I’ve had the chance to live for many years outside the borders of my own country, Romania, in fact I’ve lived more than half of my life in contact with different cultures, habits, having to speak in a tongue that is not my own. An experience I consider to be a privilege. And what all of these years have thought me is never, ever, take “what they say” for granted, you know, the stereotypes. It’s stupid and it’s always wrong.
So there I was, around 4 months ago, armed with the knowledge that I don’t know shit about Holland, in the middle of Holland, at an elevation of no more than 13 meters and surrounded by Dutch people and a lot of ducks and other water creatures. Time to open my eyes and learn something. And so I did, walked around Arnhem, almost staring at people, a bad habit of mine, and there was the first cultural lesson. If you make eye contact, while walking in the park or on a quiet street more likely than not people will say hi to you. Time for a quick note, we’re talking about Arnhem here, not Amsterdam or another bigish city. Note ended. So, the Dutch are friendly…, what else…
And so I walked and keep on walking and learning and being amazed. And while I am still walking around the crazy Dutch people I wanted to write some of the things that catch my eye. I do this for myself, so I won’t forget and I do this for my friends who might be interested to see things through my eyes.
And as I mentioned my friends, I want to make it crystal clear that by crazy Dutch I mean crazy in the best possible way. Just that we are clear and I don’t get beaten to death at work tomorrow with a keyboard or strangled with a mouse cord. If they used a wireless mouse that would be something to see, though..:).
Anyway, this week, each day, I will write about one thing I find strange, different, cool and so on. Keep on reading.
“Don’t judge a book by its cover”, that’s easy to say. And easy to do if you have a bookstore with 5 books in it. Add a few digits to that number and it’s not so easy to do anymore, is it? And that’s the story with most products we buy these days… So many types of the same product and not so much time.
There are a few privileged products, usually the expensive ones, like high-end phones, laptops, and other gadgets that force us to consider carefully our options, because of the risk of buying the wrong thing for a lot of money .
But what about products like wine? Go to your local supermarket and you will find row upon row of wine bottles averaging around 5-6 euro a bottle and from all around the world. If you’re not Gary Vay-ner-chuck, you’re in trouble.
But not me! I judge the book by the cover, in such situations! Take a look at some of the wines I have at home.
The first one in called Fat Bastard and has a hypo on it, the second is Lounge Dog and has a long dog who’s rear end extend all the way to the back label and the third is just colorful,
You can tell straight away how much I know about wine. One label is colorful and the other two are just funny. Actually the one with the dog is quite good. For me it’s hard to make a difference between wines and I can only judge with – I like it / I don’t like it. Hence the label is the only thing that guides me through the sea of wine. If it attracts my attention and what is written on it sounds good enough – there is a sale.
But this is not true just for wine, is it? Even books are the same. Go to your local store and look around. You will most likely pick up to browse through the books with the most interesting covers.
However, wine and books are the lucky ones because the content still matters! Think about the sea of products that are too dull to tell apart, like tomatoes in a supermarket (not a farmers market). It’s most likely you will pick up the ones that are most conveniently packed.
Hate it or not, I don’t believe there are too many people who don’t judge a book by its cover. Prove me wrong!
Posted on January 10, 2010 by Liviu in Green, Life
During the winter holidays I’ve started reading “In Praise of Slow: How a Worldwide Movement Is Challenging the Cult of Speed” * by Carl Honore. The book itself is well written but not a masterpiece. The ideas Carl talks about are most likely not new to you (slow food, slow cities and so on). But it’s still an interesting read and something I would recommend for everybody to take a look at. There are many little things that you can take away from it.
Among the ones that stuck in my mind is something that has nothing to do with the subject of the book. It’s actually a fact. Here it goes. Have you ever thought why many battles or duels were held at sunrise, in the not-so-distant history of mankind? Well, if you think about it, when you have no clock you need some common, distinguishable moment of the day. And sunrise is one such moment. Cool fact, isn’t it?
