elephant in the room

you know you're growing up by looking at people around you, the more you resemble the grown ups and feel estranged from the 'kids'...

o problema das generalizações

"Common sense is not common at all."

(Mark Twain)

ignorance is bliss

...so is denial.

leave

Partir é sempre bitter-sweet. Também o é chegar já depois dos outros partirem - sem nós. 

E eles foram. [Quase todos.]

De parte a parte, as memórias já não são partilhas, apenas histórias. Os encontros perdem a casualidade, transformando-se num moroso processo de marcações em agendas e conflitos com afazeres diversos.

Olhando, agora, através do miradouro, a cidade outrora repleta de cafés que falavam múltiplas línguas, vejo-os tristes ao permanecerem agora vazios, num silêncio onde ressoam apenas as memórias dos que ficam.

Esses - escassos - evitam falar disso, cabisbaixos que estão de os terem deixado por aí. Olho-os pelo espelho de um carro que não é meu, vendo os seus cansados corpos ir para casa - eu, que já não tenho a certeza de onde é a minha.

hindsight

distance is a variable that tends to move along 2 axis: time and space. as we move along any of them them, thus getting further away from events and people, things start becoming clearer.

time takes away the contingencies that make an experience subjectively harder or better, turning it into (more objective) facts. it is only in time that I can regret what ever I did or did not do (mostly the former), understand the true motives behind decisions and learn from my most unfortunate judgment calls - only to try again.

physical distance can provide one of two things - it can either make things quickly fade away from easily accessible memory, or highlight who and what is important in full color. regardless of where I might be at a given moment - that tends to be the best sanity check, pointing to where home is.

[all in all, whenever I'm questioning whether I'm doing things for myself, and/or if I'm not missing home whenever I'm away from it, it's never a bad idea to take a step back and have an honest talk with myself.]

rumores

this is not a good idea...right?

(... and why should it matter?)

contrariedades

"os fotógrafos deste mundo esqueceram a felicidade de fotografar com os olhos. hoje choro. mas choro com a certeza feliz de que a dor me faz pessoa. e que sou bom, e puro, e feliz. cometi erros e tenho de os abraçar a fundo, mesmo que me furem e me doam, mas tenho que abraçar. da mesma forma que o principezinho defendeu a rosa. ela acreditava que era forte pelos espinhos, e o principezinho sabia que ela era fraca pela mesma razão. tenho medo que vás. e é estúpido pela relacao marada que temos. mas tenho."

(escrito por um desconhecido conhecido - ou um conhecido desconhecido)

power nap

the to-do that always gets delayed 

(and the one which would translate into the most efficiency.)

learning how to say "no"

pleasure delayer

he said, she said

it's all a matter of perceptions, isn't it?

secrets of productive people

1. They have a life.

Far from being the maniacally focused, late night or early morning types, truly creative innovators or problem solvers have a rich life outside of work. One of the finest CEOs I've known, Carol Vallone, founder of WebCT, coached her local softball team. She said it's where she honed her leadership skills. It also meant she had to take her mind off work and think in different ways. No wonder academic research keeps showing that external commitments are highly correlated with high achievement.

2. They take breaks.

It's easy to think that you'll get more done if you never stop. But what's clear from neuroscience is that we can easily get resource-depleted (tired) and can quickly become rigid and narrow minded (tunnel vision). In other words, we get stuck. Taking a break—just walking around for a minute—can reset and refresh your mind, allowing you to see solutions that another hour at the desk would not have revealed. It's one reason we often have our best ideas driving home.

3. They've often worked in several different industries.

This means that they regularly challenge orthodoxies because they've seen different frameworks and approaches. They may not take so much for granted, and have the experience to see the value in re-framing problems.

4. They have great outside collaborators.

Sometimes these collaborators are formal, often not. But their sounding boards aren't just immediate colleagues or clients. Their wide networks allow them to incorporate a wider range of thinking, contacts and information and they bring light and air into the business.

What all of these characteristics demonstrate is that truly productive people have very wide and rich peripheral vision: external commitments, time to breath, multiple perspectives, and contacts. These individuals bring far more to the table than their immediate task or job requires. They're productive because they have such rich resources to call upon: science, music, art, literature, theatre, furniture design, pot plants—you name it. There is always much more to them than ever meets the eye. What this means is that the secret to productivity isn't a new organizer, a piece of software, or a new app. It's having a whole life.

(in Inc.)

superwoman

aparentemente, pelo menos para algumas pessoas, ando a projectar a imagem de que sou uma super-mulher que pode fazer (/faz) tudo.

(será que querer é poder, ou que me estou a tornar numa grande actriz?)

micromanagement

mi·cro·man·age (\ˌmī-krō-ˈma-nij\)

transitive verb: to manage especially with excessive control or attention to details

intransitive verb: to direct or conduct the activities of a group or an enterprise by micromanaging them

(in Merriam-Webster dictionary)

É uma dos maiores desafios de gerir pessoas - definir o grau de controlo a exercer. 

É também um dos maiores geradores de ineficiência no trabalho em equipa: num trabalho menor, acaba por se perder mais tempo a gerir recursos do que a executar o trabalho em si.

Há, assim, sempre um trade-off a considerar, entre o objectivo de desenvolver as pessoas e respectivas capacidades, e executar uma tarefa de forma atempada e com o melhor resultado possível. Num mundo ideal, as pessoas seriam totalmente autónomas e o seu trabalho fiável. Contudo, sendo isso por si só utópico,  também o é a ideia de conseguir confiar cegamente em tais atributos.

(se fosse fácil, não era para mim, certo?)

recursos estilísticos

proof

every. time.

aparece-me tantas vezes que eu própria começo a duvidar.

never stop looking (2)

never stop looking

can men and women be friends?

A bit extreme, but probably true nonetheless.

geeks say it best