Soon it will be January, and productive people everywhere will clench their fists and declare their intentions in the largely self-defeating and demoralizing tradition of the New Years’ Resolution. Many of these resolutions, we noticed, have to do with technology—as in Hollywood’s resolution, “Destroy the internet” and everyone we know’s resolution, “Spend less time on Facebook.”
Startup founders like to Get Shit Done, we thought, and they also like to overshare. Why not ask them what their technology-related goals are, and give them the benefit of public peer pressure to help them stick to their guns?
Alice Walker Wright, GetOffMyInternets:
NO MORE DRUNK TWEETING. Which may mean I tweet once a week next year.
And no more Google/Facebook/Twitter stalking guys I have a crush on. It’s too easy to work myself up into a frenzy trying to interpret what they are posting, when obviously if a guy wanted me to know what he’s doing he would just call or email me and tell me.
Anthony De Rosa, Reuters:
My tech new year’s resolution is to try and catch up on my Instapaper more often. I find that I save a lot of stories for later and get so absorbed in Issacson’s Steve Jobs book I never get around to them. Like, I would prefer to catch up daily either on the way to work or at some point on a weeknight. I save a ton, I just forget to read them later. I used to be good about it. Books get in the way.
Matt Langer, GroupMe:
Not a resolution per se, but here’s my hackernews secret to tech zen. It’s a three-stepper! 1) discover HN 2) check HN fifteen times a day 3) realize you can ignore all the jerks on HN and your career will go on. ~ZEN~
Whitney Hess, UX designer:
My resolution every year is to use the computer less, and I’ve been sticking to it. I’m down to a few hours every other day.
Erik Hinton, New York Times:
My tech resolution is take every minute I’d spend opining about some trendy software, put them toward making something cool.
Becky Carella and Matt Goggin, Bnter:
Commit more often.
Mark Birch, angel investor:
Bust more tech startup memes.
Ben Kessler, Crowdtap:
Definitely use Codecademy more actually. I’m setting up a schedule for myself to spend time on it every night. I’d also like to get a treadmill desk but thats not going to happen either. I think I’d be laughed at all day long at the office. Could you imagine me sitting next to people walking on a treadmill?
Aaron Schildkrout:
Start a tumblr that gives an inside view into the process of building out our product for couples. As for a name—jeez, um… any ideas?
Scott Kidder, Gawker:
Less Seamlessweb, more cooking.
David Tisch, TechStars:
Hmm… resolutions…
Jay Levy, Zelkova Ventures:
Implement new systems [at] Zelkova for better deal management, investment tracking and reporting.
