I attended minicamp last year, and I followed up with almost all of the attendees since then. I have had periodic Skype chats to see how it impacted their lives, so I can pretty confidently say that the minicamp:
Had a dramatic positive impact on some people
Had a significant (noticeable) positive impact on almost everyone
Had no noticeable negative effects on anyone
It definitely had a positive impact on me, but I represent more of a median result than an outlier. Since minicamp, I:
Sold my company, and am on track to make more money in the time since minicamp than I’ve made in the past few years. The decisions that lead to this were a direct result of the systematic decision and planning process I implemented because of minicamp
Turned down a job offer at Google to work at an even more awesome company. I both learned about—and got an interview with—this company directly because of a contact from minicamp
Improved in a hundred small ways (again, directly attributable to notes I made at minicamp), from fashion (I now regularly get compliments where I got none before) to health (I use less time to exercise and eat, yet feel much better)
There were definitely parts of the minicamp that could have used improvement, but these were mostly a variety of details and logistical mistakes that will go away with practice on the part of the organizers.
If you’re even thinking about this at all, you should apply. The cost is HUGELY outweighed by the benefits. I’ve probably gotten a 10x ROI (assuming I had paid the amount listed here and including the value of the time), and it hasn’t even been a year....
I’m happy to answer any questions about my experience (or my observations of others’ experiences).
The decisions that lead to this were a direct result of the systematic decision and planning process I implemented because of minicamp
I’m curious to hear more about that point. Do you mean to say that you explicitly implemented a system that designated how to make those kinds of decisions?
Sort of. I meant to say that I decided to make explicit long term, medium term, and short term goals, regularly check their progress, estimate their difficulty and likelihood, and also had a better sense of the space of other opportunities, all as a direct result of minicamp (there was a session or two on goals, sessions on estimation and prediction calibration, and in general while there I realized that I sucked at seeing opportunity costs).
After I did all those things, it effectively resulted in a systematic decision and planning process, since I had a much better sense about what tasks had the highest expected payoffs for my goals, and I simply work on those first.
I attended minicamp last year, and I followed up with almost all of the attendees since then. I have had periodic Skype chats to see how it impacted their lives, so I can pretty confidently say that the minicamp:
Had a dramatic positive impact on some people
Had a significant (noticeable) positive impact on almost everyone
Had no noticeable negative effects on anyone
It definitely had a positive impact on me, but I represent more of a median result than an outlier. Since minicamp, I:
Sold my company, and am on track to make more money in the time since minicamp than I’ve made in the past few years. The decisions that lead to this were a direct result of the systematic decision and planning process I implemented because of minicamp
Turned down a job offer at Google to work at an even more awesome company. I both learned about—and got an interview with—this company directly because of a contact from minicamp
Improved in a hundred small ways (again, directly attributable to notes I made at minicamp), from fashion (I now regularly get compliments where I got none before) to health (I use less time to exercise and eat, yet feel much better)
There were definitely parts of the minicamp that could have used improvement, but these were mostly a variety of details and logistical mistakes that will go away with practice on the part of the organizers.
If you’re even thinking about this at all, you should apply. The cost is HUGELY outweighed by the benefits. I’ve probably gotten a 10x ROI (assuming I had paid the amount listed here and including the value of the time), and it hasn’t even been a year....
I’m happy to answer any questions about my experience (or my observations of others’ experiences).
I’m curious to hear more about that point. Do you mean to say that you explicitly implemented a system that designated how to make those kinds of decisions?
Sort of. I meant to say that I decided to make explicit long term, medium term, and short term goals, regularly check their progress, estimate their difficulty and likelihood, and also had a better sense of the space of other opportunities, all as a direct result of minicamp (there was a session or two on goals, sessions on estimation and prediction calibration, and in general while there I realized that I sucked at seeing opportunity costs).
After I did all those things, it effectively resulted in a systematic decision and planning process, since I had a much better sense about what tasks had the highest expected payoffs for my goals, and I simply work on those first.