Disqus - Latest Comments for willcole

Re: SegWit2x Update

willcole — Sun, 23 Jul 2017 11:34:16 -0000

The developer community is not having trouble reaching consensus. The developer community has been pushing for segwit for quite a while, receiving pushback from certain miners. These miners found a sympathetic outlier in Jeff, but to my knowledge he had nothing to do with segwit.

Segwit is also not activated yet. Hopefully it will be soon.

Re: Stack Documentation

willcole — Thu, 21 Jul 2016 14:37:00 -0000

Good question, and yeah we're aware of that. Recruiting services are our bread and butter, but people could slow down hiring because of some macro event or whatever reason. We have other revenue streams that are not insignificant and growing - Standard advertising on SO, Stack Overflow Enterprise, and Developer Insights.

SO Enterprise is particularly interesting. On premises private Stack Overflow instances for companies to manage information that isn't necessarily appropriate on the public site, or discussing proprietary code.

Re: Stack Documentation

willcole — Thu, 21 Jul 2016 11:28:53 -0000

As Fred said, it's mostly recruiting services. We have a job board, a candidate database, brand advertising and more. The recruiting business is very developer centric. No spammy recruiters, lots of moderation on the types of messages they're allowed to send etc... Products described here: http://business.stackoverfl...

Re: Gary Chou — Announcing: The Product Sessions

willcole — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 11:16:01 -0000

Gary, so glad to see you're doing this (even if I am late to the party).

I've now been on both sides of the product sessions, as a presenter/creative and an advisor. In both cases I got a lot out of the sessions, and even better, have kept in touch with many of the founders and product folks I talked to during them.

Let me know how they go and if I can help in anyway.

Re: So you want a zillion developers… - Jason Punyon

willcole — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 13:54:16 -0000

They either apply for a profile and we review them, or we ask them directly if they want a profile on Stack Overflow.

Re: Random idea: Bitcoin lottery

willcole — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 12:05:09 -0000

Wait, why are you not building this you dummy? =)

Re: Opposing View Reader (Update)

willcole — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 10:53:08 -0000

This is dangerous though. On what evidence are you deciding what someone is reading isn't good for them? And on what authority are you censoring it? Google's mission of making the world's information accessible seems like a far superior goal than becoming the curator of what's "good for you". Services that do good allow the user control over these things instead of forcing their perspective.

Gamification (at least the type I am familiar with) is used to incentivize people to do things they already want to do. Perhaps fitness apps fit the alternative mold, but I still think there that the user is using the game to motivate and achieve non-game ends that they ultimately want, even if they are hard.

Re: Opposing View Reader (Update)

willcole — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 09:26:56 -0000

This part bugs me: "Existing recommendation and search algorithms are all built to re-enforce this by trying to present you with content (or people) that match your interests. "

The existing algorithms don't magically determine your interests and filter out opposing viewpoints. To some extent, they reinforce behavior that you exhibit. There is no point in a search algorithm surfacing content that you won't click on. Next we'll be upset that search sites don't alter content to make you want to click on a result you normally wouldn't.

Recommendations 101 teaches us to add in elements of randomness to combat reinforcing/circular behavior. This applies to ads as well. There is no benefit in censoring information at the expense of clicks and engagement. And the major players know this.

The filter bubble is fake. And it was popularized by someone who spent their time online creating a one sided bubble, then laments others as not doing their job to match his politicized view of technology. It also has a hyper political tone. Not everyone views the world in these terms...they're searching for iPhone prices and researching their favorite actors. When they search for something, they want to immediately find the thing they were looking for. And if they're feeling lucky, maybe they don't need search results at all =)

One thing we learned at Know About It (which we were working on while the Filter Bubble book came out) was that any filter bubble that was created was at the explicit wish of the user. No one pulls a fast one, and people will find their way to the content they actually want to read, not what someone else thinks they should read. And to the extent that they can't, they'll move on (Facebook).

Re: Feature Friday: Privacy

willcole — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 10:58:28 -0000

The stronger the tie to a person, the more important privacy is...at least in my life. I want my photos, IM's, email, phone calls to be more private the closer I am to that person.

For the most part.

