The sun is burning all day long. But you have lived in Năvodari for a long time and patiently wait for the evening to come. It’s almost five in the evening and you get ready to go to the beach. You take with you a pair of glasses, a tea-shirt, some pants, a hat and sneakers. Nothing else. No ID, no towel, no key, no phone. The sun is getting milder, you can enjoy it now.

You get out of the house. Between you and the sea there’s just a bridge, with few persons travelling over it. You walk, and run some, and walk again. Running is good, so is walking. In 15 minutes you’re by the seaside. Very fast you get naked, and directly jump into the sea. You get a little cold and wait for the sun to take the water off of you. This makes you feel even colder. Now you jump again in the sea. Great! After the little cold feeling at the beginning, you enjoy the water now, as it seems to be actually hot. You knew the trick from your father and are enjoying to keep on doing it.

After a full day of sun, the water is warm, while the sun is just fine. Sometimes I swim with swimming glasses, sometimes without. Today is without.

You set the first marker – an orange buoy. You start swimming. Soon you get to second marker – another orange buoy. For the next hour you keep on making rounds and rounds and swim a lot between the two buoys. Sometimes you take a break, and you keep on swimming.

You can think of things, it’s just you and the sea, the swimming is peaceful and you can relax and let your mind swim free through the oceans of thought.

You close your eyes. The water covers you all, it’s everywhere, and it surrounds you. You exhale thoroughly and breathe in some air.

You open your eyes and force yourself to look underwater with your eyes wide open.

And swimming is a part of you and you swim and swim again.

You get out of the water, and start departing. In just a minute you’re dry enough to get dressed, you do this and walk towards home. And on the way home you think of “Gattaca“, mainly the scene with the swimming.

At the end of the day, you look back and think: I love swimming!

You can see a few pictures I’ve taken (also in full-screen):

What are my thoughts on the trip?
a. I could clearly see the starts at night which made me think on the pollution the cities, be them large or small, have;
b. Despite being at the countryside, there were barely any fruits; in the city life, you go to the market and you can buy, no matter the time of the year, from a quite considerable variety of fruits; go to the countryside and the variety greatly diminishes to the fruits available in that specific time of the year;
c. Bugs everywhere; if you’re in the city and you kill a bug, you know at least you won’t meet that bug in your apartment; on the countryside, killing bugs is pointless; there are just to many of them, and they seem to be everywhere; your deed doesn’t do a thing;
d. If something needs to be fixed, you need to fix it; no calling anyone, no asking for help; you’re on your own;
e. While in Năvodari there is hardly anything for me to enjoy outside my home, at the countryside there’s literally nothing you can do; long live the big cities!
f. In Bucharest, if it rains you get an umbrella and that’s it; raining in the countryside implies much more thing – difficult transportation, nothing to do around the house, poor television reception; walking in the rain is no pleasure!
g. “Eco” is the thing; everyone, whether they know it or not, lives in an ecological environment; lots of emphasis on this;
h. The relation with divinity is much closer than anywhere else – a lot of people go to church, they dress very nice for the event of the week – going to church -, a lot of people fast, there are a lot of ceremonies involving the Church and God;
i. People, comparing to their incomes and comparing to the number of participants at the church, are much more likely to bring food to give away at church than in any other place in the city that I’ve seen;
j. It was interesting to see the little war with mobile networks signal – sometimes you got a very weak signal, sometimes a bit better, and sometimes none whatsoever.

I liked the trip a lot, it helped me disconnect.

Why reread? To me it was not that easy to read a book in English with economic terms, so the first time I’ve read it (years ago), it didn’t left much o an impression. Now I’m back with a graduated faculty in Economics and some English readings and I’ve read it just fine. I actually appreciated the style.

What I liked about the book?
a. The style was straightforward, lots of active verbs, easy to comprehend sentences;
b. Logical structure;
c. Lots of case studies;
d. Filled with applicability;
e. Good ideas;

Two quotes I liked a lot:

C = M + D – A
Corruption (C) equals monopoly power (M) plus discretion by officials (D) minus accountability (A).
If someone has monopoly power over a good or service and has discretion to decide whether someone gets that good or service or how much a person receives, and there is no accountability whereby others can see what that person is deciding, then we will tend to find corruption. This is true whether we are in the public sector or the private, whether we are in a poor country or a rich one, whether we are in Beira or Berlin or Beirut.

How might one develop a strategy for preventing corruption in a specific setting?
1. Understanding corrupt systems, which requires analytical tools;
2. Diagnosing how specific corrupt systems now work in a particular system
3. Overcoming political and bureaucratic resistance, and garnering support;
4. Crafting a sequenced plan of action to heal corrupted systems, rupture a culture of cynicism, build political momentum, and transform city government.

You can read the whole book online here and download it here.

A nice read, I’d say

2010.05.01: Walk 15 minutes at Pîrjol, walk 40 minutes in Neamț county, bicycle for 5 minutes

2010.05.02: Walk 15 minutes at Pîrjol

2010.05.03: M Obor – M Piața Sudului – walk 15 minutes – M Piața Sudului – M Universitate – walk 30 minutes – M Unirii – M Piața Sudului

2010.05.04: M Piața Sudului – M Unirii – M Titan – walk 30 minutes – M Titan – M Timpuri noi – walk 40 minutes – M Timpuri noi – M Unirii – M Universitate – walk 10 minutes – M Universitate – M Piața Sudului

2010.05.05: magnetic bycicle – 39min, 15.32km, 349kcal

2010.05.06: M Piața Sudului – M Aviatorilor – walk 100 minutes – M Victoriei – M Piața Sudului

2010.05.07: M Piața Sudului – M Aviatorilor – walk 50 minutes – by car 2 minutes – walk 45 minutes – M Aviatorilor – M Piața Sudului

2010.05.08: M Piața Sudului – M Aviatorilor – walk 60 minutes – M Aviatorilor – M Piața Sudului

2010.05.09: walk 10 minutes

2010.05.10: Jogging for 15 minutes
M Piața Sudului – M Victoriei – M Ștefan cel Mare – walk 30 minutes – M Ștefan cel Mare – M Victoriei – M Universitate – walk 30 minutes – M Universitate – M Piața Sudului

2010.05.11: No exercises

2010.05.12: Jogging for 15 minutes
M Piața Sudului – M Universitate – walk 5 minutes – M Universitate – M Piața Sudului

2010.05.13: Run for 15 minutes while doing this:
M Piața Sudului – M Aviatorilor – walk for 35 minutes – M Aviatorilor – M Piața Sudului

2010.05.14: M Piața Sudului – M Romană – walk for 10 minutes – M Romană – M Universitate – bodybuilding for 70 minutes – walk for 30 minutes – M Universitate – M Piața Sudului

