The Unexamined Life

August 6, 2011

If you’ve never stared off into the distance, then your life is a shame.– Counting Crows Socrates is reputed to have said that “the unexamined life isn’t worth living.” Now, we can’t be sure that that’s exactly what he said because he never wrote anything down. In fact, everything we have from him was related [...]

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Convince Them

August 1, 2011

There’s this scene in Thank You for Smoking where the protagonist, a lobbyist and PR hack for big tobacco, is teaching his son how to argue (video below). As an example lures him into a debate over chocolate versus vanilla ice cream, and then segues into a digression about freedom, choice, and liberty. When his [...]

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Tell Me What You Want

July 29, 2011

Guess what: I’m not a mind reader. I have no idea what you’re thinking, and if you don’t tell me, I won’t know what you want. I’m not talking about relationships, here. I’m talking about life. Take business: in business, we have contracts, and these contracts outline the commitments of both parties. Okay, fine… But [...]

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Stop Fucking Complaining

July 25, 2011

“It may be the Devil or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.” – Bob Dylan You know when you get that request from your boss or a client, and you’re all like “What the f*ck? Really, dude? You need/want me to do that? Are you f*cking retarded?” Well, guess [...]

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Moving On

July 12, 2011

So I’m leaving NVI. I’ve been there about 2 years and have had a really good time, but it’s time to move on. No shit, the company has been great to me. The culture there is really down-to-earth and void of a lot of the bullshit office politics you find in so many place. My [...]

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It’s Nothing Personal

March 22, 2011

There’s this saying that came out of Second-wave feminism that “the personal is political.” Personally, I’ve never agreed with it, if only because I see politics as an exercise in the collective well-being. I mean, yes, we live in a liberal democracy where individual rights are supposed to be job #1. But politics is about [...]

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Calling Bullshit

March 18, 2011

Maybe you should stop being so passive-aggressive. Maybe you should stop blowing smoke out of your ass. Maybe you should stop beating around the bush and just tell people what you really think. Maybe you should have the courage of your convictions. Maybe you start calling bullshit on whatever looks and quacks like bullshit. Maybe [...]

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Being Your Own Expert

February 18, 2011

A couple years ago, when I was invited to speak at Nokia OpenLab, I met a guy named Jari Pasanen. He was a VP at Nokia and he delivered the opening keynote. Less than a minute into his keynote, he expressed his gratitude to Nokia for letting him be himself and still climb the ladder. [...]

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