Mostly Software

  • Wednesday

    • Whatsapp bot.
      • Something like: keep the last 10 messages (+id) in memory -> receive webhook for message deletion (or poll every 10 seconds) -> match deleted message id to message text -> repost the text (as the bot, since OP’s name and “this msg has been deleted” is right above.
      • Requires whatsapp business api?
      • https://developers.facebook.com/docs/whatsapp/cloud-api/get-started
      • They have a cloud api which allows you to just http hit their servers running instances of the whatsapp business platform.
      • The first 1000 conversations every month are free.
      • There are also python libs like “pywhatkit”: https://github.com/Ankit404butfound/PyWhatKit
      • Need Meta developer account, obviously.
      • I’d have to host this myself.
    • Planted.
      • Red Sails (lettuce), Deer Tongue (grass, do not eat), Black Seeded Simpson (lettuce).
      • China King Cabbage, Tango Celery, Baby Cauliflower.
      • Red Baron Bunching Chives, Benefine Endive, Dragon Tongue Bean.
      • Butterfly Friend Borage, Vicenza Blue Apex Lavender, Purple Basil.
      • Vinegar deep clean on both gardens.
    • Fish.
      • Helfrichi Firefish.
      • Yellow Banded Possum Wrasse.
      • Black Cap Damselfish x3.
      • Blue Tang.
      • Tiger Snapping Shrimp x2.
      • Emerald Crab x6.
      • Firefish Goby.
      • Dispar Anthias.

  • Wednesday

    • Lots of work in AWS: cognito, kms, cloudhsm, cdk2, api gateway, lambda, ses, sns, pinpoint.
      • Auth n/z, passwordless, oauth2, jwt, sms.
    • Added AWS Toolkit extension to vscode. Allows you to do a lot of dev actions for aws. The specific one I wanted today: debugging and setting breakpoints in lambdas, testing locally. This is part of a larger framework called SAM, serverless application model.
    • To compare commits in github:
      • github.com/<username>/<repo_name>/compare/<olderSha>…<newerSha>
    • 256 bits (like a blockchain address) are impossible to brute force. 2^256 is just insane. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9JGmA5_unY
    • VC labs are like incubators for VCs. They help you network, accelerate, etc. Get advice from others who have successful VC firms. Learn how to start your first fund.
    • Collected brave rewards (only mac this month).
    • Updated bmahlstedt.com to wp6.
    • A little bit of pulsing on the front brake of the ducati when I took it out tonight for the first time in ~5 months. This is due to rust on the rotor (sitting in damp/winter conditions with the cover on). It will wear off and bed down over time. You may also directly clean them. It can also happen if your rotors are warped. “Spongy” is a different feeling that pulsing; soft brakes are usually because there is air in the line and they need to be bled.
      • Everything else felt surprisingly ok; engine, coolant, brake fluids, tire pressure, gas, lights, oil.. Fairings were a little dirty.
    • –no-verify for git commit and git push to bypass husky hooks.
    • Tons of venture research. Paraffin, Vannevar, Hadrian, AstroForge, Epsilon3, FlexPort, Levels, Plantd, Newlab, Reserve, Zoox.
    • Not a ton of novelty in the bill that was released yesterday; more crypto regulation, third party evaluators will check liabilities, some stablecoin probes, stuff like that.
    • Ethereum merge, PoW -> PoS. Difficulty bomb increasing as we loom closer to the merge. The diff goes up, which increases the work required to product block, which disincentivizes miners on the existing chain.
    • Craco = create-react-app configuration.
    • Bloomberg needs to hop off Elon. Multiple posts every single day. You’re (both) not a tabloid.

  • Saturday

    Did a16z’s crypto-specific startup school in full today. Back-to-back, I like yc’s a bit better.

