kcovia

Do you really want to work for someone who thinks getting to the office 5 minutes earlier is more important than your child?

http://www.hypem.com is a great way to stay on top of what's "trendy". Quality can be hit or miss, but it is a great way to stay in the loop.

Nietzsche was co-opted by his sister (who was a proto-National Socialist) and was strongly misinterpreted. In fact, Nietzsche was strongly anti-German nationalism and anti-Anti-Semitic, which lead to a fallout with his idol, Wagner.

It may have been smaller, no doubt, but this statement is not correct:

But in the 1400s, just being an artist is a huge enough accomplishment that people are going to know who you are.

Artists in da Vinci's day were more akin to craftsmen. Da Vinci himself was basically raised in an artist's workshop (by Andrea del Verrocchio) and worked alongside dozens of other students on their master's projects. This is in stark contrast to today's artists, who are basically expected to be the sole creative genius (barring people like Damien Hirst, of course, who is known to use assistants.)

Actually, he wrote this employment letter in 1482, before he made anything of serious artistic importance. He may have been somewhat known in the artistic community, but he was by no means very well known.

Transcript: http://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together/transc...

Check out The Structure of Scientific Revolutions for an argument for this in the science world:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Structure_of_Scientific_R...

In a nutshell: people don't change fundamental beliefs, even when confronted with evidence. Instead, they die off and the newer generation adopts the new theory.

Also in alternate calendars:

Each day in the Republican Calendar was divided into ten hours, each hour into 100 decimal minutes, and each decimal minute into 100 decimal seconds. Thus an hour was 144 conventional minutes (more than twice as long as a conventional hour), a minute was 86.4 conventional seconds (44% longer than a conventional minute), and a second was 0.864 conventional seconds (13.6% shorter than a conventional second).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Republican_Calendar

If any Poles say otherwise, feel free to correct me, but my impression of Poland's religiosity is largely dependent on the strong role of the Catholic Church in recent historical affairs (Pope John Paul II, keeping Polish culture alive during USSR era, etc.) and less on the population being more "religious".

I don't think the majority of Poles are actively "Catholic" in their religious metaphysical beliefs, but rather they all belong to the church because of its cultural importance. I could be wrong, however, as I don't live there.

It makes me wonder about other countries where the church plays an important cultural role (Italy, for example.)

Courtesy of James Cunningham and Colin Hayhurst (YC12).

Probably not what you're looking for, as he does industrial design, not web design, but Jony Ive is definitely up there.

For anyone who doesn't speak Polish and is curious, Lem's name is pronounced 'Stan-ee-swav Lem". The l with a slash is similar to a "w" sound, and the w is similar to a "v/f".

Here's a great free course for anyone interested in learning the language: http://polish.slavic.pitt.edu/firstyear/

I've made a site just for this purpose:

http://www.programmingpodcasts.com

I'm a naming expert and I've actually written a book on 'how to name your startup'. Currently working on a Kindle version.

As a part of the book, I interviewed Sahil Laviniga, the founder of Gumroad. He invests a little on the side, and he told me that a bad name is a bad sign. From the transcript:

I think a name is actually quite representative of the long-term commitments of the founders/ founding team. A name that sounds ridiculous or uses an uncommon TLD may seem throwaway and imply a lack of product sense. Founders should be picking a name with a long-term potential.

Fred Wilson also wrote about domain names at http://avc.com/2011/04/finding-and-buying-a-domain-name/

I believe that a good domain name is an important success factor in building and launching consumer web services. It's not in my top ten but it could be. It's certainly something we think about a lot when making investments and working with companies post investment.

So for at least two investors, the name definitely matters.

If you're looking for specific examples, look into Wesabe (lost to Mint) an Fukime (no longer exists). In general, a good name won't make you successful, but a bad name will hold you back.

More reading on Mint vs. Wesabe: http://kcovia.com/why-mint-beat-wesabe/

http://www.avc.com is excellent. It's Fred Wilson's person blog (Union Square Ventures).

I drink socially (read: 3-4 beers a week) and run 5km a day. I've never felt better. Extremism is not healthy in either direction.

