Features list

To decide if a product is better than the other, we normally compare their features list. But, if the products aren't in the same category, this doesn't work so well. This is why I think comparing the Apple iPad to laptops, iPod Touch or netbooks is pointless and irrelevant. When Apple entered the mobile phone market, they didn't care if their iPhone was lacking in features. Instead, they focused on what they thought was more important to a phone user. The iPhone isn't a phone for everyone but there was enough people that loved it.

After the App Store was added to the iPhone, you started to see the other mobile manufacturers attempting to match this feature by building their own. All of a sudden, the once-lacking-in-feature phone is now the one to beat.

I think the key to building a revolutionary product is to make your competitors' features list irrelevant. Invent your own category and if you succeed, your product's features list will then be the industry standard.

Price and cost

In the simplest form, we can describe both price and cost with this equation.

Price = Cost + Profit

However, this equation isn't exactly accurate. It shows that the price is somehow correlated to the cost, which isn't true in some cases. Regardless whether you watching Avatar with a 200+ million budget or The Blair Witch Project filmed with just 22,000, you are going to be paying the same ticket price at the cinema. Here, the price is uncorrelated to the cost.

Price is actually a function of supply and demand. But, cost will in one way or another determine the lower bound for the price. If you want to know more about the relationship between price and cost, check out this post from Chris Dixon.

The Little Numbers

You can find them everywhere. On Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader, your mail client and even your phone. I'm talking about the number that shows how many unread messages, notifications, email, articles or what ever that are waiting for your attention. These little buggers are productivity biggest enemies.

Every time one of these pops up, I'll get the urge to stop what I'm doing and  go check it out. They are designed to catch your attention and they are darn good at it.

So if you are looking to improve your productivity and reduce interruptions, get these little numbers out of your sight. I promise you'll get more things done.

Change the course of history

Four Years Go is a movement to get everyone to start changing our lifestyle to avert the incoming ecological and social collapse. We have to change the course of history in the next 4 years in order to create a better future.

As the Chinese proverb says “If we don’t change our direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed” and in humanity’s case where we are headed is clearly some type of ecological and social collapse.

All of us have to realize the damage we are causing to our planet and rise up to change this. We need to be the change agents that will lead humanity to more sustainable course. Check out the site for more information about this movement.

Making time

All the talk about doing things you love and stuff that matters is pointless if you don't have the time to do them. If you feel that you are too busy or 24 hours seems too short, try some of these strategies. You might be able to free up some time to pursue your dream.

  1. Automate - Reduce the tasks you need to do by automating or delegating it. Look for tools or techniques that let's you spend less time on certain tasks.
  2. Prioritize -  All of us have so many things to do that we end up doing what ever that comes next. Sort your tasks and choose what you must absolutely do. Try to either delay the others or automate them.
  3. Less hobbies, 1 passion - Previously, I've talked about differentiating hobby from passion. Both of them requires significant time investment, so try to reduce the number of hobbies you have. Ideally, what you want to do is your passion so that automatically you will make time for it.
  4. Do less stuff - This might sound a little lame but by choosing to do less is the easiest way to free up your time. It's similar to how saving money is the sure-fire to accumulate wealth. Try applying some minimalism in your life.
  5. Set deadlines - You could also set a deadline for your task to prevent it from taking too much time. Only allocate a certain amount of time for each tasks and stand by it.
  6. Disconnect yourself -  The average Facebook user spends one hour on the site daily. Nowadays, you've got Twitter, Youtube, Friendster and millions of other site to procrastinate on. Shut off your smartphone and get away from the computer if you want to get something done.

I hope some of these methods will help you gain that extra hours to put into your dream. We are all given the same 24 hours to work with. The successful ones are those that use it best.

Understanding the problem

It took me a while to start blogging because I was trying to solve a problem that didn't matter. At first, I was under the impression that it's hard to blog because I simply can't have that many things to talk about. So naturally, my solution was to write shorter posts like those who uses Tumblr. To make matter worse, since I'm a web developer, I decided to code my own blogging platform. Together with John, we got it up in a month or so and started blogging.

It was only a few months into blogging (occasionally) that I realized the problem wasn't the platform. The actual problem was that I didn't understand how and what I wanted to blog about. Only then I realized, what I needed from a blogging platform and switched over to Wordpress.

The lesson to be learned here is that when faced with a problem, try to find out more about it. Don't try to solve a problem without understanding it because you will be just wasting time and effort.

If you can't figure out the problem, face it directly. In my case, I should have just started blogging with any of the blogging platform out there to get a feel on what's keeping me from it. Understanding the problem is the first and most crucial step to solving it.

Progress is addictive

​Every time I get something done, I feel good and it gives me the momentum to keep going. Maybe it's the sense of accomplishment or the satisfaction you get when you finally complete something.

What ever it is, it's definitely something you want to feel over and over again. The taste of success creates a desire to keep you coming back for more. If there's one drug you want to get hook on, this is it.

You can make a list, attempt the easier task first or break them into easier ones. The point is to reach the finish line. Once you do that, the other lines will look a lot closer than before.

Change is certain

The first social networking site, Friendster was launched back in 2002. The year after that, Myspace came along, took the lead and was eventually sold for half a billion US dollars to the News Corporation. Then a bunch of college students decided to join them and founded Facebook. It is now the largest social networking site on the planet and both Friendster and Myspace revamped their sites to stay in the game. Things can move very rapidly and this isn't only the case for the online world. Telephones went mobile and transmit not just audio but now deliver the full multimedia experience. Computers morphed from a gigantic room-sized contraption into something you carry around and put on your lap.

Yet most of us live our lives assuming that when we wake up the next day, everything will remain the same.  The industry you work in will still be thriving. The status quo will remain and doing the same thing everyday is the safest strategy.

To matter make worse, some of us will start forecasting the future. We expect our pay will continue to rise and plan our budget on it. We believe that recession is something that only happen once every decade or so. All these expectations blind us from reality.

The reality is that things will and always change. It is not a matter of if but when. The safest strategy is to know that there is no such thing as a safe strategy. Just because you don't want things to change doesn't mean they won't.

Luckily for us, we humans are quite good at dealing with change. Our ability to adapt is our secret weapon to cope with the rapidly changing environment we live in. There's a reason why we are the largest species on the planet.

So if you really want a strategy to live your life, the best one would be to learn to adapt to change and read this manifesto. It explains why adaptability is so crucial to us. Since everything changes, so must you.

The best thing—perhaps the only thing—we can do to prepare ourselves for life in the future is to learn how to change. - Excerpt from Change Master

Hobby vs Passion

Hobby is something you do in your spare time for pleasure and relaxation. People look forward to it because it's the time they can finally get away from their hectic schedules to do something they enjoy.

Passion on the other hand, is something you love and would gladly lose sleep over to do it. It is the fuel that keeps you awake 3 o'clock in the morning, the drive that keeps you going even when everyone else thinks you're crazy.

It is inspiring when you see someone strive for their passion. They quit their job, lose friends and money all for their love and belief. But it's devastating when you mistakenly believe your hobby is your passion.

Passion is something you are willing to give up the chance to earn more money in order to do it, while hobby is something you are spending money on to feel better.

So if you planning to quit your day job and focus on your passion, make sure it isn't actually your hobby. The good thing is, if it's really your passion, you'll figure out how to make a living out of it.