    1. Why crypto matters.
    2. Blockchain primitives.
      • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0JdeRzVndI
      • Remember an aggregation signatures takes a bunch of previously signed transactions and posts those; like compression on the blockchain.
      • You could keep a db onchain with little data by using commitment strings and merkle trees.
      • Zk allows private data on public blockchains.
    3. Starting/scaling a crypto company.
    4. Applications, in 2020 and 2025.
    5. Crypto and gaming.
    6. Crypto business models.
    7. Mechanism design.
    8. Decentralization.
    9. Building companies and developer communities.
    10. Managing distributed workforces.
    11. Products and protocol.
    12. Secure smart contract development.
    13. Token securities framework and launching a network.
      • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrrcGiyPglI
      • Howey Test to determine if something is a security: an investment of money, in a common enterprise, with the expectation of profit, solely from the effort of others.
      • CRC provides ratings for this as well; how likely you are to be overseen by the SEC. Much harder to list on exchanges if so.
      • This one was pretty good.
    14. Fundraising and deal structure.
      • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNbPriRubUs
      • Think critically about token equity vs normal equity. Normal equity is almost always more appropriate first (common exception: building an L1, obviously).
      • “Production capital” isn’t the same, because you usually have a community around your product which is incentivized to create revenue and grow the userbase further (eg miners for btc).
    15. “Crypto Startup School” documentary.

  • Friday

    Did yc’s startup school in full today:

    1. How to ideate.
      • http://www.paulgraham.com/startupideas.html
      • Build something that’s missing. Build something that chafes you.
      • “Because a good idea should seem obvious, when you have one you’ll tend to feel that you’re late. Don’t let that deter you. Worrying that you’re late is one of the signs of a good idea.”
    2. How to evaluate ideas.
      • https://www.ycombinator.com/library/6e-how-to-evaluate-startup-ideas
      • What’s the problem? What’s the solution? That’s it.
        • The best problems are obvious, recurring, frequent, and growing.
        • Don’t be SISP: solution in search of a problem.
      • Sometimes helps to think about 5-10 years from now. What will exist that doesn’t today? That huge basket of ideas is a good way to start.
      • Have to have an edge in one of these: People (1%), Market (20% annual growth), Product (10x better), User Acquisition (free, word of mouth), Monopoly (network effects, harder for competition later).
    3. How to talk to users.
      • https://www.ycombinator.com/library/6g-how-to-talk-to-users
      • Stay in DIRECT contact with users. Even as a founder. Don’t try to sell them, try to extract from them to make your product better.
      • “Tell me about the last time you struggled with X…” “Why was X hard?” “What don’t you like about existing solution(s) X?” “What led up to X?” “Would X make it easier?” etc etc
      • Customers buy the why not the what.
    4. How to pitch.
      • https://www.ycombinator.com/library/6q-how-to-pitch-your-startup
      • Good investors aren’t poking holes about why an idea won’t work. They’re imagining the (even impossible) steps to make it work, then pitching that path back to you and collaborating to make it happen.
      • Start by making them understand. Must be simple/obvious. You are going to pitch better if you make your idea familiar than if you wow them with how smart and complex you are.
      • Then make it memorable.
      • “X for Y” is very useful. Eg “We are building amazon for pharmacies” gives a lot of info in 6 words.
    5. How to plan an MVP.
    6. How to prioritize your time.
    7. How to find the right cofounder.
    8. How to work together.
      • https://www.ycombinator.com/library/6n-how-to-work-together
      • Marriage is a great example. Everyone fights. It’s about how you fight.
      • Defensiveness is bad. Owning responsibility is huge.
      • Make clear boundaries ahead of time. Separate ownership/responsibilty so you have a clear decisionmaker/champion for success/failure in each area.
      • Resolving conflicts: bring it back to a universal need that you can agree on. “We need to have transparency with each other” is irrefutable, and a good starting point. “You need to cc me on every email moving forward” is not a good opener. Come back to it later as the action, if it is the logical path from the universal need.
    9. How to split equity among cofounders.
    10. Building culture.
      • https://www.ycombinator.com/library/6r-building-culture
      • Culture is the framework that guides behavior when there are no explicit instructions for something. It seeds everything else, all microdecisions.
      • Don’t wait. It’s important to establish early. It sets the tone for all future hiring.
      • Be proud. Be excited about the idea/product.
      • An inspirational tagline/motto/companyPurpose is helpful. It’s a north star that employees can remind themselves and each other of.
      • Company values should align with the customers as well. You’re after the same thing.
      • YOU must model that behavior above all.
    11. How to lead.
      • https://www.ycombinator.com/library/6s-how-to-lead
      • Be authentic. Be yourself. But practice these 3: communication, gauging people, integrity/commitment. Pretend like someone can see you at all times.
      • Clarity of communication requires clarity of thought first. Prepare.
      • Trust is the KPI for leaders. If their teams/colleagues/customers have built trust in them, that’s it.
    12. Essential startup advice.
      • https://www.ycombinator.com/library/4D-yc-s-essential-startup-advice
      • Built fast. A bad product in a week is better than a perfect product in 6 months. Iterate.
      • Don’t scale immediately. Get a perfect first customer then soak in it.
      • Avoid over-indulgence in dinners, conferences, etc. Write code and talk to users.
      • Do less, well. It’s better than doing more, subpar.
      • Startups die of suicide, not murder. Don’t worry about competitiion early.
    13. How to apply and succeed at yc.
      • https://www.ycombinator.com/library/6t-how-to-apply-and-succeed-at-y-combinator
      • It’s never too early. You idea does not have to mature or even correct.
      • Clarity is big. Basically all the advice from the above sections.
      • Tell a story. Make it compelling. Passion is also obvious from an application; make it evident. Application screeners want to be on your side.
      • Interviews are usually only 10 minutes. Pitch, receive questions, make your business an obvious longterm inevitability. They shouldn’t be adversarial.
      • Be personable. You may work with these people for TEN years. It’s a fit check as much as a tech interview.
      • Risks are ok, and expected. Be aware of them and have mitigation plans that demonstrate you’ve already thought about it.
    14. Parting advice.

