Ronan Berder2024-03-16T02:24:32+00:00https://ronanberder.com/Ronan Berderhunvreus@gmail.comNo, you don't wanna be an entrepreneur2017-08-20T00:00:00+00:00https://ronanberder.com/2017/08/20/no-you-dont-want-to-be-an-entrepreneur<p><strong>A</strong> few months ago, I gave a very last minute talk at Barcamp Shanghai. I decided to try and walk people through what I think of entrepreneurship and why I recommend most people <strong>not</strong> to do it.</p>
<p>I hadn’t prepared anything prior to giving the talk and had no adapter for my laptop anyway, so you get awesome last minute shitty drawings in lieu of slides.</p>
<p><img src="/files/entrepreneurship-no/1-intro.jpg" alt="Who am I?" /></p>
<p>I’m no Elon Musk.</p>
<p>I do have a business, <a href="https://wiredcraft.com">a consultancy (Wiredcraft) that creates digital solutions for some of the largest brands in the world</a>).</p>
<p>With that being said I don’t consider myself a big success or an expert in entrepreneurship (God I hate this word).</p>
<p>What I’m gonna talk about below is based on my experience and what I’ve learned from other entrepreneurs.</p>
<p><img src="/files/entrepreneurship-no/2-topic.jpg" alt="The topic" /></p>
<p>I’m gonna try and explain to you why most of you shouldn’t try to start their own business.</p>
<p>I’m sure most of you will ignore my advices anyway and learn things the hard way, but hopefully you’ll get a bit of perspective.</p>
<p>So, most weeks I run into people who ask me for advices about their startup or business. It usually goes something like that:</p>
<p><img src="/files/entrepreneurship-no/4-the-idea.jpg" alt="The advice" /></p>
<p>Should you start your own company? Nope.</p>
<p>You’re a student and want to drop off because your friend has this great mobile app idea?</p>
<p><strong>Don’t</strong>.</p>
<p>Stay in school and spend your weekends building it.</p>
<p>You’re a designer who wanna work for yourself and think of creating your own agency?</p>
<p><strong>Don’t</strong>.</p>
<p>Start freelancing on the side and see if you like that.</p>
<p>You’re a project manager and think you have a great company. You’re already thinking of raising money and take over the world?</p>
<p><strong>Don’t</strong>.</p>
<p>Build a proof of concept on weekends and see if it sticks.</p>
<p><img src="/files/entrepreneurship-no/5-why-not.jpg" alt="Why not" /></p>
<p>Some people think I’m trying and discouraging them on purpose. That I want to keep all the sweet sweet entrepreneurship for myself.</p>
<p>If you’re really determined, you’ll do it anyway.</p>
<p>But in my experience:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>You don’t know what it actually is</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>You’re probably not cut for it</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p><img src="/files/entrepreneurship-no/5-startups.jpg" alt="Startups" /></p>
<p>A lot of people think startups are like The (Fucking) Social Network:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Hoodies. Check!</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Cool hipster colleagues kicking asses. Check!</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Beer Friday. Check!</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Starting at noon. Check!</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Cool swanky office. Check!</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Millions in funding. Check!</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Billion dollar exit. Check!</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Sounds cool right?</p>
<p>What it actually is:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Hoodies? Sure. You don’t have the time or money to dress well.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>No colleagues at all. You’re in charge of everything until it becomes interesting and then you hire people to do the work.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Beer Friday? Sure, but you probably will NEED it because your week is a train wreck and you’ll have no other way to relax or shut your brain off.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Starting at noon? Yeah right, that’s because you worked until 7:00 in the morning and have done so already twice this week. Also, you’ll be working 7 days a week.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Millions in funding? Ah ah ah! Go ask anybody who raised money if they liked that. Keep in mind that once you have investors, you effectively have bosses too.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Cool offices? Yeah, maybe on year 3 or 4. In the meantime, you’ll either end up at a tiny, noisy co-working space, or in a converted apartment.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Billion dollar exit? Right. You may wanna brush up your math on this. The odds of you coming even near a multi-million payout is 0.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p><img src="/files/entrepreneurship-no/6-ceo.jpg" alt="Being the CEO" /></p>
<p>But you get to be CEO, right? There you go:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Turtleneck. Check!</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>You get to be the strategist, planning for world domination in your ivory tower.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>You get to tell others what to do, and you can be a dick about it.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>You’ll get to work on the stuff YOU are good at and YOU want to work on.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>You’ll get to create the company YOU want.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>You get to hang out and look cool at conferences, explaining why you’re a fucking genius.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>You cash out and disappear in the sunset at the end.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>What it actually means to be the CEO:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>You’re the CJO: Chief Janitor Officer. You shovel the shit nobody wants to touch.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>You will most likely NOT work on things you are good at or want. Accounting? Sales? Negotiations with clients? HR? Administration? Yep, all for you buddy.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>You’re everyone’s b*tch. If you think you can discard other peoples feelings, you’re wrong. Anybody’s problem is your problem until you make it.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Nobody cares about YOUR problems (boohoo, poor CEO). And you can’t complain to your employees or show doubt/weakness, especially when things are difficult.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>While you’ll have an impact on the culture, it very quickly will escape your control.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>You will most likely NOT succeed. More on that in a second.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p><img src="/files/entrepreneurship-no/7-outcomes.jpg" alt="Outcomes" /></p>
<p>A tad more about outcomes: for many, it’s a gamble.</p>
<p>There are definitely a possibility for you to cash out or even build a sustainable business for yourself.</p>
