The Pufferfish

Posted on May 17, 2013 by tedmcory

I was recently having a conversation with someone about the impact of their plan for their SaaS product. It was a relatively small impact when framed the way they were looking at it, but didn’t include a very holistic view of things. The solution to this is the Pufferfish. The execution of the Pufferfish is as follows*:

  1. State the decision, and the delta from the desired state for a small use case. “Well Bob, if you do that, it will cost you $10,000 to implement this for existing customers in this location this year…” 
  2. Expand to include total existing universe “…but for all the other locations it will be the same, so that’s $70,000 a year for your existing customers however….”
  3. Expand to the expected three year universe “…given your projected growth rate you’ll add another three locations a year. That means that you’ll have sixteen locations in three years, for a total of $160,000 a year in three years…”
  4. Now talk about sales and impact to margin…. “and your margin is 10% Bob. That means that you would have to do $1.6 million in business to just cover this in three years. But really, this decision will negate $4.6 million in sales over that time. That’s a lot of cheddar Bob. The right decision is to get this right the first time, isn’t it?”

It’s worked for me several times. Why? I think it’s a mental buffer overflow. You’ve thrown a lot of numbers around and they’ve come to the conclusion that it’s a very bad idea. This tactic obviously needs to be used judiciously to prevent them from becoming desensitized to it, but it can be hugely instrumental in select cases.

What do you think of the pufferfish?

blowfish

*All example numbers are completely fictional and used for illustrative purposes only.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Couch to DNF- Long Haul 2013

Posted on January 21, 2013 by tedmcory

“Do not think that what is hard for you to master is humanly impossible; and if it is humanly possible, consider it to be within your reach.” - Marcus Aurelius


TLDR: Little mistakes add up, more DSSS and listening.

To start: I am in charge of my training and racing. All responsibility falls on my shoulders for any failures that I have. My crew and friends were awesome and I couldn’t have asked for better help.

I DNF’d the longhaul 100 during lap 4, at around mile 50 because of sharp pain/locking up on the outside of my left knee. This was after ~26 miles of pain in my right knee and thigh from my normal IT band issues. A lot of little things went wrong during the run that ended up adding up to little things. Many of these little things were either told to me, or easily forseeable.

Starting with the last thing first:
My left knee didn’t want me to bend it any more. I’d been using it to compensate for my right leg issues and I’d let my legs get cold.

My legs got cold because:

  1.  I included low cut socks (which allows blister inducing rubs) along with my regular socks. These socks were intended for emergency purposes during rain/muddy situations.
  2. I did not have enough of these and keep them separated/clearly well enough.
  3. I did not review the race plan I’d written up with everyone prior to the race so my crew didn’t understand what I was talking about
    1. The time for review is not when the clock is ticking.

All of this led to 20+ minutes of downtime trying to change socks.

 I had to change socks because I got a rock in my inside sock. I do long runs with two pairs of socks; injinis on the inside and swiftwick olefin compression socks on the outside. I got a rock on my inside sock because:
  1. I didn’t bring my trail gaiters:
    1. I didn’t bring my trail gaiters because the pair I’d brought required you to glue something to your shoe to work. I have three pairs of shoes for running, so I’d only have gaiters for one pair of shoes.
    2. I didn’t bring them as well because I didn’t see the point; all the trails I’d run on did not have many rocks, only sand

My form sucked. This trail was barely a trail at many points and required running in ruts:

  1. My preparation for this run was 99% on streets that were wide enough to accomodate my running form
    1. Because I train at night and there are no trails that are open/safe trails at night where I live
      1. Training mostly at night limits where I can run

My form also sucked because I didn’t have a solid water plan down.

  1. A very small fraction of this was because of last minute changes to the course route.
  2. I should have used mapmyrun to determine distance and back into water
    1. I need to quit being such a sissy about running without water
  3. I was distracted by thinking about water (and the brown color of my urine).
    1. Would have been better to carry my wasp backpack with 40 ounces than constantly be thinking about it.
    2. I eventually got this worked out, but by then my IT band was bothering me.
My IT band sucked because I used bad form and I didn’t do enough core exercises after injuring it in early November:
  1. My running coach told me repeatedly to work on my core strength
    1. I missed on my MED
      1. By missing on MED, I mean I just basically said “I’m not going to do that”
    2. I had multiple chances to get it fixed via exercise and massage
    3. I was warned two weeks before (right after Ragnar) that it was ridiculously tight
    4. Foam rolling reduces the pain from it, but doesn’t resolve root cause
I took tylenol during the race instead of ibuprofin:
  1. I don’t take painkillers/anti inflammatories during training at all
  2. I’m 50/50 on this being a real issue. Given the water problems I was having, and the reactions people have had to ibuprofin on long runs on their kidneys, I am not sure how this may have impacted me.
    1. Ibuprofin may have helped my knee from locking up.
I raced during my taper…
  1. and I ran fast. Two days later my right leg was really not happy with me. Dum dum dum dum dum.
I did not reevaluate my goals after getting injured…
  1. 100 miles was already a big stretch goal. Should have worked it down to the 100k or something similar.
    1. I acknowledge that I probably won’t ever do this, but I want to acknowledge that it’s a flaw. Running represents the one place where I can be as agressive and Type A as I want.
I did not effectively use pacers:
  1. I only had 1 pacer planned for this run; Adam was scheduled to come out during lap 6/7.
  2. I believe pacers would have helped me keep in a good frame of mind during the heat of the day, which is when I don’t like running the most
I am overly reliant on my GPS and my ipod during runs.
  1. I took them off during the end to save the batteries for later in the race. Mentally this caused me to freak out a little because I could not effectively evaluate my pace.
    1. I probably need to do some trail runs without GPS and ipod so I’m used to this.
What went right:
  1. Mentally dealing with bad things happening hit the wall HARD at about mile 38. I was supposed to get my headlamp at 3 and the sun was starting to set. There are some deeeeeeeep swampy parts near the trail on this run.
    1. This is about where I hit it last time. I thought that I would be able to fuel my way through this (I ate a lot more this time).
    2. I had read an article about Mike Morton’s run on LH100 last year where he had a big spill and that he just had to work on the problems that he was having.
    3. I had walked through a mental framework for how I’d deal with this before the run and did it:
      1. What’s wrong?
      2. Ok, so how do I feel about that?
      3. So, how would someone else feel about that?
      4. So you’re no different than them, right?
      5. So eat a gel, turn on Stairway to Heaven, have yourself a good cry for your sad pathetic situation, and start fucking running when they start jamming out.
      6. I really think that by acknowledging that things were screwed up and utilizing Parkinson’s law help me mentally get turned around more quickly than I would have otherwise.
        1. It’s the pity party MED.
  2. Feet!
    1. No blisters. No black toe nails. Just my same ugly ugly hooves. Considering I lost almost all because of the last one this is a major freaking win.20130121_114930
    2. I need to do more DSSS on this, as right now it’s very complicated and sometimes I have problems with sand mixing with the vaseline. I’m sure the big guys are able to deal with more feet I can currently.
  1. Friction areas
    1. There was blood last time. No blood this time.
  2. Soreness
    1. With the exception of my knees, I wasn’t and am not sore at all really. I credit this to the following:
      1. Scott Jurek’s anti inflammatory smoothie from Eat and Run
      2. Zensah compression tights- help me run below my lactate threshold and reduce DOMS
      3. Better physical fitness- running way below my lactate threshold.
        1. Running below your lactate threshold lets you fuel more on fat, which reduces damage to your cell walls
          1. See “The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance” for more information
      4. 5 minute ice bath once I got home. Cold shower the day after.
        1. This really, really, sucks but seems to be the best thing I can do after a run.
  3. I was much faster, which is to be expected with some experience and training. Still a victory nonetheless.
 I’d already planned on making significant changes to my training for this year, and I believe that this failure has highlighted things better than sucking through the next 50 miles would have. Success makes you blind to the things that could have gone wrong.
I will be listening to my running coach more, as well as combining LHRT and CFE to improve my core strength and move my anaerobic and aerobic thresholds. I’ll peel back into the CFE after I use the DSSS.
General outline will include:
  1. More trail running without gps and ipod (maybe HR monitor only)
  2. More core work
  3. Better logistics planning and race prep
  4. More Pacers
  5. More pacing – I need to have more experience on seeing runners that are deep in the suck. If I can get my speed up I should be able to pace someone on a run.

 

I plan to update and edit this for easier reading when I don’t have a garden that needs weeding and a child waiting on me.

 

Ted

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

34-35

Posted on December 8, 2012 by tedmcory

Every year, on my birthday, I think about what I’ve done in the previous year and what I’d like to do in the next year. This was an awesome year for me, and it will be hard to beat. There were a lot of awesome adventures. I think that in transparency there is honesty, and I’d like to hold myself more accountable publically….this post is to motivate myself to do better next year.

I focused on doing things that I was afraid of, or that people told me were hard/impossible to do. Getting out of my comfort zone. My hit rate wasn’t as important as number of times at bat. I took the approach that if I wasn’t failing I wasn’t pushing myself hard enough.

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”
― Ernest Hemingway

The point of all this is I’m trying to better myself. I changed a lot from 33-34, and I believe I was a better person this year because of those changes. I believe I’m a better me than I was a year ago, and this year every day I’m going to work to make this true next year as well. I almost have a trend ;)

 

Thank You Friends!

I had an awesome year thanks to very awesome friends. I have concrete evidence that the quality of your life is reflected in the quality of your friends. I couldn’t have done these things without all of you Vicki Bell, Josh Green, Christian Brink, Hal Logan, Jon Baker, Adam Dimuzio, Courtney Perigo, Jonathan Bush, Jeannine Lyons, Connie Hunt, Rob Mazur, Antonio Vaughn, Eric Cobb, Kathryn Thompson, Rob Farrington, Amanda Grelock, Paul Nakata, Dad, Mike, Glen and many others.

You’ve been great to me, if I haven’t been awesome to you, let me know and we’ll fix that =)

 

In no particular order, here’s what I did this year:

Personal

  • Made a flag/coat of arms AKA “Tedsylvania”
  • Claimed a small island in the name of Tedsylvania
  • Camped, explored and snorkled the Dry Tortugas and Fort Jefferson
  • Made first World Record attempt
    • Still working on getting Guiness Book of World Records to confirm this. (Bucket List Attempt)
  • Started learning to cook (this never really ends, right?)
  • Became a vegetarian
  • Made up new term- Adventure vegan
  • Became the world’s first adventure vegan ;)
    • Recieved many weird looks.
  • Ate a bat in Lutz with Terry Hartup
  • Discovered quinoa, setan, tempeh, acai and kale
  • Explored NYC for the first time with Vicki Bell
  • Visited Empire State Building
    • Bucket List
  • Signed my credit card as “Bad Motherfucker”.
    • No one has called me on it.
  • Drank 21 year old Scotch
    • Bucket List
  • Kayaking in Crystal River
  • Grew an epic beard
  • Snorkeling with Manatees
  • Safari in Africa
    • Saw lions at the kill
      • Bucket List
    • Freaking cheetas!
    • Ate crocodile and ostrich
    • Drank where Hemingway drank
    • Amazed at the snows of Kilamanjaro
      • Bucket list
    • Visited my fifth continent!
      • Visiting all 7 is on my Bucket List
  • Returned to The Fairy Castle of Tedsylvania!
  • Started running – Couldn’t run half a mile
  • Ran my first event Ragnar Relay Florida Keys 2012!
  • Ran my first solo event- Keys 100 Ultra Marathon (50 Mile Ultra Marathon)
    • Added to and Checked off Bucket List this year
  • Lost about 32 lbs.
  • My team took second place in Startup Weekend Tampa (Splik.it)
  • Went to my first professional baseball game ever.
  • Got tossed out of a bar and almost in a brawl.
  • Pranked a friend on vacation.
  • Zombies Are Everywhere
    • Coordinated internationally distributed team to create a product from an idea in less than 10 hours of effort.
    • Started the funding process on Kickstarter.
  • Started to learn programming via Code Academy
    • 737 points, 515 lessons and 35 achievements so far
    • Javascript, HTML, CSS. Soon Python
  • Applied to be an Astronaut Candidate
    • Leaving the planet is a Bucket List item
  • Created no small amount of miscellaneous mischeif and mayhem
  • Focused on sharpening the saw

 

Tyler

I’m thankful every day for my little clone. He’s sneaky, mischevious, impish, and clever. I love him for being very much like me of course. He’s in a very awesome stage; big enough to do things on his own, but still young enough that I’m not so uncool he can’t hang out with me. It’s going so fast. I love him to pieces.

Here are a few of the many things we did this year:

  • Swim lessons!
  • Self dressing!
  • Exploring the trails on several parks and finding out of the way secret places
  • Rockets!
  • Movie nights
  • Robot Cake for his birthday thanks to (KathyLovesCake)
  • Ginormous pancakes
  • Airheads
  • Fall Festival at Hunsader Farms
  • Easter Egg hunt
  • Water Slides
  • Thumbs Wars
  • Hide and Go Seek
  • Mohawk!
  • Rock, Paper, and Scissors
  • Secretly singing silly songs in the car together
  • Reading books (and mostly paying attention!)
  • Camping trip with all of the kids
    • Making smores
    • Watching stars!
  • The beach, the beach, the beach

 

Books I read this year:

  1. Design for Hackers
  2. Made to Stick
  3. The Black Swan
  4. Steve jobs
  5. A Wise Man’s Fear
  6. The Lean Startup
  7. Design Patterns
  8. The Pragmatic Programmer
  9. Waltzing with Bears
  10. Peak
  11. Emotional Equations
  12. Stick to Comics Monkey Brain!
  13. Rule #1
  14. Power Foods
  15. Clean Start
  16. Heavy Hitter Selling
  17. How to Win Friends and Influence People (again)
  18. Three Feet From Gold
  19. Outliers
  20. Clean Food
  21. Engine 2 Diet

Work

Day Job:

What a team! What results! Not sure what else I can share publically =)

 

Not My Day Job:

My longtail bets are working out swimmingly, and I continue to profit from being a smartass. I’ve also spent some time working on a new project that may soon go viral.

Kanji-A-Day.com- My first SaaS product still performs very well with almost no work. My funnel feeders (Organic Google, RSS feeds,free email) have grown substantially on their own. I’ve only done a little split testing with conversion pages and have significantly improved conversions. Some customers are completing their fourth year as paying subscribers. I have a simple idea that should drive even more revenue with very little work. Win.

Tampa Bay Investment Alliance (aka the investment club) is chugging along and I feel that I’m becoming a much better investor after talking through so many investment opportunities. I’m looking forward to another profitable year picking investments with people who are much smarter than I.

Writing it all down, it seems like a lot for a year. I hope I can continue the momentum and continue to have a very interesting life. Thank you all again for being a part of this awesome adventure!

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment