tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72109362024-03-07T14:12:13.675-05:00Wish you were beerLight in the absence of eyes illuminates nothing. Visible forms are not inherant in the world, but are granted by the act of seeing. Events contain no meaning in themselves only the meaning that the mind imposes on them.sanjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08775172367511562715noreply@blogger.comBlogger795125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7210936.post-87786996270969607602012-07-06T13:31:00.003-04:002012-07-06T13:31:34.430-04:00Microsoft Expression Encoder Problems with Smoothwall/Squid proxyThis might save some headaches for somebody else who's been struggling to get Microsoft Expression Encoder Live streaming to work from an intranet to a cloud/Internet server.<br />
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Here's the two problems and solutions:<br />
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1) Expression Encoder triggers Linksys firewall DoS (denial of service) rule and blocks the HTTP POST from the encoder to the server. Turn off DoS checking.<br />
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2) Smoothwall uses the Linux Squid web caching proxy server, this interferes with long HTTP POSTs needed by Expression Encoder. Maybe setting the maximum block size to huge might work but turning off web caching definitely works.<br />
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Finally, we kept caching enabled so that our internal network stays zippy and used another port (8080) on our Azure cloud server to push streams and bypass the cache. 6 hours + 3 guys to fix this.<br />
<br />sanjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08775172367511562715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7210936.post-72728893039985946852012-06-01T17:05:00.002-04:002012-06-01T17:05:59.868-04:00the labyrinthStarted a new blog over here to ramble about stuff I find in the labyrinth of my mind <a href="http://simplysanj.posterous.com/the-cognitive-ladder-of-progress">http://simplysanj.posterous.com/the-cognitive-ladder-of-progress</a>sanjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08775172367511562715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7210936.post-71304691187698138352011-08-12T10:13:00.002-04:002011-08-12T10:17:34.376-04:00Some lessonsI haven't posted for a while so I was feeling a little guilty and put together a bunch of random thoughts that wouldn't fit on twitter. One problem with twitter is that deep thoughts get buried under a lot of noise. This seems like a much better forum to persist and preserve them. Here goes in no particular order.
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<br /><b>Lessons Learned</b>
<br /><ol><li>You’re body is getting progressively less useful after each decade. Plan to cram as much young stuff in as you can while you can still enjoy it and defer the other stuff till you’re old.
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<br /></li><li>You need meta-time to evolve. If you can’t break away and have a bird’s eye view of what you’re doing in any facet of your life then your big deep brain will be drowned out by the noise of your small helpless brain that’s struggling to stay afloat. You need the eagle-eye, the worm-eye will make you sad and helpless.
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<br /></li><li>You need to have peak experiences regularly to be productive. How can you think about going through life without the occasional spurt of adrenalized joy? Buying shoes isn’t going to help.
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<br /></li><li>You spend 15 years in school learning how to avoid risk, being penalized for taking risks and marginalized for risky behavior. Nothing awesome ever materialized without risk. A life without risk is a death sentence to die of boredom.
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<br /></li><li>There are no shortcuts for 99.999% of us. There’s only hard work, smart planning, focus, discipline and showing up. Yep, showing up is the hardest part.
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<br /></li><li>If you don’t have a goal, a deal that you’ve made for yourself, a destination that you’ve planned then you’re just a pawn in somebody else’s plan.
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<br /></li><li>Forty five to ninety million heartbeats, that’s what it takes to become a world class master at something. That’s from the 10,000 hour theory. If you spend any less time trying to master something, you’ll become awesomely mediocre.
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<br /></li><li>Practice and repetition are useless without risk. If you keep doing the same thing over and over you will plateau, stagnate and then decay. If you aren’t falling, crashing, scaring the shit out of yourself then you’re rolling backwards.
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<br /></li><li>Persistence is underrated. Most people never realize that persistence is the iceberg under the water that you can’t see. Success is the tiny nub sticking out on top.
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<br /></li><li>There’s no such thing as luck but without training yourself to exploit opportunity, you’ll miss them as they pass.
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<br /></li><li>Sadly, society doesn’t really care about your pain. Only when they feast on the failure of the fortunate, then sorrow becomes a spectator sport without any trace of empathy. See Amy, Charlie, Lindsey, et al.
