1/ I have been running startups and out of managing IT projects for about 5 years. Dove back in last week and it is like nothing has changed except the faces and place. Security architect is a different lens, but good IT hygeine is good security hygeine. 2/ This position would have been a big step up for me and might have been out of my depth the last time I was working on similar projects. Now, it's not quite a cake walk, but I feel confident in a way I never really have running startups.

1/ Until now, I have never worked in an open office environment. 13 years at Microsoft meant my own office with a door that closes. Close to 5 years in struggling/failing startups has meant no office at all. I've camped out in Regus lobbies, hotel lobbies, bank branches, etc. 2/ Initial impressions: The footprint per individual in open offices is considerably less because of the layout and design. This means you can cram more people into less space. I mean, it works for economy class on an airplane, why not do it in an office, right?

1/ So, this week I started a new gig in the public sector. I'm still working on startups. I primarily jumped on this because I think the work matters, it is close to where I teach (so I can teach more), and I optimize for impact vs. cash. 2/ Financial upsides: No IP assignment required. Flat 40 hours a week. Public sector benefits, which means competitive time off vs. the private sector, better health insurance than most companies (but not Microsoft), pension, etc.

1/ I have been thinking a lot lately about how we have built a society that is dictated almost entirely by economics--and how our system of economics is driven by ever-increasing rates of consumption of finite resources. Climate change is a symptom, but economics is the disease. 2/ I think the biggest problem isn't our system of economics itself, but the fact that today's systems are driven almost entirely by maximizing short-term gains for relatively few super-wealthy individuals at the expense of--well--everything else. Societal collapse is a risk.

I'm prototyping a thing with @thoughphreaker and there is a good chance it could end ~95% of robocalls virtually overnight for folks who adopt our solution. I need a front end Web developer to help bring it to life. No pay, only (potential) hacker fame. Interested? DM me. Skill level needed: A couple of integrations of poorly designed APIs and the ability to parse text, possibly obtained through a serial interface. If you're junior, you'll need someone mid-level or better to mentor you.

1/ A million things can cause a startup to fail. It is truly amazing that any survive at all. One of those things is a Fortune 500 company threatening to sue you into the ground both personally and as a corporation. And this is a big part of why our last startup failed. 2/ A couple of months ago, we posted a highly unusual notice on our Web page. Given who we are, it is not what you would expect to see. But @zackwhittaker noticed. He'd been following us since I reached out on Twitter to some high powered folks in the law tech community.

1/ "It must cost a lot of money to make so many robocalls," someone asked me. "How can they afford to do it?" That's a really good question. The reality is that it costs almost nothing to do it, scamming you is profitable, and that is why people do it. Unroll and I'll explain. 2/ Robocallers use high volume automated dialers. These operate using a technology called SIP, which is a way to run voice traffic over the Internet. It's also the technology, combined with a legacy telecom protocol called SS7, that allows them to call you from fake numbers.

It's hard not to be hugely cynical about most ICOs. I spent 4 years banging my head against the wall and failing to fundraise to build real products. Now ex-cons pumping shitcoins can more or less easily raise tens of millions of dollars on a slide deck and bullshit whitepaper. I thought the dumb coin backed by storage (which decreases in value in line with Moore's Law) was the stupidest thing in the universe until I started seeing some of this other stuff. Almost none of it solves any real problems or has any technical infrastructure underneath it.

1/ There's an FT article circulating with the narrative that Chinese startups are more productive because their teams work harder than Silicon Valley teams. While there is some truth to this, there is a lot more to the story than number of hours worked. 2/ My background: Lived and worked in Beijing for nearly 3 years in a senior role at Microsoft Research Asia. This 100% doesn't make me a China expert, but I have more expertise in this specific area than most Western startup folks.