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.
– Steve Jobs
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Via Esquire: From 2001 to 2006, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld wrote dozens of short memos to (and about) National Security Advisor and later Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. They’re succinct, and also, inordinately, hysterically disdainful.
Easily my favorite e-mail, the “do you think you’re on entourage?!” note:
We just had the Principals Committee meeting on Iran and Russia. At the last minute, we were told not to bring the “plus one.” I arrive, and I see you have Steve Hadley, Bob Joseph, Robin Cleveland, and Al Gonzales there-and I am like a one-armed paperhanger.
I am going to start bringing “plus one” to my meetings at the White House, unless there is just an enormously good reason not to. I sure cannot imagine what it would have been on that meeting, particularly since there were so many people in the room anyway…
Beautiful.
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This was captured from my hotel window during a recent business trip to San Diego. Now, back in Washington, I’m dealing with over a foot of snow outside my apartment. It’s safe to say I miss the 70° weather. :)
Also? It’s good to be publishing again!
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It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen a movie worth vocally pushing on others… but Inception is one such movie.
No reason for me to go on and on about it… just know that the rumors you’ve heard about how good it is are true. It’s worth the 2.5 hours it takes to watch, and worth seeing it in the theater (on an IMAX screen, if only for the fantastic sound.)
You won’t regret it, and it will leave you thinking about it long after you’ve left the theater.
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Those of you who know me in real life likely know that I can get a little, uh… “wrapped up” in discussions on certain issues. Be they politicical, religious, or otherwise, few topics are taboo with me. (This XKCD comic summarizes my “problem” rather well.)
Suffice it to say, this desire to discuss and debate (online and in person) occasionally draws out a side of myself I’m not always pleased with. The consequences of pushing an issue too far were recently most apparent during a discussion I was having on Google Buzz with a friend of mine. As I had discovered times before (always far too late), it became clear that not everyone shares my affinity for drilling so deep.
Where does the problem tend to start? Well, I’m particularly fond of pushing people to substantiate their assertions, myself included. To that end, if you’re going to make an assertion (or present something in a fashion that suggests you’re in agreement with a position) which I object to, I’ll tend to hammer away at that to see what there is to support your take. Not to say it’s necessarily a bad thing, but it has its place and must be done in moderation.
Sometimes, though, I plain forget about the desired/ideal/productive outcome of the conversation. That the whole reason I started the conversation was to find common ground, or understand where and why a gap exists.
The only thing I’ve been able to do to mitigate the effects of this is to stay all the more aware of my actions during a conversation. (Of course, this can be a challenge when you’re that passionate about something.) Also, listening closer not just to what I’m saying (CRAZY, right?), but to how I’m saying it and how it serves the end result I’m looking for.
Does anyone else have this problem? Do you find yourself struggling to avoid getting lost in pointless squabbling over the minutia that does little more than potentially hurt friendships?
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