a prince cannot rely upon what he sees in the periods of calm

a prince cannot rely upon what he sees in the periods of calm when the citizens need his rule, because then everyone becomes running, everyone makes promises, and each person is willing to die for him, since death is remote. But in times of adversity, when the state needs its citizens, then few are to be found. And this experiment is all the more dangerous since it can be tried but once. (N.Machiavelli, The Prince)

"Все беды происходят из-за недоговоренностей" (отец)

If you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original.

Остерегайся того, кто подносит тебе рюмку; не давай девицам больше того, что они стоят. (отец)

Вся экономика сводится к экономии времени (К.Маркс)

On the outside you are always changing, changing, and changing. On the inside - there is no change. (Prem Rawat)

man is not ruled by thinking. When man thinks he thinks, he usually merely feels

“The plain fact is that man is not ruled by thinking. When man thinks he thinks, he usually merely feels; and his instincts and feelings are powerful precisely in proportion as they are irrational.”
-Nicholas Murray Butler

”I deny nothing, but doubt everything.” -Lord (George Gordon) Byron

Жизнь - как линукс: Для знающих - это прекрасная штука. А для тех, кто в ней ничего не смыслит - она дерьмо :)

The only way on earth to influence other peole is to talk about what they want and show them how to get it. (Dale Carnegie)

Don't be afraid of enemies who attack you. Be afraid of friends who flatter you. (Dale Carnegie)

There's nothing else that kills the ambitions of a person as criticisms from superiors (Dale Carnegie)

A great man shows his greatness by the way he treats little men. (D.Carnegie)

The only way you can influence people is by giving them what they want. (D.Carnegie)

The difference between a goal and a dream is a written word.

Where there is will, there is a way.

Никто вам ничего не даст, пока вы сами не возьмете. Власть брали только сами. Никто власть не дает.

Только тот человек, который получает удовольствие от того, что он делает, может стать успешным. (Сергей Полонский)

Счачтьем считается только то, что вы сами для себя считаете счастьем. Успехом только то, что вы сами считаете успехом. Нет общей формулы успеха.

У каждого он свой.

Тот, кто жалеет себя, не может совершенствоваться.

Тот, кто заставляет себя достигнуть успеха, никгода его не достигнет.

Тот, кто читает себя правым, не может стать лучшим.

Кто слишком торопиться, ничего не достигнит.

“History never repeats itself ,as most people fear. People usually repeat history.” -Divine Chikobvu

# # “An injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult.” -Lord Chesterfield

“You can never lose anything that really belongs to you, and you can’t keep that which belongs to someone else.” -Edgar Cayce

A good speaker is not worth as much as a good listener

Most computer crimes are much like everyday "real" crimes - they are the crimes of convenience that could be avoided by erecting a minimal deterent.

"Success is not in what you have, but who you are." - Bo Bennett

Violence has always been part of our economy --Alvin Toffler

"From the first paleolithic warrior smashed a rock into a small animal, violence has been used to produce wealth.
Taking preceded making.
It may be just a fluke, but Roget's Thesaurus, which devotes 26 lines to synonims of the word borrowing and 29 to lending, devotes fully 157 lines to alternative descriptions of taking - including "capture, "colonize", "conquer", and "kidnap", not to mention "rape", "shanghai", and "abduct"."
--Alvin Toffler "Powershift" Ch.4 "Force: the yakuza component" "Blood and show-money"

Those who know do not say; those who say do not know. --Tao

"17. A security system is only as secure as its secret. Beware of pseudo-secrets." --Eric Raymond "The Catheral and the Bazaar"

14. Any tool should be useful in the expected way, but a truly great tool lends itself to uses you never expected. --Eric Raymond "The Cathedral and t

Perfection (in design) is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but rather when there is nothing more to take away--Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The fact that either choice is available makes both more attractive.

7. Release early. Release often. And listen to your customers. ---Eric Raymond "The Cathedral and the Bazaar"

6.Treating your customers as co-developers is your least-hassle route to rapid code improvement and effective debugging. ---Eric Raymond "The Cathedra

"10. If you treat your beta-testers as if they're your most valuable resource, they will respond by becoming your most valuable resource."
11. The next best thing to having good ideas is recognizing good ideas from your users. Sometimes the latter is better.

