The Divine Blurb by Ali Basiri

When coding, there are a set of code lines that I call the “concluding code”. These are the lines that give the module you are working on its meaning. They connect your module to the rest of the program, and open the flow of execution into your new module. I have a problem with the concluding code! I always avoid writing it. Even if its only five more lines, and even if I’ve spent the last five hours writing five thousand lines. Its not that I don’t know how to write it, it’s just that I run away from writing it. As I approach the concluding lines, I start distracting myself. Are there any new articles on Techcrunch? Are there any new posts on Facebook? I wonder what’s in the fridge? Let me go make tea! Look, there is a new episode of Heroes on Hulu! Before you know it, five hours have gone by! Maybe I’ll write it tomorrow. [...]

As I stood by the massive aquarium in Dubai and looked around the huge deserted mall that contained it, I couldn’t help but wonder that Dubai is nothing but a phony city, built to please a needy king. Driving through the streets of this middle eastern Las Vegas Strip, you’ll see hundreds of empty apartment buildings, with hundreds more under construction. I couldn’t figure out whom they’re building these for? The Palm Island was the same situation, hundreds upon hundreds of apartment buildings, mostly empty. The constructors looked like they were in a rush; finish this one to start the next, but for whom?

Rushed construction of massive things smells of trouble. Two weeks ago Burj Dubai was shutdown for unknown reasons and now the aquarium has cracked (video embedded below). I suspect we haven’t heard the last of it.

As I sit on the airplane returning from overseas, I ponder about life and what could make it more interesting and joyful. Everytime I return, it feels the same; I feel enlightened by the way of life abroad. Life just seems to make much more sense over there as it revolves around human contact, interactions, and wellbeing.

Once I land however, I’m faced with this other world, the so called “Land of Opportunity”. As I sit on CalTrain (Bay Area’s crappy public transit) I can over hear the same repeated conversations that Silicon Valley is famous for. The guy in front of me, an obese whose t-shirt humbly says “I’m right 97% of the time, who cares about the other 4%”, has just returned from a business trip in Hawaii. His once pale skin is hot red from the sun. He hands over a business card to the guy next to him, whom he had met many years ago in another conference and has accidentally run into on the train, and starts pitching his business to him [...]

Twenty four hours never feel like enough time to measure one day. I always find myself with the excuse “If I had more time, I would do this, and would do that”. Well now I’m discovering that to be just an excuse.
It seems like there are just too many wasted hours in a day, and [...]

Gary Vaynerchuk released his new book Crush It. I haven’t read his book yet, but it sounds like he talks mostly about creating your own blog or video blog as a business, and says anyone can do it. If thats all its about, then its not for me. The reason I’m critical is because Gary [...]

Entrepreneurs are often afraid that their idea will be stolen if they tell anyone about it. They hope to prototype their idea before they tell anyone. I was very protective of my first idea, but the first person I shared the idea with was able to tell me about two competitors they had come across [...]

Often people ask me if they should quit their jobs. It’s a question every entrepreneur asks themselves as they start getting very passionate about their idea. It’s a tough question to answer and if you haven’t tried working on your idea parttime, then your answer might be: “I will work on my idea part time [...]

When the time comes to implement the basic features, I often open up my laptop with the intention of coding, but I intentionally distract myself with blogs and videos. Sometimes its hard to get motivated, and harder to get started, even when the passion is there. There are two solutions to getting your project up and [...]

One trap I always fall into when developing a product is trying to deliver a product rich with features. Most of the time I catch myself, and step back to the basic functionality that I suspect the user would expect, this is often referred to as the 80/20 rule:
“80% of your customers will use 20% [...]

You always read and hear business entrepreneurs talking about passion. Even the wikipedia entry on entrepreneurship, characterizes an entrepreneur as someone who “promotes the vision with enthusiastic passion”. But its not always very clear what they mean about passion.
I spent the last year and a half, with a good friend of mine, working on an [...]