How Fear Can Be a Motivational Tool - Hammans Stallings

In Chapter 22 of 22 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings answers "What is Your Comfort Zone and What Do You Do to Break Free of Living in It?"  Hammans finds self awareness helps him recognize when he has fear or anxiety in his life and uses that state as a motivational instance to improve and learn.  By working through fears and learning from the experience, he puts a process in place to work through future fears that will arise.  This is Hammans Stallings' Year 2 CYF interview.  Stallings is currently a Senior Strategist at frog design.  Previously he worked in business strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens.  He earned an MBA from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia. 

Idan Cohen on Why Your Career is Not Your Life

In Chapter 1 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Boxee co-founder and head of product Idan Cohen answers "Where Do You Seek Inspiration Outside Your Career?"  Cohen challenges Erik's question, as he does not feel what he is does is a part of a "career".  Instead, he finds his family, past, present and future, and his work define his life.  This is not something linear, however, as he keeps himself open to new possibilities that plot on a timeline but not necessarily a specific career ladder.  It is less about progressing on a career and more about a life journey. 

This is Idan Cohen's Year 1 Capture Your Flag interview.  Cohen is co-founder and head of product at Boxee Inc, an online video software company.  Previous to Boxee, Cohen held telecom software innovation and developer roles at Comverse.  He was a Captain in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Geophysics and Art.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: Where do you seek inspiration outside of your career?

Idan Cohen: Okay, I think that the one important thing about this question is that I do not look at my—what I’m doing as a career. It’s just career is very, very boring. Anyone who’s—I’m sorry, I don’t wanna hurt anyone but anyone who’s, you know, focusing about his career then I don’t know—it’s okay, it’s great, but for me that’s the wrong choice because my work definitely defines my life.

I think there’s 2 things that kind of defines your life, and that’s family and the family that you’re gonna build, and work. ‘Cause at the end of the day, I can’t see myself not working, or not creating, doesn’t matter right now, so that’s why it’s not exactly working, I’m not going to work, I’m going to make things. And I choose what I’m going to make, and it’s not about career, it’s about building bigger things and better things and different things, and maybe going sideways and maybe going forward, and making steps into accomplishing more complicated tasks. But it’s definitely not about going to work, and it’s definitely not about career, the path and just, you know, thinking today I wanna be here and tomorrow— you know, today I wanna be this position and tomorrow I wanna be in that position, is that really interesting enough?

It should be about what you’re actually doing, it might be, you know, today I can accomplish this and tomorrow if I wanna build something bigger, I need to accomplish all of that. So it’s not about the title, it’s about what you make. And that’s how I look at it. I really don’t like to look at myself as going to work. I might say that day-to-day, you know, I’m at work but I’m just—I’m at life. I’m currently doing what I love doing.

Idan Cohen on Aspiring to Leave a Legacy Behind

In Chapter 2 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Boxee co-founder and head of product Idan Cohen answers "To What Do You Aspire?"  Cohen aspires to create work that will be remembered when he is gone, referencing great art and architecture, from the Pyramids to Le Corbusier, to small tombstones.  

This is Idan Cohen's Year 1 Capture Your Flag interview.  Cohen is co-founder and head of product at Boxee Inc, an online video software company.  Previous to Boxee, Cohen held telecom software innovation and developer roles at Comverse.  He was a Captain in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Geophysics and Art.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: To what do you aspire?

Idan Cohen: I think I wanna be remembered after I’m gone. I was always fascinated with architecture because I think that that’s one of the only things that really survive—like that’s one of the few things that can really survive after you’re, you know, after you’re gone. And, so you can look at it from wherever, from the pyramids to, you know, Le Corbusier, in New York, or wherever. It’s kind of like the most amazing phallic thing that you can put out there and people will never be able to kind of forget it. And in some ways—Well, it will sound really weird but like tombstones are like very small architectural leftovers of—It might sound weird, but like of small people, and then big people can just get, you know, cremated and their ashes can be spread around, but they have these massive things that are remembered after they’re gone, or at least for a few hundreds of years. So, in some ways, I think that we all want—or I hope—I don’t know, for me, I know that I want to be—I wanna leave something behind me.

Idan Cohen on Why to Measure Success by the Change You Create

In Chapter 3 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Boxee co-founder and head of product Idan Cohen answers "How Do You Define and Measure Success in What You Do?"  Cohen notes success should be measured by the delta, or incremental change, from where you start and where you want to go.  He notes this creates a great challenge for those born into privilege, who start at a much more advanced place and who have a lower penalty for failure.  To Cohen, life is far less about planning and more about measuring personal progress based on where you, as an individual, come from.   This is Idan Cohen's Year 1 CYF interview.  Cohen is co-founder and head of product at Boxee Inc, an online video software company.  Previous to Boxee, Cohen held telecom software innovation and developer roles at Comverse.  He was a Captain in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Geophysics and Art.