2010.05.15: M Piața Sudului – M Universitate – walk for 10 minutes – M Universitate – M Piața Sudului

2010.05.16: M Piața Sudului – M Unirii – walk for 10 minutes – M Unirii – M Piața Sudului

2010.05.17: M Piața Sudului – M Victoriei – walk for 20 minutes – M Victoriei – M Unirii – M Piața Sudului

2010.05.18: No exercises

2010.05.19: M Piața Sudului – M Aviatorilor – walk & run for 35 minutes – M Aviatorilor – M Romană – walk for 10 minutes – M Romană – M Piața Sudului

2010.05.20: M Piața Sudului – M Unirii – M Titan – walk for 25 minutes – M Titan – M Unirii – M Piața Sudului
M Piața Sudului – M Unirii – M Timpuri Noi – walk for 20 minutes – M Timpuri Noi – M Unirii – M Piața Sudului

2010.05.21: M Piața Sudului – M Unirii – walk for 40 minutes – M Universitate – M Piața Sudului

2010.05.22: M Piața Sudului – M Unirii – walk for 15 minutes – M Unirii – M Piața Sudului

2010.05.23: walk for 20 minutes

2010.05.24: M Piața Sudului – M Unirii – M Eroilor – walk for 10 minutes – M Eroilor – M Unirii – walk & run for 60 minutes – M Unirii – M Piața Sudului

2010.05.25: M Piața Sudului – M Universitate – walk for 30 minutes – M Unirii – M Romană – walk for 15 minutes – M Romană – M Universitate – walk for 10 minutes – M Universitate – M Piața Sudului

2010.05.26: M Piața Sudului – M Universitate – walk for 40 minutes – M Unirii -  M Romană – walk for 15 minutes – M Romană – M Piața Sudului

2010.05.27: M Piața Sudului – M Unirii – walk for 30 minutes – tram home

2010.05.28: no exercises

2010.05.29: no exercises

2010.05.30: walk for 45 minutes

2010.05.31: no exercises

What is the process of writing?
- Prewriting:
a. Research;
b. Preliminary draft (less than 5 pages, structured – both in cronology and spatial relations);
c. Brainstorming;
d. Attention to conventions (rapport between abstract and concrete, general and specifc, denotation and conotation, literal and metaphoric);
e. Mindmap;
- Draft (15-20 pages);
- Revision (local for the grammar and general for the style);
- External reading;
- Evaluation;
- Publication;

Hint: you can see a wonder wheel (similar to a mindmap) in action here.

2010.04.01: 30 minute walks through Romania (I went from Deva to Bucharest and had some stops); Then I walked to home;

2010.04.02: 30 minutes walk around home; M Apărătorii Patriei – M Piața Sudului;

2010.04.03: 50 minutes walk in Bucharest and around Năvodari;

2010.04.04: 15 minutes walk in Năvodari and magnetic bicycle: 15 min / 4.21 km / 96 cal (short for 15 minutes, 4.21 kilometers, 96 calories);

2010.04.05: 40 minutes walk in Năvodari

2010.04.06: magnetic bicycle: 30 min / 9.62 km / 219 cal

2010.04.07: no excercise

2010.04.08: 10 minutes walk in Năvodari

2010.04.09: 50 minutes walk & run

2010.04.10: M Piața Sudului – M Aviatorilor – 40 minutes walk & run – M Aviatorilor – M Piața Sudului

2010.04.11: M Piața Sudului – M Aviatorilor – 20 minutes walk & run – drive by car – 45 minutes walk & run – M Titan – M Unirii – M Piața Sudului

2010.04.12: no excercise

2010.04.13: M Piața Sudului – M Universitate – walk 100 minutes – M Universitate – M Piața Sudului

2010.04.14: M Piața Sudului – M Unirii – M Păcii – walk 45 minutes – M Păcii – M Unirii – M Piața Sudului
M Piața Sudului – M Romană – walk 15 minutes – M Romană – M Piața Sudului

2010.04.15: M Piața Sudului – M Universitate – walk 10 minutes – M Universitate – M Piața Sudului

2010.04.16: no excercise

2010.04.17: no excercise

2010.04.18: no excercise

2010.04.19: M Piața Sudului – M Unirii – walk 15 minutes – theatrical activities (not much) – walk 15 minutes – M Unirii – M Piața Sudului

2010.04.20: M Piața Sudului – M Universitate – walk 20 minutes – M Universitate – M Piața Sudului – M Piața Sudului – M Victoriei – walk 45 minutes – M Victoriei – M Unirii – walk 30 mintues – M Unirii – M Piața Sudului

2010.04.21: M Piața Sudului – M Universitate – bodybuilding exercises for 80 minutes – walk 10 minutes – M Unirii – M Piața Sudului

2010.04.22: M Piața Sudului – M Universitate – 20 minutes walk – then by car – 10 minutes walk – M Unirii – M Piața Sudului

2010.04.23: run slowly for 15 minutes

2010.04.24: no exercise

2010.04.25: 140min 52.33 km 1193 cal

2010.04.26: M Piața Sudului – M Universitate – walk 15 minutes – M Universitate – M Victoriei – M Ștefan cel Mare – walk 20 minutes – M Ștefan cel Mare – M Universitate – walk 10 minutes – M Universitate – M Apărătorii Patriei – walk 10 minutes – M Apărătorii Patriei – M Unirii – walk 30 minutes – M Unirii – M Piața Sudului

2010.04.27: M Piața Sudului – M Universitate – walk 25 minutes

2010.04.28: Walk 15 minutes at Pîrjol

2010.04.29: Walk 15 minutes at Pîrjol

2010.04.30: Walk 15 minutes at Pîrjol, bicycle for 5 minutes

You’ve read perhaps a recent message on the blog with a quote like this:

My personal quest for beauty has ended; I have the list of extraordinary persons and, as I detailed on a previous post, I can’t see anything better than this; I’ve already seen beauty; In an atypical analogy, you can think of the situation just like in football championships; Sometimes, a few games between a championship ends, the winner of the championship is already known; How does the champion team plays? It has already won, every victory from now on is for the fun of it; You don’t actually need it, but you like to play the game; Another atypical analogy – it’s also like a game of gymnastics: when X gets a perfect 10 at one time, even if it repeats the same performance years after, it can only equal the past given grade; You can’t out-beat a perfect 10; This is me – I’ve already found perfect beauty (the list of extraordinary people), and every new sensation can (at most) reach the level of previous ones;

So, to me, beauty can be found in that very blog post:

one person made it to the short list of extraordinary persons

and also on this list.
Now you know what beauty is to me. But how about the photos with pictures? Isn’t there beauty to please the eye? Sure there is, I like architecture, I like flowers, I like the sky and I like aesthetically-pleasing things. But, all-in-all, after all is said and done, beauty lies in the people I admire most. Flowers are beautiful for the eye, but for my very being what I like most is the list of extraordinary people in my life. That’s it.

