Kevin Vogelsang

Ever used this phrase: “I need to get my life together.”

I use it, and I think people in general most frequently use it, when they’ve let all the little details of life get away from them.  These things build up and are on the back of our mind and seem like more than they really are.  Things like laundry, dishes, bills, taxes, cleanup the room, file papers, grocery shopping, and on.  We have to continually do these things.

All these details take up a lot of time, and time (which includes how we use it) is all we have.  Personally, I don’t want to spend my time doing these things, and I’m always looking for ways to reduce the amount of time I spend on them.  For instance, I’m looking into getting a virtual assistant (someone that you hire from a firm that you can call to take care of such things.)

For those of you that have spent time in other countries, is the feeling of “needing to get ones life together” particularly “American” and just part of a “busy” culture?  Do any of you fervently try and cut these things out of your life?  Any success?

And perhaps, can cutting these things out of your life be a bad thing?   Perhaps these things give us a chance to step back and quit worrying about productivity so much.

Gotta run.  I really need a haircut.

-Kevin
7.10.2010

Yesterday, I mentioned that part of reality is the fact that we create it.  I hold this to be true.  If we don’t believe that our lives are the decisions that we make, we don’t have very much at all. Furthermore, such a belief is a slippery slope: it could very easily lead us to believe nothing really matters.

In the human condition, there is only one thing that is more important than the ability to choose: Time.  In fact, Time is everything, and it validates the importance of the ability to choose.  You could even say that Time and the ability to make decisions are really the same:  The choices we make define how we spend our Time.

I’ve rather sloppily run through some reasoning, but it is an undeniable Truth that Time is the most important thing we have in our lives.

I’ll admit.  I often let myself feel the weight of Time bearing down on me; it seems to run through my fingers like water.  But, as useless as this worry seems to be, this feeling also drives me to use my time well and make it matter.

The clock ticks. Make ‘em count.

-Kevin
5.17.2010

I had a 15 minute interview today with an investment firm I have  a lot of respect for.  They tend to think about similar things as I do: things like digital media, education, and the transformative effects of the internet. They’ve done a great job of this.

15 minute interviews are tough and are always a little bit frustrating.  Not a whole lot of information can be communicated, and the results tend to have a much higher variance in my opinion.  After the interview, you’ll inevitably say to yourself, “Blast!  I didn’t get this huge point across!”

Whether it’s a pitch or an interview, short conversations such as this are a great exercise in communication.  You have to really try to get across the key points you want to say succinctly, and be polite about taking the conversation in the direction you want it to go (especially if you’re giving a pitch).  This particular conversation reminded me of a tamer version of my ~15 minute interview with Paul Graham of Y-Combinator (hopefully it went better…. )

A few of the questions are the same questions I figure some of my readers have also asked, so I’ll go ahead and address them:

On the “About” page of my blog, I mention that I consider myself to be “cocky”.  One of the questions I got was whether or not I was humble, as this was an important part of the job.  I mentioned that my father was a missionary doctor, I grew up in one of the poorest counties in the US, and that I had an upbringing that focused on humility.

However, I did not mention the fact that less than 3 months ago I was moving furniture on the weekends in order to live (very tough work, I have a lot of respect for the guys I worked with), that I had been turned away numerous times when I was raising funds for my startup, and  that my ideas have been completely shot down numerous times.  These things are very humbling.  However, without a certain level of Cockiness, I would’ve never had these experiences.  Thus, Cockiness has actually lead me to a greater level of Humility.

(Cockiness is good so long as it’s tempered by humility–otherwise it turns into Arrogance.  I acquired my cockiness later in life because I realized I needed it. I talk a lot about this in my book as it relates to the very Powerful Persona, The Cocky Son-of-a-Bitch. In a comment on my book, Bryan Hernandez captured a key delineation of Cockiness and Arrogance quite well, “Cockiness is an attitude towards the future, arrogance is more often an attitude towards the past.”)

The other thing I was questioned on was whether or not I have a position and thoughts on the future of the space/industry, as this is very important.  By this he was curious as to whether or not I have a position on what I refer to as The Digital Space.  I should’ve said, “Boy, do I ever.”

And with that, I’m happy to announce that, with the completion of my book 10 Powerful Personas (and completely unrelated to this interview), I can now continue my series of essays on The Future of the Digital Space.  I’m very excited about this. Keep a look out for them.

-Kevin
4.30.2010

To build something awesome, you absolutely need 1) time and 2) community.

I find people are compelled to say that passion, resources, opportunity are the essentials.  These are all important, and you or I could probably make a great case for them.  But, I’m not sure they’re absolutes.

I do know you need time.  Time is the most important thing we have.  Few things affect us as much as time.

Time doesn’t necessarily mean only “the limited quantity of time that we have.”  Time also includes “timing.”

The necessity of community is a little less obvious.  Richard Hamming hits the nail on the head:

I noticed the following facts about people who work with the door open or the door closed. I notice that if you have the door to your office closed, you get more work done today and tomorrow, and you are more productive than most. But 10 years later somehow you don’t quite know what problems are worth working on; all the hard work you do is sort of tangential in importance. He who works with the door open gets all kinds of interruptions, but he also occasionally gets clues as to what the world is and what might be important. –Richard Hamming, Talk at Belcore, 1986

If you’ve ever worked on a really hard problem, particularly one that’s never been solved, you’ll probably understand.  Are you on the right track?  Is it working?  Does it matter at all?    If you’re working in a bubble,  you lose sight of the answers to these questions.

-Kevin
11.10.09

(You can follow me on Twitter @KevinVogelsang)