"I'm basically a very lasy person who likes to get credit for things other people actually do." Lazy like a fox.

Linus was keeping hos hackers/users constantly stimulated and rewarded - stimulated by the prospect of having an ego-satisfying piece of the action, rewarded by the site of constant (even daily) improvement in their work.
---Eric Raymond "The Cathedral and the Bazaar"

The same applies to wikipedia.
8. Given a large enough beta-tester an co-developer base, almost every problem will be characterized quickly and the fix obvious to someone.

averaged opinion of a mass of equally expert (or equally ignorant) observers is quite a bit more reliable a predictor than the opinion of a single randomly chosen observer. --Delphi effect

4. If you have the rigt attitude, nteresting problems will find you. ---Eric Raymond "The Cathedral and the Bazaar"

3. "Plan to through one away. You will, anyhow."

2. Good programmers know what to write. Great ones know what to rewrite (and reuse). --E.Raymond

necessity is the mother of invention

release early and often, delegate everything you can, be open to the point of promiscuity. (Linus Torvalds's style of development according to EricR.)

prescient

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. (Arthur C.Clarke's Third Law)

If the traveler goes halfway of the travel each day, he can never reach his final destination, since there is always another halfway to go.

Zeno of Elea

"The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important." Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive” Henry Miller, Author

Life is about timing (Carl Lewis - Olympian)

preparation

Samuel Goldwyn - "Give me a couple of years, and I'll make that actress an overnight success."

persuade the person that she or he originated it

High quality power is not simply clout. Not merely the ability to get one's way, to make others do what you want, though they might prefer otherwise. High quality implies much more. It implies efficiency - using up the fewest power resources to achieve a goal. Knowledge can often be used ti make the other party like your agenda for action. It can even persuade the person that she or he originated it.
..It can transform enemy into ally. Best of all it can circumvent nasty situations in the dirst place, so as to avoid wasting force or wealth altogether. (Alvin Toffler "Powershift", Chapter 2, High quality power)

empires of the future are empires of the mind. --W.Churchill

anything that can fulfill someone else's desire is a potential source of power

Despite the bad odor that clings to the very notion of power because of the misuses to which it has been put, power in itself is neither good nor bad. It is inescapable aspect of every human relationship, and it influences everything from our sexual relations to the jobs we hold, the cars we drive, the television we watch, the hopes we pursue. To a greater degree than most imagine, we are the products of power.
..It is a dimension of all human relationships. It is, in fact, the reciprocal of desire, and, since human desires are infinitely varied, anything that can fulfill someone else's desire is a potential source of power. The drug dealer who can withhold a "fix" has a power over addict.


(Alvin Toffler, Powershift)

depend on your own forces. Занимай командные высоты.

(contd.) However, if we desire to examine this argument thoroughly, it is necessary to consider whether these innovators act on their own or are dependent on others; that is, if they are forced to beg for help or are able to employ force in conducting their affairs. In the first case, they always come to a bad end and never accomplish anything. But when they depend upon their own resources and can use force, then only seldom do they run risk of grave danger. From this comes the fact that all armed prophets were victorious and unarmed came to ruin. For, besides what has been said, people are fickle by nature: it is easy to convince them of sth, but difficult to hold them in that conviction. Therefore affairs should be managed in such a way that when they no longer believe, they can be made to believe by force. (N.Machiavelli)

passion

whenever those who are enemies have the chance to attack, they do so with partisan zeal, whereas those others defend hesitantly, so that they, together with the prince, run the risk of grave danger. (N.Machiavelli)
(contd.)

The first thing to do to achieve your goals is to wake up.

труд вознаграждается (отец)

успех позводит тебе обрести еще большую уверенность в своих силах (отец)

Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Proverbs 4:7 - the Bible

"Liberty consists in doing what one desires." - John Stuart Mill

Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt (Shakespeare)

"Man is free at the moment he wishes to be." - Voltaire

discipline. Confidence in what you are doing.

