[HN Gopher] I did a Mixergy interview so bad they didn't even re...
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I did a Mixergy interview so bad they didn't even release it
Author : robfitz
Score : 80 points
Date : 2021-12-22 13:18 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.robfitz.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.robfitz.com)
| andybak wrote:
| Rob - if you're listening, I enjoyed reading this but I don't
| know who you are and nothing on your website neatly summarizes
| that.
|
| Google finds several people with similar names. I presume you're
| a tech entrepreuner so I guess this is you:
| https://www.crunchbase.com/person/rob-fitzpatrick
|
| Which leads me to wonder what Dexio is but the Crunchbase link
| leads to an domain squatter and according to Google it's a
| Pokemon. :-)
|
| EDIT - your twitter bio was more useful. I missed that initially.
| Still have no idea what Dexio is.
| hammock wrote:
| He's the Mom Test guy. Not sure why he makes it so hard to find
| that info. Could use a marketing intern (reply here if you want
| one)
| philovivero wrote:
| I could use a marketing intern.
| dylan604 wrote:
| If you're not cool enough to find it, you're not cool enough
| to read it. My bio page can only be found on mobile. Desktop
| users are too lame. You have to swipe up up down down left
| right on the correct page in order to find it /s
| robfitz wrote:
| The mundane answer is that there's some stuff that I worry
| about optimizing and other stuff that I don't, and this
| little personal site is the latter ;).
|
| To a lesser extent, I also didn't exactly expect this to hit
| frontpage, so I'd sort of assumed that the only people who
| would see it were people who already knew me.
|
| I'm still not sure about the answer to that, but this has at
| least prompted me to give it a proper think and decide
| whether I want to try to appeal to "the world" or just stay
| focused on my own little orbit. No idea where I'll end up,
| but it's an interesting question, and I appreciate you giving
| me the nudge to take it seriously.
| [deleted]
| robfitz wrote:
| Heya, thanks, it's a new site setup, so it's super helpful to
| hear about your experience with it -- I'll get that clarified.
| (I had nestled an about/bio link in the deep bottom-left
| sidenav, but it's admittedly very easy to overlook.) In the
| meantime, if you're still curious, the full bio thing is at:
| http://stuff.robfitz.com/about/
| andybak wrote:
| > There's a link in the deep bottom-left sidenav
|
| How did I miss that?
|
| Oh well. I suppose I'm a good test subject in that regard.
| robfitz wrote:
| The user is always right ;). I'll keep working on it.
| Thanks again.
| camillomiller wrote:
| I googled Mixergy and found out about a pretty interesting smart
| hot water tank.
|
| Edit: being downvoted for a silly joke, I get it, but it's true.
| That Mixergy is placed way better than the startuppers' little
| bubble interview website.
| froggertoaster wrote:
| I would love for the author to delve more into what made the
| interview so bad, with specific examples.
| robfitz wrote:
| It was the difference between a wikipedia article vs. a
| biography (i.e., a collection of facts vs. those same facts,
| but arranged around a narrative).
|
| A specific example came up while trying to explain my first
| company's pivots through three products (trying to figure out a
| social/UGC ad stack before Facebook did). If you looked at the
| business model, our value prop, customer segment, etc. all of
| that stayed the same. Which was the unifying thread, and which
| I can now articulate at least semi-coherently.
|
| But when I was describing it to Andrew, it came out as three
| completely unrelated products, and that we were just wildly
| changing plans without any coherent vision or direction. I
| remember that moment due to his look of profound confusion,
| where he was really trying to figure out how these three things
| I had just described were related.
| 0898 wrote:
| By the sounds of it, this happened before Andrew started doing
| "pre-interviews". Now he has one of his team members speak to the
| person to suss out their story. Andrew just just wrote a book
| about his interview process - it's called Stop Asking Questions,
| and I thoroughly recommend it. He shows you how to get
| interesting material from people, rather than platitudes like:
| "business is a marathon, not a sprint".
| robfitz wrote:
| Ya, we went in cold after just a quick email exchange, so
| you're spot on there.
