(Via xkcd. Check out the hovertext on the original.)
Search Results for: steve jobs
Outside Again
Remember when I used to go outside? Between a product launch, two rounds of head colds, and a vacation, I realized that I hadn’t been up in the mountains since New Year’s Day. So I fixed that:
I didn’t do anything fancy, trail-wise–I need to get back into condition and there’s still avalanche risk higher up–but it was good to be out in the watery light and see how much has melted. Spring’s on its way.
Unrelated, it would have been Steve Jobs 59th birthday today. Not one to miss a chance to quote the old hippie, here’s something to ponder for Monday (via):
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything—all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure—these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
Friday Unrelated Information
1. Remember when I said this Steve Jobs quote should be a theme for the year? I’m trying to remember, too.
You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.
2. This is perfect, especially in light of the fact that I’m playing with the idea of getting a little brother for Toby.
To 2013
Happy New Year! Let’s kick it off with a quote from that old hippie Steve Jobs, which I think is going to be the theme for the year:
You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
[…]Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma—which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
Come To The Dark Side
As you know, I’m working on trusting the universe in my personal life, and I’ve been thinking about being creative in the context of my work. Now I have an article that unites the two: “The Dark Side of Creativity,” which presents research that shows us being creative apparently isn’t all right brain and Steve Jobs quotes–and maybe it’s the reason I have a hard time taking good things at face value:
Consider this: being distrustful means being more likely to distrust surface appearances and have a desire to work out what is really going on. In other words distrust breeds a sort of ‘what-if’ mindset: exactly the sort of mindset associated with creativity.
Distrust may also breed flexibility in thinking. Instead of taking things at face value, people with suspicious minds try to see things from different angles. That’s yet another marker of creativity.
I like it. I’m not neurotic; I’m creative.
Friday Unrelated Information
1. This has been making the rounds lately, but I like it. Sadly, that last one isn’t currently true. (Click for larger.)
2. It would have been the 57th birthday of Steve Jobs today. Here he is on creativity:
Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people…The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.
(from Wired, February 1996)
Friday Unrelated Information
1. I have the day off! I originally planned it as just a break from a really rocky September, but now I can hopefully get a new computer and have my friends help me with data recovery on Old Paint. Yay, shopping!
2. I can’t say enough how nice it is to have friends so generous in sharing their skills.
3. Steve Jobs’ 2005 commencement address has been making the rounds this week, and I highly recommend reading the whole thing. He was a wise man.
You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
[…] Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
Friday Unrelated Information
1. Happy anniversary to my parents, married 39 years ago today. Next year I’ll have to have a party for them for the big 4-0!
2. Happy birthday to Leo Tolstoy, born in 1828.
3. What happens when you put quotes about Steve Jobs to images from 2001: A Space Odyssey? You get Steve Kubrick, and you get something like this:
“But where to place the logo? It was keeping him awake at night.”
Thursday Unrelated Information
Woot! I have a day off tomorrow from BOTH jobs, so it feels like my Friday!
1. After realizing one coworker was going to be out the rest of the week, I decided against a marathon knitting session last night for the other coworker. Instead, I did a marathon knitting session on a different gift. How marathon, you ask? Well, we started and finished the miniseries from the new version of Battlestar Galactica. Mr. Isbell is hooked.
2. As you might be able to tell from the late posts this week, it’s been hard to get up in the mornings. It seems even darker than usual. I’m glad the solstice is coming.
3. Speaking of dark and winter, I think this will be appropriate today:
“It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The blackbirds sat
In the cedar-limbs”
(
That’s not Japanese, it’s the last section of “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.”