Jerome Kerviel is responsible for losing 5 billions euros (7 billions dollars) !
I do not understand the lynching being perpetrated against this man. I don’t have sympathy for the guy because I do not know him, but (once again) the medias fried him without a trial.
I hope that the presumption of innocence still exists in courts. But when it comes to society, “real life, real people” it is just the opposite. The blood of this investment bank professional is now served by the medias on breakfast, diner, through snacks at 10am, 4pm and midnight. Obviously, with his full name, place of residence, Curriculum Vitae, salary and photos. The people are thirsty; the SOCIETE GENERALE bank is clean as snow, everyone (almost) is happy.
I don’t know how this will end. But I’m rather sure he will go to prison whether he is guilty or not.
16H52. I have 8 minutes before going to the nursery and get my daughter. Is this possible to make a post before that ?
The post must be intuitive and not logical. It reminds me of a book I recently crossed. Blink, the power of thinking without thinking. It’s about intuition as a very quick way of thinking rather than a feeling or a sixth sense.
Recently, with the desire to live better, I see lots of beautiful things around me. I re-established contact with an old friend and we speak to one another as if our last meeting dates back to yesterday (hello Alain), I discovered an extraordinary art form of light painting (video below) that I will try this weekend with my kids at home, I visited a site devoted to the extraordinary colour of Blue Klein, and I advanced in the drafting of an important document for my research. Not to mention that a person I do not even know offered me a great book on collective intelligence (thanks Olivier), and a friend came to see me this week without warning (Hi Stephane), just to say hello, which I greatly appreciate in a world that is becoming too square for my taste.
Top. 12 minutes. Published. 50% too late. For the computer engineer in me, this is is reasonable
I believe that the decision to live better represents 50% of the way to go towards the goal. The remaining 49% are in the attitude (and 1% in details).
The dictionary defines the word attitude as “A position of the body or manner of carrying oneself ….”.
After a sincere decision to live better, we naturally perceive a lot of things our environment in that can make our lives better. We are in the process of adopting a new attitude. But it must be empowered, like a good habit we commit ourselves to, every day again.
Remember that a small emerged part of our attitude.
You can do everything, but not all at once. You can do everything, if it’s important enough for you to do. You can do everything, but you may not be the best in everything. You can do everything, but there will be limitations. You can do everything, but you’ll need help.
Last thing; add the value of letters of the word ATTITUDE (1 +20 +20 +9 +20 +21 +4 +5). Try it!
I am interested in Evan Williams’ approach to create new products differently (he is the founder of Blogger and Twitter).
Briefly: We are used to innovate this way: “What feature can we add to it a better product ?”. Why not try that way: “What features can we remove to make it new ?”
I like this approach because I believe in the genius of simplicity.
Evan gives an example of a company which succeeded rather well using this approach. Created in 1998 it was inspired by Yahoo portal, took away all functionalities related to the portal and kept the search box. The company name is google…
But the following is a little trickier : he suggests a meeting website, in which to answer a proposal for a meeting, the site shows you no more than a photograph of the person and two buttons: Yes & No.
It is impossible to avoid the question of global warming. Because yes, some doubt something is happening, and to ignore what some may consider as free thinking is not without risk.
But it is important to recall that the issue is not whether the planet is warming or not. The question is whether there is a risk of major climate change, leading to severe changes in the environment and in life, including our life the one of our children.
Today, some very serious institutions indicate that this is a major risk. It is therefore imperative to consider accepting this risk up to the threat it suggests, and take measures to reduce it.
Briefly, this is risk management.
An Oregon professor of science speaks about that with a lot of common sense, humor and conviction. Make this information available to your friends, to other people, to politicians, for them and for us to do something about it.
Being yourself means to listen and to understand what you are, what you are not, what you really want, not what friends, family or society dictates what you want to or what you should do.
Rollo May writes in Man’s Search for Himself that “The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice…it is conformity.”
According to the dictionary, conformity is “..action in accord with prevailing social standards, attitudes, practices, etc. … compliance or acquiescence; obedience…”.
Mr. Keating, in the extraordinary movie the Dead Poets Society, illustrates the dangers of conformity by telling his students to walk freely in the schoolyard. Each student walks away in his way of doing so, and in the direction he chooses. But, after a while, all the students gather and then walk in the same direction, at the same pace, like soldiers. One group, one rhythm, one thought.
It is important to understand who benefits from conformity, as we live in a in society with conflicting ideas and powers. Conformity benefits conservative minds, those opposed to change. “We should not change. It works already. “,” Why start a business? You have a good job! “,” Becoming an actor is insane, do not even think about that! “,” Doing research is useless. We already have what we need.”,” Why Innovate? “,” Why change? ”
Conservative minds believe that too much freedom leads to chaos. This vision of the world has its origins in refusing to trust others. That is why they are continuously adding rules. For example, in families (through prohibitions), in business (authoritarian rules) and in our own society (conservative politics).
There is a Talmudic discussion around the proverb Im ein ani li, mi li? It means If I do not take care of myself, who will take care of me? In other words, we have the freedom of choice, but by choosing something, or by rejecting it, we need to know what it is and why do we do it.
The purpose of this post is to understand, to grasp, to think, to remind you (and myself), why being yourself is so important, in order to have a better life. Without denying it is hard to win its own trust, its own confidence, everyone has the choice to find out who he is and to become himself. Because, nobody else can do that for you, instead of you. I think that choosing the path of conformity, which may give you the impression of control and power of your life, is ephemeral. Conformity leads only to mediocrity, to the feeling of a missed life, to failure.
Better life is a matter of choice. Being happy is a matter of choice. And being yourself is a fundamental key in achieving it.
I am determined to increase the share of happiness in my life.
Woody Allen thinks that “Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons”. That gives me the following idea: Happiness is better than sadness, if only for the mood…
I strongly believe that happiness does not happen on its own. Happiness cannot be bought. Happiness is earned.
It is earned through sincere will, open-mindedness or good strategy.
I intend to earn my happiness through several goals that I will describe here through a series of posts entitled Better Life.
But before that, and for the inspiration, here’s a panoramic view of Pule Si, Temple of Universal Happiness (requires QuickTime), and some photos from Don Croner’s blog.
Lawrence Lessig, a brilliant professor of Law at Stanford Law School, one of American’s top 50 visionaries, fighting for free culture, presents here how creativity is being strangled by the law, why this should change, for us and for our children.
This way of seeing the world, in opposition to conservative minds, shows the extraordinary powerful minds behind what makes Internet go forward.
19 minutes et 7 seconds in order to believe in mankind again.