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<br /></li><li>We’re all spending way too much time fucking around on computers and phones and should spend a bunch more time outside making life better.</li></ol>sanjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08775172367511562715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7210936.post-83264848969896848692011-04-15T13:51:00.001-04:002011-04-15T13:51:26.483-04:00The Boulder of LifeSome days you roll the boulder uphill, some you chase it down. Some days it runs you over and some you can't even find it #boulderoflifesanjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08775172367511562715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7210936.post-56315905703251803802010-12-13T15:24:00.003-05:002010-12-13T15:35:14.440-05:00Wikileaks and PrivacyI'm a little conflicted about wikileaks. On one hand, this Assange fellow wasn't the guy who actually stole the documents, on the other his organization is the one releasing it and should be held accountable.<br /><br />Why I ask myself? Isn't leaked information free to roam the interweb? Shouldn't governments be more transparent? The answer to both is yes but there are some caveats.<br /><br />Caveat 1 - Privacy and Personal Security<br /><br />There are a bunch of sources mentioned in the leaks or at least that can be traced back to individuals who are now at various levels of risk from embarrassment right up to execution. This doesn't pass the smell test and is just plain wrong, malicious and evil. How about if he was leaking all of our tax filings, would that be treated differently? How about when somebody starts leaking stolen facebook account chat transcripts? What's the difference?<br /><br />Caveat 2 - Information Bunkers<br /><br />By leaking this information, all new records will be pushed deeper into the secrecy envelope and making transparency much worse than it ever was. This is already in play. All the screaming hacktivists and journalists haven't quite got this point.<br /><br />Caveat 3 - Our Security<br /><br />Some people believe that everything the government does should be public all the time. If that was the case, then our country and government would be under constant economic, cultural and physical attack by those governments, corporations, individuals and organizations that don't play those rules.<br /><br />It's a very sticky issue but I think that wikileaks is responsible for threatening security and privacy of individuals and countries and should pay the price. This isn't simple journalistic integrity at stake. Whatever happens next will redefine journalism and already has redefined inter and intra gov't secrecy for the worse.sanjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08775172367511562715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7210936.post-75372377197791159422010-10-17T14:22:00.001-04:002010-10-17T14:23:39.077-04:00Bad ReligionJust saw these guys live a day ago, forgot how much I love them:<div><br /></div><div><br /><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/31eMO9TlKT4?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/31eMO9TlKT4?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br /></div>sanjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08775172367511562715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7210936.post-64830821001981636862010-10-11T12:18:00.002-04:002010-10-11T12:31:59.846-04:00Samsung Captive w/Froyo quick reviewJust upgraded a couple of days ago to an unlocked ATT Captivate on the Rogers network. Had a blackberry plan and it took a call to Rogers to reset my connection before it worked (no charge). So here's the ups and downs in a quick review;<br /><br />Ups<br />- Killer OLED display, looks better than iPhone 4 side/side to me and iPhone owner<br />- More screen and less bezel than a lot of other phones (4")<br />- GREAT browsing experience with Flash 10.1, all video sites work fine<br />- Great homescreens user configurable<br />- Sweet live backgrounds<br />- KILLER FEATURE -> wifi hotspot woo hoo!<br />- Gmail is pretty much instant<br />- Super light and thin next to BBold and iP4<br />- Pretty smooth app store<br />- No iTunes required<br />- Easily load stuff through USB or micro SD<br />- Skype over 3G and Wifi (in Canada woo hoo!)<br />- very clear phone, good reception, good speaker phone<br />- Swype keyboard, getting used to it<br /><br />Downs<br />- Stock email app checks email every 5 minutes WTF??? Got to use Gmail for speed<br />- Need to be a techie to re-flash and screw around with settings to get 2.2<br />- Somehow got stuck in landscape mode after 2 days<br />- No LEDs to tell you missed calls, msgs or emails (WTF?? you have to unlock)<br />- No flash for camera<br />- No camera button<br />- No front camera for video conf (don't really care myself)<br />- No keyboard<br /><br />All in all, I love it and couldn't go back to my blackberry until I get some email crisis that this thing gorfs on. I think that the svelte form factor and light weight will make me eventually ditch my keyboard dreams (still craving the <a href="http://www.intomobile.com/2010/10/11/dell-venue-pro-windows-phone-7-t-mobile/">Dell Lightning</a>).<br /><br />Recommended? Yes, in 5 months when you get 2.2 or Gingerbread off the shelf.sanjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08775172367511562715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7210936.post-9904312737856521692010-07-05T19:41:00.001-04:002010-07-05T19:43:15.645-04:00Leadership lessons from the Dancing GuyThis is brilliant, also summarizes 'crossing the chasm'. So much to learn from this three minute video.<div><br /><br /><object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/fW8amMCVAJQ&hl=en_US&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/fW8amMCVAJQ&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br /></div>sanjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08775172367511562715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7210936.post-73332067913927823792010-06-24T09:19:00.003-04:002010-06-24T09:21:19.917-04:00Stalone SaysSly Stalone wrote this for 'Rocky', pretty powerful stuff:<br /><br />Rocky says -- "You ain’t gonna believe this...but you use to fit right here. (Rocky holds up his right hand) I’d hold you up and say to your mother, this kid is gonna be the best kid in the world. This kid is gonna be better than anybody I ever knew...and you grew up good and wonderful it was great just watching you everyday it was like a privilege. Then the time come for you to be your own man and take on the world and you did... But somewhere along the line you changed...you stopped being you...you let people stick a finger in your face and tell you you're no good...and when things got hard you started looking for somethin' to blame...like a big shadow. Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows, it's a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, nobody is gonna hit as hard as life! But it ain't about how hard you can hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep movin' forward, how much you can take...and keep movin' forward. That's how winning is done! Now, if you know what you're worth then go out and get what you're worth! But you gotta be willing to take the hits and not pointin' fingers sayin' you ain’t where you wanna be because of him or her or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain't you! You're better than that! ... ... I'm always gonna love you no matter what...no matter what happens...you're my son, you're my blood...you're the best thing in my life. But until you start believing in yourself, you ain't gonna have a life. ... Don't forget to visit your mother."sanjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08775172367511562715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7210936.post-13224295995788844982010-03-06T07:22:00.001-05:002010-03-06T07:22:22.014-05:00I wish I thought of this<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/U4wTFuaV8VQ&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/U4wTFuaV8VQ&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>sanjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08775172367511562715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7210936.post-6502266694577805192010-03-01T12:19:00.002-05:002010-03-01T12:19:47.017-05:00CONGRATS CANADA!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnBrm3A3vxaIaB0ZGfUFPm6st9DRkHisAJNkqNp-JvRcdU9hBpXoGFX-ByNu7yMSFAkjmIbubpM7LpPaTZ4kAhcHBI_XiyCUVKrw6pzKlR6tY7xhUWSu2HwpnXLPR1UG_9amXKSQ/s1600-h/Canada_flag.gif"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 360px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnBrm3A3vxaIaB0ZGfUFPm6st9DRkHisAJNkqNp-JvRcdU9hBpXoGFX-ByNu7yMSFAkjmIbubpM7LpPaTZ4kAhcHBI_XiyCUVKrw6pzKlR6tY7xhUWSu2HwpnXLPR1UG_9amXKSQ/s400/Canada_flag.gif" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443716352917902226" /></a>sanjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08775172367511562715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7210936.post-53791391760159812402010-02-28T12:30:00.002-05:002010-02-28T12:44:32.468-05:00Apple the Non-BenevolentYou know what, I really love Apple for ratcheting up the standards in the IT and consumer electronics industry but I really hate their arrogance and their followers arrogance. They are not benevolent in any way and I'd go so far as to say they're outright evil;<br /><br />- Destroying partners (Adobe premiere, lightroom, flash)<br />- Lying in adverts<br />- Bullying the press<br />- Bullying employees<br />- <a href="http://gizmodo.com/5482132/apple-threatened-me-with-legal-action-for-selling-a-broken-step-from-their-new-york-store-on-ebay">Bullying ex-employees</a><br /><div>- <a href="http://www.stromcode.com/2009/06/11/why-apples-approval-process-hurts-users-developers-and-ultimately-apple/">Censoring app developers</a></div><div>- Squashing third party hardware developers</div><div>- Barb wire guarding their closed eco-system</div><div>- Taxing every possible interaction with their system</div><div>- Leaving virtually no money for resellers</div><div>- Bullying subcontractors to <a href="http://gizmodo.com/5319594/apple-responds-confirms-foxconn-employee-suicide">suicide</a></div><div>- <a href="http://thenextweb.com/apple/2010/02/27/apple-child-labor-china-history-sketchy-manufacturing/?awesm=tnw.to_15kYj">Sweat shop/child labor profits</a></div><div>- Building crap that fails just like everybody else but covering it up</div><div>- CEO lies outright regularly ("nobody wants video" - "nobody reads anymore")</div><div><br /></div><div>Apple = Greed/Control/Monopoly</div><div><br /></div><div>The thing that pisses me off the most is that this navel-gazing hippy Buddhist CEO has done virtually nothing for the world outside of Apple while Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Ted Turner and all the other 'evil capitalists' give their billions away to the poor of this world.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>sanjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08775172367511562715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7210936.post-26808127524918378522010-02-26T20:30:00.000-05:002010-02-26T20:31:27.920-05:00How cool is this band?<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/y-PXoEbcBXU&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/y-PXoEbcBXU&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/lX4aeBkK2Cc&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/lX4aeBkK2Cc&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>sanjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08775172367511562715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7210936.post-68203149789605118712010-02-20T17:01:00.002-05:002010-02-20T17:02:36.441-05:00Sick<div>This is absurdly cool, watch this to the end;</div><div><br /></div><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="437" height="295" id="viddler"><param name="movie" value="http://www.viddler.com/player/baae75db/"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="flashvars" value="fake=1"><embed src="http://www.viddler.com/player/baae75db/" width="437" height="295" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="fake=1" name="viddler"></embed></object>sanjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08775172367511562715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7210936.post-31069895435320327052010-02-16T07:34:00.002-05:002010-02-16T07:37:28.289-05:00Minding the GapJust got back from London, swapping timezones almost effortlessly these days. I guess it helps that I usually get up at 5AM anyways so it wasn't much of a jolt.<div><br /></div><div>If you're ever in London you'd be out of your mind not to check out the Tate museum. It's bigger and better than Moma or the Guggenheim and unbelievably four out of five floors are FREE!</div>sanjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08775172367511562715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7210936.post-30336810706495709342010-02-16T07:10:00.001-05:002010-02-16T07:12:00.091-05:00Impossible thingsImpossible things really are mostly improbable things that need a little more time.sanjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08775172367511562715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7210936.post-40520430994578358962010-02-10T17:52:00.004-05:002010-02-10T18:00:37.503-05:00Acceleration versus VelocitySomebody asked me about this so let me follow up on my last post. In life you have to work to get good at stuff and solve problems. This work means that you have to get some inertia and do work and thus you have velocity like a car starting to head down the highway after a burst of acceleration.<div><br /></div><div>Here's the thing, once you have velocity you're tempted to stay there in cruise control where you have to apply very little energy to maintain your velocity. You won't grow or get better. Eventually your car will run out of gas and/or wear out.</div><div><br /></div><div>To get to a world class level you have to keep the inertia up, keep building momentum and acceleration. I know in some things that I do that I have peaked, I've accepted that. I can't push myself in everything but I understand the process.</div><div><br /></div><div>Have you peaked in what you really want? Did you stop taking risks? If you've peaked then you don't want it bad enough to eat dirt, fall down and keep getting back up until you've gone from good to great, from great to unbelievable. In that case you're only going to get worse from where you are and the sad thing is that you won't even see it.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>sanjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08775172367511562715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7210936.post-6045555567367498112010-02-04T08:39:00.005-05:002010-02-10T10:44:59.824-05:00MomentumOver the years I've done a lot of thinking about both the strategic and tactical aspects of moving my life and business forward and in the process have read dozens of books and probably thousands of articles on the subject. I have a new twist on this topic based on momentum.<br /><br />Here’s the deal, let’s say you’re stuck in a situation that you’re not especially thrilled with. It might be job, money, life related or whatever. Most likely the problem <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">isn</span></span>’t moving too far forward or backwards or enough that you’re not taking very much action on it or all the action that you’re taking <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">isn</span></span>’t going too far. So you end up in a place where your money is earning you .5% interest, your job is giving you a 5% bonus every year, your body is getting a little crappier and you’re moving forward <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">reaaaaallly</span></span> slowly. Maybe you <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">aren</span></span>’t moving forward at all, in fact maybe you’re moving backwards and you’re unhealthier, less employed, less compensated, worth less and less happy than last year. It happens to all of us, don’t take it personally. What I figured in these kinds of situations is that I need momentum. Momentum is different from velocity. With velocity, for example you know that you’re going to get a 3% raise every year and your investments are going to be worth 7% more on average every year. Momentum is what happens when your net disposable income is 2% more next year, 10% the year after then 40%, 100%, 300% and so on exponentially to some ceiling. Momentum in this case is the acceleration of progress or roughly your velocity squared.<br /><br />How do I get there? Well I don’t know how you are going to get there but I can tell you how I’m getting there. First off if you can’t stomach constant change, risk, perseverance and hard work then go ahead and get some Doritos from your cupboard and head back to to your couch to watch Lost reruns.<div><br /></div><div>There are at least three phases to getting leverage and thus momentum that work for me. Here’s what I know;<br /><br /><br /><b>Phase I – Stuck in the Swamp</b><br /><br />In this phase, you do things over and over the same way with the same results. You’re probably kind of disorganized or marginally organized, demoralized or lightly motivated and mostly stuck in the mud. An example would be your bills and mortgage payments. They come in at random times and you pay them at random times hopefully pretty close to the date where your paycheck or tax refund comes in. You might just be emotionally paralyzed by the accumulation of all the details that you have to deal with.<br /><br /><b>Phase II – Systems of Velocity and Acceleration</b><br /><br />The systems part is straight forward, in this phase you figure out systems to do these things that irritated you and held you back by putting in more effort than necessary one time to figure out properly how to handle things repetitively. You figured out how to arrange your bills, taxes, irritating neighbors, bosses, investments, hobbies, passions. You’<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">ve</span></span> done it so much that it’s been burnt into your lizard brain stump, the same one that knows how to breathe without thinking. At this point the little stuff that used to be big stuff is getting fired off from what has become brain muscle memory. Bigger stuff is becoming little stuff all the time because you’re making systems and once you’<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">ve</span></span> done it once its super easy each other time. Acceleration and momentum have begun.