More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Hacking Your Way To Success
- 2. Failure
- 3. Success
- 4. So how do I win?
- 7. 1. Begin with the end in mind 2. Mine your resources 3. Tell a personal story 4. Stand out from the crowd 5. Celebrate failure
- 10. blueprint
- 11. make concrete
- 12. masterpiece
- 15. Present 3 minutes Time 24 hours Team 3-4 members Problem Solution Demo
- 17. 1. Be interested,not interesting. 2. Exchange contact information. 3. Set realisticexpectations.
- 18. § (some picture that represents this)
- 19. the next bright idea
- 26. - What did you enjoy doing as a child? - What do you find difficultto do? - When do you feel happy?
- 34. 1. Begin with the end in mind 2. Mine your resources 3. Tell a personal story 4. Stand out from the crowd 5. Celebrate failure
Editor's Notes
- Congratulations everybody. Congratulations to you, you, and especially you (call out clothing attribute). Give yourself a hearty round of applause. What for you might ask? Well, 24 hours from now, you WILL NOT be leaving this event looking like this. (next slide)
- (http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1506071/images/o-FAILURE-facebook.jpg) Defeated. Hopeless. Sad. But, rather, you’ll be leaving the event looking like this.
- (http://katielendel.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/o-SUCCESS-facebook-3.jpg) Successful. Triumphant. Victorious. And I’m going to tell you how.
- (http://iwallhd.com/stock/fifa-world-cup-trophy-wallpaper-desktop.jpg) I know that you want to go home champion. You want primo posto. I do however see a lot of skeptical looking faces out in the audience. How is this Asian dude going to tell me how to win? Everyone else is listening to the same advice. Surely, he must have a screw loose. And you’d be right. I’m not here to tell you how to win in the traditional sense, that’s a combination of luck and skill. I’m here to tell you how to succeed at this hackathon and every other hackathon you attend. Wait what? Can you actually succeed without winning?
- (https://dubioblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/win-or-succeed.png) The secret is that winning is not succeeding. There’s a difference between the two. Winning is binary. Either you win, or you lose. However, success is not. Only a few of you are going to win, and that’s okay. But, all of you are going to succeed. And I think the coolest thing is, that if you walk out of here successful and happy, every outside observer will think you won.
- ( (http://mms.businesswire.com/media/20131203006080/en/394286/5/joy_-_special_olympics_-_world_games.jpg?download=1) But beware! Winning and success don’t always come together. Here on the left, we have the face of a loser. Can you believe that this is a world-class athlete who took home the silver medal in women’s vault, at the 2012 Olympics? She was the 2nd best vaulter, in the world, out of the 7 billion people alive and still, in the end, she was still unhappy. She lost. (click) She is now a popular Internet meme. Compare that to this kid. A participant in the 2011 Special Olympics. Someone who didn’t fare so well in the genetic lottery, but man oh man, he looks like the true winner. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he placed first in the world. With that said, I’m going to tell you how to succeed.
- These are the five steps that we’ll be exploring together today. Begin with the end in mind Mine your resources Tell a personal story Stand out from the crowd Celebrate failure Let’s get started.
- Step number one is to begin with the end in mind. That is, figure out what your end product looks like, and work backwards from there. You may have heard this advice as have a vision, or measure twice and cut once.
- (http://www.macrolibrarsi.it/data/cop/zoom/7/7-regole-avere-successo.jpg) But for this particular wording, this is a principle that has been popularized by Stephen Covey, the best selling author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Beginning with the end in mind is really an exercise in imagination. It’s the ability to envision in your mind what you cannot at present, see with your eyes. The essence of it can be distilled down to the fact that everything is created twice.
- First, there is the mental creation. This is more than an idea. This is a preparation phase where you plan out what the function of each component is. And, where that component goes. What it’s made of and why it is important. It’s the vision for how to bring your idea into existence.
- (http://img.edilportale.com/products/prodotti-130591-rel01ebd475ac754d16a0c7940337ba04a0.jpg) After you have your plan done, you make it more concrete. You start executing on that plan and putting all of the pieces together.
