We aren't ready for the next generation of gaming.

This is gameplay footage of @unrecordgame 🤯

@unrecordgame Don't know what's crazier

That this isn't a real bodycam
or that this isn't VR (but a new approach to controlling sight+aim)

Gave a talk at @beondeck to a group of founders looking for startup ideas

I rarely talk about my investment approach of actively sourcing first-check-investment opportunities.

Maybe this is useful to others too. 👇 First up:

My goal was not to impress people with my big ideas (eg AI-supported genesplicing for asteroid mining) or showcase how much of some market i understand.

I wanted to share mental models & show approachable ideas people could actually pick up now and run with

Life Update:

Most of you know that enabling global talent is one of my big passions in life – so i am excited to finally make it public:

I joined @beondeck as CTO to lead the product-engineering team 🙀🙀🙀

Quick thread why 🧵👇 Why On Deck is amazing 🔥

Location, network, or access should not be a limitation on your career opportunity.

If you are amazing you should work with amazing people on things that excite you. (period, not but's)

Finally managed to make proper pizza in a european electric-oven. Almost gave up on it. 🙏❤️🍕

Fourth try to bake it. Also threw away like 4 kg in dough before ;)

PSA: You can make good (soft) pizza at home! 😍 cc @pmoe @siepert @fredsters_s ❤️ 🙃

Lots of new funds

Few quick predictions

1)

Startups and VCs will switch roles

VCs are now newbies
Founders are the kings

VCs pitch now founders
VCs panic while they look for product-market fit 2)

Funds have hundreds of LPs
We will see information leaks and similar problems
Small funds will be seen as not worth the risk

Most funds will start to report no valuations, no business economics, no nothing unless founders ask for it or it's public

On my first trip to Bulgaria, I had to convince an EU-funding expert about a project we wanted to partner on.

I was trying so hard to excite him.
Nothing. Even worse. He was silently disagreeing.

I tried harder and even made up stuff.
But he just kept cold-face shaking his head Afterwards, he told in dry Bulgarian English:
"Great idea. Love it. We should partner."

My head went 🤯

Then my bulgarian team members pulled me aside and reminded me that in Bulgaria people shake their heads for "Yes" and nod for "No". 🤯^2

A few 2020 remote work predictions combined with free startup ideas:

📺 Multiple teams will innovate on videocalls

Startup Idea:
Rethink video clients without "BIG FACES IN A BOX"

Different calls need different optimized experiences (eg Townhall vs 1on1 vs small team call) 📖 Gitlab company manuals will become the new norm.

Even management courses will focus on it.

Startup Idea: Build a tool that merges the boundary between reading/knowledge, team-communicating/update and doing/action.

Many remote workers optimize their workplace for individual performance.

But the setup of @andytryba is the best I have seen in a long time.

Ok… Fanboy-time:

You call in… and at first, you are confused about where the camera would be…

Then he zooms out… His office room is optimized for remote calls and having hybrid meetings.

With microphones that capture the best possible audio in every part of the room and a camera that can follow you

(fyi: the call was crystal-clear HD but for some reason, the screenshots came out low-res)

In almost all discussions about remote work I have to first explain the difference between:

- digital backpackers
- workation tourists
- digital staymads
- remote workers

Very different people with very different lifestyles and needs. B/c i was asked:

Digital Backpackers
- want to see the world
- travel like budget backpackers
- often run a small business
- ... or influencer
- ... or freelance
- switch location every 1-3 weeks
- usually work from coffee shops - ... or bigger coworking spaces

A question i was just asked via DM by someone with burnout and i have *no* idea:

How do you find out what interests you?
(looking for career-change)

Follow up questions attached 👇 He is worried about picking his "hobbies" because they act as a "refuge" and he doesn't want them to stop being it (what i understand).

The previous career he just "fell" into and (according to him) never really enjoyed apart of "being good/successful in it".

Quick thread because i hear them quite often:

Common concerns about remote work:

Speed of iteration:
This is usually a discussion of async vs sync in disguise. I would recommend having people work in overlapping timezones. Nuance in communication being lost:
I personally agree on this one. In-person discussion is better for nuanced topics. Try to meet in person for these kind of discussions - eg larger pivots.

I usually frame this as:
Innovation is easier in person, iteration is easier remote.

The role of engineering management:

- Increase confidence
- Reduce complexity
- Manage expectations

Imho that's it. 🛠

Explainer attached - LMK what you think Increase confidence:

Confidence not in the "hell we are amazing" sense.

- Ensure your team can make decisions (know what + why)
- Tooling (CI&CD, linters, complexity scoring, etc)
- Notes, comments, documentation
- People, their life and their careers
- Long term vision

Epimetheus does amazing videos about ancient history. The ones about the bronze age are imho the most interesting ones. Giant empires, cities with 1M people, all of it destroyed in one giant "end of the world" event

About babylon: This one is harder to explain why i add it… i just really like @kent_rollins cowboy cooking videos. He is always positive and enjoys his work a lot.

Here is him doing Cowboy Chili

Tiny useless future predictions…

(a collection thread of strong believes loosely cared 🤷‍♀️) Doing basic exercise helps knowledge workers being creative:

My assumption is that in the next ~5y startups will have small exercise tools embedded in their normal office layout. (eg monkeybars in the waiting space in front of a toilet)

Chinese will do it first. SV will copy.

Got a several good (CTO-related) questions from portfolio companies of VCs i work with.

Would love to share them here, plus my answers: > What defines a good culture/environment to keep team motivated and innovative?

Be honest, aligned and trust your people as if they'd be the highly intelligent adults they are.

If you are interested in how memes evolve in social networks:

Here a few charts on #LookAtMeImNaval

A meme that popped up yday and died by now.
Very small and localized in a few crypto clusters - ~700 people

Charts are made using @luca's awesome @accountanalysis ✌️📈 If you want to know to know why this happened:

Crypto people 🤷

https://twitter.com/andreasklinger/status/1018015066019454976

Two concepts worth knowing if you work on startups or develop products in general ⚙️
- Job to be done
- Owning a moment

(Please RT if useful - unsure what kind of content is helpful to others 🙏 - i usually tell this everyone who asks me for product advice) Jobs to be done is fairly known by now 💡

Unfortunately I never found a good short explainer (if you know one reply here please).

This is an HBR article i found: hbr.org/2016/09/know-y…
And i bet @intercom's book is awesome intercom.com/books/jobs-to-… (never read it myself though)

Engineering Management 101: My favorite one… what i call
"Opinions vs Decisions" ✌️

Basically:
- At any point it needs to be clear who makes the decision on a given topic.
- Ideally the people who need to "live with it" (eg implement)
- Everybody else "just adds opinions" When a decision has been made everyone else supports the people trying to achieve their goal.

If you need: Disagree but commit.