Category: How To

How to Maximize Your Video Calls - Simplicity over Complexity

How to Maximize Your Video Calls

Tim Leave a comment

Simplicity over Complexity

TLDR: Buy the Shure MV7 USB Microphone, Neewer  LED lights, and the Logitech Brio 4K Webcam, and your video call quality will significantly improve, and you will have a simple yet reliable setup.

In today’s world, we use video calls a lot for work. But, we often don’t notice that our sound or video quality is not very good. Conversely, most think you need fancy tools for the best video calls. But that’s not always true. In fact, simple can be better than complex setups. Having a reliable and effective setup for video conferencing is often more critical. Whether you are a student attending online classes, a professional managing remote work, or someone looking to stay connected with family and friends across the globe, a seamless video-calling experience is essential. Using simple tools can make your video calls easy and less stressful. And you can save money too!

In this post, I will cover a simple video call setup where all the devices are USB and almost error-proof. When it comes to video calls, the hierarchy of importance is clear: audio, lighting, and, finally, the camera. First and foremost, investing in a quality microphone is crucial. Participants can tolerate grainy video to an extent, but poor audio quality can render a meeting unproductive and frustrating. Clear, crisp sound enables effective communication, ensuring that every word is heard and understood. Read More

Embracing Failure The Journey of a Builder and Maker

Embracing Failure: The Journey of a Builder and Maker

Tim Leave a comment

Have you ever looked at a successful founder and thought, “Wow, they must have just gotten lucky”? It’s easy to assume that someone had overnight success, but the truth is often much different. It’s also easy to use this as an excuse why you won’t build your own project. In fact, most builders and makers have many failed projects before they finally hit on the one that takes off.

These failures are often the result of years of hard work and determination, and they are just as important as the success that eventually follows. This post is inspired by Pieter Levels’ tweet on how only 4 out of hit 70+ projects ever made money, and 95% of everything he made failed.

Unfortunately, many people only see the end result and miss the years of struggle and failure that went into it. This can be discouraging, especially for those who are just starting out on their own building or making a journey. But the truth is that failure is an important part of the process, and it’s something that every successful builder or maker has experienced.

This blog post will cover the past 10+ years of my past projects. Some are still around, but most have been shut down. I’ll explore why embracing failure and learning from it is important. I’ll share why it’s important for builders to persevere through years of failure before finally achieving success. Whether you’re a seasoned builder or maker or just starting out, I hope this post will inspire you to keep pushing forward, even when things get tough. Read More

Don't Shave The Yak

Staying Focused on Your Goals

Tim Leave a comment

Have you ever been trapped in a seemingly never-ending cycle of tasks that lead to more tasks, leaving you spending hours on something completely unrelated to your original goal? If so, you’ve likely fallen into the frustrating trap of “shaving the yak.”

Writer Seth Godin coined the term “shaving the yak” to describe the frustrating experience of getting sidetracked by a series of tasks necessary to complete a larger goal. It stems from the hypothetical scenario in which you plan to wash your car, but you end up needing to shave a yak because you get sidetracked from the original goal. To wash the car, you need to fix the hose and to fix the hose, and you need to go to the store, and so on, until you’re so far removed from the original task that you forget what you were doing in the first place. Read More

Financial Security Tips

Tim Leave a comment

When I think of security, the first thing that comes to mind is hackers online. I worry about compromised passwords, credit cards, accounts, and protecting servers. I already have several best practices to stay safe online to combat digital security.

Digital Security Tips

  • Unique passwords
  • Use a password manager (1Password, Lastpass)
  • Always enable Multi-factor authentication
  • Firewalls
  • VPN
  • Up-to-date software

When it comes to physical security, I already do the standard things like locking the doors, security cameras, etc. But for the most part, I did not worry much about being robbed. A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I were hiking in the mountains. We parked in a safe parking lot for a short 2-mile hike. We were gone about an hour and returned to our car window broken and my wife’s purse and laptop stolen. We immediately called the police and credit card companies. Due to being in the mountains, cell phone service was poor, and it took a while to cancel everything. In the meantime, the thief had made it to the closest Walmart and bought over $2,000 worth of prepaid Visa cards. They were experienced and planned to get as much untraceable money before the cards were reported stolen. After countless hours on the phone with the bank, insurance, and police, I wanted to share some tips to help you in this situation. Read More