Chapter 1 Getting Started
- Deeply understand real customers and problems, solve the problem
- Disciplined Entrepreneurship by Bill Aulet
Why Is Independence So Frightening To Some People?
In past articles I have examined the nature of power and division in our society and have always come to the same conclusion, that there are only two types of people: the people who want control over others and the people who just want to be left alone. However, there are also subgroups that swim within the boundaries of each end of the spectrum. Often, psychologists and self-help gurus attempt to promote the idea that the defining quality of the average person’s life is whether he is a follower or a leader. I have seen this spectrum applied to every political and social organization.
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The Most Valuable Traits in a Potential Employee, According to Google
Figuring out how to distinguish yourself in a crowded field and land a job is a lifelong career just by itself. If you’re trying to figure out the types of traits that top-tier employers are looking for, you could always ask. Google, at least, seems happy to answer.
In an interview with the New York Times, Google’s senior VP of people operations (read: person who hires everyone else), Laszlo Bock, explains what they’re looking for in a candidate. He starts with what they don’t look for: GPAs, he says, “don’t predict anything.” Furthermore, while a college education is overwhelmingly preferred, the number of people getting jobs at Google without a college degree has grown over time.
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Life Advice: What can I start doing now that will help me a lot in about five years?
There’s already a lot here and you probably stopped reading, but I couldn’t resist writing a note to my 23 year old self:
- If you do anything, do this first one: learn how to work hard and stick with something. Learn how to turn off Facebook and control your addiction to social media. You’ll instantly be ahead of 90% of your generation.
- Video games are a time sink. If you can play for an hour and say “That was fun, let’s do something else” then you’re ok. Otherwise, just get rid of them.
- Pick up an athletic hobby that you can do through the years, or your sedentary academic lifestyle will do horrible things to your posture, back, and gut.
- Learn how to deal with interpersonal conflicts. Read Crucial Conversations and practice – it’s a lifechanger (shameless plug: Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, Second Edition)
- Learn as much programming as you can. It’s never a bad idea to learn a programming language (unless that language is COBOL-just kidding, you can even make money coding in COBOL).
- Learn how to display data in R.
- Learn how to talk on the phone with people you don’t know. It still terrifies most people. Get a phone sales job and quit after a few weeks.
- Start some kind of little side venture to learn entrepreneurial principles. Start a window washing business, buy and sell stuff on Craigslist, do anything. You might need them if you’re in between jobs.
- Take a course on statistics and how they’re misused, specifically how faulty causal arguments are made. It will change the way you approach almost any discussion, quantitative or not. (Read How to Lie with Statistics: Darrell Huff)
- Always have a private place where you can talk out loud to God every day. Even if you’re not religious or don’t believe in God. Talk out loud to the universe. Sort out your thoughts, verbalize them, and then write down what comes to mind. Something wiser than you is listening and responding, even if it’s just another side of you.
- Use http://Mint.com to track your expenses. Make a budget and learn how to stick to it. Learn to live lean now while you can, so you won’t be forced to later on.
- Learn a foreign language, but only if you anticipate using it. Sure, there are side benefits, but you’ll forget it.
- Learn how to network. Read “Never Eat Alone.” (plug: http://amzn.to/XQqfrM). Hint: it’s about doing things for other people.
- Learn how to cook tasty, cheap food. Especially this bread. Make this bread. No really. http://www.steamykitchen.
com/168… - Find music that inspires you and makes you feel alive.Listen to it every morning and if it’s something embarrassing just don’t tell your friends about it.
- Save up a few thousand dollars and go somewhere crazy with a few friends. Live in a hostel for a few weeks. Get malaria if you have to. It will change your life and you will think about it forever (not the malaria part – you’ll get over that.)
- When someone promises you easy money, run the other way. Yes, it IS a scam.
- Read a book a week. When you get ridiculously wealthy, read a book a day. Read fiction too.
I am no proud of this project: Philip Yeo on Suzhou Industrial Park
http://publichouse.sg/im-not-proud-of-this-project-philip-yeo-on-suzhou-industrial-park/
This project will fail,” said Goh Keng Swee.
The China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) project in the 1990s between the two countries was fraught with problems from the get-go. But few have spoken openly about them until now.
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新加坡50岁生日，李光耀回答过的四个问题
http://news.nanyangpost.com/2015/08/5014.html
8月9日是新加坡50岁生日，我们一起来回顾下李光耀回答过的四个问题，涉及领导力、全球化、个人成长与人生感悟。
内容整理来源：天下杂志
1、领导人最重要的素质是什么?
李光耀(1989年)：领导人的特质并不会因时代的改变而变。一个好的领导人应该能提出一个可启发鼓舞人民的目标，他激励他们朝共同的目标、共同的远景迈进。这是不会因时空不同而改变的。
现在这个时代比较特别的是，世界从未像今天这样密切的相互关联、互为依存。我们清晰地感觉到彼此的存在，我们其实像是邻居。透过电视的实况转播，你可 以在瞬秒间就立即看到戈尔巴乔夫主席和里根总统、布什副总统会面的情况。你听得到他们的声音。你也可以天天看到像亚美尼亚的地震或汉城街头暴动的镜头。
现在的时代有一种立即的急迫感，今天的领导人需要有更快的反应，与当年仍靠帆船来往于各国政府间的领导人反应速度当然不同。换言之，你的反应必须敏捷快速而有弹性。但领导的本质，并没有随时间而变。