<p>However, many people don’t quite understand how that works:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Even if you actually end up making it, it takes years.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Even when you cash out, it may not be in the range of what you could have made at a regular job.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The odds are way more fucked up than you think and it will take a lot longer than you think. Don’t get fooled by what you read online. You will not make 100 million dollars after 2 years of hard work.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p><img src="/files/entrepreneurship-no/8-why-I-it.jpg" alt="Why did I do it?" /></p>
<p>Well then, if it sucks that much, why did you I it?</p>
<p>Story time.</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>I was managing the Chinese branch for a Canadian company.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Our CEO was arguable a coke head. A great sales man, but terrible at managing a company.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>He grossly mismanaged the finances and put the entire group in a tough spot.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>I had the pleasure of; a. Not get paid for 6 months. b. Working my butt off. c. Liquidating his company. d. Paying off employees out of my own pocket.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>After that I decided that maybe I needed money. You know, to pay for things.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>I started freelancing.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Somehow, 2 months in I had a couple colleagues.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Along the way, I wasted years trying things that didn’t work out.</p>
<p>I’m better off now, but these were expensive lessons.</p>
<p><img src="/files/entrepreneurship-no/8-why-I-did-it.jpg" alt="Why did I do it?" /></p>
<p>So, what made me do it?</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>I HAD to, like many folks I know.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>I’m kinda masochist. I like to solve difficult problems.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>I’m OCD/asperger. That kinda help with the previous point.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>I’m a nerd and care too much about things that others don’t (code, design, culture).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>I’m not a huge people person and thought it’d be a good way to avoid dealing with folks (and I was very wrong about this).</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Mostly, I was a huge idiot and stumbled into it.</p>
<p><img src="/files/entrepreneurship-no/9-folks-I-meet.jpg" alt="Folks I meet" /></p>
<p>I basically meet 4 types of folks who are interested in starting a company (and probably shouldn’t):</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p><strong>The wannabe</strong>; has a business card and want to get rich/famous quickly.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>The perfectionist</strong>; the gifted designer/developer/whatever who tries and think he can do better.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>The fraud</strong>; good enough that he raises $$$, and goes through it like an idiot</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>The talker</strong>; always making plans and asking if you can help but never pulls the trigger.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>If you’re one of these people, just don’t.</p>
<p><img src="/files/entrepreneurship-no/10-why-you-should-do-it.jpg" alt="Why you should do it" /></p>
<p>So, why should you do it?</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>You have no choice.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>You need to get it out of your system.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>You’ve already validated your idea.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>If you’re young and have money, it helps (I know it’s not fair). But being desperate is also a good motivation.</p>
<p><img src="/files/entrepreneurship-no/14-conclusion.jpg" alt="Conclusion" /></p>
<p>Let’s wrap this up.</p>
<p>I may be wrong. Some folks get lucky. But luck is not a business model..</p>
<p>Ultimately, the ones who do <strong>just do it</strong>. They may brag about it once it worked and often only because they have to.</p>
<p>I don’t have any advice about what you should or should not do. If I had, I would charge you for it (I’m an “entrepreneur”, remember?). But I do often recognize entrepreneurship when I meet it, and <a href="/2012/12/19/entrepreneurs-and-entrepreneurship/">it does not start with wanting to be “an entrepreneur”</a>.</p>
<p>Most of you shouldn’t be entrepreneur, and that’s fine. It’s neither admirable nor desirable. I’ve met a great many businesses, and most of them are started by one or a few individuals, but they ultimately succeed thanks to a team.</p>
<p>Being an entrepreneur is neither cool nor fun. And it’s nowhere safe.</p>
<p><strong>And if you’re set on it, just shut up about it and go do it</strong>.</p>
Fuck up early and often2017-08-13T00:00:00+00:00https://ronanberder.com/2017/08/13/fuck-up-early-and-often<p>I was asked a few weeks ago to share my experience at <a href="https://fuckupnights.com/event/fuckup-nights-shanghai/">Fuckup Nights Shanghai</a>.</p>
<p>Problem is: I’ve fucked up so many times since I arrived in China in 2005, I struggled to pick any specific anecdote. I decided to not choose and simply tell the many ways I fucked up on my way to creating and growing my company, <a href="https://wiredcraft.com">Wiredcraft</a>.</p>
<h2 id="fuck-up-1-working-for-the-wrong-people">Fuck up #1: Working for the wrong people</h2>
<p><img src="/files/bad-boss.gif" width="100%" /></p>
<p>Until 2009, I was the MD of a Canadian digital agency. We had some interesting clients, plenty of demand and went from 5 to 20 in about a year.</p>
<p>One problem though; our CEO was a cokehead. He grossly mis-managed cashflow and put us all in a tough spot. I was stupid enough to keep on working there for more than 4 months without pay, trying really hard to believe things would get better. They didn’t.</p>
<p>In early 2009, we flew to Washington DC for a conference, met with the CEO and let him know we would liquidate his Chinese branch. This didn’t even begin to cover the debt I was owed, even less what was owed to the rest of the staff.</p>
<p>I paid off some of it with my own savings and inherited a couple tables and desktop computers. I hadn’t been paid for more than 4 months, and I now had no saving left: I was broke.</p>
<p>So I started to freelance.</p>
<h2 id="fuck-up-2-starting-my-own-business">Fuck up #2: Starting my own business</h2>
<p><img src="/files/like-a-boss.gif" width="100%" /></p>
<p>Freelancing was going well and about 2 months in I had managed to round up a couple people working out of my living room (“the office”).</p>
<p>Somehow, I thought that creating my own company, from China was a good idea. Not only that, but mostly working with OSS, focusing on quality software.</p>
<p>Dummy.</p>
<p>Somehow, despite this, we managed to grow to 8+ people. However, I didn’t take care of myself; I drank too regularly, didn’t work out as much as I should have and overall spent most of my time working or stressed out about the business.</p>
<p>I clearly remember signing the lease for my first office; the whole thing was conducted in Chinese and I understood about half of it.</p>
<p>I had no idea what I was doing and it’s amazing I didn’t burst in flames back then.</p>
