Category Archives: Life

An Inspirational Life Motto

Posted on June 2, 2012 | 2 comments

A few weeks ago, when I took my daughter and her friend to a play, I came across a plaque posted on one of the walls with an inspiring quote. I did not take note, as I was sure I will be able to Google it and find it. Well – I failed.

So next time my daughter went to the same theater, I asked her to take note of the name of the guy who is being quoted. I got lucky and I got a picture of the plaque – which you see on the right.

As the quote is attributed to Alfred Mond, 1st Baron Melchett  but when I tried to find the English quote version, I found out that the it was written by a guy called Harold v. Melchert (which I could not find anything about…).

However, no matter who wrote it, I think this is a beautiful life motto – so here is the English origin for those who do not read Hebrew:

Live your life each day as you would climb a mountain. An occasional glance toward the summit keeps the goal in mind, but many beautiful scenes are to be observed from each new vantage point. Climb slowly, steadily, enjoying each passing moment and the view from the summit will serve as a fitting climax for the journey.

Have a nice life !

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Posted in Life

1000 Awesome Things – the final countdown

Posted on April 14, 2012 | Leave a comment

More than a year ago, I wrote a post called You will never be as young as you are right now, about the guy behind 1000 Awesome Things. If you enjoyed it at the time and you are not getting the daily awesome thing mail, then this is a heads-up for you  – as the countdown is about to end this Wednesday (he counts the posts backwards – so the first was #1000).

In the time passed since he started the blog, he already published three books with the awesome things and an app,sold some merchandise and became a celebrity, so I wonder what will happen next.

Stay tuned. The last awesome thing will be posted live in Toronto on Wednesday.

And… I take my chance and guess that #1 post  will be “You“.

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Posted in Life

Introducing the book

Posted on September 26, 2011 | 1 comment

It is not new, but after someone asked me if there is a “search” option in a book I gave him – I just had to show this video to him – it is just hilarious.

1 Comment

Posted in Life, linkedin, Technology, Tools

The museum of obsolete objects

Posted on September 22, 2011 | 2 comments

My daughter got a new book, written in 1979 – not so long ago. When I read it to her for as bedtime story, we came across a description of two twins playing with records (not Guinness, vinyl ones) and with a phonograph. How the hell can I explain what these things are ? An old, bigger, more sensitive and noisier version of the CDs?

I wonder – most of the objects mentioned in the Bible were still in use 50 years  ago. The Bible is by far older than 30 years  🙂

However, I came a cross a great site for Nostalgia lovers – The Museum of Obsolete Objects – it is a set of videos created by a German studio. Each clip demonstrates one of the technologies that are no longer with us – floppy disk, typewriter,   pocket calculators etc. , in a short and cute way – with a mechanical voice-over and with some nice winks.

Enjoy

2 Comments

Posted in Life, linkedin, Nostalgia

It is all about Empathy – take 2

Posted on September 15, 2011 | 1 comment

A few months ago I shared with you a TED talk called “A radical experiment in empathy“, asking you to put yourself in the shoes of the other in order to better understand him.

If you liked it (and even if you did not) – here is a 5-min TED talk, fresh from the press called Shake up your story by an artist called Raghava KK. 

Short and insightful. He starts by literally shaking a story to change it and to get rid of prejudices or the viewers perspective.

Highly recommended !

1 Comment

Posted in Life, linkedin, TED

No longer no longer riding on the merry-go-round

Posted on July 18, 2011 | 8 comments

No, there is no typo in the title.

In the past months, I spent my time observing, reading, talking, thinking, meeting, etc. – anything that will help me understand what the next step is. My beloved wife called my state-of-mind “Hakuna Matata”.   I shared some of my experience with you through this site (not too much I hope, but  I also feel I could have shared more).

Recently I am involved in the inception of a new venture – devising and developing a consumer product that will change the world (yeah, yeah, this is only the 20th time you hear such a statement today…). Well, I really believe we are onto something good. I could reveal more, but then I will have to kill you.

While I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, I have a good feeling about this venture, and if there is something I learned in the past  months and years is to follow my gut feeling and to do whatever feels good. So far, I enjoy every bit of it – and it means a lot to me.

