What will undo any boundary is the awareness that it is our vision, and not what we are viewing, that is limited.
—James. P Carse
Chopping problems down
My primary training in troubleshooting (and cursing) came at my father’s side, hovering over the engine of every car my parents ever owned, accompanied by his endless appeals to “point the light over here dammit”. That training (more the troubleshooting than the cursing, but ok, both) has served me well in working with technology and systems over the years.
A while back, [Read more…] about Chopping problems down
Get started. Then get inspired.
I get a kick out of walking the streets of NYC taking photos… spending hours hunting for interesting scenes and compositions. I haven’t gotten out much this year however. And like many things, one can get rusty quickly without consistent practice. [Read more…] about Get started. Then get inspired.
Managing Oneself – by Peter Drucker
At a basic level, career (and business, for that matter) can be thought of like this:
- What you have to offer.
- What the market wants/needs and is willing to pay for.
- Getting in front of your market.
- Telling the market the story of what you have to offer such a compelling way that they want to hire you.
As you progress through your career—or even change your career—you will continue to touch on all four of these points repeatedly. [Read more…] about Managing Oneself – by Peter Drucker
Why watch the same movie twice?
I’m a huge fan of revisiting good movies again and again over the span of several years. But not just movies—books, music, other works of art, foods. Anything of quality is fair game, even if I was only lukewarm to it initially.
An elegant answer to a personal question
While studying web analytics, I was exposed to the work of Avinash Kaushik. His writing is entertaining and always worth the time spent reading it. He could write an article called “The Best Sandwich I Ever Ate” and you would be hooked from the first word, as well as smarter after reading it than before.
During a recent Q and A on Yabbly, somebody tossed him a rather personal question:
Question
What is the purpose of your existence? Do you believe in God?
To which he replied:
Answer
I love this poem by Walt Whitman, and I believe we are here to contribute our verse. It is what I worry about, it is what I solve for.***
O Me! O Life!
BY WALT WHITMANOh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?Answer.
That you are here—that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.
I loved the fact that he didn’t dodge the question. He answered it honestly and concisely, but in a way that still lets him maintain his privacy.