<br /><br /><b>Phase III – Systems of Systems</b><br /><br />This part is where it gets really interesting. So you’re firing off systems like they’re popcorn and hopefully you’re delegating the systems to other people and things are moving forward pretty fast. You’re the pioneer, you figure stuff out using perseverance, brains and balls. You <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">systemize</span></span> it once it’s figured out then replicate, train less motivated people to use your system and reap the rewards and repeat. Cool, now you can create a system for creating systems. You can find people who already built systems or hire people who do nothing but figure out systems. At this point, you’re a system factory and everything you do revolves around sustainable, repeatable systems. This applies to almost anything, diet, health, money, work, hobbies, passions etc. You’ll now understand why the most amazing successful people are SYSTEMATIC but they won’t tell you so because their system is the same one that convinced you that there's a pill to cure your fat ass. It's in their best interest for you to not understand the system. The successful people who <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">aren</span></span>’t systematic generally specialize in a specific domain where they mastered a single system and when that domain collapses so does their success (Vanilla Ice anyone?).<br /><br /><b>Phase IV, V, VI – Systems<sup> ^ 3 +</sup></b><br /><br />I <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">couldn</span></span>’t exactly tell you much about this phase but this is where <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">VC</span></span>’s, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">uber</span></span> banks, mafias and overlay governments live. I’ll lay it out for you when I get there if they haven't killed me first.<br /></div>sanjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08775172367511562715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7210936.post-25512487554966240852010-02-01T20:27:00.001-05:002010-02-01T20:27:29.561-05:00Diggin this<object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Q77YBmtd2Rw&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Q77YBmtd2Rw&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>sanjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08775172367511562715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7210936.post-46537378810349234192010-01-22T17:29:00.000-05:002010-01-22T17:29:05.810-05:00What deux yeux have teux deux teuxday?Awesome!! teuxdeux (toodoo) is a great to do list app that mirrors how I currently arrange to do lists in excel <a href="http://teuxdeux.com/">http://teuxdeux.com/</a>sanjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08775172367511562715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7210936.post-7060038600958605012010-01-15T17:09:00.002-05:002010-01-15T17:15:10.830-05:00Why do I have the ugliest blog since 1997?Well frankly my blog is ugly and slightly absurd by design. My first blog was in 1997 on what at the time was a superbly designed site complete with all kinds of slick streaming audio/video, community features, blah blahs and all that.<div><br /></div><div>Today I don't care too much about the regular web but do care about passing on some thoughts that might be of value. I'd like more to think of myself as an elder statesman of blogging, technology and startups and thus my blog is much uglier than anything I had in '97 and will probably get uglier still as I bath in the retro beauty of ugly HTML.</div><div><br /></div><div>Heck, maybe I'll even embed some flashing java applets for shits and giggles.</div>sanjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08775172367511562715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7210936.post-40326669293019992212010-01-13T14:48:00.000-05:002010-01-13T14:49:25.302-05:00Another post on the science of motivation<object width="446" height="326"><param name="movie" value="http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><param name="bgColor" value="#ffffff"></param> <param name="flashvars" value="vu=http://video.ted.com/talks/dynamic/DanielPink_2009G-medium.flv&su=http://images.ted.com/images/ted/tedindex/embed-posters/DanielPink-2009G.embed_thumbnail.jpg&vw=432&vh=240&ap=0&ti=618&introDuration=16500&adDuration=4000&postAdDuration=2000&adKeys=talk=dan_pink_on_motivation;year=2009;theme=the_creative_spark;theme=new_on_ted_com;theme=speaking_at_tedglobal2009;theme=not_business_as_usual;event=TEDGlobal+2009;&preAdTag=tconf.ted/embed;tile=1;sz=512x288;" /><embed src="http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf" pluginspace="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" bgColor="#ffffff" width="446" height="326" allowFullScreen="true" flashvars="vu=http://video.ted.com/talks/dynamic/DanielPink_2009G-medium.flv&su=http://images.ted.com/images/ted/tedindex/embed-posters/DanielPink-2009G.embed_thumbnail.jpg&vw=432&vh=240&ap=0&ti=618&introDuration=16500&adDuration=4000&postAdDuration=2000&adKeys=talk=dan_pink_on_motivation;year=2009;theme=the_creative_spark;theme=new_on_ted_com;theme=speaking_at_tedglobal2009;theme=not_business_as_usual;event=TEDGlobal+2009;"></embed></object>sanjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08775172367511562715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7210936.post-13705558298928886422010-01-07T19:15:00.002-05:002010-01-07T19:22:03.281-05:00Second post of the yearShit, last year my first post of the year was something about a bug in Microsoft Excel. Turned out to be my most linked and most popular post to this day. Still, it was a real drag to have that as my first post. This year I went and did it again, my first post was a slide deck about corporate culture. I fucked up, what can I say. Anyways, happy new year.<div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.twitter.com/simplysanj">Oh yeah, follow me on twitter please</a> ;).</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>....<a href="http://blogmaverick.com/2009/05/13/success-motivation/">and read this too while you're at it.</a></div><div><br /></div><div>...and watch this, it will cheer you up - I promise.