Cameesa - The Blog

A long long time ago (about 6 months ago) a good friend (Suneet Lad) asked me to write a post about ‘taking advice.’  He said “Kamil, I am sure that people offer you advice pretty often, how do you know which advice is right? and which is wrong?  how do you know which advice to take? and which to leave?”

Well, Suneet, here is that magic post that I have been meaning to write for a long time.

You are correct that we do receive a lot of advice from many people and usually it is all ‘good advice.’  Rarely, do we see anyone offering crap advice.  Receiving great advice makes our job more difficult but considering that we are actual users of the site, the first question we ask ourselves are  “does this advice make sense, and would it benefit me as a user?” Next, we ask ourselves, “what is an example of how this will help the community and solve an existing problem?”  will this make the user’s job easier?  how much benefit will this idea have to the business and/or to the site?

In addition, we ask ourselves: how long will it take to implement this?  how much value will it actually bring to the site?  These are the main question we ask ourselves.

If people offer us Crappy advice we pretty much know it right off the bat, but to tell you the truth I don’t think we have ever received bad advice for the site.

If the advice is business based and not a change to the website, and we are not sure whether it will be beneficial. then we perform some market research (broad answer) before we make any other changes.  So basically, we implement advice that will give us most quality for the least possible amount of time taken to implement.  As the 80/20 principle states that 20% of input will result in 80 % of output and results that you want.

As for the paper, or essay you had to write, you were getting advice from many people and you weren’t sure which advice to take because all of it was probably good.  You would have to ask yourself, how long will it take me to validate this information? do i agree with all of it, or is there a flaw? and if i decide to write about this advice how long will it take me and how much value will it actually provide to my paper?

I know my answers are very generic, but that’s how we do it.  Enjoy.

StatAttak presents shocking statistics from African countries such average life expectancy and other indicators of quality of life. The medium for spreading the word: the T-shirt. Profits from sales will go towards building an orphanage in Mozambique.

Today in Tampa, FL is the “Back In Black 2” T-Shirt Exhibit. It showcases original, one-color t-shirt designs by some notable digital illustrators and designers in the US and Europe. You know some of them. Heck one of them has a printed design on Cameesa. Showcased artists include Hydro74, munk one and Jimiyo. If you miss it, limited prints will be available until the end of May.

What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task.

- VIKTOR E. FRANKL, Holocaust survivor; author of Man’s Search for Meaning

   An American businessman took a vacation to a small coastal Mexican village on doctor’s orders.  Unable to sleep after an urgent phone call from the office the first morning, he walked out to the pier to clear his head.  A small boat with just one fisherman had docked, and inside the boat were several large yellowfin tuna.  The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish.
“How long did it take you to catch them?” the American asked.
“Only a little while,” the Mexican replied in surprisingly good English.
“Why don’t you stay out longer and catch more fish?” the American then asked.
“I have enough to support my family and give a few to friends,” the Mexican said as he unloaded them into a basket.
“But… What do you do with the rest of your time?”
The Mexican looked up and smiled.  “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, Julia, and stroll into the village each evening, where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos.  I have a full and busy life, senor.”
The American laughed and stood tall.  “Sir, I’m a Harvard M.B.A. and can help you.  You should spend more time fishing, and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat.  In no time, you could buy several boats with the increased haul.  Eventually, you would have a fleet of fishing boats.”
He continued, “Instead of selling your catch to a middleman, you would sell directly to the consumers, eventually opening your own cannery.  You would control the product, processing, and distribution.  You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village, of course, and move to Mexico City, then to Los Angeles, and eventually New York City, where you could run your expanding enterprise with proper management.”
The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, senor, how long will all this take?”
To which the American replied, “15-20 years. 25 tops.”
“But what then, senor?”
The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part.  When the time is right, you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich.  You would make millions.”
“Millions, senor?  Then what?”
“Then you would retire and move to a small coastal fishing village, where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, and stroll to the village in the evening where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos…”