Thomas Cox

IZEA Fest, John Chow and Dinner

// September 19th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Life, Orlando

When I first moved to Orlando in 1999, it seemed to be a city void of anything remotely considered a tech industry and short on the creative side as well.  What was here other than Disney?  Fast forward to 2008 and things have really changed, or maybe my eyes are just open.  I started really noticing it around 2005 and have seen continued growth and a real technology and creative community really blossom.  I admitedly have no immersed myself in the community nearly enough but have had the pleasure of meeting some of Orlando’s finest.

After working on Friday, I thought it would be in my best interest to check out the final day of IZEA Fest on Saturday.  Waking up a little late, I made the unbearably long 5 minute treck from my house to the Grand Boehmian hotel in downtown Orlando.  I was impressed by the couple of sessions I saw and learned some great new things.   I also happened to know John Chow was attending IZEA Fest, so one of my missions was to meet up with him.

John and I go way back to the original dot com boom when we both ran successful tech websites that grew up as members of the Maximum PC Network.  My site, AbsolutePC.net fell by the wayside as the college life of studying, girls, and partying claimed AbsolutePC.net as its victim and so did a domainer.  John’s site, TheTechZone is still going strong and continues to earn a good income.  He may now be best known however for his personal blog, which while focusing on making money online, it is truly his personal blog with cool restaurant reviews and funny stories to go along with his money making tips, and of course his posts about how much money he makes by telling you how much money he makes.  So since speaking with him online since 1999, we finally met in person in 2008.  After a quick chat during a break, we checked out the last sessions of the day and parted ways.  I returned downtown for the IZEA Fest party and had an absolute blast.  Open bar is always a good idea… which then turns into a bad idea and a little too much fun.  Suffice it to say, Sunday hurt.

Wednesday was John’s last night in Orlando, so I invited John and his wife Sarah out to experience what I consider one of the finer culinary experiences Orlando has to offer, HUE.  We had an amazing dinner which you can read all about and take in the pictures on John’s blog.  It was great getting to know John and Sarah and I thoroughly enjoyed our dinner and conversation.  I learned alot and made 2 great new friends.  Thanks John, it was great to finally meet!

Development, Managing Time and Associated Costs

// June 25th, 2007 // Comments Off // Web Development

Small excerpt from 37 Signals about something i definitely agree with and think everyone has problems doing:

…Here’s the problem: You agree that feature X can be done in two hours. But four hours into it, you’re still only a quarter of the way done. The natural instinct is to think ‘but I can’t give up now, I’ve already spent four hours on this!’.

So you go into hero mode. Determined to make this work, but also embarrassed that it isn’t already so. So the hero grabs his hermit cape and isolates himself from feedback. ‘I really need to get this done, so I’ll turn off IM, Campfire, email, and more for now’. And some times that works. Throwing sheer effort at the problem to get it done.

But was it worth it? Probably not. The feature was deemed valuable at a cost of two hours, not sixteen. Sixteen hours of work could have gotten four other things done that individually were at least as important.

That’s where the concept of sunk cost gives us a guide on what to do. It doesn’t what you’ve already spent. That time and money is gone. It only matters whether spending what’s left is worth it or not. Business school 101, but one of the hardest lessons to internalize.

In other words, stop being so afraid of calling it quits. You’re playing to win the full season, not a single game. Every time you play the hero card, you’re jeopardizing the next game. Heroics are for when you have no other choice. When you can afford to take on tremendous risk because there’s no alternative.

(Via Signal vs. Noise.)

So is third-party web design a dead business?

// June 25th, 2007 // Comments Off // Web Development

Amen to this…. SitePoint Blogs are great if you are not familiar with them :

So is third-party web design a dead business?: “Many of your comments to the last blog were quite depressing. Most of you made one of two points:

1. Web design for clients doesn’t pay well. The only way to make money in this business is by designing your own sites and making money that way.

2. Most clients want a lot but won’t pay.

If that’s true, then there is no reason for web designers to do anything other than design for themselves.

But I don’t think it is true at all. I have always thought that most people think way too small.

I think one can design great web sites for their own purposes, and also get out there and market your knowledge and wisdom at a high price to firms and clients that will pay big bucks for the results you can get. If you don’t have all of the knowledge, you can partner up with others who do and provide a complete solution.

If I am wrong, and you are trying to market to clients who want a lot and won’t pay, get the heck out of this business! There are plenty of other ways to make an excellent living, and web design can be a hobby for you.

Otherwise, some of you need a major attitude adjustment, and need to start being more creative and seeing possibility and opportunity.”

(Via SitePoint Blogs.)