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On Phase Shifts

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Shlok Vaidya  -  
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We go through phase shifts.

You apply work, and luck, and network to whatever you’re doing. Complexity builds. As it does, you can glimpse the adjacent future, what could be next, the phase after this. And it builds and it builds. And, as is natural, complexity shakes out to simplicity. The applications, the dates, the words, turn into the job, the relationship, the book.

I’ve done this professionally a few times. From school to terror, from terror to tech, from tech to music, from music to corporate, from writing to writing. The process clarifies over time. The goals don’t. They’re opaque until they’re not.

This is the first time I’ve done it on a personal level. Purposefully give no fucks, meet anybody and everybody, drink too much, don’t work as much as I used to/should, read less, watch more. Generally move forward but try to act without purpose. Do instead of think. Do instead of plot. Fail without noticing instead of fail with everything. Randomness. Chaos. New complexity at every step. Line up opportunities instead of executing on them.

The result is new, good friends, amazing girls new, and old, and interesting work.

It’s been a while since I wrote something here. Or anywhere, really. But moreso now than when it was the work expected of me, I’m writing. On warfare, on ambition, on technology. All while I’m at the heart of a desperate attempt to turn around 80-year-old, half-a-billion-dollar turnaround that touches hundreds of millions of people every day.

I won’t promise more, or even regular public writing. The complexity is still building. But I see what could be, and that my words are the means.

There’s a shift ahead.

 



-Shlok
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$150 Audiophile Headphone System

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Shlok Vaidya  -  
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Music makes things happen in my life – cooking, writing, sex, working out. (There’s a reason I’ve worked for two music-focused companies.)

And the tools that make that happen are important to me – speakers, headphones, amps. Audiophile equipment is one of those nerdy things I like to dig into, spend too much time researching, and find bargains that get me high dollar sound without spending a lot.

Anyway, I’ve built a 2.1 home system and a headphone system for working, all in, for about $500 or so. That’s how much people spend on just headphones.

Today I’m covering my $150 headphone system.

Three components:

  • Headphones.
  • Cables, adapters. Connect to your source and your headphones.
  • Headphone amplifier. Enhance the quality of your headphone output.

Headphones. DBI-700. $45-$60 shipped. They’re competitive with headphones at the $250+ level. I’m not the only one to say so. And they’re built like tanks. Apparently record stores use them, but as those blink out of existence, liquidators are getting them out the door for cheap. You can find them on eBay. Or someone may sell them over at headfi.org

They sound pretty good un-amped, but with an…

Amplifier. $108 shipped. Schiit. It’s sexy. It’s small. It’s well built. It makes your headphones sound fucking amazing.

Cables, adapters. I like Monoprice. It feels meaty, its cheap, and it’s delivered to your door. You need a standard 3.5mm headphone jack to RCA adapter. And if you lost your headphone’s 3.55 to 6.55mm, you need one of those too (Radio Shack of all places is best).

All in: $160, shipped. It’s competitive with systems ~$500+.

300% ROI isn’t bad.



-Shlok
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Announcing: Origins of the Lean Startup

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Shlok Vaidya  -  
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The Lean Startup has presented an approach so accessible that it has spawned thousands of companies and hundreds of millions of dollars in both investment and revenue. The simple practices and guidelines encapsulated in the book are now, quite simply, the way to build startup businesses.

But in going mainstream, as is necessary in making any concept accessible to the mass audience, complexity had to be cut out. Which means the process known as the Lean Startup is incomplete.

This short, free ebook is designed to address what was not covered in-depth. I’m going to make explicit the reason why the lean startup methodology is so powerful.

Specifically, there’s a tool embedded at the heart of the lean startup. A tool so powerful that it has reshaped physics, warfare, and now, technology. A tool that you can utilize to achieve success in any domain.

As will become clear, the Lean Startup is just one application of this concept. There’s thousands more. It can yield personal growth, success for your organization, and actionable intelligence about the future.

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-Shlok
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The Intellectual Prisoner

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Shlok Vaidya  -  
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From the Washington Post’s “Join Wall Street, Save the World” –

The 25-year-old certainly had other career options. An MIT computer science graduate, he could be writing software for the next tech giant. Or he might have gone into academia in computing or applied math or even biology. He could literally be working to cure cancer.

Instead, he goes to work each morning for a high-frequency trading firm. It’s a hedge fund on steroids. He writes software that turns a lot of money into even more money. For his labors, he reaps an uptown salary — and over time his earning potential is unbounded. It’s all part of the plan.

Why this compulsion? It’s not for fast cars or fancy houses. Trigg makes money just to give it away. His logic is simple: The more he makes, the more good he can do.

He’s figured out just how to take measure of his contribution. His outlet of choice is the Against Malaria Foundation, considered one of the world’s most effective charities. It estimates that a $2,500 donation can save one life. A quantitative analyst at Trigg’s hedge fund can earn well more than $100,000 a year. By giving away half of a high finance salary, Trigg says, he can save many more lives than he could on an academic’s salary.

The synopsis of the article: Go work with the morally fucked, and, as long as you give plenty away to charity, you’re a great human being . That model is worth emulating, it says, turning to us expectantly, shamingly, “Isn’t it amazing that quant donates 50% of his salary?”

We’re expected to fawn over these people. “Oh look, this giving dude and his wife moved back in with his parents so they could give away that much more.”

“That’s so admirable,” we’re supposed to say.

But it’s not admirable.

In fact, it’s pathetic. It’s the sign of a prisoner. An intellectual prisoner. The kind of person who is pretty smart – in the sense they can do stupid shit for Wall Street money – but can’t conceive of applying their ‘smarts’ towards changing the world.

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-Shlok
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Pay to Pitch Is Predatory. So Are (Some) Angel Groups.

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Shlok Vaidya  -  
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NEVER, EVER, pay to pitch.

That’s of ‘consultants,’ ‘investors,’ and ‘incubators’ taking advantage of unsuspecting startups and first time entrepreneurs. They’ll couch it in language like ‘mentorship,’ ‘access,’ ‘experience.’

It’s actually predatory and evil.

With a viable path and hustle, you can get money. And money is important. But the people you take money from are on your team, for better or worse, so you don’t want just money. You want a motivated teammate.

And some asshole who charges you a month of runway ($250-$750) to show up for a 7 minute pitch isn’t that. Angel groups in particular are notorious for this.

Some angel groups are awesome. Comprised of motivated entrepreneurs and the likeminded who got together to enhance their opportunities and yours. That’s cool.

Others not so much. Here’s how those look:

Some prick, usually a finance type with maybe an MBA and no entrepreneurial experience (or worse, owns 7/11’s), corrals people who want to invest but feel like they need assistance/experience/companionship. People with $200k+ income earned with minimal risk. Corporate executives, doctors, etc.

He charged them (predatory) and then turns around and charges the startups who want access to those investors (predatory). He makes a tidy sum, gets plugged into the middle of a hot/sexy community, and doesn’t care that 90% of the companies he raped die.

Dealflow is what keeps the lights on, not success.



-Shlok
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