<h2 id="fuck-up-3-breaking-our-business-model">Fuck up #3: Breaking our business model</h2>
<p><img src="/files/wave.gif" width="100%" /></p>
<p>We had been using a popular PHP framework and had created a nice niche for ourselves. We had happy customers, a good reputation within this niche and even received a couple acquisition offers.</p>
<p>That’s about when I had the dumb idea to move entirely away from our current stack and start using completely new and unproven technology (Node.js).</p>
<p>While satisfying (and confusing) on an engineering level, this brought a lot of problems to our company;</p>
<ul>
<li>We spent a ton of resources retraining our whole team,</li>
<li>We sunk even more time figuring out things with an unproven technology,</li>
<li>Most important of all, we struggled to advertise ourself. Nobody was looking for the expertise we were developing.</li>
</ul>
<p>This wasn’t happy time: we were struggling to find clients or had no idea how to market our services. This effectively nearly killed our entire sales channel.</p>
<h2 id="fuck-up-4-letting-a-client-fuck-us-over">Fuck up #4: Letting a client fuck us over</h2>
<p><img src="/files/the-office-no.gif" width="100%" /></p>
<p>In 2010, we started working for non-profits and international development clients. Think World Bank, United Nations etc.</p>
<p>I spent my time traveling back and forth between the US and China. We got to do truly amazing things, starting with creating the software to run the South Sudan referendum. We effectively helped creating the newest country on earth.</p>
<p>I kept on fucking up my health to the point of burnt out. Passed that point it became pretty hard to run the company effectively.</p>
<p>I was still traveling for business but had to increasingly rely on less experienced people on the team to run projects.</p>
<p>It got us to a point where our main client (the UN) mismanaged one of their project, delaying our payment of 150k USD (which back then was most of our yearly revenue) in hope of squeezing some additional work from us.</p>
<p>It got so bad that I had to simply walk away without getting paid. At some point, we had about 5 weeks of cashflow. We almost died.</p>
<h2 id="fuck-up-5-losing-focus">Fuck up #5: Losing focus</h2>
<p><img src="/files/mexican-hat.gif" width="100%" /></p>
<p>For close to 3 years, I and a few other folks on my team, spent a ton of time trying to create SaaS products. We probably made all the mistakes that you could think of. For the sake of brevity:</p>
<ul>
<li>We over-engineered,</li>
<li>We waited too long to launch, while others successfully took over the market,</li>
<li>We under marketed (“If you build it, they will come”),</li>
<li>We took too long to cut our losses and grew attached to zombie projects,</li>
<li>…</li>
</ul>
<p>But most important of all, we were trying to build a couple products AND running a consulting business. We didn’t ace either of these.</p>
<p>Most of these products failed. We wasted a ton of time and opportunities in the process.</p>
<p>And then we got an investment offer for ~150k USD for one of our products, along with an invitation to join Techstars.</p>
<p>We went through the whole process; created a C-corp, prepared shares, ran due diligence. And at the last minute, we decided to pass on it. Because we knew our product was fucked up and would need a major pivot to be successful.</p>
<h2 id="fuck-up-6-breaking-our-business-model-again">Fuck up #6: Breaking our business model, again</h2>
<p><img src="/files/jericho-missile.gif" width="100%" /></p>
<p>Yes: I’m a moron.</p>
<p>After passing on the investment offer, we committed to focus on the consulting business and drop any other project.</p>
<p>And at the same time, we also decided to completely kill our sales channel by drastically reducing our work with non-profits and international development organizations. We wrapped up some of the projects we had started.</p>
<p>Once again, we had no idea how to advertise ourselves, where to find our clients or how to convince them. We had no sales channels, no relevant portfolio and no idea how we’d make it through.</p>
<h2 id="lessons">Lessons</h2>
<p><img src="/files/cat-piano.gif" width="100%" /></p>
<p>The list is much longer ; just last year I lost 60k USD on a new office by fucking up on the contract, and ending up with a landlord going bankrupt along with our deposit.</p>
<p>But more than successes, failure and your resilience to it is what defines you as an entrepreneur.</p>
<p>Keep in mind the following;</p>
<ul>
<li>Most advices people will give you are misguided, inadequate or biased.</li>
<li>You’ll most likely disregard the advices they’ll give you anyway.</li>
<li>Mostly, you’ll fuck up on your own. And you’ll get to a point where you’re comfortable fucking up and dealing with it. The trick, I think is to fuck up as quickly as possible and moving on to the next opportunity for a fuck up.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Honestly; stop going to startup events in hope that you’ll become better or more successful. Just go fuck up like a man (or a woman) and figure it out like the rest of us do; by doing</strong>.</p>
<p><em>You can <a href="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1e4Y2btCwLRr2UoHw_PdH_rVakpF5oDNvnKYTkNJBIzU/edit?usp=sharing">find my slides online</a>.</em></p>
How to be awesome and get shit done2017-08-06T00:00:00+00:00https://ronanberder.com/2017/08/06/be-awesome-and-get-shit-done<p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BGwZq6RlifG/?taken-by=hunvreus"><img src="/files/mr-awesome.jpg" alt="Mr Awesome" /></a></p>
<p>I am known for being disciplined and getting stuff done. If you throw shit at me, I’ll sort it out. While I’m officially the CEO at <a href="https://wiredcraft.com">Wiredcraft</a>, <strong>I usually refer to myself as the CJO: Chief Janitor Officer</strong>.</p>
<p>There’s no real secret to it. It’s a boring mix of habits, behaviors and rules that I’ve adopted over the years. But since I often get asked how I do it, here is my 2 cents…</p>
<h2 id="disclaimers">Disclaimers</h2>
<ol>
<li><strong>I do not consider myself successful (yet)</strong> or perfect in any way. With that being said, I do have strong opinions about a few things that I think help me be less clueless.</li>
<li><strong>Most of what I’m about to tell you will probably be lost on you</strong>. It’s very likely that my advices are misguided, inadequate or biased. But more importantly, you’ll most likely disregard them and do whatever you want.</li>
</ol>
<h2 id="eat-your-greens-go-to-bed-early-and-exercise">Eat your greens, go to bed early and exercise</h2>
<p>Your mom told you this since you were a kid and yet you don’t do it. Just eat your damn veggies and go to bed early. It makes a world of difference.</p>
<p>I started leaning towards a much cleaner lifestyle about 4 or 5 years ago: no processed crap or heavy carbs. That means no pasta, no rice, no bread, no cakes (I’ve never liked them anyway).</p>
<p>I go to bed at 10:30 PM most days, and wake up around 5:30 or 6:00 AM. I hit the “gym” (aka the pull up bars at Jing’an park surrounded by a horde of old Chinese folks) around 6:30 or 7:00.</p>
<p>I do calisthenics, with lots of HIIT and some cardio. I usually wrap it up in 30 to 40 minutes, after which I run back home and get ready for work.</p>
<h2 id="no-booze">No booze</h2>
<p>You’re not gonna like this one. Just so you know, I never had a problem with alcohol, I just lost interest.</p>