Can you trade for a living and become a currency trader from home? The answer is yes anyone can, as forex trading is a specifically learned skill - but you must be aware of the pitfalls and unique challenges it presents…

Let me give you a rather inspiring story, to get you in the mood to trade for a living.

It’s a famous experiment and it was conducted by trading legend Richard Dennis.

He always believed that traders were made, not born and with the right education and mindset, anyone had the potential to make money. He decided to prove the point.

He gathered a group of people together, who only had one thing in common - they had never traded before. In the group there was an actor, a security guard and a female auditor, so a diverse group and he set about teaching them to trade.

They had 14 days training, were given live accounts and went on to make $100 million in 4 years - Dennis had achieved what he set out to prove.

This throws up the question - if anyone can learn and succeed, why do 95% of traders lose their money?

The answer is trading is NOT Just about learning a method, it’s about executing it with discipline.

Most traders have no idea of the reality of forex trading and the pressure it puts on you mentally.

You need to stay cool, calm and disciplined while your emotions are screaming at you to do the opposite. You have to stay on course, when the market is doing this to you:

- Giving you a string of losses and making you look stupid so you doubt your method
- You need to trade against the majority view and we are pack animals by nature and don’t like to be isolated
- Whenever you have a position, greed and fear linger in the background

Many people will tell you that you can avoid long, losing periods. You can’t, even the best traders have drawdown periods, that last for many weeks also, if you think holding a position is easy when everyone disagrees with you - you probably haven’t traded.

Dennis of course knew the above.

It’s all well and good having a sound method - but you need to be able to execute it with discipline - if you can’t do this, you don’t have a system!

Simplicity Works

Many people think forex trading systems need to be complicated but they don’t.

Dennis taught a simple long term trend following breakout system, anyone could understand.

He however did more than give them a method, he gave them confidence by not telling them to follow him - but gave them all the reasons why the system worked. They would then he assumed, have the discipline to trade through losing periods with strict money management tools.

A Graphic Illustration of Discipline

In interviews with the group, they often noted the system was not hard to learn - but holding their discipline was.

How difficult it was, can be seen by the varying results.

They were successful as a group - but some more than others. If you want the perfect example of how difficult discipline can be, then this example proved it.

Most traders lose, because they don’t have confidence in what they are doing, or a set plan and most traders can’t keep their emotions in check.

You Don’t Need to Work Hard

Many traders think working hard, or using complicated systems can help them but they can’t. We have seen vast advances in software and forecasting in the last 30 years yet, the same percentage losses - 95%. So trading is reliant on “something else” and its mindset.

Trading is all about the combination of method and mindset.

Anyone can learn a successful method however not everyone can get the right mindset to apply it.

So can you trade for a living?

The answer is the opportunity is there for all, if you are prepared for a unique exciting, challenge and prepared to do the basics and understand discipline is the key, you could trade for a living or earn yourself a lucrative second income.

beleiving in Dao is easy, the difficulty lies in living it.

anyone who is the course of another becoming powerful comes to ruin himself; because that power has been brought about by him either through cunning or by force; and both of these two qualities are suspect to the one who has become powerful.

(N.Machiavelli)

war cannot be avoided, but can only be put off to the advantage of others. (N.Machiavelli)

[Romans] never allowed them [dangers] to develop in order to avoid a war, because they knew that war cannot be avoided, but can only be put off to the advantage of others.

(N.Machiavelli)

убеждение, подача себя и своих идей

..наибольших успехов добиваются те люди, которые в добавление к своим знаниям обладают еще и умением говорить и склонять к своей точке зрения, умением подавать себя и свои идеи.

(Лоуэлл Томас)

If you want to use FreeBSD, you must make the jump from eating what the vendor gives you to learning how to cook. (Michael W.Lucas)

men must be either caressed or wiped out

It should be noted that men must be either caressed or wiped out; because they will avenge minor injuries, but cannot do so for grave ones. Any harm done to a man must be of the kind that removes any fear of revenge.

