Mike C Sees

This weekend I talked at length with a delightful young lady who finds her life rather unfocused and lacking meaning in several areas.  And from such conversations I always learn a lot about myself.

My friend already demonstrates enormous talent, and accomplishes a great deal at school.  Realistically, I had to tell her that to address the accomplishment gap she feels, overall, she needs to be more intentional about her time outside of school - planning what to do with afternoons, evenings and weekends.

We talked about the overall areas that matter, and need some balance, in her life.  She has already developed a great menu of enjoyable and necessary activities around these five core areas:

• spiritual nurture,
• physical wellness,
• cultural,
• community, and
• academics.

We read part of Ivan Campuzano’s “What Time is It? Time To Reexamine Your Relationship To Time.”

[B]eyond its utility value, should we care about it in terms of how we choose to live our day to day lives? Should I waste my valuable time constantly worried about events in my distant future? Or should I use my time to live as intensely as possible in the now, and take the necessary actions that will set in motion the conditions of my future reality?

So what creates our psychological relationship and therefore attachment to time? The short answer is that our thoughts are what create our time. If you have ever reached a place of “no mind” where your thoughts cease, either through meditation or an intense experience, you will understand what it means to have a “timeless” mind. No thoughts, no time. As soon as thoughts enter, time enters.

With that in mind, I would like you to take the time to examine your common thought and internal dialogue. What does it say about your relationship to time and how that impacts your life? Are you constantly on the run and feel like you don’t have enough time? Do you feel anxious and stressed all the time? Is it really that you don’t have enough time, or can it be attributed to incessant or disorderly thinking?

Since my young friend already has plenty of good well-balanced ideas for her life, but doesn’t seem to have time to get on with those ideas, that last question is the key.  Learning to “live in the now” and work with a 15 minute day-planner is, I think, her best way to take control, accomplish more, and be happier.

Making a plan for each day is one thing.  The harder bit is to actually focus your mind to execute that plan.  That means trying to get each thing done just a bit faster than the time you’ve allotted to it, and moving on when the time is up.  And it means forgiving yourself when the day doesn’t quite work out according to plan.  As long as you’re doing the most important thing at each moment, and spending time in each of your core areas, you’ll be on the right track.  And so will I.

Ivan has written several excellent reflections on time, and personal growth. Check them out, when you can make time   E.g.

• each day, what if before you try to remember who you are, you remember what you want to be? 
• many come to think that their mind is something they cannot control — master your mind;
• one day at a time to a life of fulfillment, joy and contribution
• making the most of your daily time; and the counter-balance:
• Pura Vida, tranquilo amigo tome su tiempo

Stressed out? Waking with anxiety in the pit of your stomach? I recommend “The Relaxation Response,” by Herbert Benson, M.D. These are the words I center on while stretching my body and finding my inner voice:

Perhaps you’ve missed the daily spiritual discipline of prayer and meditation - well, this classic book adds new reasons: the health of your heart and brain, as well as your spirit. Blessings to you, my friend!

Updated: 2009.11.22

Most of my friends understand Facebook, and we have a great community going there. Here in the summer of ‘09 lots of folks are starting to ask what Twitter is good for — is it just where you encourage your too-chatty Facebook friends to redirect their energy? Why would anyone want to publish little 140-character tweets? Well, it turns out it’s a great way to ask & answer simple questions with a very wide audience, and to call attention to online articles — it’s a platform for public conversation, of sorts. To us old folks, it’s like CompuServe or newsgroups, without as much structure.

To start with the basics: I like AACC’s New to Twitter, and Global Neighborhoods’ 7 Tips for new Twitter users. Then Jeremiah Owyang’s How I use Twitter should make sense.

Next stop - most folks need more than twittter, to tweet. A Firefox plugin called Echofon (aka Twitterfox) helped me jump in, with two different twitter id’s — one personal & one professional. Integrating it into the browser or iPhone brought Twitter persistently into my web experience, without another program to learn. Echofon keeps it simple and lightweight.

You see, the important question is “How do I discover tweets that matter to me?” Which is, of course, the question of searching or filtering the universe of tweets. The ReadWriteWeb introduces “7 Top Twitter Topic Trackers“, as of April 2009, and my early favorites from that list are

• Tweetizen - it’s not “search” so much as “joining a group based on a search”
• TwitScoop - a cool way to see trends & searches

Done right, any twitter search site or tool should offer at least the search power available on Twitter’s own advanced search page — which is a perfectly good place to start. It gives you a live feed for your search results, announcing new tweets as they come in. So to jump into the live conversation, you just need that live feed of the topic you want to join in, and a way to write your own tweets — which could be as simple as a second browser window, or a plugin like Echofon. Simplicity is good.