<p><em>I actually also quit coffee and tea last year.</em></p>
<p>Not drinking has had a tremendously positive impact on my physical and mental health. I furiously enjoy never waking up at noon with a headache and clothes reeking of cigarette smoke.</p>
<p>One of the things that consistently surprises me are my reflexes. And this extends to many other brain functions. I think faster and with more clarity than I have ever had in years.</p>
<p>My lifestyle is pretty much that of a grandpa: wake up early, working out, eat healthy and avoid drinking…</p>
<p>For all the positive aspects it had on my life, it did radically change my social interactions. People react in the weirdest way when they learn about it.</p>
<p>In the best case, people treat you as if you were handicapped or depriving yourself of life’s pleasures.</p>
<p>But more often than not, they simply feel uncomfortable. Especially about booze. Folks regularly try to pressure me into having “just one drink”.</p>
<h2 id="less-is-more">Less is more</h2>
<p>You only have so much focus. Don’t spread yourself thing by maintaining too many relations, working on too many things at the same or trying to make too many changes altogether.</p>
<p>For example, the best sales people aren’t the ones who cold email a hundreds folks. The best friggin’ sales folks are the ones who drive half of the revenue for the team by focusing on a tenth of that number.</p>
<p>Less stuff, less people in your life, less noise… All these things that you think you need and you’re encouraged to pile up end up making you weaker. <a href="/2013/02/10/about-not-owning-shit/">I wrote about that before</a>.</p>
<h2 id="one-step-at-a-time">One step at a time</h2>
<p>Lots of folks just do one of two things;</p>
<ul>
<li>See a big task and get discouraged, or procrastinate a ton because they know it will be challenging.</li>
<li>Try and chew on it all, and burn down in flames.</li>
</ul>
<p>The best way to get started (and done) with something is to start small.</p>
<p>Wanna get healthy? Don’t try and start switching to paleo, work out 5 times a week and going cold turkey on booze. Start by slowly reducing your portions and eliminating soda until you feel almost comfortable. Then take it up a notch.</p>
<p>Look at the few small things you can get started on now and focus on that.</p>
<p><strong>Most importantly, build a routine</strong>. You want to be consistent until you do things without having to think too much about it.</p>
<h2 id="focus">Focus</h2>
<p>Fuck the noise.</p>
<p>Install this fucking extension and block sites you tend to procrastinate on (for me: Hacker News & Wikipedia…): https://www.gofuckingwork.com/</p>
<p>You will try and procrastinate. It will creep on you really insidiously. Your jerk of a brain will try and wander around on Wikipedia for 30 minutes before it lets you realize that you’re fucking around.</p>
<p>Focus is a conscious effort you’ll need to be consistently applying against your unconscious tendency to seek distraction (whether it’s the new shiny thing you saw popping up on Twitter or yet another cool project you should totally get started on right this second).</p>
<p>Don’t multitask and don’t deviate. Pick one thing, work on it until it’s good enough and move on.</p>
<h2 id="everything-is-a-goddam-pipeline">Everything is a goddam pipeline</h2>
<p>Most processes can be modeled as pipelines. I could write an entire post just on this topic (and I may just do that).</p>
<p>Once you have your pipeline, decide of a way to measure things and start optimizing one step after another. Don’t overdo it; in most cases “good enough” is what you’re shooting for. You’ll get to come back to it later on once the conditions (scale, objectives…) have changed.</p>
<p>While doing that, you’ll want to have a certain scientific rigor to it. Every time you want to change or improve something:</p>
<ul>
<li>List your assumptions about the problem or opportunity,</li>
<li>Describe how you want to validate or invalidate things,</li>
<li>Run the experiment and figure it out.</li>
</ul>
<p>That’s the idea at the core of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method">scientific method</a>. That’s <a href="https://wiredcraft.com/blog/how-we-design-products/">how we design products at Wiredcraft</a>, how we run our marketing and how I myself figured out a lot of things about my own life.</p>
<h2 id="remove-yourself-from-the-equation">Remove yourself from the equation</h2>
<p><strong>You. Don’t. Have. A. Fucking. Choice.</strong></p>
<p>Remember that when it’s cold as fuck outside, you only have running shorts and it’s cardio day. Because this run will happen, whether you like it or not.</p>
<p>It’s Thursday evening and you’re exhausted, yet you promised to talk at that event? Tough shit: it will happen anyway, better get on with it.</p>
<p>There are some dubious claims that it takes a certain amount of time to form a habit; some say 21 days, some say it’s 66, others say it’s all bonkers. Maybe, maybe not.</p>
<p>What I do know from personal experience is that things get a bit easier with time. But when things get tough you’ll need to be resolute and power through it.</p>
<p>And things will get tough (anything worth doing is).</p>
<p>So, just remove yourself from the decision process.</p>
<p>You are not here to decide: your opinion or feelings don’t matter. You just have the task at hand and the expectation that it will happen. That reality has been decided and will be acted upon, whether you like it or not.</p>
<p>That may sound borderline crazy, but it works wonders.</p>
<h2 id="dont-be-a-wuss-seriously">Don’t be a wuss… seriously.</h2>
<p>Just don’t.</p>
<p>If you want to get shit done, just do it and don’t complain about how hard it is. Focus on what you’ve accomplished and start taking joy in tackling tough stuff.</p>
<p>One of the things that being a CJO is about is to be the ultimate snowplow for your team. You are here to get the shit out of their way so that they can do their work.</p>
<p>It often is ungrateful work. And that’s fine. You’re a catalyst for the team’s success.</p>
<p>And this applies to pretty much everything else…</p>
<p>Wanna get a six-pack? No amount of “beach body in 3 weeks” articles in GQ will give it to you. Wanna build a great company? Well buckle up, kiddo, cause it will take a lot of time, effort and cringe-inducing work. And even then you will most likely fail.</p>
<p>So don’t be a wuss. Cause wusses don’t get shit done. Wusses don’t get to be awesome.</p>
<h2 id="one-big-caveat">One big caveat</h2>
<p>I actually think that last point (don’t be a wuss) is the most important one. It takes grit and discipline to get shit done.</p>
<p>BUT.</p>
<p>Along the way, you will fail.</p>
<p>Let this sink for a minute. YOU. WILL. FAIL.</p>
<p>You’ll take the wrong turn. You’ll drop the ball. You’ll underperform. You’ll get lost.</p>
<p>Heck, I spent two years building products and disregarding all the things I read for years about how to build SaaS products. And <strong>I failed several times</strong>.</p>
<p>I spent 30 years not understanding how to properly taking care of my body.</p>
<p>And I’m most likely far from done. In 10 years, I’ll probably smile at how moronic some of my habits and expectations are nowadays.</p>
<p>You can get better, but for this you’ll need grit. If you don’t have it in you, I honestly would recommend you pick your battles (and avoid starting your own company, for example).</p>
