Viewing profile — davidkatz

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This is an important point. You contribute most as a designer when you control or influence whatever is necessary to get to good design. In most cases, the largest levers of influe…

Learn the languages that best help you build the things you want to build. Programming languages are tools, and that's all they'll ever be.

Actually that can be entirely rational. When shareholders believe that management will run said assets into the ground, they value a company under book (asset) value. If I have two…

First impression: feels undifferentiated. It doesn't seem to be particularly quick on the data entry, or particularly powerful on the analysis and reporting side. Perhaps there's s…

A lot of companies don't appreciate the competitive space they're in. If you're building something that addresses a novel value proposition ("a machine that turns water into wine")…

It is. It also happens to be very good at reporting live rocket hits fast, which makes it a valuable resource regardless of their politics (which I don't agree with).

Yo's popularity entirely rides two facts: (1) it's a silly app, (2) it got a million dollars. We currently know nothing about user engagement and retention. I'd be surprised if any…

Try describing what you do instead of labelling it. "I'm building an app that helps blind folks read". Personally, I'm allergic to the word 'Entrepreneur', whenever I hear it I win…

Anyone out here that's using TapTalk and can comment on it's quality? Is it useful/fun? What makes it better than Snapchat?

I wish this was a mac app instead of a chrome extension. So many things I want to organise don't live on the web. Photos from my iPhone, screenshots I take with my mac, pieces of t…

Nate Silver discusses the Fox/Hedgehog division in his excellent "The Signal and the Noise" frequently, and he largely takes on the meaning proposed by Phillip Tetlock in his book …

Hi there. I have some experience with building user generated content communities. If you'd like to talk, feel free to email me.

Brilliant piece. Should have gotten more attention on HN.

I use MixPanel to track permissions conversions, and they're at roughly 60%. So 40% of users assume they're going to get spammed, even though they're not.

Yeah, I did that. You need to tell users to navigate several levels of their settings app, which is a pain. Most people never touch their settings are and are put off by having to …

Sure. As I mentioned elsewhere in this thread, I want to send users a "your order has shipped" notification, when an order they paid for shipped.

I understand, and that's why it's tragic. I and my audience needs to suffer because other developers abuse the system. I'm calling into question whether there is not a better way.

I think you're making generalised, quick calls because you've been burned by spam, which I get. Doesn't mean there aren't a ton of apps out there that would provide value with noti…

I don't think it's a false analogy. I didn't not try to argue that the burden is equal, just that granular control can always come with benefits. For some apps, "failing gracefully…

Author here. Of course it occurred to me, but the problem is that users often can't predict if they want notifications or not, or how critical notifications are to the product. I'l…

I'd wager to say that I do. I'll give you a concrete example. People order goods, and I want to send them a "Your order has shipped!" notification. People who paid for something wa…