5 ms·

Patrick McKenzie (patio11)'s Mixergy Interview

86 points by michaelfairley 16y ago

tptacek 16y ago
Some day, Patrick is going to move back to Chicago (we're the best city in the country, after all) and he's going to be doing business with people here, and he's going hear a lot of, "oh, you're that bingo guy the big crazy security guy won't stop babbling about!". I'm working hard to make that happen for him.
- patio11 16y ago
  I can't remember the context, but in the earlier version of this interview that we had to scrub due to technical issues, I mentioned "I don't intend on being 'the bingo guy' for forever." I have to knuckle down on creating the next thing though -- crikey, where did April go.
  - tptacek 16y ago
    I fully appreciate that you're going to move on, but you should appreciate what an awesome calling card "bingo guy" is.
    - patio11 16y ago
      I'm honored, humbled, and (once in a while) a wee bit scared of it.
      - paraschopra 16y ago
        Don't worry, I am sure your next initiative will be even more successful and you will be called the "whatever-you-choose-to-do" guy.
    - jlgosse 16y ago
      I wouldn't mind being called the bingo guy
    - gcheong 16y ago
      Especially if you like wearing gold chains and/or cowboy hats.
  - jacquesm 16y ago
    I've been trying very hard for the last decade to stop being 'that webcam guy' but so far without success. Diversification is a lot harder than it seems! Best of luck, I'll be following your adventures closely, maybe I can learn from you where I'm going wrong, one very big selfish reason why I hope that you will succeed ;)
- mahmud 16y ago
  In Sydney, an small marketing firm is getting sick of the bingo guy.
patio11 16y ago
If you guys have any questions, fire away.
- teej 16y ago
  I saw you mention http://whichtestwon.com http://whichtestwon.com on a different interview you did. I spent literally the whole day going through it and picking it apart. I know you frequent HN, BoS, and SeoMOZ. Do you have any other websites you'd like to share?
  - patio11 16y ago
    You're probably thinking SEOBook (where I am a moderator), although SEOMoz's blog is great and responsible for about half of my "book learning" on SEO. (SEOBook is the other half.) Most of the HN crowd probably already knows about most stuff I read, considering y'all introduce me to so much of it. Nothing really jumps out aside from those sites. Besides, at the end of the day I actually have to do stuff rather than just reading and commenting about it. :) Oh, one thing: Slideshare. If you get interested in any sort of technical topic, and you don't have infinite budget to attend conferences where people drop their secrets about it, go to Slideshare and view the slides instead. I've learned so much there is is incredible: everything the YSlow guys have said about front-end performance is solid gold, the recent Startup Lessons Learned conference was a veritable bonanza of good information (expect me to steal more ideas from it), etc etc etc.
    - iamgabeaudick 16y ago
      If you like Slideshare, you'll like Note and Point even more. It's Slideshare, but curated to keep just the best. | http://noteandpoint.com/ http://noteandpoint.com/
      - blehn 16y ago
        Note and Point seems like more of a design gallery than a place to find good content. Having to download a PDF to view a presentation is especially irritating.
AndrewWarner 16y ago
Sorry about the video. A new editor started working with me this week and we're working out the kinks.
auston 16y ago
My takeaway: http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/ http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/ is waaay better than Google Website Optimizer. Can anyone besides pat verify?
- dimarco 16y ago
  shameless plug: I launched a beta for my startup a few days ago, http://press9formoreoptions.com http://press9formoreoptions.com It's an A/B testing web app for developers and designers. Developer API, real time data, and an HTML/CSS editing test designer built because GWO is pretty lacking.
- paraschopra 16y ago
  Me, the founder :) Here are the testimonials if you need more validation: http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/testimonials.php http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/testimonials.php
goodmitton 16y ago
Two of my favorite people on the web in one place!
ryanb1_98 16y ago
I teach kindergarten and my solution to the Bingo Card Making Problem is to write the words on the board (at which time we talk about the definition, use them in sentences, etc.), then I hand out paper and have each student draw the grid and write the words down randomly (gets them comfortable with learning spelling and writing). That all takes about 5 minutes. But your solution works, too.

