Better late than never. 201 was quite a year with lots of risks, mistakes and challenges. A lot learned and it’s time to jump start 2012 and make it awesome. As I am not a big fun of sharing personal stuff and goals, let me share with you the best books, films and music I stumbled upon in 2011. Who knows, maybe you will finding something interesting for yourself as well. Or maybe I will caution you from something that is not all that great. So, what was worth spending time on this year?
Well, one might of course get an impression that I’m a fan of Conan O’Brien as this is the second video with him on this blog. But c’mon the man is charismatic and this commencement speech is probably the funniest one I’ve seen so far! And a little wise too
23andme can decode your DNA using a sample of your saliva and offer you quite a few insights into your nature. 23andme is the biotechnology company that was founded in 2008 by Linda Avey and Anne Wojcicki (who is also Sergey Brin’s wife).
I personally tried it couple of months ago and received my results around a couple of weeks ago and decided to write a brief review. So, what exactly can 23andme offer?
Throughout last couple of years I’ve been collecting my personal favorite quotations from various inspirational people in my Evernote. As a result I got quite a long list of sayings which I personally consider to be one of the smartest, wittiest, daring and positive at the same time.
Moscow, 2008.
So, I thought why not to share them with you? Assuming I have a lot in common with my readers, you might enjoy them too. If you don’t then you might just skip the post and excuse me for wasting your time. Otherwise, here is the collection:
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” ~ George Bernard Shaw
“There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded.” ~ Mark Twain
“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” ~ Michelangelo Buonarroti
“Money is like gasoline during a road trip. You don’t want to run out of gas on your trip, but you’re not doing a tour of gas stations. You have to pay attention to money, but it shouldn’t be about the money.” ~ Tim O’Reilly
“Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.” ~ Frank Tyger
“I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.”
~ Socrates
Why even think of educational online courses?
In my opinion, full freedom implies self-improvement and the ability to learn new things every day. And you know what? I don’t really think that joining the university is absolutely the best way to do it.
I guess I’m not the only one here who has a feeling that education in the traditional meaning of this word is dying in the 21st Century. Sounds like a bold statement, but it’s true. Even now, in 2010 amount of the information available for free is unbelievable. And it’s increasing exponentially. If you still have doubts I recommend you to watch this truly amazing video:
I’m not sure about you, but it definitely made me think a lot. Old traditional universities with big names won’t disappear overnight, of course not. Degree is still the best available indicator of credibility, top universities still have an opportunity to provide their students with the wide range of various subjects and classes. The point is if you worry about practical knowledge more than about degree and credits there are some alternatives available for you. Probably, you just don’t have that much time to spend on educating yourself in a traditional way or probably you don’t want to settle down in one place for a few years?
ZZE.ST is the blog where I share my personal insights, experiences, lifehacks and researches that made my life more fun & interesting and will probably do the same to you.
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So, what was worth spending time on this year?
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Moscow, 2008.
