Type: Articles (Page 8)

I stumbled across this article in a link from my google reader. It begs you to ask “Will this matter in five years?” when making decisions on how to spend time or whether to be distressed. It sounded exactly like something I was telling my friends for the past two years. Mostly, this was used as a motivational technique to get them to come hang out instead of study. It worked more often than not. Mikhail can back me up on this. As far as my use, I expanded it a bit. I would start out smaller, asking if it would matter in a week, then a month, then a year, etc. This strategy works great when you have a bad day, because most of the time it doesn’t matter, and the answer is no.

Finish reading This is what got me through college…

(as a quick aside, these are thoughts I have had for a while. Corporate America is all companies, not just the ones where I have worked. Fluor allowed me to learn and take on more responsibility, and Accenture is letting me get real work done. And get it done I will…)

Finish reading My response to being called a "Millennial"…

A single sheet of paper is eventually what defines us. Well, those of us that interview for jobs and get degrees and don’t have mad networking skills. Years of classes, work, other stuff, and some basic info make up this all-important document that will hopefully get you in the door. It should be fairly simple to accurately portray successes and skills, especially since we lived them and have them. But it isn’t simple. It is hard.

Finish reading Why writing a resume is tough…

Well, we went to see Wall-E last night, and overall it was a very entertaining movie. There was some cool Apple shout outs which was nice to see, and it was surprisingly romantic. Also, there is a surprise with the humans that I thought was outstanding and hilarious. The problem was with about 20% or so that the film is based on. It is set in the future where there is a ton of garbage everywhere. And the human race starts to head the other way on the IQ scale. This portion of the plot is the exact same as in Idiocracy, which is a fantastic movie. It is now on Disney to send some money towards Mike Judge since they kinda copied his idea and will make millions off of it. Sadly, Idiocracy didn’t make very much money, and this check from Disney could help out a good deal.

Finish reading Disney owes Mike Judge some money…

I wanted to just do books, but in my experience I watch a lot of movies, and since some of them are based on books, I am including them as well.

Finish reading Life-Changing Books (and Movies)

On episode 106 of 30 Rock (Jack Meets Dennis), Liz’s bf Dennis is the Beeper King, the last beeper salesman in NYC. He tries to market his beepers to Liz’s co-workers and only Frank wants one (to use as an ironic accessory). Of the many jokes made about the beepers, Dennis tries to explain to Liz that beepers are making a comeback because “technology is cyclical”.

Finish reading Maybe technology is cyclical

Finding the right balance of confidence is difficult. Obviously there are positives and negatives to being either over or under confident. The trick to find the lesser evil. In my case, I have done it both ways. And the over is the better choice.

Finish reading Confidence: Over or Under?

I know it sounds odd, but crappy poetry is important. That is, assuming you believe good poetry is important. Anything good is good because of comparison. Good poetry becomes more rare by the creation of bad poetry. Let’s say that there are a thousand poems, and only one is good. Now let’s say I write 200 crappy poems. Now there are 1200 poems, and only 1 is good. A good poem used to be 1 in 1000, now it is 1 in 1200. This seems obvious, however many people are unable to see it. After realizing this there are two other things that become obvious.

Finish reading Importance of crappy poetry

I know it seems obvious, but things don’t matter so much. The amount of time and thought put into thinking about things is generally wasted, and I am probably more guilty of this than anyone I know. But the summation of everything does matter. It’s a lot like voting. Chances are your vote isn’t going to be the deciding one (and if it was, I’m sure there would be a recount). But if no one voted, we would be in trouble. So voting doesn’t matter by itself, but in context with everyone else’s vote, it makes a difference. In school, if I fail 1 test, it’s not so bad. If I failed every test for a semester, that is pretty bad. You have to simultaneously not shrug the small stuff while still being aware of the end effect. Aside from all of this, there is always the fact that you can try again next week, or next semester, or 10 years later. While I believe we should see the big picture and not worry about little things, I think the things that you should cherish are the small things. Say I had a 3 hour conversation with someone special and neglected to study. I fail the test. Not too bad. Overall I’m fine. But as long as it’s not a habit, I am actually coming out ahead. Small 3 hour conversations are fun. They make you more positive, or can give you more confidence, or just make you happy in general. This feeling is probably stronger than the feeling of academic success. It is for me. It didn’t used to be, but I have come to realize one of the most important things in life. You can’t take a degree with you to heaven. You can’t take cars or money or any worldly success. You can take relationships, though. And you can take those good deeds you did with someone else and build up heavenly treasures. It’s fun to build up someone else. I’m really starting to get a hang of this whole “existence” thing. And I’m liking it more and more.

Finish reading Everything in perspective

First there was AOL (at least in the eye of the general public.) They brought the web to the masses. That is, if the masses are a small percentage of the population that was online in 1997. Then came Web 1.0, although we didn’t call it that. Things busted, but a few guys hung around. Google became a household name, along with eBay, Amazon, and Yahoo. Now we’ve moved to online apps and blogs and this thing they call Web 2.0. Now Blogger, Digg, iTunes, and podcasts are in our vocabulary. But people only want to see the negative. The Web 2.0 bust has been talked about, forecasted, and is already “in the books” for many. To me, that’s not what matters. Throughout the life of the Internet, companies have come and gone almost as fast as the technology the use has. What’s here today will be gone soon, replaced by it’s newer/faster/better update. But I believe the Internet is about much more than business.

Finish reading This fabulous series of tubes