  • Thursday

    • Coinbase rescinding job offers, Gemini cutting 10% of workforce.
    • Aleo is an ecosystem for privacy. They have a blockchain, devtools, an IDE, etc. https://www.aleo.org/
    • Prime brokerage / prime broker is just a trading platform at large scale, like for hedge funds. They offer most broker services from the actual trading, to analytics, etc etc.
    • HSM = hardware security module. I always forget.
    • Lottie files are for animations.
    • Nathaniel Chastain, manager at OpenSea, is getting in trouble for insider trading: he would buy NFTs right before they were scheduled to appear on the featured section of the website.
    • Consensus. Austin. Reviewed speakers and created my schedule (on their ios app).
      • SBF.
      • Kimbal Musk.
      • Dan Schulman (CEO paypal).
      • Balaji.
      • CZ.
      • Snowden.
      • Dinwiddie lol.
      • Kasparov.
      • Ryan Selkis (messari).
      • Zac Prince (CEO blockfi).
      • Jeremy Allaire (CEO circle).
      • Kyle Samani (multicoin).
      • Ryan Berkun (CEO teller).
      • Michael Gronager (CEO chainalysis).
      • Abby Johnsoin (CEO fidelity).
      • Neal Stephenson (author, cryptonomicon, seveneves).
    • Schlep filter/blindness: ignoring ideas out of your areas of familiarity.
    • Stytch.
      • https://stytch.com/
      • Platform for onboarding/login. Provides SDKs to add to sites for signup, engagement, more.
      • Secure.
      • Offers classical password logins, as well as passwordless. Mostly biometrics.
      • Supports secret codes, emails links, many forms of login.
      • Also offers oath (login with google, facebook, linkedin, etc).
      • Supports web3 logins (eth and sol wallets).
    • Set up the nanny cam for the fish. Plugged in. Decent quality. 2.4 GHz wifi. Can record video and photograph. Can talk as well as hear.
    • Deleted my personal ec2 volume. Was costing like a dollar a month but I have no instances running.
    • Went to Uniswap’s headquarters in soho for happy hour.
    • Anti-web3 blog, interesting alternative viewpoints: https://web3isgoinggreat.com/
    • Stripe deepdive: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2022/05/26/stripe-exclusive-interview-collison-brothers-95-billion-plan-to-stay-on-top/?sh=bb3ef435a1b7
    • Starkware, a blockshare security suite: https://starkware.co/
    • Husky is datadog’s event system: https://www.datadoghq.com/blog/engineering/introducing-husky
    • If you put .gitignore in .gitignore, it respects .gitignore by not adding .gitignore: https://rubenerd.com/git-ignores-gitignore-with-gitignore-in-gitignore
    • Good learnings from startup software audits: https://kenkantzer.com/learnings-from-5-years-of-tech-startup-code-audits