thebillablehour

[thebillablehour @thebillablehou]

- blockchain is the future
- blockchain is not the future
- here’s a funny picture of something with a comment over it about life as a lawyer
- billable hours bla bla

Missed anything?

[thebillablehour @thebillablehou]

Here’s legal tech Twitter
- complaints about calling people “non lawyers”
- user centric design stuff that’s so high level it’s not helpful
- it’s not about lawyers it’s about clients bla bla
- I’ve been doing this longer than you and it’s harder than you think

[thebillablehour @thebillablehou]

@heyitsalexsu They don’t like the attention you get but I guess also it’s okay not to agree with everything everyone says

[thebillablehour @thebillablehou]

@heyitsalexsu Oh yeah I misread your tweet. You don’t do legal tech anymore right

[thebillablehour @thebillablehou]

@ZachAbramowitz The decentralised user experience is so bad that it needs to be centralised. This is my main problem with decentralisation. Who does the UX? Who does the marketing and all the non tech stuff?

[thebillablehour @thebillablehou]

How do I mute all the following kinds of content from linkedin:

- "Somebody told me I couldn't do something 10 years ago and now I've done it"
- "I came from an unprivileged background and now I've got a job I didn't think I'd get"
- "I just graduated"

[thebillablehour @thebillablehou]

@heyitsalexsu Hi Alex - I have followed you for a while but I haven’t picked up on the legal tech negativity. Where is this coming from?

[thebillablehour @thebillablehou]

@alexgsmith I always wondered what these blockchain lawyers actually do. Surely there really isn’t that much work going around other than the inevitable bankruptcies from failed solutionising

[thebillablehour @thebillablehou]

I don’t see the point in crypto/blockchain.

People tell me I’m going to be behind the times, one of these people who refused to embrace the internet, refused to use electricity

The difference is I think life will be just fine without crypto/blockchain. Probably, better without.

[thebillablehour @thebillablehou]

@heyitsalexsu For what it’s worth there are also a few instances I’ve seen where law firm partners have seen associates who go off and do something different as positively exciting, and use them as talking points to clients around the diverse range of skill sets they have as a firm

[thebillablehour @thebillablehou]

@heyitsalexsu I get you. Thank you for responding so gracefully. Others would have turned this into a Twitter flame

[thebillablehour @thebillablehou]

@heyitsalexsu Also yes it would be helpful to hear some of those stories where people tried and failed, so that people have a balanced view. Too many people are doing startups thinking they will be the next unicorn, when not only the odds are stacked against them but they lack the skill

[thebillablehour @thebillablehou]

@heyitsalexsu It was more that Twitter has lots of threads like this that oversimplify these kinds of thing or make it seem more common than it is. Personally I would prefer to hear more tangible learnings, whether they ended up in stardom or not but I guess your engagement says it all!

[thebillablehour @thebillablehou]

@heyitsalexsu Have a talented and clever friend who tried to start their own thing and got obsessed with this niche problem nobody cared about as much as they did. They lost money on it big time and never got out the blocks. They’re back in big law now for more secure income

[thebillablehour @thebillablehou]

@heyitsalexsu That’s fair enough. My advice for people is also to be realistic. Yes it might be a dream scenario but also it is likely it won’t be. You will learn huge amount either way. Go for it esp if you have savings to fall back on

[thebillablehour @thebillablehou]

@TheTimeBlawg @heyitsalexsu From my limited knowledge of legal startups, here are some common pitfalls I see:
(1) thinking you can do it “because your a lawyer”
(2) looking at too narrow a problem
(3) approaching from view of law firm only
(4) oversimplifying product development (e.g. “just get it coded”)

[thebillablehour @thebillablehou]

Also the same with stories you hear about Slack “pivoting” to their messaging app. This was above all a journey of LUCK. Are you telling me the best way to become a successful startup is to randomly guess at shit?

[thebillablehour @thebillablehou]

Btw it’s the same with the crypto peeps who just bought $$$$$houses because they made a decision to buy bitcoin at a low price 10 years ago and sold it. Hardly happened to anyone but jeez do you hear about it a lot...which is why so many get rich quick crypto fanatics exist

[thebillablehour @thebillablehou]

@heyitsalexsu Nice examples. In general I do think we overglamorise these journeys. Often instead of jumping into a startup you’d be better off working for an established company, learning the ropes and doing the risky stuff when you are a more experienced. Rather than going into it blind.

[thebillablehour @thebillablehou]

@heyitsalexsu Nice examples. In general I do think we overglamorise these journeys. Often instead of jumping into a startup you’d be better off working for an established company, learning the ropes and doing the risky stuff when you are a more experienced. Rather than going into it blind.

[thebillablehour @thebillablehou]

@heyitsalexsu Can you do another story on the big law associate that left their jobs to join a startup and was a complete failure so they went back to big law? Just to be balanced. Sometimes I am worried this kind of rare event makes people make stupid decisions