impressive fonts.

Also, if you're used to using more than one monitor, consider bringing one with you. This may sound crazy, but if you're going to be working on this configuration for a lot of hours, it is probably worth a little sweat equity to get yourself set up.

Test your pitch hardware. My pitch was cut down at the knees because I didn't test out the laptop / projector setup. Other pitches had network issues. Sort this stuff out ahead of time.

 

.. to appreciate the beauty at your feet day by day.

It's kind of magical here after dark on Tuesday nights.

I've gotta get something off of my chest. 

There seems to be a sentiment that makes its way around the blogs and other tech water coolers that sounds a little something like this: 

"The only ones buying Android phones are geeks who like fiddling with their settings." 

As a geek who spends way too much time fiddling with my settings, I took this to be true for a long time. But around Spring of 2010, it became clear that the Droid movement was moving beyong the robot-loving nerd-hordes. Month after month, we kept hearing about how insane the growth rate of Android was. 

But the tech elite continued to root for the "home team." They said that Android was too buggy or too unintuitive to gain wide adoption. They said that grandmas and other first-time smartphone buyers would invariably choose iPhone. They imtimated that they couldn't believe the reports published by research firms because all of the early-adopting cool kids were still toting their glossy Apple devices.

But guess what: the common man loves Android. 

Do they wish that they had money to burn on Mr. Jobs' latest paradigm-shifter? Probably.

Do people feel sad that they paid $50 for a high-tech device that does almost everything they want it to? Nope.

Do they feel bad that they're not spending gobs of money on paid apps? Nope.

Do they pout because they're not vertically integrated into the App Store / iTunes / Mac / iOS universe? Nope. 

I've seen this first hand in my night job. I work as a waiter for a company that is known for it's baby-back, baby-back, baby-back, baby-back ribs. I'm in a very tourist-heavy area and I see people come and go from all over the country and the world. I see people from slices of the social pie. When I started working there in the fall of 2009, I saw customer after customer basking in the happy glow of their iPhone while completely ignoring the person sitting across from them. I concluded that the iPhone was the only smartphone for people who didn't wear pleated slacks to work. 

But I have seen a significant change since then. Not only have I seen more and more people playing with their different flavors of Android phones, I have seen a different sort of customer toting a smartphone. The masses who shell out their fees month-to-month to Boost mobile and MetroPCS are now carrying smartphones. Teenagers who probably got the "get one free" end of the bargain are carrying smartphones. Immigrant workers, manual laborers and hospitality employees are texting, Facebook-ing, and snapping pictures in the finest smartphone tradition. And they're doing it with Android phones. 

In the new media hubs of New York and San Francisco, style and branding are critical. So you wait in line to get the latest revolutionary products, shell out your money, and then proudly brandish your gadget sensibilities to the world.

You talk about things like "build quality", "UX design" and "fragmentation" to reinforce your decisions. But if you spent time out among the normal people, you'd  find that folks just want to make it work for the lowest price possible. Thousands of times a day, Android wins that platform battle. 

After reading an amazing article by Kalimah Priforce on the lack of diversity in tech startups, I felt compelled to write a comment about my experience and perspective wanting to be a startup founder. But my comment got swallowed by the interwebs, so I'll write it again as a blog post!

I've been taught and I think it's true that humanity's biggest problems and most incredible successes begin in the same place: the home. And this particular issue probably is no exception. The expectations and goals that parents set out for their children have everything to do with what they will pursue in life. 

Growing up in California's Central Valley, it seems that it would be natural for me to hear about the exciting things happening just a short drive away in Silicon Valley. But the truth of the matter is that I assumed Silicon Valley was a huge place in another part of the country. I also assumed that it was the home of huge industries that had always existed. When I heard the word entrepreneur, I thought of owners of local businesses: HVAC comapanies, sandwich shops, used car lots, and comic book stores. It never occured to me that the technologies that were sprouting all over my home and my world were products of entrepreneurial success. 

Moreover, I would assert that low and middle-class families program their children for safety and stability. So many of the college students I associate with are advised by their parents to go into whatever fields are posted as "The Best Paying Jobs of the Future" by some grocery-line publication. 

A management position in a government agency or large corporation is an ideal endpoint from the perspective of a parent who struggles to make ends meet from month to month. If their children are talented and driven, these parents will encourage them to be doctors, professors, or lawyers. They want their children to be high-wage earners. (And it helps in the constant one-upmanship that ensues at family reunions and barbeques.) Picture the concerned, fearful look on the faces of these parents when a daughter or a son trimphantly exclaims "I'm quitting my job to work on this product with some friends."

At the risk of turning off many readers, I have to reference Robert Kiyosaki, author of "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" here. Upper-middle class and wealthy parents encourage their children to create wealth and work less. 

 

They teach their children to manage risk and to find work-arounds. Many of these parents are themselves entrepreneurs or have seen the amazing returns reaped by savvy founders. This is at the heart of the matter for a racially representative startup community. 

In order to flood Silicon Valley and other innovation hubs with brilliant and diverse talent, we have to change their frame of reference while they are young. It cannot be done independently of the communities from which they hail. The U.S. Army recognizes this and has accordingly launched a huge campaign to market to the parents of potential recruits. 

In a similar way, risk-taking and innovation must be embraced by parents, teachers and leaders. Social entrepreneurship will help with this marketing challenge, and so will outreach efforts by the tech community. 

So for me the goal is involve educators in the training of a new wave of tech genuises. As a new generation of computer-savvy teachers takes the reigns, they can empower children's curiosity and show them how to manipulate the digital world around them. And when we teach them to hack, we give them the skills they need to build the future.