spantz.org

appliedcoffeetechnology: The sad part about this is that it’s...

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:19:48 +0100

The sad part about this is that it’s plausible.

"Instead of asking ‘what problem should I solve?’ ask ‘what problem do I wish someone else would..."

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 14:12:57 +0100

“Instead of asking ‘what problem should I solve?’ ask ‘what problem do I wish someone else would solve for me?’”

- Paul Graham

Oliver Segovia wrote a piece on the subject of finding happiness. He argues that instead of...

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:25:23 +0100

Oliver Segovia wrote a piece on the subject of finding happiness. He argues that instead of following our passions, we should focus on finding big problems:

Like myself, today’s twentysomethings were raised to find our dreams and follow them. But it’s a different world. And as the jobless generation grows up, we realize the grand betrayal of the false idols of passion. This philosophy no longer works for us, or at most, feels incomplete. So what do we do? I propose a different frame of reference: Forget about finding your passion. Instead, focus on finding big problems.

Putting problems at the center of our decision-making changes everything. It’s not about the self anymore. It’s about what you can do and how you can be a valuable contributor. People working on the biggest problems are compensated in the biggest ways. I don’t mean this in a strict financial sense, but in a deeply human sense. For one, it shifts your attention from you to others and the wider world. You stop dwelling. You become less self-absorbed. Ironically, we become happier if we worry less about what makes us happy.

I think he hits the nail on the head. Humans are hard-wired problem solvers. Further, we get satisfaction from tending to the needs of others. A clear line of sight to the customer is important for job satisfaction and feeling passionate about what we do. Steve Denning expresses it well in The Leader’s Guide to Radical Management:

The meaning that we see in work resides in the responses of the people for whom we are doing the work.

And my personal favorite:

The meaning of the software we’re coding doesn’t lie in bits and bytes; it’s in the cool things that users can do with the software.

swedishproblems: cred: ticktockguy god jul alla fina :’)

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 18:53:26 +0100

swedishproblems:

cred: ticktockguy

god jul alla fina :’)

"When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a..."

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 02:12:17 +0100

“When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called a Religion.”

- Robert M. Pirsig

Photo

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 00:12:19 +0100

startupquote: Every feature has some maintenance cost, and...

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 22:03:59 +0100

startupquote:

Every feature has some maintenance cost, and having fewer features lets us focus on the ones we care about and make sure they work very well.

- David Karp

"Profit in a business is like gas in a car. You don’t want to run out of gas, but neither do..."

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 20:43:57 +0200

“Profit in a business is like gas in a car. You don’t want to run out of gas, but neither do you want to think that your road trip is a tour of gas stations.”

- Tim O’Reilly

ASCII art on steroids.

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 12:31:11 +0200

ASCII art on steroids.

"But I’ll argue that Accessibility is actually more important than Security because dialing..."

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:33:28 +0200

“But I’ll argue that Accessibility is actually more important than Security because dialing Accessibility to zero means you have no product at all, whereas dialing Security to zero can still get you a reasonably successful product such as the Playstation Network.”

- Steve Yegge

I don’t always like music by a musician’s offspring. But when I do, I like Teddy...

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 16:35:46 +0200

I don’t always like music by a musician’s offspring. But when I do, I like Teddy Thompson and Damian Marley.

Decay of an Artist

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 01:13:52 +0200

Shane MacGowan, original singer of The Pogues. I would love to see this guy make a Facebook Timeline. Until then. Two songs (Spotify): long ago, more recent. I can’t be the only one to like the rough version better.

At my job, I'm the youngest programmer there

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 14:28:00 +0200

Youngest at 23 here. Then again, we’re four programmers and the oldest one is 25.

appliedcoffeetechnology:

Is it just my imagination or is that cat writing in lisp?

zombiechan:

They’re all in their 30’s while I’m 21. I’m pretty sure this is how they view me.

“Southeners love stories about cats, dogs, and swinging doors....

Sat, 10 Sep 2011 13:06:13 +0200

“Southeners love stories about cats, dogs, and swinging doors. They can use these three inputs and create an analogy for anything.”

"Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without..."

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 20:21:57 +0200

“Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking.”

- Alfred North Whitehead

"As Apple stockpiles more money from product sales than is held by all countries combined, we..."

Sun, 07 Aug 2011 17:28:56 +0200

“As Apple stockpiles more money from product sales than is held by all countries combined, we eventually elect the be-polo-necked one as our Great iLeader, and are left with a single world government WITH ONLY ONE BUTTON!”

- The Apple-arity, Alternatives to the Singularity

"A ship in harbor is safe—but that is not what ships are built for."

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 19:57:49 +0200

“A ship in harbor is safe—but that is not what ships are built for.”

- John A. Shedd

Why Steve Jobs Couldn’t Find a Job Today

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 15:40:27 +0200

Why Steve Jobs Couldn’t Find a Job Today:

Ask the question, “If Steve Jobs (or his clone) showed up at our company asking for a job – would we give him one?” Don’t forget, the Apple Board fired Steve Jobs some 20 years ago to give his role to a less creative, but more “professional,” John Scully. Mr. Scully was subsequently fired by the Board for creatively investing too heavily in the innovative Newton – the first PDA – to be replaced by a leadership team willing to jettison this new product market and refocus all attention on the Macintosh. Both CEO decisions turned out to be horrible for Apple, and it was only after Mr. Jobs returned to the company that its fortunes re-blossomed when the company replaced outdated industrial management philosophies with innovation. But, oh-so-close the company came to complete failure before re-igniting the innovation jets.

"We can wave banners about ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’, but they tend to say, in..."

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 13:57:20 +0200

“We can wave banners about ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’, but they tend to say, in smaller print, ‘Made in China’.”

- Charles Moore

What everyone should know about the human eye

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 22:36:28 +0200

What everyone should know about the human eye