Some day, Patrick is going to move back to Chicago (we're the best city in the country, after all) and he's going to be doing business with people here, and he's going hear a lot of, "oh, you're that bingo guy the big crazy security guy won't stop babbling about!". I'm working hard to make that happen for him.

patio11 16y ago
I can't remember the context, but in the earlier version of this interview that we had to scrub due to technical issues, I mentioned "I don't intend on being 'the bingo guy' for forever." I have to knuckle down on creating the next thing though -- crikey, where did April go.
- tptacek 16y ago
  I fully appreciate that you're going to move on, but you should appreciate what an awesome calling card "bingo guy" is.
  - patio11 16y ago
    I'm honored, humbled, and (once in a while) a wee bit scared of it.
    - paraschopra 16y ago
      Don't worry, I am sure your next initiative will be even more successful and you will be called the "whatever-you-choose-to-do" guy.
  - jlgosse 16y ago
    I wouldn't mind being called the bingo guy
  - gcheong 16y ago
    Especially if you like wearing gold chains and/or cowboy hats.
- jacquesm 16y ago
  I've been trying very hard for the last decade to stop being 'that webcam guy' but so far without success. Diversification is a lot harder than it seems! Best of luck, I'll be following your adventures closely, maybe I can learn from you where I'm going wrong, one very big selfish reason why I hope that you will succeed ;)
mahmud 16y ago
In Sydney, an small marketing firm is getting sick of the bingo guy.

patio11 16y ago

If you guys have any questions, fire away.

teej 16y ago
I saw you mention http://whichtestwon.com http://whichtestwon.com on a different interview you did. I spent literally the whole day going through it and picking it apart. I know you frequent HN, BoS, and SeoMOZ. Do you have any other websites you'd like to share?
- patio11 16y ago
  You're probably thinking SEOBook (where I am a moderator), although SEOMoz's blog is great and responsible for about half of my "book learning" on SEO. (SEOBook is the other half.) Most of the HN crowd probably already knows about most stuff I read, considering y'all introduce me to so much of it. Nothing really jumps out aside from those sites. Besides, at the end of the day I actually have to do stuff rather than just reading and commenting about it. :) Oh, one thing: Slideshare. If you get interested in any sort of technical topic, and you don't have infinite budget to attend conferences where people drop their secrets about it, go to Slideshare and view the slides instead. I've learned so much there is is incredible: everything the YSlow guys have said about front-end performance is solid gold, the recent Startup Lessons Learned conference was a veritable bonanza of good information (expect me to steal more ideas from it), etc etc etc.
  - iamgabeaudick 16y ago
    If you like Slideshare, you'll like Note and Point even more. It's Slideshare, but curated to keep just the best. | http://noteandpoint.com/ http://noteandpoint.com/
    - blehn 16y ago
      Note and Point seems like more of a design gallery than a place to find good content. Having to download a PDF to view a presentation is especially irritating.

AndrewWarner 16y ago

Sorry about the video. A new editor started working with me this week and we're working out the kinks.

auston 16y ago

My takeaway: http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/ http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/ is waaay better than Google Website Optimizer. Can anyone besides pat verify?

dimarco 16y ago
shameless plug: I launched a beta for my startup a few days ago, http://press9formoreoptions.com http://press9formoreoptions.com It's an A/B testing web app for developers and designers. Developer API, real time data, and an HTML/CSS editing test designer built because GWO is pretty lacking.
paraschopra 16y ago
Me, the founder :) Here are the testimonials if you need more validation: http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/testimonials.php http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/testimonials.php

goodmitton 16y ago

Two of my favorite people on the web in one place!

ryanb1_98 16y ago

I teach kindergarten and my solution to the Bingo Card Making Problem is to write the words on the board (at which time we talk about the definition, use them in sentences, etc.), then I hand out paper and have each student draw the grid and write the words down randomly (gets them comfortable with learning spelling and writing). That all takes about 5 minutes. But your solution works, too.