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

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.

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!

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.

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?

Sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of just how big this “internet” thing is…

The State of The Internet from JESS3 on Vimeo.

Damian Kulash (lead singer and guitarist for the band OKGO) has published his thoughts on the unusual distaste the major music labels have for their customers (and musicians) as represented by their continued unwillingness to adapt to an evolving marketplace:

Today, as the record industry’s revenue model has collapsed with the digitization of its biggest commodities, companies are cutting back spending on all but their biggest stars, and not signing nearly as many new acts. If record companies can’t adapt to this new world, they will die out; and without advances, so will the futures of many talented bands.

In these tight times, it’s no surprise that EMI is trying to wring revenue out of everything we make, including our videos. But it needs to recognize the basic mechanics of the Internet. Curbing the viral spread of videos isn’t benefiting the company’s bottom line, or the music it’s there to support. The sooner record companies realize this, the better though I fear it may already be too late.

…and curbing the spread of viral videos isn’t even the half of it.

Sad to say, this attitude actually makes sense once you consider the source. It’s typical of mega-corporations where the people making the decisions are hopelessly detached from the real world, from the interests of their consumers, and from the artists they’re supposed to be representing in the first place.

It makes sense when you only care about the bottom line, not about the quality of your service or product. It makes sense once you’ve stopped concerning yourself with satisfying your customers, seeking only to please shareholders.

This is hardly original thought on my part, though. People have been pointing out that the major labels are on the verge of collapse for some time now. Every now and then I start to feel like they’re seeing the light (like when they finally shifted away from DRM on digital downloads) but I’m hesitant to even give them points for that — it only solved a problem they were responsible for introducing in the first place.

Maybe someday things will change. Maybe someday…

Following up the message in my last post, J.K. Rowling’s 2008 Harvard commencement speech on finding success (and failure) seemed appropriate to feature here. I first caught it on Mental Floss, then found the transcript at Harvard Magazine. One of my favorite parts comes relatively early:

So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.

Here’s the speech in its entirety:

I’ve found it particularly difficult to write articles intended for public consumption in recent years. (And don’t think the irony is lost on me that my first “meaty” post to the new blog is delayed a few days and focuses on writers block.)

I’ve never been able to fully pinpoint the causes, but reflection has revealed a barrier I regularly run into: an obsession with getting things just right. What’s more, talking through this with others has shown me just how common a feeling this can be.

What is the obsession with perfection all about, though? What is “just right”, and why does everything I want to put out there absolutely need to exceed this ever-shifting standard? That’s a good (and tough) question, worthy of eventual exploration… but for right now? It really doesn’t matter.

It’s all to easy to forget that success in life is driven by seizing opportunity, but you will never see the opportunities if you don’t show up to the party in the first place. You’ll never get the job if you don’t eventually stop toiling over your cover letter. You’ll never launch your revolutionary new web gizmo if you can’t come to terms with its inevitable bugs and just put the damn thing online. (See where I’m going with this? At some point you need to accept that good enough is good enough, and “perfect” exists only in your mind.)

Amber Rae hit the nail on the head with a recent headline: screw self-doubt, embrace inspiration, achieve greatness. We learn by doing, and we’ll improve with time and effort. Our results won’t always be exactly what we hoped for on day one, but that’s not what matters. What matters is the willingness… the effort. (Remember? “Perfect” doesn’t exist.)

To close, another bit of wisdom from Amber’s post:

We define success and what it means to us. I don’t think inspiration is the barrier to reaching greatness. I think self-doubt in our abilities combined with too much care for what other people think is what holds us back.

Let’s all worry less and do more. Life will go on if the first (or second) iteration isn’t just right.

Well, this domain sure has sat idle for while now, hasn’t it? Well, no more! No more weeks (months?) without updates.

Here’s the plan so far:

• Over-think less, publish more.
• Less talk of doing, more just doing.
• Live life a little more transparently.

As for the look-n-feel of this bad boy, I promise this this monochromatic design won’t last too long. I’m starting off with a mostly-vanilla instance of the Thesis WP framework and will be performing a live-redesign as time goes on.

Any other questions? Good. Let’s go!