Egyptian Women, and the World Really

"As long as they lack a basic desire to escape the familiar, it's unlikely they will change anything fundamental about their lives."

This fucking statement.

In a long, long article written by the New Yorker's always engaging Peter Hassler, this statement is just one of a grip of concise and candid observations quoted from one Chinese expat concerning the fundamental challenge of making a living in Northern Egypt, selling lingerie.

This statement was directed towards Eqyptian women - specifically regarding the lack of a multi-shift female workforce due to local (religous) customs - but the reason why it was uttered in the first place is a universally relatable one.  Anyone who has envisioned a better way of doing things or has thought that they could solve a really big problem IF only one seemingly simple thing were different, but lack the means to readily rectify that one thing should absolutely be able to relate to the speaker of the above statement.

What's really thought provoking about the above statement for me though is this: as frequently as we confront limits to progress or barriers to implementing better ways of living, the probability that the 'they' in the above statement could refer to oneself or one's specific in-group must be equally as likely.  The riddle of progress is a constantly shape shifting gate keeper that keeps the future seperate from the status quo.  Before trying to solve the riddle, we need to ask ourselves which problems we too are complicit with and/or a part of.

If you have a few minutes and appreciate good fucking writing about interesting fucking topics check out Hassler's New Yorker piece here : http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/08/10/learning-to-speak-lingerie.

Hoverboards and stuff

Arrived at work here in muggy downtown Seoul abnormally early (even for me) this morning so I booted up my pc and opened up Bloomberg, AVC.com, TheStartupBible.com, longform.org and a couple other go-to sites to catch any new updates as per-usual.

Luckily I had time to get used to the new changes made to the layout and fucking font on Bloomberg (they made it super small and fine; younger demo?) so could spot this impossibly alluring piece of copy: Here's How the Lexus Hoverboard Actually Works, Buckle up: History is gonna change.  Journalistic boner right?

Anyways, what struck me - and I think this point nails very concisely both the opportunity and the challenge that anyone who is alive today faces when trying to go solo in search of fame and/or fortune - was the answer the piece provided to the question of 'Why would Lexus spend all that time and money to create something so one-off (at least for now) in the first place?'

Answer: It's never been as challenging as it is today to rise above the rest and turn heads.


Read the full article on Bloomberg.com here :  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-04/here-s-how-the-lexus-hoverboard-actually-works

Leading Vs. Managing

Read a brilliantly concise comparison that explains the nuanced differences between leading and managing on Fred Wilson's blog a few weeks back that has stuck with me.  Hope it is sticky enough for those of you who cast thoughts in to the big pond of business theory from time to time.

Leading is charisma, strength, communication, vision, listening, calm, connecting, trust, faith and belief.

Management is recruiting, retaining, delegating, deciding, communicating and above all executing.

(Read the full post here: http://avc.com/2015/07/leaders-and-executives/)