Transcript:  

Erik Michielsen: How do you define and measure success in what you do?

Idan Cohen: I think that success should always be measured by the delta, between where you started and where you are or where you started and where you wanna get to. It might sound a little bit weird but, you know, in some ways, I do not envy people who were born, for instance, into money, for them, it will be extremely hard to measure their success, it will not—‘cause the usual—one of the most common ways that we measure success is by wealth. And for them it will be extremely hard to kind of create even more of that, or even because—just because they had the tools then it will be very hard for them to justify what they managed to accomplish, because they started off from a very good starting point. And especially they started off from a starting point where it’s very hard to fail, or failure is not too painful. 

So I think that for most people, success is much more about the delta, so it doesn’t matter where you are, it matters where you are—where you got from to where you are. So for me, every time I try to measure myself, like 3 years ago, or 5 years ago, where was I and where am I now? I can kind of—then looking at that, where can I be in 3 years? I really try not to plan, where do I wanna be in 3 years, I have a lot of dreams, but it’s never—it’s never actually the path that I’m going to take. Because I just think that planning is useless. I think that today’s life, people try to plan a lot, and I think that something even about this, you know, this conversation, it’s about planning, and learning from people and how they got there. And I think it’s just useless. 

Develop these dreams because I think that the dreams are a very good preparation to actually being able to make these steps. I think that I dreamt for a long time to move to New York, by the time I was ready to make it, then, you know, in my guts that decision was already well – you know, kind of cooked already and ready and ripe to get done. For instance, me and Christina are dreaming of moving to the countryside at some point, you know, yes, it might happen in a few years, maybe it wouldn’t happen, but just by talking about it, and we constantly talk about it, I think we’re kind of preparing something in our guts. 

But at the end of the day, all this planning is completely useless, because there’s so many other factors that are gonna happen and change that – those decisions, so it doesn’t matter. Just try and always fantasize about a lot of things that you wanna do. And then, that will kind of guide you to where you’ll end up. That’s how I see it.

Idan Cohen on Balancing Work and Social Life Living in a Big City

In Chapter 4 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Boxee co-founder and head of product Idan Cohen answers "How Do You Make the Most of Living in the City?"  After growing up in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, Israel, Cohen lives in Tel Aviv and embraces the casual nature of connecting with friends after work.  After relocating to New York City, Cohen finds connecting with friends after work more challenging and shifts his attention to making weekend plans.  

This is Idan Cohen's Year 1 Capture Your Flag interview.  Cohen is co-founder and head of product at Boxee Inc, an online video software company.  Previous to Boxee, Cohen held telecom software innovation and developer roles at Comverse.  He was a Captain in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Geophysics and Art.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How do you make the most of living in a city?

Idan Cohen: I grew up in Israel, and for about 20 years, I grew up in the suburbs of Tel Aviv. And then for about 10 years, I lived in Tel Aviv after I got out of the army, which was great because something about the life there, people hang out very late, and people are very spontaneous, so you can easily—you come back from work, and even if it’s around 8 or 9, it’s still, you know, what are you doing? What are you doing? You know, I’m just—I’m outside of your apartment. Should I come up? Should you come down? It’s very easy. 

In New York, it’s a little bit different, so I moved to New York just over 2 years ago. And it’s much more strict, I work a lot of hours, I mean very long hours so by the time I get home, there’s not a lot of things to do and people usually start hanging out and socializing around 6 and when I get home around 8 or 9, it’s already kind of past that time. And so I find myself not doing a lot of things, so I don’t take advantage of the city in that perspective. 

Weekends are definitely a great way and a great time for me to do that, and I try and do that mostly on the weekends, so I just—I usually just go around wherever my, you know, wherever I find myself, I just walk around. That’s the thing for me, but I, you know, living in New York which is the cultural kind of mecca of the world, and I still—I don’t feel that I see enough, you know, I go to enough museums and see enough exhibitions or access enough music, or whatever. I need to do that more. But that’s—if it was a, you know, if I could, I would just do that, all the time. 

Idan Cohen on the Reality of Managing Long Distance Relationships

In Chapter 5 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Boxee co-founder and head of product Idan Cohen answers "How Are You Learning to Better Manage Long Distance Relationships?"  As a New Yorker with many family and friends overseas in Israel, Cohen talks about his approach to maintaining relationships virtually and in-person as well as the sacrifices that sometimes come with moving away from friends. 

This is Idan Cohen's Year 1 Capture Your Flag interview.  Cohen is co-founder and head of product at Boxee Inc, an online video software company.  Previous to Boxee, Cohen held telecom software innovation and developer roles at Comverse.  He was a Captain in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Geophysics and Art.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How are you learning to better manage long distance relationships?

