Musings of a VC in NYC

Fun Friday: Exercise Routines

The past four fun fridays, we've discussed movies, books, and music. I enjoy the discussions these fun fridays create. It's a different vibe from the normal talk of tech, business, startups, etc, etc.

Yesterday I had my annual physical. My doctor gave me a clean bill of health. He asked what I do to exercise. I told him yoga, biking, and the elliptical when it's too cold to bike outside. He suggested I ditch the elliptical and do a spinning class when it's cold outside. So I'm now re-thinking my exercise routine.

I do yoga for flexibility, strength, and to keep my upper back, shoulders, and neck pain free. I do yoga at least twice a week. I bike because I love being out on the bike, the wind in my face, and the amazing feeling you get after a thirty mile bike ride. But I don't enjoy biking when its less than fifty degrees outside. So I guess I'm headed back to spinning class to get that cardio and pulmonary benefit when it's cold outside.

So that's what I do. I try to exercise at least four times a week for at least an hour each time.

What do all of you do? And why?

A Taste Of Christmas

This is the first Christmas I've spent in the US in eleven years. I wrote a bit about our family's Christmas journey three years ago. We took a break from our annual year end family travel adventure to break in a ski house we bought this spring. The snow isn't great but we've got ten people here, a fire burning, and a Christmas tree up (the first one we've put up in a while).

I must say I've enjoyed getting a taste of Christmas after a self imposed fast. We did a "secret santa" instead of everyone getting presents for everyone. That worked out great. The Gotham Gal prepared a traditional Christmas feast last night. We've had Zooey and Matt's holiday record on repeat play. And we played games together untl late in the evening.

Regular readers know I'm not a believer of any religion. But I am a fan of the traditions and celebrations that come with religion. I enjoy sitting through a passover seder and I certainly enjoy the year end holiday traditions that come with the Christmas season. Anything that can get people together, talking, laughing, and just hanging out together is a great thing.

So whatever faith or non-faith that you subscribe to, I wish you a warm and loving year end holiday.

Open Science

I had a rough night last night. A late flight, not enough sleep, and I'm feeling run down. So I'm not going to do a long post today.

But I saw this bit about Paul Allen advocating "Open Science" and I thought I'd flag it for all of you.

I've long felt that the way we go about doing research in our society is wrongheaded. We largely hoard our data and experiments until the breakthroughs are made and then we publish and patent them.

Imagine if all the research and work was being shared in an open platform (kind of like the Internet was designed to do??). Think about how much faster the breakthroughs would come if all the best minds in the world were working together instead of against each other.

Happy Thanksgiving

I'd like to wish everyone out there a happy thanksgiving. I am thankful every day that I have a great wife and family, that I get to do a job I love, and that I live and work in an incredibly interesting time. I am very fortunate and I know it and am thankful for it.

I am also very thankful for the community that has built up around this blog. As someone said in the comments to my "writing" post the other day, if I wrote a post and it got no comments, I might feel differently about writing. Fortunately I don't have to worry about that. Even the weakest post here gets close to fifty comments. And we've seen a post get a thousand comments. Your participation here makes writing every day a pleasure. So thank you for that.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

Writing

I came to writing relatively late in life. Of course I wrote for work and during school. But I always saw writing as a chore and did not feel that I was particularly good at it. I went to a mediocre high school and then to engineering school where writing was technical, not creative. We wrote in business school, but I don't recall a lot of effort being put into making us better writers. And for almost two decades in venture capital, writing meant memos and quarterly reports and not much more.

Then, at age 42, I started blogging. And I've been writing daily ever since. Something like 5,600 blog posts have been entered into my Typepad CMS. Almost all of them by me. I'm getting close to Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hours. My writing has improved immeasurably. But more importantly, I have learned to love writing. It's creative. It's a puzzle. How do I tell the story? How do I get my point across? How do I do it crisply and clearly? How do I end it on a strong note?

