nerd observation

most problems in software design seemed to be solved with one layer of indirection. Why? Decoupling (I hate this word) seems to specific to be so generally applicable.

More about “Hindsight” by Guy Kawasaki

This entry is long and only should be read if you found the previous post interesting. So jump there and come back! Or, tell me how to reorder posts on wordpress!

Oh, BTW in that speech Hindsight I like items

I like: 9, 8, 7, 5, 4 (which I seem to be excelling at), 2 and 1.

Here’s the full text so it won’t be lost if the link breaks.

“Hindsight” Commencement Speech
by Guy Kawasaki
Palo Alto High School, California, June 11, 1995

Speaking to you today marks a milestone in my life. I am 40 years old. 22 years ago, when I was in your seat, I never, ever thought I would be 40 years old.

The implications of being your speaker frightens me. For one thing, when a 40 year old geezer spoke at my baccalaureate ceremony, he was about the last person I’d believe. I have no intention of giving you the boring speech that you are dreading. This speech will be short, sweet, and not boring.

I am going to talk about hindsight today. Hindsight that I’ve accumulated in the 20 years from where you are to where I am. Don’t blindly believe me. Don’t take what I say as “truth.” Just listen. Perhaps my experience can help you out a tiny bit. I will present them ala David Letterman. Yes, 40-year old people can still stay up past 11.

10: Live off your parents as long as possible.

When I spoke at this ceremony two years ago, this was the most popular hindsight-except from the point of view of the parents. Thus, I knew I was on the right track. I was a diligent Oriental in high school and college. I took college-level classes and earned college-level credits. I rushed through college in 3 years. I never traveled or took time off because I thought it wouldn’t prepare me for work and it would delay my graduation. Frankly, I blew it.

You are going to work the rest of your lives, so don’t be in a rush to start. Stretch out your college education. Now is the time to suck life into your lungs-before you have a mortgage, kids, and car payments. Take whole semesters off to travel overseas. Take jobs and internships that pay less money or no money. Investigate your passions on your parent’s nickel. Or dime. Or quarter. Or dollar.

Your goal should be to extend college to at least six years. Delay, as long as possible, the inevitable entry into the workplace and a lifetime of servitude to bozos who know less than you do, but who make more money. Also, you shouldn’t deprive your parents of the pleasure of supporting you.

9: Pursue joy, not happiness.

This is probably the hardest lesson of all to learn. It probably seems to you that the goal in life is to be “happy.” Oh, you maybe have to sacrifice and study and work hard, but, by and large, happiness should be predictable. Nice house. Nice car. Nice material things. Take my word for it, happiness is temporary and fleeting. Joy, by contrast, is unpredictable. It comes from pursuing interests and passions that do not obviously result in happiness.

Pursuing joy, not happiness will translate into one thing over the next few years for you: Study what you love. This may also not be popular with parents. When I went to college, I was “marketing driven.” It’s also an Oriental thing. I looked at what fields had the greatest job opportunities and prepared myself for them. This was brain dead. There are so many ways to make a living in the world, it doesn’t matter that you’ve taken all the “right” courses. I don’t think one person on the original Macintosh team had a classic “computer science” degree.

You parents have a responsibility in this area. Don’t force your kids to follow in your footsteps or to live your dreams. My father was a senator in Hawaii. His dream was to be a lawyer, but he only had a high school education. He wanted me to be a lawyer. For him, I went to law school. For me, I quit after two weeks. I view this a terrific validation of my inherent intelligence.

8: Challenge the known and embrace the unknown.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make in life is to accept the known and resist the unknown. You should, in fact, do exactly the opposite: challenge the known and embrace the unknown.

Let me tell you a short story about ice. In the late 1800s there was a thriving ice industry in the Northeast. Companies would cut blocks of ice from frozen lakes and ponds and sell them around the world. The largest single shipment was 200 tons that was shipped to India. 100 tons got there unmelted, but this was enough to make a profit. These ice harvesters, however, were put out of business by companies that invented mechanical ice makers. It was no longer necessary to cut and ship ice because companies could make it in any city during any season.