Idan Cohen: So my long distance relationships are probably my family and my friends that are in Israel and I have a lot of them. And they’re all very close to me. What I do learn is that actually for me it doesn’t really work. I mean I’m here, I’m in my day-to-day life, and it’s very hard to stay in touch. I stay in touch with very few people on a daily basis, and I don’t think we share a lot of the day-to-day lives that we have. We try and stay in touch frequently on the phone and kind of just get a little bit updated – anything kind of like each other’s mood and what’s happening much more in a broader perspective.

And then I think that the relationships that I have are deep enough and close enough that even a visit or meeting every 6 months or a year can revitalize the relationship enough to kind of make it still relevant. I don’t think that long distance relationships work, so it’s about being able to revisit them every so often or otherwise they’re gonna get lost and that’s also okay, I think, you know, we have, we acquire new family and new friends, and it’s okay to understand that some friends will—might be left behind, doesn’t mean that you don’t love them but it’s just you’re in a little bit of a different place and they’re going in a different route and that’s the way it is.

Idan Cohen on How Photography Hobby Teaches Point of View

In Chapter 6 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Boxee co-founder and head of product Idan Cohen answers "What Role Does Photography Play in Your Life?"  Cohen begins by providing background on early photography experiences at school and with his father.  Even then, his photos were about his surroundings and random people.  Many years later while studying art and photography at university, Cohen finds value capturing memories and moments as trophies in the same ways hunters covet and display their kills. 

This is Idan Cohen's Year 1 Capture Your Flag interview.  Cohen is co-founder and head of product at Boxee Inc, an online video software company.  Previous to Boxee, Cohen held telecom software innovation and developer roles at Comverse.  He was a Captain in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Geophysics and Art.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: What role does photography play in your life?

Idan Cohen: I was never really into photography, my father really loved photography and like I remember myself, so 1st grade, we went on the first kind of field trip with our class and he gave me one of his old cameras with a roll of film, and it’s funny, I still have that roll of film, and it’s very weird the photos that I took at that field trip. And I remember that I got back, and I think that my mother looked at those photos or my brother, it wasn’t my father, like my mother or my brother, and they said, this is completely useless. 

But then I look at it now, and it’s not useless at all, it’s like exactly what I was interested in, and it was—a lot of it was about people, other people, so it’s really weird because it’s this roll of film that’s just random people that was around me, it wasn’t even my classmates, it was just—it was in the zoo and it was people that were in the zoo. It was very weird. And then, about 20 years later, I was going—I was in university and I was studying art and I took this photography class, and I got a camera and I started getting back into it. 

It was a very active—it was photography history but for me, that was enough, I never learned technically how to take photos. So for me, photography is about coveting images, it’s about being really greedy with what I see around me and wanting to just have it for myself. So if I see an image that I like, I wanna have that. And it’s a way for me to freeze time, if it’s a beautiful girl, if it’s a beautiful situation, if it’s a kid that’s doing something that I’m excited about, if it’s just an ironic situation, I just wanna have that. 

And so I see it very much like the modern—that’s the modern version of hunters. Because, you know, hunters would go and they coveted these animals to put them on their walls as trophies, and for me, that’s these trophies of what I see with my eyes. And that’s how I see photography.

Idan Cohen on 3 Reasons to Travel Somewhere New

In Chapter 7 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Boxee co-founder and head of product Idan Cohen answers "What Have You Found Most Rewarding About Traveling to New Places?"  Cohen first notes the importance of overcoming fear and acclimating to and learning to appreciate a new place.  Secondly, he notes the reward that exploring a new place or city presents and finding the expected as well as the unexpected, in particular local secrets.  Thirdly, he finds fulfillment meeting new people along the journey. 

This is Idan Cohen's Year 1 Capture Your Flag interview.  Cohen is co-founder and head of product at Boxee Inc, an online video software company.  Previous to Boxee, Cohen held telecom software innovation and developer roles at Comverse.  He was a Captain in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Geophysics and Art.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: What have you found most rewarding about traveling to new places?

Idan Cohen: I think that it’s composed of 3 things. 

So first of all, overcoming fears, a lot of times when I get to new places, I don’t like investing in research before I go there. I kind of really like discovering by myself. But it always brings some kind of an uncertainty when you get there. Like I remember when I visited New York for the first time, I was terrified. I came back—actually I was there for 2 weeks for the first time I was there, when I was 18. And I came back and I said, I don’t like that city. I just—It’s too big. It’s too noisy. It’s too busy. I was afraid. Like I got there, it was the mid-‘90s. People told me, put your wallet in front pocket, you don’t—you don’t wanna be careful from this area, you wanna be careful from that area. And then, you know, few years later, I was there again, and again, and again, and again, and I just fell in love. And I’ve seen that happen in a lot of other places. I just get there and I have this fear, because I don’t know enough. But then as you get comfortable, that fear goes away. 

A second part is actually the part of exploring. So not researching before, just being able to walk in the streets and find it by yourself. And every time I find that I actually probably once I’ve been to a new place, and then I talk to other people maybe then I see that I’ve found—probably half of the things that I’ve found are the most common probably, you know, run of like exactly what you were supposed to find as someone, a tourist or someone visiting a new place. But then the other half is just things that I stumbled upon. Which are these little secrets of the locals, which I think that a lot of times when you do research before you won’t find. 