(N.Machiavelli The Prince, III of Mixed Principalities)

Success is all about fight for what you want. (Socrates)

insanity - is repeatedly doing the same things over and over and expecting a different result

feel

By being on the spot, troubles can be seen at their birth and can be quickly remedied; not being their they are heard of after they have grown up and there is no remedy.

Миф 5: Творчество не может подчиняться системе.

Если вы верите, что системы продуктивности только для офисов и деловых людей, то вы ошибаетесь. Творческая работа - тоже работа: планирование, организация и побуждение к выполнению задач нужны в ней ничуть не меньше, а порой даже больше. Выполнение рутины - то, что часто игнорируют творческие люди, но без чего сложно представить хорошие гонорары, оплаченные счета и наличие всего нужного для работы. Система, позволяющая быстрее справиться с такой рутиной, позволит тратить не меньше, а больше времени на творчество.

If you want to succeed, double your failure rate. (Thomas Watson)

assume formlessness

never appear to be perfect

stir up waters to catch fish

create compelling spectacles

master the art of timing

be royal in your own fashion: act like a king to be treated like one

play to peoples fantasies

control the options:get others to play with the cards you deal

make your accomplishments seem effortless

plan all the way to the end

crush your enemy totally

when asking for help, appeal to peoples self-interest, never to their mercy or gratitude

make ither people come to you, use bait if necessary

So much depens on reputation - guard it with your life

Conceal your intentions

Always say less than is necessary.

Never outshine the master

He will win, who knows whem to fight and when not to fight (Sun Tsu)

Любовь и жалость чувства ПРОТИВОПОЛОЖНЫЕ.

Любовь тянется к всемогуществу. Жалость тянется к беспомощности. Это ясно?

Любовь усиливает могущество. Жалость усиливает беспомощность.

Хочешь, чтобы тебя любили, не жалость вызывай, а становись сильнее. Любовь тянется к сильному. Ибо именно ему она и необходима. Почему, уже объяснял выше.

Женская сила заключается, в очень простой вещи. В вере в себя, раз, и в вере в своего мужчину – два. вера в своих детей, три. Вера в себя на первом месте. Вы верите в себя, значит достойны прекрасной счастливой жизни.

Любовь проявляется в делах. А не в словах.

watch a video on media - revelation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu3fuEn6oRU
Mind Control

Share the rewards

Make aour work worthwhile, give it some purpose

In victory, learn when to stop. (N. Machiavelli)

Arrogance and overconfidence in the heat of victory will create yet more enemies. (N. Machiavelli)

Strike the shepherd and the Sheep will scatter. Strike at the source of the trouble and neutrolize their influence. (N.Machiavelli)

Think as you like, but behave like others. Blend in and nurture the common touch, so as not to create resentment. (N.Machiavelli)

Isolation is dangerous. It cuts you from valuable information, and exposes you to more dangers. (N.Machiavelli)

Be delibirately unpredicatable.

Keep them off-balance. Your predictability gives them a sense of control. (N.Machiavelli)

Use selective honesty and generosity to disarm. One sincere move will cover dozens of dishonest ones. (N.Machiavelli)

Learn to keep people dependent on you. Never teach them enough so that they can do without you. (N.Machiavelli)

Work on the hearts and minds. Coercion will work against you. You must seduce and use weaknesses. (N.Machiavelli)

Despise the free lunch. What is offered for free often involves a hidden trick or hidden obligation. (N.Machiavelli)

Informaion is power. So use that power.

Get outside your comfort zone

A ship in the harbor is safe, but that's not what ships meant for. (Brian Walsh)

always make a map

First things first

You need to create an environment that staff are proud of, especially if you are expecting them to go the extra mile. (Darl Kolb)

Imagination is more important than knowledge, for imagination is limitless. (Albert Einstein)

emotions are controlled by the oldest part of the brain, the same as motions

Self-restraint. Reward yourself.

Instead of aiming for perfection, aim for progress

use as many senses as you can

learn to see unusual in everyday life. Learn to wonder at the beauty of simple things.

Brain is simply a tiny chemical processor

"Brain is simply a tiny chemical processor, and it needs a steady supply of right chemicals if it is to function well - and these chemicals, more than anything, come from the food you eat" (T.Busan), drinks you drink, drugs you take (me).