Everything revolves around those persons. I want to be more educated / skilled / a better person so that I could better comprehend what’s their impact in my life. I want to be a better me to feel a worthy of living on this Earth. And if I were to bet on something, I’d bet on the utmost success of those persons (why? Because, to me, they already have they highest level of success).

Why do I shoot things? Why photographing something?

• I want to better understand what’s beauty as seen by others; if I am to say “beauty is mostly in extraordinary people”, I would like to have seen, prior to this, some example of beauty (as perceived by others); therefore, if I say “see the list for beauty”, I should be able to provide some counter-examples (“this is not really as beautiful”);
• most of the pictures, surprising as it may be, are not for me; I rarely, if ever, look at previously shot photos; when I came from a recent trip, I told a good friend – “here are your photos”; he was surprised – “my photos? They’re your photos”; actually, to me, they’re his.

This is how I perceive beauty.

Warning: Spoilers ahead!
I like “Friends” as a movie, they’re funny to watch, I watched the whole series (some of the episodes multiple times) and had quite a bit of laughter; But I just can’t take the ending out of my mind; See some facts of the last episodes on Wikipedia, though I’ll comment only on the last minutes of the show;

So, what makes the last 5 minutes of the show so sad?
a. For the first time in the show, the atmosphere switches from happy, joyful, all-jokes, to a sad, so so sad one; You want to see the joke, and it gets even worse;
b. In the last scene all the girls are crying, and in a scene prior to that Ross can barely withhold his tears;
c. Everybody’s feeling sad in the last scene, to the few jokes you can barely see a smile;
d. The list of changes in the last part is very sad by itself (there’s a stress associated with large movements, which can be interpreted bad or good, see below):
- the most important apartment in the whole movie is left empty;
- Rachel and Ross get back together;
- Chandler and Monica move to a new house, they have babies;
- Phoebe and Joey will be left alone;
- Rachel cancel her departure to France and probably loses a good job offer;
Why is it so hard to bear? Look at the list above and see – movements in housing, new relationships, new members in the family, separating the groups, canceling job promotion and canceling switching continents; These are all hard to bear changes; Put them in a five minutes worth of time and you’ve got yourself a problem; I wish there were hope – Rachel and Ross will be happy, Chandler and Monica will have a great family and will be happy, Phoebe and Joey will adapt to the new lifestyle of their friends; I could cope with that, but throw me a bone, be a little be happy in the ending; Nope, everybody is sad.
e. In the last scene of the whole movie, everybody turns their back to the camera and leave the apartment; You wait and wait for a sign of happiness; No, boy, none whatsoever;

Did I tell you I like the ending in “Le notti di Cabiria“? You just have to see this one to make it the counter-opposite; Very sad ending;

______________
Bottom line: do watch “Friends”, it’s a great show; If I’ll ever see again some past movies, “Friends” will surely make the top spots; Their humor is incredible; But the last episode is a bit, oh-just-a-bit, dramatic; Which, if you consider that the aim of a movie would be to create a feeling within you, is not that bad; I’ll get over it, life will be fine again and we’ll have a laugh looking in the past.

Happy reading!

Story #1:

Two days ago, on 2009.10.13, I went to buy some natural supplements for a friend of mine. That specific supplement is only produced by one company in Romania. My friend went to two stores in Bucharest of that company, but didn’t find the product. Knowing I live not far (where “not far” is about 3 miles), I went to buy the products directly from the headquarters. On the map, things were clear – there was a street right perpendicular to the main road, it was at number 2, easy task, right?

Right … Well, I go there and no one knows where the street was supposed to be. I ask about four persons, I get mixed answers, finally I ask a person: “do you know about this street?” “Yes. Are you by foot or do you have a car?” “I’m a pedestrian” “Hop in, I’ll give you a ride”. And he did it. He gave me a 1.5 miles ride, he waited for me to buy the product in the car, and he drove me back to the city. I forgot to mention, the company I was buying the products from had the headquarters somewhere in a field. Stray dogs, bad weather (it was about to rain), poor roads, this was a mix which might have made it hard for me to reach my target. And yet this good man came from nowhere and helped me.

He was a person doing deliveries. I really like Cargus better now.

Story #2:

Following the event, I went to Piaţa Obor to buy stuff. Of course, I go to the place where peasants sell vegetables and fruits. I buy some cheap carrots and I don’t pay that much attention to the money. Now the surprise! The seller basically yells at me: “Hey mister, take all of your change!” (it was 2$ worth of money). Now I’m sure that he didn’t make a fortune by selling me 1 kilogram of carrots, but he did me a very nice gesture and returned my money. Nice.

Story #3:

Still in Obor, I go to buy some bread. There’s a bread factory right at Obor store with a selling point going right in the street. They claim to have traditional bread, with quality products. Still, their bread is a bit more expensive than the rest. And the prices are set so that by buying 1 kilogram you get a better value than buying 0.5. Also, they have quite a variety of breads. So I had a bit of a dilemma on what to buy, even if it was not the first time I bought bread from there. But the sellers were, this time too, nice with me, and helped with my choice and answered to my questions. And going home, I really really loved the bread.

That’s about it.

Small book description from Amazon:

Using simple language, real-life examples, graphs and checklists, this book explains how to view your organization and customers in a new light and deliver the exceptional customer service you need in order to differentiate your business from those of your competitors. In this revised edition – which includes a new chapter on e-service – Chris Daffy provides practical advice and examples from Europe, the US and elsewhere on service strategies and techniques to make you famous for your service.

The author has a personal web site.

Now, the review. There are two things which I look whenever I read a book:
a. What the book says;
b. How the book says what it says.

So, what’s there so nice about this book?
A. What the book says:
a. The things I read most on the book were common sense; You can get the same feeling whenever you read some instructions on, let’s say, how to open a door; You already know the process, you do it in your own way, but it’s still comforting to read; Still, you can get new information just from things like this – imagine reading on how to open the door with your elbow; Anyone can do this, but it gets you thinking; The book does a similar thing – it tells you thing you already knew, but you still learn from this;
b. Besides the general truths, known by everyone, the book also gives you some twists; Since you get those twists without ever expecting it, they’re even more pleasant to read; Example: “the need for customer obsession”; You would expect from a book like this to tell you about customer care; But obsession? The author first explains this into a small sentence: “The only way to embed customer service into the culture of a business is through management-led obsession.”; Another twist: “Customers are the business”; (the word are is actually in italics)
c. The thing you’ll get most in your mind are nice structures – Patterns of behavior; “How should I act whenever I meet this situation?”; The book won’t give you a direct answer to any question, but by presenting some basic structures to think about, you’ll take better decisions.

