“I’ve seen many people shy away from writing because it doesn’t come naturally to them. What they overlook is that writing is more than a vehicle for communicating—it’s a tool for learning. Writing exposes gaps in your knowledge and logic. It pushes you to articulate assumptions and consider counterarguments. Unclear writing is a sign of unclear thinking.”
-Adam Grant, Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things
I was really shocked and sad when I saw the news that one of my favorite actors died at his home in the West Village on Super Bowl Sunday. He was a phenomenal talent and it's really sad to see him go well before his time. I was thinking about the movies he's made and I looked back at the Top 20 movies list I made a while back and realized that he was in 3 of them -- Scent of a Woman, The Big Lebowski and Capote. Most people would probably argue that Capote, in which he won an Oscar for best actor, was his best performance. He was incredible in that film. But I would argue that his best performance was actually in a much lesser known movie titled, Doubt. It's a somewhat disturbing story about a nun (played by Meryl Streep) that accuses her school's priest (played by Hoffman) of inappropriate behavior with a troubled young student. The acting in this movie is absolutely amazing. I highly recommend the film.
With all of Hoffman's success and talent and brilliance, it's hard to imagine that he would die of a drug overdose. He had so much to live for. As I much as I hate to say it, you can't help but wonder if his talent and troubles were connected. The New Yorker summed up that thought really well in a blog post a couple of days after his death.
The controversy over “The Wolf of Wall Street” also involves the allure of drugs; though the movie makes it pretty clear that the character Jordan Belfort acts monstrously under their influence, it also leaves little doubt regarding the pleasures and powers that they provide him and his cohorts. It also suggests the poison pill of imagination, the diabolical—even self-destructive—power of theatrical rhetoric, its eruption from the depths of a soul that hardly dares to consider itself. Hoffman, with his seemingly infinite range of possibilities and self-transformations, was at the diametrically opposite end of the spectrum: he couldn’t help but look at himself, from angles he had never anticipated and in aspects he might not otherwise have fathomed. Genius, whether at its most constructive or destructive, its most sublime or its most repugnant, is unnatural; Hoffman lived for great art, and it’s impossible to escape the idea that he died for it. The complete price of his nearly superhuman ability has yet to be reckoned.
RIP, PSH.
The other day I was talking with a few colleagues about some of the less conventional apps we use on a day-to-day basis. Here are five that I've begun using regularly that you may not have heard of but are definitely worth checking out:
The other day I bought a Jawbone UP, the popular health monitoring device that tracks steps, sleep and sleep quality. I’ve only been using it for a few days but so far so good.
I mostly bought it for the sleep monitoring feature, and because I've been generally a bit anxious to test out a health monitoring device.
I’m slightly obsessed about the amount of sleep I get. Often there are nights where I get a good night’s sleep, but I don’t think I did so I worry about it. UP has begun to put my mind at ease – I’m actually getting more sleep than I had thought. The sleep part of the app monitors how long it took me to get to sleep, how long I slept and even deciphers periods of deep sleep versus light sleep.
I measure my daily workouts fairly closely and I use the MapMyRun app for my outdoor runs so the step measuring feature isn’t all that useful to me. Though I think over time it’ll be interesting to look back at the data to see how much I’m moving, and how I'm moving more or less during different periods. I also like being able to view my general activity levels in contrast to my rest.
The wristband itself is good. It looks decent on my wrist, seems durable, the controls are really responsive and it's easy to sync. The iPhone app is fabulous. It’s easy to use and has a seemingly endless number of ways to slice the data it collects.
There are a few more features I haven't used yet that I'll try out in the coming weeks. Lots of people believe that this kind of self-monitoring is the future of healthcare (particularly to help monitor various physiological statistics and behavior change for people with acute illness and/or high risk factors).
I'll write another post on my experience with the UP in a few months after I've compiled a bunch of data.
I had a debate with some friends a couple weeks ago about the best movies ever made. Here's my list. It's impossible to rank them from 1 through 20...so I created two lists: the top 10, and the next 10.
Top 10
Next 10
Honorable Mentions: ET, Margin Call, Man on Fire
A friend of mine received the letter below from his son's school last week (click to see larger image). Amazing what things have come to.