Противоположность отваги – не страх, а сомнение.

Ведь совершать смелые поступки и добиваться успеха можно и не взирая на страх. Многие пожарные и другие люди, совершающие героические поступки, вовсе не считают себя храбрецами. Они постоянно испытывают страх – но они не испытывают сомнений. Они действуют без колебаний.

Рассказывая о своих отважных поступках, они нередко подчеркивают абсолютную целеустремленность, охватившую их в тот момент: “Я не думал об опасности. Я просто знал, что должен это сделать”. Более того без страха совершать храбрые поступки было бы невозможно: именно страх дает остроту реакции, необходимую для преодоления препятствия.

В обыденной жизни легкий привкус опасности создает эустресс (“хороший” стресс), т.е. психическую и физическую напряженность, позволяющую лучше справляться с задачами. Напротив сомнения никогда не приносят пользы. Они лишь заставляют нас попусту тратить силы и отвлекают внимание от цели.

Поэтому для того, чтобы обрети отвагу, необходимо очистить ум от сомнений. Сомнение многолико, но в любой своей форме оно служит выражением чувства неполноты. Мы сомневаемся в своих способностях, в своих мотивах, в том, заслуживаем ли мы успеха, в том, достаточно ли мы хороши, в том, оценят ли нас другие по достоинству, в том, насколько мы привлекательны, и т.д.

Многие сомнения – результат ранней обусловленности, сформированной родителями, учителями и целыми коллективами, который в той или иной форме постоянно внушали нам, что мы не достойны, ни к чему не способны и никому не нужны (между прочим все обвинения такого рода выражают лишь страхи и сомнения, преследующие того, кто их высказывает, а вовсе не истину о нас самих).

(Книга об аюрведе “Абсолютная красота” Пратимы Райчур.)

из рассылки Ю.Мороза

Don't mind going slow as long as you keep going. (Chineese proverb)

Control your destiny, or someone else will do it for you.

Begin with an end in mind

Dream big

A wise man should always enter those paths trodden by great men, and imitate those who have been most excellent, so if one's own virtue does not match theirs, at least it will have the smell of it. He should do as those prudent archers do who, aware of the strength of their bow when the target at which they are aiming seems too distant, set their sights much higher than the designated target, not in order to reach such a height with their arrow, but instead to be able, by aiming so high, to strike their target. (N.Machiavelli)

Tell about recent events - they have links in listener's minds.

If you never put your big rock down, you'll never put it.

Behavior is a function of our decisions.

A picture is worth a thousand words

'A picture is worth a thousand words' and therefore saves you a lot of time and wasted energy writing down those thousand words in your notes. And it is easier to remember.
(Tony Busan)

The difference between barbarian and civilized society is that civilized society can tolerate diversity (Mill)

Select the audience

There are always people interested in what you say.

Talk about themselves

About their problems.

Find a way to their decision-making.

What might do it? If it is information, than what is the best way to present it? where and when?

You can be very enthusiastic, understand a lot, but still present poorly.

think in pictures

you are constantly presenting

Look after your position in space.

less words

pause

highlight important staff

Veni, vidi, vici

"Je suis venu, j'ai vu, j'ai vaincu"

People go to war out of honor, fear or interest (Thucydides)

когда делаешь добро, не рассчитывай на благодарность. Иначе слишком больно будет.

demand what?

"Think about why firewalls succeded in the marketplace. It's not because they're effective; most firewalls are configured so poorly that they're barely effective, and there are many more security products that have never seen widespread deployment (such as e-mail encryption). Firewalls are ubiquitous because corporate auditors started demanding them. This changed the cost equation for business. The cost of adding a firewall was expense and user annoyance, but the cost of not having a firewall was failing an audit. And even worse, a company without a firewall could be accused of not following industry best practices in a lawsuit. The result: everyone has firewalls all over the network, whether they do an actual good or not.

Keep your options open.

Build in opportunity, but use it sparingly.

Lull them into a sense of complacency.

Build in opportunity, but use it sparingly.

Any operation can be aborted. If it feels wrong, it is wrong.

