Only 29 people live on Horse Island in 19 houses and in the two days I spend there, I met half of them. They all looked too happy, too healthy, were too friendly, so it felt a bit like The Truman Show and I was Truman Burbank. But as it turns out, I wasn’t. It was just an oasis of happiness where a handful of people have managed to find a way to avoid any form of socialism, communism or capitalism. Oh, yes, and no internet, no cable TV and no bars. Or restaurants.

I jumped on a plane after that surreal weekend trying to figure out what just happened. I mean, how can one live without all the perks of today’s society and still be so happy? I couldn’t wrap my head around it. But then, right before I landed, it hit me. John, Patricia, Paddy‘s grandmother and the other 26 people on Horse Island don’t need to rush to any meeting. They’re not exposed to any noise, dirt, traffic, smoke or stress. And they live in an incredibly small and friendly community, which feels like one big, happy family.

So then I realised: the ideal society is formed in small clusters of big families, where everything happens, more or less, locally. Simple formula, pret-a-porter for all of us urban people. But there’s also a good chance this could only ever happen on Horse Island or The Truman Show, I’m not sure yet.

Happy Holidays!

A couple of years ago I got a contract with a very, very big and demanding customer for one very simple reason: I showed up more times than my competitors did. You’ve heard it before, but I can’t stress enough how true this rule is: 80% of a sales pitch is showing up.

Ever went into a store, asked for a blue shirt and heard the sales person go: “I’m sorry, we’re out of blue shirts, but would you like a pink t-shirt?”. You have, haven’t you? Everybody has, and  we all hate it. So, next time you sell something to someone, put yourself in his or her shoes. If he’s looking for a blue shirt, would he or she buy a pink t-shirt or not?

Last but definitely not least: Repeat. Repeat it until you can sell anything to anyone. Sell yourself. Sell your ideas. Your arguments. Your beliefs. Just sell. And keep in mind that becoming a great sales person, just as anything else, takes at least 10,000 hours.

There – you read it all, so it means I just sold you my post .

Until very recently I had, like most of you, about 150 feeds in Google Reader. I zapped through them throughout the day, which gave me a (fake) sense of being up-to-date with everything.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, I decided to delete 90% of my feeds, and only keep those of friends & people I’m really interested in. I ended up with exactly 20 feeds.

Without further blabbering, RescueTime says I’ve “won” back about 6 hours / week. Six hours. I finally have time to finish Crime and Punishment, and that makes me a very happy chap.

Try it out, it works. And no, you won’t miss anything. If something’s really important, it will get to you one way or another.

The only problem: After Effects didn’t work on OS X, so Mr. Stevie Jobs went to Mr. Adobe CEO and said: Dude, c’mon, make it work. And Mr. Adobe CEO said: neah, you only sell a few thousand computers per year, it’s not worth it. So Stevie went on and built Final Cut and promised Adobe’s CEO that he’ll make it back.

Therefore, no flash on the iPhone, no flash on the iPad, no flash-on-any-freaking-beautiful-device-ever-built-by-Apple. Ever.

And that’s how the story goes .

I’m going to go ahead and put my brain to work now, but until I actually write something interesting, feel free to check out the english posts on my Romanian blog.

Cheers!

Later edit: I decided to import the english posts from my Romanian blog.