Julian Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks - Julian Assange (2010)

 

 

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Julian Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks - Julian Assange (2010)

via TEDTalks (video) on 7/19/10

The controversial website WikiLeaks collects and posts highly classified documents and video. Founder Julian Assange, who's reportedly being sought for questioning by US authorities, talks to TED's Chris Anderson about how the site operates, what it has accomplished -- and what drives him. The interview includes graphic footage of a recent US airstrike in Baghdad.

 

 

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18 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I Was 18

 

 

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18 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I Was 18

via Marc and Angel Hack Life by Marc on 6/20/10

This morning I was reading a book at my favorite beach-side coffee shop when an 18-year-old kid sat down next to me and said, "That's a great read, ain't it?"  So we started chatting.

He told me he was getting ready to graduate from high school in a couple of weeks and then immediately starting his college career in the fall.  "But I have no clue what I want to do with my life," he said.  "Right now I'm just going with the flow."

And then, with eager, honest eyes, he began asking me one question after the next:

• "What do you do for a living?"
• "When and how did you decide what you wanted to do?"
• "Why did you do this?  Why didn't you do that?"
• "Is there anything you wish you had done differently?"
• Etc, etc, etc…

I answered his questions as best as I could, and tried to give decent advice with the time I had.  And after a half-hour conversation, he thanked me and we parted ways.

But on the walk home I realized the conversation I had with him was actually quite nostalgic for me.  He reminded me of me ten years ago.  So I started thinking about his questions again, and I began imagining all of the things I wish someone had told me when I was 18.

Then I took it a step further and thought about all the things I would love to tell myself if I could travel back in time to give my 18-year-old self some advice about life.

So after a few cups of coffee and a couple hours of deliberation, here are 18 things I wish someone told me when I was 18:

1. Commit yourself to making lots of mistakes. – Mistakes teach you important lessons.  The biggest mistake you can make is doing nothing because you're too scared to make a mistake.  So don't hesitate – don't doubt yourself.  In life, it's rarely about getting a chance; it's about taking a chance.  You'll never be 100% sure it will work, but you can always be 100% sure doing nothing won't work.  Most of the time you just have to go for it!  And no matter how it turns out, it always ends up just the way it should be.  Either you succeed or you learn something.  Win-Win.  Remember, if you never act, you will never know for sure, and you will be left standing in the same spot forever.
2. Find hard work you love doing. – If I could offer my 18-year-old self some real career advice, I'd tell myself not to base my career choice on other people's ideas, goals and recommendations.  I'd tell myself not to pick a major because it's popular, or statistically creates graduates who make the most money.  I'd tell myself that the right career choice is based on one key point: Finding hard work you love doing.  As long as you remain true to yourself, and follow your own interests and values, you can find success through passion.  Perhaps more importantly, you won't wake up several years later working in a career field you despise, wondering "How the heck am I going to do this for the next 30 years?"  So if you catch yourself working hard and loving every minute of it, don't stop.  You're on to something big.  Because hard work ain't hard when you concentrate on your passions.
3. Invest time, energy and money in yourself every day. – When you invest in yourself, you can never lose, and over time you will change the trajectory of your life.  You are simply the product of what you know.  The more time, energy and money you spend acquiring pertinent knowledge, the more control you have over your life.
4. Explore new ideas and opportunities often. – Your natural human fears of failure and embarrassment will sometimes stop you from trying new things.  But you must rise above these fears, for your life's story is simply the culmination many small, unique experiences.  And the more unique experiences you have, the more interesting your story gets.  So seek as many new life experiences as possible and be sure to share them with the people you care about.  Not doing so is not living.
5. When sharpening your career skills, focus more on less. – Think in terms of Karate: A black belt seems far more impressive than a brown belt.  But does a brown belt really seem any more impressive than a red belt?  Probably not to most people.  Remember that society elevates experts high onto a pedestal.  Hard work matters, but not if it's scattered in diverse directions.  So narrow your focus on learning fewer career related skills and master them all.
6. People are not mind readers.  Tell them what you're thinking. – People will never know how you feel unless you tell them.  Your boss?  Yeah, he doesn't know you're hoping for a promotion because you haven't told him yet.  That cute girl you haven't talked to because you're too shy?  Yeah, you guessed it; she hasn't given you the time of day simply because you haven't given her the time of day either.   In life, you have to communicate with others.  And often, you have to open your vocal chords and speak the first words.  You have to tell people what you're thinking.  It's as simple as that.
7. Make swift decisions and take immediate action. – Either you're going to take action and seize new opportunities, or someone else will first.  You can't change anything or make any sort of progress by sitting back and thinking about it.  Remember, there's a huge difference between knowing how to do something and actually doing it.  Knowledge is basically useless without action.
8. Accept and embrace change. – However good or bad a situation is now, it will change.  That's the one thing you can count on.  So embrace change, and realize that change happens for a reason.  It won't always be easy or obvious at first, but in the end it will be worth it.
9. Don't worry too much about what other people think about you. – For the most part, what other people think and say about you doesn't matter.  When I was 18, I let the opinions of my high school and early college peers influence my decisions.  And, at times, they steered me away from ideas and goals I strongly believed in.  I realize now, ten years later, that this was a foolish way to live, especially when I consider that nearly all of these people whose opinions I cared so much about are no longer a part of my life.  Unless you're trying to make a great first impression (job interview, first date, etc.), don't let the opinions of others stand in your way.  What they think and say about you isn't important.  What is important is how you feel about yourself.
10. Always be honest with yourself and others. – Living a life of honesty creates peace of mind, and peace of mind is priceless.  Period.
11. Talk to lots of people in college and early on in your career. – Bosses.  Colleagues.  Professors.  Classmates.  Social club members.  Other students outside of your major or social circle. Teaching assistants.  Career advisors.  College deans.  Friends of friends.  Everyone!  Why?  Professional networking.  I have worked for three employers since I graduated from college (I left my first two employers by choice on good terms), but I only interviewed with the first employer.  The other two employers offered me a job before I even had a formal interview, based strictly on the recommendation of a hiring manager (someone I had networked with over the years).  When employers look to fill a position, the first thing they do is ask the people they know and trust if they know someone who would do well in the position.  If you start building your professional network early, you'll be set.  Over time, you'll continue talking to new people you meet through your current network and your network's reach and the associated opportunities will continue to snowball for the duration of your career.
12. Sit alone in silence for at least ten minutes every day. – Use this time to think, plan, reflect, and dream.  Creative and productive thinking flourish in solitude and silence.  With quiet, you can hear your thoughts, you can reach deep within yourself, and you can focus on mapping out the next logical, productive step in your life.
13. Ask lots of questions. – The greatest 'adventure' is the ability to inquire, to ask questions.  Sometimes in the process of inquiry, the search is more significant than the answers.  Answers come from other people, from the universe of knowledge and history, and from the intuition and deep wisdom inside yourself.  These answers will never surface if you never ask the right questions.  Thus, the simple act of asking the right questions is the answer.
14. Exploit the resources you do have access to. – The average person is usually astonished when they see a physically handicap person show intense signs of emotional happiness.  How could someone in such a restricted physical state be so happy?  The answer rests in how they use the resources they do have.  Stevie Wonder couldn't see, so he exploited his sense of hearing into a passion for music, and he now has 25 Grammy Awards to prove it.
15. Live below your means. – Live a comfortable life, not a wasteful one.  Do not spend to impress others.  Do not live life trying to fool yourself into thinking wealth is measured in material objects.  Manage your money wisely so your money does not manage you.  Always live well below your means.
16. Be respectful of others and make them feel good. – In life and business, it's not so much what you say that counts, it' how you make people feel.  So respect your elders, minors, and everyone in between.  There are no boundaries or classes that define a group of people that deserve to be respected.  Treat everyone with the same level of respect you would give to your grandfather and the same level of patience you would have with your baby brother.  Supporting, guiding, and making contributions to other people is one of life's greatest rewards.  In order to get, you have to give.
17. Excel at what you do. – There's no point in doing something if you aren't going to do it right.  Excel at your work and excel at your hobbies.  Develop a reputation for yourself, a reputation for consistent excellence.
18. Be who you were born to be. – You must follow your heart, and be who you were born to be.  Some of us were born to be musicians – to communicate intricate thoughts and rousing feelings with the strings of a guitar.  Some of us were born to be poets – to touch people's hearts with exquisite prose.  Some of us were born to be entrepreneurs – to create growth and opportunity where others saw rubbish.  And still, some of us were born to be or do whatever it is, specifically, that moves you.  Regardless of what you decide to do in your lifetime, you better feel it in every fiber of your being.  You better be born to do it!  Don't waste your life fulfilling someone else's dreams and desires.

