Archive for October 2008
Smart Phone Made Me Stupid
In March I disconnected the data service to my Smart Phone. This means no e-mail, Facebook or web browsing on my phone. Text messages are OK, that’s it. My phone may have less IQ right now, but boy was it a good move.
It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that this single move has had the biggest impact on my ability to get things done, focus and more effectively manage my time in the past few years.
- My Motorola Q <not so> Smart Phone
You see, when I have 24/7 ubiquitous access to email <work and personal> I take advantage of that to allow what I call “slop” to encroach in during times when I should be focused. Instead of focusing and getting work done during the day so I can relax and spend time with friends at night, I dink around during the day and then try to stay connected and take care of business when I shouldn’t.
It also makes it so much easier to just react to other people’s bad behaviors. I work in an environment where people e-mail at all hours of the day and night. In only a few limited cases are these after hours emailed really urgent (like maybe once a month if that). When I had e-mail access on my phone, I would play into the drama and react to mail at the wrong times.
…and don’t get me started about Facebook….updating my status over phone had zero impact on solving world hunger.
Perhaps the biggest thing….is that work would just be on my mind more. Checking e-mail quickly before walking into a movie theater would keep me from really enjoying a movie. Any thought leaves a residue behind and it takes a while for that residue to fully dissolve. It keeps me from really being in the moment.
So now, 10 months after embarking on what was a 30-day challenge to go “smart phone free” …..I am still sticking with it and have no plans on turning back. Right now, I just don’t have the will power to use and not abuse the full capabilities of a Smart Phone and my guess is that neither do most other people.
No Malware Here!
OK, I tried visiting my blog yesterday and a warning page appeared saying that it was being “blocked by Google” due to the presence of malware (i.e. bad software that makes your computer do bad things).
I checked out my FTP site and noticed a new directory had been created with a ton of crazy files in it. I deleted the directory, and now everything appears as normal.
I don’t know what kind of loophole the hacker(s) found or why they would target a site with only a few hundred readers….but someone apparently had a lot of time to kill!
Everything is cool now, as far as I know. If you see any spam appearing on posts or pages, please let me know.
Hello Beijing!
I‘m in China for the about eight days for work. We’re trying to better understand how people use technology around the world, and I’m in Beijing to learn a little more about this part of the globe. This is my second trip to Beijing in the past year, after visiting last December for just a few days.
The weather this time is absolutely amazing. The sky is clear and blue, with relatively little smog. Last time I visiting, I could barely see three city blocks (and it actually snowed a few days)! I spent the day visiting some of the technology shopping centers in the area. Unlike the United States, where large mega-stores like Best Buy or Circuit City are the primary places where people shot for tech goods, here there are huge multi-story malls, each with hundreds of vendors (often selling similar merchandise) that are popular places to buy the latest gadgets!
IT Mall in Downtown Beijing. Photo By: Ravi Raman
After checking out some of the shopping malls, I wandered around the Olympic Park, and got an up close view of the Bird’s Nest and saw the outside of the Water Cube. I didn’t go in either though since the Paraolympic Games were going on I needed tickets to get into the venues. I wasn’t a big fan of the Bird’s Nest design while watching the Olympics on TV, but it looks so much better in person. The entire layout of the Olympic Park looked super efficient and well-done.
The Bird's Nest at the Olympic Village. Photo By: Ravi Raman
Perhaps one of the biggest surprised in my visit so far is how good the overall infrastructure is in this City. From the time I walked off the airplane, to the visits to various shopping centers, restaurants and hours spent driving around….the roads, buildings and other instrastructure looked to be in amazing shape.
There are modern express highways connecting Beijing and most of the major cities throughout China, and within the city itself, the roads are in great shape. Traffic, though ever-present, seems far more orderly than what I have seen in other developing markets, or even in many developed markets! I’ve heard that the Chinese government has spent over $150 Billion over the past 10 years on building a network of modern and high speed roadways. Even more staggering, over the next 5 years, the plan is to DOUBLE the number of high speed roads across the country, linking all the major metro centers.
The city itself is full of large and shiny-new office building and ultra-modern hotels. It seems like everything here is being built over-sized, and the culture is adapting to embrace that. In fact, even the cars here tend to be on the larger sized, with people wanting more spacious vehicles, despite the space crunch and traffic problems. Many of nice restaurants are also over-sized, with large tables and high ceilings. Even the hotels are super large (e.g. my hotel has an indoor 55 meter tropical pool “lagoon” as part of its fitness spa!). It’s like the country is wearing clothes about a size too big, expecting to grow into them over the next decade!
A highlight during today’s trip was a stop at the Summer Palace. It as a very picturesque site, with ornate rooms and many buildings in a traditional Pagoda style, spread over a large expanse of land on the side of a hill, flowing down to the banks of a large lake.
Summer Palace. Photo By: Ravi Raman
Tomorrow and through the rest of the week I have business meetings, but I hope to check out some of the shopping markets (for clothes, etc.), Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square later in the week, and take a trip to the Great Wall on Saturday.
