[edit: thanks to Thomas B. for correcting a few mistakes I did below. You rock!] The recent discussion around “Accents” is very dear to me. Let me tell you something. Read on.**** 1) Accents Paul Graham recently wrote about accents. Simply put: if you have a strong accent (e.g. your English is not that great), you are more likely perform poorly as the CEO of a startup. It is rather obvious, but important to know. ... Read more

Take a look at this thread: The user “tokenadult” is a great commenter. I have no way to see his Karma from here. My proposal is very simple. Today, this is what I see when someone comments: Tomorrow, it should be like this: Thoughts? Discuss on Hacker News.

On Aug 24th, 2013, I spent the Saturday at the wonderful “20th Street block party” here in San Francisco. Enjoy my Flickr set.

Seth Godin has a great post on money. Just go there and read it. He also mentions the need to learn a few concepts, and here’s the short, simple explanation for them: Opportunity cost: the value of the best alternative forgone, in a situation in which a choice needs to be made between several mutually exclusive alternatives given limited resources. Assuming the best choice is made, it is the “cost” incurred by not enjoying the benefit that would be had by taking the second best choice available. ... Read more

I work for a big company, but in the past I’ve been an entrepreneur several times. Now I mentor for a few startups, and most of the time they’re struggling with one thing: FUNDRAISING. Even the brightest and smartest people are not at ease when they need to find the money for their startup. It takes guts, and you can do it only if you strongly believe in what you’re trying to build. ... Read more

There are many, but this one caught my attention: What bothers me is not that the kids are kept in prisons, but that (a) they aren’t told about it, and (b) the prisons are run mostly by the inmates. Kids are sent off to spend 6 years memorizing meaningless facts in a world ruled by a caste of giants who run after an oblong brown ball, as if this were the most natural thing in the world. ... Read more

So sad to watch this. If you want, discuss it here.. MIDWAY : trailer : a film by Chris Jordan from Midway on Vimeo.

A few weeks ago I passed an important mark: five hundred times on stage as a Technology Evangelist for Amazon Web Services. When I started in 2008 (thanks to a virtual church and a lot of work), I couldn’t have imagined that I would have covered conferences across all continents (except for Antartica, but I’m working on it!) for a total of FIVE HUNDRED times. Wow! I hardly believe it. In this post, I’d like to share some thoughts, learnings, considerations and the like. ... Read more

We almost bought one. But then we thought: does it really make sense to OWN a car these days? What about Zipcar and the like? Of course the guys at Zipcar have some great arguments to consider renting in lieu of owning. Even Jeffrey agrees. What do you think? If we decide to NOT own a car, and therefore rent: which would be the best option? 1) Zipcar by the hour/day 2) A normal rental company, by the day/week 3) Wheelz / RelayRides ? ... Read more

Feel free to discuss on Hacker News. Leonardo da Vinci is one of my passions. Yes: a man, who lived half a millenium ago, can be a PASSION for someone. I visited a show about Leonardo at The Venetian in Las Vegas. It was disappointing… Sorry for my American friends, but when it comes to Leonardo, the recent show that was opened in Milan can’t be matched by anybody else. ... Read more