Division of labor is an idea I’ve been learning about in the past one year, and I’m starting to think there’s a ton of power in less control, and more freedom for some (carefully chosen) people to think, do, screw up, iterate, and ultimately drive and lead certain parts of what you do. I think the test of that particular brand of person is when you don’t tell them to do anything specifically, but they still go and figure it out and make something great happen. It is probably how you develop people too. Still learning… sorry, this was more of a mental mumble than a blog post.
My friend Turbo asked me this today. 你不是做網路公司的話，你會想做什麼？ Translated: If you weren’t doing a software company, what would you be doing?
I would be starting a cool coffee shop.
Since I discovered Starbucks when I was in 7th or 8th grade, I’ve loved going to coffee shops with my laptop and getting myself totally wired on Wi-Fi plus an artistically caffeinated drink (Red Bulls, Monsters, and other monstrous drinks aren’t included under this definition btw).
In high school, I was very active in my church youth group — praying, organizing events, speaking, music, etc. — even though of those none were that “successful” apparently. But one of the non spiritual activities I initiated actually succeeded — starting a cafe shop at the corner of our church auditorium. We bought stuff from Costco and re-sold it to the right crowd and the right time/place at a higher price (which is what I used to do as a ten year old dealing candy on the playground). Anyways, I really enjoyed setting that up, seeing people gather around drinks in a cool setting, and seeing money come in.
What do I do for fun? Go to a cafe and surf the web. So if I’m not building the web, I want to be building the cafe. Both of them contain community for me — whether social networking online around photos or face to face around some good drinks.
Maybe in the future I can build a coffee shop empire. With so many changes in society, coffee shops have a lot of room to get up to speed.
Alright… back to making software…
Dave
Sup. I think it’s cool that my friend Peter (sorry, hope this is okay to mention.. made a five year commitment not to date or be in a relationship out of some kind of personal dedication to God.
My bros from LA and SF, such as Josh, Caleb, and Ed (hope this is okay to mention too) have gone through single times that they set apart for God too.
So does this mean I’m not going to have a girlfriend for God? Probably not. Be single forever? Hell no. I think I like the idea of dating (or “hanging out” as I like to call it for maintaining a maximum number of options) too much.
Girls are hot. Sometimes, at least. Until work creeps up on you (like everyday?) and they become a nuisance. A necessary nuisance? Not sure where I stand on that yet.
I’m not sure where I’m going with this blog post because I’m getting tired. However, I want to propose a new Christian t-shirt to replace the “Jesus is my homeboy” brand. After going through IHOP (International House of Prayer) and learning about the “bridal paradigm” from Pastor Mike Bickle… I think it’s time I acted on some latent inspiration and made a new t-shirt brand called “Jesus is my girlfriend” to show the kind of fiery love relationship that people can have with God.
Or not… cuz that’s kind of sick and twisted imagery in the wrong perspective. but you get what my point is I hope.
Thank you Jesus for dying on the cross for my sins. You are my homeboy and also, by metaphor only, my girlfriend. You are also my God so in the words of classic rapper and out-of-context theologian Ice Cube, “Bow Down to a ______ that’s greater than you.”
In short, there were some funky but interesting (or interesting but funky) startups, and it was generally good to see what was going on in the minds of tech startup heads in Taiwan. The event was held at Carnegie’s. My favorite company there was the sponsor, IPEVO, because I think their idea of shaping connected lifestyle, i.e. hardware for the most current internet behaviors/trends, makes a lot of sense- using taiwan’s strengths in manufacturing within a bigger, more current context towards a bigger, global market.
One of my favorite possessions is a book called Business For the Glory of God. The book’s content is not the main reason it’s a favorite. Instead, it’s because the title and subject of the book encapsulates what I hope my life is about; and equally because one of my best friends Josh gave me the book for my 20th or 21st birthday while at UCLA.
Today, in Taipei, a friend named Grace asked me how I spend time with God. It was a good question because it made me question myself about why I didn’t really spend time with God in the way I used to as a “more spiritual” church boy. About 30 minutes later, I realized something about a lot (not all) of my old friends in the US and new friends Taiwan… Caleb, Mike, Josh, Tim, Wilson, Ethan, Peter, Rio, Turbo, etc… and I realized I worked with all of them at some point, or if I didn’t work with them to begin with, I pulled them into working with me.
At that point, I realized something about the way God made me- I relate to friends best through work, and naturally try to find ways to work with best friends. I felt at peace with myself, realizing or being reminded that the way I spend time with God is through work.
I thought that was pretty cool because I find most church activities to suck.
On a semi-tangent, check out http://churchmarketingsucks.com. It’s a cool blog.
