Adrian’s Microblog

Marissa Mayer (an ex-Googler and now Yahoo! CEO) interviews Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg of Google about their book: “How Google Works”.

Fun talk, and heavy emphasis on the importance of hiring the right people and managing them well.

<h1>Personal qualities not measure by tests:</h1>

katykelley:

Creativity Resilience Motivation Curiosity Question Asking Humor Endurance Relatability Enthusiasm Civic-Mindedness Self-Awareness Self-Discipline Empathy Leadership Compassion Courage Sense of Beauty Sense of Wonder Resourcefulness Spontaneity Humility

Happiness Hacks: The 10 Most Unexpected Ways to Be Happy

Being prevented from being born, makes the debates about other rights hypotheticals. — yours truly

There are houses, and then there’s Ricardo Bofill’s house: a brutalist former cement factory of epic proportions on the outskirts of Barcelona, Spain. A grandiose monument to industrial architecture in the Catalonian town of Sant Just Desvern, La Fabrica is a poetic and personal space that redefines the notion of the conventional home. […] Rising above lush gardens that mask the grounds’ unglamorous roots, the eight remaining silos that once hosted an endless stream of workmen and heavy machinery now house both Bofill’s private life, and his award-winning architecture and urban design practice.

This aesthetic strikes me as insightful. Two points that stuck out to me from the video: (a) that the space isn’t organized functionally, but by mental and psychological activities, and (b) that luxury is in a space and lifestyle, rather than displayed in the things which adorn your house. I wasn’t as thrilled by the part of the design of keeping people disconnected and only letting them cross paths when they wanted to. Great closing line: “Beauty is what moves me, and after that intelligence.”

(via haydenhunter, via In Residence: Ricardo Bofill, Albert Moya for Nowness)

HomeAway.

“At HomeAway, our mission is to make every vacation rental in the world available to every traveler in the world through our online marketplace. With over one million live vacation rental listings in 190 countries, we’re committed to helping families and friends find the perfect vacation rental to create unforgettable travel experiences together.”

I recently saw HomeAway featured in a WSJ article in which the CEO contrasted their model to that of AirBnB by saying: “HomeAway lists whole units rather than rooms, focuses on vacation destinations, and caters more to families and groups, rather than singles and couples.”

I’ve recently used AirBnB and had a positive experience, but also seems like there’s a market for this as well.

by yours truly; the iPhone HDR can produce some neat results