“We are better than we think and not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imaginations and the possibilities. We will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears and through all our sadness. ”
This is an inspiring video than I always go back to..
When you die you can’t take anything or anyone with you. This includes your family, friends, money and belongings. Memories are all that remain. Make them count.
“Vance and Madison inspire me. So do others like them who refuse the excuses and follow their hearts against all odds. Because of them, I realize that being “me”, in exactly the way I was born to be, is the only way to truly live.”
“The best thing we can do is to accept the fact that labels mean nothing, and realize that the seemingly nonsensical choices of others actually do make a lot of sense if we have the patience and fortitude to uncover the reasons behind these choices.”
from http://www.marcandangel.com/2008/12/22/be-who-you-were-born-to-be/
* **Use your friends**. When asked “what operating system should I use, Windows, Unix, or Mac?”, my answer is usually: “use whatever your friends use.”
* **Keep it simple**. Programming languages such as C++ and Java are designed for professional development. You don’t need that complication.
* **Play**. Which way would you rather learn to play the piano: the normal, interactive way, in which you hear each note as soon as you hit a key, or “batch” mode, in which you only hear the notes after you finish a whole song? Clearly, interactive mode makes learning easier for the piano, and also for programming. Insist on a language with an interactive mode and use it.
* **the most effective learning requires a well-defined task** with an appropriate difficulty level for the particular individual, informative feedback, and opportunities for repetition and corrections of errors.
* **Work on projects after other programmers**. Be involved in understanding a program written by someone else. See what it takes to understand and fix it when the original programmers are not around. Think about how to design your programs to make it easier for those who will maintain it after you.
* **Get interested in programming**, and do some because it is fun. Make sure that it keeps being enough fun so that you will be willing to put in ten years.
* **Talk to other programmers; read other programs**. This is more important than any book or training course.
* **Program. The best kind of learning is learning by doing.** To put it more technically, “the maximal level of performance for individuals in a given domain is not attained automatically as a function of extended experience, but the level of performance can be increased even by highly experienced individuals as a result of deliberate efforts to improve.” (p. 366) and “the most effective learning requires a well-defined task with an appropriate difficulty level for the particular individual, informative feedback, and opportunities for repetition and corrections of errors.” (p. 20-21) The book Cognition in Practice: Mind, Mathematics, and Culture in Everyday Life is an interesting reference for this viewpoint.
* **Systematically identify top designers** as early as possible.
* ** Assign a career mentor** to be responsible for the development of the prospect and carefully keep a career file.
* **Provide opportunities for growing designers to interact and stimulate each other.**
from http://norvig.com/21-days.html
* on the console, Fibonacci problem
* on the console, An echo TCP socket server and client
* on the console, to-do list program
* on the web with rails, to-do list program
* on the web with rails, contacts/address book manager app, a person may have more than one contact
* on the web with rails, finances/accounting manager app
* graphic lib, tic-tac-toe game
* graphic lib, minesweeper game
* on the console, simple example DRb service
* on the console, simple example DRb service over SSL, create a ruby-gem for it
* solve 3 tickets on http://rails.lighthouseapp.com/projects/8994-ruby-on-rails/tickets
Rules: you’re not allowed to look at implementations of the same problem you are trying to solve.
“It starts with the Entrepreneur. Someone who sees a way to make a difference in a clinical outcome and how to effect that change. When we see the entrepreneur for the first time we always remember the hard work and commitment it has taken to get to this stage.
During this initial meeting we look for their ability to define:
* The Problem
* Market Size
* Current Treatments
* The solution
* Value of market
* Reimbursement
* The founding team
We challenge the entrepreneur to give a clear informative review of their proposal, and we commit to giving open honest feedback. Development of any idea rests on these points; and through these conversations expertise from both sides shapes the new venture.
Next steps often involve introductions to connections that we feel may be interested or be able to offer help on a project. If Incube and the Entrepreneur feel there is a complementary mix between both parties, the venture will move through diligence and validation of theory and markets, into capitalization of a company.”
http://incubelabs.com/incubator/process.html