Entries Tagged 'miscellaneous' ↓

Jotted down in a file I keep called “life rules”, I have a simple phrase. Create, don’t destroy. It sounds trite, and perhaps it is. But I firmly believe that the most successful people in the world follow this principle every day, whether or not they have specifically written it anywhere. While it may not make you rich and famous, if you spend your time creating instead of destroying, it will undoubtedly make your life far better.

What does it mean, “create, don’t destroy”? There are countless opportunities every day where we make decisions to add to or subtract from something. Projects at work started by an adversary that you’d rather see fail, cynical observations that don’t have any constructive benefit, favors that you could easily do for someone, but choose not to — these are all chances that we have to build on something, but instead choose to detract from it. There are all sorts of underlying roots — jealousy, political gain, personal grudges — but in each case the effort in the task is designed to undermine.

Instead, spend your time improving anything and everything you can. Even if you secretly want a project to fail, put that aside and contribute earnestly. It might feel good or be easy to criticize or be cynical, and often it is. Far more difficult is actually helping out and building. You’ll find, however, that those that build are far better rewarded and end up far happier than those that destroy. Creation itself is an additive process — the more you create, the more you’ll be able to create. Why waste effort in making something fail when you could have a hand in making it succeed?

Last week, while I was making sure my privacy settings were fined-tuned after reading all the buzz about Google Buzz, I stumbled onto a neat feature of Google Accounts that I hadn’t seen before. It’s called Dashboard, and it’s a great concept: most of the information that Google has accumulated about you is collected in one place, and you’re given options to manage how you share it all.

If you’re like me, you have almost a dozen Google services — Gmail, Picasa, Voice, Reader, Checkout, Alerts, Analytics, etc. Making sure that everything is set up correctly and not inadvertently exposed to the world is an otherwise painful task that is made easy with Dashboard. By scrolling down and glancing at the summaries of your various services, you can make sure that the pictures of Grandma’s birthday party aren’t visible to the world.

So, despite some other privacy setbacks (really what were they thinking with Buzz?), I think this is a leap forward for a company to expose the data they have about you and give you choices about what they do with it. Imagine the grocery store doing this with your preferred card or your phone company with the data they collect from your wireless bill (and location data they get from your GPS). It’s great when consumers have the choice about how their information is used, and kudos to Google for getting this one right. They still have some work to do given how much info we end up giving them, but definitely a step in the right direction.

I’ve noticed more and more lately that there seems to be an air-conditioning problem nearly everywhere I go. Businesses for some reason think that their customers want to be kept at a frosty 68 degrees while they shop. Office buildings think that the computers and inhabitants will melt if the temperature leaps beyond the 70 mark. At the offices I’ve worked at, it’s typically so cold that people bring sweaters or fleeces to wear during the day!

The Department of Energy says that HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) account for 40-60% of the energy use in buildings. Given that it’s expensive, inefficient, environmentally harmful and just plain uncomfortable, why not just turn the thermostat up a few degrees!

I came across this the other day, and thought it pretty much hit the nail on the head. Published 15 years ago.

(Click to make the image bigger)

More at GoComics | Calvin and Hobbes

Over the last year and a half, I worked as a convertible trader at Merrill Lynch. Last week, I was laid off as part of the headcount reduction initiative for the Bank of America merger. Rather than focus on the termination, I’d rather focus on three key ideas that I learned while employed: devotion to the cause, the value of personal connections, and the importance of constantly learning. Ultimately, these concepts will help me well into my professional career and ensure that the last year and a half was not wasted.

With money coming out of Wall Street and going into science and research, the time has never been better to go into the sciences. The TARP will severely limit Wall Street pay for the next several years while at the same time increasing funding for research and science-related careers.