Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
October awesomeness: Part II
Yes folks, there's more.
Johannesburg International Motor Show
It was another bright, sunny day when my partner and I ventured to the Joburg motor show at the Nasrec exhibition centre in Soweto. Cars are not really my thing, but I was keen to check it out and broaden my knowledge on all that is awesome. And the show really was awesome. There were several halls full of interesting displays discussing all things motor related. The highlight, of course, was the sports and concept cars that the major car manufacturers bring in. I am not going to go into the mechanics and specs of the cars, but I will share my thoughts on the really interesting displays:
Asimo the Honda Robot
Can anyone say "Cylon"... Honda has made a full on robot that serves your drinks, does minor cleaning functions, runs, speaks, climb stairs understands and can speak. Hectic stuff. Apparently, you programme your furniture layout into Asimo and your name and Asimo can respond to your (minor) requests on his own. I watched Asimo get a drink, navigate a living room and speak and respond to the host. This was incredible. My hours of science fiction viewing makes me inherently suspicious of humanoid robots. Asimo seems harmless enough... for now.
BMW concept car: apparently this is set for production! Will be amazing to see it on the roads.
Johannesburg International Motor Show
It was another bright, sunny day when my partner and I ventured to the Joburg motor show at the Nasrec exhibition centre in Soweto. Cars are not really my thing, but I was keen to check it out and broaden my knowledge on all that is awesome. And the show really was awesome. There were several halls full of interesting displays discussing all things motor related. The highlight, of course, was the sports and concept cars that the major car manufacturers bring in. I am not going to go into the mechanics and specs of the cars, but I will share my thoughts on the really interesting displays:
Asimo the Honda Robot
Can anyone say "Cylon"... Honda has made a full on robot that serves your drinks, does minor cleaning functions, runs, speaks, climb stairs understands and can speak. Hectic stuff. Apparently, you programme your furniture layout into Asimo and your name and Asimo can respond to your (minor) requests on his own. I watched Asimo get a drink, navigate a living room and speak and respond to the host. This was incredible. My hours of science fiction viewing makes me inherently suspicious of humanoid robots. Asimo seems harmless enough... for now.
BMW concept car: apparently this is set for production! Will be amazing to see it on the roads.
Chevrolet Miray: a Korean design that looks like the love child between the Batmobile and the Silver surfer's board. By far, my favourite.
McLaren 2011: ooh yeah! the McLaren made up for the dearth of Ferrari's and other super cars around. There was only one Lambourgini and one Porsche. I am keeping my eyes peeled for this one as I know it is on sale in Jhb.
Kings of Leon
The Kings, came, rocked and conquered. I again went along to the FNB stadium to accompany my 17 year old cousin to the KOL show. Before last month, I hadn't heard a single Kings songs but quickly acquainted myself to their repertoire. My favourite thing about this concert was how chilled it was. At both Coldplay and U2 there were massive ques to drive into the park and ride areas alone. I think by the time the Kings came along, the organisers knew the deal and got their ducks in a row for a more efficient handling of logistics. There were hardly any queus for buses, drinks, foods and t-shirts. There was a bit of a hippie vibe (should have worn a Slayer t-shirt) but I suppose that is expected with the laid back bluesy music that the Kings play. I bought myself a cool half serpent half rooster Kings t-shirt and Grant had a blast with the short beer ques and awesome boere wors rolls (I had chips being a non-red meat eater, and was impressed that there was veggie food unlike my 3 previous outings to the stadium). The FNB concert vibe is a bit overwhelming at first. It is a bit of a mission to get there and there are always thousands of people. But like I said, this time round things were super-efficient. Even though the concert was sold out, I think some people stayed at home for fear of getting drenched (thunderstorms fore casted). But the Gods smiled on us, and we remained warm and dry. It really was a lovely night for a concert.