The best Indian food is at the truck on Bigelow in Oakland. Delicious, cheap, and authentic (according to a (north) Indian girl I used to date. )

The quality of life is really great here in Pittsburgh. I have a huge 1 bedroom, back yard, front porch, in a great safe neighborhood, a block from major bus lines. All for $600/month. It'd run me at least triple that in somewhere like SF or NYC. Sure, you can't get some of the things you'd get in those cities, but quite frankly, you can come close. There are dozens of ethic restaurants a block away, 10+ museums and galleries within 5-10 miles, and best of all, it's cheap enough to actually have time to visit them.

Evernote's slow push toward the social ecosystem has been worrying me. It's fundamentally a mind-dump / journal to me, and I have absolutely zero desire to share notes straight from the program itself. The fact that I could send out personal journal entries to Facebook worries me, even though it's not likely...I just don't like the functionality being there to begin with.

I'll definitely be looking into this.

I think your experience describes your feelings in the city. As someone who grew up half in a city and half in the country, I feel more at home and more significant in an urban environment.

I'm writing a book on naming your startup. Part of the process is checking for trademarks and secretary of state registrations. If you follow Silicon Valley (the hbo show) they actually dealt with this a few episodes ago.

I thought this article would be of use to everyone out there who wants to avoid trademark messiness. Hope it's useful.

Some links:

Book landing page: http://kcovia.com/thebookofnaming.html

My naming methodology: http://kcovia.com/naming-methodology/

Other writings about startup naming: http://kcovia.com/naming-strategy/

Try GetName, NameHQ, OfficialName, RealName, or some other short word that associates with your company. If you're a bakery named "Flour" in NYC, for example, then try FlourBakery, FlourBread, FlourNYC, etc. Avoid geographic terms if you're a web startup though. Once you get some traction and have legal incorporation documents, contact Twitter. If the handle isn't actively being used by a company, they'll usually give it to you. It'll take a couple months though.

Source: your friendly neighborhood naming expert. I know of a couple companies that went through this exact process. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Whether it's for economic (less spending money), technological (mp3s are a lot smaller than CDs), or simply cultural reasons, the younger generation seems to have less stuff.

I see an opportunity in 5-10 years...microapartments in former self-storage space?

The point is not to be bored, but to appreciate each and every moment for what it is, not merely as a vehicle to another more important moment.

Thirty years ago, when I was still a novice at Tu Hieu Pagoda, washing the dishes was hardly a pleasant task. During the Season of Retreat when all the monks returned to the monastery, two novices had to do all the cooking and wash the dishes for sometimes well over one hundred monks. There was no soap. We had only ashes, rice husks, and coconut husks, and that was all. Cleaning such a high stack of bowls was a chore, especially during the winter when the water was freezing cold. Then you had to heat up a big pot of water before you could do any scrubbing. Nowadays one stands in a kitchen equipped with liquid soap, special scrubpads, and even running hot water which makes it all the more agreeable. It is easier to enjoy washing the dishes now. Anyone can wash them in a hurry, then sit down and enjoy a cup of tea afterwards. I can see a machine for washing clothes, although I wash my own things out by hand, but a dishwashing machine is going just a little too far! While washing the dishes one should only be washing the dishes, which means that while washing the dishes one should be completely aware of the fact that one is washing the dishes. At first glance, that might seem a little silly:

Why put so much stress on a simple thing? But that's precisely the point. The fact that I am standing there and washing these bowls is a following my breath, conscious of my presence, and conscious of my thoughts and actions. There's no way I can be tossed around mindlessly like a bottle slapped here and there on the waves.

http://www.abuddhistlibrary.com/Buddhism/G%20-%20TNH/TNH/Fro...

Here are some links:

http://kcovia.com/

http://pitchremix.com/

http://dormtown.com/

http://minimalgifts.com/

28 Weeks Later also takes place in an abandoned London.

I like to plan a fun little game on AirBnB for this. Put in Europe as the destination, <$600 per month as the price, and a month as the duration. It'll show you available apartments in everywhere from Sicily to Northern Germany.

https://www.airbnb.com/s/Europe?checkin=12%2F01%2F2013&check...

If you're staying in the US, I heartily recommend Pittsburgh. It's really cheap (1br apartment + food + transport will run you $1000 - $1500 / month), or $500ish if you don't mind getting a room in a bigger house. There's a ton of stuff to do when you want to get away from the computer.