</div><div><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6WHRxXY67UA&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6WHRxXY67UA&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /></div>sanjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08775172367511562715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7210936.post-24280114557785759432010-01-07T19:04:00.001-05:002010-01-07T19:04:26.870-05:00Netflix CultureCheck out this SlideShare Presentation: <div style="width:425px;text-align:left" id="__ss_1798664"><a style="font:14px Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;display:block;margin:12px 0 3px 0;text-decoration:underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664" title="Culture">Culture</a><object style="margin:0px" width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=culture9-090801103430-phpapp02&stripped_title=culture-1798664" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><embed src="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=culture9-090801103430-phpapp02&stripped_title=culture-1798664" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><div style="font-size:11px;font-family:tahoma,arial;height:26px;padding-top:2px;">View more <a style="text-decoration:underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/">presentations</a> from <a style="text-decoration:underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001">Reed Hastings</a>.</div></div>sanjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08775172367511562715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7210936.post-9965170489432749832009-12-23T15:11:00.003-05:002009-12-23T15:18:26.072-05:00A great repost of '50 tricks to get things done'<div><b>50 Tricks to Get Things Done Faster, Better, and More Easily</b></div><div>By: <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/16914789/50-Tricks-to-Get-Things-Done-Faster-Better-And-More-Easily">Devendra Kumar Choudhary on Scribd.com</a></div><div><br /></div><div>We all want to get stuff done, whether it’s the work we have to do so we can get on with what we want to do, or indeed, the projects we feel are our purpose in life. To that end, here’s a collection of 50 hacks, tips, tricks, and mnemonic devices I’ve collected that can help you work better. </div><div><br /></div><div>1. Most Important Tasks (MITs): At the start of each day (or the night before) highlight the three or four most important things you have to do in the coming day. Do them first. If you get nothing else accomplished aside from your MITs, you’ve still had a pretty productive day. </div><div><br /></div><div>2. Big Rocks: The big projects you’re working on at any given moment. Set aside time every day or week to move your big rocks forward. </div><div><br /></div><div>3. Inbox Zero: Decide what to do with every email you get, the moment you read it. If there’s something you need to do, either do it or add it to your todo list and delete or file the email. If it’s something you need for reference, file it. Empty your email inbox every day. </div><div><br /></div><div>4. Wake up earlier: Add a productive hour to your day by getting up an hour earlier — before everyone else starts imposing on your time. </div><div><br /></div><div>5. One In, One Out: Avoid clutter by adopting a replacement-only standard. Every time you but something new, you throw out or donate something old. For example, you buy a new shirt, you get rid of an old one. (Variation: One in, Two Out — useful when you begin to feel overwhelmed by your possessions.) </div><div><br /></div><div>6. Brainstorming: The act of generating dozens of ideas without editing or censoring yourself. Lots of people use mindmaps for this: stick the thing you want to think about in the middle (a problem you need to solve, a theme you want to write about, etc.) and start writing whatever you think of. Build off of each of the sub-topics, and each of their sub-topics. Don’t worry about whether the ideas are any good or not — you don’t have to follow through on them, just get them out of your head. After a while, you’ll start surprising yourself with some really creative concepts. </div><div><br /></div><div>7. Ubiquitous Capture: Always carry something to take notes with — a pen and paper, a PDA, a stack of index cards. Capture every thought that comes into your mind, whether it’s an idea for a project you’d like to do, an appointment you need to make, something you need to pick up next time you’re at the store, whatever. Review it regularly and transfer everything to where it belongs: a todo list, a filing system, a journal, etc. </div><div><br /></div><div>8. Get more sleep: Sleep is essential to health, learning, and awareness. Research shows the body goes through a complete sleep cycle in about 90 minutes, so napping for less than that doesn’t have the same effect that real sleep does (although it does make you feel better). Get 8 hours a night, at least. Learn to see sleep as a pleasure, not a necessary evil or a luxury. </div><div><br /></div><div>9. 10+2*5: Work in short spurts of 10 minutes, interrupted by 2 minute breaks. Use a timer. Do this 5 times an hour to stay on target without over-taxing your physical and mental resources. Spend those 2 minutes getting a drink, going to the bathroom, or staring out a window. </div><div><br /></div><div>10. SMART goals: A rubric for creating and pursuing your goals, helping to avoid setting goals that are simply unattainable. Stands for: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. </div><div><br /></div><div>11. SUCCES: From Chip and Dan Heath’s book, Made to Stick, SUCCES is a set of characteristics that make ideas memorable (”sticky”): sticky ideas are Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional Stories. </div><div><br /></div><div>12. Eat the Frog: Do your most unpleasant task first. Based on the saying that if the first thing you do in the morning is eat a frog, the day can only get better from then on. </div><div><br /></div><div>13. 