The three opening acts (Black Hotels, Shadow Club and Die Heuwels Fantasties) were pretty good. I liked the Shadow Club the best. They had a really Jhb rock sound. My partner thought all they needed was a trumpet and they could be the Springbok Nude Girls (so if you are a Nudegirls fan, here is a bad to listen to). I think the singer's mike was turned off for the first song, but they rocked on anyway! The Black Hotels were okay, they were a bit forgettable. Die Heuwels sounded cool, but I always have to try a little harder with Afrikaans bands as it is not my first language. I do love Fokofpolisiecar, tho! I hope they have some shows around here.
Back to the Kings! I thought they played a really good set and I really enjoyed their performance. That being said, I am a casual observer and not a fan. I spoke to my friends who were fans and they felt that the stadium vibe didn't suit the Kings and that their performance was a bit lacklustre. The band didn't chat that much to the audience and focused on playing their songs. I think the fans I know would have preferred if the band made more of a connection with the audience. However, I didn't mind. The concert was more about the music than throwing a good "show". There were two screens and bubbles and smoke etc but I think the Kings are more musicians than performers. What they lacked in showmanship they made up by playing allot of their songs and focusing on the music. I appreciated and enjoyed that. I also really liked the venue. We were in the nosebleed seats and still had a pretty good view of the bad. The calabash shape and design lets everyone have a decent view. Check it out.
October: the month that was
As we roll into November, I sit back and reflect on the awesomeness that was the month of October 2011. It was spring and the city came alive with Jacarandas, thunderstorms, sunshine and a hub of activity. I did mention some of the happenings, but there were a few more which slipped under my radar. Notably, Winesense (the annual wine tasting festival) and the Oktober Bierfest (the annual German beer piss-up). As a caveat to my readers, I do not drink alcohol and tend not to notice alcohol related festivities. Though, I promise to be more vigiliant to give everyone a fair heads up if anything similar comes around. And if the drinking fests are done, there is always Winesens in Melrose Arch to indulge in some winetasting any day of the week. But back to the topic! These are some of the fun times that I had during the month:
The Lion Park
yes folks, I finally made it here accompanied by my fearless fiance and my two intrepid sisters. We paid our R175 entrance fee, which included a guided game drive and a "lion petting" session, and headed off. I must say, having a mini-game park in the middle of the city is a bit of a mind trip. One minute you are passing shopping malls and the Northgate Dome and the next you are driving up a dirt road which takes you to a large fenced off area with several animal enclosures. It was a beautiful, hot day when went and as it was a Sunday the lions had just been fed and were lounging in the sun. We went merrily on our game drive, and I use the term "game drive" quite loosely as it was a 40 minute drive around fenced paddocks with large areas containing certain animals. All the herbivores were in one paddock, the lions one, then the white lions another, the cheetahs had one and finally one with a pack of wild dogs. The lady doing the game drive was really knowledgeable and good and it was interesting to get up close to some of these animals. However, I must say the experience was a bit artificial, Kind of like a large zoo in which you can drive your car in (you can take your own car in for R120, but as my partner's car had very low suspension we opted for the guided game drive in the hardcore jeep/truck/railed vehicle.) I would recommend all you city slickers to try it out, especially if you have never been on a game drive. There is still something majestic about seeing these animals, albeit in a post lunch nap. Another interesting and touristy thing that we got to do was touch a baby lion. It seems like a cute thing to do, but afterwards I kinda felt sorry for the poor thing. It was just trying to have a nap and then the whole day it has people coming along and touching it. Here is a photo of my experience. The lion is a baby white lion. I imagine it was thinking: yes, touch me now my pretty but when I get bigger I will eat you.