Somewhat related to this is the idea that clocks can be oppressive. There is a story in the book about a fellow who became obsessed with his very precise clock. And this fellow calmed down a little when he changed that clock to an old wind-up clock. Armed with this small revelation I turned with the face to the wall a couple of clocks, in my house, that were really aggressive with their bright red numbers. And you know what? It has some effect. I always know the time but the red devilish glow of the clocks doesn’t haunt me so much anymore. Try it yourself! Put away some of the clocks you look at all the time and see what happens.
*The book has an Amazon affiliate link. So if you buy the book through the link in this post I’ll actually make my first cents with this blog .
What stages do you have to go thru to become good at changing light bulbs? Sure, anybody can do it, also everybody can run but not all of us have what it takes to run a marathon and even less can win one! So what does it takes to be the best light bulb changer in the world?
People who find the will to become good at some sport surely learn a lot in the process. It dawned on me while trying to start jogging again that any new endeavor we undertake goes thru the same stages.
Stages of becoming good at something:
1. This is hard
2. This is not so hard
3. This is great, I’m learning so much!
4. Why am I not learning faster?
5. I’m good at this
6. I’m even better at this and I love it
7. Go to step 4.
Stage 1 always sucks. It sucks the first day at the gym, it sucks the first time you get on a pair of skies, it sucks the first time you try to write your first ‘hello world’ script. This is the stage when being motivated or having a great teacher or friend to push you really helps.
And then you get over it and you notice that it’s not so hard anymore. It’s quite easy! It’s great. You get to a point when you can really feel how you become better day by day.
Alas, nothing is eternal and undoubtedly you hit a point when any consequent improvement requires more and more effort. This is a stage when the boys get separated from the man. If you keep at it you get good at it, you progress and start really enjoying it and then you eventually realize that you’ve made a lot of progress and are now much better at it.
Everybody likes being good at something. My friend Para quotes his dad that his dream is: “to be the best in the world at something, be it digging holes, painting walls, changing light bulbs or writing code”. There is much wisdom in that wish. It’s the stage when it becomes really rewarding to have worked so hard to get there. You can feel it best when it comes to sports you do for fun, like cycling or skiing.
But can you be the best at something? Isn’t there always somebody who is better than you? The bottom line is that you can always become better than you are and you find yourself back at step 4 wondering why it takes so much effort to improve yourself. And the cycle goes on and on. There is no doubt that as long as you live you learn.
It takes real guts and determination to get past stage 1 and then past stage 4, again and again and again, and that’s why there are so few top athletes, really great musicians, truly great writers. It takes blood and sweat.
NOTE. Malcolm Gladwell talks about the 10.000 hour rule in his book Outliers. He says that to become good at something you have to do it for 10.000 hours. In his own words – see here. And I really recommend the book.
Posted on September 30, 2009 by Webule in Uncategorized
Repede, repede…..scriem cateva randuri ca sa aducem la cunostiinta celor de la BroHouse despre ideile noastre “marete” si de ce au ele nevoie de identitate.
De ce am aplicat pe ultima suta de metrii ??? Poate din neglijenta? Poate ne place sa lucram sub presiune ? Poate daca sunteti curiosi o sa aflati daca suntem selectati.
Idei avem multe….dar timpul ca sa le punem in practica lipseste cu desavarsire .Asa ca in ultimul timp s-au strans mai multe proiecte care, speram noi, vor prinde contur pana la finalul anului. Una distre ele deja a fost prezentat de catre Liviu. Este vorba de mosene.ro – idee scoasa la lumina de prichindeii care au aparut in viata noastra in ultimul timp.
Cum spuneam avem mai multe proiecte “pe teava” care au nevoie de identitate. Iata pe scurt despre ce este vorba :
Primul proiect este “Romania te privesc”
Este unul din proiectele care vrem sa le dezvoltam in urmatoarele luni. Este un site care va contine fotografii cu locuri din Romania si care va avea pentru inceput un numar limitat de “publisheri”.
Cel de-al doilea proiect este “build4.me”
Pentru inceput va fi un un site cu review-uri la aplicatii pe care sa le folosim online (gen TweetDeck ). Principiul dupa care v-a functiona site-ul este foate simplu : in fiecare saptamana sunt selectate 5 persoane care vor putea sa testeze o aplicatie online. La sfarsit vor descrie experienta legata de aplicatia respectiva. Se vor realiza clasamente, comparatii, etc….