There are lots of other options for tools - see Birdsall’s Massive Twitter Sites & Tools Directory. I’ve been impressed with PeopleBrowsr, which is browser-based … i.e. no new software to maintain, and available on any computer I sit down at. Be aware that any of the power tools have a commensurate learning curve.

Wondering about those #hashtags you see in some tweets? They’re a way of marking keywords, topics or a conference event related to your post. They are entirely optional, so don’t sweat it, just reuse what seems useful. See Ben Parr’s how-to article for more.

You’ll soon build an appreciation for the many ways Twitter adds value, and lets you join in the conversation — whether it’s a gushing trend or an occasional insight — as Guy Kawasaki so ably details. Oh, and keep your job — apply some common sense — as Douglas MacMillan explains in Twitter Code of Conduct.

Have fun!

PS 2009.11.22:

The best collection of twitter articles I’ve found is on mashable.com. Browse through and you’re bound to find something helpful, including Twitter for Beginners, and their Twitter Guide Book.

So “Why would I want to do this Twitter thing?” The most valuable answers I’ve found are from Stephen Dinan, in “One Hour to Conscious Tweeting,” and “The Spiritual Importance of Twitter.” Follow Stephen on twitter to see how he puts that in action.

[Twitter’s] growth corresponds to the accelerating spread of a global consciousness, one in which our sense of boundaries no longer end at national boundaries and we are increasingly in touch with our sense of “oneness” with others.

• Excellent intro tone - straight to the economy
• Surplus in the past became an opportunity to transfer wealth to the wealthy.. aye
• Take charge of our future, by bold action for long-term improvements on energy, healthcare and education — that’s the economic agenda
• Credit greases the wheels of the economy — it is broken today because we have too much bad debt; too little trust
  • As taxpayers pay to restore health to the consumer & business credit systems, I want it to be responsibly directed to basics. I’ve no sympathy for those who speculate or indulge on credit.
• Help the major banks to serve again through lending - but how? through new capital tied to lending metrics
• This is about getting money for bus.ops and for families faced with negative home equity, under a sensibly regulated financial system
• Energy, healthcare, education and sensible fiscal plans are ALL about our future competitiveness
• We will have to sacrifice some priorities to achieve these practical improvements, but we will do whatever is needed to get results we need
• Catalyze private enterprise
• Double the amount of renewable energy in 3 years; congress - send me legislation that places a market-based cap on carbon pollution
• Healthcare costs drive jobs offshore — we cannot delay this reform. It is time.
• A cure for cancer in our time; large investment in preventative care; quality care for everyone; long-overdue efficiency improvements
• We will start on healthcare redesign next week
• Those who out-teach us today will out-compete us next year
• Not just more resources, more reforms - rewards for success, expanded charter schools, better training for teachers
• Everyone should get at least a year of post-secondary - dropping out of high school is quitting on your country.
• By 2020 have highest college grad % in the world. How with tuition at world-record levels??
• Take responsibility to NOT pass onto our children a debt they cannot pay.
• End direct payments to large agribusiness that don’t need them. End no-bid contracts. Control medicare costs.
• End tax breaks for wealthiest 2%. But families earning < 250K to see no tax increases.
• End tax breaks for corporations that offshore jobs — tough to operationalize
• Include (expose?) the real cost of war, in our budgets
• Inspiration comes from the aspirations of ordinary. The starting point for our work must be - how does this help America succeed?
• “Downpayment on universal healthcare” is to drive down the cost of healthcare, so we can afford it for everyone.
• Republican response (Louisiana Governor Jindal) starts long on personal notes connecting his story to President Obama’s
  • Moves to the need for Republicans to be the presidents strongest partner
  • The responding governor equates government and bureaucracy
  • Tax cuts and less government … still the only answer. Admits no possibility of effective government
  • Oops … we forgot about our small government agenda for the last 8 years. Sorry. But we mean it now.
• Most memorable take-away: surplus in past was an opportunity to transfer wealth to the wealthy- putting short term gains ahead of long term benefit - no more.

Hard to believe Bill Gates has moved on from Microsoft.

As Gates sheds the role of monopolist for that of philanthropist, it could be that he will ultimately go down in history as one of the greatest charitable figures of the 21st century. He leaves Microsoft at the relatively fresh age of 52, and could conceivably spend as much time giving away his fortune as he did in making it.