I've been thinking about this because my son, who is in high school, has been working hard on his writing skills. And my daughter, who is in college, has shared a few of her papers with me recently. My daughter's writing has improved so much in the past few years. She writes so beautifully now, with poise and confidence. And my oldest daughter writes in her journal every day, keeping a private record of her life. My son is still working to find his voice, his style, his flow. I've noticed that the high school my children go to/went to really emphasizes writing and communication skills. I think that's great. I wish I had that kind of high school education. Better late than never.

But I still struggle to help my children with their written work. I find it easy to help with Math and Science homework. I know how to ask them the questions that lead to the insights that help them answer the questions themselves. But when I read a draft paper that isn't the best they can do, I struggle to help them. I certainly don't want to edit the paper. I want them to edit it. But it's hard to find the words, the strategies, and the ways to inspire them to improve it. I've noticed that the best english and history teachers usually ask their students to hand in a draft, which they mark up, and then the students are asked to write a final version. I think that's a great way to go. I guess I suffer from never having had an editor or an editor's job. I'm just a self taught writer.

Communication skills are so important in life. The investment I've made in my communication skills over the past eight years is paying huge dividends for me now. I want to help my kids make the same investment, just much earlier in life. I know it will come in handy and I know it will be a great source of pleasure for them thoughout their life.

Fun Friday: little Bits

I came home on thursday evening to find some leave behinds from a board meeting the Gotham Gal had been at earlier that day. She's an angel investor in little Bits. I ripped the box open, sat down at the dining room table, and started having fun building simple electronic circuits. The Gotham Gal grabbed my android and filmed it.

If you want to get one of these little Bits sets, you can find out how to do that here.

A Veterans Day Story

Yesterday I met with an entrepreneur from Israel who has built a Facebook app called Chat Rounds that allows you and a buddy to hang out, video chat, and play games and watch videos together. He told me that the service is particularly popular with military people stationed abroad and away from their families.

Skyping with your spouse works well enough but apparently it is hard to get the kids to hang out on Skype for long. But in Chat Rounds, the kids can play games or watch cartoons with their parent half way across the world in some war zone.

I was moved by that story. When my dad was in Vietnam, we lost a parent for a year. Thank god we didn't lose a parent for good.

Being in the military is a tough job. Not only do you have to put yourself in harms way in service of your country, you have to leave your families at home. It is a great sacrifice.

So on this Veterans Day, let's remember and thank all the veterans out there for their service to our country. It is too easy to take it for granted.

IRL

IRL is short for "in real life" as if there were anything other than real life.

I am always energized when the online world connects with the real world. We had a Meetup last night for people who gave to the AVC/Gotham Gal Donors Choose 50th Birthday campaign.

379 people donated to the Donors Choose campaign. Of them, 168 signed up to attend the Meetup last night. We didn't count people on the way in, but it sure felt like most of those 168 people showed up.

And of course, many of them are regulars here at AVC. I met people for the first time who have been reading this blog for six or seven years. And I met people for the first time who are some of the most frequent commenters here. I am not going to name names because I'd leave someone out and they'd feel dissed. So I'd just like to say it was so great to meet all of you.

Many times people say to me "I feel like I know you" because of this blog and Gotham Gal's blog and all of our other online activities.  But I also feel like I know so many of you from reading your thoughts day after day after day. Making that IRL connection seals the deal and the online friendship gets stronger and better. That was the big takeaway from last night's event. Thanks to all of you who made the trip, whether it was a subway ride or a cross atlantic flight.

Thanks Grimlock

I arrived in my office yesterday to find a package. I opened it and there were 10 numbered original edition Grimlock Chickens. This is my favorite of the bunch. I'm getting it framed for my office wall.

Day Off

I'm taking the day off today to celebrate the Gotham Gal's birthday with her. The AVC community should feel free to talk about whatever you want. Things on my mind include Occupying Wall Street and the unfortunate news that Chris Christie won't throw his hat in the ring.