Scopului postului este sa prezint o idee mai veche (adica matura) si sa o inscriu la concursul baietilor de la BroHouse.ro.
Acum doi ani lumea mea s-a schimbat cand a venit pe lume nepoata mea, Clara. Am inceput sa am o noua perspectiva si sa ma gandesc la lucruri pe care le abandonasem de ceva ani, precum povestile.
Inarmat cu noua perspectiva, cu ajutorul lui Catalin, a aparut idea unui site care sa fie de folos parintililor atunci cand trebuie sa-si culce pruncul. Acum cateva zile a venit si idea numelui perfect – MosEne (.ro). Da, domeniul este al meu si nu e nimic pus inca pe el .
Intrebarea este urmatoarea: Ce faci atunci cand iti pregatestii copilul de culcare (excluzand situatiile cand il legani pana iti pica mainile):
- ii citesti o poveste, daca este mai marisor
- ii canti un cantecel sau ii pui sa asculte un cantecel, daca n-ai voce deloc
- daca este foarte mic poate ii pui sa asculte sunete albe, vezi aici
Plecand de la cele trei puncte ne gandeam sa facem 4 sectiuni ale site-ului, cam in ordinea asta:
1) Povesti personalizate – sa dam posibilitatea parintilor se personalizeze povestile prin inlocuirea numelor personajelor cu numele copiilor, parintililor, bunicilor. Idea este similara cu cea ce vor sa faca cei de la Story Something (vezi prezentarea de la TC50). 2) Povesti cititie – Aici parinti si copii sa aiba posibilitatea sa urce povesti citite sau scrise si citite de ei. 3) Cantecele pentru copii – Aici parinti si copii sa aiba posibilitatea sa urce cantecele de leagan si pentru copii cantate sau scrise si cantate de ei. 4) Sunete albe – Aici sa fie puse sunete albe ce pot fi descarcate rapid, atunci cand e nevoie.
Posibile intrebari si probleme:
a) Drepturile de autor ale povestior si cantecelelor. Daca este vorba de povesti gen Andersen, atunci operele lor fac parte din domeniul public. Exista o lege care reglementeaza durata de viata a dreptului de autor ai aceasta este cam 90 de ani, daca nu ma insel. In aceasta situatie cel care citeste cartea are drept de autor pe interpretare. Bineinteles, carti gen Harry Potter nu pot fi citite si facute publice decat cu acordul autorului. La fel si la cantecele.
b) Moderarea continutului: Ca site-ul sa aiba relevanta este nevoie sa fie moderat tot continutul urcat ca sa nu existe situatii cand cineva urca povestea Capra cu trei iezi ft. Freddy Kruger, cu tot ca versiunea originala nu e prea departe .
c) Sectiunea cu sunete albe e probabil cea mai grea de realizat pentru ca e nevoie sa fie inregistrate sunetele respective.
Cam aceasta e idea. Ca echipa suntem doi programatori (eu si Catalin) si inca doua persoane care ne vor ajuta cu continutul.
Daca te intereseaza idea noastra si vrei sa dai o mana de ajutor, sau ai vre-o recomandare, obiectie, injuratura, incurajare, lasa un comentariu, da un e-mail, sau apeleaza la orice alt mod de comunicare. Suntem interesati!
After 3 months in which a local shop failed repeatedly and with incredible persistence to correctly manufacture the glasses I ordered from them, I found myself one morning walking down the street, and thinking what I was going to include in my already elaborate and nasty rant to be given to the shop people later that day.
By all means the situation gave me the right to be pissed, but as I was getting angry by just thinking about the incompetence of the people who work in that temple of stupidity where I made the horrible mistake to order the damn spectacles, it downed on me that many times we just feel entitled to rant when the smallest of things is not exactly like we dreamt.
Think about the last time you or a friend of yours complained a little too much and too loud about how a waiter was slow to take your order or how the salesman at X or Y shop was not that nice or so on. It’s like whenever we go in a shop or restaurant somebody gives us special permission to bitch about everything.
I believe that this eagerness to rant about all and everything, even when the reasons are not that good, is fueled by 3 things:
1. Very bad experiences, like my 3 month soap opera for some glasses, teach us that you have to get nasty in order to obtain what you paid for.