80/20 Rule/Pareto Principle: Generally speaking, the 80/20 Principle says that most of our results come from a small portion of our actual work, and conversely, that we spend most of our energy doing things that aren’t ultimately all that important. Figure out which part of your work has the greatest results and focus as much of your energy as you can on that part. </div><div><br /></div><div>14. What’s the Next Action?: Don’t plan out everything you need to do to finish a project, just focus on the very next thing you need to do to move it forward. Usually doing the next, little thing will lead to another, and another, until we’re either done or we run into a block: we need more information, we need someone else to catch up, etc. Be as concrete and discrete as possible: you can’t “install cable”, all you can do is “call the cable company to request cable installation”. </div><div><br /></div><div>15. The Secret: There is no secret. </div><div><br /></div><div>16. Slow Down: Make time for yourself. Eat slowly. Enjoy a lazy weekend day. Take the time to do things right, and keep a balance between the rush-rush world of work and the rest of your life.</div><div><br /></div><div> 17. Time Boxing: Assign a set amount of time per day to work on a task or project. Focus entirely on that one thing during that time. Don’t worry about finishing it, just worry about giving that amount of undivided attention to the project. (Variation: fixed goals. For example, you don’t get up until you’ve written 1,000 words, or processed 10 orders, or whatever.) </div><div><br /></div><div>18. Batch Process: Do all your similar tasks together. For example, don’t deal with emails sporadically throughout the day; instead, set aside an hour to go through your email inbox and respond to emails. Do the same with voice mail, phone calls, responding to letters, filing, and so on — any routine, repetitive tasks. </div><div><br /></div><div>19. Covey Quadrants: A system for assigning priorities. Two axes, one for importance, the other for urgency, intersect. Tasks are assigned to one of the four quadrants: not important, not urgent; not important, urgent; important, not urgent; and important and urgent. Purge the tasks that are neither important nor urgent, defer the unimportant but urgent ones, try to avoid letting the important ones become urgent, and as much as possible work on the tasks in the important but not urgent quadrant. </div><div><br /></div><div>20. Handle Everything Once: Don’t set things aside hoping you’ll have time to deal with them later. Ask yourself “What do I need to do with this” every time you pick up something from your email list, and either do it, schedule it for later, defer it to someone else, or file it. </div><div><br /></div><div>21. Don’t Break the Chain: Use a calendar to track your daily goals. Every day you do something, like working out or writing 1,000 words, make a big red “X”. Every day the chain will grow longer. Don’t break the chain! That is, don’t let any non-X days interrupt your chain of successful days. </div><div><br /></div><div>22. Review: Schedule a time with yourself every week to look over what you’ve done that week and what you want to do the next week. Ask yourself if there are any new projects you should be starting, and if what you’re working on is moving you closer to your goals for your life. </div><div><br /></div><div>23. Roles: Everyone fills several different roles in their life. For instance, I’m a teacher, a student, a writer, a step-father, a partner, a brother, a son, an uncle, an anthropologist, and so on. Understanding your different roles and learning to keep them distinct when necessary can help you keep some sense of balance between them. Make goals around the various roles you fill, and make sure that your goals fit with your goals in other roles. </div><div><br /></div><div>24. Flow: The flow state happens when you’re so absorbed in whatever you’re doing that you have no awareness of the passing of time and the work just happens automatically. It’s hard to trigger consciously, but you can create the conditions for it by allowing yourself a block of uninterrupted time, minimizing distractions, and calming yourself. </div><div><br /></div><div>25. Do It Now: Fight procrastination by adopting “do it now!” as your mantra. Limit yourself to 60 seconds when making a decision, decide what you’re going to do with every input in your life as soon as you encounter it, learn to make bold decisions even when you’re not really sure. Keep moving forward. </div><div><br /></div><div>26. Time Log: Lawyers have to track everything they do in the day and how long they do it so they can bill their clients and remain accountable. You need to be accountable to yourself, so keep track of how much time you really spend on the things that are important to you by tracking your time. </div><div><br /></div><div>27. Structured Procrastination: A strategy of recognizing and using one’s procrastinating tendencies to get stuff done. Items at the top of top of the list are avoided by doing seemingly less difficult and less important tasks further down the list — making the procrastinator highly productive. The trick is to make sure the items at the top are apparently urgent — with pressing deadlines and apparently large consequences. But, of course, they aren’t really all that urgent. Structured procrastination requires a masterful skill at self-deception, which fortunately bigtime procrastinators excel at. </div><div><br /></div><div>28. Personal Mission Statement: Write a personal mission statement, and use it as a guide to set goals. Ask if each goal or activity moves you closer to achieving your mission. If it doesn’t, eliminate it. Periodically review and revise your mission statement. </div><div><br /></div><div>29. Backwards Planning: A planning strategy that works from the goal back to your next action. Start with the end goal in mind. What do you have to have in place to accomplish it? OK, now what do you have to have in place to accomplish what you have to have in place to accomplish your end goal? And what do you have to have in place to accomplish that? And so on, back to something you already have in place and/or can put in place immediately. That’s your next action. </div><div><br /></div><div>30. Tune Out: Create a personal privacy zone by wearing headphones. People are much more hesitant to interrupt someone wearing headphones. Note: actually listening to music through your headphones is optional — nobody knows but you. </div><div><br /></div><div>31. Write It Down: Don’t rely on your memory as your system. Write down the things you need to do, your schedule, anything you might need