|
| Still, I remember being quite struck by how authentically he
| was working to get to the heart of it and tease out some value
| from the mess I was making. It really felt like he was on my
| side, working with me, despite how difficult I was making it.
|
| I grabbed a copy of his book a couple days back (which is maybe
| what reminded me of this little anecdote) but haven't gotten
| into it yet since the pile of interesting reading is just a bit
| too deep. Very much looking forward to it though, cuz nobody
| knows it better (except maybe Oprah, I guess?)
| AndrewWarner wrote:
| That was probably my way of doing the pre-interview back then.
| Talking to the guest before we officially start.
| Zachsa999 wrote:
| Why does mixergy have a photo of Gary Vaynerchuk on the home
| page.
| bellyfullofbac wrote:
| Critique about the writing: BuzzFeed/Twitter-style 1 sentence per
| paragraph made me stop reading after the 2nd paragraph.
| zhan_eg wrote:
| @robfitz, not related to the content as I couldn't get to that on
| Firefox 95
|
| Opening the website returns:
|
| NS_ERROR_NET_INADEQUATE_SECURITY
|
| By a cursory glance, it looks like some misconfiguration
| (supporting HTTP/2, but no presenting TLS1.2 at the same time ..
| even that it looks available).
|
| SSL Labs results may help you diagnose [1]
|
| [1]
| https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=www.robfitz.c...
| neogodless wrote:
| For what it's worth, I can open the web site fine on Firefox
| 95.0.2 / Windows 10, uBlock Origin, multi-account containers.
| penetrarthur wrote:
| I was listening to a lot of Mixergy some 10 years ago and I
| really enjoyed it but for some reason stopped. I was looking for
| something to listen to couple weeks ago and after spending some
| 20 minutes to remember the name "Mixery" I listened to couple of
| his latest podcasts. It feels so different now. I think the
| general attitude of Andrew towards his guests has changed a lot.
| He is so pushy now and it feels like the episodes are more about
| him, rather than the story of the guest.
| hammock wrote:
| Same. Mixergy 10 years ago was able to hustle a lot of
| interviews with really famous/interesting people, that helped
| Mixergy get traction and grow, despite the interviews
| themselves being pretty bland.
|
| I'm sure with experience they have gotten better. Although to
| your point maybe Andrew is "bigger" than his guests now,
| changing the dynamic.
| marban wrote:
| Agreed. I'd say that happens to most podcasts or YT channels
| once professionalism, agendas and routine over excitement kicks
| in.
| d--b wrote:
| And asking for a friend - how did you fix those guts of yours?
| xxs wrote:
| I mean - alcohol is like violence... and xml. If it doesn't
| solve your problem you aint using enough.
| tailspin2019 wrote:
| Funny. Working with XML often drives me to violence and
| alcohol.
| robfitz wrote:
| I tried a bit of everything, and I did it all at the same time,
| so it's hard to pin down causation. The only thing that _had
| to_ happen was to shift my diet away from being primarily
| composed of alcohol, coffee, and tabasco. Apart from that, a
| high-end probiotic thing may well have helped, and a good chiro
| /nutritionist acted as a sort of accountability coach to keep
| me going.
|
| Also, getting serious about reining in the drinking acted as an
| anchor habit that led to a bunch of other positive lifestyle
| changes. (I still probably drink far more than almost anyone
| would consider acceptable, but it's down to a level where my
| body appears able to keep up. So still a work in progress, I
| guess, but at least my energy is back up.)
| bruceb wrote:
| Slight side note, I am surprised how Mixergy/Andrew has almost
| zero social media presence. There are no social icons on their
| site and there is no engagement with fans on Twitter (or anywhere
| else?).
|
| I wonder why this is.
| 6gvONxR4sf7o wrote:
| I'm surprised that not being on social media is a surprising
| thing to people.
| bruceb wrote:
| for a regular person sure, but for a show generally you want
| grow your audience and engage a bit with existing listeners.
