Life is about trade-offs. Trade-offs mark decision points that can have long-lasting effects on your career, your family, and your happiness.| Matt Inouye
I finally shut down a website I had been running since 2009–over 13 years.| Matt Inouye
As large platforms consolidate attention online, they are incentivized to launch new products that feed on that growing attention. Sometimes these products are a hit, and grow into their own standalone offerings that serve a unique customer need. However, most of the time they limp along, surviving on the residual traffic that is diverted their way by the core business.| Matt Inouye
Amazon is the unquestioned leader of selling stuff online. Over half of US adults are Amazon prime members.1 They are US ecommerce for many shoppers.| Matt Inouye
h/t to @sriramk for this idea.There are some product efforts that are battles of inches. The goal is to generate a tiny incremental improvement in a high-leverage system–for example, a percentage point increase in a KPI that yields millions in incremental revenue.| Matt Inouye
In the age of endless information, what if more information isn’t actually a good thing?| Matt Inouye
Reading a book is a big ask. Not only is it a large time commitment, the payoff is unknown. Sometimes it’s a big win. Occasionally it’s a waste.| Matt Inouye
There’s something sticky about the number ten-thousand. When you need to pull a large but not-impossibly large number from thin air, ten-thousand fits nicely.| Matt Inouye
Although I’ve never considered myself a writer, I set a goal in January to become better at “using my words”.| Matt Inouye
I was shuffling through some papers yesterday and came across a copy of David Foster Wallace’s Commencement Speech at Kenyon College. If it’s new to you, I think it’s well worth the 20 minutes to read or watch it. Especially this week.| Matt Inouye
I just finished David Epstein’s amazing book Range, and have been thinking about it non-stop for the past week.| Matt Inouye
When people find out I have an MBA, I’m almost always asked about it’s value.| Matt Inouye
[Originally posted on Medium]| Matt Inouye
Developing a better reading practice was a huge accomplishment for me in 2016, and I’m happy to still be going strong two years later. I ended up reading 24 books this year (vs. 21 in 2017 and 37 in 2016). I know that counting books read is a silly metric, but there’s something satisfying in seeing proof that I’m still prioritizing reading in a meaningful way.| Matt Inouye
I recently saw these tweets by Keith Rabois:| Matt Inouye
2016 was the year that I really discovered books.| Matt Inouye
If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backward 10 years later.| Matt Inouye
[Originally posted on Medium]| Matt Inouye
For much of this year I’ve been fascinated with Chinese technology companies. This first started when I saw MyIdol, a quirky Chinese app for building funny avatars, made it into the top ranks of the US app store, without being localized. In other words, an app with no English instructions, menus, or content was so compelling that everyone from Miley Cyrus to John Mayer was talking about it and using it. In the past couple of months, there has been much more interest in WeChat as a platform,...| Matt Inouye
Yesterday I saw the following sponsored ad on the reddit homepage.| Matt Inouye
Messages in iOS 8I just downloaded the iOS 8 beta and after playing around, I can’t help but feel that audio messages will be a huge deal for a lot of people. Yes it’s a feature that’s existed in many messaging apps, but I think that including it natively will really encourage strong adoption, especially where it matters a lot: when driving.| Matt Inouye
The Mega Millions jackpot just hit $309 million, and it’s great timing because March is National Problem Gambling Awareness month!| Matt Inouye
For your security, we may ask you these security questions to verify your identity.| Matt Inouye
I just received this email from Google+, informing me I can get a custom URL for my profile:| Matt Inouye
I’ve been very interested in online payment systems as of late–with the Braintree acquisition by PayPal, international expansion by Stripe, and the launch of Cash by Square, the space is definitely heating up.| Matt Inouye
I’m an active user of Google apps and I spend much of my day inside of Gmail. I grew used to having a dark navbar at the top of the screen, containing direct links to other Google services, particularly Calendar.| Matt Inouye
The more I use LinkedIn, the more I’m baffled by the way that they deceptively encourage people to pay for their premium service. Case and point: today I was researching a freelance videographer. Here’s his profile when I’m logged into my LinkedIn account:| Matt Inouye
According to Reuters, Amazon is planning on rolling out it’s grocery delivery service to several new markets: LA and SF this year and potentially up to 20 additional markets in 2014.| Matt Inouye
My friend Tito has a small biotech hardware company he’s run on the side for several years. He wanted to do a quick refresh of the website so we took a crack at a redesign and after a couple of hours of work, here are the results:| Matt Inouye
I’ve received two pieces of direct mail recently from ING DIRECT, inviting me to open an online checking account. It’s interesting to see how optimization of direct mail parallels web optimization.| Matt Inouye
Hell hath frozen over. Craigslist started testing mobile and tablet-optimized formats of their website starting last week.| Matt Inouye
How many emails do you send in day? If you use Gmail/Google Apps Mail, you can now easily find out detailed usage stats. There’s currently two methods for quickly pulling out stats: (1) Google’s Account Activity Dashboard or (2) the Gmail Meter.| Matt Inouye
Trader Joe’s knows marketing. They don’t want you to know this however. Their displays, signage, and advertising (including their kitschy “Fearless Flyer” newsletter) all convey the message that Trader Joe’s is just like the simple grocery store of yesteryear–healthy food, friendly staff, and a store that has a personality.| Matt Inouye
AvantLink is an Affiliate Marketing network–think an intermediary between merchants who want to have an affiliate program and publishers who want to make money off of their content. If you need some more context about affiliate marketing, this video may provide some further clarification. As a long-time affiliate on the AvantLink network (i.e. somehow who makes affiliate commissions through merchants working with AvantLink), I’ve grown religious in checking my stats. Thanks to an Andro...| Matt Inouye
Due to several sensational news articles in recent days (most prompted by the tragic events in Northern Japan), friends and family (read my mom) have asked me about the dangers of living so close to the coast, and particularly about the risk of a giant tsunami. I currently live a little over 2 miles from the Pacific, and wondered exactly what the possibility was that my apartment would be taken out by a giant wave. I was also tired of all the hearsay about the risks. After sitting down for...| Matt Inouye
I recently decided to move a project onto Amazon’s EC2 from a dedicated box I’ve been running for a couple of months. Although it was initially intimidating, there are a wealth of blog posts, tutorials, and guides that really hold your hand as you get used to Amazon’s setup.| Matt Inouye
Maybe it’s my love for all things organization, but well-formed URLs are just plain satisfying. Unfortunately for me, I’m revisiting an old project and my half-baked URL structure is quite the Frankenstein monster. Rehabing it hasn’t been fun, but I’ve learned a bit about what I’d like to do going forward, when I start a new project.| Matt Inouye
[Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, nor do I aspire to be one]| Matt Inouye
The personal website for Matt Inouye.| Matt Inouye