#12experiments: Sober May, Go Away. Time For Pen Pal June

Another month down, another experiment completed. As part of my #12experiments, I went sober for the month of May and I’m happy to say I hit this goal 100%.** In addition, I decided alcohol-free wasn’t hard enough, so I dropped another stimulant from my life… caffeine. 

As I said before, I’ve never had an issue with alcohol and I’ve never been super hooked on caffeine, but I wanted to recalibrate and it felt good to go wholesale on liquid stimulants.

I can’t say I learned a lot in terms of perspective this month. I’ve been “the sober guy” before and not drinking caffeine doesn’t carry much societal pressure (though “coffee meetings” do take on a new meaning). 

I do, however, feel very clear-headed. I can likely attribute some of this to better sleep habits that I’ve formed, but even on days when I didn’t sleep much, I never had the hard hitting crashes in energy that I sometimes had after pulling late nights. Instead, I had lasting consistent energy levels. 

I can’t say I won’t crack a beer open (tonight, even), and I’m smart enough to know I haven’t had my last sip of caffeine (sometimes it’s just such a powerful kick for productivity), but I’m really happy to have had this time to reset. I’ll likely use caffeine much more sparingly from now on, if at all… though I do miss my afternoon espresso… We’ll see.

So, what’s next?

In June, I’m writing a handwritten letter to someone different everyday. While I love email for the speed and frequency with which I can communicate, some words are just better when written by hand, with thought and care. Plus, remember how awesome it is to receive something good in the mail? Well, that’s what I want to do and I have a list of people who are getting letters next month.

Expected challenges: Remembering how to actually write. Hand cramps. Licking stamps. Dealing with the post office. 

Expected rewards: Smiles.

While simple in design, this one actually seems really challenging. The next 30 days will tell.

I’d tell you to keep an eye on your mailbox, but I have a feeling that most of people I’m writing letters to don’t really use the internet, let alone read my blog. 

** OK. 99%. I had ONE small beer, at the strong urging of my teammates, in honor of Carrol Shelby’s passing and I tasted coffee ice cream once (not realizing there was caffeine in there), but it was the best coffee ice cream I’ve ever had. 

New dad

My friend Henry has a new baby boy. Pretty fucking awesome.

henrysztul:

Today has been such a wonderful day. I feel like I am a kid, because although I am exhausted, I don’t want the day to end!

Do Not Praise Her Appearance

Excellent point.

thelaurenproject:

Graduation season has triggered some memories for me, memories of sitting in my friend’s backyards as their parents toasted their futures and we lavished well wishes upon each other. 

But specifically, I remember hearing time and again my female friends being complimented thusly: “You are such a beautiful, smart, talented young woman, and I couldn’t be more proud.”

I have one request for anyone with a graduating daughter/sister/friend—do not praise her appearance as the first thing in your toast. Don’t mention her appearance at all. 

Teaching young women that their appearance is the first thing you notice tells them that looks are more important than anything. By telling her that she is “beautiful, smart, talented” (and believe me, it is almost always said in that order), you are suggesting—if unconsciously—that it’s most important she not lose her looks. You are prizing her face and body above her accomplishments and hard work. In a world where over 50% of young women say they’d rather be hit by a truck than be fat, this mindset isn’t something that should be encouraged, especially at such memorable events. 

This has been a post.

Slow Down to Speed Up

Last Friday, our team piled into a couple cars and drove up to Minnewaska State Park Preserve for the start of a company day off for everyone.

While Dan and I had scheduled this well in advance, we didn’t have much of a “plan” for our Shelby road trip. I simply stuffed my backpack with lunch supplies and we set off into the woods.

No trust falls. No drum circles. No purposeful ‘team building’ exercises… We were just together… enjoying our own company, enjoying the outdoors, and doing something other than building Shelby ‘the product.’

But we were building Shelby ‘the company.’

As a company, we work well together. Respectfully, intelligently, creatively. There are no fights and no one is burning out.

So why the ‘day off?’

A few things that Dan and I have learned while building two startups and multiple products:

1. Endurance is important. You can’t sprint all the time.
2. It’s better to avoid burnout, than to burnout and try to recover.
3. Loosely structured time together allows for great understanding and empathy to form, as well as creativity to flow.