Don't look back; you are never completely alone.

Assume nothing.

Go with the flow, blend in.

Panem et circenses

Du pain et des jeux (du cirque)

live

If we really want to live, we'd better start at once to try; if we don't, it doesn't matter and we'd batter start to die.

bit by bit

"Intellectually, it's possible to absorb a lot from one reading, but you can form only a few new habits each day. (Unless, of course, they're bad habits.)

(Learning GNU Emacs, Third edition by Debra Cameron, James Elliott, Marc Loy, Eric Raymond, and Bill Rosenblatt @2005 O'Reilly Media, Inc.. p.2)

think of alternatives

It is important to see alternatives to understand the value of what you have.

man

'The notion of man (rén) is the fundamental element of Confucian thought. It can be summed up in the following statement: man gains fulfilment through his relationship with other men and with the natural world around him.'
(Eduardo Fazzioli 'Chineese Calliogaphy')

Judging versus perceiving

People who organize their life in a structured way and make their decisions knowing where they stand are said to be judging. Conversely, if they are flexible and roll with the punches, then they are said to be perceptive.

Extroverted vs Introverted (direct their energies inwardly)
Sensing (prefer facts) vs intuitive (implied or unspoken)
thinking (decisions are made objectively on the basis of logic) versus feeling (based on personal values)

love what you do

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

nonverbal

The way you talk about things make all the difference in
the world.
When you are talking you communicate emotionally. You want them to just FEEL whatever it is you are talking about.

Kleinigkeiten

.. Es is wahr, die Psychoanalyse kann nicht von sich rühmen, daß sie sich nie mit Kleinigkeiten angegeben hat. Im Gegenteil, ihren Beobachtungsstoff bilden gewöhnlich jene unscheinbaren Vorkomnisse, die von den anderen Wissenschaften als allzu geringfügig bei Seite geworfen werden, sozusagen der Abhub der Erscheinungswelt. Aber verwechseln Sie in Ihrer Kritik nicht die Großartigkeit der probleme mit Auffäligkeit der Zeichnen? Gibt es nicht sehr bedeutungsvolle Dinge, die sich unter gewissen Bedingungen und zu gewissen Zeiten nur zur Schache Anzeichnen verraten können? Ich könnte Ihnen mit Leichtigkeit mehrere Solche Situationen anführen. Aus welchem geringfühigen Anzeichen schließen Sie, die jungen Männer unter Ihnen, daß Sie die Neigung einer Dame gewonnen haben? Warten Sie dafür eine ausdrückliche Liebeserklärung, eine stürmiche Umarmung ab, oder reicht Ihnen nicht ein von anderen kaum bemerkter Blick, eine flüchtige Bewegung, eine Verlängerung des Händedrucks um eine Sekunde aus? Und wenn Sie alsKriminalbeamter an der Untersucung einer Mordtat beteiligt sind, erwarten Sie dann wirklich yu finden, daß der Mörder seine Photographie samt beigefügte Adresse an de Tatorte zurückgelassen hat, oder werden Sie sich nicht notwendigerweise mit schwächerem und undeutlicheren Spuren der gesuchten Persönlichkeit begnügen? Lassen Sie uns also die kleinen Anzeichnen nicht unterschätzen; vielleicht gelingt es, von Ihnen aus größerem auf die Spur zu kommen. Und dann, ich denke wie Sie, daß die großen Probleme in Welt und Wissenschaft das erste anrecht an unser Interesse haben. Aber es nützt meistens nur sehr wenig, wenn man den lauten Vorsatz faßt, sich jetzt der Erforschung dieses oder jenes großen Problems zuzuwenden. Man weiß dann oft nicht, wohin man den nächsten Schritt richten soll. In der wissenchaftlichen Atbeit ist es aussichtreicher, das anzugreifen, was man gerade vor sich hat und zu dessen Erforschung sich ein Weg ergibt. Macht man das gründlich, voraussetzung- und erwartungslos und hat man Glück, so kann sch infolge des Zusammenhanges, der alles mit allem verknüpft, auch das Kleine mit dem Großen, auch aus so anschpruchsloser Arbeit ein Zugang zum Studium der großen Probleme ergeben.