<p>Keep in mind that like many other things in life, luck plays a major part in things (and luck ain’t known to be particularly fair).</p>
<h2 id="to-sum-it-up">To sum it up</h2>
<ul>
<li>Take care of your body first,</li>
<li>Take it one step at a time,</li>
<li>Be consistent,</li>
<li>Focus (goddam it),</li>
<li>Apply the scientific dialectic (bouncing between theory and experiments),</li>
<li>Remove yourself from the decision process,</li>
<li>Don’t be a wuss (seriously),</li>
<li>Cultivate grit.</li>
</ul>
<p>In a nutshell: <strong>Don’t be a wuss. Be awesome<sup>TM</sup></strong>.</p>
<p>Now go out there and kick some ass.</p>
China And Open Source2013-02-27T00:00:00+00:00https://ronanberder.com/2013/02/27/china-and-open-source<p>There hasn’t been much time for settling in the past 8 years through which I called Shanghai my home base. Friends came and went, jobs changed, and so did apartments, but being a geek and taking part in local tech events hasn’t. Open Source has probably been the only constant along this near decade. Since I often get asked about OSS and China, I thought I would lay out my thoughts here (and, in the future, do the lazy thing of pointing people at this post).</p>
<p>As far as I can remember, <strong>Open Source wasn’t that popular either in the Western world a decade ago</strong>. From my days as a student, I remember the constant FUD against it. Employers didn’t give a damn about whether or not you were familiar with Linux or if you had contributed to an OSS project. If you had some experience with Java, that was good enough. SourceForge was the <em>de facto</em> platform to host such projects and Github wouldn’t be around for another few years.</p>
<p>Things in the US and Europe are now very different. The barriers of entry for English-speaking developers are much lower with an abundance of high quality, free and user-friendly resources and tools. The reputation incentives (more about this in <em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cathedral_and_the_Bazaar">The Cathedral and the Bazaar</a></em>) are reinforced by the industry; it is not uncommon for companies to ask job applicants for their Github page or Open Source contributions. You can throw an event in 5 minutes on Meetup.com and expect a decent amount of people to show up, even for niche topics.</p>
<p>Not so much in China.</p>
<p>Let’s get the obvious out of the way: China only started opening up to the rest of the world 3 decades ago, notably through the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_economic_reform">economic reform of 1978</a>. It’s been busy at catching up with the rest of the world and in the last few years became the largest Internet population in the world. Fine.</p>
<p>Scale doesn’t equate to culture. There are a number of things that have been preventing OSS to really catch on:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p><strong>Education is still very much lagging</strong>, with very institutional CS programs (think Java and .net… yummy!) and, until recently at least, a serious bias towards it. People would usually consider getting into CS only if other options were exhausted (business, sales, politics…). This is probably not so different from the 90’s in Europe. Unfortunately, educational systems don’t evolve (yet) as fast as technology and consumer behaviors.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>The Chinese culture discourage individuality</strong> at least in some crucial areas. There are a lot of young people out there who just want to be like everybody else. This is a serious deterrent to innovation and experimentation, which are fundamentals of the hacker and OSS culture.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Language</strong>. Younger folks are more exposed to English, but we are still far from English being the <em>lingua franca</em> educated folks.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>The demand from companies is quickly shifting, you just have to take a look at companies like <a href="http://job.taobao.com/">Taobao</a>, <a href="http://www.dianping.com/aboutus/hr">Dianping</a> or <a href="http://jobs.douban.com/">Douban</a> to know that (Baidu was left aside intentionally). It is hardly impacting things yet though. I actually believe that this tension is a good indicator of business opportunities.</p>
<p>Now this is not to say that there are no local initiatives. Especially in first tier cities (Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen…), you can find active local communities. They do however usually suffer from one of the following problems:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p><strong>Fragmented and territorial</strong>. There are decently sized niche OSS communities that are pretty active. The Python community in Beijing and Shanghai, for example. However they are very silo-ed and territorial. This may work fine for the more crowded Western scene, but prevents the collaboration and knowledge transfer that would help other local communities get off the ground.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Too heavily targeted at foreigners</strong>, something that we are painfully familiar with in Shanghai. It often stems from the simple fact that these communities are initiated and led by foreigners. Anybody who’ve put a tech event here is aware of the difficulty of getting locals to get on stage and share their experiences. Again, individuality and public exposure are not necessarily encouraged.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Marketing shows</strong>, this is especially true for large local events. I’ve been more than once sitting in events in Shanghai and Beijing expecting some geek talks, only to be served pie charts and ads revenue projections by a suit.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Things have been quickly improving in the last few years. <a href="http://taobao.com">Taobao</a>, highly regarded within local tech circles, is <a href="http://code.taobao.org/">embracing Open Source</a> and leading the way on <a href="http://tengine.taobao.org/">how to do it right</a>. I expect this to only accelerate and am prepared to be blown away in a few years from now when the Chinese hacker culture has solidified. You should too.</p>
<p>Shameless plug: we are throwing the monthly <a href="http://shanghaihn.org">Hacker News meetup</a> and <a href="http://shanghaios.org">Open Source meetup</a> here in Shanghai. If you’re a geek, join and help.</p>
About Not Owning Sh*t2013-02-10T00:00:00+00:00https://ronanberder.com/2013/02/10/about-not-owning-shit<p><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8112/8492122654_999241159b_z.jpg" alt="Nothing in action" /></p>
<p>As far as I can remember, I’ve been a fairly resolute (some may say stubborn) person. I just can’t seem to nuance my commitments: I either do something, or I don’t. I often think of the song <em>Running At Full Speed</em> from Venus when I picture my “strategy” for investment, or lack thereof, in both personal and profesional aspects of my life.</p>
<p>The last few years have been fantastic for me in terms of personal growth: I built <a href="http://wiredcraft.com">my first company</a> and moved on to build <a href="http://devo.ps">my first products</a>. I worked with a whole range of companies and organizations, helped governments and fortune 500. I also did a lot of introspection, kicked my butt into shape, quit drinking, went paleo and overall tried really hard to improve myself, especially in areas where I lacked confidence.</p>
