The Curious Engineer

All blogs / General

Howie Mann

mannhowie.com

Howie Mann. Startup Strategy. Learnings that helped me inside tech startups and outside investing.

GeneralEssays / personal

’19’20’21’22’23’24’25’26
Posts
75 from 27 Apr 2019 to 7 Jul 2026
Posting
now and then (4 in the last year)
Kind
personal blog

2026 2

  1. How to frame the right problem
  2. Don’t be a human alarm clock

2025 3

  1. How Charlie Munger avoided self pity
  2. How Costco makes money
  3. How to visualize time series data - 4 key charts

2024 13

  1. Best charts to use for presentations - 4 key charts
  2. Stock and Flow: Build Better Models
  3. Inversion: How Charlie Munger tackles hard problems
  4. How McKinsey Uses the SCR Framework for Powerful Slide Outlines
  5. Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) - Formula and Real World Examples
  6. How to write a problem statement: The 3 components
  7. 3 ways to avoid if-else hell in JavaScript
  8. How much is Netflix worth in 2024? $US100bn
  9. Jobs To Be Done Examples and Principles
  10. How Costco avoids failure? Focus on what sucks
  11. How to profit in a recession? Sell pinball machines
  12. Principal Agent Problem - 4 Real Examples & Solutions
  13. How to treat stock compensation when valuing companies?

2023 21

  1. Share Buybacks vs Dividends: Who wins?
  2. How to build products users need
  3. How to write good feature requests
  4. Explain Your Product Without Buzz Words
  5. How to Measure Total Shareholder Returns
  6. Prospect Theory: Examples from Big Tech
  7. IRR vs MIRR Formula Explained: Choose the Right Metric for Your Investments
  8. How to respond to product feature requests? Ask “When was the last time”
  9. Chart Formatting: 5 Best Practices
  10. 4 Key Charts - When and How to Use Them
  11. Understanding 6 Key Financial Ratios - Best Buy vs Netflix vs Meta vs Apple
  12. Product Strategies to Modify Behavior - Lessons on Self Control
  13. Password Security 101 - Understanding How Hashing Works
  14. Choose the Right SaaS Metrics - Play stupid games, win stupid prizes
  15. REST API Basics - 4 Things you Need to Know
  16. Deprival Super Reaction Bias - Why it makes people go crazy?
  17. 3 Alternatives to A/B Testing
  18. Moral hazard in startups - 3 examples
  19. 7 Types of Bias - Survivorship, Confirmation, Framing and More Examples
  20. Kano Model Basics - 3 Things you Need to Know
  21. Employee Training: Who is the Person Responsible?

2022 17

  1. Data Table UX: 5 Rules of Thumb
  2. User Interface Design: 5 Rules of Thumb
  3. Availability Bias - Examples and How to Overcome
  4. Cognitive Reflection Test - Examples of Reacting vs Checking
  5. Unit Testing in NodeJS - Basics with Examples
  6. Commitment Bias - Examples and Observations
  7. How to Fail to Find Product Market Fit
  8. What is the Time Value of Money with Examples - 4 Elements of TVM
  9. How Much is YouTube Worth? Over US$180bn in 2022
  10. The IKEA Effect - Why people fall in love with their own ideas
  11. How to Build a Content Creation Engine - Playbook & Template
  12. SEO Keywords for Demand Generation - A Content Marketing Playbook
  13. How the US Air Force Ditched the "Average" and Saved Lives
  14. How to Solve the Right Problem - 4 Simple Questions to ask
  15. Learn React - Hooks and Context
  16. Why Invest in Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)?
  17. How to Run a Growth Experiment - Learn the 4 Steps

2021 7

  1. Financial Model Formatting - 3 Core Best Practices
  2. Finite State Machines - A Common Tool for Product Owners, Designers & Developers
  3. 5 Questions to Ask to Find Product Market Fit - User Interviews
  4. Invert, Always Invert - Find out how to kill pilots
  5. How Much is Alibaba Worth? US$900 billion in 2021
  6. How to Increase User Engagement - 3 Learnings from Psychology
  7. 5 Key UX Design Principles - How to Make Products User Friendly

2020 4

  1. Second Order Thinking: Unintended Consequences
  2. 3 Decision Making Frameworks Startups can use to Navigate Uncertainty
  3. What are the Fiduciary Duties of a Director?
  4. How to Deploy a Node App to AWS EC2

2019 8

  1. The Role and Functions of Board of Directors
  2. Learn React - A Visual Explanation
  3. Clean Architecture Node.js - Build a REST API
  4. Express Validation and Error Handling
  5. Node.js Authentication Tutorial with Passport
  6. The Basics of Valuation
  7. How to Rank Without Backlinks [Free Template]
  8. SQL Basics