One of the topics that came up in conversation last night with Wes’s crowd was whether people wanted to live forever. Opinions varied; some people felt that without the pressure of death, we would never get around to doing anything at all – procrastination would always win out. Others felt strongly that life was too […]
Category: thoughts
The Passionate Self
I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea of passion since my post about narcissism. It’s also come up in a variety of places, from conversations I’ve had with friends, to books I’m reading. I don’t know if this is one of those coincidental things, or because the universe is trying to tell me something, […]
Goals in life
I was talking to my friend Wes over the weekend, and he mentioned a talk he’d seen by Charlie Munger, right hand man of Warren Buffett. Munger apparently has a background in economics and law, and mentioned in his talk about how he had benefitted repeatedly from having a broader background than most in his […]
Narcissism
A couple days ago, Kathy Sierra put up a post at her blog Creating Passionate Users where she invited her readers to introduce themselves. Most of her questions were pretty standard, but she stuck one in the middle that made me think: “One thing you’re passionate about (qualifier: must be something you are always trying […]
The irreversibility of life
I mentioned in my last post that one reason why rapid prototyping would work for life is that “very little in life is irreversible”. Some people might disagree with that assumption. For example, I just moved all the way across the country, leaving behind friends and family, which is a fairly drastic move. But, as […]
Rapid prototyping of life
As I mentioned in the last post, I spent a few hours talking with my coworker and her friend after seeing a show together on Friday evening. Her friend is also a software developer, and is, like me, a big fan of rapid prototyping (as I mention in my reviews of books like Experimentation Matters […]
Thoughts on manipulation
After finishing the Dale Carnegie a couple days ago, I started reading the Cialdini. I have somewhat mixed feelings about these books. These techniques take advantage of all sorts of triggers that have been implanted into us by society. And in the large scale, such triggers are what have enabled human society to exponentially advance. […]
How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie
Amazon link I read this book once long ago, but Joel insisted I re-read it after starting last week. So I took it home for the weekend and read it while taking breaks from unpacking. It’s a quick read, with short chapters. And it’s excellent. What’s interesting to me is that I totally didn’t appreciate […]
Self branding
I was walking down the street on my way back to the hotel this evening, and saw a guy wearing a Cubs t-shirt. I instantly felt a bit of kinship with him. I’ve commented on the way sports provides an instant community before, but it was a little bit bizarre, honestly. Maybe it was because […]
Rules and people
I’m feeling kind of braindead after dealing with logistics for two or three weeks straight, but I’ve got tonight off from socializing so let’s see if I can cobble together an actual post. This is mostly built off of a conversation I had with a friend recently where we were discussing different management styles. I […]
