Each year, Mary Meeker from KPCB releases a monster presentation deck full of interesting stats, trends and predictions regarding the Internet.

Out of the 195 slides of content, between stats about mobile usage, video consumption, Snapchat and drones, this one struck me the most.

Millennials want more meaningful work, not more money. But managers think they want more money, and that’s what they’re offering.

Like a friend who buys you a gift when all you need is a talk over a coffee.

For more readings about meaningful work, I invite you on Brainpickings.org.

Ben Horowitz Columbia University Commencement 2015 Speech

I was sitting in a charming coffee shop in Honolulu earlier today and there was an interesting text on one of the walls. I didn’t have my phone to take pictures so I wrote it down.

“Looking at artwork in museums usually makes me uncomfortable. I end up feeling like some kind of voyeur - unable to touch anything but encouraged to stare all I want.

On recent trips to Seattle, Chicago, and New York, I watched people in Galleries. Everyone I saw stared silently at the art, trying to understand what was in front of them. These types of interactions continued outside, in regular life. Everyone I encountered, looking out windows or admiring cheese or wishing for hair. All of them, engaged but distanced.

How do we respond to what intrigues us? Does anything have intrinsic value or do we assign the meaning we want into things around us?

Maybe the experience itself matters more than the

fo·cus: the center of interest or activity.

A recent happiness study from Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert found that the more our minds wander, the less happy we are. Summing the research, the New York Times wrote, “Whatever people were doing, whether it was having sex or reading or shopping, they tended to be happier if they focused on the activity instead of thinking about something else.” In short, being mentally “present” and focused on the task at hand really does matter – quite a lot, in fact.

Full article: http://99u.com/articles/6969/10-online-tools-for-better-attention-focus

Watch what happens when thunderstorms strike the world’s busiest airport, Atlanta-Hartsfield.

I’ve been trying to write in English for a couple of years now. I haven’t been able to do it on a daily or weekly basis. So I’ve been looking for ways to improve.

Why writing?

This is cheesy quote but it struck me the first time I read it. It’s from Jeff Bezos (Amazon, $$$, alien/genius, space traveller). You have to take it out of the business context and apply it to life in general.

“Full sentences are harder to write. They have verbs. The paragraphs have topic sentences. There is no way to write a six-page, narratively structured memo and not have clear thinking.”

Clear thinking. I could use that. Anybody could use that.

Why English?

Friends. Girlfriend. Internet friends. Twitter. Wikipedia. Quora. Traveling. Books. Reddit. Work. Memes. Music… I don’t know. Globalization man.

Why 750 Words?

I found this awesome website: 750words.com. It allows you (and reminds you) to write...

I’m currently in Portland, Oregon, for a 1 week trip with my friend John. And we have nothing to do. Almost no plans, except for a couple of coffee shops we wrote down and a Foursquare list I made. We’re also going to a creative workshop called Planning-ness but that’s only later in the week.

Free time, lots of it

Sitting in an Apple Store (oh yes!), I got reminded of why it’s so good to be a tourist for a minute. Unless you planned every minute of your trip, being a tourist usually gives you plenty of free time. And since you’re not disturbed by your regular interruptions, you end up using your free time in surprising ways. You do things you’d feel guilty to do otherwise.

I just spent 45 minutes listening to new music through Bang & Olufsen and Beats headphones at the Apple Store. I tried every model available, one by one, balancing the EQ to see the subtle differences in each. I’m...

There’s a very good quote from Ira Glass (This American Life) about the difficulty of getting good at anything, starting as a beginner.

What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me … is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not.

But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit.

Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta...