Steven Kovar

Social Vanity

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 03:51:00 -0600

So vain are we. Pinterest, Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter. We Like it; we Love it; we spend countless hours on it. For what?

Social media is a talent trap. It’s where good, honest manhours go to die. If only we spent as much time producing something with our passion as we do seeking karma and self-gratification. Don’t Re-pin that recipe because the cake looks delicious; go make it yourself and post a picture of your creation! Don’t obsess over your Facebook Likes or Twitter Follower counts; these numbers are meaningless without context—without that actual 1-to-1 relationship.

This, in my mind, is the next obstacle for the social web to overcome. How do we turn each marginal minute of our time online from ‘wasted’ to ‘invested’ with these tools? A rather sobering perspective on this time wasting is described by Youssef Sarhan as the Facebook Like Paradigm.

Today Facebook enjoys 800 Million users; I’d guess, very conservatively, that Facebook processes about 2 billion Likes a day now.

This is where it gets depressing..

Let’s say it takes just 1 second to click a Like button.

2 billion Likes per day * 1 second = 2 billion seconds per day.

2 billion seconds equates to… wait for it… 63 years.

That’s 63 years of collective time people don’t get back, every day, spent clicking buttons on websites; and that number is only for Facebook. This time sink total is an indicator of Facebook’s prosperity, but at what cost does such prosperity come? Reid Hoffman observes that the success of a social network often correlates with its connection to one of the seven deadly sins.

Social networks do best when they tap into one of the seven deadly sins… With Facebook, it’s vanity, and how people choose to present themselves to their friends. It’s the feeling of being connected. I like to emphasize the importance of the deep universal, psychological structure in people’s minds… These are fundamentals for having a fulfilling quality of life.

Additionally, Hoffman suggests acting on these vices via social networks is important because it improves social connectivity versus traditional media, which I agree is true. However, an obsession over vanity metrics has driven down the quality of content generation. If I post more of what other people will like, I’ll get more Followers, Likes, or Re-pins. Ultimately, the social stream is re-run after re-run as the popular content works its way to the top, from rageface memes to designer dresses.

We need to remove this emphasis on empty metrics from social media so people can stop looking in the mirror at their own Likes and Followers and focus on the real benefits that lie beneath: the relationships they’ve fostered, the things they’ve learned, the good they’ve done for someone else… the context that numbers can’t articulate.

Join the conversion on Hacker News.

Producer vs. Consumer

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 15:19:22 -0600

Found this insight in Reddit’s Fitness section, of all places. Read it and let it sink in; make it a habit starting tomorrow. Props to Redditor aceex.

I make sure to start every day as a producer, not a consumer.

When you get up, you may start with a good routine like showering and eating, but as soon as you find yourself with some free time you probably get that urge to check Reddit, open that game you were playing, see what you’re missing on Facebook, etc.

Put all of this off until “later”. Start your first free moments of the day with thoughts of what you really want to do; those long-term things you’re working on, or even the basic stuff you need to do today, like cooking, getting ready for exercise, etc.

This keeps you from falling into the needy consumer mindset. That mindset where you find yourself endlessly surfing Reddit, Facebook, etc. trying to fill a void in yourself, trying to find out what you’re missing, but never feeling satisfied.

When you’ve started your day with doing awesome (not necessarily difficult) things for yourself, these distractions start to feel like a waste of time. You check Facebook just to make sure you’re not missing anything important directed at you, but scrolling down and reading random stuff in your feed feels like stepping out into the Disneyland parking lot to listen to what’s playing on the car radio - a complete waste of time compared to what you’re really doing today.

It sounds subtle, but these are the only days where I find myself getting anything done. I either start my day like this and feel normal and productive, or I look up and realize it’s early evening, I haven’t accomplished anything and I can’t bring myself to focus no matter how hard I want to.

Chillout

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:37:00 -0600

12:47 on a Friday evening—pouring rain outside—and I have the luxury of grinding away, growing my business. I found this video by Gary very inspiring because it fits in perfectly with my mentality this past week; if this video doesn’t fill you with energy and ambition to step your game up, you’re doing something wrong.

This is the perfect atmosphere for the chillout playlist I’ve been curating via Spotify the past couple of months. It’s been making rounds in the AppSumo office and as I’ve been told by Frank Denbow, founder of Startup Threads, is the perfect soundtrack for hustling. I tend to agree.

Don’t be cocky. Don’t be flashy. There’s...

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:44:00 -0600

Don’t be cocky. Don’t be flashy. There’s always someone better than you.

—Tony Hsieh

Be Quirky

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:38:00 -0600

At the core of every company is its culture—an embodiment of the founders’ personalities. It’s massively important to embrace your quirks as a founder and company as a whole, both good and bad. One of the driving forces behind AppSumo’s success is how well we play up our humor and creativity, utilizing them as tools that transform how professionals shop for educational videos and software.

For instance, the AppSumo logo is a caricature of a sumo wrestler with a burrito-eating grin on his face, Noah Kagan’s “title” is Chief Sumo, and our copy is specifically tailored to produce laughs while still being insightful and enticing. Similar to Gary Vaynerchuk, we probably scare off a handful of great potential customers with our approach, but the level of engagement and dedication we get from those we do attract is much more valuable to us. Perhaps what best exemplifies our culture is the new addition to the site: the Taco Rating System.

This isn’t because using taco instead of star icons is funny and remarkable (which it is), but because the culture at AppSumo encourages rapid ideation; there is no idea too simple or too stupid. The team is conditioned to set inhibitions aside and ask questions like…

Hey Noah, what if we use taco icons instead of stars for our ratings? Everyone uses stars—they’re boring.

Sharing and testing ideas at AppSumo has turned into a quirk of ours—a part of our personality—allowing us to balance our fun-lust and passion to scale while providing a unique experience for customers. How can you leverage your personality to enhance your personal brand or company? We all have weaknesses, so don’t get hung up on overcoming them; instead, execute on what makes you distinctly you.