Yousuf Bhaijee

Former VP of Growth at Eaze. Ex-Disney, Zynga, ClassDojo, CSC Generation, Bain. Writing, advising, and fun side projects

[Gagan Biyani 🏛 @gaganbiyani]

I spent 10 hours in a "ride-along" with an OPD officer. By the end, my head was pounding.

5 shocking lessons about why it takes cops days to respond to 911 calls:
- Rules prevent police from doing their job. e.g. There's a 19-factor (19!!) test for police to run through their head before they can chase a criminal. Most of the time, even if they see a crime, they will not chase the criminal.

- Criminals know the rules. At one point, 3 cars sped past our fully marked police vehicle going 80+ mph on city streets. They even looped around and passed us a second time! Criminals know they'll get away with crimes such as burglary, car theft, and reckless driving.

- Massive backlog of 911 calls. During my shift, there were 150-180 calls outstanding at any given time. The vast majority will be completely ignored or receive a response days later.

- 80% paperwork. Ever seen an OPD car just parked on the side of the road? They aren't idle, but they are doing paperwork and only stop for the highest priority 911 calls. They spent 80% of the shift on their computers, often 1-2 hours of paperwork per incident (usually split across 4 officers).

- Only 35 police officers on patrol at one time. On top of everything else, Oakland has one of the lowest police officer to crime ratio in the country.

This is so self-inflicted. The people making the rules aren't cops, have no experience with law enforcement, and don't care about ensuring the police can do their jobs.

If we vote in officials willing to focus on public safety, some things can change quickly. Other things (like increasing the # of officers) will take a long time.

The full story and a link to Empower Oakland, a voter education org we started to help elect better public officials, is below.

[Adam Fishman @fishmanaf]

It takes a village. But what happens when 7 sets of friends get together, buy all the properties in a town-home community and then raise their families there? A modern day commune!

This is happening in the heart of the SF Bay Area.

"The U.S. is going through an epidemic of loneliness. This has been so, so great for that. The small interactions with your friends. Especially during the pandemic, this was amazing. Other people listening to this should consider whether it's a townhome or a cul-de-sac or whatever, America is lonely and this is a great way to address some of that."

In today's Startup Dad I sat down with two of the 14 adults in a modern day commune, @ybhaijee (Eaze, Zynga, Disney) and @chrislloyd (Humane, Pinterest, Opera) to talk about their unique living style with the families. There are 15 kids across 7 families living in close proximity to one another.

We discussed:
💙 How this whole modern day commune experiment got started
💙 What it means to live in a modern day commune
💙 The shared rituals, benefits and drawbacks of this lifestyle
💙 The positive impacts on mental health
💙 The benefits of sharing
💙 How gender roles take on new meaning in communal living
💙 The most surprising aspects of a communal lifestyle
💙 Family privacy and parenting styles when you live in close proximity with others

I developed a new perspective for the importance of community, sharing, and ways to rewrite loneliness and transform it into something much more positive.

Watch or listen everywhere you get your podcasts.

[Yousuf Bhaijee @ybhaijee]

Oakland is going down the drain. Crime is surging and its been almost a year with no police chief. Time to declare a state of emergency. #recallshengthao https://t.co/ttleBVfW1O

[Henry K. Lee @henrykleeKTVU]

Oakland restaurateur chased from his Little Saigon business, rammed - robbed of his own gun - and shot at on Lakeshore near Lake Merritt. He & witnesses put on hold w/911. @oaklandpoliceca investigating. 5,6 p.m. @KTVU

[Yousuf Bhaijee @ybhaijee]

@Afrosurreal @henrykleeKTVU @CoreMarkHQ @7eleven @oaklandpoliceca @KTVU I appreciate the healthy skepticism (especially in this day and age) but it sounds like there were many eyewitnesses and reputable sources covering this story: https://t.co/PhzAjpre5m

Thoughts?

[Yousuf Bhaijee @ybhaijee]

This was the alternative opening to the Dark Knight Returns bank robbery scene

[Dion Lim @DionLimTV]

I’ve seen a lot of break-ins but this one blew my mind.

Watch this Oakland gas station employee jump when a backhoes bursts through the window & digs at the ATM!

This happened today at W Grand & Market.

Men run in, attach a chain to the ATM & run to a truck waiting outside.

[Yousuf Bhaijee @ybhaijee]

Good read about someone who went through the 1000+ pages of garbage public policy with a critical eye

https://t.co/vIOwv8PczO

[Emily Hoeven @emily_hoeven]

My latest column: I went to Alameda County DA Pamela Price’s town hall in Fremont, & left unconvinced. I admire her vision, but it doesn’t align w/ reality. Her job, ultimately, is to prosecute offenders. And it didn’t seem like that was her top priority. https://t.co/iD7uE4TNU6

[Seneca Scott @SenecaSpeaks21]

Oakland has seen 7 murders in the last 7 days.

All the crime deniers and gaslighters have now switched to a new lie: it’s everywhere now and nothing they can do about it.

Why don’t they resign then?

[Alex Cohen @anothercohen]

Nothing makes you appreciate your parents more than having your own kids

[Betty Yu @bett_yu]

It was a violent 36 hours in Oakland. There have been 4 homicides since Sunday.

@SenecaSpeaks21 wants to raise awareness about what he calls the city's public safety crisis.

@KPIXtv https://t.co/bbqrmQmiEO

[Yousuf Bhaijee @ybhaijee]

But not obvious because we have been trained for the last 20 years on a search experience that is a single question path vs a back and forth conversation. Either way, I think it's the most valuable approach for any newbies struggling to get value out of these tools.

[Yousuf Bhaijee @ybhaijee]

I've found 99% of ChatGPT tips on LI/Twitter to be utterly worthless. Instead, adding these two sentences has been my 10x unlock:

Add to bottom of prompt: "Don't start answering until I say "Go Ahead". Before we get started, do you have any clarifying questions for me?"

🧵 👇

[Yousuf Bhaijee @ybhaijee]

In hindsight this seems both obvious and not. Obvious because this is how a conversation with a human expert would go (ie them asking you a bunch of questions before dispensing advice).

[Paul Graham @paulg]

Zuck's right that people on Twitter are too mean. How people behave on forums depends on the incentives, and Twitter's design rewards horrible people for saying horrible things.

[Yousuf Bhaijee @ybhaijee]

The fundamental challenge for every Twitter clone/competitor.

Still, Threads has the best shot given its instagram network.