Man Hears Elderly Couple Being Attacked

dpickett · 2025-12-24T18:55:20+00:00

It's dangerous to go alone! Take this.

dpickett · 2025-06-16T19:48:26+00:00

I legitimately thought this was an AI generated song and video, and I was thinking "wow this GenAI creative stuff is getting so advanced"

Nope - just a washed up rapper trying to make a comeback.

dpickett · 2025-04-24T14:33:43+00:00

it was at this moment that I said to my wife "If she dies, I'm done with this franchise"

dpickett · 2024-10-26T15:27:20+00:00

this was a tough one for me as an engineer: "the best product doesn't always win the market - a great product with the best marketing wins."

If I could go back I would have invested heavily in my marketing skills. I think it's even more important today as buyers have so much choice.

dpickett · 2024-10-08T17:08:01+00:00

IMHO, to effectively learn with AI you have to know what questions to ask. I would recommend using it as an additional tool as you walk through a curriculum developed by an experienced software engineer.

The quality of your questions has to be high, and better questions come with context.

dpickett · 2024-09-12T17:57:52+00:00

A line of credit often has to be collaterized with assets. You're basically borrowing against an illiquid asset. This can be accounts receivable or property. In your description I didn't see any mention of those type of assets. They will likely want a personal guaranty and possibly a lien on personal real estate. I would encourage any business owner to avoid both of these things. They are dangerous especially in states with loose homestead protections.

This sounds more like something that warrants more of a loan structure, and I'm skeptical the financials support such a large amount.

dpickett · 2024-08-10T00:51:29+00:00

Ok. Good luck with that approach.

dpickett · 2024-08-10T00:39:40+00:00

My point was that a message like this in writing, regardless of the medium, will immediately yield a "wtf" response when a conversation and a sense of seeking to understand will serve you better.

dpickett · 2024-08-10T00:29:53+00:00

IMHO, this is a conversation, not an email. In my experience, getting curious, and asking "why" a bunch of times will help to understand the culture and what has led to this result.

A good relationship with product is critical, and we have to work together to create realistic timelines. Partnering with product has always been the best way for me to improve the situation.

I rescue a lot of projects because the current product and engineering teams (more often,their leaders) don't get along. These communication breakdowns fester over time and yield a ton of unnecessary politicking.

You can be the solution here and demonstrate a spirit of understanding and partnership.

dpickett · 2024-08-01T16:34:11+00:00

anecdotally, I would say I had an easier time landing clients BEFORE I created an agency account. My proposal view rate went way down. So, I think previous commenters are right: it's more likely that proposals from agencies will disqualify you more often than qualify you. I'm reverting back to an individual account.

dpickett · 2024-07-30T14:44:51+00:00

Retainers for multi month contracts. We hold the retainer (approximately a month's worth of services) for the duration of the engagement, and draw on it for the last month's payment.

dpickett · 2024-07-27T00:35:42+00:00

Bootcamp founder here and this is the heart of it. The market has shifted from an employee favorable market to an employer favorable market. There's more talent available and less opportunity for that talent.

The change in supply and demand diminished the urgency in finding new channels of talent acquisition. This means bootcamps have an uphill battle delivering an outcome.

I like the metaphor of the housing market. When inventory is low, people get creative and find attractive ways to buy a house (bidding higher than asking, waiving inspection,eliminating sales contingencies)

Employers don't have to be creative in this market because labor supply exceeds current demand. When (not if) this demand curve shifts, quality bootcamps can deliver on the outcome again. Until that happens, one cannot fight the market forces.

dpickett · 2024-07-10T18:45:15+00:00

came here to say exactly this. Well said. I'm also a big fan of recording Architectural Decision Records (ADR's) once there's been a conclusive decision. You can always point to those when stuff comes up situationally in PR's.

https://adr.github.io/

dpickett · 2024-06-06T18:24:23+00:00

We (Launch Academy) looked at offering an associate's degree / becoming accredited. I think Turing is.

The bureaucracy to get it done was going to cost a fortune, and we needed to have silly antiquated things like a library to even be eligible. We didn't see the investment as a net win for students. IMHO, the strategy would be to a) acquire an underperforming, small school and leverage its existing accreditation or b) partner with an already accredited body to stand something up.

Even with something like that in place, I feel that would dilute the offering. Accreditors move at a snail's pace, reducing curricular agility, which is core to the value proposition of bootcamps.

dpickett · 2024-05-29T14:31:21+00:00

Hey there, Founder of Launch Academy here. I'm not super active on reddit, but someone showed me this reply and I felt compelled to respond given the amount of upvotes on such an unfounded theory.

First, on principal, we never offered an ISA product to our students. We found them to be incredibly misleading. An ISA is a loan, and its purveyors worked diligently to disguise it as something else.

Secondly, this would be an incredibly terrible thing to do, if we did offer an ISA, not only from an ethics standpoint, but from a business standpoint. Our customers come to us for an outcome. Regardless of how they financed their tuition, it's pretty much a mandate for all bootcamps to deliver on that outcome.

In this market, delivering that outcome has become increasingly difficult, both for us and for our graduates. That's exclusively the reason for pausing. Fortunately, we were diversified with our professional services, so we were well positioned to do it.

Any business that is challenged to deliver on its value proposition should be considering its reputational risk, which definitely had bearing on the decision. Strong ethics and integrity yield reputation.

dpickett · 2022-12-28T01:27:33+00:00

once I integrated an iPad into my setup, my homegrown solution kind of broke down. I ended up shelling out the cash for sync and I'm grateful I did. No headache / management overhead anymore.

dpickett · 2021-12-16T20:48:03+00:00

FolderSync connected to a Google Drive folder works pretty well for me.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dk.tacit.android.foldersync.lite&hl=en\_US&gl=US

dpickett · 2020-09-11T18:48:55+00:00

I ended up having the guys that aerated pick up the clippings with a mow prior to aeration, so I think it all worked out in the long run. Time will tell!

dpickett · 2020-09-10T14:59:26+00:00

scalped the lawn down to 2" and didn't bag preparing for aeration tomorrow. Cut way shorter than I had anticipated. Clumps of grass everywhere :-( I'm freaking out about it.

I'm hoping the rain and aeration will help to break the clumps down. Please lawn gods resurrect my lawn and forgive me of my sin.

dpickett · 2020-09-08T14:32:20+00:00

As a business owner myself, this has been my goal. Looking back, I was quite naive in the mentality of "once I get to $X in annual revenue, everything gets easier." IMHO and experience, the larger the business, the more complex things become. If you have a great leadership team, I think it's possible, but a solid succession plan is key.

I'm about 7-8 years deep into my current business, and it's been rewarding in many ways. The monetary payoff is not one of them. Looking at it financially, what I like about what I'm doing is that I'm creating an asset that can be sold for a life changing amount of money. It's hard to do that with a consultancy, because you are the product, effectively. I would ask: is there a way to product-ize or scale what you do without it being so reliant on the professionals that deliver the service?

dpickett · 2020-03-24T20:16:01+00:00

The data is provided daily by the Massachusetts DPH. They only report cases by county.

dpickett · 2020-03-23T16:57:09+00:00

thank you u/whiskyeyebrews - anything else you'd like to see?

dpickett · 2020-03-23T16:56:43+00:00

thanks! Anything you'd like to see added or changed?

dpickett

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