These ice makers, however, were put out of business by refrigerator companies. If it was convenient to make ice at a manufacturing plant, imagine how much better it was to make ice and create cold storage in everyone’s home. You would think that the ice harvesters would see the advantages of ice making and adopt this technology. However, all they could think about was the known: better saws, better storage, better transportation. Then you would think that the ice makers would see the advantages of refrigerators and adopt this technology. The truth is that the ice harvesters couldn’t embrace the unknown and jump their curve to the next curve.

Challenge the known and embrace the unknown, or you’ll be like the ice harvester and ice makers.

7: Learn to speak a foreign language, play a musical instrument, and play non-contact sports.

Learn a foreign language. I studied Latin in high school because I thought it would help me increase my vocabulary. It did, but trust me when I tell you it’s very difficult to have a conversation in Latin today other than at the Vatican. And despite all my efforts, the Pope has yet to call for my advice.

Learn to play a musical instrument. My only connection to music today is that I was named after Guy Lombardo. Trust me: it’s better than being named after Guy’s brother, Carmen. Playing a musical instrument could be with me now and stay with me forever. Instead, I have to buy CDs at Tower.

I played football. I loved football. Football is macho. I was a middle linebacker-arguably, one of the most macho position in a macho game. But you should also learn to play a non-contact sport like basketball or tennis. That is, a sport you can play when you’re over the hill. It will be as difficult when you’re 40 to get twenty-two guys together in a stadium to play football as it is to have a conversation in Latin, but all the people who wore cute, white tennis outfits can still play tennis. And all the macho football players are sitting around watching television and drinking beer.

6: Continue to learn.

Learning is a process not an event. I thought learning would be over when I got my degree. It’s not true. You should never stop learning. Indeed, it gets easier to learn once you’re out of school because it’s easier to see the relevance of why you need to learn. You’re learning in a structured, dedicated environment right now. On your parents’ nickel. But don’t confuse school and learning. You can go to school and not learn a thing. You can also learn a tremendous amount without school.

5: Learn to like yourself or change yourself until you can like yourself.

I know a forty year old woman who was a drug addict. She is a mother of three. She traced the start of her drug addiction to smoking dope in high school. I’m not going to lecture you about not taking drugs. Hey, I smoked dope in high school. Unlike Bill Clinton, I inhaled. Also unlike Bill Clinton, I exhaled.

This woman told me that she started taking drugs because she hated herself when she was sober. She did not like drugs so much as much as she hated herself. Drugs were not the cause though she thought they were the solution. She turned her life around only after she realized that she was in a downward spiral. Fix your problem. Fix your life. Then you won’t need to take drugs. Drugs are neither the solution nor the problem. Frankly, smoking, drugs, alcohol-and using an IBM PC [sic] -are signs of stupidity. End of discussion.

4: Don’t get married too soon.

I got married when I was 32. That’s about the right age. Until you’re about that age, you may not know who you are. You also may not know who you’re marrying. I don’t know one person who got married too late. I know many people who got married too young. If you do decide to get married, just keep in mind that you need to accept the person for what he or she is right now.

3: Play to win and win to play.

Playing to win is one of the finest things you can do. It enables you to fulfill your potential. It enables you to improve the world and, conveniently, develop high expectations for everyone else too. And what if you lose? Just make sure you lose while trying something grand.

Avinash Dixit, an economics professor at Princeton, and Barry Nalebuff, an economics and management professor at the Yale School of Organization and Management, say it this way: “If you are going to fail, you might as well fail at a difficult task. Failure causes others to downgrade their expectations of you in the future. The seriousness of this problem depends on what you attempt.”

In its purest form, winning becomes a means, not an end, to improve yourself and your competition. Winning is also a means to play again. The unexamined life may not be worth living, but the unlived life is not worth examining. The rewards of winning-money, power, satisfaction, and self-confidence-should not be squandered.

Thus, in addition to playing to win, you have a second, more important obligation: To compete again to the depth and breadth and height that your soul can reach. Ultimately, your greatest competition is yourself.

2: Obey the absolutes.

Playing to win, however, does not mean playing dirty. As you grow older and older, you will find that things change from absolute to relative. When you were very young, it was absolutely wrong to lie, cheat, or steal. As you get older, and particularly when you enter the workforce, you will be tempted by the “system” to think in relative terms. “I made more money.” “I have a nicer car.” “I went on a better vacation.” Worse, “I didn’t cheat as much on my taxes as my partner.” “I just have a few drinks. I don’t take cocaine.” “I don’t pad my expense reports as much as others.” This is completely wrong.