Coldplay
I really enjoyed Coldplay. I was a fan when I was in high school but my affection for them faded after a while and I only went to the concert as my siblings were amped to go and required my chauffeuring/chaperoning/payment abilities. However, I am glad I went. To summarise the experience: I was blown away. Chris Martin has incredible gravitas on stage and Coldplay are a phenomenal live act. There songs are sweet and rocky and emotionally stirring and to actually feel the bass from the band playing and hear the voices of 60 000 people singing alone was a moving experience. The vibe was excellent and everyone was excited and friendly and ready to sing along. To top it off, the band shot part of the video for the single Paradise at the Joburg concert. The best song, however, was Viva La Vida. The crowd went crazy and in the end Chris Martin had to calm everyone down to get to the next song. After the concert, the crowd continued with singing the chorus and the happiness followed you home :) Here is a pic of the concert. You can see the giant bubbles that were tossed in the crowd and pulsed up and down during the show.
Everybody, sing along:
Viva La Vida lyrics
Songwriters: Berryman, Guy Rupert; Buckland, Jonathan Mark; Champion, Will; Martin, Christopher A J;
I used to rule the world
Seas would rise when I gave the word
Now in the morning I sleep alone
Sweep the streets I used to own
I used to roll the dice
Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes
Listen as the crowd would sing
"Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!"
One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand
I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can't explain
Once you go there was never
Never an honest word
And that was when I ruled the world
It was the wicked and wild wind
Blew down the doors to let me in
Shattered windows and the sound of drums
People couldn't believe what I'd become
Revolutionaries wait
For my head on a silver plate
Just a puppet on a lonely string
Oh who would ever want to be king?
I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can't explain
I know Saint Peter won't call my name
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the world
I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can't explain
I know Saint Peter won't call my name
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the world
[. From: http://www.elyrics.net/read/c/coldplay-lyrics/viva-la-vida-lyrics.html .]
© UNIVERSAL MUSIC - MGB SONGS;
The Lion Park
yes folks, I finally made it here accompanied by my fearless fiance and my two intrepid sisters. We paid our R175 entrance fee, which included a guided game drive and a "lion petting" session, and headed off. I must say, having a mini-game park in the middle of the city is a bit of a mind trip. One minute you are passing shopping malls and the Northgate Dome and the next you are driving up a dirt road which takes you to a large fenced off area with several animal enclosures. It was a beautiful, hot day when went and as it was a Sunday the lions had just been fed and were lounging in the sun. We went merrily on our game drive, and I use the term "game drive" quite loosely as it was a 40 minute drive around fenced paddocks with large areas containing certain animals. All the herbivores were in one paddock, the lions one, then the white lions another, the cheetahs had one and finally one with a pack of wild dogs. The lady doing the game drive was really knowledgeable and good and it was interesting to get up close to some of these animals. However, I must say the experience was a bit artificial, Kind of like a large zoo in which you can drive your car in (you can take your own car in for R120, but as my partner's car had very low suspension we opted for the guided game drive in the hardcore jeep/truck/railed vehicle.) I would recommend all you city slickers to try it out, especially if you have never been on a game drive. There is still something majestic about seeing these animals, albeit in a post lunch nap. Another interesting and touristy thing that we got to do was touch a baby lion. It seems like a cute thing to do, but afterwards I kinda felt sorry for the poor thing. It was just trying to have a nap and then the whole day it has people coming along and touching it. Here is a photo of my experience. The lion is a baby white lion. I imagine it was thinking: yes, touch me now my pretty but when I get bigger I will eat you.
Coldplay
I really enjoyed Coldplay. I was a fan when I was in high school but my affection for them faded after a while and I only went to the concert as my siblings were amped to go and required my chauffeuring/chaperoning/payment abilities. However, I am glad I went. To summarise the experience: I was blown away. Chris Martin has incredible gravitas on stage and Coldplay are a phenomenal live act. There songs are sweet and rocky and emotionally stirring and to actually feel the bass from the band playing and hear the voices of 60 000 people singing alone was a moving experience. The vibe was excellent and everyone was excited and friendly and ready to sing along. To top it off, the band shot part of the video for the single Paradise at the Joburg concert. The best song, however, was Viva La Vida. The crowd went crazy and in the end Chris Martin had to calm everyone down to get to the next song. After the concert, the crowd continued with singing the chorus and the happiness followed you home :) Here is a pic of the concert. You can see the giant bubbles that were tossed in the crowd and pulsed up and down during the show.