2. We tend to abuse our power as a customer, just because we can. The unfortunate guy or gal behind the counter has to smile, because “the customer is alway right!”.
3. It’s easier to bark at people than to be constructive.
I’m going to go and make the people at that eyeglasses shop wish they were never born, because of their incredible incompetence, lack of tact and, what I hate from the bottom of my heart, the inability to admit that they can’t do it. However, every time something will bug me in a shop or restaurant I’ll try to think first and not just act based on experiences like this.
NOTE: The same day I wrote the draft for this post Seth Godin, who I greatly admire, wrote this post, which is somewhat related. It’s a good, short read and I recommend it.
Don’t forget to tell me what YOU think about this? Are we licensed to rant when we enter a shop? Or should we be more human and think before we open our mouths. Waiting on you comments!
You just have to be smart! Which leaves me with little alternatives…
But if you’re wondering what I’m talking about than I owe you an explanation. In a post from a couple of days ago (see here) I said that I would kill for the chance to attend TED, which is a conference with which I am incredibly impressed. If you don’t know what TED is than read this, but the short story is like this: It’s the most incredible conference in the world were the smartest and brightest and most hardworking people on this planet go to tell everybody else how they changed the world.
If you ever dreamed about attending TED you probably wondered how you can do it. After some research I found 2 possibilities:
become a TED fellow. To do so I give you an e-mail received from Natasha Dantzig (see the end of this post) or check here. Hurry up! The 2010 registration will end on september the 25th.
or attend your local TEDx conference (hopefully you are lucky enough to have one) by submitting your world and life changing idea. If you are in Romania you must check this out or go here, for more details.
I personally don’t find myself worthy of such an honor YET. And that’s because even if I had an idea that has the potential to make this round dirt ball we call home a nicer place, I haven’t been too profoundly empowered by it to do something TED worthy. But mark my words – I will do anything in my power to be worthy of attending TED one day!
And so should you! If I’d have to guess what is the meaning of life than I think that doing your best and being extraordinary is a very plausible possibility for being it!
To paraphrase Hugh Macleod: Microsoft You Must Change the World or Go Home!
Some TED resources:
Thed TEDx Bucharest Twitter account is @tedxbucharest The TEDx Bucharest website is here The TEDx Bucharest LinkedIN group is here The TEDx Bucharest Facebook group is here TEDx Bucharest promo clip is here Here are the top 10 TED videos
The web was built as a way for scientists to communicate and not for running ads. However John Quelch hits the bulls eye by pointing out in this Harvard Business School article that the top most common activities on the web (searching for information, reading news, paying bills, watching a video, researching a product) are in one way or the other supported by advertising. And it’s hard, if not impossible, to argue against this.
So the question is – how much money is the web worth? I came across a few attempts of quantifying the web
Quelch mentions 3 in his article (the values are for the U.S. per year):
1. Employment value – look at how many work with something that has to do with the web =>$300 billion
2. Payment value – value of payments made across the web => $444 billion
3. Time Value – how much the time spent on the net is worth => $680 billion
Another interesting idea was that of Kevin Kelly who made an estimation of how much it costed to build the web as it is today. He made a calculation starting from the number of pages indexed by Google – 1 trillion and estimated that for every page a certain amount of programming and content creation is needed. The result is number 4 on our list
4. Take into account all the work from the last 6000 days, which is the rough age of the web, for the creation of the Internet as we know it => 1 trillion pages => ~ $5 trillion.
Yet a wilder estimation was made by Jason Kottke from Kottke.com who calculated the value of a tiny portion of the web, which is Facebook, in burgers, starting from a Burger King campaign. Read the details here. The result is number 5 on our list.
5. Value of Facebook = $12/user X 150M users = $1.8 billion valuation for Facebook.
That’s what I’ve come across until now, do YOU have anything else to add to the list?
” * by Carl Honore. The book itself is well written but not a masterpiece. The ideas Carl talks about are most likely not new to you (slow food, slow cities and so on). But it’s still an interesting read and something I would recommend for everybody to take a look at. There are many little things that you can take away from it.
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