Author: Andy Cheng

MOBA: How IceFrog’s ingenuity and Blizzard’s open source platform created a multi-million dollar gaming genre.

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Dota 2 fanart comprising some of the original Warcraft III DotA heroes: Drow Ranger, Vengeful Spirit, Night Stalker, Tidehunter, Slayer, Dragon Knight, Doom, Templar Assassin, Phantom Assassin, and Sven.

Continue reading “MOBA: How IceFrog’s ingenuity and Blizzard’s open source platform created a multi-million dollar gaming genre.”

Sailing Mexico, day 3: the “night of terror” where we almost, could have, and should have died. But didn’t.

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Cabo San Lucas rocks, the southern most point of our 1,000 mile trip.

Continue reading “Sailing Mexico, day 3: the “night of terror” where we almost, could have, and should have died. But didn’t.”

Sailing the western coast of Baja California, Mexico (Day 1).

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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

It’s about time I got to this. The 12-day, 1000 mile sailing trip in Mexico.

The trip in which we almost died… but I helped saved the day.

The trip in which we could have died a second time… but didn’t.

The trip in which pods of dolphins, possibly in the hundreds, swam with us. The trip which we landed on a barren beachhead, with zero footprints, and collected a couple hundred sand dollars the size of our hands. Where we landed on an island inhabited by 4,000 people.

And much, much more.

This is the trip that changed my life, and not in that cliche way. It transformed my worldview, perspective on traveling, and altered my risk/reward calculus.

Continue reading “Sailing the western coast of Baja California, Mexico (Day 1).”

Four lessons learned from negotiating for a $10,000 bonus.

Since last year, I’ve been conceptualizing what kind of leader I’d like to be if/when I run a company. I value reciprocity. In a perfect world, any amount given should yield an equal or greater return, within a fair amount of time.

In the real world, this is not the case. That’s where my annoying idealism comes into play, for better or worse. Below is a personal case study of some business lessons learned, including from negotiating for a $10,000 cash bonus.

Continue reading “Four lessons learned from negotiating for a $10,000 bonus.”