Another lesson I learned is that while I have to be 100% dedicated to anything I do (as I always do) – one should not be totally immersed in a single thing. I know it sounds like a contradiction, but I’ve learned that you live only once – and you should find the time for your family as well as for other areas of interest and possibly contribute where you can to others (I still need to work on this part, I confess).

Why do I tell it to you? Since you (my subscribers, all 14 of you +RSS readers) followed me for the last six months – read, commented and supported and I think you should know about my change from me, and not from the “Linked-In news” weekly email.

So now you know. What I can promise is that I will not cease to observe. I will try to continue  posting on what I do and see – I enjoy this part. The posting frequency might be lower – but I will do my best.

Now look again at the post title and now you understand that there is no mistake in it…

Thank you !

8 Comments

Posted in About, Entrepreneurship, Life, linkedin, Work

I lost it and found IT :-(

Posted on May 23, 2011 | 1 comment

In the backpack I carry everywhere (with the laptop to various coffee places), there is a small pocket in which I store my keys and my disk-on-key.
A few days ago I shoved my hand into the pocket just to find that the disk-on-key is no longer there.
Not a big loss… Everything I have there is backed up and I did not keep Israel’s Atom secrets on it, but still – I lost it…
When we were in school, University, or even while sitting on a bus – if you lost something, you can always go to “Lost and Found” room (or just go and ask the janitor). But when you lose things out in the open world – there is no one to ask.
So I thought to myself – “hey, this is a great idea for a site”, and already fantasized about the potential (including very specific ads such as “Lost your disk on key? Buy a new one from here…“) but as you remember – Great Minds Think Alike , so I searched the Internet and.…found IT.

ebood.co.il is a what I found. some people actually found their missing belongings, but I suspect that many others did not, including myself. The reason is that no one really knows about this site… And if you found something and you do not know about this site – the loser will not get it back…
So now at least 13 more people know about this site and I am certain that you will use it if you find something or lose something. And please – share the word.

And… if you found a black Sandisk Cruser micro – please put an ad on ebood.co.il…
It might be mine 🙂

1 Comment

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Life, linkedin, Tools

Are We Human? Part 2

Posted on May 3, 2011 | 1 comment

A few weeks ago I posted a video from TED showing the human-like Bonobo’s behavior under the title Are We Human?.   The post raised a discussion about the differences between our species and others species learning abilities.

Daphna (My sister) sent me today the following a very short movie, showing how our tendency to copy from adults causes us to think less creatively (and actually makes us look more stupid than the apes).

Which is better? Copying or learning ? not sure.

It relates also to the following issue – does our education system (at home and at school) kill creativity ? If you are not sure of the answer and if you haven’t watched Sir Ken Robinson talk about Changing Education Paradigms, then this is the time to watch it.

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Posted in Education, Life, linkedin

It is all about Empathy

Posted on April 23, 2011 | 1 comment

In the last weeks, I follow two blogs by Maz Iqbal.  Maz, a UK based Marketing Strategist, writes a personal blog as well as a customer experience related blog from which I already quoted one brilliant article ( Why you should not confuse ‘personalisation’ with ‘personal’) and I plan to quote others.

On his personal blog, on a very personal post, Maz linked to the following TED talk  by the sociologist Sam Richards.  I really liked it. The bottom line is simple, even trivial – “try to put yourself in the other’s shoes in order to understand him” but the way he conveys thus message is through a fascinating thought exercise.

I would like to finish this post with a quote from the end of the talk. If you are not planning to watch the talk  then at least read these (and then you might want to watch it…):

Step outside of your tiny little world.
Step inside of the tiny little world of somebody else.
And then do it again, and do it again, and do it again
and suddenly all of these tiny little worlds
they come together in this complex web
and they build a big complex world.
And suddenly without realizing it
you're seeing the world differently.

Everything has changed.
Everything in your life has changed.

Enjoy… and many thanks to Maz.

1 Comment

Posted in Life, linkedin, TED

The power of words

Posted on April 12, 2011 | 2 comments

I am sorry, I just can’t  help it.  I have no intention of turning this site (blog?) into a way to send what we used to call in the old days”Fun Mail”, namely viral videos. And I will not.

However, I had to share this video with you. I can write so many words explaining why. But I will not.  It literally speaks for itself.

Just watch it.

2 Comments

Posted in Customer Experience, Life, linkedin, Uncategorized