Category: Pondering

“If evil be spoken of you and it be true, correct itself, if it be a lie, laugh at it.”

That is a classic quote from Epictetus pondered in a post by the same title from Philosiblog.

The simpler cousin of that comment is the concept that if you receive criticism, you ought to evaluate which parts are correct and make the appropriate changes. You are free to ignore those parts of the criticism which are invalid.

When the comment about you involves lies, the above quote suggests you evaluate whether there is any truth in the comments. If so, then you have some work to do.

The difficult part is when the evil spoken of you is a lie.

Continue reading ““If evil be spoken of you and it be true, correct itself, if it be a lie, laugh at it.””

“A man’s as miserable as he thinks he is.”

Philosiblog discusses that idea in a post of the same name.

It took me many years of struggling with the concept before I understood the idea that each of us is responsible for our own attitude.

The comment above illustrates the idea.

Philosiblog says:

Misery, like happiness, comes from within. If you choose to be miserable, you will be. If you choose to be happy, you will be. Yes, sometimes it is easier to be miserable than happy, but you can be happy, if you put forth the effort.

Continue reading ““A man’s as miserable as he thinks he is.””

12 situations when it might matter to you that the Feds are tracking everything you text or email and making note of everywhere you go.

(Cross-post from my other blog, Nonprofit Update.)

Recent news reports indicate federal intelligence agencies are gathering up a lot more information than we knew. That data is available to undisclosed lists of unknown people and will be retained for a very long time.

So what?

Here’s just a few circumstances in which you might not want access to your data by a long list of unidentified persons from various federal, state, or local agencies who were granted access to various unidentified parts of the various databases: Continue reading “12 situations when it might matter to you that the Feds are tracking everything you text or email and making note of everywhere you go.”

What do you do if your cloud-based mission critical application is down for an indefinite time? Illustration from a reader for RSS feeds.

(Cross-post from my other blog, Nonprofit Update.)

Update: The Old Reader back up at end of work day Thursday – that makes 1 1/2 days of the weekend and 4 workdays it was down.

Update 2: Shortly after coming back up, Old Reader went down again. After coming back up, they announced the move to a ‘private model’, meaning anyone who signed up after the Google announcement would get dropped.  I understand – this has been a hobby for them and free to users.  Then they said ‘never mind’, everyone could stay. They have been down a few times since then while migrating to new hardware.  Um, that sort of proves the point of this post.

Your tech provider may go off-line for an indefinite time.  Another reason not to let your technology hold you captive.

The Old Reader went down around lunchtime on Saturday, 7-20, and isn’t back up just before lunch on Wednesday, 7-24. That’s four days – most of the weekend and one-half of a work-week. No public estimate when it will return.

Don’t be held captive by your technology.

Continue reading “What do you do if your cloud-based mission critical application is down for an indefinite time? Illustration from a reader for RSS feeds.”

“Discussion is an exchange of knowledge; argument is an exchange of ignorance”

That comment is pondered by Philosiblog on a post of the same name.

As an accountant by attitude and training, I have to be intentional on applying ‘soft’ skills. Like not arguing. And listening.

Crunching numbers is so easy. Soft skills? Well … that’s why I enjoy Philosiblog. The discussions there get a person thinkin’.

The above discussion reminds us in an argument there’s not a lot of information sharing or learning going on. Odds on changing another person’s opinion or perspective are nil.

Here are just a few thoughts from the post on why a discussion is better than an argument: Continue reading ““Discussion is an exchange of knowledge; argument is an exchange of ignorance””

“Success isn’t a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.”

That is a quote from Arnold Glasgow discussed at Philosiblog in a post of the same name.

The concept is that you won’t become a success at what you want to do (get so hot you are ‘on fire) by accident or luck (spontaneous combustion) but only by very hard work (setting yourself on fire).

Continue reading ““Success isn’t a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.””

“The best way to predict the future is to create it”

Philosiblog expands that idea in a post of the same name.

