mini-posts
- Today’s exploration: Beauty
“In its most profound sense, beauty may engender a salient experience of positive reflection about the meaning of one’s own existence.” [article, video]
- Quote: On Teams
“I enjoy a working environment where the word ‘team’ is uttered in derision, and view the process of team or community as a result of mutual respect and enlightened self interest as opposed to a management method where fuzzy feelings are elicited to get the benefits and delegate the blame.” (comment by dkite on LWN article)
- Skype wows
Calling to Greek landline phones (both in-town and country-wide) is cheaper with Skype than Forthnet. Yay for N900 handling all my local calls then.
- Greetings.
“To the past, or to the future. To an age when thought is free. From the Age of Big Brother, from the Age of the Thought Police, from a dead man… greetings.” (1984)
- Rock Paper Scissors Spock Lizard
“Scissors cuts Paper covers Rock crushes Lizard poisons Spock smashes Scissors decapitates Lizard eats Paper disproves Spock vaporizes Rock crushes Scissors.” (via @mperedim)
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Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B36Lr0Unp4
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at night, Thursday 23 February 2012
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Respectful discourse
Copied from the blog of the amazing Sam Ruby.
The reason you have arived here is probably due to the fact that the owner of this web site has deemed some portion of a comment as flamebait.
While I am not sure of many things, here are a few things I do believe:
- Overall, the comments feature of my weblog is something that I find the most enjoyable and rewarding aspects of my site.
- I welcome thoughtful and respectful expressions of alternate points of view.
- There are some topics that I am interested in that others seem to find as irresistable temptations to bash one another.
- Nobody has an inalienable right to place information on my website. If you have something to say, I encourage you to get your own weblog. Feel free to use trackback to draw attention to your comments.
Given the above, I would like to find a solution less drastic than disabling comments, blocking of ip address, or wholesale removal of comments. That being said, I do reserve the right to selectively employ one or more of the above in situations I feel warrant it.
At the moment, the best solution I have come up with is to mark up the portions I find objectionable with links to this page. No words are addded, deleted, or rearranged in the process.
Suggestions are welcome.
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in the evening, Sunday 19 February 2012
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xkcd and abstraction layers
This xkcd reminded me of a 3-year old blog post of mine, Abstraction layers: One, two, many
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in the morning, Friday 17 February 2012
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Quote
The little things... there's nothing bigger, is there?
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in the evening, Tuesday 14 February 2012
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at night, Sunday 12 February 2012
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Innovation, Solutions, and Effectiveness
Business Partners, the influential magazine of the American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce, has published an article discussing Greece, Startups and Transifex. I was invited to write a column.
Business Partners presents the voices of six young entrepreneurs who are rising above the status quo to take control of their professional careers, with all the difficulties this involves, and experience life from a different vantage point. And they offer insights into shifts—of beliefs, of values, of perspectives—that, at this time of upheaval and despair, will move Greece forward.
Here's my take on the topic.
Innovation, Solutions, and Effectiveness
Being an entrepreneur and a pattern recognition geek, I am very often tempted to compare Greece’s challenges with those of a startup.
Startups are businesses at their extremes. One day you’re the king of the world at the top of the mountain, invincible against your competition. The next day you’re in the valley, wondering how on earth you’ll survive the imminent and inevitable end of your world. And while entrepreneurs often have optimism engraved in their DNA to be able to survive (and thrive), a startup’s roller-coaster life, and a negative ecosystem, can drain it out from you.
I’m often asked what were the biggest challenges I faced in founding Transifex. Expected answers, such as bureaucracy and taxation, are always areas a country can improve on. But the biggest challenge for me was a different one: To keep looking at things positively. To keep believing that change is possible and you’re a part of it. If I had a magic wand, I’d switch the negativity being pushed by the media before a good night’s sleep, or by the grocery store owner before a good morning, with constructive criticism with realistic propositions and a thumbs-up with a smile.
Empowerment will prove to be an important element of Greece’s fight for survival. From entrepreneurs to employees, from citizens to ministers and the prime minister himself, everybody needs to feel empowered to fight for a better tomorrow. Citizens need to feel empowered to be part of the change and fight to bring new value the next day. This cultural change requires many years to improve, but that’s no reason not to start working on it today.
Greece is challenged today to innovate itself out of its doom, whirlpool. In any system which brought itself to such a bad state, innovation, or improving its own parameters, is a necessary element for escape. And while lots of people are busy with inventing solutions, some few are busy in innovating new solutions, that is, ones which will be effective in improving the current state in a significant way. These people are smarter than the ones which brought the system to the current state. Let’s identify them, remove all their obstacles and provide them with all the necessary tools to do great things.
Effectiveness is key. Both optimized systems, as well as ones which have been broken for decades, which represents the case of Greece, require hard work to fix. When resources such as budget and time are limited, being effective is key for success. The right solutions should be brought to the table today and ways to get them implemented soon should be found.
Full article at: Http://bponline.amcham.gr/?p=1397.
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in the morning, Friday 10 February 2012
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A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.
— Greek Proverb
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in the morning, Friday 10 February 2012
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Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.
— Cyril Parkinson
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in the morning, Monday 6 February 2012
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Video
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Major flashback. Best Donald Duck cartoon ever: The Plastics Inventor.
Best part starts at 4 minutes.
(This video isn't available anymore.)
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in the evening, Thursday 2 February 2012
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The good thing about reinventing the wheel is that you can get a round one.
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in the evening, Tuesday 31 January 2012
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Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self esteem, first make sure that you are not, in fact, just surrounding yourself with assholes.
— William Gibson
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at night, Monday 23 January 2012
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in the morning, Tuesday 10 January 2012
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Of course, like all over-simple classifications of this type, the dichotomy becomes, if pressed, artificial, scholastic, and ultimately absurd. But if it is not an aid to serious criticism, neither should it be rejected as being merely superficial or frivolous; like all distinctions which embody any degree of truth, it offers a point of view from which to look and compare, a starting-point for genuine investigation.
— Isaiah Berlin, The Hedgehog and the Fox
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in the afternoon, Tuesday 27 December 2011
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Major Flashback
Out Run.
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in the afternoon, Tuesday 27 December 2011
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The true cook is the perfect blend, the only perfect blend, of artist and philosopher. He knows his worth: he holds in his palm the happiness of mankind, the welfare of generations yet unborn.
— Norman Douglas
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in the evening, Tuesday 20 December 2011
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If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.
— Henry David Thoreau
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in the morning, Sunday 18 December 2011
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in the evening, Sunday 11 December 2011
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You know how the time flies
Only yesterday was the time of our lives
We were born and raised in a summer haze
Bound by the surprise of our glory days— Adele
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at night, Wednesday 7 December 2011
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around noon, Friday 25 November 2011
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in the morning, Saturday 19 November 2011
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