WHY I MOVED FROM WORDPRESS TO TUMBLR

cleaner, more flexible, more easily integrated into social media platforms – the list goes on…

so you can find me here: doriandargan.tumblr.com

How to Kick Butt in 2012. (Bruce Lee Style)

When I was in high school I used to write 10 goals on a piece of paper at the beginning of each semester.

I would then put them on a prominent spot of the wall in my room, so that I would be reminded daily of what I wished to achieve. I limited them to 10 goals, because it would help me to focus on the things that were most important, and would also increase the likelihood that I would achieve them. I continued this practice into my first and second years of college, but somewhere along the way I fell out of practice.

I thought I would bring this back, in a way that is open and concrete. This transparency will help to keep me accountable, encourage me to keep pushing, and hopefully will inspire some of you to make your own goals and KICK BUTT in 2012.

Here are mine:

1. Take care of my body.
I used to be a real athlete… football, basketball, track & field and martial arts. Now I’m just a has-been. I want my body back.

2. Write 2 blog posts a month
I recently read “12 Blogging Mistakes to Avoid” by Jeff Bullas (@jeffbullas).  I’ve learned  by working on this blog, and writing for YouNow’s blog, that in order to establish myself as a writer, I must write! (Sounds simple, right?)

Consistency is key. Maybe one day I’ll be like Fred Wilson (@fredwilson) of Union Square Ventures and post every day. Until then, 2 / month is a good goal.

3. Teach myself to build a basic mobile app by the end of 2012.
This will be a hard goal to achieve, but I am determined to do it. If you’d like to help me succeed with this goal, please reach out to me!

4. Monthly check-ins with my younger sister and brothers.
I am the oldest of four. When I went away to college, I wasn’t as active in the lives of my siblings as I used to be. It’s time to change that. I want to help them to achieve the goals they have for themselves, while also validating them, their individuality, and their self-worth. Their success is my success. I love them.

5. Secure a professional mentor, and become a mentor to someone else.
I believe that giving back is important… it’s something I learned through my participation in the Ron Brown Scholar Program, (@ronbrownscholar) a scholarship organization that financially supports talented & service-oriented African-American high school students in attending college.  Everyone should have a mentor, and I hope to be one to a young hustler in need.

6. Get some new threads
I often find myself wearing a hoodie that I bought my freshman year of college… 4 YEARS AGO. Womp.

While I believe in buying what I like to call timeless “anchor pieces,” (unique and versatile items that will last me for some time), I’ve decided I need some fresh gear. Time to hit the thrift stores.

7. Finish “Learn Ruby The Hard Way” by January 31st, 2012
This goal is a corollary from my blog post “Why I am Learning to Program.” In the post I resolved that I would learn how to code as a means of developing the discipline I need to achieve many of my personal and professional goals.

If I want to complete Goal #3 by 2012, I will need to accelerate my learning… so January 31st it is. LET’S GO!

Camille Peggs, my heart

8. Love my woman in the way she deserves.
Camille, my girlfriend, has been a tremendous blessing from God in my life. She is a humble and supportive hard-worker of whom I’m very proud! She has also taught me many things… including how to be gentle, loving, kind, and especially patient. I want to be all of these things to her and more. Love you baby!

9. Strengthen my relationship with God.
God has undeniably blessed me beyond measure, especially by giving me Camille. While my relationship with Him has grown tremendously, I still need to take more time for God.

10. Return to art.
I am an artist and musician. (see my art here.) Recently most of my creative juices have been going into my work at YouNow, and taking pictures via Instagram. At the end of the day, however, I still feel creatively deprived and unfulfilled. I am a creator, and I need to create.

One of my paintings, entitled "You Are What You Eat"

What are your goals for 2012?
Let me know by commenting below, telling me in person, or writing a blog post about them!

a location-based dilemma

The other day I stumbled upon a post by Naveen Selvadurai of foursquare entitled “being in the right place at the right time.” It inspired me to write, as it helped me to connect my professional interests and my musings on the relationship between location and “destiny.”

