We had a big change in the Lewhouse family this week. On Monday afternoon at 5:25, we welcomed Hunter Lewis into the world. He’s definitely keeping us busy and now that we figured out how to actually get food into him. We’re rolling – at least so we think. If you’re interested, you can read below for a timeline log of the actual birth and how it went down.
Continue reading “Welcome Hunter!”
As many of you probably know, there’s a new member to the Lewhouse family joining us in September. For the past 7 months, we’ve been getting ready in all the typical ways: buying a crib, reading about the development, deciding on birthing and breast feeding strategies. I’ve also been getting mentally prepared for a dramatic change in my lifestyle.
One recent TED video recently caught my eye. The video, which is great, is about all the myths around children. One chart in particular stood out. It charts marital satisfaction over the course of your life. One thing I immediately noticed is that the height of satisfaction – where you are most happy throughout your entire life – is right before you have your first child. Then things plummet:
Looking at Diane’s belly and then back at this chart as I watched this video on my iPad made immediately made me feel as if i was sprinting towards a cliff. Thankfully, the folks in the video dig into that chart a little more. There’s more to it than just that one line. The reality of the situation is that in our lives, we have control over our actions and what will make us happy. After adolescence, where we’re not really in control of our ourselves and surroundings, we grown in happiness because we are able to control what we do – and we do less of what we know we dislike and more of what we know we like. This is especially true for me these days I generally avoid anything where I know i’ll be uncomfortable or possibly have a good time, such as heavy metal concerts.
We become masters of doing what we like in our 30’s – especially if you don’t have kids. What the next chart shows are the emotional highs and lows one feels at various stages in their life. You can see that we have big highs and lows as teenagers and then they gradually shrink as we get a handle on the world. Then you have a kid. And the highs and lows become monstrous.
From what i’ve heard this is true. I hear stories of how amazing it is, and i also hear stories of how tiring and bad it gets. I’m expecting both are true I’m expecting to be shaken out of my lovely comfort tree into some madness. I’m expect to hate it at times, but i’m also expecting for some of the biggest highs i’ve ever felt. I’m ready for it. Just two more months to go.
I re-posted an interview last week that I did for KillerStartups. That one was all about Kapost. Here’s the 2nd half of that interview that’s more personal stuff. I never get a chance to write about this stuff on Loo.me so i thought i’d share.
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I personally love basalmiq. I getting into wireframing a lot these days. What i love about it is that it allows me to get thoughts out of my head. I was never a great artist, and now I don’t have to be.
(I’ve written about this on Loo.me before here)
Nobody is really doing the startup that I’m waiting for yet. I want a startup to launch a service that will record everything I do. Not just API’s into Foursquare but allow me to import email, telephone and credit card info. I want all my digital files indexed by person I did it with and where I was at the time (person and location). I don’t remember phone numbers anymore due to my cell phone and I want to stop remembering conversations, meetings and what I ordered. The companies Evernote andTimehop are getting close but they aren’t quite there yet. I really can’t wait for this service. I had this idea since 2005. To me, it’s inevitable that it’ll happen someday.
I love the idea of Linux, but I love the usability and power of the Mac more. At this point, I’m a big fanboy with iPhone, iPad, Macbook Air and AppleTV. In 2012, that’s a great place to be.
1. Michael Arrington– and you should read his blog. He is one of the few people who legitimately has something to say and substance beyond the headline. I usually always enjoy his posts.
2. Fred Wilson– Although he’s widely known, I still think he has a great grasp of web products – how they work, why they succeed and where they are going. Very few investors or entrepreneurs can articulate trends, thoughts and findings very well, but he does a great job – and he does it every day.
3. John Borthwick – He doesn’t blog or tweet much, but I admire what he’s doing at Betaworks. It’s sort of the old-school studio model where you have a group of talented folks and you churn out product. People used to do this with albums and films, and he’s doing it with web companies. I think it’s great. Anthony Batt (@djabatt) had the same idea 10 years ago and he’s just now starting to do it at Ashton Kutcher’s company.
A 4th for fun…
4. Bill Simmons– I’m a big listener/reader of his. To me, publishing and media is changing pretty rapidly. The old school had traditional journalists that are objective and do research to gather stats and then report them. On the other end of the spectrum, there are bloggers who are entirely subjective and shout out their opinions without any facts. There is a middle ground emerging of opinionated folks who have been given access previously only provided to journalists and they can message both an opinion and well-researched facts. Bill is a pioneer there and his insights into sports are great.
The other day, I gave an interview about Kapost to KillerStartups and i realized that i have a lot more to say than i thought i would. I’m going to republish some of it here.
First, I haven’t talked much about Kapost on this blog, so i’m going to republish those questions first. Here they are:
Kapost is a content marketing platform. Many businesses are spending less money on ads and more money on creating their own content. The idea behind that is that you can spend $5k a month in search ads and have a spot at the top of a search results page, or you can spend $5k a month creating content and have links in the search results page. These links are more authentic and over time much more effective. But, as a result, you have many businesses becoming publishers and creating a lot of content. What Kapost does is manage that content for them and provide insight into which content is working. Similar to how a CRM like Salesforce helps a sales team organize and evaluate performance from a formalized business process, Kapost helps a marketing or publishing team organize themselves and eventuate how they are doing from a content perspective.
