Ryan Waggoner » Inspiration

2012 Prediction: an A-list director will fund a film on Kickstarter

Ryan W. — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:30:28 +0000

Here’s my prediction: sometime in 2012, an A-list film director will successfully fund a feature film using Kickstarter.

Kickstarter’s time has come. If you haven’t heard of Kickstarter, you’re about to. If you have, you’ll still find this interesting.

Background

Kickstarter was launched in 2008 as a “crowdfunding” site and it works like this:

Someone who wants to create something (like a film, book, physical gadget, or website) creates a fundraising project. Every project has a deadline and a minimum funding amount, like $25,000. And then the project creator creates a number of pledge amount options ($5, $10, $50, $100, etc) and a prize that goes along with each one (like a t-shirt).

People who want to see that thing be created can pledge those different amounts and if the minimum fundraising goal is reached, their credit cards are charged and they get the prize that corresponds to that pledge level. If they don’t hit the minimum by the deadline, no one gets charged anything.

Pretty simple.

What’s odd is that this actually works. Really, really well. Since they launched, something like 50,000 projects have been launched on Kickstarter, and almost half have been successfully funded. And we’re not talking small numbers either; of the 27k projects launched in 2011, the average pledges collected per project was about $3600.

Ken Rudin and the Beauty of Mastery

Ryan W. — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 00:52:28 +0000

This is kind of a weird post, but I’ve been really impressed by this guy recently, so I thought I’d share. I listen to a bunch of different podcasts, including a few from NPR. Ken Rudin is a political editor who appears on “It’s All Politics” and on a weekly political segment on “Talk of the Nation”. Listening to him for just a few minutes will demonstrate that he’s knowledgeable, but where his mastery of political history really shines is in the weekly trivia question.

Every week on the political segment of “Talk of the Nation”, they pose a political trivia question. These questions are often very specific and obscure, I think to make it hard to Google. For example: “When was the last time that a political party gained control of a state legislature in the same year that the state’s university went to the NCAA playoffs?” And yes, that was an actual question.

So people call in and try to guess the answer. And what’s amazing to me is that Mr. Rudin apparently knows the history of every single political race in this country, ever. Seriously, he knows the history and life stories of candidates who ran and lost in obscure house races before he was born. These people probably don’t rate a Wikipedia entry, but he rattles off the stats and history without hesitation.

What’s more impressive to me is that he’s not at all partisan. I truly have no idea how he would vote in an election. He simply presents the facts and tells both sides of the story. His grasp and recall of the political arena are that much more impressive when you consider that he’s not there to promote an agenda, but because he loves the subject.

I bring all this up just because I really admire people like Mr. Rudin and I love observing mastery and great skill in action.

I don’t know that Mr. Rudin will ever read this, but if he does: I tip my hat to you, sir. You clearly love what you do and have worked very hard to master it, and that’s inspiring to watch.

Who do you admire for their mastery of a skill or subject? Extra points for being someone obscure.

A little sleep, a little slumber

Ryan W. — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 15:37:37 +0000

I went past the field of the sluggard,
past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment;
thorns had come up everywhere,
the ground was covered with weeds,
and the stone wall was in ruins.
I applied my heart to what I observed
and learned a lesson from what I saw:
A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest
and poverty will come on you like a bandit
and scarcity like an armed man.

- Solomon, King of Israel c. 971 – 931 BC
(found in The Book of Proverbs, Chapter 24, Verses 30-34)

An American Creed

Ryan W. — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 15:23:55 +0000

Photo by pollobarba

It is my right to be uncommon—if I can.

I seek opportunity—not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me.

I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed.

I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia.

I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat.

It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid; to think and act for myself, enjoy the benefit of my creations and to face the world boldly and say, “This I have done.”

-Dean Alfange

Want to be successful? Don’t marry a loser.

Ryan W. — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 08:45:28 +0000

It’s amazing how smart, ambitious, driven people let intelligence and wisdom go right out the window when it comes to the choice of who they’ll spend their life with. I know what some of you are thinking: “But you can’t apply the rules of logic to matters of the heart!”

That’s pure crap. The laws of the universe don’t care about your heart. The bills have to be paid, the kids have to go to school, and life isn’t magically roses just because you’re in love.

If you marry some moron who is lazy and un-disciplined and selfish and stupid, life is going to be a living hell for you. I can trot out statistics all day long to prove to you that almost nothing you choose in your life has as much impact as the person you marry, but it won’t make any difference for the people that it really needs to make a difference for. To those people, all I can say is: 1) Ask the advice of a few people older than 40 who know you both and who have strong marriages, and 2) think about whether you’d advise a sibling or a close friend to marry this person.

I think often we fall into this trap of thinking that since we’ve found the One True Love (TM) and there could NEVER be anyone else for us, we have to just take the good with the bad. Well, that’s true, but only once you’re married. Until you get married, you don’t have to take everything. Some things are just deal breakers. Anyone a little older who has seen some life and has half a brain will tell you that nothing will hold you back like a bad spouse. And nothing will push you forward like a good one.