Here’s a quote from Naveen’s post:

“No matter whether you believe in fate or free will, they both affect many paths in life: from the college we go to, to where we live, to the jobs we take and to the people we run into and with whom we become friends and lovers. but i think the most powerful of these factors is location – where we are now and where we choose to live. i think that location, more than anything else, is a powerful determinant of which path one will take in life.”
- Naveen Selvadurai

For some time now I have been reflecting on the significance of location in our everyday lives. On the micro level, I am enamored with how mobile location-based services are revolutionizing the way people interact.

I love the thrill of discovering, navigating, and sharing my adventures with the world. Mobile apps like Instagram, foursquare, Path, and Sonar delight me, as they connect me with others around the unexpectedly remarkable moments I experience from day to day. While Sonar empowers us to meet the people around us who are most socially relevant, Path and Instagram allow us to capture and coyly share intimate glimpses of our lives.

Sonar shows you how you are connected to the people around you by analyzing your Foursquare, Facebook, and Twitter networks.

Because the confluence of “occurrence” and “location” creates a unique event that will never happen again in the same manner,  it seems of utmost importance to capture special moments when and where they happen.

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My Dilemma
–

On a greater scale, location plays a big factor in who we are and who we will become. At times I wonder, “Do I need to stay in NYC long-term to pursue my startup dreams in the mobile / location space? Would I be just as well poised to do so if I moved to Austin, TX, where my girlfriend wants to move, and where I’d be closer to my family?”

Now, there’s something very special about NYC… everyone knows that. The feverish bustle, the density of consumers and businesses and the 24/7 grind that goes on here seems to be the perfect agar for my petri dish.

But my girlfriend is quickly losing interest in the fast-paced life, and both my immediate family and her family live in Texas - quite a ways from New York City.  Austin, as an alternative, is considered by many to be a tech mecca of the South, with events like SXSW, and the offices of giants such as Google, Facebook and Apple. However, despite these boons I’ve heard from various sources that Austin may be a challenging place to start certain types of companies.

Forecast is a fun and simple way for friends to share where they are going.

Rene J. Pinnell, CEO of Forecast, an Austin-based mobile startup that allows friends to share where they’re going, once told me that while Austin is very beautiful and vibrant, it may not be the best place for early-stage social media tech startups. Its cultural differences and the type of investors it attracts are a few reasons why many Austin-based startups find themselves relocating to San Francisco or NYC.

Additionally, Austin does not have the same urban density / media profile that New York does – a factor that potentially made Gowalla less competitive with foursquare. Such a spatial difference would certainly affect users’ behavioral patterns – but to a detrimental extent?

In the end, I try to trust God to help me make these types of decisions, but I can’t help but wonder the role that my location will play in my professional future. I do know, however, that while I am here, no matter how long or short this may be, I plan to take advantage of New York with the fierce urgency of now.

Can’t stop the #hustle.

why I am learning to program

After studying international development in Latin America, undergoing a number of various corporate experiences and graduating from college, I have officially launched myself into the NYC tech startup scene. Thanks to my dear friend John Exley (@johnexley), a fellow startup geek and Hashable (@hashable) intern, I am now working at YouNow (@younow), a new social platform for user-generated live video that allows users to broadcast live and curate content in a fun, game-like fashion. As Operations Manager at YouNow, I work alongside our CEO Adi Sideman, and am able to touch all non-technical parts of the business – which is to say, everything but the physical product itself. It’s a tremendous experience, and is preparing me to launch my own startup one day… but I’m missing one thing:

PROGRAMMING.

In my opinion, it is the single most significant thing holding me back from starting my own company. There are obviously many elements that go into building a successful business, but in an increasingly technological world, having negligible technical understanding will make you practically insignificant.

I recently came upon a post by Fred Wilson (@fredwilson) of Union Square Ventures which encapsulates the feelings I’ve been having pretty well. It is entitled: “Program or be Programmed.”