Preserve and obey the absolutes as much as you can. If you never lie, cheat, or steal, you will never have to remember who you lied to, how you cheated, and what you stole. There absolutely are absolute rights and wrongs.

1: Enjoy your family and friends before they are gone.

This is the most important hindsight. It doesn’t need much explanation. I’ll just repeat it: Enjoy your family and friends before they are gone.

Nothing-not money, power, or fame-can replace your family and friends or bring them back once they are gone.

Our greatest joy has been our baby, and I predict that children will bring you the greatest joy in your lives-especially if they graduate from college in four years. And now, I’m going to give you one extra hindsight because I’ve probably cost your parents thousands of dollars today. It’s something that I hate to admit too. By and large, the older you get, the more you’re going to realize that your parents were right. More and more-until finally, you become your parents. I know you’re all saying, “Yeah, right.” Mark my words.

Remember these ten things: if just one of them helps you, this speech will have been a success:

10. Live off your parents as long as possible.

9. Pursue joy, not happiness.

8. Challenge the known and embrace the unknown.

7. Learn to speak a foreign language, play a musical instrument, and play non-contact sports.

6. Continue to learn.

5. Learn to like yourself or change yourself until you can like yourself.

4. Don’t get married too soon.

3. Play to win and win to play.

2. Obey the absolutes.

1. Enjoy your family and friends before they are gone.

Seek Joy

I want a t-shirt that only reads “Seek Joy” or maybe to incite people, “Seek Joy Not Happiness”. This is becoming my motto, or at least one of them. Where does this come from? It’s item #9 from Guy Kawasaki’s speech “Hindsight“. I prefer my wording to his “Pursue Joy” but that’s just me. It took me a while to figure out what this meant, I’d been mulling over it for 4+ years when it finally hit me while wandering around the Weisswald over looking Trier in Germany. Joy, my gentle readership, is to borrow a term from physics the instant acceleration of happiness. Happiness is a good thing, but it is the steady state, a comfy feeling that can, to be honest, can get monotonous and forgotten. Joy is the spike, the off-the-chart explosion that rocks your world–the no look pass that you made, the down-the-line passing shot, the beautifully worded song lyric, the high of making people laugh, the thrill of learning something new and applying it, the the..you get the picture. It can never be forgotten. Happiness is what makes you comfy and warm but in the middle of winter you still leave the house to go sledding for a rush of joy.

What is your joy? Do you do enough of it? Even if you are happy you need spikes of joy.

I want a t-shirt…

taking a risk: thoughts on gay marriage

I’ve noticed a trend in my posts on mywhackyvisions–nothing controversial, nothing really to get people riled up. I like a healthy exchange and dislike argument (“Discussion is an exchange of knowledge and argument an exchange of ignorance” — Robert Quillen), but I’ve been reading other blogs and really enjoyed the opinions that people have shared. This has caused me to reflect at times that perhaps I’m not taking enough risks on my corner of the Internet. So, to open up a small window into the heart and mind of Craig I thought I’d take a chance. No, I’m not going to talk about bathrooms which my friends seem to think is the source of a fair amount of my humor, no instead something serious.

I like Margret Marshall. She’s the head of the Massachusetts supreme court. I’ve has the pleasure of meeting her at a wedding and I wanted to thank her on the spot for all the work she has done to promote equal rights. I wanted tell her to take strength in knowing what she is fighting for, along with the other pro judges on the Massachusetts supreme court, is right and try to ignore those people attacking her in the media. I didn’t because it was a wedding and didn’t want to detract from the moment.

I support her because what she is fighting for is right. Society has evolved over the years and so have the terms we use to define social items. I’m sure that mixed marriages a hundred, if not less, years ago where not thought as marriage. That opinion I believe is in the minority and continues to dwindle I hope. The same should be thought about gay marriage. Society is growing and encompassing new ideas and new behaviors, so should our terms.

Now that’s pretty lame. Justification based on expanding webster’s definition of a word is not a strong justification for gay marriage. More important, to me, we should not deny happiness to people. The wackos in the crowd could run with that and say that there are ax murders who are seeking joy. C’mon, let’s be reasonable. The marriage of two women or two men does not impinge on your happiness. They might fly in the face of what you believe but when you go to sleep at night do they make your world any less happy? Does it make the enjoyment of your children or a cold beer and the game any less? No. I want to see people who love each other get married if they want to. I want them to raise a family if they want to (not that you have to be married to do that but maybe for them it’s important). Denying them this right is treating them as second class citizens and creating a new term to give them rights is legalized discrimination.