| mberning wrote:
| My own narrative and the accuracy or correctness of it was
| something that I thought about frequently. Then I had a child. It
| really helped put my experiences and my actions into context. I
| now find myself thinking more about the narrative of my parents,
| and previous generations in general. I feel like I give myself
| and my parents a lot more grace than I used to.
| robfitz wrote:
| An important moment and transformation, well-described. Thanks
| for sharing it :)
| Chris2048 wrote:
| Aw, fuck. Now I want a boat.
| robfitz wrote:
| And I want you to get one ;)
|
| Sailing had always been on my "someday bucket list," but I kept
| putting it off since I could never make the time to take the
| week or two off to do the course.
|
| But once I started learning, it was so much more deeply
| satisfying than anything else in my life, that it immediately
| became a top focus. Before I'd even finished my captain's
| license, I had already hit "buy it now" on an ebay listing
| (admittedly reckless and not recommended, but I couldn't wait).
|
| That being said, boats are floating money pits (the rule of
| thumb is that you spend half the boat's price again, every
| year, in maintenance and mooring) and take a ton of upkeep, so
| I think it's only viable if it's a major piece of your life and
| you're willing to devote considerable time o it. Otherwise, it
| just sits there, losing money while accumulating chores.
|
| I sold mine during the first lockdown, but I'll absolutely get
| another someday, once I'm ready to wrap my life around it
| again.
| luckyscs wrote:
| I think the key is to get a modest sail boat like a sunfish
| similar size. The cost are way more manageable.
| robfitz wrote:
| Yeah, I looked at trailer sailers (although I wanted a
| cabin), but it wasn't really viable for the types of travel
| I wanted to do. Now that my life and location are slightly
| more predictable, a 7m with a small cabin that could go on
| a trailer would be ideal. (Although I'm sure I won't end up
| making that sensible choice.)
| datavirtue wrote:
| I literally bought a book about buying boats. I was really
| hyped about buying a boat before I read it. Still no boat
| years later.
| notahacker wrote:
| I'm reading this on board my boat, getting nice warm feelings
| of empathy about single handing long flights of locks, and then
| Rob has to go and spoil the happy thoughts by talking about
| diesel spills and sinking :D
| Peretus wrote:
| As a software developer and team lead who's worked from and
| lived on a sailboat for the last two years, I'd agree with
| others here and encourage you to give it a shot. My wife and I
| both work remotely as software developers and we've been able
| to put thousands of miles under the keel, traveling from Mobile
| Alabama, to as far north as the Chesapeake Bay with multiple
| stops in the Florida Keys and the Bahamas, all while keeping
| our full-time software engineering jobs. It's been a really
| great experience and I highly-recommend it to anyone with a
| remote role.
| chegra wrote:
| Ever been to Antigua and Barbuda?
| Peretus wrote:
| We haven't, but it's on the list! We've mostly stuck to the
| US coast and Western Caribbean, visiting the Keys, the
| Bahamas, a bit up North, and the stuff in between.
| Currently anchored in Biscayne bay (Coconut Grove), but
| will probably be headed down to the keys in a month or so.
| ahominid wrote:
| I'd love to hear about the logistics of how you do this
| because it's something I've considered trying, at least for a
| period of time. I keep running into the idea that without
| consistent, reliable Internet, not to mention the other
| niceties of productivity like a workspace and monitors, it
| simply wouldn't work for more than a few weeks.
| throw_away wrote:
| Not OP, but this couple has written a bit about working on
| tech projects while living on a sailboat:
| https://100r.co/site/working_offgrid_efficiently.html
| dugmartin wrote:
| Be forewarned. My favorite quote about boats: "they are holes
| in the water that you throw money in".
| philip1209 wrote:
| Interesting - is this a personal site built on https://circle.so?
| zapt02 wrote:
| Yes, you can see a link to Circle if you follow the privacy
| policy.
| Stevvo wrote:
| As a sailboat owner I really want to hear the story of how you
| sank the boat...
| robfitz wrote:
| It's far less dramatic than you'd hope.