For some reason “Program or be Programmed” makes me think of Vladimir Putin… lol

Fred’s post takes inspiration from Douglas Rushkoff‘s latest book “Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age”, postulating that “in the emerging, highly programmed landscape ahead, [one] will either create the software or will be the software.” Didactically, and with less of an alarmist tone, Fred encourages the nontechnical to get technical.

I think this quote pretty much sums it up:

“Dennis Crowley claims to be a terrible programmer. And yet he and Naveen built the first version of Foursquare together. Their third team member was Harry and Harry’s first job was to rewrite all of Dennis’ code. Dennis is the kind of technical I’m talking about. Learn how to hack something together so that you can get people interested in your idea, your project, your startup. If you can do that, then you have a better chance of success.”
- Fred Wilson, AVC

Dennis Crowley of foursquare

Fred’s thoughts only further confirmed for me the feelings I had already been having. You see, I’m an idea guy… always have been. I’m someone who lies awake at night, feverishly excited about the possibility of creating something that can change the world. Inspiration has never been my problem, fortunately.

Unfortunately, however, inspiration in and of itself simply isn’t enough to make one’s world-changing idea a living, breathing thing. My problem is my uncertainty… I’ve always seen the value of learning new things, but because I am unsure of which path I will take, and am constantly inspired by new things, I find myself unwilling to focus on mastery, instead caught up in another whimsical dream of what could be. For this reason I have resolved to learn how to code, as a means of making my startup ideas come to life.

While the hard skills I will acquire from programming will be a tremendous catalyst to realizing my aspirations, my determination to learn how to code is much deeper than that.

It is about:

1. Discipline
Instead of being spontaneously capricious, being assiduously dedicated to accomplishing my goals.

2. Persistence
Enduring and pushing to achieve success, rather than navigating to another “possibility” of success when perceiving potential failure.

3. Conviction
Having enough certainty and self-confidence to trust myself and believe that my dreams are worthy of pursuing whole-heartedly.

4. Creating
Turning possibilities into realities.

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Apart from being a dreamer, I am also someone who is capable of great output once I put my heart and mind to something. Knowing this… I guess it’s time to just buckle down and GIT UR DUN.

On that note… I will stop writing and proceed to learn the beginnings of Ruby.

homeless.

Last night I witnessed a woman unabashedly empty her bladder on a subway platform floor. I found myself in shock when I realized she was urinating through her sweatpants. She stoically squatted in the open, disregarding the people to her left and right. And when she was finished, she measuredly rose and sauntered to rest on a subway bench. I’ve seen much worse in my life, however this was a simple reminder of how blessed I am to have a roof over my head and a place to sleep at night. The next time you find yourself complaining about your life being “so hard” or something menial… remember how fortunate you are.

nostalgic sounds of my childhood

When I was younger I underwent a variety of diverse experiences that colored my tastes but confounded my cultural self-image. During my coming of age I endured an “I’m ultra-black so I only like to do ultra-black things” phase in an attempt to find myself.

Over time I’ve been able to peel back and dismantle the repellant layers I had worn to accept things I naturally enjoyed but had trained myself to abhor. And as I developed as an artist and musician I began to appreciate almost everything for its ability to inspire and evoke meaning.

When I was very young I remember catching glimpses of the animated cartoon movie “The Hobbit”, and being captured by its enchanting storytelling. At the time I was too young to appreciate music the way I do now, however for some reason this movie and its soundtrack left an impression on me.

In the fifth grade I unknowingly came across Tolkien’s masterpiece in my school library, and read it in its entirety, later realizing that the movie I had subconsciously taken in was correlated with this amazing novel. This combination of imagery, sound and “pure imagination” left an indelible mark on my psyche – forever inspiring and simultaneously intriguing me.

Now when I hear certain types of folk music I am whisked back to my early years as an inventive and open-eyed child. To this day Gregorian chants and various string-based melodies evoke something sentimentally wistful and peaceful in my soul.

Yesterday I searched Youtube for the The Hobbit (1977) soundtrack, after not having heard it for 15 years. My heart discovered a sentiment that “sounded” just as I had once forgotten and now remembered. Overjoyed, I was immediately inspired to write this post and share the nostalgic sounds of my childhood with the world.