And then the third part is obviously socially just meeting new people wherever you are, just interacting with the waiter in the restaurant, you know, with the barman, bartender, with the guy on the street that helps you find something. That’s the most interesting part.

Idan Cohen on Developing a Passion for Building Products

In Chapter 8 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Boxee co-founder and head of product Idan Cohen answers "What is the Source of Your Passion for Building Things?"  Cohen references his joy creating beautiful products or useful devices.  He appreciates a holistic product design process and compares it to the 20th century Golden Age of furniture design. 

This is Idan Cohen's Year 1 Capture Your Flag interview.  Cohen is co-founder and head of product at Boxee Inc, an online video software company.  Previous to Boxee, Cohen held telecom software innovation and developer roles at Comverse.  He was a Captain in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Geophysics and Art.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: What is the source of your passion for building things?

Idan Cohen: It’s basically creating beautiful useful devices or products that are also—I put a lot of emphasis to how the process—what is the process like. A lot of things can look very nice from, you know, from outside or from the surface, like I really appreciate for instance, Apple for actually engineering the inside of their computers, and making them look beautiful. 

It’s magnificent when you open, like the Mac mini which is probably the most negligent product Apple is doing, but it has this beautiful thing that when you open it and when you look inside it’s just beautifully laid out, and I’m sure that they have actual people that are in charge of making that look nice, so for me, it’s all about the whole process being, you know, holistic and very aesthetically pleasing. So at the end of the process, it’s about creating something that’s functional but you really enjoy the process. 

So I like working with materials, software is somewhat of a material designed in a lot of—you know, that’s pretty great how the last 5 years were not about the actual technology, but much more about the user experience and the design, because I think that the design is much more coming closer to kind of like the golden age of furniture probably in around like, you know, the previous century, which was much more creating beautiful things, and putting an emphasis on materials. So it’s somewhere between these—and that’s what I’m attracted to, I really, really—it’s not about software, it’s not about internet, it’s about products.

Idan Cohen on How Family Supports Creative Childhood Passions

In Chapter 9 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Boxee co-founder and head of product Idan Cohen answers "Where Has Your Family Been Most Supportive in Your Career Development?"  Cohen notes a common challenge in present day that his family does not understand his entrepreneurial product work; however, he shares experiences from his formative years where his parents encouraged Cohen to learn to use tools and pursue his passion for building and making objects.  This is Idan Cohen's Year 1 CYF interview.  Cohen is co-founder and head of product at Boxee Inc, an online video software company.  Previous to Boxee, Cohen held telecom software innovation and developer roles at Comverse.  He was a Captain in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Geophysics and Art.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: Where has your family been most supportive in your career development?

Idan Cohen: That’s a good question ‘cause I don’t think they understand what I do.  Maybe when I was writing more code then they could understand, I don’t think they did really always understand what products that were, you know, the result of that code, these days, I think that they don’t even understand, you know, what’s my role and kind of like how do I make things happen, and it’s a little bit sad, actually that they don’t understand that, ‘cause a lot of—I think that for a lot of people, what they do has a lot to do with kind of getting appreciation and getting the pride from their family. It has a lot to do with that.

So I kind of—it makes me a little bit sad that they don’t understand that. But on the other hand, I think that my family always pushed me to be a creator and a maker. So when I wanted a computer, when I was 6, my mother sent me to a summer camp to learn programming, and I got the computer only after that—those 2 months of learning how to write code. ‘Cause for her, you know, you—sure, this is a tool, you need to first learn how to use a tool and then you can do something with it. When I was about 10, then I went—in the steps of my brother, I went to an aero-modeling club, which is a very geeky thing, and we built model airplanes out of like wood and then more and more actually advanced technologies.

And that was for me great, it was working with my hands, for me, the way that I work with like an exact-o knife or you know, with just a—my ability to work with a knife is parallel to just—it’s like the extension my hand, and I think it’s just because this muscle memory of for years, just working with a knife and cutting things. And it’s so important to just get kids I think to create things and learn how to use tools, as a 12-year-old or 14-year-old I think, I started using a lathe to create metal pieces and for 5 years I was working part-time with someone just as an apprentice to learn how to work with metals. And for me, that was so important because today I see anything and I can—just I can know how it was machined and I can imagine how I can create something like that or I can aspire to create something like that.

And I think that’s—that was very important, so my family maybe doesn’t understand what I’m doing now but they definitely had a huge part in getting me there by just all the time giving me these tools of, you know, learn how to make things. And then you’ll get there, you’ll be able to create products or—and it’s so much more important than just being an accountant I think. Just being able to create physical objects.

Idan Cohen on How the Army Teaches High Tech Job Skills

In Chapter 10 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Boxee co-founder and head of product Idan Cohen answers "How Has Your Military Training Been Most Useful in Developing Your Career?"  Cohen shares how he is recruited into the Israeli Army to help build reconnaissance satellites.  He learns physics and programming working with a senior team and, after transitioning into intelligence, learns life skills by managing teams. 

This is Idan Cohen's Year 1 Capture Your Flag interview.  Cohen is co-founder and head of product at Boxee Inc, an online video software company.  Previous to Boxee, Cohen held telecom software innovation and developer roles at Comverse.  He was a Captain in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Geophysics and Art.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How has your military training been most useful in developing your career?

Idan Cohen:  First of all, it was very important part of my career today because I went into the army and I was recruited to this very small group of kids, extremely smart and extremely weird, everyone else were smart, I was the only—I was probably the odd guy out. It was 6 girls and 2 guys, 2 boys and we were actually building the reconnaissance satellite, the Israeli Army’s reconnaissance satellite, which was just amazing like up to that point, there were engineers probably in their 40’s and 50’s, some of them from the Russian military industry and some of them actually were in NASA before and they were the ones building that satellite and then they decided that—actually maybe 18-year-olds with the right, you know, with the right guidance can do that as well, at least they can write code where needed and, you know, they can be guided into it. 

And they took us and for 6 months they taught us physics, which up to that point I didn’t know anything about physics, I didn’t learn that in high school, and they taught us how to write code, and we were writing kind of code for the satellite itself and code for the ground station. 

And that was extremely interesting, just being in this—in the company of these 40 and 50-year-olds, which were building something huge. And we were just these—a group of 8 and then the next generation was another 8 so we’re kind of 15 kids—it was really 15 kids with about 50—with about a group of 50 50-year-olds, all working on the same thing which was this huge thing that was costing millions and was going to go out in space. It was extremely interesting and for me that definitely got me into software much more ‘cause I had a few years in high school where I wasn’t really writing any code. And it was suddenly brought me back to an interest in actually creating software and how that can be—how can that bring me to create important things. 

And then later I went and I was an officer and I had another 2 years where I was actually doing much more of kind of like intelligence work which was also very interesting because it will suddenly being in charge of other people for the first time, so as a 20-year-old managing, you know, 10 or 15 other 18-year-olds and being their commander and taking care of their needs, and I think that there’s something—the most important thing about the army in Israel which is very different—it’s not—I’m not sure if I would like my kids to go there, or it will be a choice that they could make, but I think that what makes it so important in our people who come out of Israel, in our education and upbringing compared to people for instance who go to college, is just you get a lot of responsibility, as an 18-year-old, it’s not about, you know, someone’s paying for your college, and you can choose if you wanna study or you wanna drink your way through it, here it’s just—yes, you have to do that, but there’s a lot of responsibility with it, and if you’ll take that seriously, you can actually also maybe get, you know, some—you can get some skills and you can get experience, and it can help you for life. And I think that makes it very interesting, so that’s kind of what I came out with, like skills and experience for life.

How to Choose a College Major You Can Use All Your Life

In Chapter 11 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Boxee co-founder and head of product Idan Cohen answers "How Did You Choose What to Study at College and How Has It Remained Relevant as You Have Gotten Older?"  Cohen references his time at Tel Aviv University and his shift in studies from computer science (CS) to physics and art history.  He takes a physics class and loves it.  As the math gets more complex, Cohen complements the physics classes with art, photography, music and architecture classes.  He finds apprenticeship or on the job learning the best ways to learn techical skills and recommends using the college experience to build useful day to day life skills and tools. 

This is Idan Cohen's Year 1 Capture Your Flag interview.  Cohen is co-founder and head of product at Boxee Inc, an online video software company.  Previous to Boxee, Cohen held telecom software innovation and developer roles at Comverse.  He was a Captain in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Geophysics and Art.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How did you choose what to study at college and how has it remained relevant as you’ve gotten older?

Idan Cohen: So I chose to study physics and art history, and I got there in a pretty weird way, because I started off—I started off studying—I did one semester in CS, in Computer Science, and I just—I already knew how to program and it was a lot of math, and it was just like very theoretical programming, and I was just not interested and disengaged, and then I said, okay, I’ll switch to—I actually did a semester in chemistry, and I said, okay, this is also interesting but then I saw that actually what’s interesting for me is physics, then I did a semester in physics and I said, this is great. I enjoy it. It’s a little bit of like a manual for universe, you suddenly understand how things work, from very big things to very small things, to just this thing moving on the table and friction between the table and whatever, and gravity, I loved it. 

But I needed something a little bit more for the soul and as I saw the math getting more complex, I took art history in addition, and that was great because suddenly I was in the university, I was going to these very, you know, technical theoretical math and physics classes but then going and studying about art and photography and music and architecture, and it was awesome. 