(Sigm.Freud Gesammelte Werke chronologisch geordnet.
Elfter Band äVorlesungen zur Einführung in die Psychoanalyse

1940 Imago Publishing Co., Ltd., London)

(

goals

The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.

Michelangelo

Ask always why. Be like a 3-year old.

If you don't ask questions, you don't get answers. If you don't get answers, you don't learn.

Think

Get into a habit of momentarily pausing for thought. When you hear your phone ring, don't just drop your pen and run to answer it. Take a split second to make a mental image of where you put the peb down. When you come in and put your keys down, again take a split second to form a mental image, noting where you put them down. In the same way, when you leave somewhere, take just a moment to scan around to make sure you have remembered everything.

Age-proof your brain//Tony Busan 2007

Do your best. Be prepared for the worst.

"This book is about preparation for compromise, but it's not a book about preventing a compromise. Three words sum up my attitude towards stopping intruders: prevention eventually fails. Every single network can be compromised, either by an external attacker or by a rogue insider. Intruders exploit flawed software, misconfigured applications, and exposed services. For every corporate defender, there are thousands of attackers, enumerating millions of potential targets. While you might be able to prevent some intrusions by applying patches, managing configuration, and controlling access, you can't prevail forever. Beleiving only in prevention is like thinking you'll never experience an automobile accident. Of course, you should drive safely, but it makes sense to buy insurance and know how to deal with the consequences of collision."

(Richard Bejtlich, The Tao of network security monitoring: Beyond intrusion detection, Preface, p.XIX)

Formalize

Boil any situation to its basic facts.

Right question is more important than right answer. To find an answer you can hire consulting firms. But if it was a wrong question their right answer will be wrong for you. (Wendell Dunn on 12.09.2008 symposium)

язык, будь он письменный или устный, помогает лучше понять. По сути это метод формализации.

Win through your actions, never through argument. (N. Machiavelli)

Triumph through argument creates resentment. Demonstrate, do not explicate.
(N. Machiavelli)

It doesn't matter what you think, it does matter what you do.


Tell me: Love isn't true. It's just something that we do.

Madonna

indifference

Die Mitteilungen, deren die Analyse bedarf, macht er nur unter der Bedingung einer Besonderen Gefühlsbedingung an den Arzt; er würde verstümmen, sobald er einen einzigen, ihm indifferentem Zeugen bemerkte.

Sigm.Freud
Gesammelte Werke chronologisch geordnet, Elfter band Vorlesungen zur Einführung in die Psychoanalyse.

drive for self-expression, or expressing self

Just why am I writing this blog? Why do people like talking while other people are listening to them? why people like leading?

Data-filters->information-combination->knowledge-rules->wisdom

You learn a lot more from your mistakes than from your successes.

Failure

If you are failing less than 90% of the time, than you are not setting your goals to your limit.

Sometimes the easy way out is the right way in

Self-defeating behavior: quitting to soon and assuming that the hard way is the right way.

Take life as it is.

Concentrate on your circle of influence and its expansion

There's nothing more futile than trying to change another person.

Busy enterpreneurs don't have time or energy to waste on feeling bad

Real self-respect comes from dominion over yourself, from true independence.

If you don't know yourself, if you don't control yourself, if you don't have mastery over yourself, its very hard to like yourself, except in some short-term, psych-up, superficial way. Real self-respect comes from dominion over yourself, from true independence.

Любовь меняет человека

Люди начинают встречаться, нравятся друг другу. Если возникнет любовь, то она меняет человека. Как сказала моя знакомая Мария, она делает из него тряпку. 

Любовь дает/забирает силы

Пишу по-русски, потому что любил русских. И слово люблю говорил по-русски.

Если любишь, "а в ответ тишина", то такая любовь забирает силы, делает слабее. Если же в ответ любят и тебя - то это даёт силы.