Furthermore, one bonus lesson really stuck out to me throughout the day…

When hiking, it’s easy to fall into deep focus on each step of the trail. A loose rock here, a log there, a puddle there… and if you go too fast without looking up, before you know it, you’ve gone down the wrong trail or worse, gotten off the trail completely. If you don’t course-correct quickly, you then find yourself in a bad way, or at best, you have to backtrack eating up precious time.

So, while hiking through the woods as a big loose group, we consistently stopped to check our location, made sure everyone knew what trail to follow, and then set out at our pace together.

We slowed down, to speed up.

This is true for startups, too. We focus intensely on our product. We get an idea and we want to sprint after it. We’re builders, so we build… and while it is a great and necessary skill to build rapidly and iterate, it is imperative not to lose sight of the big picture - the trail map, if you will. This means taking careful, purposeful steps. Taking the right trail. Doing it the right way the first time, so you never have to backtrack.

I didn’t try to hammer this lesson home, but it presented itself and I was glad for it.

But all lessons learned aside, we hiked up into the mountains, breathed in the fresh air, enjoyed the views, avoided some dangerous wildlife (snakes), took some pictures, and had a few minutes of pure golden silence.

On the way home, we stopped off for a surprise whiskey tasting at Tuthilltown Spirits (Henry and I were DD’s) and capped the day off with burgers by the sunset at Pier i Cafe on the Hudson River. An awesome day, with awesome people.

Sadly missing from our day off was our teammate Mark who works remotely in CA. (We poured one out for you buddy).

Some more pics below:

Team pic. Beware of Dan.

HELP!

Chris in his best ‘female superhero pose.’

Myles

Hudson Whiskey

Sun soaked burgers and beers along the Hudson.

Day[0] as Intern[1] at Shelby.tv

I first connected with Zach over a late night email thread many months ago. Yesterday, he walked through our doors here at Cyberdyne, took one look and said “this is perfect.” Can’t say I’m not super excited about that kind of excitement for what we’re doing here. Great to have you, Zach. 

shelbytv:

As I swung open the door at “Cyberdyne Systems” yesterday morning, I wasn’t sure what to expect. A few months earlier, after chatting with Reece and Chris about a potential internship, I’d been assigned to Project G.O.A.T.S., during which I was tasked with the odd job of finding (yes, seriously) real-live goats for SXSW. Most interns have to do some kind of cold-calling, but have you ever tried to convince local farms and mobile petting zoos that you just need to borrow their goats for the weekend to use as mascots at a giant tech conference? Not as easy as you might think.

So clearly the team at Shelby was crazy right? Well, yes. But is it pure insanity or the kind of directed madness that gets results? You tell me: Top Brands at SXSW

So this team matched the kind of brand awareness reserved for giants like Nike and CNN on a budget that probably cost less than the actual flights to Austin? Count me in.

Fast forward to my first day. I smiled as I passed the signs for Cyberdyne Systems that indicated Shelby headquarters. I was greeted by Reece, who’d lined my desk with a bunch of awesome Shelby gear and welcomed me to the office. It was pretty clear from the start that this office was a straight out of a tech entrepreneur’s dream. There’s a conference room set up with webcams, whiteboards lining the walls, a command center/workspace with tons of monitors, and an astroturf covered ping-pong room with a drum set and an original N64.

I sat down with Reece, who briefed me on the company mission and his “Get sh*t done” philosophy. He said that he wanted me to attend conferences, shadow some of his meetings, and he even put a reading list together for me of some of his favorite books and blog posts, part of which you can find here. It’s almost like he wants me to learn something during my internship. Weird, right?

I spent the rest of the day getting set up and playing with the brand new Shelby GT which, if you haven’t checked it out yet, is awesome. Do yourself a favor and sign up for the beta here. FYI, I’m crashing at Chris’s desk for the time being, right next to my favorite picture of all time:

But with all of the craziness and eccentricities aside, there’s one more thing that’s very clear when you step into the Shelby.tv office: focus. For the majority of the day people are jacked in, headphones on and in complete concentration. Sure there are group meetings, lunches, and rounds of ping pong in between, but I’m guessing it’s this level of focus that got them to where they are today. I’m so excited to be joining the incredibly talented team for the summer and will continue to update you on my progress.

- Zach || intern[1]