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Out of Town News sat in the middle of the square. It was near the Harvard Coop, where I occasionally nosed around for books, and across the street from Brigham´s Ice Cream, where Bill and I went for chocolate shakes. I´d stop by the stand each month to check on periodicals like Radio Electronics and Popular Science. I´d purchase any that caught my eye, passing over the covers that hyped build-your-own ham radio transmitters.
Paul Allen, Idea Man Memoir. That´s how he tells the story of Microsoft inception. On that day he purchased an issue of Popular Electronics that announced the new Atlair 8800. He would then convince Bill Gates to write Basic software to run on it. The rest is history.
I took the picture above on one of our lasts days in Boston. Out of Towns News always reminds me of the power of curiosity, and how great bookstores can stimulate it.
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‘Micro-multinationals’ are the future – small companies, mostly connected to universities, working around the globe and around the clock
Hal Varian, Chief Economist at Google, on Think Quarterly. -
Japan’s orderliness and civility often impressed me during my years living in Japan, but never more so than after the Kobe quake. Pretty much the entire port of Kobe was destroyed, with shop windows broken all across the city. I looked all over for a case of looting, or violent jostling over rescue supplies. Finally, I was delighted to find a store owner who told me that he’d been robbed by two men. Somewhat melodramatically, I asked him something like: And were you surprised that fellow Japanese would take advantage of a natural disaster and turn to crime? He looked surprised and responded, as I recall: Who said anything about Japanese. They were foreigners.
Sympathy for Japan, and Admiration. Post by Nicholas Kristof.
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New York in the ’80s.” “London at the height of Britpop.” “Paris in the ’30s.” Berlin now.
If you believe the hype, and you really should, Berlin is the coolest city on the planet.How Berlin became the coolest city on the Planet. The Hollywood Reporter. -
There’s a debate in our culture about what really makes us happy, which is summarized by, on the one hand, the book “On the Road” and, on the other, the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The former celebrates the life of freedom and adventure. The latter celebrates roots and connections. Research over the past thirty years makes it clear that what the inner mind really wants is connection. “It’s a Wonderful Life” was right.
Social Animal article, The New Yorker Magazine. -
Enjoying a lovely dinner at Lucifer, in Pueblo Garzón, Uruguay.
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Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way
E. L. Doctorow -
Go for a walk; cultivate hunches; write everything down, but keep your folders messy; embrace serendipity; make generative mistakes; take on multiple hobbies; frequent coffeehouses and other liquid networks; follow the links; let others build on your ideas; borrow, recycle, re-invent. Build a tangled bank.
Steven Johnson, Where good ideas come from. -
John & Yoko & Lucho. Montreal, Canada. Summer of 2008
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Now, look. If you want your travel experiences to be seamlessly pleasant, then Vietnam may not be for you, unless you are very rich. But me, I like travel to be challenging. Not difficult, exactly, but the kind of thing that tests me, tests my language abilities, my wits, my patience—all the assorted skills I’ve accumulated over the years. And Vietnam does this every second of every day, from the moment I step out the door in search of coffee or pho. And it rewards persistence and creative thinking.
Why I love Vietnam - Blog post by Matt Gross -
Now…that was funny! This is one of my favourite pictures as it shows Euge in her true seft: laughing it off. Location: somewhere near Faineuil Hall, Boston.
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But over time, I have come to prefer simplicity over an exhausting complexity and numbing elaboration. One of the greatest meals in my recent memory took place in a rustic Italian wine cellar in Campania, where, leaning against barrels in the dim light, we bit into balls of warm, creamy buffalo mozzarella, bread torn from a crusty loaf and chunks of spicy dried pork sausage. We drank rough red wine, the perfect complement. The flavors were so elemental, direct and pure that I cannot imagine a better meal, even if we’d had cutlery.
A paragraph from a great cusine piece in the NYTimes Travel:
El Bulli and a Meal for the Ages
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He who would travel happily must travel light
Antoine de Saint-Exupery -
The Minor Glories of Constant Motion
Great article by former Frugal Traveler Blog writer, Matt Gross
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The mythical Star Ferry sailing from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island.
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