http://defmacro.org/ Ramblings on Lisp, Haskell, C++, compilers, web frameworks and more. en-us http://defmacro.org/ramblings/yc-interview.html So you've agonized over the YC application, crossed your fingers, hit that submit button, and chewed your nails to the core waiting for the response. Finally, you got that precious e-mail inviting you to the YC interview - the fifteen minutes that might change the way you think about your life forever (it won't actually change your life - you'll still be an unemployed ruby hacker with a dream, but it will change the way you think about it). Finally, the exhilaration has subsided. What now? How do you prepare? Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:07:12 PST http://defmacro.org/ramblings/yc-interview.html http://defmacro.org/ramblings/leverage.html Statistics suggest that most successful startup founders have three failures under their belt before they make it big. It doesn't have to be that way. While nothing can replace hard-earned experience, people can and do learn from other people's mistakes. I'm a firm believer that a couple of simple (in hindsight) lessons can significantly increase the overall success rate. In this article I want to talk about leverage. I think that in at least half the failures I've seen (my own as well as others), misunderstanding the mechanics of leverage played a key part. First, let's take the cat out of the bag: the probability of you getting leverage in a given situation is inversely proportional to how much you need it. Tue, 6 Oct 2009 05:51:11 PST http://defmacro.org/ramblings/leverage.html http://defmacro.org/ramblings/rethinkdb-tech-founder.html Here at RethinkDB, a company I founded with friends from the university to redesign database technology for solid-state drives, we're looking for a technical cofounder. We just finished Y Combinator summer session, and are looking to expand the team. Tue, 6 Oct 2009 05:51:11 PST http://defmacro.org/ramblings/rethinkdb-tech-founder.html http://defmacro.org/ramblings/yc.html It is said that the Silicon Valley attracts a lot of smart people. This is a half-truth. Aside from the smart people, the Silicon Valley attracts a lot of people in general (after all, I'm here!) Meeting many people and sifting through their advice is incredibly important - I don't think it's possible to build a successful business without a team of competent mentors willing to spend time with you. Since we started RethinkDB, a large chunk of our job has been distilling advice of hundreds of people and integrating it with our vision in order to build a great product. We quickly found out that Lao Tzu was right when he said, "those who know don't speak, and those who speak don't know." Wed, 9 Sep 2009 02:58:39 PST http://defmacro.org/ramblings/yc.html http://defmacro.org/ramblings/taming-doubt.html Older people looked at me with gentle smiles, as if my curiosity and relentless drive is a product of my youth and will eventually wane. I suppose they thought it was cute. I think I might have noticed this, but I never paid much heed to it. I don't remember now because it never seemed to matter. I followed my gut, and learned as much as I could from people that were willing to help me, and everything else was of no concern to me. As I grew older and learned more I started to wonder. Am I really any good? There didn't seem to be an easy way to tell. Eventually, this detached wondering turned to doubt. I would spend only ten percent of my time working and the rest of the time I'd question the rank of my talent in relation to other people and some perceived absolute. Wed, 28 Jan 2009 08:34:27 EST http://defmacro.org/ramblings/taming-doubt.html