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The room had a low red glow to it. Lights flickered across the dance floor, fluid visuals floated on a screen above, and the music blared over the speakers. My eyes were fixated on the laptop in front of me, heart racing as I searched for the next song to play. I had already stopped Read more
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It was a warm summer evening in Toronto. As I sat on the park bench I felt light headed. My stomach felt knotted and I was short of breath. I was confused. My life was derailed forever. I was 16 years old and my girlfriend had just told me she wanted to break up. For months Read more
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I despised decorative pillows. Decorative pillows, those colorful, oddly shaped pillows that seemed to adorn the beds of every hotel I’ve been to, always confused me as to their function. Every time I encountered these colorful-yet-uncomfortable pillows I wondered, “Is this a menu of pillows to select from?” “Are these special ergonomic pillows I’m not Read more
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I noticed today that I passed 500 Japanese lessons on iTalki, the platform I’ve been using to learn Japanese. Combine that with my previous lessons on Verbling, and my total lessons as of today (Jan 2019) comes to exactly 680 lessons over 2.5 years. 500 lessons seems like a lot. It’s been a slow and Read more
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The compact DJ controller I picked up this year has reminded me why I got into DJing and why I enjoyed it so much. As an old-timer DJ who swore by Technics 1200s, I wrote about my thoughts on the effect of modern DJ tech in a separate post here. A DJ mix (especially when Read more
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As of 2018, it’s been about 2 years since I started learning Japanese. I study for about an hour each day and wrote more about the process of setting goals on autopilot in a prior post. One of the most common questions I get asked is “How is your Japanese going?” How is your Japanese going? Read more
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With technology moving at such a fast pace, countless innovations and products are constantly introduced. Particularly in the tech industry, where rapid iteration is practiced widely, products can be outdated even after a year of introduction. New innovations and changing/adapting consumer tastes affect the life-cycle of a product. With so many tech products being released Read more
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In the early 2000s, while trying to make mixtapes for friends, I discovered the challenge and joy of DJing. Djing quickly became one of my biggest obsessions at the time and kicked off a decade long endeavor into hand picking and mixing songs into a musical journey of a mix. DJing was hard. Not only Read more
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Note: This post is derived from a talk I did at Amazon in Seattle. Based on some questions I received, I thought I would write further details. I also wrote about my experience in developing the talk in a different post. When I was in college, I got inspired to learn Mandarin Chinese. I decided Read more
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I recently had the opportunity to participate in a storytelling and speaking event at Amazon. The event itself was like a TED talk or Ignite talk showcase of various Amazonians and their stories. The talks ranged from the competitive world of sport cup stacking, to dealing with disorders, to ironmans for the rest of us. Read more
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Note: All posts reflect my views and opinions only Part of the fun of I had with Mason Park, the e-commerce startup we had, was the challenge of understanding the players and the market to predict where e-commerce is headed. In the past few years, there has been no shortage of news on the struggles of Read more
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On a cloudy morning in San Francisco, my co-founder and I huddled into a conference room within our work-space. We had recently finished our latest round of user feedback sessions and feature tests and were discussing what was next. On the glass walls of the conference room we were in, we sketched out everything we Read more
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Since working on our startup, Mason Park, for about a year and a half, one of the most common questions that come up is “What are your top lessons from working on a startup?” The lessons learned I’ve learned have been numerous and wide ranging – some expected (eg. you have to be resourceful), and Read more
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When designing a product, the most important goal is to match a user’s needs and wants with an elegant solution that satisfies those needs and wants. A good product satisfies the needs of a user, while a great product not only satisfies the needs of the user but goes beyond and offers such a satisfying Read more
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With Mason Park, we’re a marketplace of independent retailers that serves a consumer audience. To build our marketplace we needed to provide value to both sides – the businesses on our marketplace, as well as the consumers who would shop on our marketplace. To determine what value we could bring to sellers and buyers, we Read more
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As smartphones gain in capabilities and more and more of the planet becomes tethered to our pocket sized computers, there continues to be a lot of buzz about what’s next. Wearable tech has been discussed for years already – fitness trackers from Jawbone and Fitbit, smartwatches from Apple, Samsung, and just about everybody else (e.g. Read more
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Given all the movement from Amazon lately and through my own experience in ecommerce via Mason Park, I thought it’d be fun to try playing fortune teller a bit – Where can ecommerce be headed in 2-5 yrs? When we conceived the idea for Mason Park, we approached it with the mindset that mobile ecommerce was the Read more
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There’s no question that Amazon has, and continues to revolutionize the retail industry and beyond. While many businesses and the media focuses on fighting Amazon, or the damage that Amazon has done to traditional retail, what we’ve learned from our research and experience is that fearing and fighting Amazon is probably the wrong approach for Read more
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About a year ago, I took up boxing more seriously. While I had enjoyed boxing already, the classes I took typically were more boxing as cardio exercise and less boxing as a sport. It was a great workout and a fun way to pick up some boxing basics. And then I started sparring. Now, instead Read more
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I’ve studied some languages before – French via the Canadian school system, and Mandarin via a mix of self study audio courses and classes. However, in neither case would I claim knowledge of the language. I’ve definitely been scolded more than a few times by French and Mandarin speaking natives for not having better knowledge Read more
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The “Retail Apacolypse” continues to strike fear among retailers as more and more traditional retailers struggle or shut down. It’s possible to conclude that the future of brick and mortar is dead. I disagree. With Mason Park, an e-commerce marketplace I co-founded, we feature independent brick and mortar boutiques to help with e-commerce and discovery. Read more
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With 2017 being the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, there have been numerous articles reminiscing on the historic device. The buzz got me thinking about the other side of smartphone world – what happened to all the other smartphones not named iPhone or Galaxy? I spent much of my career in the smartphone world so Read more
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I capture some of the learning and thoughts I’ve had on the way through my experience in startups, corporate, and in life. For a more thorough intro, check the about me page. Let me know what you think. Read more
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Tim Kung 