July 2011
2 posts
Snowyla.com - It's all moving there
Please go to http://www.snowyla.com
“The opposite of creativity is cynicism.”
– -Esa Saarinen (via @the99percent)
Via Chris Guillebeau @chrisguillebeau Chris Guillebeau
November 2010
2 posts
“The future depends on what we do in the present.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
October 2010
13 posts
4 tags
It Takes a Village: A South Florida developer...
It Takes a Village
Builder Magazine, 2007
By Pat Curry
I was really supposed to be researching other things at the library tonight, but I got sucked into this beautiful story of idealistic landowning farmers, feisty developers and lots of help from the community. Affordable housing shouldn’t automatically be ugly or less stylish—there’s so much you can do with what you...
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“It is from the knowldge of the genuine conditions of our lives that we must draw...”
– Simone de Beauvoir
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CTIA 2010 - Just Holler!
I’m going to be hanging out at CTIA 2010 catching up with the big, rollicking mobile industry family.
Drop me a line, say hello!
This tumblr blog is my “fun” blog.
I’m going to put some postings up on my “industry blog.” Yes, it’s coming up, and no, it won’t be an echo chamber. It’s going to be different.
Change for the Better
I went to a...
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“Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping him up.”
– ~ Jesse Jackson
Mistah F.A.B. - by Lisa Hix →
My talented journalist friend Lisa Hix covers topics ranging from amazing comunity-supporting East Bay rappers like Mistah F.A.B. to one of the greatest American contemporary authors, Harvey Pekar.
Check out her coverage at http://www.lisahix.com
Scientists willing to deny the existence of... →
“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in...”
– Winston Churchill
September 2010
14 posts
For Many, Health Care Relief Begins Today →
Sometimes lost in the partisan clamor about the new health care law is the profound relief it is expected to bring to hundreds of thousands of Americans who have been stricken first by disease and then by a Darwinian insurance system. - NY TImes
“A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
Thanks for Leading, MLK. You were the best.
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Godin: Turning the Tables on Critical Trolls →
Half of life is learning how to turn trolls into nonobstacles in a positive way that doesn’t crush your soul! Great advice.
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Century of the City: No Time to Lose →
Reading this book while listening to the Wu Tang Clan is the best thing ever.
Too bad the Wu Tang Clan lyrics couldn’t be peppered with references to the Rockefeller Foundation since they have Great Gatsby in there (“…like f scott fitzgerland!”)
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“Imagination is the voice of daring. If there is anything Godlike about God, it...”
– Henry Miller
Study finds culture a factor in female math... →
\Cultural or environmental factors, not intellect, are what really limit women’s math achievements.
“The problem with Larry Summers hypothesizing that there aren’t many women with intrinsic aptitude to excel at this very high level is … it’s not that they don’t have this level of intrinsic aptitude; it’s that in many countries women that have this...
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“Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom...”
– Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali was so cool because as one of my middle teachers told me, boxing isn’t really fighting. It is not about brute force but of controlled defense, aggression and really awesome footwork!
Very remarkable too that this came from a gifted school teacher who was a woman....
August 2010
21 posts
Clement Baloup in New York City →
I’ve always loved seeing Europeans enjoying all the right parts of New York City. Here are a few beautiful sketches from my talented Vietnamese-French friend Clement Baloup.
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Skateboarding vs. Architecture →
Wow, these are the most laid-back and sensible architects I’ve met other than my friend Ahmad. All the others make you feel like you’ve done something wrong or listen to the wrong kind of music.
Isn’t the advice common sense that everyone should follow?
3 things architects could learn from skaters? Take risks. Learn from others. But do it your own way.
Tech companies see dollar signs in healthcare... →
Information technology firms are lining up to reap the benefits of a $10 billion provision of the reform law designed to cut costs and improve care by incentivizing innovative new tech products, the San Jose Mercury Newsreports.
“The law, for all its complexity, provided investors and entrepreneurs with greater clarity about opportunities in an industry facing dramatic...
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“In a world where talent is constrained, women represent an extraordinarily rich...”
– Damien O’Brien
(via @nataliesisson & womanzworld)
Dangers of Overwork →
Which workaholic hasn’t committed one of these many cardinal sins? Grin.
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The Tar Pit from The Mythical Man Month
This passage from the seminal work The Mythical Man Month by Frederick Brooks Jr. is true of any large-scale project, programming or not included in the deal. Whoa!
Brooks is amazing with a literary voice that sounds more like a romantic Soviet Union gulag prisoner in Siberia chronicling his life victories and failures than a software programmer at a large corporation. This leads one to beg...
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Random American Healthcare Consumer Behavior from...
I found this passage flipping through a random business book which looks attractive to me, but this is the first paragraph I stumbled on:
U.S. Healthcare costs have long been completely out of line with costs in other countries. The U.S. spends $2.5 trillion ($8,100 per head) on healthcare, or 18% of its GDP. This is half as much again as the 11% of the GDP spent in France and Germany and almost...
Mobilife, making mhealth tools to change the world →
I’m so happy whenever i see young people who are out to change the world like the Mobilife team. I hope they keep going in that direction and are careful to listen to the right people and ignore all the wrong ones.
There should be proper incidents of youthful rebellion too! :) Not everything industry people believe is true is the final word is it?
Great work!
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Delancy Street Foundation - "Recycling" People...
What a beautiful solution the Delancey Street Foundation offers: by rehabilitating people who have “been at the bottom” and helping them find their own way back, they are creating a wonderful sense of hope.
It’s pleasantly surprising to find a rehabilitation center set up by people who had once been addicts or convicts themselves. Only someone who’s actually been there...
Real Deal Democracy →
My idealistic, realistic and hardworking friend from college, Evan, co-founded Real Deal Democracy.
Let’s take the country back to its original mission!
“This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the...”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, August 28, 1963
Thrift Store Score: The Mythical Man Month by...
Brooks was an original. I’m so lucky to have found a 1982 edition of The Mythical Man Month at the always-excellent Out of the Closet thrift store.
It reminds me that all the things I’m always whining about have happened to many other people before in remarkably similar situations, so I should stop whining, learn how to side-step the aggravation and go do stuff that’s fun and...
Ideacide: Ways to Kill Creativity →
Play it safe. Listen to that inner voice that tells you not to stick your neck out.
Know your limitations. Don’t be afraid to pigeonhole yourself.
Remind yourself: it’s just a job. Keep telling yourself you don’t get paid for ideas.
Make skepticism your middle name. Show everyone why that idea won’t work.
Be the tough guy. Demand to see the data.
Respect history. Always give the past the...
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Outcomes-Focused Organizations →
This is basically a fancy way for people who value impact and despise useless busywork (unless it teaches you something). I’m not afraid to roll up my sleeves and clean the toilet or do some brutal QA cycles but the idea is that you focus on the outcome first.
I like the term “Outcomes-Focused.” :)
The HP Way
I’m surprised at the honest dialogue about all the board and CEO scandals lately. There was always a gentleman’s agreement to pretend to the reality of Board of Directors didn’t exist and to use a lot of euphemisms that avoided that it’s very typical for large corporations to reach dysfunctions worse than the worst skateboard team management horror story could ever...
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YouthBuild, Our Kind of Heroes
Whenever I have a bad day I realize that my problems are quite small and there are a lot of brilliant, hardworking people out there doing good things and getting no recognition. I make a point of looking at at least one cool person or organization a day. It really helps a lot.
Youthbuild USA is one of those organizations. I’m very happy I discovered them via the John Skoll Foundation.
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