Today was my last day at Yanzi Networks and I’m thankful for the 23 months I spent there. For experiences like this is that I came to Sweden.  It wasn’t always flowers and pink elephants, but that wasn’t what I was looking for. I heard people saying that one of the appeals of working in small companies is that you are not just one more, you have a chance to make a difference. However, for me is about the dynamics and strong ties formed when working in a team. And is there where one can acquire vast amounts of knowledge and not just talking about technical skills. I got the chance to learn business dynamics of a start up, management of employees and projects, team work, challenges in a start up and how to be a better person.

Now is time for a change and like I read somewhere: “change is good and good change is better”.  So, on the 4th of July I will start my new at Video Plaza and let me tell you that I’m hyped. I got the opportunity to meet my coworkers and colleges and is going to be fun. Of course it will not just be pink elephants and smiles fun, this is going to be hard work fun (plus the learning experience…). I’ve been passively following the company and it feels a bit surreal that I’m actually going to work there, don’t know with certainty why, but that is how it feels. [For such experiences is why I feel lucky and thankful]. For now, I will charge batteries, clear my mind and be as ready as possible for the new challenges that lie ahead.

Finally, I just like to say that not so long ago, I had times of personal uncertainty. What do I mean by this? Well wasn’t satisfied professionally and at a personal level.  Thanks to dear friends I’ve been blessed with (or depending on your faith, been lucky to have), I was able to deal with it… thank you .

Commits, documentation and cleanup, handshakes, farewells and hugs… is time to go forward and continue growing.

Google just released a publication called Think Quarterly (they called it a book and mashable a magazine), which they publish because:

…we often think that speed is the forgotten ‘killer application’ – the ingredient that can differentiate winners from the rest. We know that the faster we deliver results, the more useful people find our service.

But in a world of accelerating change, we all need time to reflect. Think Quarterly is a breathing space in a busy world. It’s a place to take time out and consider what’s happening and why it matters.

Each publication will be dedicated to one topic (published every quarter) and the first edition is about Data. So, I took ”breath” during lunch, to read the article Executive Insight.

Executive Insight is about Guy Laurence (CEO of Vodafone UK) take on data. It’s presented in a way that is easy to digest and while providing you with food for thought. Is a quick read, the finishes with a session of “20 quick fire questions”. His answers are just fun to read, but the last one is what one of the two things I will take from this article (the other being to not just rely on data, experience counts). Here is what he answered, when ask to tell a joke:

I like simplicity in life. I heard this urban myth a long time ago and it stayed with me. When NASA first started sending astronauts into space, they quickly discovered that ballpoint pens wouldn’t work in zero gravity. To combat the problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion developing a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on any surface and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300°C. The Russians used a pencil.

Next time that I’m stuck trying to solve a problem, I will imagine a Russian, in space, using a pencil.

On the first week of march, I started to listen to a recompilation of Antonio Vivaldi’s work on Spotify. My curiosity for Vivaldi was triggered when Google changed their logo to commemorate his birth date (on the 4th of March). I didn’t remember much about him so, I thought it could be interesting.

While enjoying the music and working I suddenly felt goose pumps when I started to listen to Winter 1st Movement of The Four Seasons.

Maybe is because I’m a big fan of the violin and maybe is why I felt how I felt. When I saw which piece was, I decided to go through the other four season pieces. I started from spring to winter, while I was trying to map my memories of the seasons. At this moment I had understood the four seasons. Before I had the knowledge about them. I had read what they represent the four seasons of a year: what people do and climatic events during each season. Each piece reflects this through the melody, tempo and a rhythm.

Because, I had experience them more than once, so they stuck to me, which lead to understanding them. To know is different from understand, therefore once we feel it and experience that feeling more than once, we will understand.

Since, I lived most of my life in Honduras where there is no clear manifestations of the the four seasons, I did not understand them. Until now, that I’m in my third winter in Sweden, I had the experience them, therefore I understand why Vivaldi’s four season sound as they do.

You can know that being a father is difficult, however until you experience it you will understand it.

You heard countless times and read even more, how hard is to have a business, but until you run your own, you will understand.

