Language: English

I recently took part in an event about start-ups.

One of the mentors told me one thing that stuck with me – it’s important to dedicate full-time to a project.

It’s not easy to create something big without a full-time dedication.

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Milton Friedman — Human wants and needs are infinite, which means there is always more to do.” ― Calum Chace, The Economic Singularity: Artificial intelligence and the death of capitalism

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Some people ask for lots of things. They want this, and that, and then put some conditions, oh, and don’t forget about this, how about that, and so on.

I’ve found that if I ask for something simple in return, suddenly the criteria change. Why do I ask for this? Why do I need this? OK, but it will be done very late. I don’t have time.

I once organized a series of meetings in Bucharest. At the second meeting, we were supposed to have both a meeting at a coffee shop and some PowerPoint slides, but there was a logistical misunderstanding, and I couldn’t use a digital projector to show the PowerPoint. One person was very upset. I told her I would hold the presentation just for her, and do a one-to-one meeting on the spot, just for her, basically having all the advantages of a previous meeting, not to mention having the presentation just for her. She was upset and didn’t take my suggestion well. She left the meeting, although we could have stayed around the coffee table.

I then changed the format of the meeting just for that person and switched to a PowerPoint-only series of meetings.

We held the events for years, but the person never came.

Years later, the person came back. During that day, she saw a PowerPoint presentation, and then some more.

At the end of the meeting, she came to me, and said – “Look, all these PowerPoint meetings are fine, but could you organize some meetings around a coffee table?”.

There’s a saying in economics:

Milton Friedman — Human wants and needs are infinite, which means there is always more to do.” ― Calum Chace, The Economic Singularity: Artificial intelligence and the death of capitalism

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I like to read low-quality health news websites.

I won’t mention which they are.

The reason? They tend to obsessively repeat the basic stuff.

“Drink water. Eat vegetables and fruits. Avoid ultra-processed food. Create a ritual in eating with others.”

Lots of very fancy websites focus so much on the new that they forget that the novelty in health is rare.

Sure, I do read health websites focused on new occurrences in the health market, there are studies and research.

But the basics tend to matter more than the new stuff.

For this, reading a low-quality health news website might be a better solution than reading the latest research.

You (or at least, I) need repetition of the old principles.

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Some of the healthiest beverages include water and tea.

While for tea the solution to make it better is – never use sugar, add some lemon (for better Green Tea absorption), and perhaps add ginger/milk, for water, there is another solution: drink some carbonated water (preferably, mineral).

Voilà!

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I once witnessed this scene: “I told you a few years ago that you should speak academically. Why don’t you speak academically?”.

The thing is, it’s not difficult to tell someone: “Use complicated, fancy, academic words. Avoid jargon.”.

It’s quite simple to say so.

But to implement something that requires live practice is not that easy.

If you tell a student “Speak academically”, it would take years, and not a few, for this to happen, in the end.

You can’t just tell one “Change all of your habits.”.

There are things that can be fixed easily. It’s not complicated to make a small change.

But some changes take years, and the advice, while necessary, might take many years to be fulfilled.

Coming back to the original piece of advice – “How to speak academically? Read. A lot of years, read. And communicate in official settings. For lots of years.”

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