Ramblings

Postcard back in time | Part 2

So finally the answer to the question from my previous post, Postcard Back in Time:

“If you could send just one small postcard back in time to your 20-year-old self, what would it say?”

After pondering that seemingly simple question, the answer came to me after a phone conversation with my youngest brother, the youngest of three. He is right now going through all the struggles I went through when I was his age, with the added benefit of having the wisdom of myself and our other brother. He just got his first paycheck, is going through the usual teenage angst at high school and with friends and girls and parents.

Long story short, what I would tell myself on a postcard if I could send it back in time to myself,

“If what you want to do and want out of life feels right to you and also causes no harm to anyone else, then do it. Follow the advice of the little voice in your head, most of the time, its right. And for those times it is wrong, you will learn and so will the little voice.”

For those of you who watch Indian movies, Tamil movies to be exact, its also the advice from the film Sachin that Vijay gives to his friend and love interest. But I digress.

Postcard back in time

There once was a time when I spent hours a day online just surfing the web.  These days I have other priorities in life, family, work and building up a business slowly but steadily.  My web surfing has gone from seemingly hundreds of sites a day, down to a handful.  Literally, a handful 5 tops.  Of those, the one I make sure to visit each day regardless of how busy things get is Zen Habits.  Today’s post was a free for all Q&A between us visitors and the site’s author, Leo.  One particular question caught my eye, and I’m trying to think of an answer myself for the question.

The question is: “If you could send just one small postcard back in time to your 20-year-old self, what would it say?”

I don’t know what my answer is yet, but hopefully by the end of the day I will have added it to this post.

Lost 1984 Introduction of 128K Macintosh

Although my first two posts are about Steve Jobs, I don’t intend this to be an Apple fanboy site, just my braindump of whatever is on my mind.

This morning I ran across this video on another website, this is the announcement of the128K Macintosh back in 1984. I love how excited people got then, Read the rest of this entry »

Steve Jobs’ Commencement Address @ Stanford

Every blog I start generally starts with this commencement address. It is one of the most motivating speeches I have come across in my lifetime, and I hope you appreciate it as well. This speech was given on June 12, 2005.

This speech originally posted on the Stanford News Service.

The video version of this is also available on YouTube, or at the end of this post..
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I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

Read the rest of this entry »