Viva La Vida lyrics
Songwriters: Berryman, Guy Rupert; Buckland, Jonathan Mark; Champion, Will; Martin, Christopher A J;
I used to rule the world
Seas would rise when I gave the word
Now in the morning I sleep alone
Sweep the streets I used to own
I used to roll the dice
Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes
Listen as the crowd would sing
"Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!"
One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand
I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can't explain
Once you go there was never
Never an honest word
And that was when I ruled the world
It was the wicked and wild wind
Blew down the doors to let me in
Shattered windows and the sound of drums
People couldn't believe what I'd become
Revolutionaries wait
For my head on a silver plate
Just a puppet on a lonely string
Oh who would ever want to be king?
I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can't explain
I know Saint Peter won't call my name
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the world
I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can't explain
I know Saint Peter won't call my name
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the world
[. From: http://www.elyrics.net/read/c/coldplay-lyrics/viva-la-vida-lyrics.html .]
© UNIVERSAL MUSIC - MGB SONGS;
Friday, October 7, 2011
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
This post is a tribute to the life of Steve Jobs, creative thinker and visionary. While I am not a huge fan of Apple products or the ethos of the company, I recognise the impact the company has had on people's lives. More so, I respect the fact that one man had the strength of conviction to bring his visions to life, forever changing an industry. He did not do it with family money or connections but with great ideas and an unrelenting belief in himself. To Steve Jobs, RIP.
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html
Stanford Report, June 14, 2005
'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says
This is a prepared text of the Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005.
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, 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.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
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.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
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.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, 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.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
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.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
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.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Cool Android Game: Ninja Eel Smashfest
If anyone has an android phone I would recommend you download and play Ninja-Eel Smashfest (and not just because I am engaged to the developer!)
Ninja Eel Smashfest is a really cool game that tests your reflexes and general phone gamer skills. I have played many hours of this game (being the unofficial tester) and am yet to get tired of it. The game play is simple: you whack eels with a mallet to stop them from eating your fish. Very therapeutic.
Check it out: https://market.android.com/details?id=za.co.darklite.ninjaeel
http://www.dark-lite-studios.com/
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Dark-Lite-Studios/194915790521499?sk=info
Ninja Eel Smashfest is a really cool game that tests your reflexes and general phone gamer skills. I have played many hours of this game (being the unofficial tester) and am yet to get tired of it. The game play is simple: you whack eels with a mallet to stop them from eating your fish. Very therapeutic.
Check it out: https://market.android.com/details?id=za.co.darklite.ninjaeel
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Dark-Lite-Studios/194915790521499?sk=info
rAge
This Sunday G and I made our merry way to the rAge expo at the Coca Cola Dome as general observers. I was told that although the expo is usually dominated by gamers, there is a small anime, and other fanboy (think star wars) presence. The dome was transformed into a gaming wonderland, with gaming booths, dance mats, karaoke and a huge LAN in the middle. My cousin was at the LAN on Saturday until the early hours of the morning and again on Sunday. I asked him what it was like and he described it as "like the twilight zone but with gamers in instead of aliens". There were an army of gamers in the LAN, around 2000 at its height. I've never seen anything like it. Luckily, the air-con was working valiantly to balance the stench of the unwashed hoards. LANing is definately not for the faint hearted (or for those with an acute sense of smell).
I am not a gamer, but was pretty impressed by the spread. Yes, there was the general kitchness and commodification of gaming culture. You could buy anything, and even sign up to an online gaming lessons. This is the dark side of capitalism. It had to happen. Whenever someone finds something cool, someone else tries to make money from it. Maybe if I was a hardcore gamer I would be a little annoyed. But I just enjoyed the overall madness of noise, lights and wall-to-wall screens. There were kinect games, online games, console games, dance mats, sing-star-esque games... anything your could think of! It was overall very fascinating.
