defragment.me

We are What We Choose

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, delivers this inspiring speech to Princeton University’s class of 2010.

My grandfather looked at me, and after a bit of silence, he gently and calmly said, “Jeff, one day you’ll understand that it’s harder to be kind than clever.”

The Art of Happiness by Tina Su

We really need to pause our life and think about what is really important and what truly makes us happy.

It can take centuries to go from “known” to “proven.”

Quoted from Call me crazy but don’t try to quantify it (via bobulate):

Often the “know” category is presided over by the philosophers and the poets, the witches and the healers. The “proven” is the realm of the white lab coat. It can take centuries to go from “known” to “proven.” Louis Pasteur may have discovered penicillin, but mold has been used to treat infections since the time of the ancient Egyptians. Likewise, the idea of the unconscious — that there were drives completely out of our control, and out of our sphere of awareness, working as the engine behind our behavior — used to be a joke. Now it’s an accepted truth

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On procrastination & perfectionism

Found this gem via twitter where the author attempts to analyse why he procrastinates and how it makes him effective.

Especially like this post where he relates perfectionism and procrastination:

The fantasies of perfection of replaced by the fantasies of utter failure. So I finally get to work on it. Now it would have been simpler for me, and for the publisher, and for the author, if I had sat down and spent four or five hours on the manuscript right off the bat. If only I had been able to give myself permission to do an imperfect job right at the outset. Is there anyway we can bring that about?

Life is beautiful

I’ve been following Jeffrey Zeldman’s blog & tweets for a while now, mainly because he owns one of the most respected web design companies around. He writes about his chronically ill dog sometimes, the hefty vet bills and fatigue involved. I cannot help but wonder how many in his shoes would choose to put the animal down to avoid all that. Even myself, cannot be sure I would have the strength to do the same.

And am just speechless when he writes about a typical sleepless night and feels grateful for it.

You’re not alone if you feel depressed

• The war against hopelessness
• The Hardest Help to Ask For
• Experts ponder link between creativity, mood disorders
• Depression’s Upside

If I Were Able to Live My Life Anew

If I were able to live my life anew, in the next I would try to commit more errors. I would not try to be so perfect, I would relax more. I would be more foolish than I’ve been, in fact, I would take few things seriously.

Read on at ben.casnocha.com

You Can Survive and Thrive After a Crisis

This post by the excellent Colorburned outlines what I have been advocating for a long while now. The people mentioned in the article have very successful online businesses after going through a period of crisis (If both parents dying within a space of months does not constitute a crisis, I don’t know what will).

A door closes, another one opens.

Daddies (& Mummies) Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Strangers

Reading this article touched a raw nerve in me as in my case, my mom was the one who was a stranger to me in my childhood in the name of providing material comfort.

All I wanted was a mother. Not some fancy life or toys (which I didn’t have anyway).

It never ceased to amuse (not very amusing when I was younger) when she would complain that her daughter is not as close to her as compared (in typical Singaporean fashion) to her relatives and friends.

I cannot help but feel disturbed when people want to have kids because ‘or else nobody will take care of me when I am old’. Very few people understand how psychologically screwed up a kid can get without parental love and support.

Kids do not magically turn into responsible, loving adults by themselves, people. You need to nurture them.

p.s. I have a good relationship with my mom now, but you have no idea how much pain and tears it took the both of us. It could have very well turned the other way. (One of my wishes when I was a teen was to legally disown my mother when I turned 21) But we would never be as close as one of those parent-child whose bonds had been forged during early childhood since birth.

He gave his company away to charity

Derek Sivers explains why he chose to give away his company to charity.

But the less I own, the happier I am. The lack of possessions gives me the priceless freedom to live anywhere anytime.