But above all, laugh when you can, apologize when you should, and let go of what you can't change.  Life is short, yet amazing.  Enjoy the ride.

Photo by: Taylor McBride

 

 

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Benoit Mandelbrot: Fractals and the art of roughness - Benoit Mandelbrot (2010)

 

 

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Benoit Mandelbrot: Fractals and the art of roughness - Benoit Mandelbrot (2010)

via TEDTalks (video) on 7/6/10

At TED2010, mathematics legend Benoit Mandelbrot develops a theme he first discussed at TED in 1984 -- the extreme complexity of roughness, and the way that fractal math can find order within patterns that seem unknowably complicated.

 

 

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Why Are Meetings So Frustrating?

Meetings are necessary though.. consensus building is very difficult!

 

 

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Why Are Meetings So Frustrating?

via Everyday Sociology Blog by W. W. Norton on 6/16/10

By Sally Raskoff

Do you find workplace meetings frustrating? I've been feeling frustrated with meetings a lot lately.

Meetings are an organization's way of making group decisions. Individual decision-making is so much easier. For example, I've decided to write this blog on frustrating meetings! Done!

But meetings require including the opinions of others; their viewpoints must be heard and discussed and that takes time. And patience.

When power enters into the equation, meetings can be much quicker but just as frustrating.

Those with power move things along when they run things, share their opinion, or make a decision. This can be speedier, yes, but frustrating if you don't agree, couldn't give input, or if your input is discounted or ignored.

Some people with power participate in collaborative meetings, but their power is typically still in play. It's hard to ignore the boss if they are in the room with you.

My graduate school mentor told a great story that he had experienced. The way I remember it, he and many others were sitting in a room discussing the topics at hand and a decision had to be made. Everyone was sitting in the same type of chair around the room; since no one was at the head of the table or in a bigger chair than others it was a very level playing field. Everyone spoke their piece, stated their opinions, and voiced their concerns. The discussion went all the way around the room until the last man spoke up and shared his opinion on the matter. At that point, everyone nodded and agreed that his was the correct decision. This person was Carl Rogers, an eminent psychologist whose work on group processes is well known. His status and power lifted him above a level hierarchy despite the efforts to flatten it.

True collaborative work or shared governance is tough and slow.

This is especially true if the groups sharing the process are culturally heterogeneous. If the group is culturally homogeneous, the similarity of culture can be helpful in avoiding miscommunications. With heterogeneous groups, the likelihood of someone not fully understanding another is increased above and beyond the typical personal miscommunications that can plague any group.

One reason the Spanish Mondragon Cooperatives, a federation of workers who co-own the corporation, has been so successful is that their cultural homogeneity supports the groups' cohesiveness.

In-group and out-group dynamics might also affect a meeting's dynamics. If you are part of an in-group, you might identify with that group and feel loyalty towards it. Thus, if a member of your in-group makes some points during the meeting, the other members of that in-group will probably agree with and support that point. If you're not a member of that group, you can get quite frustrated, especially if that group's members are in the majority. If an out-group is dominating the meeting and your in-group members are in the minority, you can feel very disempowered.

Have you ever sat in a meeting and wondered why you were getting frustrated? What other sociological dynamics might have been occurring?

 

 

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Poems.

THE SOLUTION

After the uprising of the 17th June
The Secretary of the Writer¹s Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?