Continue reading “Kapost Interview on KillerStartups”
I ran the Boulder 10k this weekend, called the BoulderBoulder, with my sister and Diane and it was just a fantastic time. I’ve run a few races in my day and they are all pretty similar, but some things that make the BoulderBoulder a unique running experience.
#5 The costumes. Lots of people dress up and they look fantastic. We’re talking tigers, bears, superheros and belly dancers. The spirit is infectious and i’m already thinking of my costume for next year.
Continue reading “5 Reasons Why I Loved the BoulderBoulder”
With the new year, i’m going to try to do some more things. Here’s what i have in mind:
Read More. I hit a reading rut in 2011 where i went a few months without finishing a book. This was for good reasons (i was pretty busy doing actual work), but I want to get back to reading a book a month. I’m already on a good path as i’m busting out Ebert’s memoir and also Lean Startup and i’m really enjoying both.
Exercise More. I used to exercise every day and lately i’ve been finding myself at only 2 or 3 times a week. I want to give crossfit a go and stay at 4 times a week for the entire year. Some other goals are: biking to and from Boulder from Denver twice a month in the summer. And, possibly, doing a triathlon if I can get back in the pool.
Eating Better. I still have horrible eating habits. I eat portions way too large and i eat stuff that’s just not good for me (ahem, Domino’s pizza). I haven’t been able to do smaller portions. I think cooking will help this (see next).
Cook More. My goal is to cook at least once a month in 2012 (twelve times total). I had the same goal in 2011 and failed miserably with only about 4 or 5 cooking attempts. I’m looking forward to Liz’s blog (one that is going to tell me exactly what to make) helping me out here. Hopefully I’ll be a master chef by the end of the year.
These are my lifestyle goals for 2012. You have any you’re doing that i’m missing?
A few people asked me this week how keep track of things i need to get things done. So, let me tell you.
First, I keep an ongoing Task list. I have a big list and then i have a line in that list that i put each day of the things i want to accomplish that day. This way i can move things up and down that list. I actually have two lists – a personal list and a work list. I find that it’s helpful to keep them separate as i try to accomplish the work list when i’m at work and then when i leave, i consider my time to get those tasks done as over. Then i’m on personal time. It’s helpful to keep them separate. How do i keep these tasks? I use Google Tasks. It’s nicely tied into both my email and my calendar. Also, there’s an app (I use GooTasks) that synch with the Gmail version so i can grab tasks when i’m on the go.
Second, i have a “one-touch” policy. I’m not sure who told me about this but the idea is that you should touch things only once. If you can read, process and reply all at one time, it’s better than filing to do later. I do this with physical mail and i also try to do it with email. I’m not as good as some, but i’ve found that the more you do this, the more you get done. My business partner Toby is actually a master of this.
Third, i subscribe to the “Daily Inches” mantra of consistency. This is best expressed in the Al Pacino speech in “Any Given Sunday” (listen to it here). The idea is that if you really want to make big changes – this could be your life, your work or whatever – the best way is to make progress daily. You don’t ahve to do it all at once, but just make a little progress every day and you’ll get there. For instance, if you want to increase your arm strength in the gym, you don’t want to go on a weekend and try to lift weights for 20 hours straight. No, it’s better to work out a little bit each day for an extended period of time. Make a little progress, every day.
There it is. My three easy steps to getting things done – Lewis-style. Most of it is common sense, but thought i’d share. Tasks, one-touch, and daily inches. What is your philosophy for getting things done?
I’ve been asked this question a bit lately. I remember a funny Friends episode where the gang played a trivia game about how well each person knows the other friends. The final winner-take-all question asked to the group was, “What does Chandler do for work?” To which nobody, not even his wife, could answer. Well, it seems that I’m the Chandler Bing of my friends.
I’m not too surprised by this as the startup that Toby, Nader and I started last year, named Kapost, has shifted (aka “pivoted”) three times in the past 18 months so I frequently end up describing my work in different ways to the same person. I could see where the confusion comes from. Luckily, describing my job just got a little bit easier today when we launched a new commercial describing Kapost. What we do is build software to help Editors of websites manage their users and the content they want to publish. Watch the commercial below to get a more fun and colorful explanation of this.
Sure i ordered it in October and it took forever, but it’s finally here. I now have a fitbit
For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s a little clip you were around. The clip (called a “Tracker”) contains a motion sensor like the ones found in the Nintendo Wii. The Tracker senses my motion in three dimensions and converts this into useful information about my daily activities. The Tracker measures the intensity and duration of my physical activities, calories burned, steps taken, distance traveled, how long it took me to fall asleep, the number of times I woke up throughout the night and how long I was actually asleep vs just lying in bed.
It’s pretty awesome stats and all i have to do is wear this little clip. Also, the clip uploads the data to my Mac without attaching it. All in all, it’s pretty sweet.
One thing i’ve noticed is how nice the web interface is. Entering in foods, water, and stuff is a breeze. Anyway, it’s my first day with this thing. We’ll see how it works. Stay tuned.
2009 was a fun year. I traveled to 42 cities, 4 countries and logged over 100k miles. I also found time to stay at home and do stuff. Looking back on the year, some things really stand out. For instance:
Happy 2009 everyone. It’s been a fantastic year and I wish you all the best in 2010.