Re: Fun Friday: The AVC Book Club

willcole — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 13:36:46 -0000

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is my favorite of his. Probably read it 3-4 times.

Re: Fun Friday: The AVC Book Club

willcole — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 11:46:24 -0000

Mother Night and Sirens of Titan were my favorites. By quite a large margin too.

Re: Fun Friday: The AVC Book Club

willcole — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 11:45:28 -0000

Just re-read Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. I was too young to appreciate it before. Quick read, one of his best. Highly recommended.

Re: Fun Friday: The AVC Book Club

willcole — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 11:42:56 -0000

One of the few books where I found myself cracking up out loud as I read it. Preferred it greatly to some of his others.

Re: The Far Center Party

willcole — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 10:04:24 -0000

I'll try and arrange that. He's done some small gatherings in the past in NYC and I'm sure he'll be back again soon. I'll shoot you a note next time he's in town.

Re: The Far Center Party

willcole — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 11:24:09 -0000

Fred, I would suggest reading up on Gary Johnson. His fiscal conservatism as a two time governor of New Mexico is unmatched by any recent presidential candidate:
http://www.garyjohnson2012....

He's also been an outspoken proponent of:

Gay marriage http://www.garyjohnson2012....

Marijuana legalization: http://www.garyjohnson2012....

Ending our involvement in middle eastern wars: http://www.huffingtonpost.c...

He's a libertarian, sure, and I don't get the feeling that you fall into that bucket exactly. But then again, who is matched 100% with any presidential candidate. I expect based on some of your past writing that you may not agree with some of his policies on taxation, or government involvement in ways that Mayor Bloomberg does, but maybe the rest will be enough for you to talk about him here and raise his profile.

He has no real chance of winning anything as long as he is on the libertarian ticket, but my hope is that people like him will have more success in infiltrating and changing the republican party who do not live up to their fiscal promises and have a horrible record in the social space.

Re: Gawk.it

willcole — Tue, 29 May 2012 08:15:52 -0000

Awesome work @falicon . Good luck with the servers today!

Also - Results for blog posts should have dates like comments.

Re: We are shutting down Knowabout.it

willcole — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 21:20:10 -0000

huh? who knows me? who knows I?

Re: We are shutting down Knowabout.it

willcole — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 21:19:25 -0000

Good call being bullish on KM. Dudes got the goods =)

Re: We are shutting down Knowabout.it

willcole — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 18:45:35 -0000

Thanks Eric. Love the quote. If you still want to send the email Kevin and I both get the info at know about it mails. Should work.

Re: We are shutting down Knowabout.it

willcole — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 18:44:37 -0000

Thanks Orian. Appreciated your insight along the way.

Re: http://jamessiminoff.com/post/18381275419

willcole — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 11:51:47 -0000

No doubt that there could be some negative consequences. My biggest concern is with #1. Why would "you" be concerned with how someone else spends their money? Fraud is certainly a problem, and would be one if steps were taken to loosen accredited investor laws. I argue only that our government should not legislate on the fear of fraud at the expense of financial freedom of an individual.

Re: Digests and Dashboards

willcole — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:25:17 -0000

Let me know if you want a soundboard when you're building your feature. I think about this stuff a lot =)

Re: - Website Login

willcole — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 07:58:13 -0000

Awesome Charlie. Congrats!

Re: - Thisisgoingtobebig.com - Design is not a bolt-on

willcole — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 14:33:52 -0000

If you're building an app like Flipboard where the value proposition is primarily design, then clearly it has to be a focus from day one. In their case, hard tech (later acquired) was the bolt-on after nailing the primary differentiator which was the design. If one of your founders is a design oriented person, then great. Another startup where this is apparent would be NYC's Onswipe, or Shleby.tv. However, there are plenty of others where hard tech or sales will be the primary focus in the early days.

If everything is a priority then nothing is. If nothing can be a bolt on, then you'll drown yourself in priorities and must haves. Design can often, depending on your market and talents as a founding team, be something that comes later in the development process.

Re: http://garyvaynerchuk.com/post/11660618512

willcole — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:14:36 -0000

Take a look at http://knowabout.it. Kevin Marshall and I are working on this problem.