B. How the book says what it says:
a. Case studies – I love this; Not only does the book give you a general affirmation, it presents a real example for this;
b. Bullet lists – This makes text so much easy to read;
c. Three types of text formatting: specific fonts for titles, while for the normal text there are bold, italic and normal text;
d. Logical argumentation – The author likes to play with you; He first tells you something, and then continues to make an argumentation based on that; You have to like this;
e. Essential things put on a list – Synthetic, all the information in one place;
f. Recap – The chapter ends? Why not do a recap? Great idea;
g. Questionnaires and check-lists – This is the closest one could ever get to the atmosphere in a seminar or workshop; You do-it-yourself – check boxes, fill-in data, test results;
h. Graphs – Whenever needed, you’ll find them there;
i. Style – The author is funny and polite; You’ll relax by reading his book.

What conclusions to draw from here? You can read the book as a politeness code – it’s all about behavior and interactions between humans. Sure, it’s a business model, but the applications are there for you to learn and apply. The things the book says to you are not really shockingly new, but they will create you a framework in which to apply real-life situations. And the style of the book, the way in which it is written, allowed even me (I get very easily distracted from the text itself of a reading) to read the book easily.

A recommended book by me. Make a gift to you and get it.

How would I improve voting on these systems? I think the paradigm most people have is one of these:
a. “I will vote for me to get well”;
b. “I will vote for my friend/relative/business contact to be well” (which, in turn, will get into the a. situation).

The thing I would do to have a better voting system would be changing the paradigm to:
c. “I will vote for others to get well” (which, after a while, might as well lead me into a., but it’s not a direct connection, like with the b. option).

How would the paradigm I suggest change the reality in the three types of votes at the beginning of the message?
a. Political vote – Let’s say an old person votes for the political which only supports social measures; Sure, that person might get its pension higher, might get a smaller tax on some public funds, but:
i. the society itself might not develop as well;
ii. a rise in the pensions might lead to inflation, which might cut all the benefits of the increase, and put a burden on other people’s income;
My suggestion would be that old people vote for the best choice for the society, not for themselves; I think this is optimal for all society;
Now let’s say that X candidates for mayor; He has a lot of friends; In the same time Y candidates for mayor; Y has better skills with management and soft skills, but, being gone for a few years from the town, has fewer friends in town; Now, with whom should X’s friends vote for? I’d say they should vote for Y, this would be better for the city itself; Thinking for the good of others might lead into good for themselves;

b. Voting on Internet systems – Voting for yourself on the Internet is quite simple; Having a dynamic IP, an ability to delete cookies or switch browsers makes voting for oneself easy; And, at the end of the day, what do we get if 10 people of 100 fraud the system and are on the top 10 list? We get a fraudulent system, in which the best player is the one who cheats the most;
Then there’s the case in which I have 200 friends and send them all a message – “Hey, you’re my friend, you should vote for me!”; And the winner of such a system is not the person with the best value, it’s the person with most friends;
I showed above why voting for yourself or for your friends brings lower value into this world than voting for the good of others (thus voting for the best representative); So, the next time you see a list of 100 persons, and in that list there is just one person who shares the country with you, you should vote for the best person in the list, and not for the one person that shares a country with you;

c. Voting on casual events (choosing a team leader, for instance) – Yes, you can vote for the one person that:
i. Brings you the most benefits (you vote for yourself);
ii. You know very well (it’s a friend of yours);
But, for the good of the society in general, you should vote for the one person that is the best representative of the society.

Real life examples: you favor liberalism, and there are two candidates – one that favors only liberal measures, no social protection and another one that favors liberal measures, but keeps an eye open on the social measures. I think that for the well being of the society in general, one should vote for the latter. Sure, you, as a great business person, may not need pensions and state-funded schooling, but your society needs it. And, as unexpected as it may seem, if everybody else than you does fine, you’ll do fine also.

Now let’s say you’re on an instant messaging system and you get a “Vote for me” request from a friend. Hard as it may be, you shouldn’t vote for your friend.

You open a newspaper. Bold letters, large font: “Vote for Brancusi, the greatest sculptor in Romania in an international competition”. Well, how should I put this in simple words, but do you really think that Brancusi is the best artist in the world? If you don’t think so, vote for the person that deserves to be on top.

I hope I cleared a few things for you.

So, the model basically says that there are three ego-states for people:

• Parent: a state in which people behave, feel, and think like their parents did; So, someone might be very upset with other persons being rich, just because its parents were like that;
• Adult: a state of the ego which is about processing information and prediction emotions that might interfere with this process; This is an objective thinking of the world;
• Child: persons tend to behave, feel and think like they did when they were children; From here come emotions, creativity, spontaneity.

Now, from my perspective, most adults tend to think like either adults or parents, while the elder persons tend to think in parental ways.

How about the children? Of course, a lot of them are into child thinking.

I personally like the adult thinking the most.

But here comes an observation of mine: children also tend to think in parental ways. Why? Because most of the time an adult won’t say to a kid: “You should think”, it says instead “It’s best to do this and that”.

And this leads to some patterns in parental thinking. At least this is what I personally observed.

To sum up things, some children tend to have a rather interesting way of thinking just like a parent.

I kept thinking about that article, and I want to share it with you. Here come my thoughts on this article.

The article says in a nutshell that with about 10,000 hours of practice, one can get to the top in their chosen discipline. That’s it. 10,000 hours of practice, and you get to genius level.

Sure, the article claims, both talent and luck are important too, but the most important criteria is just working hard.

Why is this so important? Simply put, it gives me a reason to continue to struggle for a better me. A lust for self-development, a dare for a better me, a hard work to become the professional that I need to be. All it takes is a lot of effort. That’s it.

What’s 10,000 hours? If one works about 8 hours a day, it would take an average worker about five years to get to 10,000 working hours.

But if you only count the time worked in a day, not travelling, not doing training, not doing networking, that period of time might increase.

On the other hand, if one works extra hours, in the evenings and week-ends, that period of time might also be a bit shorter.

But the bottom line is just great: there’s hope for getting there. One can get to genius level.

One can be a master in his domain with just about 10,000 of hours worked.

The news made me feel so good. How about you?

First of all, I’ll present my experience with these. I have first joined an Internet forum in the spring of 2002, just a few months after I got to have Internet access a few times a week on a regular basis.

I joined a rather large Romanian forum (it still is even today; Large number of persons in there, great flow of messages).

I stayed on that forum until, five years later, I got to 1,000 messages. I don’t know about you, but writing 1,000 messages on an Internet forum, in a time frame of 5 years, is quite a lot. A lot of effort to read what others have said, to comment upon, to be active. You get the picture, lots of activity, and lots of reading.

