Blog

A Spring Cleaning

It’s spring, so we’re making a updates to our home page and blog. First thing you may notice, we’ve brought our blog inside our main site. Where the blog was originally reachable at https://blog.flybase.io, it is now http://flybase.io/blog/. We decided to do this to make everything more unified, it seemed fitting. We’ve been hard at work on several updates over the past month, and this is the first of a number of updates that will be getting pushed out. This site will also be seeing a few more minor updates as well.

May 5, 2018

Clark Kent’s shoes

Seth Godin: Back when Superman used to change into his outfit in a phone booth, the question was: where does he put Clark’s shoes? Because even if he could compress them with his super strength, they’d be ruined. Organizations that need to adopt different personas often get into trouble. On one hand, most of the time, they’re invisible. They’re a boring bureaucracy, optimized for stable jobs, predictable if not low-cost processes, mediocre customer service and average (or below average) user interface design. They’re a monopoly and they act like one. But then, when things break, they’re expected to act like

March 7, 2018

3 Marketing Techniques Every Startup Must Master

Remember Pokémon GO? Of course you do because it was all you heard about for a few quick months in the summer of 2016. With millions of people downloading and playing the game, retailers and restaurants leapt at the opportunity to sponsor in-game experiences. Players flocked from location to location to virtually battle one another or to catch new Pokémon, and numerous companies were able to cash in on quick marketing wins. There’s a lesson here, though. It’s most likely been a while since Pokémon GO was part of a recent conversation. Chances are that businesses are also no longer

February 24, 2018

CSS Naming Conventions that Will Save You Hours of Debugging

Ohans Emmanuel: I have heard lots of developers say they hate CSS. In my experience, this comes as a result of not taking the time to learn CSS. CSS isn’t the prettiest ‘language,’ but it has successfully powered the styling of the web for over 20 years now. Not doing too badly, huh? However, as you write more CSS, you quickly see one big downside. It is darn difficult to maintain CSS. Poorly written CSS will quickly turn into a nightmare. Ohans makes some interesting points about about CSS conventions such as the use of BEM naming convention (Body, Elements,

January 21, 2018

We’re not giving browsers enough credit…

Christian Heilmann: A browser needs to enable people of all different abilities to reach what they came for. And ability isn’t a fixed state but fluctuates with environment and external influences. We don’t give browser makers enough credit for this amazing experience, as it is — like all good UX — invisible. Christian gives us a good example of all browsers do, they do get underestimated as the main tool that is open every day. Source: https://medium.com/@codepo8/were-not-giving-browsers-enough-credit-5c7e7359109

January 6, 2018

Let’s bury the hussle

I love Gary Vaynerchuk dearly. So much of his message about patience and perseverance is completely in line with how I view the world. But I can’t take any more odes to “the hustle”. Like most banners, it either dies in obscurity or lives long enough to become perverted. In the early days, I chose to interpret “the hustle” as a way for those with very little to outsmart those with a lot through clever steps. Finding leverage where you had none. Doing things that weren’t supposed to scale or even work, and making it happen. But even if my

December 20, 2017

The hidden costs of indecision

Geoffrey Keating: You might have have heard the story of Buridan’s Ass (no laughing down the back), the story of a donkey stuck between two identical stacks of hay. Because the donkey lacks any reason to choose one over the other, it cannot decide which one to eat, and so starves to death. Our setting isn’t the farmyard but the meeting room. Picture the following scene: eight people in a room endlessly debating over a whiteboard, weighing up one decision over the next, but with little sign of progress being made. Tough decisions take time. But if every single decision

December 18, 2017

Before You Launch A Startup, Learn This

Nathan Kontny: My 2011 startup with Y Combinator imploded, largely because we couldn’t get enough traction. What was I going to do next? And more importantly, how was I going to avoid repeating my mistakes? [..] It’s happened for me. I went from that miserable failure of a startup to realizing I needed to get better at audience building before my next venture. And so I practiced my craft of writing and storytelling on my blog. One article a week. Tell a good story. Me or someone else figuring out some problem through some conflict. My audience grew. Source: https://m.signalvnoise.com/my-2011-startup-with-y-combinator-imploded-largely-because-we-couldnt-get-enough-traction-d900976d7bbc

November 29, 2017

How To Build A More Candid Think Tank Culture At Work

When was the last time you got completely unfiltered feedback? Do you dread presenting your big projects to your team because you fear their harsh critique? With so much at stake, it’s no wonder that so many people choose to play it safe rather than to take a risk. The problem is, playing it safe leads to work that’s average at best. But it doesn’t have to be this way! Research into feedback abounds, and countless companies are stepping forward to share what works for them. Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar and the author of Creativity, Inc., introduced the concept

November 29, 2017

Einstein’s Advice On How To Be Happy

As an entrepreneur, I know you are not in business just to make money. You’re also in business because you think it will make you happier. With this in mind, you may be interested in the following true story. Albert Einstein is known as one of the smartest guys in history. And one of the wisest. (They don’t always go together) In fact still today, decades after his death, his brilliant quotes about life appear worldwide. Source: http://siimonreynolds.com/einsteins-advice-happy/

November 9, 2017

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