You'll Be Fired in One Year
This is, of course, not the kind of lead time that we get when we lose our jobs. Whether you're being let go because management thinks you're longer a good fit for the position, or if you're laid off because of lack of work, or if you're terminated just because you're an incompetent boob, it doesn't matter. We don't get a lot of time. It happens, suddenly. And only when it happens do we start...
Of Like Minds
Mirror neurons are serious business. At least, that's the way you should be looking at it. Hanging out with boring, dull, predictable people who are unable to shut up for more than 10 seconds might be annoying, and it isn't likely to cause you to instantly act like them, but... ...but over time, though, you do absorb the qualities of the company that you keep. This is an immensely important piece of information, because we...
20% Time
There's a policy at Google that insists that their engineers spend one day per week, on company time, working on a personal project. If you look at this from the perspective of a bean counter, that means 20% of their engineering budget is allocated to letting their engineers hack on technology, whether or not Google stands to benefit from it directly. The reason they do this, as any person who appreciates the creative process already...
Kickstarting X-mas
My girlfriend told me about an excellent idea she had. Actually, there are two, but they're to be taken together: 1. Start your Christmas shopping now (before the rush.) 2. Do your shopping on Kickstarter.com I think this is a great idea. I've been telling everyone I meet about Kickstarter, and that everyone should be planning something to get crowdfunded using the site. But using it for shopping, especially for gifts, makes a lot of...
Acquire a Skill
Here's the one-line summary of the directive in today's post: acquire a useless skill. Daymond John, the founder of the FUBU clothing line, was able to successfully launch his own line of clothes (and become a millionaire) because he knew how to sew. I'm willing to put good money on the fact that while he was growing up, there was very little reason for him to learn to sew. It was just something his mother...
Limps and Bounds
In the early nineteenth century, a British inventor by the name of Charles Babbage designed a massive fifteen-ton device which he called a Difference Engine. Comprised of 25,000 mechanical parts, it was designed to solve calculus equations. He didn't end up finishing it, but what Babbage envisioned was basically a very large version of the modern computer. And he did it almost a century before computers started being produced. I think this is crazy: in...
Order of Operations
It's interesting to talk to people about what non-profits or causes they support, and the reasons why. Some people feel that efforts should be directed at reducing human suffering, by combating hunger or poverty. Others believe that we should combat human suffering by finding cures for diseases, or supplying people with the means to prevent disease. (Think mosquito nets.) And many others feel that the environment should come first, because that affects everyone on the...
The Social Moviegoer
I was working in the office late one night a couple of weeks ago when I got the urge to watch a scene from one of my favorite movies. Since I didn't have the DVD handy, I found the entire movie was posted in 10-minute segments on YouTube. And so I watched the whole thing on there. It wasn't the most convenient thing in the world, to be clicking a new video every ten minutes,...
"It's Not Worth It"
This is the platitude that's best known for breaking up bar fights. The other day I was walking down the street and witnessed a car approach an intersection to turn right a little too hastily. In the process, they nearly hit a pedestrian crossing the street. Fortunately, they managed to stop in time without anyone getting hurt. Five years ago, I think this would have made me angry. It's a situation that I wasn't involved...
Dale and Me
One of the best books I've ever read: Dale Carnegie's How To Win Friends and Influence People. To anyone reading this, the reputation of the book is surely preceding my mention of it here. So I'll keep this very, very simple: required reading in all public schools in the country. I read lots of books in English classes as a young whippersnapper, and not a single one of them make a dent in my thickish...