I also was active on a smaller Internet forum, with only 300 messages from my part, but the reading was quite big in there too.

And some smaller accounts on various forums, some even created by me, but due to lack of activity these matter less.

You can say that I’ve wrote more than 1,500 messages on Internet forums so far (perhaps even 2,000).

What have I learned that I didn’t like that much?
1. At the time when I joined the first large forum, in 2002, Internet was scarce in Romania; Few people had Internet access, mostly due to costs and downsizes (PC, Internet line, hard to get a good connection, you had to be a bit IT-savvy) compared to revenues and advantages (small salaries, few web sites on the Internet to benefit from); What this barrier meant was also a great filtering system: the people that frequented the forum I was on in 2002 were usually either very good with IT or earning lots of money (so good with other things); And most of the time it was a combination of the two; Great people, I can say, lots of things to learn on a personal and professional (mostly IT) level; Time passed, and Internet access became easily available; The old generation slowly left the forum (only a few remained), while the new generation came in a hurry; Well, I can say that the level of expertise on that particular forum greatly decreased and I decided to leave;
2. What I also didn’t like about forums was a spirit of sarcasm; This was right from the beginning; There was a very false and annoying feeling of “I know everything” from the persons on the forum with most messages; You asked a not-that-smart question? Bang! You got an acid reply; You said something that could be interpreted? Here comes a sarcastic reply; This is a bad habit I learned on the forums, and which I try to repair now.

What did I learned that I love?
1. A lust for the fight itself; In the forums there is always an intriguing thought, a dispute, an argument; I learned a lot of things on how to handle a debate by participating in forums; What a lovely thing this is;
2. A pleasure for the smart things; Writing things on forums helped me understand myself better and better structure the information on the world I live in; I am the person I am today partially due to the fact that I’ve participated in forums.

I hope I haven’t scared you with the bad thoughts on forums and I hope that if I get bad feelings on blogging, I’ll write time as they arrive, not wait for years, like I’ve done with the forum postings. Overall, my forum experience is great, but nowadays the generation difference makes it a rather unpleasant experience. But I did have a great time back in 2002+.

First of all, have a look at the picture below:

Basically, the most common thoughts when seeing two different patterns of thinking colliding are this: thinking that we (or the others) are great, thinking that we (or, again, the others) are bad, of being neutral on the whole thing.

As you see, there are three feelings we can have both about others, and about ourselves. Let’s analyze all six possibilities.

A. How do we feel about ourselves?
a. If we think that we are right, this is great for the psychology; Great ego, great pride, great feelings, yahoo! We’re over the world; One problem though: you may see you so good compared to others, that you may feel like crushing them; It’s also poor on developing oneself (why would you need to improve on perfection?); But it is a very optimistic way of seeing things, and it’s good for the spirit;
b. If we are indifferent to ourselves, we can’t improve; But we do have this option: not to care; What’s the advantage of this? We do have a pretty good ego, a stable way of seeing things, rather calm; All-in-all, not that bad;
c. Let’s say we have bad feelings about ourselves; This might lead to some problems like depression, or bad feelings on ourselves; It might also lead into progress, so all is not lost; I like this view a lot on the development issue, although it’s not that great on morale;

B. How do we feel about the others?
a. If we think that others are great, we have two options; First is to try and copy them, in order to improve ourselves to be as good as them; This is not just admiring them, it is also copying their behavior; You want to be like them; The other option you have is to just feel great about the others, and try to spend time with them in order to feel good as long as possible; But most of the time one feels the urge to improve by looking at his models;
b. We can be neutral about others; This will lead to no progress, but this will also lead to no bad thoughts, like envy; This is quite comforting zone;
c. We may think that the others are wrong; One would express that the others are wrong usually by gossiping, talking from behind (not saying things to one’s face); The alternative, being plain rude and telling people that they are wrong, is not much better either; Why is thinking about others as doing bad things faulty? I think there are plenty of reasons even from highly skilled persons in this world to acknowledge that there are persons better than themselves; So, most of all it’s illogically to think that there are only bad people in this world; Anyhow, seeing the bad things in other gives you bad mental processes and doesn’t really help you improve (what can you learn from others like that?);

How do these combine?
a. If you see others doing bad things and you doing good things, there’s no way you can improve, but you might have a very good personal feeling;
b. If you see no need for improvement in either you or others, and you also have no feelings on the good things in others, you will be calm, no problems, but you will still not improve;
c. Finally, if you see the bad things within you and the good things within others, you have room for improvement; Although this might be stressful, this is the method I like most.

Yes, there are more mixes than that. You can feel good about yourself on some things, and bad on others. You can be indifferent to others or care too much about someone else. You can think badly on two persons and great on other four. Life is more complex than that, I acknowledge that.

Most of the improvements in life come from seeing others doing great, or that we don’t do well. Usually this is solved by trying to imitate the world or trying to change ourselves.

If you see bad things in others and good things in yourself, your mood might be great, but your need for improvement will be lacking some resource.

But, all in all, we do have an option on how to live our lives, and even if we are not always right, even if others aren’t always right, we do need to acknowledge that:
a. a progress can be a great way to improve (see the good in others, the bad in you);
b. a happy feeling can exist if you see others doing bad things and you doing good things (but this will have no improvement);
c. you may also wish to be indifferent.

I hope I’ve cleared some ideas in you.

I’ve seen quite a few cartoons. Most of the classics, most of the top rated cartoons on IMDb, and even some TV series (while I was younger). I won’t get into too much details, I’ll just say that me and cartoons always got along quite fine.

My list of favorite movies only includes Le notti di Cabiria, and a few others, about which I’ve only written in Romanian. No cartoons in the list so far, besides WALL·E (2008), Ratatouille (2007), Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001). But why do I still watch cartoons in general, as a movie genre? They give me these following reasons to continue watching them:
1. They’re funny in a nice way; There are a lot of ways to be funny, but I mostly think of crude humor (not that bad, all-in-all, but still rude; mostly done with a surprise), intellectual humor (the a-ha! humor, in which you get an insight), and a kind rumor (this is not about a-ha, it’s about a surprise, like the rude humor, but in a gentle way); I mostly like intellectual humor and the kind humor;
2. I learn things; It may sound stupid, but it’s not the same if two persons say the same thing; It’s not the same if I get an idea from a cartoon, or if I generate it myself;
3. Things are said at an easy-to-comprehend level; I can watch a movie and still don’t get what the director meant; I can see a documentary with a thought that’s provoking, yet not that well easy to perceive; Yet I can go to bed every evening and say: Hey, I got what Walt DISNEY meant to say with that joke! I’m so good!
4. They are beautiful designed; From old cartoons (like Snow White and Pinocchio), to new ones (like Finding Nemo), I get a beautiful experience just by watching a cartoon; None of them is especially beautiful, and they are all in the same time lovely;
5. They bring me heart-breaking memories; It tears me into pieces to think about childhood, and watching a cartoon devastates my thinking.