I got a good one. One of the best, actually. Alexis is the most long-suffering and good-natured person I know. She’s been putting up with my various shenanigans for more than seven years, and she’s still incredibly supportive and encouraging. She challenges me (which I need), and she’s just as driven and ambitious as I am. I admire the hell out of her, and I can’t help but feel that I somehow got the better end of the bargain in all of this.

And that’s the kind of spouse you want. You want to crawl into bed next to them every night and think about how you’re the luckier one in the relationship. You want someone who makes you want to work harder and do more and be more because they deserve that (and more). You want someone that you know will have your back in a tight spot, and someone that will encourage you and challenge you to reach new heights.

You want someone that helps you win, and helps you want to win. So don’t marry a loser. Chances are you’ll end up one as well.

Change is held back, then driven by emotion

Ryan W. — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 06:56:31 +0000

We know what we should do, but we hesitate. We are lazy, uncertain, but most of all, afraid.

Until we experience a catalyst, an epiphany, an urgent and raw desire for things to be different, we will not put in the hard work required to change.

But once we have that experience, once we carry that fire and fervency, we find the strength to make our way through to the other side. Fear, the very emotion that once kept us bound in our despair, now becomes the catalyst of our transformation. We once feared what might be if we decided to change, but now we fear what will be if we decide not to.

While change is frightening, nothing is so utterly terrifying as the contemplation of a life where change is no longer possible.

Who are you to squander such a gift?

Ryan W. — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 05:58:09 +0000

There was a fantastic article in Esquire magazine a couple months ago about a man who was wrongfully imprisoned for thirty years before being cleared by DNA evidence and released in 2010. As our technological abilities have increased, this type of story has become increasingly common. The man’s name is Ray Towler, and while reading his story, I was struck by two things (other than general horror).

First, Ray’s attitude is incredible. I can’t imagine the urge to react with anger and bitterness towards a system, a society that stole three decades of his life. But reading his responses to the interviewer’s questions, he doesn’t come across that way. The only thing that comes across is gratefulness for the time he has left. The past is the past, don’t let it screw up the future as well.

Second, to some degree, too many of us share his fate. We aren’t spending our lives behind bars, but we’re still no more free. Or at least we’re not living like we are. We stumble around in a daze, devoid of purpose or meaning.

Ray Towler spent thirty years of his life behind bars, time that is forever lost. I wouldn’t wish Ray’s fate on anyone, but maybe part of the reason he appears so grateful is that he is grateful, grateful for a freedom that most of us take completely for granted.

Ray didn’t have a choice in what happened to him, but most of us do. Don’t wake up in fifty years, old and full of regrets for the life you spent behind bars. You only get one life; who are you to squander such a gift?

Expect the worst of people

Ryan W. — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 04:12:50 +0000

I’ve been doing freelance web development for four years, I was a product manager at a major Internet company before that, and I’ve been building products of my own for the last five years. I’ve also spent a ton of time exploring products and ideas that fellow entrepreneurs have launched. So I’ve spent a lot of time working and looking at technology product ideas, whether they belonged to friends, employers, clients, or myself. And the sad truth is that most of these products, mine included, suck. Big time. They have no hope of any real traction or success. I thought I’d share a piece of advice that I think would be helpful to solve 95% of the product problems that I see.

When thinking about user behavior, expect the worst of people. Expect them to be stupid, lazy, greedy, cynical, and impatient. Because for the most part, they will be. Not in general, but when compared against the idealistic “User” that many would-be entrepreneurs seem to picture in their mind. In general, people are busy and overwhelmed, and have very little time or energy to check out something new. And even when they do, they’re constantly being bombarded by new things from entrepreneurs. Why are they going to check out yours?

The problem is that most entrepreneurs are optimistic people by nature. You have to be to invest the time and money that it takes to start a company. But optimism can be really dangerous to a fledgling business. It can subtly convince you that the unlikely is likely. It can convince you that people will go out of their way to buy what you’re selling.

Fundamentally, virtually every new startup is asking people to change their behavior in some way, whether large or small. As a general rule, people do not like change, so you must make this change as compelling and painless as possible if you have any hope of success. And optimism will lead an entrepreneur to believe that the pain of the changes they’re asking users to make isn’t really that bad.

The optimistic entrepreneur believes that users will fill out their 15-field registration page to check out the amazing new product. The pessimistic entrepreneur knows that 99% of users will leave and won’t ever come back, so she works really hard to make it easy to try the product and get hooked.

The optimistic entrepreneur puts share buttons all over the page, thinking that users can’t wait to share their new discovery with their friends. The pessimistic entrepreneur knows that he has to appeal to the user’s self-interests, and offers a bonus or other benefit for users who share the site with a friend.

