The Hippie Viking Blog

 Why is it that most start-ups are formed by young people? There are a lot of answers to that, but "because they can." is one of them. Why "can" they any better than someone who is older? They can because they have not yet constrained themselves with thinking like "Well, I better not try that because I have a family now..." or other self-limiting beliefs. When I feel like I have something to lose, I bias toward protecting that thing that I fear losing. There is a high price to pay for this, and I think that sometimes we need to be shaken and awakened to find just how high a price we are paying. Realistically, someone who is 50 is in a far, far better position to be able to form a company than someone who is 25. I know *I* am in a much better position to form a company now than when I was when I was 25. I have seen a lot of things. I have tons of experience. I am able to interact with difficult people with much more skill. I know what bad ideas look like be

 I had a Casio wristwatch back in like 1982 that I could dive to like 50m deep with. All wearable tech should always be waterproof. Like seriously. As of this writing, we are 40 years past that now. There is no need to improve on a steering wheel, gas pedal, brake pedal, emergency brake location, gearshift, seat adjustment locations, etc. Let's just leave the user interface for cars alone. We're good. The cognitive load to figure out how to adjust mirrors, seat, radio controls etc. is not worth any benefit from some fancy new feature. All digital user interfaces should be in the control of the user. I might love the data collected from a given app, but hate it's interface. I should be able to allow the data from any app to be rendered by an interface in another app. A standard for this would increase user freedom. Decouple data and presentation, world. Please. Expensive coffee should always be delicious. Why is it ok that we pay $2 for absolute burnt blackwater at mega-bux

 A paradox that Eckhart Tolle revealed to me is that the world we live in in is simultaneously getting worse and better at the same time. It is getting better in so many ways, but the ways it is getting worse are much more likely to be paid attention to because our biology is fine tuned to pay attention to negative emotions. I invite you to turn on the nightly news and observe your own reactions to the news. Once one news story is presented, pause the program, and just close your eyes for a moment. Are you having thoughts like "That is outrageous!" or "There is so much violence on our streets!" or perhaps "What a Jerk. I cannot believe that he was ever elected." Due to the financial incentives to mine your attention to the advertisements between news reports, the nightly news will do whatever it can to grab and hold your attention. It has an intrinsic negative bias because that is what makes money. Social media is just a much more optimized and targeted ex

I read a phrase that resonated with me. "The nonstop stresses of today's busy world can knock the wind out of any relationship." I think we can all agree on that. So how is it that most of us in the western world live with all of our basic needs met, and access to the most remarkable array of comforts ever available to humans, yet we are stressed out?  How is this possible?! How is it that we feel recharged and relaxed when we *exit* this world of comforts into a world of natural beauty? Mostly it's because we do a terrible job of using the tools that have been given to us by engineers, scientists, designers and other creative people who produce these modern comforts for us. Vacation and retirement are modern inventions born out of the desire to exit the crappy lifestyle we have created for ourselves. I include myself in this group that has done a terrible job at using the tools that others have created for me. Doing this right is called leverage. Leverage allows yo

At the time of this writing, there is legitimate outrage over the death of George Floyd. If you have not watched the video, you can youtube that and make up your own mind as to whether the outrage is justified. I need to state at the outset that the birth defect (as Condi Rice says) on America that is slavery and segregation is being exposed at this moment and I have hope is that America will continue to progress toward equal treatment of all regardless of race. I had to clarify that because what I am about to say is targeted at the protesters who carry "Defund the police" signs, which even they must consider to be an utterly irrational response to injustices and systemic racism against Black Americans. I will provide a cynical response to that completely irrational request. Funding pays police salaries. So all I can conclude is that you want police to work for free, with lower pay or you want them to not exist. If you want them to work for free, there may be examples out

We have all gotten a voicemail that is clearly due to a mistake made by a re-dial that went to voicemail. As you listen to the voicemail, there is a moment about 3 seconds in where you realize the call was not intentional, and the person who called you may reveal private information that was never intended for you to hear. At that moment, you have a choice to make...Of course your curiosity starts to run wild. "oooh, I wonder what juicy things will hear? Let's see if they say anything about me. I hope I can get some leverage over this business deal by hearing them talk about a competing bid" - You did not ask for it, but you are forced to make a decision. My recommendation to you is this. IMMEDIATELY when you realize it was a butt dial, stop listening, stop the recording!!  Ok...NOW you have the ability to make a more pro-active, reasoned choice. There may be very good reasons why you do not want to listen to what may be on that recording. Some of them may actually be