Curt Doolittle

Form: Diary

  • (Feeling guilty about not writing more) My company’s product has really needed m

    (Feeling guilty about not writing more)

    My company’s product has really needed my attention for the past six months – and it’s paid off. We have made more progress on the software since July than we had in the previous six months. It’s exceeded my expectations considerably. Although I’ve doubled my expected investment too, because I understand we have a category killer on our hands.

    But my writing suffered. And while in the few months of 2013 I’d made incredible progress, and while I’ve managed to solve a few core theoretical problems over the summer, I haven’t put the additional chapters to paper.

    But, you know, I’ve been thinking about the PFS Interim Meeting in London and the talk I want to give, and not surprisingly, I realized once again, that every six months that go by, I can distill the arguments further, into increasingly clear and compact statements.

    So maybe that isn’t such a bad thing. 🙂

    Good. My guilt is assuaged for the evening. Now, do I have permission to do something mindless now? lol

    Source date (UTC): 2013-10-19 15:43:00 UTC

  • PRETTY LEAVES! (sweet) I love the fall. Kiev is prettiest in summer. It’s a gree

    PRETTY LEAVES!

    (sweet)

    I love the fall. Kiev is prettiest in summer. It’s a green city. (The green hides the poor condition of the commons – terrible roads, sidewalks, and dirty buildings.)

    There is nothing like New England and Olde England in the fall. Nothing. Sigh. Although the whole Tennessee and Kentucky thing in the mountains is almost spiritual as well. But that’s true pretty much all year ’round.

    Out of our window I can see the steeple of the church in my current cover photo. Still half green but lots of orange and yellow.

    Ukraine is a poor and corrupt country. But you know, I remember the 1960’s when abandoned depression era houses were still standing in fields all around our house. It’s possible for neighborhoods, cities and countries to ‘come back’ with time.

    Boston was a dump in the early 8o’s after decades of socialist influence in government. So was new york. But once we’d had enough of the ‘great society’ nonsense, crime was heavily punished and investments were made and the cities came back – mostly. At least they aren’t what they used to be.

    The miracle city in the east is probably Prague. And Kiev is trying to slowly repeat that miracle, by prettifying one neighborhood at a time. If the government hand’ killed it’s ability to borrow the residential boom in kiev alone from development would carry the country.

    In a city where the wage monthly wage is about $600, compared to say, Atlanta where it’s about $7,000, apartments are hovels, and decent one’s three times their salary. This is purely because of a shortage. And the shortage purely a problem of incompetence, corruption and lack of credit.

    We seek pictures of Maydan, Kreshatik, Saksaganskogo, or where I live on Saghaidachnogo, and it’s beautiful sure. But the majority of kiev is those horrid soviet era apartment buildings with external porches enclosed in random wood and glass aftermarket panels, with dirty air conditioners and wires hanging off them, and rust, crumbling mortar, peeling paint, graffiti and unkempt lawns.

    I mean, we’ve been tearing that stuff down in the USA as a ‘great society’ failure of family-destroying, civic culture-destroying, ‘manufactured slums’ for decades now. But people here still live in them.

    It’s no wonder why everyone dresses well. Its inexpensive status signaling. It’s all they can signal with.

    So I’m going to appreciate the people, the leaves and the ancient architecture, and hope that over time, all architectural remnants of the great soviet collapse are slowly replaced by something taht does these wonderful people justice.

    🙂

    Source date (UTC): 2013-10-09 04:46:00 UTC

  • i shouldn’t post while getting agitated on important conference calls. the anger

    i shouldn’t post while getting agitated on important conference calls. the anger comes out. sorry. 😐

    Source date (UTC): 2013-10-08 18:28:00 UTC

  • Freaking last minute board call at midnight my time. sigh. That means sleep at 3

    Freaking last minute board call at midnight my time. sigh. That means sleep at 3:00am… argh. Sometimes the whole kiev thing is brutal.

    Source date (UTC): 2013-10-08 15:24:00 UTC

  • (I have no idea how many words I wrote today across the various documents and po

    (I have no idea how many words I wrote today across the various documents and postings I’ve put out. My fingers hurt a bit. So is that a good enough excuse to spend an hour playing my twice-per-year limit on a computer game? Can I do it without guilt? Ok? Wow. Thank you Jiminiy Cricket for your permission. Good. ‘Cause my brain is tired.)

