As promised, Mr. Money Mustache put up a blog post about Camp Mustache and his unstoppable firehose of traffic got it sold out pretty quickly. Hope you got your tickets before that. See you in May!
I had the amazing fortune to meet the charter class of Ada Developers Academy students when they took a tour of my office today.
Ada Developers Academy is a tuition-free programming school for women. The only pre-requisite (other than “for women”) is that you can’t already be a programmer.
In addition, the software industry is dominated by males (unfortunately, for everybody who uses software), so not only did these folks make a risky life-pivot, they also pivoted into an industry where the deck is stacked against them.
This takes an amount of moxie that I may never comprehend, and meeting the class was very inspirational. It got me thinking about how the metaphor of startup pivots (i.e. a course-correction designed to test a hypothesis about the business) can be applied to life.
The common (and incorrect) definition of a startup’s “runway” is “the amount of time a startup has until it runs out of money.” A more accurate definition is “the number of pivots a startup can make before it runs out of money.” In other words, the number of new things it can try, the number of experiments it can run.
Perhaps the “runway” of your life isn’t the amount of time you have left to live, but it’s the number of interesting, experimental things you can do before your time is up?
Just as a business should structure itself to get to each pivot faster (by finding ways to learn at lower cost and in a shorter time), one should structure one’s life to get to get to the interesting parts faster!
Double-check your life assumptions every once in a while. Who knows what you’ll find?
PS: Registration for the next ADA program is almost open. Check it out if you’re a female in the Seattle area (or willing to relocate).
Update: SOLD OUT! See you in May!
I’ve been writing a series on planning a retreat, but it fell to the wayside, because I’ve been pretty busy planning a retreat!
We rented an entire lodge on a picturesque lake, along with some adjacent cabins (for those who need a bit more privacy).
The price includes lodging, activities, and a weekend of meals prepared by experienced chefs, including James from How Pickle Got Out Of A Jam.
Friday night interactive entertainment hosted by Ben from Yawp Club.
This is a non-profit event, so every last penny is going towards making it an unforgettable weekend.
Attendees include Mr Money Mustache, JD Roth, and other surprise guests.
Space is limited to 50 attendees, so everyone will get the chance to get to know everyone else in an intimate setting.
This is going to rock! MMM and JD Roth are both going to blog about the event, which will probably cause it to sell out, so if you want to get tickets, you should get ’em while you can!