The undoubtable highlight of the day for me was seeing two people dressed up as the Akatsuki from Naruto. Their costumes looked great and I would have loved to see more Cosplay. Come on fellow anime fans, we need to represent! I might even dress up myself next time!
As promised, the day was dominated by the gamers. There was a little anime and star wars memorabilia on sale, but a little more would have been nice. I will keep a look out for anime and other fanboy forums (yes, star trek as well. Come out fans, I know you're there!) I bought my sister a robot mouse who kinda looked like R2D2. Check it out. G thinks its a bit weird but I think its a riot!
Well that's my rAge experience. Not bad in all.
I am not a gamer, but was pretty impressed by the spread. Yes, there was the general kitchness and commodification of gaming culture. You could buy anything, and even sign up to an online gaming lessons. This is the dark side of capitalism. It had to happen. Whenever someone finds something cool, someone else tries to make money from it. Maybe if I was a hardcore gamer I would be a little annoyed. But I just enjoyed the overall madness of noise, lights and wall-to-wall screens. There were kinect games, online games, console games, dance mats, sing-star-esque games... anything your could think of! It was overall very fascinating.
The undoubtable highlight of the day for me was seeing two people dressed up as the Akatsuki from Naruto. Their costumes looked great and I would have loved to see more Cosplay. Come on fellow anime fans, we need to represent! I might even dress up myself next time!
As promised, the day was dominated by the gamers. There was a little anime and star wars memorabilia on sale, but a little more would have been nice. I will keep a look out for anime and other fanboy forums (yes, star trek as well. Come out fans, I know you're there!) I bought my sister a robot mouse who kinda looked like R2D2. Check it out. G thinks its a bit weird but I think its a riot!
Well that's my rAge experience. Not bad in all.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Rocktober: Part II
Apparently Gay Pride was the weekend that past (1 October 2011). Some say it's camp and kitsch, others say it's fabulous. Keep your feelers out for next year http://joburgpride.org/
The Johannesburg International Motor Show (Joburg motor show) starts next Saturday, the 8th October and runs until the 16th October 2011. http://www.jhbmotorshow.co.za/ Tickets are R80 on computicket, will let you know if I can find something cheaper elsewhere. The show is once every two years and an experience! I am definitely going!
The Newtown Diwali festival is on the 15 October 2011. This is the celebration of the Hindu festival of Diwali and entails eating (at various food stalls), dancing, singing (a huge stage is erected), and fireworks! Always fun to attend!
http://www.sa-venues.com/events/gauteng/newtown-diwali-festival/
Venue: Mary Fitzgerald Square, Newtown
Time: 11h00 - 23h00
I don't know what's your cup of tea, but there's plenty happening, for sure! Check computicket for an update on new shows and events that may suit your taste: http://online.computicket.com/web/
The Johannesburg International Motor Show (Joburg motor show) starts next Saturday, the 8th October and runs until the 16th October 2011. http://www.jhbmotorshow.co.za/ Tickets are R80 on computicket, will let you know if I can find something cheaper elsewhere. The show is once every two years and an experience! I am definitely going!
The Newtown Diwali festival is on the 15 October 2011. This is the celebration of the Hindu festival of Diwali and entails eating (at various food stalls), dancing, singing (a huge stage is erected), and fireworks! Always fun to attend!
http://www.sa-venues.com/events/gauteng/newtown-diwali-festival/
Venue: Mary Fitzgerald Square, Newtown
Time: 11h00 - 23h00
I don't know what's your cup of tea, but there's plenty happening, for sure! Check computicket for an update on new shows and events that may suit your taste: http://online.computicket.com/web/
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