    Source date (UTC): 2013-10-08 14:18:00 UTC

  • (work) DESIGN I did, today, in between manic postings, manage to write the first

    (work) DESIGN

    I did, today, in between manic postings, manage to write the first draft of the design spec for that damned set of features I have been avoiding since last week.

    I can’t figure out how to gamify it. I will. I just haven’t done it yet. But at least it’s there.

    Bringing libertarian business philosophy into software is …. not all that easy.

    Source date (UTC): 2013-10-08 11:49:00 UTC

  • (OK. I gotta do some work now. Enough avoiding it. lol)

    (OK. I gotta do some work now. Enough avoiding it. lol)

    Source date (UTC): 2013-10-07 06:53:00 UTC

  • A YEAR IN KIEV. THANKS FOR YOUR LOVE AND SUPPORT. Just a short thank-you to all

    A YEAR IN KIEV. THANKS FOR YOUR LOVE AND SUPPORT.

    Just a short thank-you to all my friends and family, Facebook and ‘non-digital’, who have supported me over the past year while building a startup abroad. You might think little things don’t matter. But they do. They matter a great deal to me.

    About a year ago, I’d come out of surgery after being pretty sure my latest health problem would be the end of me. In that state of mind, I was crazy enough to take my friend Max’s advice on building and taking a product idea to market. And smart enough to take my friend Roman’s advice on Ukraine as a place build it. So thank very much Max, and Roman. It’s all on you. 🙂

    Aside from adapting to a new environment, which isn’t that easy for my inner aspie, I had a whole host of problems. My cash flow was only half of what I’d anticipated, so I had to finance the business out of liquidating investments rather than just cash flow. I had a very hard time finding talent largely because I can’t speak the language. And the first few people we brought in, just couldn’t do the calibre of work we needed. And it’s not like I’m willing to do something mediocre. 🙂

    In May I started upgrading the staff, and in June I expanded it considerably. And since then it’s been a completely different experience. (Thank you for the great work guys.) We have a category-killer on our hands that will make every other product look antique by comparison, and give the analysts and us something fun to talk about. We are still in the middle of it. But I love not having to make compromises. And we’re not making them. 🙂

    As for living here. Any expat goes thru cycles. Of course, I share the silly parties, and crazy stuff a bit. But that was partly my “I’m still alive” phase nine months ago. I’ve tamed since then. Despite making all the right ‘connections’ here that would allow me to live a crazy life I dont live that crazy a life. I miss my family and friends of course. I miss ‘consuming’ a bit – it’s really hard to get anything good here. I miss driving. And movies. But the state of affairs in the world, and in the states in particular, is so exasperating I feel privileged to spend it in this culture, which is as beautiful as any culture can be. Thank you Veronika for taking care of me. 🙂 Thank those of you who helped me get started: Oksana Kavetska in particular. And thank those of you who think they didn’t matter: Alesiya, Elena and Valeriya. You’ve been like my family. 🙂

    Here in Kiev, I am closer to many of my European friends. Most of whom I feel more cultural kinship with than my fellow Americans. I can’t share time with them. But knowing that they’re at least REACHABLE is something that gives me comfort every day. (Aaron, Andy, Vincent, PT, Joakim, Paul and the rest. I can’t get claim hong kong is close tho. 🙂 ) So thank all of you (you know who you are) for your friendship. And seeing you at PFS recharged my batteries. I’d have to list thirty names here so I can’t. But if I say ‘The Bad Boys’ we all know who we are. Love all of you. 🙂

    Aside from my business, personal life, and health recovery, my intellectual work has progressed exceptionally well this year. And it’s just very hard to do this kind of thing without the people who nudge me along (Frank, Skye, Roman, Troy and dozens of others who are too many to list here.) Thanks in particular for my newest friends (David in particular. Darcy and many others. Frank. I’ll never stop thanking you. I would not have done this without your patience with teaching me to speak in simple direct language over a decade ago.) As for others, If I haven’t listed you here specifically please assume that I just thought of you – cause I did. I promise. (Yes. You too.) 🙂 I have an amazing long term memory. 🙂

    In Seattle a few old friends in particular always remain supportive (Tammey, Shannon, Todd, Emily, Apryl, Greg, Peter, Jason in particular). Thank you for every kind word.

    So another year. A year I wasn’t sure I had. And it’s one of the best years of my life. And it’s one of the best years, for the reason any year stands out: because of the people near and far who you can share it with.

    If you don’t have this same feeling. Try to get it before you think your interior lights are about to go out. Every day is better. Every person you interact with is more wonderful. Every achievement more joyful. Every failure, less important. Its one of our great tragedies that we fear death when there is so little to fear. But we take the time and people in our lives for granted. The clock ticks.

    My daughter, sisters, cousins, mother, friends, PFS friends, Seattle friends, Ukraine friends. Thank you for making this year possible, and enjoyable.

    Hopefully 2014 will be even better for all of us.

    Hugs and thanks.

    Curt

    Source date (UTC): 2013-10-06 15:36:00 UTC

  • (nonsense) Ok. I have to go to work. I checked my mail. Read all the economics b

    (nonsense)

    Ok. I have to go to work. I checked my mail. Read all the economics blogs, and a few papers. Got dressed. I kissed Veronika. And now I get to go to the greatest job in the world: working for myself, with people I enjoy, on something that I love. 🙂

    he he he…. Awesome. 🙂

    Source date (UTC): 2013-10-03 03:51:00 UTC

  • ONE YEAR IN EXILE : THE EXPERIENCE OF DETOXING FROM AMERICA (Some random thought

    ONE YEAR IN EXILE : THE EXPERIENCE OF DETOXING FROM AMERICA

    (Some random thoughts after 51 weeks in Ukraine.)

    WHAT DO I MISS?

    1) Cleanliness. I miss ‘clean’. I like clean and tidy and pretty, all wrapped up in a victorian bow. Everything is dirty here. Everything. The commons is something that does not exist in though, action, or practice.

    2) Movies. I pretty much go to every movie that comes out. And for the past year I haven’t seen anything that isn’t on Amazon.

    3) “Really Well Educated People”. They don’t exist here. Russian grade school is fantastic. But that is aging out of the school system here too. Russian university education is…. weak. Extremely weak. Surprisingly so. IT’s metaphysical. I can’t put my finger on it. But you know, for every idiot in the social sciences we have in america, the people on this side of the world have an idiot in the natural sciences.

    4) Customer Service. American customer service is amazing. You can’t really shop here either. The choices are very limited. and “Doing things right.”. People sort of hack everything together. Every repair of everything is done without pride or professionalism.

    The USA is clean. And the ‘really smart people’ are actually ‘really smart’. Unfortunately everyone OTHER than the ‘really smart people’ has been failed by our indoctrinating ‘equalitarian-diversity-promoting’ education system, and that vast numbers of ignorant disillusioned self righteous, entitlement seeking morons walk the streets like not-quite-yet-zombies on the verge of changing entirely into rabid spittle-spewing animals, while the few civilized folk armor themselves in heavy german cars, gated neighborhoods and fortified homes in a desperate attempt to keep both the state and the barbarians at bay.

    WHAT DO I LOVE?

    1) The people are… really the best I have ever encountered in the world. They are gentle, sweet, helpful, kind, loving and so beautiful that I never cease to be awed by it.

    2) Men are men and women are women, and families are the most important social unit, and that turns out to be so damned awesome for everyone.

    3) You can walk through a city part at midnight and the only danger is that you’ll interrupt a couple kissing under a tree.

    4) Everyone understands how evil government is, because corruption that we in the states have institutionalized but is invisible, is very visible, and personal here.

    I don’t miss America and its internecine conflict. I don’t miss the hatred of white christian males. The inescapable narcissism. Being inundated by lame and tragic advertising. Mind numbing commercialism. I don’t miss watching my country and civilization die at the hands of the left’s war on any form of reason, or judgement that can exist.

    Those things I do miss are the few things that remain symbols of the middle class that they desperately cling to as their only symbol of self respect, while the institutional, cultural, and physical world crumbles around them.

    All they have left is their consumption, their homes and cars. Because there is no ‘we’ left. No commons. No truth and beauty. Nothing.

    Source date (UTC): 2013-09-28 11:10:00 UTC