The optimistic entrepreneur thinks that what they’ve created is so compelling that people will return. The pessimistic entrepreneur knows that the average person remembers 7 URLs, plus or minus 2. The pessimistic entrepreneur knows they can’t expect people to remember to return to their site.

I’ll give you an example of that last one: woot.com is a daily deal site that offers a great deal on a particular item every day. They sold last year to Amazon for $110 million. Huge win, right? From 2009 to 2011, another daily deal site (Groupon) went from $0 to a $6 billion offer from Google. There are tons of differences between the two models, but I am absolutely convinced that Woot could have been bigger if they had taken a page from Groupon’s book and focused on building a mailing list to offer their deals to. I first saw Woot years ago, but I’ve been back maybe twice. I just don’t remember to go check it out every day. But I never forget to check my email, so I always see what Groupon has on offer. And yet the Woot.com homepage still has no place to sign up for an email notification of their deals.

You get the idea. The challenge is that you have to be an overall optimist, and you definitely don’t want to grow to hate people, but you kind of do need to expect the worst from them when actually designing your product.

Of course, creating a great product is only half the battle; you also have to market it well. But that’s a post for another day.

Life and death

Ryan W. — Fri, 06 May 2011 12:10:05 +0000

Warning: the blog post by Derek that I refer to below can be found here. It’s incredibly sad, so don’t read if you need to be upbeat today

A friend sent me a link yesterday to a blog post published earlier this week by a man named Derek K. Miller. It’s entitled “The Last Post” and was published posthumously. Derek died earlier this week from cancer. He was 41. He left a wife and two young daughters behind. I didn’t know Derek. I didn’t know of his existence until he was gone. But reading about his death has caused me to evaluate some things about my own life more carefully.

When you’re young, you have the luxury of carelessness with your time. You assume that you’ll have the time you need to do all you need, and want to do. It feels like your primary challenge is determining what you want out of life. You don’t realize that from the moment you’re born, a clock is ticking and you have the briefest of windows to do whatever you’re going to do.

Life is so short. So incredibly short. Even if you live to be 100, that’s still just a tiny blink of an eye. And we may not have that much time. We all know that on some level, but reading the last blog post written by a relatively normal guy not much older than me drives it home. He was diagnosed in 2007, just four years ago. So short.

Anyway, I’m sure all of this seems cliche, and it is. The tendency to grabble with the truth of our own mortality is probably the most universal trait of humanity. But you should read Derek’s last post. And then think about the fact that someday, probably sooner than you’d like, definitely sooner than those who love you would like, you too will die. This is truth. Regardless of what happens after that (if anything), the universal reality is that you will cease to be a living, breathing human being.

How will you live in the meantime?

You are a creative genius (or could be)

Ryan W. — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 03:17:37 +0000

You might not think you’re creative. You might think that you don’t have that special spark that it takes to write moving music, paint beautiful pictures, or craft a great story.

You’re wrong.

Human beings were made to create new things. Have you ever had a dream that felt so real that you didn’t know you were dreaming? Or one so terrifyingly real that you breathed a huge sigh of relief when you woke up? Remembering dreams is hard, but if you think about a dream immediately after waking, when it’s freshest, you realize that it was a strange amalgam of reality and fantasy. Details and people were familiar as you saw them, but strange in retrospect. And the unfolding story was probably unusual or even bizarre.

Where did that dream come from? It never happened in real life, those events and places and people never existed, at least not in that unique combination. Who created that rich, interactive experience?

You.

Your brain has almost infinite creative capacity, and can create the rich interwoven tapestry of entire worlds in real-time, filling in every empty space with objects of mundanity, beauty, or terror. That’s what happens when you dream: your brain creates whole worlds on the fly, Inception-style.

So if some part of your brain has this rich creative capacity, why can’t you “be more creative”? Why can’t you paint a picture with beauty to match the canvas your brain fills instantly during your dreams?

Two things hold you back from being a creative genius:

First, you haven’t learned to be one. Creativity is something that we all have. But the ability to harness that creativity is a skill. And like any skill, it comes easier for some people than others. Some have a natural ability to draw or write, while others have to learn the skill through repeated effort. But the underlying creativity is there for all of us, simmering below the surface, in our subconscious.

This isn’t to say that everyone’s creativity is the same…our creative “muse” is limited in its capacity by access to the raw materials it has to work with, the experiences, emotions, and ideas that have informed our subconscious throughout our lives.

The second thing that holds you back is fear. Aside from the issue of the “technical” skills that limit the manifestation of our creative capacity, a more powerful repressive force is what we believe about ourselves.

We fear criticism and rejection from others, and from ourselves. We describe ourselves as “not creative” because then we are freed from the pain of any rejection of a creative work we produce. And make no mistake: most of us are our own worst critics. We discard our early shallow works so quickly and with such disgust that we never learn how to pull the deeper ones from our subconscious.

If you knew that your works of creation, no matter how rudimentary, would be met with geniune praise and enthusiasm from your peers (and yourself), how much more likely would you be to try?