You might know or have an idea of what your customers want, however until you are your customer, you will understand them. Why do you think (37 signals’ book), “Getting Real”, recommends that you solve your own problems and therefore you will have great web applications? Because, you will become the customer, feel the pain and there understand what it is really needed. However this is sometimes difficult to do. Sometimes we just need to solve other people problems. That is why, in addition, developers that build the web applications should receive the tech support emails. Not as a punishment for writing buggy software, but because they will never be the customer. So, they need (somehow) feel the pain of the customer. That way they will understand what it is really needed.

Once we feel something we will understand it, other than that is knowledge. just theory.

There is rhythm when: it is “recurring at regular intervals” and a flow when it is “moving continuously”.

You can be in rhythm without flow. For example when you are continuously repeating an action, but it feels forced or “not right”. Is like one of those days when you feel like working, but nothing gets done. Think of somebody in a karaoke forcing the lyrics, it just doesn’t sound right and sometimes can be painful. Or writing a blog post but it just feels like crap.

Now, as you can have rhythm without flow, you can have flow without rhythm. This is case when you have the ideas flowing, the energy and all the intentions of doing your work, but you get interrupted, again and again. Following the music example above, is like somebody singing at the same time that little kid plays with a drum set, doesn’t matter how good the singer is, the sound (or noise) generated by the kid will win over you trying to sing.

Finally, rhythm and flow is when you have the ideas – and for long periods of time – work on them.  It doesn’t mean you work for a whole day non stop. By long periods I mean that you can work for a couple of hours, stand up, stretch and have some coffee. Then with a small warm up (like reviewing what you have done), you get back to what you where doing.

When in rhythm and flow, it feels natural and things just get done. There is a level of focus that only meditation can surpass.

So how did I got into this topic about rhythm and flow? Well, I wanted to get back to blogging around 8 posts a month. In the past months I been posting less and less, and is not that I don’t have something to say. I just was out of sync.

Although many people see it as a habit, when it is time to create, write or program: I need to “warm up” my mind. Is not enough just to get inspired or get an idea, there is need to a jump start with some energy  for things to roll. Most of the time that “warm up” proceeds a lot of junk and might be a waste of time, but is necessary to get rolling. Think of a steam locomotive starting up, see video bellow. At the beginning there is a lot of noise, it looks forced and slow, however when the locomotive gets rolling, it gets rolling to the point that maybe.. and just maybe superman can stop it.

So, this post is my warm up, don’t how much time it will take for me to get into rhythm and flow. Right now is not about the quality, the important thing is to continue doing it and letting it come to you. That is why when a shooter [in basketball] is in a slump, they shoot, writers just write until they get into it, programmers program, people live and when is there.. is there and only yourself can stop it.

[sorry no superman video stopping a locomotive, however roll back into your childhood, if not then just check the Spider Man 2 Train scene here, just awesome.]

Remember, today is more than just gifts and food, is about the people, the smiles, hugs and kisses. You never know what is coming for you, family and friends. enjoy it as much as possible. Given that in these days is difficult to have everybody on the same page, at we still get this during this time. Don’t hold back, even if you are far from your loved ones.

Merry Christmas to the you and everybody in the web sphere!!!

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said:

“To be great is to be misunderstood”

Honduras is a great country and we are being misunderstood.

If you wish to understand our great country, you have to see us with a different set of eyes ,or to the degree of just going blind. Then you will see and feel the real Honduras. Yes, it is difficult, especially with all the media giving us bad press and stating how undemocratic and brutal the process has been. But, if you try harder, you will be able to see, how great we are and why: what happened, happened. It may take you so much effort, that you will give up, as a result the only way to fully understand what is happening, is to live Honduras [as "La Gringa from Ceiba" did].