Using the analogy of riding a river shows we have a major role to play in our future. We can even create our future.

Think of two people in a river. One is just floating on a raft, unable to predict what is coming, because they aren’t looking around and aren’t doing anything to move or steer. The other person is in a kayak, looking for the path they want, and actively steering and moving themselves to that point. Continue reading ““The best way to predict the future is to create it””

“Life is like a piano. What you get out of it depends on how you play it.”

The quote is from Tom Lehrer. Yes, that guy, the funny one. The quote is discussed by Philosoblog at a post of the same name.

The point of the quote, and the discussion at Philosoblog, is that native skill counts on playing the piano, but long practice, focused effort, and doing the boring stuff, like finger drills and scales will pay off tremendously. There’s studying, practicing, and other dreary stuff in your field. You know what it is. 

Are you willing to do the drills and hard work to thrive and get a lot more out of life?

 

Update 6/24/15:  I recently bought a couple of Tom Lehrer’s albums. The actual line is a bit more earthly, but the point still stands.

The comment he attributed to a philosopher friend, right before he was taken away to the Massachusetts state home for the bewildered, was:

Life is like a sewer. What you get out of it depends on what you put into it.

Pursue your dream

One of the great things about the tech revolution is the low barrier to entry for lots of things. Used to be it would require a receptionist, stat typist, full-sized copy machine, and large bookshelf with lots of expensive books to start an accounting firm.

Now you can start a firm at a desk with equipment that fits on the desk. I know it can be done. I did it.

Same with writing, publishing, creating music, and any business that involves professional services or selling over the ‘net.

So why not pursue your dream?

Philosiblog expands that idea with If you don’t build your dream someone will hire you to help build theirs.

Continue reading “Pursue your dream”

“The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.”

The quote is from Helen Keller and Philosoblog discusses it in a post of the same name.

Deep down we all want our life work to make a big impact on the world. Those of us working or volunteering or donating in the nonprofit community want to change the world.

Continue reading ““The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.””

Impact of the technology revolution has barely begun

That we haven’t seen the full impact of IT is a comment I heard the first time a few years ago. That sort of made sense but didn’t really register. This blog is focused on sorting out that change. The idea that the technology revolution has barely begun finally clicked for me with a column by Matthew Yglesias – Why I’m Optimistic About Growth and Innovation.

A few industries have seen huge impact from technology. Think of book publishing, journalism, and music. Those industries have been turned upside down. I read a lot and listen to a bit of music so am quite attuned to those areas. The way everyone consumes news has been transformed. I regularly read dozens of blogs a day. They just appear on my computer screen with a mouse click or two. I’ve always been a news junkie, and my consumption has soared in the last few years.

However, as big as those industries are, they are a small part of the total economy.

Continue reading “Impact of the technology revolution has barely begun”

How much working, success, and capital gains do we want?

“A tax on income is the price you pay for working; a tax on profits, the price you pay for success; and a tax on capital gains, the price you pay for taking risks that work out.”

That is Steve Forbes’ great one-sentence explanation of taxes in Forbes magazine. When you tax something you get less of it. Here’s a few questions:

Continue reading “How much working, success, and capital gains do we want?”

Before you think about suing a blogger…

….you might want to read this:

Libel in the Blogosphere: Some Preliminary Thoughts by Glenn Reynolds. It’s a free download. Only 14 pages long.

(Cross-posted from my other blog, Nonprofit Update.)

Although the paper was written in 2006, it is remarkably current.

Full disclosure time. Yes, I have a biased and vested interest in the idea of not suing bloggers. Take my comment with whatever size grain of salt you wish.

The biggest issue to consider is the pushback you may receive from the rest of the blogosphere if you even threaten a blogger.

A few minor points are that most bloggers don’t have enough of a deep pocket to make litigation worthwhile and you can probably get a near instantaneous correction with a polite request.

Back to the major issue.

Continue reading “Before you think about suing a blogger…”