Teddy Goldstein

Man, I love his music. Check out his website. After seeing him recently at Club Passim with my brother, I realized that I’m a different fan when watching him. Usually lyrics of the performer become sonically mixed with the instrumentation and really don’t follow the lyrics. Not true of Teddy. He makes me listen. I’m waiting for the next joke, funny reference, piece of nostalgial, or deep observation. I’m on the edge of my seat.  I don’t want to slight his guitar playing or harmonica–he rocks out. He’s a graduate of Berklee School of music. I’ve seen him accompanying other players, good players, on guitar or on harmonica and he more than holds his own, he excels. His acoustic version of Anne Heaton’s “Blacknote Book” was a seminal experience when I saw him pull it out in a “Life From NY Concert”. Listening to the MP3 still gives me the chills.

No, Teddy is an excellent musician with a lot to say and many ways to say it. And, in all those ways, you’ll be listening.

cell phone: further more

If you, oh great cell phone manufacturer, want to insinuate yourself into my life more then replace my watch. Give me a stop watch and an alarm (with a decent interface damn it) so I can use my a cell phone for everything that I use my watch for.  I guess I want an open cell phone–one that I can program. I’ll have to look around because my contract with Verizon has expired.

pain in the neck

I’m partly blogging this so I can archive this date and to let my friends know.

My friggin’ neck is going berserk again. On my trip to Germany I was sleeping in a lot of random beds with different pillows and poor support. This stressed my neck and strained it, according to my chiropractor Rob. It could also been the stress of travel and my luggage that was lost for a week. Anyway, there are physiological reasons for my neck problems–I have an extra cervical rib. On the left side of my cervical (I try not to confuse with cervix, which is actually still appropriate but is commonly thought of as a part of female anatomy–look it up!) vertebrae I have a small rib that extends out into my left shoulder. This is *not* normal. Anyway Rob’s theory, which sounds sound, is that the first time this occurred when I was 32 my body could no longer compensate for it. Yep, getting old: don’t do it my gentle readership (this is a nod to you Lisa! [editor's note: if I don't list you here, I'm not saying you are old! This just came up in conversation with Lisa.]). What happens is one of my vertebrae sometimes is strained and it tries to shift and can’t, because of the strain of the extra rib, and this causes the muscles to seize up believing there to be an injury. Hence my neck freaks out and I can’t turn my head and am in a lot of pain. Oh, I forgot mention that because the muscles seize up this compresses the spine some and tweaks a nerve running down my left arm. This causes tingling and some numbness (not so often but occasionally) in my left arm but in particular the lower two fingers in my left hand. Right now, the the muscles on my left side are as hard as rock (Rob, my chiropractor, worked on it last night and said “oh my god this is bad” and while stretching out the muscles said often “I’m so sorry Craig this must hurt”). Yes, it did but I know Rob is helping. Anyway right now putting on t-shirts suck and Rob has told me to stay off my feet because walking will further compress the spine and make the situation worse.

It’s nice that many of my friends have sent me email or called and in general are concerned about me. Thank you. I do appreciate it.

I don’t want to whine, I want to stay positive because that’s how I want to be, but this does suck. I was so looking forward to biking to work and taking another ultimate bootcamp class

cell phone snooze button

 I’ve stolen this great idea from my friend Mark.  He, well we, want a programmable snooze button on our cell phones.  Often people turn off their cell phones and forget to turn them on. So, similar to an alarm clock, why not a snooze button on your cell phone? I’m watching a movie? Set the snooze to 3 hours. Meeting with a friend for lunch? Snooze for perhaps 2 hours.

A feature like would definitely figure into my next cell phone purchase.

clothing: the guy perspective

“I bought clothing not because I wanted new clothing, but to do laundry less often.”

I said this to one of my best buddies John and he cracked up because it’s true for him too.

wedding rings: Europe vs. USA

Curious. In Germany, I can’t speak for all of Europe, wedding rings are worn on the right hand (same finger), not the left as what seems to be the norm in the US. I wonder what’s the origins of this?