Looking back at it, then I think it’s all just tools for life, and I think that that’s what most people should look at when they’re going to college, if you are going to go to college, I believe a lot in just apprenticeship, you know, a little bit like, we—like the path that I took, I mean going for instance into the army then having someone to learn from, how to code, or how to, you know, whatever we did there just—but someone that works with you, so you don’t need all of the theoretical knowledge but someone will help you get into it, and I really believe in that, just learning on the job. 

And on the other hand, there’s very few real professions that you can come out of academia with, so, you know, if you wanna be a medical doctor, probably you need to go there, although, as well, by the way, they learn a lot of theory and then they learn a lot on the job. If you wanna be an accountant or a lawyer, probably you need to go there ‘cause there’s a lot of theoretical material that you should learn. But then there’s so many things that just have nothing to do with sitting in class and studying. 

So if you are going to go there, just make sure you’re gonna study something that is very broad, very shallow, but is gonna give you tools—thinking tools that you can apply later in life. So from, you know, just understanding history or how things were made, and why, and being able to appreciate a work of art or, you know, physics, and just even though I probably forgot a lot of what I studied, and just being able to look at things and understand better how the—you know, what they’re made out of, and how exactly they function, I think that’s great, it’s just—it’s really useful day-to-day tools, and I wish that people would focus more about that. 

I think that when they go to college, they are so obsessed with what they’re gonna do in life, and we’re so privileged compared to our parents for instance, that probably we’re gonna—every 10 years, we’re gonna change what we’re doing, like there’s something about today’s environment that just allows us to do that, so don’t focus on that, just focus on what theoretical knowledge you can obtain now that will serve you through life, and not necessarily through the next 10 years.

Idan Cohen on How Critical Thinking Improves Product Design

In Chapter 12 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Boxee co-founder and head of product Idan Cohen answers "What Have Your Experiences Taught You About What Makes a Product Great?"  Cohen talks about the satisfaction that comes from playing with things in everyday life.  He references the importance of critical thinking in the problem solving and design process.  He emphasizes the importance, whether it is with an object or a person, of linking the criticism to a positive development pathway or objective. 

This is Idan Cohen's Year 1 Capture Your Flag interview.  Cohen is co-founder and head of product at Boxee Inc, an online video software company.  Previous to Boxee, Cohen held telecom software innovation and developer roles at Comverse.  He was a Captain in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Geophysics and Art.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: What have your experiences taught you about what makes a product great?

Idan Cohen: I think that it’s just day-to-day life, when, you know, all day we play with things, and it’s just the feeling and, you know, it’s the frustration that we get through playing with them, or it’s the satisfaction we have after playing with them because they were so convenient or so simple or so beautiful, or so—I don’t know if I had specific experiences that helped me understand that better, but I think that we should all—it’s kind of like—I think that also it’s either you have it or not. There’s people who just get frustrated with things but don’t understand that it’s frustrating them and don’t understand—and don’t think all the time how can they fix that, and there’s these people who eventually end up making things with just, you know—they see the problems all the time, they’re very critical which is a good and bad character to have. 

It’s a little bit tiring to be very critical all the time. And I can be that but then that also teaches you, you know, every time you criticize something, just make sure you also think how can I do that better. And also when you—even if it’s about people and what they do, then if you criticize, just make sure to also figure out with them how that can be improved.

Idan Cohen on How to Be a Highly Valued Computer Programmer

In Chapter 13 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Boxee co-founder and head of product Idan Cohen answers "What Separates a Good Programmer from a Great One?"  Cohen looks back on his own experience writing code as well as what he has learned managing programming teams.  He finds two paths computer programmers may take to be valuable to their groups.  The first is working quickly to iterate, produce, and iterate.  This is especially useful on front end design.  The second is a more reasoned approach that is built on efficiency.  He finds this more relevant to back end coding and design. 

This is Idan Cohen's Year 1 Capture Your Flag interview.  Cohen is co-founder and head of product at Boxee Inc, an online video software company.  Previous to Boxee, Cohen held telecom software innovation and developer roles at Comverse.  He was a Captain in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Geophysics and Art.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: What separates a good programmer from a great one?

Idan Cohen: I’m a very bad programmer, but I—And I haven’t been writing code for a few years, but when I was writing code, and the best thing about it was that I could do it very fast, and I could—like really, really fast, horrible, horrible code, but just make something work. And I think that that’s a very important character in a programmer, so either you can weep out things very fast, and make them work in some way and then a little bit have someone else, you know, delve into it and just make it work better, and, you know, work the right way maybe, from the back but just making sure that you can do it at the front end, and the—much more creating the experience as fast as possible ‘cause that helps people understand what you’re making. 

Then on the other hand, there’s people that can really dive into it and understand how it works in the back end, and how it should work, and what’s the right way and what’s the efficient way which I definitely don’t know anything about, because I was never really interested in. So I guess it’s hard for me to judge exactly how that should be made, I think that there’s more technical people that can say that, you know, could answer to that. 