- (http://arounddeglobe.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/St-Peters-Basilica.jpg) And then, after tons of hard work, you get the second and final creation. The physical manifestation of following the plans. Just like this building was a result of following the blueprints.
- (http://unisci24.com/data_images/wlls/46/331181-source-code.jpg) When you’re building software, the process should be no different. But it isn’t. There’s a tendency to skip planning and go straight into developing. This is due to the fact that the final product isn’t set in stone. It’s orders of magnitudes easier and cheaper to add, edit, and delete code than it is to rearrange physical objects. If you skip the planning step, you’re making a serious mistake. I know that it’s especially enticing to dive straight into programming when all you hear are sexy buzzwords like agile, continuous delivery, and extreme programming. These words really push for quick and dirty development. But, don’t give in! Take time to plan.
- (http://images.knifecenter.com/knifecenter/wenger/images/WR16999a.jpg) (http://static2.insales.ru/images/products/1/1311/820511/original/8815792554014_0_8000_26_Bild2_4212_eps.jpg) If you don’t, what usually ends up happening is you make a lot of decisions in isolation and end up building something that might have a lot of cool pieces, but as a whole is impractical. In reality, all you need is something simple and streamlined, like this. So, what does the end product look like for this hackathon? Let’s walk through it together.
- You’re expected to deliver a three minute presentation on your hack. Plan out how you’re going to spend that time. As a guideline, I would recommend that you spend 1 minute talking about the problem space, another minute about how you solved it, and the last minute performing the demonstration. You’ve got 24 hours. I would recommend spending 2 hours planning and creating your blueprint. Another 2 hours practicing your presentation, and the rest of time on development and taking breaks. How much you sleep is really up to you. But, make sure you know your limits and that you take care of yourself. It is quite natural to get so caught up and stimulated that you forget to sleep. Just keep in mind that you shouldn’t deprive yourself of sleep because others are doing it. However, no matter how meticulously you plan, or how much coffee you’ve had, there will never be enough time. And, you’ll have to cut corners. A great strategy to scoping down your work is to use your presentation as a guideline. If the work you’re doing doesn’t contribute to the presentation, you should deprioritize it. This is why you should aim for practicing your presentation every 4 hours to help you trim away the fat. In your planning, make sure you account for all of your team members. The developer is surely going to be one of the busiest roles. How are the other roles going to spend their time? Maybe you want to get user feedback from participants at this event.
- (https://animationconfabulation.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/the-mine.jpg) Step #2 is to mine your resources. Take a look around you. Every single person you see is a resource that can bring you more knowledge and opportunity. If you’ve never done yoga before, you should give it a try. It’s a great way to take care of your body and refresh the mind. If you’re already an expert yogi, it never hurts to deepen your practice. Don’t be afraid to ask your mentors for help and feedback. That’s what they’re here for. And of course, I encourage you to step outside of your comfort zone and learn something new. If you wanted to be shy, quiet, and afraid, you should have stayed at home.
- One of the most valuable things that you can do here is to build your network. Be interested, not interesting. I’m an introvert. Who else here considers themselves an introvert? Only a few hands. The rest are probably too introverted to raise their hands. What I’ve found is that introverts are extremely good at networking. Networking isn’t about selling yourself. It’s about building relationships and that starts by showing interest in someone’s story. Ask questions like “why did you come to the event?”, “how did you get in your line of work?”, “what’s good and bad about your job?”. Some other good questions deal with food and travel. Because everybody loves to eat, and most people like to travel. Make sure you exchange contact information. Again, you’re trying to build long-term connections, not one-time connections. Make sure you write down a few notes about who the person is and solidify that connection on a network like LinkedIn. Even though they might not be able to help you now, they may in the future. You should also set realistic expectations for yourself. You don’t have to put pressure on yourself to meet a lot of people. Nor, do you have to force yourself to stay in a conversation if it’s not interesting.
- (http://ancientexplorers.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2014/12/Depositphotos_41302969_l.jpg) While you think that over, I’m going to talk about step number three for success. Tell a personal story.
