jason_pomerleau

6 ms·

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by jason_pomerleau 5mo ago
I’ve found that the larger the company, the less this is a problem. At smaller orgs, it’s common for the owner or leader to have their personal identity tied up in the brand, sometimes a bit too much, which leads to hyper-involvement. As yo
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by jason_pomerleau 8mo ago
> A man paced in front of the advertisement, chanting to himself. “This . . . is . . . necessary! This . . . is . . . necessary!” On each “necessary” he swung his arms up in exaltation. Tangential, but this sounds an awful lot like Disgu
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by jason_pomerleau 9mo ago
This was a deeply moving comment, and has changed my perspective in a way that I will never forget. Thank you.
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by jason_pomerleau 11mo ago
What is it like to read fiction? Tolkien’s writing comes to mind as a good example: many passages of Lord of the Rings are detailed descriptions of the surrounding landscape. Are these types of works just not enjoyable?
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Trans-Taiga Road (2004)(jamesbayroad.com)
154 points by jason_pomerleau 1y ago|92 comments
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by jason_pomerleau 2y ago
> If they could, Disney would scan your brain to charge you a nickel every time you thought of Mickey Mouse. This reminds me of Tom Scott’s “Welcome to Life: The Singularity, Ruined by Lawyers” [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com
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by jason_pomerleau 2y ago
Yes, though they have other types too. We’ve been thrilled with ours. I’ve never done Christmas lights because I don’t do ladders, so having a permanent fixture is attractive. Plus we can use them on big holidays too. I have big reservation
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by jason_pomerleau 3y ago
Genuine question from someone on the outside watching all of this: then who are these things for? Apparently not me, nor GP, nor my mum and dad. Are we waiting until the Smart People sort out all of these complex details to make this stuff
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by jason_pomerleau 3y ago
When I was 16 years old I took a job at a travelling carnival that was in town for a long weekend. My job was to run a helicopter ride for little kids. The green button started the ride, the red button stopped it. And if it didn’t start, I
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by jason_pomerleau 3y ago
Funny side story about this publication. I worked at a company that sold a network monitoring appliance that was ‘reviewed’ by them. We found the review… surprising, prompting us to inspect the demo appliance that they’d sent back to us. Th
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by jason_pomerleau 4y ago
Some people will respond well to this - I'm one of them - but many (most?) won't. > tact is simply a form of dishonesty Maybe it is, but our primate brains tend to get very attached to our ideas and opinions. People aren't
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by jason_pomerleau 5y ago
This sounds like an instance of the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. At the end of the day, it’s still journalism.
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by jason_pomerleau 5y ago
I didn't know about this, thanks. I wonder if the origins of this version of the site go back to 9/11 - I remember specifically that CNN had to switch to a text-only website because they were getting hammered with traffic that day
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by jason_pomerleau 5y ago
I’ve often used this phenomenon to illustrate that activity is not the same as accomplishment. Movement doesn’t necessarily mean achievement.
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by jason_pomerleau 6y ago
BMI of 19 with severe sleep apnea checking in. Never woke up gasping, never struggled staying awake, but I did feel like I enjoyed the occasional afternoon nap, and my partner reported snoring. It’s worth getting checked out. I ended up goi
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by jason_pomerleau 6y ago
> Sell something that sells. Sell what other people sell because that is what sells. Agreed. I tried for ~3 years to sell ‘general development services’. Got tangled up in mobile apps, SharePoint, web development, basically anything that
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by jason_pomerleau 8y ago
As selfish as this sounds, because then it’s harder to make a clean break, because I’m still a WordPress guy and I can still help, right? I’ve learned that working with super small businesses it can be quite difficult to make money, because
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by jason_pomerleau 8y ago
Vacations haven’t been quite the same since I went solo. I have to be connected. That said, virtually all my clients are willing to wait for non-emergency stuff until I get back, so in most cases I don’t have to work a lot while I am away -
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by jason_pomerleau 8y ago
I desire freedom and autonomy above all else. You don’t generally get that at BigCo.
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by jason_pomerleau 8y ago
Insurance brokers, container shippers, various industrial markets, trucking companies, university faculties, law firms, economic development organizations, non-profits, small municipalities, biotech firms, marketing/ad agencies, constr
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by jason_pomerleau 8y ago
Depends - it ranges from 90/hr to several hundred or more. Some things aren’t priced hourly, instead I charge competitive market rates and focus on workflow/efficiency improvements for additional margin.
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by jason_pomerleau 8y ago
1) Businesses in my markets like to deal with humans. They’re not hiring a company (well, they are - I have a numbered company that is generally only of concern to the financial and legal departments) - they want to work with me. There’s no
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by jason_pomerleau 8y ago
I do both, and I’m not actually super awesome at either. It turns out to be less important than many think. My design work is professional, but isn’t going to win any awards. My dev skills are pretty good within the context of WordPress - t
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by jason_pomerleau 8y ago
1. Windsor, Ontario, Canada is where I am based and most of my clients are, though I do have customers here and there all over North America. One is based in Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Canada. Now THAT is far north. 2. Several years. F
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by jason_pomerleau 8y ago
Unfortunately no. I’m a solo operator for many reasons, and have decided that being responsible for the work of others just isn’t for me. Any referrals I do make tend to be ones where there’s a clean break, and the referral is local.
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by jason_pomerleau 8y ago
100% referrals from happy clients, or people I’ve worked with in various contexts over the years. If you do great work and manage clients properly, word gets around. A client with 20 staff - in a year, 2 or 3 of those people will be working
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by jason_pomerleau 8y ago
Depends on the opportunity. Sometimes I’ll refer them my competitors, or an agency if I think their needs are beyond what a solo operator can deliver.
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by jason_pomerleau 8y ago
Agency work is less profitable and higher hassle. They tend to want to “manage the project” and many of them do it rather poorly. My sales cycle is very short. I usually close the sale in the first meeting - or walk away knowing that a PO i
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by jason_pomerleau 8y ago
Yes, if you search my comment history (not much there, I don’t generally have much to say here), you’ll find me lamenting that lack of predictability compared to my consulting friends with 1 or 2 anchor clients. But, I believe I have a more
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by jason_pomerleau 8y ago
There is lots of opportunity out there, but it depends on what you mean by ‘small business’. Super small companies (under 10 to 15 people in this context) are usually best off with SquareSpace or Wix. Companies slightly larger than this inv

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