But I think that these are 2 things that are important, so even if you’re not a good programmer, if you can weep out functional things very fast, it’s still a huge advantage, I think there’s people who just dive into details too soon, and—not the wrong details, the back end, not the front end functional details, the back end  functional details and that’s sometimes not the right thing to do.

Startup Advice on Using Venture Capital

In Chapter 14 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Boxee co-founder and head of product Idan Cohen answers "What is the Role of Venture Capital in Building a Company?"  Cohen shares its relevance as a tool to build things that might not have financial viability from day one.  He notes when it is useful in building products that later can be sold and when it is not a good idea.  Cohen shares concern around success being measured by raising venture capital, rather than creating a successful, profitable company.  He goes on to discuss different markets and technologies outside the Internet domain that would benefit from disruptive innovation and what variation of fundraising or venture tools could be applied there. 

This is Idan Cohen's Year 1 Capture Your Flag interview.  Cohen is co-founder and head of product at Boxee Inc, an online video software company.  Previous to Boxee, Cohen held telecom software innovation and developer roles at Comverse.  He was a Captain in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Geophysics and Art.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: What’s the role of venture capital in building a company?

Idan Cohen: It’s a tool that was put in place to allow us to actually build things that might not have, you know, financial and business viability from day one. And, so that’s great. It’s an awesome thing, the fact that there’s a mechanism out there where you can, you know, someone can put faith in you because he thinks you have a good vision and an idea and a theme. And he can let you—he can give you that lay to go and build it, for a while, before you need to commit to any real business, because, you know, he understands that it will take time to build the product that you later can sell or you later can monetize but at this point, you can just start out of the blue and make it happen, or maybe there’s a learning process in that product that you need to achieve and you’re not gonna be able to pinpoint the right answer exactly from day one, and it will take a process and he’s willing to be patient with that. So that’s great.

I think that if you look at it, for instance, definitely today, then on one hand, a lot of people measure success by being able to raise venture capital and that’s extremely wrong, in my opinion, it’s just it’s becoming this competition or—people are getting so much credit for being able to raise money, being able to raise money shouldn’t be a lot of—shouldn’t get you a lot of credit. It means that someone out there believed in your vision, it’s great. There’s so many other ideas out there and maybe someone believed in your team and that’s even more important sometimes, or most of the time, but at the end of the day, your ability to deliver on the product and the business is much more important than actually being able to raise money.

I really wish that there were these tools also for other types of businesses, if someone wants to put together a restaurant, there’s no need for him to struggle and definitely in today’s economy, not being able to bring together a quarter of a million dollars to open that restaurant, yes, the numbers are not the same as the internet industry, it’s not gonna explode, it’s not gonna grow as a hockey stick and you’re not gonna be able to monetize it in the millions. But there should be better tools for other types of businesses to get built and established. So I wish that more people would take these tools that maybe—or some variation of them that were invented for venture capital, as we know it today for technology world. And apply it for other types of businesses.

Today we look at venture capital as tightly coupled with technology. Venture capital should be much more tightly coupled with entrepreneurship. So just someone having a good idea and having a good vision and being able to build a good team and go out and build a business, so I love the fact that there’s now, you know, for instance, Elon Musk doing space acts, this is awesome, yes, you know, yeah, it might be a business—a huge business in the billions of dollars just because of the cost of sending rockets into space, but still just someone being able to go out and do that, and I don’t know if he would’ve able if he wasn’t Elon Musk and didn’t have billions himself. But still, just the fact that I think these businesses are starting to see, you know, it’s not pure technology, it’s not internet, it’s not gonna acquire million of users, no, it needs probably like 10 actually that are gonna pay for these missiles. But it’s still gonna work. Same for cars, you know, if it’s from like Tesla or something like that. Just—I would love to see many more people supporting these kind of businesses. Just—or cameras, you know, why is the camera market not ready for disruption? Like why can’t someone build a better camera than what Canon and Nikon has been doing for—Nikon has been doing for 50 years I’m sure someone can. So for instance, now with those Lytro that came from a little bit of a different angle – I would like to see many more businesses like that. 

Idan Cohen on Finding Personal Best by Working in Small Teams

In Chapter 15 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Boxee co-founder and head of product Idan Cohen answers "When Are You At Your Best?"  Cohen finds his personal best around people, enjoying brainstorming sessions and conversations with small teams.  He notes the challenges he has working alone and how 2-4 person conversations increase his productivity and the results he can bring to a group. 

This is Idan Cohen's Year 1 Capture Your Flag interview.  Cohen is co-founder and head of product at Boxee Inc, an online video software company.  Previous to Boxee, Cohen held telecom software innovation and developer roles at Comverse.  He was a Captain in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Geophysics and Art.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: When are you at your best?