I'd like to share a few of my favourite Brecht poems with you as well. You might enjoy them, you might not. Whatever the case, here they are:

Quote: Originally Posted by Bertolt Brecht

CHANGING THE WHEEL

I sit by the roadside
The driver changes the wheel.
I do not like the place I have come from.
I do not like the place I am going to.
Why with impatience do I
Watch him changing the wheel?



COUNTER-SONG TO ŒTHE FRIENDLINESS OF THE WORLD¹

So does that mean we¹ve got to rest contented
And say ŒThat¹s how it is and always must be¹
And spurn the brimming glass for what¹s been emptied
Because we¹ve heard it¹s better to go thirsty?

So does that mean that we¹ve got to sit here shivering
Since uninvited guests are not admitted
And wait while those on top go on considering
What pains and joys we are to be permitted?

Better, we think, would be to rise in anger
And never go without the slightest pleasure
And, warding off those who bring pain and hunger
Fix up the world to live in at our leisure.



EVERYTHING CHANGES

Everything changes. You can make
A fresh start with your final breath.
But what has happened has happened. And the water
You once poured into the wine cannot be
Drained off again.

What has happened has happened. The water
You once poured into the wine cannot be
Drained off again, but
Everything changes. You can make
A fresh start with your final breath.



I KNOW YOU ALL WANT ME TO CLEAR OUT

I know you all want me to clear out
I see I eat too much for you
I realise you¹ve no means of dealing with people like me
Well, I¹m not clearing out.

I told all of you flat
To hand over your meat
I followed you round and
Put it to you that you have got to move out
I learned your language for the purpose
At last
Everyone got the point
But next day there was no meat again.

I sat and waited one more day
To give you a chance to come
And put yourselves right.

When I come back
Under a rougher moon, my friends
I shall come in a tank
Talk though a gun and
Wipe you out.

Where my tank passes
Is a street
What my gun says
Is my opinion
And of the whole lot
I¹ll spare only my brother
By just kicking him in the teeth.



IN FAVOUR OF A LONG, BROAD SKIRT

Your ample peasant skirt¹s the one to pick
Where cunningly I emphasise the length:
Lifting it off you to its full extent
Revealing thighs and bottom, gives a kick.
Then when you tuck your legs up on our sofa
Let it ride up, so that, hidden in its shadow
Through deep discussions clouded in tobacco
Your flesh may hint our night is not yet over.

It is more than a base and lustful feeling
That makes me want a skirt as wide as this:
Your lovely movements bring to mind Colchis
The day Medea strolled towards the sea. -
These aren¹t the grounds, though, on which I¹m appealing
For such a skirt. Base ones will do for me.



NOW SHARE OUR VICTORY TOO

You shared our defeat, now share
Our victory too.

You warned us of many a wrong road
We walked it, you
Walked with us.



ON HEARING THAT A MIGHTY STATESMAN HAS FALLEN ILL

If the indispesable man frowns
Two empires quake.
If the indispensable man dies
The world looks around like a mother without milk for her
child.
If the indispensable man were to come back a week after his
death
In the entire country there wouldn¹t be a job for him as a
hall-porter.



ON STERILITY

The fruit tree that bears no fruit
Is called sterile. Who
Examines the soil?

The branch that breaks
Is called rotten, but
Wasn¹t there snow on it?



ON VIOLENCE

The headlong stream is termed violent
But the river bed hemming it in is
Termed violent by no one.

The storm that bends the birch trees
Is held to be violent
But how about the storm
That bends the backs of the roadworkers?



THE ABSTEMIOUS CHANCELLOR

They tell me the chancellor doesn¹t drink
Eats no meat and never smokes
And he lives in a modest dwelling.
But they also tell me the poor
Starve and die in misery.
How much better it would be to have a state of which men
said:
The chancellor is always drunk at cabinet meetings
Eyeing the smoke from their pipes, a few
Uneducated men sit altering the laws
There are no poor.



THE ACTIVE DISCONTENTED

The active discontented, your great teachers
Worked out the structure of a community
Where man is not a wolf to man
And discovered man¹s delight in eating his fill and having a
roof over his head
And his wish to manage his own affairs.