- A lot of people go about innovation the wrong way. They sit down with a business mind and try to brainstorm what the next disruptor is going to be. They’re thinking, how do I build the next Facebook, or the next Uber. Everybody wants to build the next big thing and they lose sight of the basics. What they don’t realize that success isn’t about solving other people’s problems. No, it’s much more selfish than that. It’s about solving your own. And then telling the story that goes along with it.
- (http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/51c45bdd6bb3f7dd6c000020/instagram-founder-facebook-may-have-bought-us-for-1-billion-but-no-one-there-is-telling-us-what-to-do.jpg) Let’s start with a story. If you know who these two men are, please raise your hand. Don’t worry, I’m not going to call on you. We’ve got … not that many hands.
- How about now? These two gentleman are Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom, the founders of Instagram. For those of you that aren’t familiar, Instagram is a social photo sharing application and Facebook bought this company for 1 billion dollars in 2012. But, they had very humble beginnings. This was not a company that set out to be bought by Facebook.
- (http://www.kdnuggets.com/jimg/stanford-mgmt-science.jpg) (http://microsites.lomography.com/holga/images/holga3.jpg?1392021380) (https://rachelarnold.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/holga-prima.jpg) (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2t4cLYlRvp8/UcB8pe-MK0I/AAAAAAAAGKg/JRkB2iyd7P8/s1600/41576_273489473562_4972543_n.jpg) (https://www.seoclerk.com/pics/want38816-1eyfLY1462795229.jpg) Let me tell you about Kevin Systrom. He majored in management science and engineering at Stanford, not computer science. He had no formal programming training, but spent his free time in college building web applications. One of these applications was a photo site for him and his fraternity brothers to share party pictures on. Later, he spent a year abroad in Florence where an Italian professor introduced him to a Holga, a really cheap camera that looks like this. He was especially fascinated with the aesthetic of the lo-fi retro style photographs. Which look like this. As he lived his life, it became more and more obvious that he had to pursue his passion for photography and social sharing. His first application that came out was called burbn, and allowed for location-based photosharing and checkins. But, this application wasn’t popular. It was too similar to Foursquare and had too many different features. So, they decided to focus on just one feature, creating hip and artsy photographs. This instant telegram became known as Instagram. At the end of the day, Kevin created an application that embodied his own personal story of socializing and photography.
- (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Versace_logo.png) Truthfully, these types of successes are all over the place, you just have to know where and how to look. Let’s bring it closer to home. How many of you have heard of Versace? This is a company founded by Gianni Versace. He was raised in the world of design and at a young age, worked at his mother’s dressmaking business. In 1978, at the age of 32, he opened his first boutique here in Milan. The head of Medusa is a recurring image seen on many of Versace’s clothing items and accessories. This Greek influence came from the floor of the ruins in Rome that he played in as a child. There’s a trend here. This is one of many companies that are just based on a family’s name. These companies are born from personal stories and are met with overwhelming success.
- (http://home.mysmark.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/emotional-connection.jpg) Why do products built on personal stories lead to success? There are two key reasons. First, you have an emotional connection. If it’s a personal story, then it’s something that you care about and something that you’re willing to invest time in. You will also have a greater appreciation of the problem space than a newcomer will. Second, even though our stories are unique, chances are, other people will be able to relate to them. The majority of human experiences are universal.
- (https://sobernation.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/personal-story.jpg) (https://researchingreform.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/baby.png) So I want you to tell me. To tell everybody. Your story. Let us know, what makes you unique and add that into your hack. Easier said than done right? Usually, when someone asks me to “tell me about yourself”, this happens to me. I usually don’t even know what to say, or even where to start.
- Fortunately, I have some guiding questions to help you get started. What did you enjoy doing as a child? Maybe it’s lying on your back, watching the clouds, or gazing into the stars. Is there any way to recreate that experience in the digital world? What do you find difficult to do? For me, it’s learning a new language by myself. It’s so hard to learn how to pronounce certain words. Why isn’t there an application that shows you how to shape your mouth while speaking? When do you feel happy? Maybe you feel the happiest after eating gelato. Is there an application for tracking the location of your favorite gelato cart? These questions are all based on a theme. They’re meant to help you discover an emotion in your life and help amplify it if it’s positive, and get rid of it if it’s negative. In the end, you have to let personal stories drive innovation.
- (https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/561277979855056896/4yRcS2Zo.png) How many of you have played Where’s Waldo before? In Italian, it’s Ubaldo dove sei. Okay, for those of you who haven’t, this is Waldo. Where’s Waldo is a game where you try to find him in a massive picture like this one.
- (http://www.whereswaldo.com/m/images/maps_troy.jpg) This was one of my favorite activities as a kid. I would spend hours looking for Waldo and his friends. I’m going to save you some time, he’s right here. Truth is, activities like these are fun as a kid. But, when you grow up and become short on time, you can’t afford to spend hours looking for something that simply blends in.
- (http://www.becomeablogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/unique.jpg) That’s why you need to stand out from the crowd. You need to make it easy for other people to find you and your product. This is step #4 to success. Telling your personal story is a good way to start. But given that everyone else is going to tell their story too, it’s just going to look like these first few color pencils. You need something else to differentiate you, like the one in the middle. Figure out the aspects that are important to you and work on making them different. Does it mean having the most impressive demo? Singing and dancing during your presentation? You can stand out by having the the most boring presentation too. It doesn’t have to be a massive difference, just a noticeable one.
- (http://news.umanitoba.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/UMToday-CivicElection-illustration-ko-1-1200x800.jpg) To help you stand out, you have to do some research. You need to determine what is normal. The average person is right in the middle of this bell curve with the other 68.2% of the population. As long as you are more to the left, or to the right, you are as mathematicians say, statistically significant. For example, I can tell you that the average presentation is going to be boring, with slides containing way too much text. Don’t be that presentation.
- (https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/558109954561679360/j1f9DiJi.jpeg) (http://quotes.myzitate.de/img/og/walt-disney.jpg) (https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/2955559089/83f09d26307253decde4d58ecd14c2e9_400x400.jpeg) (http://www.chicagonow.com/the-life-and-times-of-a-young-republican/files/2011/06/ariannahufffam.jpg) (http://img.wennermedia.com/square-400/jk-rowling-zoom-148cd2e4-ba5a-4247-9008-a10077b0eb6b.jpg) (https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/440974849100357632/3_4icxbn.jpeg) (https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/765144858/michael-jordan_400x400.jpg) And finally, the next step for success comes from these famous people. What do they have in common? Yes, they did stand out from the crowd and yes, they were extremely successful and rich. But what is most impressive is their ability to persevere through failure. Each of these individual’s success came only after much failure.
- (http://www.freewallpaperfullhd.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/wallpapers/celebration_2-wallpaper-2560x1600.jpg) So our final step for today is to celebrate failure. Failure is an inevitable part of every day life. Everyone fails, and those who say they don’t are lying. Once you realize how normal it is, you’ll discover the courage to take more risks and try new things. Failure is an indication of progress. We celebrate things that take far less effort, like birthdays for growing older, so why not failure? Very, very few of our failures are fatal.
- (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DU12GOW_xNY/T-jFzQZsubI/AAAAAAAAAwc/ea5lk2IpP94/s1600/Unexpected-Guests.jpg) I’m telling you this because not everything is going to go according to plan. A team member might decide to leave halfway through your hack. You might not be able to get your code to compile and run. Or, your demo might fail during your presentation. It’s okay if it happens, it’s a learning experience. Just make new plans. Remember that failing to fail means you’re failing to learn. You can bet this cat won’t put his head in the same box again.
- So again, these are my five steps to success. They are derived from my own failures and it has been a pleasure to share them with you. And as a recap, the five are: Begin with the end in mind Mine your resources Tell a personal story Stand out from the crowd Celebrate failure
- (http://seattlewatching.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/thousandwonders-image.jpg) Just remember, that even though you might not leave here with first place. Your contributions and successes matter and will all help build a city full of innovation.
- Thank you very much.