|
| I left it moored up at a port along the canal for winter (when
| the canal gets too shallow to traverse), the folks who were
| supposed to be keeping an eye on it didn't, uncharacteristic
| winter storms were blowing rain and muck all over the place,
| the cockpit drains got clogged, the cockpit filled with water,
| and things went downhill from there ;)
|
| It was sitting quite happily on the shallow riverbed when I
| returned, but the inside was a swamp, and I had to tear out and
| trash the whole interior. At least it was fresh water, so the
| engine (mostly) survived.
| PragmaticPulp wrote:
| I sometimes struggle to condense my thoughts while speaking,
| which can make for some uninteresting long-winded stories if I'm
| not careful.
|
| But it does get better with deliberate practice. Knowing the
| issue is half the battle.
|
| To be candid, even this blog post was on the wordy side. I
| understand where the author was trying to go with the piece by
| the end, but it might have been more engaging if reduced to half
| the length or less. Being concise is important for making
| specific points.
| robfitz wrote:
| This is semi off-topic, but I normally write books, which I
| work pretty hard to edit down into the shortest versions of
| themselves.
|
| As a weird side-effect of that, I noticed myself starting to
| hold _all_ of my writing to that same standard, which was
| stopping me from putting out anything more off-the-cuff.
|
| So part of my motivation with this site (which is only about a
| week old) was to frame it in a way, at least for myself, where
| I felt comfortable sharing the stuff-in-progress without
| worrying too much that it wasn't a finished book.
|
| Which I guess is a long way to say that the rambliness is an
| intentional decision, since otherwise it wouldn't be doing the
| job (for me) that it was designed for. I already spend 20+
| hours a week doing fairly utilitarian writing for my books, so
| this little site needs to be something different if I hope to
| stick with it. And in an ideal world, maybe a few other people
| will happen to enjoy some bits and pieces along the way :)
| cfcosta wrote:
| More often than I admit, I think about this quote by Mark
| Twain: "I apologize for such a long letter - I didn't have time
| to write a short one." You have to think about who's going to
| hear or listen to you, it's not just about being precise and
| descriptive.
| datameta wrote:
| "Make things as simple as possible, but no simpler." -
| Einstein
|
| "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." - Da Vinci
|
| I had been exploring this idea in my codegolfing. For
| example: https://www.dwitter.net/d/15323
| loco5niner wrote:
| lol, codegolfing is the opposite of simplicity.
|
| Although to be fair, the code you linked to is much more
| readable than I had anticipated.
| AndrewWarner wrote:
| I take full responsibility for not being able to tell the story
| well back then.
|
| It's my responsibility more than it is Rob's.
|
| It was January 2012. I was still learning how to coach the story
| out of my interviewees. I've done a lot of personal work over the
| last decade to get better and better at that.
|
| I appreciate that Rob trusted me with such a vulnerable story
| back then. Rob, if you're reading this thank you.
| robfitz wrote:
| Aw, you're a star, Andrew. I really appreciate (and admire) the
| sentiment and thoughtfulness. (Although I still think that I
| dropped a bit of an unsalvageable mess on your lap!)
|
| As a side note since you're here, I'm super psyched that you've
| taken the time to share what you've learned in your new book --
| it's the next one up on my list for serious study, and I
| couldn't be more excited about it. Based on the reviews so far,
| it looks like you've written something really special and that
| I'm in for a real treat. Can't wait :)
| mmahut wrote:
| Curious, what boat model is that?
| robfitz wrote:
| Westerley Centaur 1972 bilge keel, 7.9 meters, with interior
| layout A: https://sailboatdata.com/sailboat/centaur-26-westerly
|
| Was the most popular British-made small boat of all time, and
| some of them have successfully circumnavigated.
|
| Sturdy thing with only 0.9m draft, able to ride into shallow
| waters and sit happily on its keels when the tide goes out, and
| surprisingly spacious for its length. Good boat.
| jacquesm wrote:
| Those are pretty popular on Waddenzee, because of their
| ability to just set down without falling over when the tides
| go out.
| robfitz wrote:
| Exactly. Really opens up some beautiful coastal areas to
| explore where the tides are big.
