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Our brain loves distractions, and multitasking gets bored quickly. When we read text or watch a photo, it engages us visually, a video (with audio) engages us even more. The bandwidth of eyes is much larger than the bandwidth of our ears. When we are watching something, it utilizes more bandwidth and hence occupies more of our attention span. Also, given the way our eyes work, we can focus more on the exciting aspect of the visual feed. Compared to that, audio underutilizes our brain’s bandwidth. Further, the unidimensional flow of audio data at a linear speed does not mimic our ability to process it. Contrast forced direct listening with how non-linearly humans read. ...

The book presents a robust theoretical framework around how good ideas emerged in human history and debunking myths associated with the same. The underlying theme of the book is how coral reefs, big cities, and the worldwide web provide the right platform for innovation. The right platform for innovation provides liquid networks that encourage rapid information sharing, serendipitous encounters, the formation of slow hunches, the exploration of the adjacent possible, and the exaptation of existing solutions for solving seemingly unrelated problems.

Consider two systems: the first is 90% reliable and the second is 99%. The wrong to compare them is to compare the reliability and conclude that the second one is 9% (or 10% if you take 90% as the base) better. The right way to compare them is to compare the unreliability and conclude that the first system fails in 10% of the cases while the second fails only in 1%, making it 10X more error-prone than the second. The reliability comparison is a vanity matrix while the unreliability comparison not only demonstrates the user perception (“The user saw ten crashes in past one hour” vs “The user saw one crash in past one hour”) drastically but also shows the effort that goes into making the system more reliable. ...

The book presents Goldsmith’s experience on what causes the most talented, ambitious, and successful professional to hit a career roadblock. Almost all the professionals which Goldsmith worked with had interpersonal issues of one form of the other which either didn’t matter in the early phases of their career or the professionals were so talented that they progressed despite those issues. Put a comma in the wrong place and the whole sentence is screwed up. ...

The island of Oahu, which contains the capital city of Honolulu, is a fantastic combination of urban amenities, nature hikes, and beautiful beaches. If you are doing only one island out of the four major islands Of Hawai’i, then this is the one I would recommend. I did it during Thanksgiving, which is the last week of November. While this island is not as big as the “big island”, public infrastructure outside the city of Honolulu is not good. Therefore, I would recommend taking a moped rental(30-40$ a day) for a solo trip. Roads are narrow, and the moped turns out to be a better choice than a car, both for driving and parking. The only time a moped gave me trouble was when it rained. Outside the city of Honolulu, there is nothing much to do after the sunset. So, plan your trip accordingly. Do check out local food items, like Shave Ice cream and Banana bread from local markets. But don’t carry any of it for the return journey. ...

You cannot read a book kept too far or too close to your eyes. You cannot comfortably watch a movie from the first row of the multiplex, and you can’t watch it from the other end of a football field either. When you are too far, details are lost. And when details are lost, everything looks similar and boring. When you are too close, the perspective is lost. And when perspective is lost, one gets overwhelmed by the details. ...

All consumer internet products are either about consumption, production or both. A blog site is primarily about consumption. A photo transforming app is primarily about production. Social networks are consumption heavy. Good Messaging apps are symmetric. And a grievance collection product like BBB is production heavy. Building aggregation on top of similar products is a well-known strategy. The hard realization to note is that it can succeed only in very specific scenarios. Look at all the successful aggregation products, travel booking sites, news aggregators, RSS readers, discount coupon aggregators. As opposed to that, attempts to write an email aggregator, a social media aggregator etc. have not been as successful. And that’s the underlying theme, aggregator works well for consumption only interfaces where the product is sourced from many sources (more the better) and is standardized in the eyes of the consumer. They have limited success almost everywhere else. And this just doesn’t apply to software products. Microsoft tried and failed to have their own hardware stores since their offerings were similar and a subset of BestBuy whereas Apple succeeded in the same strategy despite the naysayers. ...

They don’t fly on dates 2PM and 8PM on Friday are the same dates but the former flight requires taking a leave from office, latter does not. 11PM on Friday and 1AM on the following Saturday are different dates for the airlines, but it’s same for passengers. Discovery of the latter is especially poor on most booking websites. Destinations matter more than the airport The concept of the nearby airport based on the distance is archaic. For example, San Jose (SJC) and San Francisco (SFO) are almost identical for most leisure travelers since most individuals flying into either are going into SF Bay Area. A bit further one from SFO is SCK (Stockton) which sucks for the lack of ease of connectivity back into the SF Bay Area. A leisure traveler flying into Kona in Hawaii might gladly take a flight out of Hilo which is on the other side of the island. While I am giving the example of airports I am more familiar with, I think the idea applies to most metros with multiple airports. Airlines treat such a ticket as open-jaw and usually charge a higher price. ...

The country is roughly divided into inland and cayes. Inland has historic Mayan sites. Cayes (pronounced “keys”) have water sports. Day 1 - San Ignacio After landing at the Belize airport, I took a USD 25 taxi to Belize city since there is no public transport to Belize City. From there, I took a 2.5-hour bus costing USD 4.5, heading west to San Ignacio. There I check out the Cahal Pech ruins. Established in 1200 BC, this is the oldest Mayan site in Belize. The entry fee is USD 5. Do me a favor and get a guide for another $10 -15 USD. Guide’s explanation adds real value in terms of understanding how the site was used. I spent the rest of the day checking San Ignacio city. Nothing much exciting in it. ...

The book is Ben Horowitz’s memoir with a particular focus on his company Opsware and the lessons he learned there.