<p>There’s one thing though that I’ve sticked to for a long time, with more passion in the past couple years: <strong>I don’t own shit</strong>. I insist on the term “shit” as I think it provides a valuable distinction from just “stuff” or “things”.</p>
<p>Owning very little is probably one of the most important behaviors that helps me moving forward. I currently have more or less all I need; a few devices to get my work done, a wardrobe that allows me to work, exercise and go by more formal events… and that’s about it. A pair of sunglasses and some other minor necessities, but the grand total of my possessions fits in a suitcase. When I travel, I can pack all of what I own with me.</p>
<p>Some people think I’m cheap, others that entrepreneurship influenced that trait (the PC version of “scrappy” or “broke”). I think not. I’ve never been obsessed with getting the new shiny thing. I never connected with the people lining up outside of the Apple store to get the latest gadget. I’ve never felt like buying sport gears before I really needed them. I never felt the need to have the most expensive watch or the latest adidas. <strong>I just very sincerely don’t give a fuck.</strong> I don’t want it. I have no interest in surrounding myself with tons of crap that will help me peacock for a few weeks and will inevitably end up in a drawer or a closet somewhere in my apartment.</p>
<p>I own little, but I try and make sure that this little is reliable and safe. I buy what I want and need, of the best quality I can afford. I don’t try and save money on food for example. I get my shirts tailored. I buy Apple. I do it because it is directly impacting my work or health, and these things weight heavily in the balance of my happiness.</p>
<p>I don’t fear losing stuff, I don’t even think about it. I can safely say that if I was to lose everything tomorrow it wouldn’t take long for me to make it back. A month of consulting and I’d probably be able to afford more than I own right now. As long as I am healthy and can use my brain, I should be able to sort things out.</p>
<p>I am painfully aware I am a highly privileged educated white male and most of the world population don’t have the luxury of living like I do. I remember being 11, laying in bed and incapable of finding sleep, after having spent a couple of hours with my mom shopping at a local supermarket. I was trying to extrapolate the volume of crap that could be imported at any given moment for us to enjoy the sickening wealth and overwhelming diversity of our average shop. I could simply not wrap my mind around the idea of such a quantity of waste and uselessness.</p>
<p>That was a strong enough reason then, and I think that the more privileged should refrain themselves from consuming more than they need. The problem is how you define “need”. But if you are not going to do it for the others, consider the fact that owning little is empowering. Stripping yourself down of the clutter will help you see what matters and is, in my humble opinion, the first step towards finding the meaning in things. It is not an easy thing to find yourself and others when you’ve surrounded yourself with a maze of useless possessions.</p>
Dropping The Drop2013-01-25T00:00:00+00:00https://ronanberder.com/2013/01/25/dropping-the-drop<p><em>This post sat unpublished on my website for about a year before I decided to simply let it out.</em></p>
<p>I started playing with Drupal to build this very website around 2005. Starting 2006, I was using it at work. Over the course of the following few years, I took on gradually larger projects involving Drupal, working with CNN, the World Bank and the United Nations. I even briefly took part in the Drupal Association, the non-profit supporting the Open Source project.</p>
<p>A little over 2 years ago, my company, <a href="http://wiredcraft.com">Wiredcraft</a>, decided to stop using it altogether. It’s now been a while since we last built or maintained anything Drupal. This move wasn’t without challenges; a significant portion of our business was tied up to Drupal in one way or another. While our projects always involved a lot of work on infrastructure, data visualization or data warehousing, Drupal often was a key part of the discussion with our clients.</p>
<p>For many of these clients and some of my friends, it seemed like an abrupt change of direction both technically and strategically. It was. We dicarded a large part of our technical expertise and a significant portion of our sales channels. And we’d probably do it again.</p>
<p>Some of these people asked why; I thought I’d share what I can remember of our thought process back then.</p>
<h3 id="drupal-7">Drupal 7</h3>
<p>Our last major project with it was the launch of our first Drupal 7 site. A frustrating trend clearly emerged:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>More and more abstraction layers</strong>: I remember falling asleep at my desk while launching the site, reading through the cryptic errors the combination of Views, entity fields and the database abstraction layer was throwing at me. The core team had sided for more abstraction rather than investing in simplicity and developer/user experience.</li>
<li><strong>Drop in performance</strong>: while Drupal 6 wasn’t necessarily known to be snappy, it was manageable and scaled quite well with simple, repeatable strategies. Drupal 7 was a beast out-of-the-box and took quite some tweaking to run reasonably fast.</li>
<li><strong>A questionable UI trend</strong>; the overall user experience was not improving to say the least. While previous versions were debatably austere by default, the introduction in Drupal 7 of complex overlays and awkward AJAX interactions with no consistent UX or UI direction was becoming a major problem.</li>
</ul>
<p>Overall, the learning curve for both developers and end-users crossed a threshold that questioned our investment in Drupal.</p>
<h3 id="a-tougher-market">A tougher market</h3>
<p>The Drupal community had been pretty kind to us in the initial years of Wiredcraft. It was an expanding niche market with high demand for qualified expertise. But things in 2009 were already quickly moving to a less desirable setup:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Acquia’s success</strong>, which I applaude, was effectively starting to asphixiate the top-end of the market.</li>
<li><strong>A growing cheap labor</strong> in the form of offshore shops with low rates, which despite they lack of expertise were effectively dragging the perception of value down, making it harder to extract margins.</li>
<li><strong>A thin middle market</strong>. Budget-wise, we often found clients on either end of the spectrum, which made it hard for us to generate steady sales cycles. Drupal has a substantial overhead to “just get started”, which can make it hard to deal with smaller budgets.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="a-few-other-factors">A few other factors</h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Technology fatigue</strong>: the “Drupal Way” was pretty incestuous and made it hard for us to experiment or integrate with other technologies. We also wanted better tools; better tests, dependency management, smarter ways of deploying…</li>
<li><strong>My focus had changed</strong>; while early on I had essentially been building online publications, which Drupal handle very well, Wiredcrat had been a data company from the get-go. We were using Drupal as a CRUD interface for increasingly large datasets and visualization-heavy applications.</li>
<li><strong>We saw a trend</strong> of smart people getting off of “the island”. Some of the people we admired most within the community moved on to finding new tools to solve their problems.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="drupal-8">Drupal 8</h3>
<p>I won’t comment much on Drupal 8 since we’ve only very briefly played with it. What I saw though confirmed some of the trends we saw a few years ago:</p>
<ul>
<li>Developer and user experience (DX/UX) keep on degrading.</li>
<li>More disruptive changes to core with the introduction of Symfony as the underlying framework. Though I can understand the thought process behind this decision, I have to consider how this impact the way we would invest our resources: more Drupal-ism, less content and UX strategy, less marketing.</li>
<li>The technical winners (Panels, complex ODBC, entity fields…) were the opposite of what we were rooting for. I’d rather configure my apps with code rather than layers of complex and limitating UI.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="a-few-more-thoughts">A few more thoughts</h3>
<p>We wish farewell to the Drupal community as they embark on the D8 journey; as in most OSS communities, there are plenty of great people there. We’re just definitely not heading in the same direction. I would encourage most (Drupal) people to look around though: all people who’ve “exited” have found it extremely refreshing.</p>
<p>We may be wrong and that doesn’t matter after all. But if I were to consider things like the graphs below I’d say that we may not be the only ones.</p>
<script type="text/javascript" src="//www.google.com/trends/embed.js?hl=en-US&q=Drupal&cmpt=q&content=1&cid=TIMESERIES_GRAPH_0&export=5&w=700&h=350"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="//www.google.com/trends/embed.js?hl=en-US&q=Drupal,+/m/02vtpl&cmpt=q&content=1&cid=TIMESERIES_GRAPH_0&export=5&w=700&h=350"></script>
<p><a href="http://makingdataeasy.com/stackoverflow-trends?t=drupal">Stackoverflow trend for the Drupal tag</a></p>
<p>This is not a hate post, I just felt I owed it to people around me to explain our choice. This may be useful to others as they evaluate what’s best for their project, especially given the strong attitude of “you can build anything with Drupal (tm)” that runs within the community.</p>
<p>I have additional thoughts on why things are the way they are, but I won’t share them publicly. I’m happy discussing this in private though.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the fish.</p>
Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurship2012-12-19T00:00:00+00:00https://ronanberder.com/2012/12/19/entrepreneurs-and-entrepreneurship<p>One small syllable shouldn’t make much of a difference after all, but it does. To me at least. I may be misled by arrogance, for I have not been successful enough in my ventures to claim the right to judge others. But still, it annoys me. And if you’ve met any of my fellow Frenchmen, you know that one way or another I’ll need to voice my discontent (“Sacrebleu!”). So be it.</p>
<p>One more hop over the Pacific, two weeks ago, knees stuck to the front seat, face pressed against the screen. I was killing time, remembering once again why I can’t seem to sleep on planes, especially now that <a href="/2012/11/17/alcohol-personal-growth/">I’m a full time sober</a>. Half way through <a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_iron_lady">The Iron Lady</a>, I pause on a quote attributed to Mrs Thatcher:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It used to be about trying to do something; now it’s about trying to be someone.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This. Exactly this. An articulated way of explaining why I roll my eyes when landing on yet another blog post from a “serial entrepreneur”, proud CEO of himself and former CTO of his custom Wordpress blog. Or when I run into the founder of a “disruptive startup”, pivoting to a new model that will once and for all, the founder assures me, secure his place in the pantheon of startup CEOs, forever the equal of the Zuckerbergs and Pincus’ of this world.</p>
<p>I was taught at an early age that really, only two things mattered;</p>
<ol>
<li>Be smart,</li>
<li>Don’t be a smart ass about it,</li>
</ol>
<p>Legacy of my father. And like good wine, it only gets better with age.</p>
<p>I did not choose to build a business; I kind of stumbled into it, more a duty than an opportunity. I did not dream of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NisCkxU544c">being “The Boss” (TM)</a>. Having my own company meant building the work environment I yearned for. What I did not see coming was that being its architect precluded me from enjoying it the way my employees would. I gave up on being the geek so that my team could thrive at it, and I became what most small business owners are at first: <a href="http://www.zachbruhnke.com/youre-not-the-ceo-youre-the-fucking-janitor">the janitor</a>.</p>
<p>That’s what I see in most business owners, aka “entrepreneurs”, I have respect for. Smarts and selflessness. Conscious or unconscious. Financial gains are not out of the equation, but the main idea is to build a business you’d enjoy, as an employee or a customer. Leading it is almost an afterthought.</p>
<p>I don’t have any advice about what you should or should not do. Heck, if I had, I would try and charge you for it (I’m an “entrepreneur”, remember?). But I do often recognize entrepreneurship when I meet it, and it does not start with wanting to be “an entrepreneur”.</p>
Alcohol And Personal Growth2012-11-17T00:00:00+00:00https://ronanberder.com/2012/11/17/alcohol-personal-growth<p>It’s Friday evening and I am sitting in my apartment, trying to fulfill my penultimate resolution for the year. A blog post a week, I don’t care where, on the company website or on your own blog, but I will expect that blog post by end of the week. I do that; talking to myself, threatening, demanding, kicking my own butt… The poor slob in me had it hard this year: I made him quit alcohol.</p>
<p align="center"><img src="/files/bottles.png" alt="Bottles" /></p>
<p>I never considered myself a heavy drinker, and so do most of people around me. What is the big deal if that slight hangover can be shaved off in a few hours? A solid breakfast, plenty of water and a run will take care of it. Well, actually maybe not: I have the feeling that little routine of occasional excess may have seriously slowed me down…</p>
<p>It is a strange thing to observe our social gatherings through sober eyes. A frightening view sometimes. Alcohol is practically shoved down your throat. Refusing a drink is the cause of strange looks at the very least, and quite often seems to be an invitation to coercion: after all, “you work hard, you play hard”, no? Well, not exactly.</p>
<p>It is not something I really planned for either; I had already been gradually reducing my consumption for the past two years, switching to lighter beverages and staying away from beer at all costs. And one night, coming back from my birthday party, I knew it was simply not something I enjoyed anymore. And, the same way I kissed carbohydrates goodbye a year ago, I don’t see myself going back. I now see how much that what looked like an insignificant and benign habit was limiting my personal growth. Try it, seriously.</p>
Eating Paleo in Shanghai2012-07-15T00:00:00+00:00https://ronanberder.com/2012/07/15/eating-paleo-in-shanghai<p>I switched from being a vegetarian to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic_diet">Paleo diet</a> end of last year. I can’t tell how much I am pleased with that decision, so much in fact that I have happily converted a few friends to it (and I can’t remember ever trying to convince anybody of the benefits of being vegetarian).</p>
<p>If you’re not familiar with it, there are plenty of sites out there doing a great job at explaining the idea. I myself read <a href="http://nomnompaleo.com/">Nom Nom Paleo</a> and <a href="http://nomnompaleo.com/">Mark Sisson’s blog</a> on a regular basis. Some of the key concepts behind it; eat natural (no processed foods), avoid carbs and sugar and go crazy on greens and meat. No calorie counting, no strict regimen to stick to, just sound advices on eating simple, healthy (and yummy) food.</p>
<p>Since <a href="http://wiredcraft.com">my company</a> requires I split my time between our Shanghai and Washington DC offices, I can confirm there is a striking contrast in the range of options offered to paleo addicts between the two countries. When in the US, Whole Foods or any decent grocery does the trick. Shanghai can be a tad more challenging;</p>
<ol>
<li>Dining out is a very affordable option (luckily I love cooking and do so every day),</li>
<li>Supermarkets like City Shop propose a lot of imported food and a decent selection of vegetables, but can be outrageously expensive (100 RMB for a jar of olives, really?),</li>
<li>The selection from local places can be pretty disorienting; lots of products you are not familiar with, which makes it hard to know how to prepare it, moreover freshness varies greatly (which is fine if you fry everything like most Chinese do, but I’m a sucker for salads),</li>
</ol>
<p>Now you can always pull out the joker card; the <a href="http://shanghaiist.com/2011/04/01/the_avocado_lady_expanding_options.php#photo-1">“avocado lady”</a>. Sure, but it definitely isn’t a day-to-day option for me.</p>
<p>This leads me to the little circuit that I’ve starting following about 5 years ago; get my running gears on, grab my backpack and run down the Tianzifang area. I usually get a good mix of greens, meat, nuts and dried fruits;</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p><strong>涂跃华’s shop on Ruijin lu (#223)</strong>; it’s been my go-to shop for nuts and dried fruits for a solid 5 years now. I especially recommend the roasted almonds, chestnuts, dried bananas and apricots. I usually fill up on these babies before hopping on a plane; try mixing apricots and almonds, it’s addictive. If you’re the paleo diet, go easy on these though since they contain sugar and carbs.</p>
<p><img src="/files/paleo/nuts.jpg" alt="Nuts and fruits" /></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Covered market on Taikang lu</strong>; this market is located on Taikang lu, right about the middle of the street. If you exit from Tianzifang, you should have no issue finding it. Get in through the West entrance, go straight towards the center of it and try to find the lady from the picture below; she has a list of vegetables in English and their equivalent in Chinese. You’ll be able to stack up on fresh mint, basil, persil, avocado, lemongrass, all kind of salads (roman, iceberg…) as well as the more regular stuff (peppers, garlic, mushrooms, lemons…). Her products look really good and she’s definitely fun to chat with; I’ve been to that location for a good 5 years too. I don’t really buy fruits anymore but there are stands for that too, along with some selling spices and sauces.</p>
<p><img src="/files/paleo/veggies.jpg" alt="Greens" /></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>City Shop on Taikang lu</strong>; this one is a new one on my list. Now, I am not a big fan of City Shop, I find it overpriced. However there are a few things that you just can’t find in regular Chinese supermarkets (jalapenos, pickles, cheese…). When going to this specific one I stick to a few specific items: meat. They have a great deal on italian sausages (spicy, sweet and regular), averaging at 14 RMB for three big babies that will fill you up. You also can get some dried meat there; the (local) Yurun brand has decent salami, coppa and the likes.</p>
<p><img src="/files/paleo/sausages.jpg" alt="Spicy sausages" /></p>
<p><img src="/files/paleo/yurun.jpg" alt="Dried meat from Yurun" /></p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>I have quite a few other locations I go to, but I’ll save it for a later. In the meantime, <a href="http://tiles.mapbox.com/wiredcraft/map/map-bnlz25lj">I’ve put these places on a map</a> to help you find the good stuff; enjoy.</p>
Don't Over-Think It, Suck It Up and Get Going2012-07-14T00:00:00+00:00https://ronanberder.com/2012/07/14/dont-over-think-it-suck-it-up-and-get-going<p><img src="/files/brain.png" alt="Thinking too much" align="right" /></p>
<p>I live mainly by two principles; <strong>kick you own butt</strong> and <strong>don’t think too hard</strong>. This is not an attempt to lecture people on “the good way to get things done”, just some ramblings about what works for me.</p>
<p>I don’t consider myself especially gifted or smarter than the average; truth be told I was a pretty chubby kid, introverted and shy as hell. I guess I still am in some ways if you scratch deep enough, but I’ve tried to make up for it with what people perceive as stamina; churning through things and getting there ultimately, or not really, but at least giving it a honest swing.</p>
<p>Now, I am not pretending to be some kind of Tim Ferriss guru, I won’t tell you how you can get your stuff done and then some in a matter of hours. I don’t get to the bottom of my todo list, ever. I honestly perceive myself as highly inefficient in a good deal of what I undertake. That being said, I can see that I do get stuff done on a fairly regular basis, through burn out and busy weeks, and my main approach for this is to;</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Not using my brain if I don’t need to.</strong> I don’t try to solve things that have been solved already by somebody else (thanks Google), neither do I try and solve things that are too uncertain yet. If it’s not concrete enough to be summarized to a couple options, I’m probably better off dealing with it later on. Finally, I don’t try to wrap my head around the whole problem; I just slice things up in smaller, more actionable chunks. Then I slice it up some more. It’s a redoubtable tool, slicing.</li>
<li><strong>Kicking my own butt on a daily basis.</strong> That may be coming from my natural self being socially unequipped, lazy and overall unpopular, but I’ve started at some point just sucking it up and giving myself mental slaps. That may sounds borderline schizophrenic, but I have some arguments with myself on a regular basis;</li>
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<blockquote>
<p>Can’t finish your run? Cool, but don’t come whining about how out of shape you are buddy.</p>
<p>Too tired to wrap up that strategy brief and feeling like grabbing a drink with friends to relax? Sure, genius idea! You’ll put in double shifts tomorrow, it worked so well for you in the past.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Most of the time it feels like fighting two kids at the same time; one who can’t stop blabbering while the other keeps dozing.</p>