Organizing meetings

Information is based on May 13th, 2008 post in a Donnie Berkholz Blog

What works well:

• Send out a draft agenda in advance (say, 1 week). This helps avoid confusion and disorganization at the meeting, and it also allows you to have no “open floor” section at all, because all topics should have come up when you posted the draft. Settle on a final agenda a couple of days in advance.
• On the draft, say who should attend the meeting to discuss each topic.
• Be specific about the topic, so you stay focused during the meeting.
• For each topic, have a very specific goal of what will be accomplished at that meeting. If it’s a decision, exactly what will the vote be? If it’s a discussion, what points do we want to get out of it, and why is it happening during the meeting instead of on mailing lists?
• Prepare. All of the information needed to make a decision should be readily available by the time the meeting comes along. To aid this, say on the draft agenda what information will be needed.
• Stay relentlessly on topic. Cut off diverging threads early on, before everyone gets involved.
• During the meeting, get an action plan for each topic: What’s the next step? Who’s responsible for it? When will they have it ready? Make sure the person responsible personally commits to this–don’t just assign it to them.
• Take notes, and post a public summary. This summary informs and reminds people of the progress made and what progress needs to be made next. By being posted publicly, it also allows for discussion, clarification and correction.
• Keep track of unresolved topics, and keep bringing them up over and over so they can’t slip through the cracks.

What works poorly:

• Request topics on a mailing list, but don’t collate them into an agenda until after the meeting’s started.
• Do your best to ensure that people relevant to a topic don’t even know it’s going to be discussed, or don’t tell them what information you need from them.
• Have vague topics, so nobody’s really sure what you’re supposed to be talking about or what you want to get out of it. Feel free to branch out into anything that seems related, or really anything at all.
• If a topic isn’t resolved by the end of the meeting, forget about it. If it’s important, it’ll come up again, right?
• Don’t tell anyone what the results of the meeting were. If you have to release something, make it as hard to comprehend as possible, like an IRC log instead of a summary.

There's always a way if you're committed.

From 8Quotes -- Anthony Robbins

SOLVE method

Select the problem or Situation.
Observe, organize, and Define the Problem or Situation.
Learn by Questioning all Parts of the Problem.
Visulize Possible Solutions, Select One, and Refine It.
Employ the Solution and Monitor Results.

(from Winnie-the-Pooh on Problem Solving In which Pooh, Piglet, and friends explore How to Solve Problems, so you can too by Roger E.Allen and Stephen D.Allen)

Organising is like getting ready

because it forms associations in your brain.

Filters

We do not throw our doors of perception wide open or we would be totally overwhelmed. We have gatekeepers that we set on the doors: beliefs, values, interests, occupations and preoccupations all patrol the threshold to preserve us from sensory overload.

Все с детства знают, что то-то и то-то невозможно.
Но всегда находится невежда, который этого не знает.
Он-то и делает открытие.

А.Эйнштейн

The mind of a beginner is empty, free of the habits of the expert, ready to accept, to doubt, and open to all possibilities.

Shunryu Suzuki

“As soon as you begin to believe in something, then you can no longer see anything else. The truth you believe in and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.” --Pema Chödrön,

Nature does not come with labels attached. We attach them.

To know how to do something well is to enjoy it.

“The secret of joy in work is contained in one word - excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it.”
Pearl Buck,

“We only do well the things we like doing.”
Colette,

Imagination is more important than knowledge (E.Einstein)

The temptation for convenience prevents many people from discovering what it is they like to make.

It is cited from The myths of innovation by Scott Berkun (O'Reilly, 2007).
I would recommend this book to anybody who's ever asked himself a question, 'Why people average people are so dumb? Why aren't they interested in so many interesting things that are around us?'
'Humans don't always like to know things.' (Uwe Bergmann, youtube video)

I also came upon a video of a Scott Berkun's lecture, his blog, a
the book on O'Reilly, and a 74-minute conversation in mp3. But I have not watched/listened to them yet. There's a lot of other multimedia on Scott's personal website.

Do something different

Individuals with the most flexibility have the best chance of achieving what they want.

Change is the only thing you can rely on

Blaming rarely promotes learning

When you do not have to blame yourself or others, you become more open to learning and a sense of wonder. You also become more able to tolerate ambiguity.