To sum things up, I mostly watch cartoons because they are a learning experience (mostly of emotions and interactions) and that learning experience is done in a lovely fashion.

I’ll start with the following example: We have a chess match between A (a grandmaster) and B (a weaker player, but still a professional player). At some point there is this sequence of moves:
- A does a rather poor move, but a very creative and atypical on (everyone’s surprised);
- B doesn’t speculate the wrong move, and moves even poorer (but in a straightforward way; he doesn’t get creative);
- A goes on to win the match, even if he moved poorly at one time.
Now chess commentators come and see the sequence of moves. “Oh, what a great move by A player! So intriguingly well played. I didn’t see that coming. Such a lovely idea! Beautiful execution. I love it”. No commentator would dare to say “Even though we must admit that A won the match, he done a poor move at that moment. B should have speculated the mistake, because this is what the move was: a mistake.” So, I’d say that one chess player can win a game, and all his surprising moves (even though some might be actually wrong), will be glorified. Whoops, not-so-great thinking.

Now let’s go to another sport: football. Let’s have these situations:
- Player A is an forward; He scores 3 goals (he does a hat-trick);
- Player B makes 6 great passes to A, another 5 passes to other players, which directly result in 5 goals (his passes are transformed into goals);
- Player C is the goal keeper and catches 3 close-to-being a goal.

Now it’s the end of the match. Commentators praise A for scoring, C for keeping others from scoring, while B gets just a grade – 9 out of 10 (good grade, but still he gets no comments, no appraisal). Everyone else in the team gets one grade, B is one out of many. But no commentator would say “Hmmm, that was a good sequence of passes from B.”

Why is that? (now we’re getting somewhere) The goals given by the forward can be evaluated. The goals received (or not) by the goal-keeper can, with a small margin of error, still be evaluated. But the pass itself is mostly evaluated by the outcome. If I put a good pass, and no goal follows, then – “Hmmm, not that good play for B”. If I put a good pass, and a goal follows, then the result is “Hmmm, that was a good pass, but have you seen the goal of A? A was extraordinary!” You can’t easily say – “It was a good pass, no matter what the outcome was. Great passing by itself!”

What can you take home?
a. People in general (not only critics) tend to evaluate based on end result; While seeing a patient die shouldn’t make a surgical operation successful, you should take into account that the operation itself can be independent from the end-result (you can have a great surgical procedure, even if the end result is not great);
b. Sometimes, the most glamorous character in an event is not the star in the spotlight, it may well be a rather obscure character;
c. If football is a game played in teams, football evaluation usually takes place in the easy-to-spot results of individuals (goals given by the forwards or balls caught by the goal-keeper);
d. Most results are from a play of team, not the final executor.

I hope I did provide you with some insights too.

What would my answer be? I told you before that I will not leave my country due to the views of Horia-Roman PATAPIEVICI on the subject. Not physically, at least. But, on the other hand:
1. Two of the most important blogs I own are in English, and are targeting mostly an English audience (you wouldn’t say that by looking at my traffic analysis, but still);
2. You can see on my Last FM profile that a lot of the singers I like are not Romanians;
3. Most of the movies I watch are not from Romania (I actually have a small phobia on watching Romanian movies due to the small budget, thus lack of quality);
4. My Google Reader application is filled with English feeds (I actually started adding some French sources too);
5. A lot of the things at supermarkets I buy are not from Romania;
6. Most of the electronics I have are out of this country;
7. As an Internet-geek, I use a lot of web sites outside Romania;

Still, I can say that:
1. All my relatives are Romanian;
2. My friends are Romanian;
3. Most of my workplaces I worked were filled with Romanians;
4. The persons I meet daily are (surprise, surprise!) Romanians;
5. I read mostly Romanian news;
6. The things I buy at the local marketplace are from Romanian persons (I wouldn’t call them peasants, but it’s not far from that);
7. Most of the time I speak, think and read in Romanian.

So, I would say that most people I’m surrounded with are from Romania, while a lot of the things I do, read and use are not Romanian-specific. It is a surprising fact to see things like this. I didn’t expect foreign customs, items and creations to be so important in my life. Writing this article was quite a discovery for me.

I decided to have a look today at some major job-searching web sites in Romania: BestJobs and eJobs. I looked for [MBA] keyword on all three. Here are the results:

and:

BestJobs had a total of 4,959 jobs, out of which 8 asked for an MBA; ratio MBA / total jobs: 0.16%
eJobs: 3,596 jobs in total – 5 of which asked for an MBA; ratio: 0.12%
__________
Total: 8,555 jobs in total – 13 jobs asking for MBA; Total ratio: 0.15% jobs requiring an MBA.

So, as of today, only about one or two jobs seen out of 1,000 on BestJobs and ejobs require MBAs.

Also, please note that “require” is a relative term: you have a plus by having an MBA, but I don’t remember seeing any job posting putting the “Mandatory” requirement. It would be nice to have it, not mandatory.

What should I learn from this?
a. Either jobs that require an MBA are not posted on BestJobs or eJobs;
b. Either Romanian jobs don’t really require MBAs.

But I still want to get one.

I think you should do an useful think for condemning communism and sign the Prague Declaration!

The appeal has already been followed by names:

• Václav Havel, former dissident and President of Czechoslovakia / the Czech Republic, Czech Republic
• Joachim Gauck, former Federal Commissioner for the Stasi archives, Germany
• Göran Lindblad, Vice-president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Member of Parliament, Sweden
• Vytautas Landsbergis, Member of the European Parliament, former dissident and President of Lithuania, Lithuania
• Jana Hybášková, Member of the European Parliament, Czech Republic
• Christopher Beazley, Member of the European Parliament, United Kingdom
• Tunne Kelam, Member of the European Parliament, former dissident, Estonia
• Jiří Liška, Senator, Vice-chairman of the Senate, Parliament of the Czech Republic, Czech Republic
• Martin Mejstřík, Senator, Parliament of the Czech Republic, Czech Republic
• Jaromír Štětina, Senator, Parliament of the Czech Republic, Czech Republic

You can follow their example and sign it too.

Motto: “All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
(by John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton)

I think that everything in life has to do with the concept of power. In every relation that involves human interaction (be it professional or personal), there is a negotiation involved. And this thing also involves a concept of powers. One must negotiate his (or hers) status, rights and obligations. Which things am I allowed to do? There’s a negotiation on this.