Idan Cohen: With people. I’m very social. And I enjoy just very good conversations and very good brainstorming sessions. So I think that, for me, it’s very important to have – not a too big of a team, but a small team that can just iterate very fast on ideas, and that’s when I see the best results from myself. By myself, it’s very hard for me to concentrate. 

I think like a lot of people I have, you know, an undiagnosed ADHD or something. So I’m just jumping all over, even with people, I’m jumping all over, but it’s just something about like a 3 or 4—like a conversation between 2 or 4 people, just makes it much more productive for me. 

How to Apply Corporate Work Experience in an Entrepreneur Job Role

In Chapter 16 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Boxee co-founder and head of product Idan Cohen answers "What Skills Did You Learn Working in a Corporation That You Have Applied Building Your Own Company?"  Cohen finds the corporate experience especially useful after his startup grows to nearly 50 employees.  He learns about what motivates different employees who come in at different stages of the company's growth. 

This is Idan Cohen's Year 1 Capture Your Flag interview.  Cohen is co-founder and head of product at Boxee Inc, an online video software company.  Previous to Boxee, Cohen held telecom software innovation and developer roles at Comverse.  He was a Captain in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Geophysics and Art.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: What skills did you learn working in a corporation that you’ve applied building your own company?

Idan Cohen: Mainly when you’re coming out of a corporation, you’re aware of the things that you don’t wanna apply to your own company. So at the beginning it’s all, you know, it’s all roses and it’s a very small team, you’re all working together but as it grows a little bit bigger, you know, not everyone is as committed as you are to the company, not everyone is working 14 hours a day or 12 hours a day, and it’s under—you know, it’s totally understood and that’s kind of the things that you see in corporate. So I think that coming out, you’re very burned by people not really moving and no one really wanting or having any real interest in changing things, and so you’re very excited about how a small company at start up—can move very fast and be so much more interesting and dynamic.

But then I think at least you understand how—what to expect of people, and what not to be disappointed about, and how you can motivate them the right way, because it’s still a smaller company, I don’t know how to build a thousand—you know, actually I haven’t built 100-person company, and I definitely don’t know how to build 1000 one—1000-person company. I’m sure that there’s other challenges and I’m sure there’s a lot of things you need to kind of digest and understand about the dynamics of that ‘cause then it actually becomes a corporate, I don’t know, look at Google, look at Microsoft, or look at Apple and look at Zynga, I’m sure that at the end of the day, there’s a thousand people there, it is somewhat of a corporate, there’s a lot people who are not doing that much, there’s people who can live in these islands where, you know, they—no one knows exactly what’s happening there, it’s just that’s the dynamic of a workplace.

And for me, that’s the things that I’m afraid of, and still so, you know, we’re now about 50 and you can still have kind of a grasp about what everyone is doing, and have your attention, you know, to what people are feeling and how you can help them maneuver out of it. And I’m very afraid of building a bigger company where I start losing that touch with the day-to-day of people. So that’s something that I’m kind of worried about, ‘cause I think that that’s what corporate really fail with, is just once you go over a number of—a certain number of people, you start losing touch.

Idan Cohen on How Leadership and Management Job Skills Compare

In Chapter 17 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Boxee co-founder and head of product Idan Cohen answers "How Do Leadership and Management Differ With What You Do?"  Cohen shares his struggle to become a better leader and a better manager.  He notes the importance of motivation and vision in leadership and details and composure in management. 

This is Idan Cohen's Year 1 Capture Your Flag interview.  Cohen is co-founder and head of product at Boxee Inc, an online video software company.  Previous to Boxee, Cohen held telecom software innovation and developer roles at Comverse.  He was a Captain in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Geophysics and Art.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How do leadership and management differ in what you do?

Idan Cohen: Management is definitely something that I struggle with daily and leadership is something that I struggle with daily. Leadership is about being just a little bit mad, you know if you think about it, like going and wanting to be the president of the US, you have to be not a little bit, you have to be really, really, crazy in order to take on such a role, and go through the process of doing something like that, the thing that sometimes it’s also the same for a small company, it’s just coming up with a vision, being able to motivate people, so that’s not easy but it comes a lot of times for just being able to put away—put aside your fears or overcome them, put aside logic or overcome logic, and go and make that happen. 

Management is a much more I think kind of a methodical or a skill, sometimes you might have, sometimes people definitely have it inherit in them and sometimes they acquire it with time, but I think it has a lot to do with—and it sometimes is very different than leadership because it’s much more about listening, leadership is a little bit of also just like blindly looking forward and being able to charge and motivate people just to come after you, but then at the end of the day, management is not about just this motivation, it’s about taking care of the details, it’s about knowing how to politically split responsibilities, it’s about stepping down when needed, and actually helping doing something, just because you’re a little bit of kind of like, you have all of these skills together and you can help with whatever needed, definitely at early stages of a company. 

So I think that there’s a lot of great leaders, there’s—and visionaries, there’s not enough good managers, and it’s definitely something that I would aspire to be. I think I’m very far from it right now.