We are not experienced as many countries of the world, especially in the topics of democratic and international affairs. The fact of the matter is, we’re still a young democratic state, but we are growing. As a result of our inexperience, [I guess] every four year we [the people of Honduras] make a mistake by electing individuals to mange our country. Many of these individuals are not the best for that job and is why they can only stay four years. As a result, we hope that we can move on from our mistake (and maybe by chance), find somebody mediocre enough to do a couple of good things and keep us floating. This way, “we can hold the fort” until we are enough to fight back and not depend on a government and foreign help. Enough to organically fix what many think is unfixable, with one eye to the present and another to the future, while starting to move forward. Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales, was one of those mistakes and he wanted to stay, indefinably and suck up the life out of our country and turn it into a narco state. All this, with the help of his homologous from Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia and Nicaragua.

By 2006, we were almost on the right course, our debt was becoming less of a burden, inflation was stable and public expenses were controlled. Also, we had recovered from the banking crisis from some years ago, to put it simply: the future looked a bit brighter than usual. Fast forward to 2009 and we went back 10 years, congruent to the days after Hurricane Mitch. Not because of what happened on the mourning of the 28th of June, but because Zelaya refocused to stay in power indefinitely. In the process he was using any resource available of Honduras, to achieve his goal. In his change of focus, a transformation occured: from being a parasite (organism that takes resources from the host, without the host receiving nothing) to a parasitoid (same as parasite, but eventually kills the host in the process). Zelaya staying in power, will eventually mean: death to Honduras, as we know it and as democracy.

The treatment that Zelaya received was not the best and was more a result of panic and inexperience. I will not like to be treated that way, however I’m NOT Zelaya and Zelaya is not me: because every human being is unique. Still, we tend to mirror the actions of those that are around us, and Zelaya made ties with people, that also became parasitoids in their countries, thus becoming one himself. There is a saying in Spanish:

dime con quien andas y te dire quien eres

Translation: tell me who you hang out with and I will tell you who you are. Well, to see who Zelaya really is, just look around him.

Source: El Heraldo

Again, we are an inexperienced country in many political and international affairs, but we are not dumb. Eventually we had enough with Zelaya and yes we made some mistakes on how we handle the situation, but our intentions are good. We want to turn the ship and stop it from sinking. Even if the process is a bit messy and still make more mistakes, gives us time, because who else will do it? Everybody is already busy with their problems, that is why the international community and media is just talk (and talk is cheap). At the end of the day “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger” and as you can see, Honduras is becoming stronger everyday, to the dislike of many.

Source: La Prensa

To the International Community  and the Media.

Leaders of the International Community, that condemn the actions toward Zelaya and don’t accept the current government as valid.

Has your country has never made a mistake, even when others warn you? Remember the days when you where scrutinized, for every word and action by the international community? Or remember when you felt alone and misunderstood?

To the media, that only shows sensationalist images ad ask “Why” to everything, instead researching: WHY this really happened. So, now I ask:

WHY your interest is to criticize and sell, when your duty is to inform? WHY don’t you stop pointing and screaming, and start listening to what we have say? Why mold the news to your advantage? Why don’t you look with other eyes, instead of judging us?

As the bible says: “Let he without sin, throw the first rock”

A demand

We are inexperienced, we made mistakes and that is why we need and demand more time. We ask for the same treatment you will like and had, when in a crisis. We are misunderstood because we did something unusual. We figured out that the real face of democracy is not in a figure called president, is not in a book called the constitution full of blind spots, or neither in the “leader of the free world”. The real face of democracy is when the majority of a country come together to have one voice.

and we just have spoken, please listen.

Back in April, The Daily Show (USA) did a two part “report” on Sweden’s socialist system. This stuff is good (funny good), especially for those who had experience the Swedish life style.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Just some clarifications:

Health care is not free, you have to pay 14 Euros every visit to a doctor, MRI and X Rays are around 25 to 30 Euros.

Specialist cost around 25 Euros the visit.

Still is cheap and if you end up paying 90 Euros to the system you get a free card, which I’m not sure if its valid for every visits in a year or for a specific number.

Overall there is a mix reaction over the quality of health care in Sweden, but I think is good and you will find really nice people dedicated to their work or the opposite, people that just do what is necessary.

Education is free and master studies are free for international and exchange students.

Yes taxes are a killer, but in some occasions you can get some back.

Not every company has a spa, however is common practice to give you some money so you exercise.

Men and women have maternity leave.

Finally somebody told me the story that Vikings use to take the best and most beautiful women from villages they attacked or “visited” and that is why you have hottest women in Sweden. and they say is just a folk story.

Every person in the world has some kind of knowledge. Doesn’t matter their culture, profession or social status, they can teach you something. Still, we forget this and sometimes we think too much of ourselves or those with nice titles and reputation. We put in a pedestal the ones that have money and fame, instead of paying attention to those in our daily lives. In my case it was a stranger.

Recently I have been introduced to some life lessons and philosophies, such as: I shouldn’t value material things too much, if they break or get ruin they are replaceable. Or even more interesting, reciprocity is not the way to go, instead we should just pay it forward, and do favors and positive things for people for no reason but just to help.

Yesterday I was reminded of two things, one that everybody can teach you something and two.

It was a nice Friday night on spring, I was in at Mc Donald’s looking for a quick meal before going out. The time was around 9 pm. I order my burger and fries, and head to look for some place to sit down and eat. I couldn’t find no tables, so I seated on bar for people that come alone to eat. Near me, to my right, was a guy in his late forties eating in a table alone. He looked like a homeless guy or drunk having a meal. He had jeans, wear down baseball cap, and a jacket made of jean fabric. His gray beard, looked like it was a week old.

While I was eating, this guy starting screaming “halooo, halooo”. He was got the attention of the other customers around, I tried not to pay attention to him and just concentrated in my thoughts, burgers and fries. Then after one of the Mc Donald’s employees clean his table, he stand up. At this point I was thinking: “OK here he comes, will se what he wants”. He started to speak to me in Swedish, I couldn’t understand much and just looked and him puzzled. One could smell that he has been drinking, but is was not that strong and it wasn’t a annoying, it was like it was part of him. He noticed that I didn’t understand and asked me if I can speak Swedish, I told him (in Swedish) that I couldn’t. He then asks, with a serious face “why is everybody on a hurry, they are always on a hurry”.At this point I new the “smart ass philosophical answer” and that is what i told him: “because everybody forgets to live their life” I told him. Then he started to smile like saying “we are in the same page”. So, to reassure my statement I continued: “it’s all about the time, we think we own it, we continuously say we don’t have time for this and that”. At that point he agreed with me, and showed me that he didn’t have a wrist watch and even if he wanted to look at the time he couldn’t. And told me to take it easy, and don’t be in a hurry.

The funny thing is that “talk is cheap” and mostly like I was eating on a hurry and have been on a hurry all day. However that night I got a reminder to enjoy the present.

So, there was a guy that I didn’t want to talk to and many of us don’t care about, he understood life today in the modern world. We are always on hurry looking ahead at deadline and stressing out on those that we can’t meet. We are always on a rush trying to catch a train or compiling how X activity was a waste of time. We failed to enjoy what we have and then burden ourselves in our late years, because we didn’t stop and smell not just the flowers but everything and everybody. Although here in Sweden people take it easy compared to USA (where live to work instead of work to live), still people are in a rush.

There you have it, some insight from a unexpected source. We judge others for what we see on that moment and for get that they are complex beings like ourselves. We think because they ask questions, that we consider stupid, they are stupid. Or if they are just a simple employee or cleaner they don’t know nothing about business. We even ignore our customers when generally they know best. Everybody can teach us, the challenge is how to put aside all the noise and find the signal. In my case, I had to put aside the fact that after our short chat about life he wanted a favor, to be more specific 5 Swedish Crowns for the metro.

A friend, that we will call Steve-o, suggested this title for a blog post. The argument behind it is: should you start a company to sell it and be able to live in a paradise, where you will have a carrot like eternal sun tan or, to make meaning with your company. The last one is a Guy Kawasaki philosophy or belief, which basically can be sum up in the following:

if you make meaning, you will probably make money. But if you set out to make money, you will probably not make meaning and you won’t make money

You can here more about making meaning here.

Making meaning in your company or job, is all good in a world of pink and flying elephants, however when you need to “survive”, many people will see any money as “making meaning money”. When we had secure our survival is when the world becomes pink, full of hearts and flying elephants.

Interesting enough, there are people that don’t want to make a meaning or secure any “survival money”, but hit the jackpot to get that “Eternal Suntan”. The making meaning thing might be seen as full of crap, but eternal suntan is worst. Imagine you start a company, because you live in a system where you are chosen, just because it was your turn. You got your money by selling it for millions, move to the Caribbean or exotic pacific islands and spend all day in a “Speedo” seeing topless women (or men). You life just got shortened with all that sun (hello skin cancer) or you might catch up something in you bohemian lifestyle. And then what, your still lonely, bitter, full of crazy stories that will entrain tourists for a five minutes (your not considered a tourist anymore). Then in a moment of enlightenment, at age 53 (looking like 73) realized that there is no reason to live.

The above sounds dramatic, however that happens when people have secured their “survival” early. You see people in developing countries don’t have time to think about suntans and making meaning, they have to focus on one thing: SURVIVE, REALLY SURVIVE. And this is what keeps them sane, busy thinking and innovating, not thinking on the “immortality of the frog” [translation from the saying "inmortalidad del sapo"], getting depressed and whatever they do. Giving their love ones and second chance is their “making meaning” path, their families come first before changing the world, at the end what more can you ask if every human tries to make the world a better place for the love ones. What better way to leave this world knowing that, your children are what they are because of you.

So for those wanting to get lucky and hit the jackpot, well as Einstein, “God does not play dice with the universe”. If you don’t believe in God or a god then think of karma, “pay it forward” and.

luck is when preparation meets opportunity

A couple of weeks ago, I spend around two days building a website, using WordPress, as a Content Management System (CMS). The idea behind the page was to make a prototype of a idea and gain experience with WordPress from scratch. I had to deal with common roadblocks that I find when dealing with LAMP Stack (Linux Apache MySQL and PHP).

While chatting Stavros (a friend) and told the above and he replied:

so, these 2 days made u an expert?

you should write a blog

the 2 days expert

He was kind off joking, however it made me ponder about expertise in building websites using CMS. You see, in theory many people “know” how to build a website using a CMS. Hosting companies had made a business on providing a cheap place ,with one click setups for Drupal, Joomla, WordPress and others. However during the process roadblocks appear, so what we do? We Google for it or subscribe to forums and ask. Now, with twitter and similar platforms people look for the solution there, either through search of keywords or just asking. So, for every roadblock there is search in various places on the Web. If it works we bookmark it and generally go there to look for more solutions. We continue like these, until we had finished and achieve our milestone or goal. Some may even blog about, to share their experience and note how it different from what they found on the Web.

Expert is define as “one with the special skill or knowledge representing mastery of a particular subject” by the Merriam Webster dictionary. The Internet gives you this ability to become a expert, anybody can do it, with a low barrier of entry. However it might take less time for a person, that already has done it various times. Nevertheless, once we do it we feel more comfortable the next time and even gain confidence to help other and “show off our expertise”.

The more you learn, the less you know and there will be always somebody with more experience than you. That doesn’t mean that in this age with access to all the information on the Web, you can’t be a expert in your own realm.

Let’s take for example Scrappy. He just rented some shared hosting from “Easy Hosting CMS” and installed Drupal. He uses power a site (scrappy.com) of his portfolio and his blog. After some issues, he was able to make it run after a four days of hard work. Scrappy is proud of his website and he shows it off to his friends and peers. A couple of week pass by and Lil Ed wants his own website. So, he asks Scrappy for help because he sees him as an expert, based on what he saw in scrappy.com. Even if Scrappy has only done it once, the perception it gives to people that don’t have an idea of actually how to do it: is that he is an expert.

If this was 1990, Scrappy will have had a hard time figuring a lot of things. He will need a bunch of books and ask a bunch of people. Today all this knowledge or expertise can be accessed and absorbed on the Internet. As a result, you will have a lot of “2 day experts” hanging around in communities. Now the questions is what are those that has been working with X topic for years? Even more, are they as important as they where 20 years ago?