Author’s Note: This was originally published on Feb 12th 2019, updated in late 2020 and most recently updated on 6th July 2021.

2016

By June 2016, I was wrapping up a small film production called “Clutch”. While it would take a bit longer for the production to come to its conclusive end, I was fixated on other ideas. This motivation to look elsewhere was probably helped along by my anticipation the project would end with me filing a lawsuit for withheld payment. Sure enough, that happened.

Evidence for Aboriginal Australians timestamps their emergence around 60,000 years ago. Despite this head-start on many other societies, Aboriginals never domesticated animals or farmed.

Animals were the non-mechanised workers that extended the reach of a worker before societies began tuning metals for tools. So important were domesticated animals, that philologists have found “wealth” to have begun as a measure of the number of cattle one owned.

This commandment of cows, ox, sheep and goat for our work marked a moment of reckoning in power hierarchies amongst animals. Since the inception of bacteria 3 billion years ago and their fateful merger…

Author’s note: My understanding is that it’s legal to recount my jury experience as there were no confidential materials shared during the proceedings. However, in the interest of protecting the parties and jurors involved, I have obfuscated some details.

Readers should also be aware the case involved a graphic description of the Complainant and Defendant having sex and I will detail what I remember in this article. I think it’s necessary to recount as much detail as possible if I’m going to publicise an honest reflection of my time on the case as a juror. …

Apparently 90% of startups fail and I think this is generally due to operational insensibility. “Co-founder infighting”, “running out of money”, “poor market penetrance” and “weak product market fit” are some of the commonly listed reasons but I think these describe symptoms and not causes.

The average age of a successful founder is ~33 years old which suggests that for most, the passing of time and most likely, the experiences that come with it, are what’s actually needed. It’s not running out of money that’s problematic, but when most people begin working on a startup, they fundamentally don’t know how…

This is one of my favourite charts. Note — it’s quite long.

Context

I’m studying electrical engineering with a major in computer engineering and neuroscience at the University of Sydney. I’m a subject away from completing my neuroscience degree and I’ve completed about 60% of my engineering degree, with the remaining subjects being electives in computer engineering. I’ve deferred the past 3 semesters (have deferred a total of 4 semesters) and with the way Streamplate has been progressing, I’ll probably drop out to focus on work. …

Last week we pitched Streamplate at Fishburners and learnt how unattractive the term “food-ordering” was to some people. They think it’s a crowded market, a space unable to change because of how well capitalised the incumbents are, and effectively a “dead” market.

So when a venture-capitalist (VC) heard the words “food-ordering”, she admitted to “switching off”. Not good for Streamplate.

We spoke a bit more to this VC and she explained there were other vectors about our idea that we should lead with. …

I’m not religious, but I do think there’s value in how religion is a vehicle for a lot of people to become spiritual. And the value of mindfulness that arises from spirituality seems to have been valued across most civilisations. From Abrahamic religions to the Indigenous beliefs in Australia and the pagan ideologies in antiquity, there’s palpable evidence that no matter the time, people have always sought more than just physical sensibility in this life.