The original Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon
Work may be the answer.
(Source: simpledesks)
"Intuition is a very powerful thing—more powerful than intellect, in my opinion."
— Steve Jobs
(Source: swiss-miss.com, via graceyu)
"Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust."
— Zig Ziglar
The Semantic Web
[…] But the newest change is expected to go much further, coming as a result of Google’s acquisition in 2010 start-up Metaweb Technologies, which had an index of 12 million entities, such as movies, books, companies and celebrities. By comparison, online encyclopedia Wikipedia has 3.5 million English entries, though they include more detailed information.
Mr. Singhal said Google and the Metaweb team, which then numbered around 50 software engineers, have since expanded the size of the index to more than 200 million entities, partly by developing “extraction algorithms,” or mathematical formulas that can organize data scattered across the Web. It also approached organizations and government agencies to obtain access to databases, including the CIA World Factbook, which houses up-to-date encyclopedic information about countries worldwide.
(Source: The Wall Street Journal)
"
What you should not do, I think, is worry about the opinion of anyone beyond your friends. You shouldn’t worry about prestige. Prestige is the opinion of the rest of the world.
[…]
Prestige is like a powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you enjoy. It causes you to work not on what you like, but what you’d like to like.
[…]
Prestige is just fossilized inspiration. If you do anything well enough, you’ll make it prestigious. Plenty of things we now consider prestigious were anything but at first. Jazz comes to mind—though almost any established art form would do. So just do what you like, and let prestige take care of itself.
Prestige is especially dangerous to the ambitious. If you want to make ambitious people waste their time on errands, the way to do it is to bait the hook with prestige. That’s the recipe for getting people to give talks, write forewords, serve on committees, be department heads, and so on. It might be a good rule simply to avoid any prestigious task. If it didn’t suck, they wouldn’t have had to make it prestigious.”
"— Paul Graham, How to Do What You Love
(Source: brainpickings.org, via graceyu)
Studies on the benefits of not being able to pay attention
The stupor of alcohol, like the haze of the early morning, makes it harder for us to ignore those unlikely thoughts and remote associations that are such important elements of the imagination. So the next time you are in need of insight, avoid caffeine and concentration. Don’t chain yourself to your desk. Instead, set the alarm a few minutes early and wallow in your groggy thoughts. And if that doesn’t work, chug a beer.
(Source: Wired)
“[Apple is] going to continue to make the best products in the world that delight our customers and make our employees incredibly proud of what they do.”
- Tim Cook in his first email to Apple employees as Apple’s new CEO sent August 25, 2011
“The path [Sony] must take is clear: to drive the growth of our core electronics businesses - primarily digital imaging, smart mobile and game; to turn around the television business; and to accelerate the innovation that enables us to create new business domains.”
- Kazuo Hirai in response to being appointed Sony’s new President and CEO on February 1, 2012
(Source: curiositycounts.com)
"Meanwhile In USA:
Across all charter campaigns measured, 69 percent of the ad impressions were classified as being ‘in-view.’* The remaining 31 percent were delivered but never seen by a consumer, a likely result of a consumer scrolling past the ad before it loaded or a consumer never scrolling the ad into view. In-view percentages varied by site and ranged from 7 percent to 91 percent."
Across all charter campaigns measured, 69 percent of the ad impressions were classified as being ‘in-view.’* The remaining 31 percent were delivered but never seen by a consumer, a likely result of a consumer scrolling past the ad before it loaded or a consumer never scrolling the ad into view. In-view percentages varied by site and ranged from 7 percent to 91 percent."
—
(Source: comscore.com, via alinzainescu)
"Poor quality is remembered long after low prices are forgotten."
— Jason Fried, 37signals.com
This weekend’s viral
I wouldn’t hire a woman.
The reason is very simple: women give birth to children. […]
I wouldn’t hire people over 50 either.
Not that I have any problem with the most experienced professionals. I wouldn’t hire them, because they are soon in the protected age. And then I would be trapped with them, similar to the trap with employing women.[…]
I would only hire 25-50 years old men.
They’re also risky to hire, because I don’t have the right to fire them either, if for any reason (I don’t have enough income, or I don’t like how they work) I want to. There’s a high risk that they will go to court, and there’s a high chance they will win. But this risk I would be prepared to handle. […]
As you can see, your €760 salary would cost my company €1572. This 2x state multiplier could only be lower, if I would pay less salary. But I wouldn’t hire you for less money, because I think if you made less then €760, you couldn’t make a decent living. You would become depressed, destroy your own life, my company and even me. So, I am not willing to hire anybody for less than this. […]
I will only give a job if:
- I can fire you, if I want to.
- If VAT goes down to at least 20%, better yet 15%.
- If the state takes away “only” 30% of your money.
- If higher income is not exponentially punished.
- If the state punishes corruption instead of decent companies.
Until these things don’t change, hell I don’t give a job.
Read: this.