to refer to, and every passing thought so you can relax, knowing you won’t forget. Use your brain for thinking, use paper or your computer for keeping track of stuff. </div><div><br /></div><div>32. Gap Time: The little blocks of time we have during the day while waiting for the bus, standing in line, waiting for a meeting to start, etc. Have a list of small, 5-minute tasks that you can do in these moments, or carry something to read or work on to make the most of these spare minutes. </div><div><br /></div><div>33. Monotasking: We like to think of ourselves as great multitaskers, but we aren’t. What we do when we multitask is devote tiny slices of time to several tasks in rapid succession. Since it takes more than a few minutes (research suggests as long as 20) to really get into a task, we end up working worse and more slowly than if we devoted longer blocks of time to each task, worked until it was done, and moved on to the next one. </div><div><br /></div><div>34. Habits: Habits are as much about the way we see and respond to the world as about the actions we routinely take. Examine your own habits and ask what they say about your relation to the world — and what would have to change to create a worldview in which your goals were attainable. </div><div><br /></div><div>35. Triggers: Place meaningful reminders around you to help you remember, as well as to help create better habits. For example, put the books you need to take back to the library in front of the door, so you can’t leave the house without seeing them and remembering they need to go back. </div><div><br /></div><div>36. Unclutter: Clutter is anything that’s out of place and in the way. IT’s not necessarily neatness — someone can have a rigorously neat workspace and not be able to get anything done. It’s being able to access what you need, when you need it, without breaking the flow of your work to find it. Figure out what is “clutter” in your working and living spaces, and fix that. </div><div><br /></div><div>37. Visualize: Imagine yourself having accomplished your goals. What is your life like? Are you who you want to be? If not, rethink your goals. If so, then visualize yourself taking the steps you need to take to get there. You’ve got yourself a plan; write it down and do it. </div><div><br /></div><div>38. Tickler File: A set of 43 folders, labeled 1 - 31 and January - December, used to remind us of tasks we need to do on a specific day. For instance, if you have a trip on March 23rd, you’d put your itinerary, tickets, and other material in the “March” folder. At the start of each month, you move the previous month’s folder to the back. On March 1st, you’d transfer your travel information into the “23″ folder. Each day, you move the previous day’s folder to the back. On the 23rd, the “23″ folder will be at the front, and everything you need that day will be there for you. </div><div><br /></div><div>39. ToDon’t List: A list of things not to do — useful for keeping track of habits that lead you to be unproductive, like playing online flash games. </div><div><br /></div><div>40. Templates: Create templates for repetitive tasks, like letters, customer reply emails, blog posts, etc.</div><div><br /></div><div>41. Checklists: When planning any big task, make a checklist so you don’t forget the steps while in the busy middle part of doing it. Keep your checklists so you can use them next time you have to do the same task. </div><div><br /></div><div>42. No: Learning to say “no” — to new commitments, to interruptions, to anything — is one of the most valuable skills you can develop to keep you focused on your own commitments and give you time to work on them. </div><div><br /></div><div>43. Unschedule: Schedule all your fun activities and personal life stuff (the stuff you want to do) first. Fill in whatever time’s left over with uninterrupted blocks of work. Write those into your schedule after you’ve completed them. Reward yourself after every block of quality, focused work. </div><div><br /></div><div>44. Purge: Regularly go through your existing commitments and get rid of anything that is either not helping you advance your own goals or is a regular “sink” of time or energy. </div><div><br /></div><div>45. One Bucket: Minimize the places you collect new inputs in your life, your “buckets”. Ideally have one “bucket” where everything goes. Lots of people experience an incredible sense of relief when everything they need to think about is collected in one place in front of them, no matter how big the pile. </div><div><br /></div><div>46. 50-30-20: Spend 50% of your working day on tasks that advance your long-term, life goals, spend 30% on tasks that advance your middle-term (2-years or so) goals, and the remaining 20% on things that affect only the next 90 days or so. </div><div><br /></div><div>47. Timer: Tell yourself you will work on a project or task, and only that project or task, for a set amount of time. Set a timer (use a kitchen timer, or use a countdown timer on your computer), and plug away at your work. When the timer goes off, you’re done — move on to the next project or task. </div><div><br /></div><div>48. Do Your Worst: Give yourself permission to suck. Relieve the pressure of needing to achieve perfection in every task on the first run. Promise yourself you’ll go back and fix any problems later, but for now, just run wild.</div><div><br /></div><div> 49. Make an Appointment with Yourself: Schedule time every week or so just for you. Consider the state of your life: what’s working? What isn’t working? what mistakes are you making? what could you change? Give yourself a chance to get to know you. </div><div><br /></div><div>50. [This space left intentionally blank]: This is a big list, sure, but it’s not an exhaustive one. The last space is left for you to fill in. What works for you? Let us know in the comments — or write your own list and link back to us!</div><div>‐ ‐</div><div><br /></div><div>From: <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/16914789/50-Tricks-to-Get-Things-Done-Faster-Better-And-More-Easily">Devendra Kumar Choudhary on Scribd.com</a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div></div>sanjhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08775172367511562715noreply@blogger.com1