LastManStanding

Do you have ADHD? You're not alone.

I couldn't find any pushback on this outrageous price increase by Meetup.com so I made this video. The VC firm that now owns them "Bending Spoons" took the same approach when they bought Evernote - free accounts were only given a month to move their data before it was locked up and their approach does seem close to extortion to me. Meetup was already overpriced, and this did a huge amount of damage to community organizers and small event planners.

It is likely you have ADHD, as I do.

Peter Drucker in "The Effective Executive" has a chapter that makes this point, "know thy time".

This seems to be the sentiment in the watch geek community - they like old watches - especially ones with sensors of various kinds, but they have to operate independently - the older ones would no longer work if they didn't.

I went once or twice to the one here in San Diego, years ago. They were smart and interesting people as I recall.

Anyone reading this comment should be extremely skeptical of internet strangers like Matlin who do not have the condition thinking they know what is best for you. These medications do not work the same way on people who do not have ADHD. I get zero euphoia from these medications, and they got rid of serious insommnia problem. If you don't have ADHD your experience will be far different.

Get a job where honesty is valued - because you are obviously an honest person.

News "every other day" seems to be a good approach these days.

Calling BS on this one. I was totally impressed by the honesty of this post.

Diagnosed at 65 for the first time. It is effing real - not sure I knew what "attention" was before - not calm attention anyway. Don't take stimulants if you don't have the condition - or you just might give it to yourself. If you must try ephedrine - possibly illegal but still available online.

Tell them you want easy access to your "friends" email address and other contact information and a quick way to transfer it to other social networks if you want. That is the "privacy" they say they are protecting.

In what way did they "spit in your face"? Sounds like an interesting story.

1. Act with something akin to what in the financial industry is called "fiduciary responsibly" - in other words, act in "their interest" - not in you interests, or that of your profession or any organization - but constantly ask "what is best for your mentee".

2. Understand that "you can't step in the same river twice". Whatever you did for success almost certainly won't work for them. Always keep in mind the "current reality" of the situation, not the historical one.

3. Gather the facts - over time. "First seek to understand" - don't jump into any recommendations.

4. Don't pretend one meeting will accomplish anything. The "minimal effective dose" for mentoring is probably one meeting every two weeks for six months. More frequent over a longer period of time would be better.

5. Take notes. Review your notes from previous interactions each time you interact, and get an update on what was said at that time.

6. Don't give "advice" - give "ideas" and "suggestions". Make it crystal clear that you could be wrong, and encourage the mentee to get other mentors and to simply reject your suggestions if they don't feel it will work for them.

7. Be humble. Don't be a mentor to feed your own ego - your only goal should be to help your mentee grow and win in a way that is best for them.

I had a roommate who had both and EE degree and was a licensed electrician. He could get a high paying job with just a phone interview. All the more amazing because he was a felon who served five years for drug smuggling and would reveal that in the interview right off the bat.

I had been using Google Contacts with a minor "hack" of using the "file as" field as a three digit priority field, but still with the person's name and leading zeros. So a contact record looks like this "095. John Smith". Then when I come across a contact record I change that number, almost whimsically which makes it kind of like a bubble sort. As the same time, I made effective use of labels (tags). I have, however, recently switched to Nimble which I like, but am still getting used to. Syncing with Google Contacts is a mandatory feature for me, and Nimble allows 2000 syncs without additional charge via a third party.

Take a deep breath and step back from it for a bit. Absolutely keep doing your contract gigs - you need money right? After a while, take another look at what you have built, and see if there are parts of it that can be salvages or re-engineered to some other purpose. If not, chalk it up to learning and move on. Don't try to force ideas - they will either happen or they won't.

I don't think there is anything wrong with shared hosted during your early prototype states. I love my low cost shared hosting service Alterhosting.com - these guys go above and beyond the call of duty in support - even fixing my applications sometimes.

See comment above. There was another interview or blog post where he talked about his preference for young people more extensively, but I can't find it. Do you happen to know how many people over 50 have been accepted into Y-Combinator?

If you are close minded, it is not my problem.

Excellent point. I doubt very much they would ever get sued - they are too smart for that, but it doesn't mean that what they are doing there is right. Could someone be so kind as to tell me how many people over 50 have been admitted to Y-combinator? How many people over 40?

He does.

"The other cutoff, 38, has a lot more play in it. One reason I put it there is that I don't think many people have the physical stamina much past that age. I used to work till 2:00 or 3:00 AM every night, seven days a week. I don't know if I could do that now.

Also, startups are a big risk financially. If you try something that blows up and leaves you broke at 26, big deal; a lot of 26 year olds are broke. By 38 you can't take so many risks-- especially if you have kids."

http://www.paulgraham.com/start.html

I am not making any accusations against anyone - it is obvious that Paul Graham has an age bias - he says so all over the place, but there is no law against having a bias. Age discrimination is almost impossible to prove, but if it is being used in the decisions of who gets into Y-Combinator someone should look into it.

No evidence? He is overt in bragging about his age discrimination. He is likely the "thought leader" who made this practice acceptable in Silicon Valley.

This should have happened long ago, and from what I have heard, Y-Combinator would be the best place to start.