blog.jameswu.me
LA Hacks: Too Big to (Not) Fail?
http://blog.jameswu.me/la-hacks
James Wu is writing on the Svbtle. April 15, 2014. LA Hacks: Too Big to (Not) Fail? This post is best enjoyed while listening to the LA Hacks OST (feat. LA Hacks) by LA Hacks. I’ll be honest: I didn’t expect much out of LA Hacks. The period leading up to the event made it seem like it was floating on a bubble of pure hype, a bubble that would be sure to burst, much like the Bitcoin one. That is, of course, not to say the event was perfect far from it. But it was probably as good as it could have been.
blog.jameswu.me
Continental Swift
http://blog.jameswu.me/continental-swift
James Wu is writing on the Svbtle. June 3, 2014. How the latest Programming Language is going to change the world, cure cancer, and maybe look good on your resume. 1 year ago I would have never guessed that I could get so excited about a new programming language. There has been a lot of hype surrounding Swift, Apple’s latest Programming Language. But what really. Is it worth 20% equity? To all these questions I answer with a resoundingmaybe! A brief history of programming languages. Writing code is hard,...
blog.jameswu.me
PennApps: a postmortem
http://blog.jameswu.me/pennapps-a-postmortem
James Wu is writing on the Svbtle. February 17, 2014. Before I discuss PennApps, I should first touch upon an entirely different event: LA Hacks. An up-and-coming hackathon on the other side of the United States, LA Hacks strives to be the Next Big Thing, attracting hackers from all over the west coast to make apps with real wow factor and meet recruiters. Leaving aside the logistics of the event, they also want to have an app in the same vein as the recent MHacks. Could use to really improve attendee ex...
blog.jameswu.me
On the Commercialization of Hackathons
http://blog.jameswu.me/on-the-commercialization-of-hackathons
James Wu is writing on the Svbtle. February 22, 2014. On the Commercialization of Hackathons. I remember my first hackathon like it was yesterday. Roughly ten people, plus organizers and mentors, crammed in a single room of UCLA’s Boelter Hall. Fueled by pizza, coffee, and In-N-Out, the two teams (there were too few people to form any more) hammered out some of the worst code that has ever had the misfortune to grace the earth. But hey, it worked. Objectively, these larger hackathons Hacktech, PennApps, ...
blog.jameswu.me
Boresquare
http://blog.jameswu.me/boresquare
James Wu is writing on the Svbtle. May 27, 2014. No, really. I think it’s a legitimately good product well, used to be, anyway. But a week or two ago they made the momentous decision to split their app in two, which I’d be fine with if it retained functionality. Instead, they played into the unsettling trend of discarding old users in favor of the new. The first checkin is always the hardest. As many places as possible. Heart of the Swarm. I was unprepared for what Swarm really was. To be fair, Swarm is ...
blog.jameswu.me
That Guy
http://blog.jameswu.me/that-guy
James Wu is writing on the Svbtle. December 4, 2014. Have you ever been to a lecture for a computer science class? Well, no, it doesn’t necessarily have to be computer science, for this concept exists independent of subject. But if you have, then you know of That Guy. There is nothing wrong, of course, with asking questions. The appropriate questions can benefit the class as a whole if, for example, the professor explained something in a confusing way. Then we have the other variety of questions. The sam...
blog.jameswu.me
Turning hackathon ideas into startups
http://blog.jameswu.me/turning-hackathon-ideas-into-startups
James Wu is writing on the Svbtle. May 5, 2014. Turning hackathon ideas into startups. It’s been a few weeks since my team and I attended LA Hacks. The Hackathon of the West Coast. This is the story of how we turned a 24 hour project into the Next Big Thing. I’ll be honest it was a difficult decision. Should I really walk all the way to Pauley from my apartment? A plan of action. Today, I came across a Medium article with a list in it. And lists are cool (especially the linked variety). But let’s pre...
blog.jameswu.me
To Boldly F
http://blog.jameswu.me/to-boldly-fuck
James Wu is writing on the Svbtle. October 24, 2014. Let me tell you a story. In the 1967 movie. A man tells our main character one word: plastics. In the year of our lord two thousand and fourteen, that word is replaced by two: growth hack. In addition to being the emptiest buzzwords since the cloud, growth hacking refers for the uninitiated to helping your startup gain popularity through whatever methods necessary. What is wrong is how he chose to approach it. Take Exhibit A:. Determined to not let tha...
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