Let’s breathe interactive life into the common textbook

By Smita Bakshi April 30, 2013

Students learn in a variety of ways — they listen, read, create, speak, share, engage, ask, get assessed, receive feedback, get mentored, and eventually maybe become a mentor themselves. Some need to read less and listen more, others need to “do” first then read. Some need to ask, others need to share, others need to drill. The permutations are endless....

The joy of stereotyping venture capitalists

By Philip Beauregard April 27, 2013

As a kid, I put things into buckets to categorize them. I’m a mathematician, so this always made sense to me. I’d look at a horse, a donkey, and a mule and say, “Yup. Got it. File it in my memory bank.” Then my mother would point out a zebra, and my brain would implode. Thanks Mom. But the point...

Invest in people, not resources

By Bob Gower April 26, 2013

There is a supply-and-demand paradox brewing in the software business, and it’s getting worse by the day. Companies are searching for rock-star talent, while at the exact same moment talented people are searching for great work. People on both sides of this issue are frustrated — companies can’t find the right workers, or enough of them and talented workers feel...

Tech is changing academic research too

By Corinne Bendersky, Ph.D. April 26, 2013

In case you haven’t heard, technology is changing education. While the debate rages on about technology’s disruption in the classroom, there hasn’t been much talk of the massive makeover happening on the other side of the academic house: faculty research. This is no small thing. Everyone is excited about the possibility of an e-revolution in education...

Why I turned down investor money for my startup

By Alexander Torrenegra April 24, 2013

I’m often asked, “Who are your investors?” and “How much have you raised?” The answers are: no one and $0. Eyebrows, and perhaps red flags, rise. I’ve actually talked to VCs and had a few offers, but for now have decided not to raise capital. Yes, there is a sense of pride that comes with being an immigrant entrepreneur and...

The dumb things we say in the startup world

By Ben T. Smith, IV and Mark Menell April 23, 2013

You’ve got to give them credit. Entrepreneurs are the ultimate financial salmon, swimming upstream against a tidal wave of practical, operating, and financial disasters. The result is dedication and perseverance, yet under the pressure of building a startup from scratch, many entrepreneurs tend to develop an overly acute tunnel vision. These are the entrepreneurs that author the 100 slide PowerPoint...

The future of becoming a job-ready engineer

By Darrell Silver April 22, 2013

For the first time, people learning to code can actually do it efficiently part-time. And I don’t mean high-school students with no social life and fewer responsibilities who teach themselves, though that does describe my teenage years. I mean adults with full-time jobs. I mean people whose schedules are full and who can’t afford to quit and pay college tuition...

Why social makes customer service more important than ever

By Joshua March April 20, 2013

When I attended university in the UK, I was offered a low-paying job as a customer-service representative for a large company. It was as dull as it sounds. Like many, but not all such positions at the time, this one came with a set of strict scripts and little room for creativity. Even if you wanted to help and be...

Google’s Fiber takeover plan expands, will kill cable and carriers

By Jason Calacanis April 19, 2013

Last year, on August 1st, I emailed you guys my thoughts about Google Fiber, “Google’s Fiber ‘Proof of Concept’ Is Anything But.” In that piece I wrote, “Mark my words: Google Fiber is not a test, it’s a takeover plan.” Last week, Google announced its second Fiber city: Austin. Yes, the nerd/hipster home of SXSW will get fiber...

Building products consumers actually want

By Bob Gower April 18, 2013

Years ago when I worked in newspaper advertising, we would trot out that old saying that we knew half of our marketing efforts were working — just not which half. When I became a software product manager, I was plagued by a similar uncertainty: I knew that our customers would use only about half of our features, but I had...