I had a conversation the other day about the apps I have on my iPhone's home screen. I thought I'd capture the list here. Here's a screenshot.
Foursquare. I like 'checking in' because it keeps a record of the places I've been. I don't interact with people on it but the 'explore' function is good for finding new bars, restaurants and coffee shops. It's better than Yelp in many ways.
Twitter. I don't Tweet all that frequently but I check my feed multiple times a day.
Reeder. This is where I read the blogs that I follow. I check it multiple times a day.
Facebook. I'm trying to move away from using Facebook. I hardly ever post though I check it a couple times a day.
Google Maps. The best mapping app I've ever used. I use it constantly when I'm on the road.
LinkedIn. I interact with people through LinkedIn almost every day. I also check it sporadically for news and other updates.
WEEI. This is an app for my favorite Boston sports talk radio station. I listen to it pretty much every morning.
TripIt. This app keeps me organized when I travel. I wrote a post about it a while back.
Instagram. I don't use it that much but I have it on my home screen as a reminder to take more photos.
Podcasts. I listen to multiple podcasts a day.
Weather. Very simple app. I've preset the cities I travel to most frequently so I can easily find out what to expect.
Kindle. I don't use this app all that often as I prefer to do long form reading on a larger device. But I try to crack it open while I'm on the subway.
Music. I have lots of music apps (screenshot below). I'm still trying to determine the app(s) that work best for me. I probably use Pandora the most these days. I'm going to write a post on this in the coming weeks.
Settings. I have this on my home screen so I can easily manage wi-fi connections. I wish there was an easier way to manage these on the iPhone.
Clock. I use the alarm clock app daily.
WordPress. I've actually never written a blog post on the app but I use it often to capture new ideas.
So that's my home screen. It'll be interesting to see how this changes over time.
Over the holidays I watched the movie Margin Call (for the second time).
The movie is a fictional depiction of an investment bank crumbling during the 2008 financial crisis (it was likely inspired by the real life Bear Stearns or Lehman Brothers). The story revolves around a brilliant, young analyst in the company's risk management group. One night he discovers that the company has over-leveraged itself through an over-investment in synthetic CDOs and MBSs. Throughout the night and into the early morning the analyst's discovery makes its way to the highest levels of the company. The movie is a depiction of how the company handles the crisis.
Margin Call is a phenomenal movie. It's brilliantly acted by some excellent actors (Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Stanley Tucci, Zachary Quinto, Simon Baker and Demi Moore to name a few). And the suspense around watching management learn what has happened and how they handle it elegantly depicts what were probably real events inside many investment banks at the time. The more senior you were, the less likely you were to understand the financial mechanics behind the crisis.
In what is probably the best scene of the movie, the young analyst (played by Zachary Quinto) is asked to explain what he has discovered to the CEO of the company (played powerfully by Jeremy Irons). Irons' character says to him:
Maybe you could tell me what is going on. And please, speak as you might to a young child. Or a golden retriever. It wasn't brains that brought me here; I assure you that.
That line just about sums up much of the cause of the financial crisis of the late 2000s. The people on the ground were packaging and selling a product that management at our largest and most reputable financial institutions did not -- and could not -- understand.
If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend renting Margin Call.
You may have noticed that I’ve redesigned my website. I decided to move to this new theme (the Ari theme) for a few reasons.
I’m pretty happy with the change, I hope you like it.
Last month marked the fifth year that I've been writing on this blog. As I did last year, I thought I'd post a graph showing the number of posts I've written each month. I wrote 77 blog posts in 2012 (6.4 per month), the most since I started writing -- and the trendline shows that I'm definitely writing more over time, which is a good thing.
One of the challenges I've had with writing more frequently is that I'm always concerned that the quality of the posts will suffer. I'm going to try to worry a little less about that this year and plan to commit to writing 15 posts per month. That's a big increase over last year -- we'll see how I do.
2012 was a super busy year for me that included lots of big changes. I thought I'd take a few minutes to capture some of the more notable events of the year. January was moving month. After five years of living on 22nd street in NYC, I moved one block up and two blocks over to the Flatiron neighborhood. I'm glad I made the move; I'm in a much nicer building with a doorman, a concierge, a couple of game rooms and -- most important -- a great roof-deck.