|
| It's also quite nice to know that if you happen to run into
| an unmarked sandbank, you'll only have to sit there, and
| not sit there sideways ;)
| ignoramous wrote:
| Well, that was quite something.
|
| > _The funny thing here is that I 'm 100% aware that our stories
| are wrong. Our own stories, doubly so. We back-fit narratives.
| Our minds rewrite what we remember ourselves thinking at the
| time._
|
| What are some ways to break out of this mode, and look back upon
| the timeline for what it was? robfitz wrote 'The Mom Test', so
| they must know!?
|
| > _So our stories are wrong. But they still matter._
|
| I guess cognitive dissonance is how most of us are keeping our
| world-view intact. Especially when you realise that nothing
| really matters in the grand scheme of things [1].
|
| [1] https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/4iC9Qi3y9q8
| Benjammer wrote:
| >What are some ways to break out of this mode
|
| I would guess the best answer here is to write down everything.
| Keep a journal. Write down events as soon after they happen as
| possible, write down your thoughts about the event, write down
| your emotions and connect them to the events that generate
| them.
|
| I think a somewhat decent mental model here is to think of our
| brains as write-only memory. Every time you remember something,
| your brain rewrites the memory. You, on some level, are
| experiencing the event/thought/feeling again. When you think
| about what you felt during a past event, you are mostly feeling
| your current reaction to the memory, and not as much tapping
| into past feelings as you might think.
|
| One broad example of this is what people call "type 2 fun."
| This describes events that may not produce positive emotions in
| the moment, usually some kind of hard physical
| tasks/achievements. But, looking back, these events produce
| positive emotions when remembering the event and the
| accomplishment.
| datavirtue wrote:
| Ah yes, the suffering of Krav Maga...and the joy of it being
| done and remembered.
| bckr wrote:
| > type 2 fun
|
| Great comment, and this phrase is going in my pocket.
|
| > write-only memory
|
| Could this be The Secret(tm) to transmuting base lead into
| gold? Rewriting the very memories that make up one's life.
| Benjammer wrote:
| For anyone else who isn't familiar, type 1 fun is where
| it's a fun experience and you have fun memories of it. Type
| 2 is a not-fun experience where you look back on the
| accomplishment fondly. Type 3 "fun" is a tongue-in-cheek
| description of something where you didn't have fun doing
| it, and also don't have fond memories of it.
| datavirtue wrote:
| Team building events: type 3.
| [deleted]
| beaconstudios wrote:
| Journalling. If you keep a record of your thoughts and feelings
| you can always go back and review them.
|
| I've been working on some personal issues for a little while
| now and sometimes it's hard to tell where I've made progress
| due to this exact retroactive-perspective-shifting, until I go
| back and read my journal from those earlier times and the
| contrast becomes clear.
| robfitz wrote:
| I don't have a proper answer (because it's a good and difficult
| question), but I sort of think of it as a context-dependant
| thing.
|
| E.g., During a customer interview where I'm trying to
| understand what they've done (and predict what they'll do), I
| have vanishingly low confidence in their self-predicted
| behavior. So I prefer to try to look at what they've actually
| done in the past, talk to them to understand why they did it
| that way instead of some other way, tease out the invisible
| data (like what they tried or researched but didn't continue
| with), and then come to my own conclusion about how that's all
| likely to extrapolate.
|
| But in terms of understanding and ascribing purpose to my
| experiences? Or understanding and empathizing with a friend or
| stranger? Or sending a message out into the world in a way that
| can stick and spread? In that case, it's kind of a subjective
| thing to start with, and it's all about the stories. (To
| clarify: not intentionally fanciful or fictional stories. Just
| "stories" in the sense of how we tie all these things that
| happen into something coherent and ordered.)
|
| That was kind of a non-answer, and I'm sorry I can't be more
| helpful. I only understand a very, very small number of things.
| (Three, I think, although I'm working hard on understanding the
| fourth.) Apart from those few narrow domains, I'm just fumbling
| through it like everybody else.
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