Go deeper, Dorsey tells students

It's not every day that a college and fashion school dropout, ex-punk rocker and licenced massage therapist can hold a packed audience at the Humanities Theatre in thrall, but when that person is Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter and Square, you make allowances.

"We'd like to hire all of you...well, some of you, at least," Dorsey told the audience at the start of his presentation Thursday. Dorsey, who founded Twitter in 2006 and Square in 2009, spoke for an hour about a series of "left turns" in his life story that took him from the caves beneath St. Louis, Missouri to the heights of the social media world and beyond.

Dorsey detailed how his childhood fascination with how cities functioned led him to volunteer at local museums and working as a busboy at a "haunted mansion" in the hopes of gaining access to the fabled caves underneath St. Louis, to experiences in the punk rock and open-source programming scenes and the subculture of urban bicycle couriers.

Dorsey says that bicycle couriers' use of CB radios got him thinking about visualizing their locations on city maps, and so he started programming simulations.

"I had all these dots moving around on a map—somewhat useless, but amazing to me," he said.

Dorsey soon learned about the dispatch industry and began writing his own dispatch software. "That was my ticket to the cities," he said. Eventually, he approached a major player in the dispatch industry, Dispatch Management Services Corporation, was hired and moved to New York City, soon after relocating to San Francisco in an unsuccessful attempt to build another dispatch company, which failed in 2001.

That led him to massage school.

No, really.

Dorsey explained that after moving back to Missouri as a contract programmer he began experiencing pain in his wrists, and his friends advised massage as therapy. So, instead of getting a massage himself, he enrolled in a massage school, accumulated the 1,000 hours necessary for certification, and became "fully certified to practise massage in the the state of Missouri." He said he envisioned himself offering chair massages to programmers at tech companies while dispensing advice about their code - "code therapy" but that idea didn't pan out, either.

This story in particular highlighted a theme in Dorsey's presentation - finding your passion and learning the skills necessary to follow that passion. Going deeper as opposed to broader in your interests.

Dorsey's next full-time gig was at podcasting company Odeo, where he learned another important truth: "If you aren’t building tools for yourself it’s hard to get passionate about it." Around this time, Dorsey enrolled in fashion school because of his interest in denim clothing as a "wearable journal." But it was his growing passion for SMS text messaging—he was an early user of the famous BlackBerry 850 device—that fueled his next venture. SMS messaging reminded him of his days in dispatch, with bike couriers telling others where they were located.

Odeo employees were encouraged to spend time on "hack projects," so Dorsey (after dropping out of fashion school) and a few fellow employees took about two weeks to develop the framework for the now-famous social media platform. Twitter worked out, according to Dorsey, "because it resonated with people. People wanted to work on it. They had passion. When you have that passion, you'll do whatever it takes to make it work."

Dorsey also highlighted the two-way nature of Twitter's success: "The company has learned from the people who used it," he says, citing examples like the @username and the retweet that were user-driven innovations.

Dorsey's presentation turned to a discussion of his latest venture, Square. Square lets business people accept credit card payments right on their mobile device with a card reader. The simple and inexpensive solution is hailed as a boon for small businesses once excluded from traditional payment systems.

The idea for Square, said Dorsey, came about when his friend, a glass artist, lost a sale because he couldn’t receive payment for a $2,000 piece of art he created.

Square is now pushing beyond the plug-in card reader and is Square Register, Square Market, Square Cash and Square Wallet, which makes paying for an item as easy as just showing up with your phone in your pocket.

Square's philosophy can be summed up in its three-word tag line: Make commerce easy. Dorsey likened Square to the Golden Gate Bridge (or any bridge, for that matter).

"The bridge has one job: get people from point A to point B and not fall down," Dorsey said. "It does such a great job at it, when people cross the bridge, they aren't thinking about the bridge. They are thinking about point B. The bridge completely disappears. These are the sorts of technologies we want to build." It also doesn't hurt that the builders of the Golden Gate Bridge had the "audacity to make it beautiful."

The goal in making commerce easy, said Dorsey, is to give people back the most precious commodity of all: time.

Dorsey wrapped up with a few words about entrepreneurialism. Entrepreneurs aren't just those who start their own companies, he said. "They take significant risks at any time to see something happen." Dorsey thinks of Square as a company of entrepreneurs building tools for entrepreneurs.

And his quip about wanting to hire students was more than just a quip - Square will be opening an office in Waterloo Region next year.

All in all, not bad for a kid who got his start serving fried chicken in a haunted mansion.

Photographs by Fusion Photography.

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Campus hosts United Way KW campaign launch

The United Way Kitchener Waterloo fundraising campaign for 2013 officially got its start this morning at a kick-off event held in Engineering 5's Student Design Centre.

CEO of United Way KW Jan Varner, President Feridun Hamdullahpur and Vice-President, University Relations Tim Jackson, who is also the United Way KW Campaign Champion, hosted the event, which was held from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. this morning.

This year's campaign goal was announced: $5.1 million.

The University of Waterloo's own United Way campaign launches October 1.

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Space agency chief, Harvard prof join IQC

Steve MacLean, former president of the Canadian Space Agency, and Harvard professor Amir Yacoby have been announced as the newest members of the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC). MacLean joins IQC as an associate member and Yacoby is appointed visiting professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and as the Distinguished Research Chair in Condensed Matter.

“Waterloo stands amongst the world's leaders in the revolutionary field of quantum science,” said President Feridun Hamdullahpur. “IQC brings together internationally recognized researchers who are already developing our understanding of the quantum world. I’m delighted to welcome these two accomplished scientists to Waterloo to help push that understanding further forward.”

“It is fantastic that two scientists of the calibre of Steve MacLean and Amir Yacoby are joining IQC,” said Raymond Laflamme, executive director of IQC. “Their experience and insight will complement our extraordinary community of researchers and continue the truly world-class research already happening here.”

Steve MacLean is a laser physicist whose research has included electro-optics, laser-induced fluorescence of particles and crystals and multi-photon laser spectroscopy. MacLean’s work will include the development of attosecond lasers. MacLean retired from his role as President of the Canadian Space Agency in February 2013. He served as Mission Specialist on the International Space Station in 2006 and was the first Canadian to operate the Canadarm2.

Amir Yacoby is a renowned experimental condensed matter physicist at Harvard University. His research explores quantum phases of matter in reduced dimension and their applications towards quantum information science. He will set up a lab at IQC to focus on implementing quantum information processing in condensed matter systems.

MacLean and Yacoby sit on the Scientific Advisory Committee for Quantum Valley Investments.

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A new look for the Bulletin and other notes

Those readers with a keen eye will have noticed by now that today's edition of the Daily Bulletin is a bit different than editions past. In keeping with the initiative to refresh the university's visual identity, the Daily Bulletin's look has been brought up to code with the addition of the revised Waterloo logo (the shield last graced the Daily Bulletin's header in December 2010). Other refinements include the removal of "Waterloo" from the title, which is now left-justified after hanging out on the right side of the page for seven years or so.

There will be a Student Team Open House on Monday, September 23 in the Student Design Centre in Engineering 5 starting at 3:00 p.m. Whether you like working with your hands or you are more computer-savvy, if you have a creative imagination or prefer to work with people or numbers, if you want to make some new friends while joining one of 22 innovative student design teams, then this open house is for you. Students from all six faculties are invited to participate in the design and construction of projects, attend local and international competitions and trade shows, and gain valuable experience in business, communications, marking, accounting, and fundraising, and this open house is a great way to break the ice and step out of your comfort zone.

Human Resources' Pension Team will be offering a Lunch and Learn Pension Session on Thursday, September 26, 2013, in DC 1302 from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. The session is entitled “UW Pension Plan – The Basics Every Employee Needs to Know”. 

"Whether you are new to the University or have been here for a number of years, this session will be of interest," says the note from Human Resources. "It’s important that you acquire a good understanding of your pension plan and how it affects you now and into retirement." No registration is required. Just show up, lunch in hand.  

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