Caption Contest Friday
I’m in a good mood and my brilliant mentor, noah, suggested I create a caption contest for the following picture:
Winner receives a $10 Amazon.com gift certificate. Leave your caption in the comments.
Winner: With my invisible knife, I stab at thee, foul editor.
PS: Photo taken with my new iPhone (on T-Mobile, ask me how!).
Do you need a personal assistant?
There’s a new lifestyle experiment circling the world right now: personal assistants (on the other side of the world). Tim Ferriss definitely popularized this concept with his book The 4-Hour Workweek.
As I sat and read the book I was in the mindset that “I’m a simple guy, I will never need an assistant.” In hindsight, I realize that was the wrong way to consider the idea. For some reason we’re of the thought that a lot of tasks we do are essentially “ours” that no one else could take over. That’s ultimately wrong.
Take e-mail for example: Tim has even outsourced (through a series of rules) his own email. You and I aren’t in the same position as Tim but think about other mundane tasks that can easily be translated to an assistant:
- Booking travel (15 minutes)
- Researching the iPhone and how to jailbreak it for T-Mobile usage (15 minutes)
- Researching the pro/cons of upgrading to a Macbook Pro (15 minutes)
- Researching the pros/cons of trying FireFox Beta 4 and if my addons will work with it (10 minutes)
- Monitor my financial accounts weekly and pay credit cards monthly (15 minutes)
- Write a nice thank you/nice to meet you note for people met at SXSW (15 minutes)
- Contact a company to get a refund (10 minutes)
- Contact another company to get a new download/activation code (10 minutes)
I created that list during the first two hours of my Friday morning. I put myself in the mindset: if I had an assistant right now, what would I ask them to do for me? I’ve already come up with almost 2 hours worth of work… during my two hours of work. That seems like a compelling reason to consider it.
I’ll be at SXSWi 2008
For those of you who don’t speak nerd, I’m going to the South-by-Southwest Conference in Austin, TX on Friday (through Tuesday). I’ll be attending the ‘Interactive’ conference which is a lot of people from the internet who think they’re forward thinking, amazing individuals.
In reality, it’s a lot of parties put on by a lot of hot new companies (everyone from Google to my Boulder buddies at socialthing!). Drinks, nerds, how can it go wrong?
I know a lot of cool people will be there (speaking and attending) and if you’ll be there too be sure to let me know:
- Phone: 303-835-3512
- Email: devin@reams.com
- Twitter: devinreams
See you guys there.
Will the president matter?
I’m excited for this next election. Definitely more than last time where I said ‘voting sucks‘.
But, I still want to throw out a few quotes:
“Teens are extremely socially aware, but favour participation through their consumption choices, because they believe corporations are more effective agents of change than governments.” Source
“The Zen master would say if you want to change government, you have to aim at changing corporations, and if you want to change corporations, you first have to change the consumers.” -Yvon Chouinard
“Governments are changed more often by bullets than votes.” -Lord of War
Our government isn’t going to change in the next 4 years. A few policies can be introduced by a president but for the most part, they still need the support of the people (the chain being legislation to lobbyists to consumers).
So, why do we have to wait for one day to vote to really change anything?
Patrick says a lot of great stuff about why he’s voting for Obama. But if we, as a country, are still fighting about war and religion I wonder how much else will really change.
Americans like sports. We like being on the winning team. A lot of us will fight just to make sure we’re the winners (and show that we’re more right) and will always remain the winners. So if we, the citizens consumers aren’t going to change how is government going to?
Never eat alone at work
Just don’t do it. Eating alone, though easier and more enjoyable sometimes (especially if you like yourself as much as I do) we should all do our best to become acquainted with the people at work.
If you’re very entry-level (and young, like myself) it seems very mature of you to invite a group of people to lunch. Taking the quick initiative to say “hey, did you bring a lunch?” is all it takes. I’ve tried my best to go to lunch with everyone in the office because it’s the only real time you can sit down and just talk. If your job is like mine you end up staying focused and serious all day–always business. This time lets you relax and hear a little about the people you spend so much time with. And we all know, work is so much more fun if you enjoy the people you work with.
Even if you’re just talking about work or laughing at shared past experiences you still build rapport. In a group of people at lunch, even if they’re talking about something I’ve never experienced it makes for something I can talk about later (hah, this is like that one time at _______ you were talking about). Plus, it’s better to be interested than interesting (people will like you more).
It just makes sense, I don’t know how else to put it: never eat alone at work.