His stated aim to give away the bulk of his estimated $66bn in personal wealth has inevitably drawn comparisons with Andrew Carnegie, the cut-throat steel magnate who ruthlessly built his empire in the latter part of the 19th century, then gave nearly everything away to charitable causes. [Bill Gates: Life after a legend finally logs off - [Scotsman.com]

The Gates Foundation’s mission is to bring innovations in health and learning to the global community. What is it like to be part of that team, and other foundations like it?

Sympathize, with the different burdens we each face
Understand, even as we hope to be fully understood
Recognize and respect differences
Forgive, even as God forgives us

These are cornerstones of relationships - between family members, friends and even countries.

Wondering what the newly announced WebSphere Content Discovery Server is and where it came from?

Line56.com writes that it evolved from the acquisition of iPhrase. Tony Frasier of IBM says that 40 percent of the legacy iPhrase base was in financial services, definitely an information overload vertical. “Search is an issue in any information-rich environment. The tax implications of dissolving a retirement account differ based on whether you’re in California or Ohio,” says Frasier, by way of example. “You have to take the context of the user into account.”

“Search is a huge issue in retail — if you can’t find just what you want, you won’t buy it — but not a lot of companies have nailed it. A case in point is IKEA, which had a very shoddy search system until Line56 called attention to it and prompted the company to adjust its technology.

This is what iPhrase’s technology takes into account. “You have to be smart about limiting the search,” explains Frasier. iPhrase is always looking to limit the search by assessing the customer’s location, what products they own, and other relevant data culled not just from a customer relationship management (CRM) repository but from whichever system in which it may reside.

Users have a certain degree of flexibility because they can tap into iPhrase’s contextual search interface from within a CRM application or from within the IBM WebSphere Portal.

O Great Spirit, God: Mother, Father, Guide, Comforter -
we hallow your name and seek your presence;

May your Spirit define us today and everyday;

May we find our daily bread and be filled,
yet be mindful to love everyone else as we love ourselves;

May we find forgiveness, and be forgiving in all things,
may we know goodness and choose what is healthy;

So may we share the joy of praise and devotion to your Way,
standing tall like the pine, lifting toward your Light,
and living in a way that sustains Life for all children of God,

Amen.

Joe McKendrick’s piece on commoditization of software, based on a conversation with Gluecode founder Winston Damarillo, seemed hopelessly optimistic to me at first read.

“Thanks too open-source and Web services/SOA, Damarillo says, ’software is going to commoditized, much like hardware has commoditized a decade ago.’ Over time, Damarillo added, traditional applications will be supplanted by commoditized, loosely coupled components available on a moment’s notice. ‘Enterprises can no longer afford to wait for a vendor’s version cycles,’ he said.

“‘Eighty percent of the software that needs to be written has already been done collaboratively,’ Damarillo pointed out. ‘If you apply software standardization, along with global collaborative development, you’re going to have all the modular building blocks you need for any application you need, available for free.’”

Yeah right. Sounds like someone with something to sell. If it wasn’t that Joe’s bio places him as a web services analyst at Evans Data Corp, I’d have just x’d off.

Instead, I’m looking for a take away: the holy grail is to save custom app development and maintenance bucks by building apps out of simpler components that are decoupled from each other. No doubt that “web services” over a “message bus” are the latest-greatest technologies to enable that approach.

IF some of those components are open-source or commercially standardized parts, and IF that makes them cheaper in total-cost-of-ownership (TCO), and IF it’s easy enough to hook them together to build a solution, and IF the functionality, performance and reliability of the end solution is still adequate, then we have a win. Note that in decoupling components across a bus, we still need to deliver rich functionality to our business customers. Most business apps I work with rely on customization of components to add critical business value. That customization and the strictures it imposes on the underlying components may still add up to something akin to today’s costs and timelines. In which case, we’ve only replaced the plumbing without improving the cost/benefit picture.

Let’s pursue the details a bit, through an example. Suppose a wiki is a widely used component for community knowledge management (KM). Do you buy a team room from IBM Lotus or Microsoft? Or do you download a wiki from sourceforge and invest a couple of developers in supporting it in-house as a reusable asset that you can shape to your needs. Most customers I know are still buying Sharepoint or Notes rather than participating in open-source KM projects.

Gregg Wolper at Morningstar comments that “index funds are in effect momentum players,” since they must buy into rallying stocks or countries, to continue to mirror an index.