February was a difficult month. In the afternoon, on Wednesday the 8th, my father passed away. It was a very difficult time for my entire family. But the funeral was a wonderful tribute to his life and I'm proud to say that we sent him out in style. There was a great obituary chronicling much of his life in all the local papers and the funeral drew a large group of family, friends and former colleagues. It included a military funeral ceremony followed by a wonderful reception where we laughed, cried and remembered his life and accomplishments. I know it was exactly what he would have wanted.
February was also the month that I made the difficult decision to resign from Next Jump (after being there for there for more than five great years) to pursue an awesome opportunity with a healthcare technology start-up.
March brought some free time as I took a few weeks off before starting with the new company. Early in the month, I took a trip out west. I flew to California and stayed with a friend in Hermosa Beach for a couple of days, then drove to Carmel, Big Sur, San Francisco and ended the trip with three great days of snowboarding in Lake Tahoe before flying back to New York. It was an awesome trip and just what I needed to recharge before starting the new job. Towards the end of the month, I also caught a Celtics game with my Mom and made a quick trip down to Fort Lauderdale for work.
April was a complete blur with the start of my softball season, a bunch of work travel, a bachelor party in Las Vegas and a wedding in Miami.
May included a busy streak of client meetings – I spent nights in Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC and Chicago. I also closed my first big strategic partnership at work. And along the way I found some time to catch a great Reckless Kelly concert at the 9:30 Club in DC.
June was a fun summer month. I played a bunch of softball, caught a Red Sox game at Fenway, saw a Felice Brothers concert in Brooklyn and took my first trip to Coney Island.
July was pretty busy. I made a three day trip out to Minneapolis for work. I got to explore the town quite a bit and catch a Twins game. Though the highlight of July was my friend's wedding in Los Angeles. They picked a great spot in Redondo Beach overlooking the Pacific. Here's a shot of some friends and I before the fun started.
August was another busy month with lots of travel. But the highlight was my brother bringing my sister-in-law and my niece up to Boston to celebrate his birthday. We spent a couple days showing my niece some of the Boston landmarks. And we took this shot at Samba Steak & Sushi House, a great Japanese Steakhouse just west of Boston.
September brought my first overnight sailing trip out on the Long Island Sound. I took this shot as the sun was setting. Great trip.
October brought hurricane Sandy to New York City. I captured some of my thoughts on the tragedy here. I made my first trip down to Nashville to accept my company's Best Place to Work award. And I made a trip back up to Boston to get away from the flooding and to catch an awesome Ryan Bingham concert at the Royale Nightclub. I took this shot of the Flatiron building in NYC the day the hurricane started. The streets were empty at rush hour that day, but nobody knew the devastation that was coming to the area at that point.
November was a crazy month. One of my writings was published on a popular healthcare blog. I caught a Patriots game and the Celtics home opener. I also made a trip out to Chicago for work. My Mom came down to NYC for Thanksgiving. I took a couple days off and we kept busy; we saw Lincoln and The Lion King musical, went to the top of the Empire State Building, had some great meals and visited the World Trade Center Memorial. Here's a photo of one of the waterfalls at the exhibit. Someone laid a rose over their friend's name.
December brought me back to Chicago for work and back to Boston to watch a miserable Patriots game in the pouring rain. The month was full of holiday parties. And I was recognized as the top performer on my team at my company's annual meeting. Though the highlight, of course, was spending a week down in Virginia with my family for Christmas.
I'm sure there's lots of good stuff that I'm leaving out, but I'll leave it there for now. 2012 was a good year...but I'm ready for 2013. Happy New Year everyone.
I wanted to take a moment to thank my family, friends, employer, colleagues and staff in my building for their concern and offers of support in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. I was very lucky in that I live in the Flatiron neighborhood of Manhattan and was far away from the flooding; though I lost power, running water and sanitation in my apartment and office. I was able to get out of the city on one of the few buses leaving town yesterday afternoon and am now safe and sound in Boston.
Having no power and being forced to conserve my cell phone battery gave me lots of time to reflect on the events of the last few days. I thought I’d post some of my thoughts here:
Finally, here are some helpful tips from FEMA on how to help the victims of the storm.
Image via Nameen.