Things get trickier when one party has a lot more power and abuses this power. How does this translate into everyday life?
a. Google was chosen best employer in the USA because it gave his employees a lot of playground area; Sure, Google has enormous powers over its employees, but he does give them well enough freedom to fully act on the job; He lets go of his powers, and empowers others;
b. In personal life, I think I personally get along best with people I can control a little (they let things go my way); How do I do this? By also giving up things on my own (I let things go their way);
c. In most of the times when there is an argument, some party abuses its power controls.

What I like most about power is that it is so closely related to being proud. The logic goes like this:
a. (pride) I am better than you / so good / the greatest / the ultimate – so this means
b. (power) I have the option exert power on you, thus I have to do it.

It’s a faulty logic on both levels:
a. You are not better than any one living person on this Earth; on a core level, we’re all the same; You can have better skills, ethics, behaviour, resources; But on a core level, people are right about equals;
b. The fact that you can exert power on me, doesn’t mean you have to do it; You also have the option not to do it; Do it and problems arise.

Or at least that’s how I see things right now. How about you? What’s power in your life?

These are the things that make me the happiest person in the world and you, my reader, a person I’ve shared this with.

For this aim, I would like to present you with a clip that I like a lot. You can see it on YouTube (external link).

It’s about William WALLACE, who tries to convince an army to join him in his fight for freedom of Scotland (in the Braveheart movie – 1995).

What do I notice by watching this clip? At first William WALLACE tries to convince an army that comparing the advantages of the present moment with the disadvantages of fighting against a larger army (right now, in this moment), you have a clear choice: right now there are more advantages.

But the army isn’t convinced. No one wants to trade a state of comfort and well being for a risky fight. In the present there are problems.

And then William WALLACE does a wonderful thing: he puts the minds of his people into the future. He makes them dream, he makes them wish for something better.

With more enthusiasm from his part, the people follow him.

I think this clip summarizes perfectly the importance of having a vision, something to hope for: even if in the present there are many bad things that you may not like, by focusing into the future, you can do some hard-to-believe-yet-perfectly-natural decisions.

Yes, it may be hard to believe that fighting against a larger army can bring you any value, but it’s perfectly natural to take this step, considering the advantages. And the army believes him, and follows him to the fight.

So, how are visions created? The very first thing to do is trying to imagine you, others or the environment in the future. The next step would be imagining you are right into that step. Coming back to the present (like William WALLACE does it), would you trade your well being in the present, to reach that great future?

So, returning to the question from the title – what is a vision? I think that a vision is more of a hard-anchored necessity than an abstract dream.

How do you feel about that

I think the one thing that’s most important when writing a press release is … (drums rolling) telling the full truth.

Sure, in Public Relations (acronym – PR) there are alternatives to that:
a. Omitting some truths;
b. Emphasizing the least important things from the journalists’ perspective;
c. Promoting the products and the company.

I think that if you do a Press Release (same acronym – PR) and try to mask the truth, sooner or later the journalists will penalize you for that.

The journalists suffer since you present a not-that-true Press Release.

What could happen?
a. In the first scenario, the Press Release won’t be published at all;
b. The journalist could try to understand the whole picture by himself; He won’t get the full idea, he might get things wrong, and that’s even worse than not having a Press Release published at all – it’s published with the wrong data.

On 13th of February I was reading “The Brothers Karamazov” (by Fyodor Dostoyevsky) and one thing hit me: addiction can’t be fought by trying to fulfill it. You just live with it, it never stop if you try to satisfy your desire.

I once had a feeling that solving an addiction is a simple thing: one just tries to solve it, forces things (imposes, sets a goal), and it goes away. And when addiction comes back, and you really want that thing, the solution is to try to solve that one moment (since you are already out of addiction). This will make things better (I thouhgt), and in the long term you won’t feel the urge anymore

Well, I was wrong. Addiction will always make you have an urge. (or at least me) The solution to solving the urge is simple: keep the urge. Don’t try to satisfy it. This is totally unlike me: I have a tendency to solve a problem by making things worse. I know, it feels bad, you really want that thing, but living with the urge and not satisfy it is the best thing to do.

So, as a personal observation to my urges, it seems I can’t solve an addiction by stepping into it.

I just felt like sharing this with the world.

I’ll first make a detour and give you some other reasons for which anyone should vote. Then I’ll get back to the main point. So, there are many reasons for which anyone should vote. I will list a few in here:
1. For the past. You can imagine yourself on a timeline. People before you went to great pain just for you to vote. Some people died for you right today. You are not forced to respect this, but you can take this into account. Act by voting – it’s a way of showing respect. But if you freely choose not to vote, you aren’t disturbing either, you have this option too. This option to vote is for others – in the past;
2. For the future. Think of the future generations. Your vote will mean a difference in the future. Vote to show that you care about your future. Leave a mark now on the day that will come tomorrow. This reason to vote is for others, also – but in the future;
3. You belong to some very specific groups of people. You are a part of a profession, you belong to an age group, and you like some things and dislike others. You are part of a family, you have a circle of friends, and you represent a local area (narrow or large). You are influenced by what you read, think. You are what you ethics and moral codes tell you to be. You can represent all those groups of people, with similar interests and occupation, with one single vote. This vote is for others also – in the present. It shows that you care for all of them. Not acting in the day of voting doesn’t necessarily means not caring, but voting does show caring. It shows a lack of self-comfort for the good of others. It’s a small sacrifice, not less valuable than other kinds;
4. You can finally vote for you. Vote for your interests, to be better represented, to have a slightly better life. Vote that you earn more, that you send a message. Show your power by doing a very easy thing: wake up, go to the voting cabin, vote, and return. This is your power. This is the point I want to emphasize in this blog post. I might be wrong, but voting for oneself just might be the reason for anyone to vote.

So, I give you just one reason for which you should vote: because it’s a rational thing to do. You can be sentimental and vote because you like someone. You can use your passion and feelings and vote because you hate someone and want him to fail the elections. Yet the one reason for which you should vote it’s a rational one: because you can express your option on which a certain person or a certain group of persons would benefit your interests best. By voting you help others make a better life for you. It’s that simple.

Let me explain this: your interests may not be focused on yourself only. You can vote for the interests of your community. You can vote for the interests of your country. You can vote that a class of people feel very good. But, in the end, you will follow your basic interests (and yes, they can include helping others). You can vote for the future or the past. But in the end, you will vote because your own inner principles guide you into thinking that the past and the future are important. So, even if you wish to vote for the future or past, you still follow your personal principles.

Case study: what is my interest in writing this message? I wish that more people expressed their caring for the world. I wish that the politicians were represented by the whole population. People should not be divided into “people that are actively pursuing their interests and actions” and “others”. I wish for a better world. And voting helps make one. Thus, I am favorable to voting.

What would a secret interest of mine be? You and I have a shared interest: we are part of the web. Since by reading this message you use the Internet, and more specific you read a blog, you are likely to vote for someone that favors IT (Information Technology) industry in general, Internet in particular and, very specifically, who likes blogs also. If you’re a frequent reader of mine, you might also have other common interests and with me (more than just blogging and commenting over Internet). So if I manage to influence you to vote, you are likely to vote for someone with similar interests into my own good. So your vote will also benefit me. Ironically, even if I do know about this way of thinking, this is not the reason for writing the message (or so my brain likes to trick me into thinking). The reason is the reason above: I wish people expressed their view of the world.

Now you know all my secrets. My final advice: vote! Vote whenever possible, inform yourself very well before vote. But if this is the case, take a wrong step, rather than no step. Fight for a better life by using just a small physical effort: go and vote. Act when timing requires it: vote! If it’s not for the past, if it’s not for the future, if it’s not for others, then vote for you. If it’s not for your emotions, vote with your brain. But vote!

What’s in the message?
Short intro
A. What’s the magic 8-elements list I’ve made?
B. Pre-cooked food – how to get it?
C. Nuts & seeds – why this is top food and why it doesn’t take much time to eat?
Conclusions

Short intro
First let’s define the terms: fast means buying fast, carrying them easily, storing easily (at most in the fridge), no cooking, no warming the food, easy to get in the table (almost no cleaning or washing) and most of all, eating it fast. So, we exclude foods like local berries (you buy them slowly, you have to wash them carefully), anything that has to be warmed first or stored in the freezer. We also exclude foods like a lot of fresh vegetables (how can you carry them fresh? and making a salad is a time-wasting solution).

Oh, and a warning: I’ve got no medical training whatsoever. My suggested list of foods is not scientific, nor very precise. But it’s the best I can do, and you should check with your doctor if the things that I eat are good for you. You should probably check the things you currently eat if you’re there, but that’s a different point.

Why am I doing this list? Because most of the times when you think there is absolutely no solution for eating fast (and bad) from a fast-food, you ignore other solutions that are also low-consumers of time (but in the same time healthy). And I’m here to crush the way you try to fool yourself.

A. What’s the magic 8-elements list I’ve made?
1. Meat: Oceanic fish in olive oil; that’s right, I’m talking about eating food in cans; Ok, this is probably not the best option you’ve got for eating fish – boiled fish is best, fried is better; but fish in a can is actually a not-that-bad solution; due to a thing called “smell”, fish is hard to prepare; it’s thus a good option to get it in a can rather than no fish at all;
2. Milk: Low-fat milk (in Romania we have this mostly in plastic bags; it’s easier to carry in the card packaging; and it’s easier to drink – directly from it) – it doesn’t need going into refrigerator; buy it, drink it; have it on your desk, drink out of it a few times a day;
3. Milk: Low-fat yoghurt – in spite of its name, this generally has a higher amount of fat; but considering the fast-food alternatives I’ve given, this is a not-so-bad food;
4. Fruit & Vegetables: Pickles (cute cumber, fibster, red beet, the list can continue) preserved in jars; this is not so pleasant to eat, but if you manage to do this, you’re fine; they also have quite an amount of salt in them;
5. Fruit & Vegetables: A lot of fruits that can be eaten fast – bananas; peaches, apricots, apples, pears, plums; that’s about all I eat fast; others take more time to peel (try a coconut), to eat (melons) or to wash (berries);
6. Fruit & Vegetables: Some vegetables that can be eaten fast – cute cumbers, tomatoes, pimentos; That’s about all I know in Romania;
7. Various: Pre-cooked food (I’ll have a special chapter to this);
8. Nuts & seeds: Slow-eating food (but it’s the kind of food you can eat and do a different task in the same time; so you can do multitasking; special chapter for this one too);

There you go. I’ve just gave you more than 8 different solutions (besides 2 and 3, there is more than one solution listed). Now for the special chapters.

B. Pre-cooked food – how to get it?
The bad thing about this pre-cooked food? You either have to warm it right before eating (and this takes time), or eat it out of the fridge (“No fridge” you suggest? Bacteria will fill your food in no time). In either solution given by me, the food doesn’t taste that good. But it’s healthier, or so I think.

1. Buy: You can buy much healthier food from a supermarket or restaurant-to-go on your way to work; This solution, although not cheap, is better than going to the nearest fast food; sure, it’s great to have your food warm, just made for you; but you can buy food from the supermarket, keep it at work in the fridge, and eat it cold at lunch; it’s not an optimal solution, but it’s the solution with the smallest damage to your health;
2. Save: Let’s say you go out in one evening, and for some reason you don’t eat everything, or you have to go fast, no time to eat; have your dinner packed and eat it the next day;
3. Cook it yourself: this would extend the 1-8 list above a lot; There are some very simple solutions like boiling some eggs, going to not-that-complicated solutions like making food from boiling freeze vegetables;
4. Have someone cook it for you: this is actually both much cheaper than buying it from supermarket and it’s also healthier; you have total control on what gets inside; maximum health.

C. Nuts & seeds – why this is top food and why it doesn’t take much time to eat?
There are various seeds – from sunflower and pumpkin seeds (no hull), to nuts and almonds. They are generally not cheap at all, but neither is fast-food. Their biggest problem? It takes a lot of time to eat them. I mean you can go nuts eating those … almonds. But you can put them in a small can, do your computer or paper work, and eat it from that can. You can use a teaspoon for avoiding germs from and to keyboard. Basically, all the time you consume is the time to put the seeds in the can and the time to put that in your mouth. While eating them (the slowest process) you can do a different task. I know, this is not the best thing to do in a perfect world. In a perfect world, you’d eat them in the morning (so they have time to be digested – nuts and seeds are hard to digest, you should note), you’d chew your food slowly, you’d eat in a different place than the desk you work at, you wouldn’t do multitasking while eating etc. These are all god advice, but if you can’t cut on time, I think my solution (eating seeds and nuts in front of the PC or paperwork) is not that bad.

Oh, and carrots can be eaten just like seeds – you can do a different thing while eating them. They are so hard to chew.

Conclusions
To summarize my message to the world: there are a few good alternatives to fast-food. If you can accept warming food before eating it or eating cold food from the fridge, the list becomes larger. If you can also eat seeds and nuts while working (your work is at a desk, for example) the list can be even larger. But in the end, all I gave you are paths to take. I’m not the one who decides to walk on them or not. And no one’s going to be there for you, eating nuts and seeds at work, while fast-food is everywhere. You’re all alone.

PS: If it makes you feel any better, I do most of the things above all the time. Not doing it would mean a reason to quit jobs.