They did not believe the preacher¹s babble
That our terrible hunger will be appeased once our bellies
have rotted.
They chucked out dishes full of bad food.
They recognised the man they were told was the enemy
As their hungry neighbour.
They were pateint only in the struggle against the oppressors
Tolerant only of those who would not tolerate exploitation
Tired only of injustice.

He who kicked away the chair on which he sat uncomfortably
Who drove the ploughshare an inch deeper into the eart than
any before him
The discontented man, he shall be our teacher
In reconstructing the community.

Those however
Who gorged themselves full on a plate of promises
Shall get their bellies ripped out.
Hiding their crooked bones
Is a waste of a spoonful of sand.



THE BREAD OF THE PEOPLE

Justice is the bread of the people.
Sometimes it is plentiful, sometimes it is scarce.
Sometimes it tastes good, sometimes it tastes bad.
When the bread is scarce, there is hunger.
When the bread is bad, there is discontent.

Throw away the bad justice
Baked without love, kneaded without knowledge!
Justice without flavour, with a grey crust
The stale justice which comes too late!

If the bread is good and plentiful
The rest of the meal can be excused.
One cannot have plenty of everything all at once.
Nourished by the bread of justice
The work can be achieved
From which plenty comes.

As daily bread is necessary
So is daily justice.
It is even necessary several times a day.

From morning till night, at work, enjoying oneself.
At work which is an enjoyment.
In hard times and in happy times
The people requires the plentiful, wholesome
Daily bread of justice.

Since the bread of justice, then, is so important
Who, friends, shall bake it?

Who bakes the other bread?

Like the other bread
The bread of justice must be baked
By the people.

Plentiful, wholesome, daily.




THE CRUTCHES

Seven years I could not walk a step.
When I to the great physician came
He demanded: Why the crutches?
And I told him: I am lame.

He replied: That¹s not surprising.
Be so good and try once more.
If you¹re lame, it¹s those contraptions.
Fall then! Crawl across the floor!

And he took my lovely crutches
Laughing with a fiend¹s grimace
Broke them both across my back and
Threw them in the fireplace.

Well, I¹m cured now: I can walk.
Cured by nothing more than laughter.
Sometimes, though, when I see sticks
I walk worse for some hours after.



THE HINDMOST

The fight has been fought, let¹s eat!
Even the blackest times must come to an end.
Whatever was left after the fight should grasp its knife and
fork.
The stronger man was he who survived
And the devil take the hindmost.

Get up, deadbeat!
The strong man is he who left no one behind.
Go out yet again, limp, crawl, lay about you
And bring in the hindmost!



THE MUSES

When the man of iron beats them
The Muses sing louder.
With blackened eyes
They adore him like bitches.
Their buttocks twitch with pain.
Their thighs with lust.



THE WORLD¹S ONE HOPE

Is oppression as old as the moss around ponds?
The moss around ponds is not avoidable.
Perhaps everything I see is natural, and I am sick and want to
remove what cannot be removed?
I have read songs of the Egyptians, of their men who built
the pyramids. They complained of their loads and asked when
oppression would cease. That¹s four thousand years ago.
Oppression, it would seem, is like the moss and unavoidable.

When a child is about to be run down by a car one pulls
it on to the pavement.
Not the kindly man does that, to whom they put up
monuments.
Anyone pulls the child away from the car.
But here many have been run down, and many pass by and
do nothing of the sort.
Is that because it¹s so many who are suffering? Should one not
help them all the more because they are many? One helps
them less. Even the kindly walk past and after that are as
kindly as ever they were before walking past.

The more there are suffering, then, the more natural their
sufferings appear. Who wants to prevent the fishes in the sea
from getting wet?
And the suffering themselves share this callousness towards
themselves and are lacking in kindness towards themselves.
It is terrible that human beings so easily put up with existing
conditions, not only with the sufferings of strangers but also
with their own.
All those who have thought about the bad state of things
refuse to appeal to the compassion of one group of people for
another. But the compassion of the oppressed for the
oppressed is indispensable.
It is the world¹s one hope.



WHEN EVIL-DOING COMES LIKE FALLING RAIN

Like one who brings an important letter to the counter after
office hours: the counter is already closed.
Like one who seeks to warn the city of an impending flood,
but speaks another language. They do not understand
him.
Like a beggar who knocks for the fifth time at a door where
he has four times been given something: the fifth
time he is hungry.
Like one whose blood flows from a wound and who awaits
the doctor: his blood goes on flowing.

So do we come forward and report that evil has been done us.

The first time it was reported that our friends were being
butchered there was a cry of horror. Then a hundred
were butchered. But when a thousand were butchered
and there was no end to the butchery, a blanket of
silence spread.

When evil-doing comes like falling rain, nobody calls out
Œstop!¹

When crimes begin to pile up they become invisible. When
sufferings become unendurable the cries are no longer
heard. The cries, too, fall like rain in summer.



TO THE STUDENTS OF THE WORKERS¹ AND PEASANTS¹ FACULTY

1
So there you sit. And how much blood was shed
That you might sit there. Do such stories bore you?
Well, don¹t forget that others sat before you
Who later sat on people. Keep your head!

2
Your science will be valueless, you¹ll find
And learning will be sterile, if inviting
Unless you pledge your intellect to fighting
Against all enemies of all mankind.

3
Never forget that men like you got hurt
That you might sit here, not the other lot.
And now don¹t shut your eyes, and don¹t desert
But learn to learn, and try to learn for what.



TO A WAVERER

You tell us
It looks bad for our cause.
The darkness gets deeper. The powers get less.
Now, after we worked for so many years
We are in a more difficult position than at the start.
But the enemy stands there, stronger than ever before.
His powers appear to have grown. He has taken on an aspect
of invincibility.
We however have made mistakes; there is no denying it.
Our numbers are dwindling.
Our slogans are in disarray. The enemy has twisted
Part of our words beyond recognition.

What is now false of what we said:
Some or all?
Whom do we still count on? Are we just left over, thrown out
Of the living stream? Shall we remain behind
Understanding no one and understood by none?

Have we got to be lucky?

This you ask. Expect
No other answer than your own.

The 20s//

#1.

Social Studies: Life is Hard and You Will Die, Get Over It

We're not foolish enough to think one semester of this course can deprogram years of Hollywood bullshit. That's why we make this a daily class, that continues from K through 12.

Many of you will get very depressed in your 20s, and some of you will stay that way the rest of your lives. Over the years your garage band will break up, you career dream will fall through, a girl will break your heart, you'll be unhappy with your body, you'll lose your parents, your favorite pet will die, you will endure at least one very terrible injury that requires hospitalization and breaks new boundaries for what kind of pain you thought was possible.

And your childhood memories will be exploited to buy vast amounts of cocaine. Deal with it.

The reason why this will lead to depression, where it may not have done so for an equivalent person 200 years ago, is because you were raised on illogical stories where things always work out for the main character for utterly arbitrary reasons. Han Solo can shoot straight, but none of the bad guys can--even though they train more. John McClane beats the terrorists because he has toughness and perseverance--something the bad guys lack, even though they should be equally desperate. If a guy and a girl are right for each other, they always wind up together, careers and geography and personal hang-ups be damned.

Here's the problem: these fantasies were created by adults, as a means of escape from the real world. You, however, have been watching them since you were five--for most of us these were our first impressions of how the adult world works, even if on a subconscious level. You had no context to realize they were bullshit. It sounds frivolous, but that doesn't change the fact that some of you reading this will not survive the long process of learning how different the real world is.

If it helps, try to remember that you're still one of the one percent of humanity that was born in a time and place where there is such a thing as anesthesia.

Chapters Include:

I. You Can Die at Any Moment, Get Over It;
II. Required Reading: The Road, by Cormac McCarthy;
III. Roleplay Exercise: Various Scenes from The Road, by Cormac McCarthy;
IV. Yes, It Takes 10,000 Hours to Get Really Good at Something, But At Least You're Not Scavenging Through a Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland.