Worpswede, near Bremen, July 16th, 1903:

You are so young, so before all beginning, and I want to beg you, as much as I can, dear sir, to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.

Letters to a Young Poet

Andrew Bird – Tables and Chairs:

if we can call them friends then we can call them on their telephones
and they won’t pretend that they’re too busy or that they’re not alone
and if we can call them friends then we can call
holler at them down these hallowed halls
just don’t let the human factor fail to be a factor
at all

don’t, don’t you worry, about the atmosphere
or any sudden pressure change
cause i know
that it’s starting to get warm in here
and things are starting to get strange

and did you, did you see how all of our friends were there
and they’re drinking roses from the can?
and how, how i wish i, i had talked to them,
and i wish they fit into the plan

and we were tired of being mild
we were so tired of being mild
and we were tired…

i know we’re going to meet some day
in the crumbled financial institutions of this land
there will be tables and chairs
there’ll be pony rides and dancing bears
there’ll even be a band
cause listen, after the fall there will be no more countries
no currencies at all, we’re gonna live on our wits
we’re gonna throw away survival kits,
trade butterfly-knives for adderal
and that’s not all
ooh-ooh, there will be snacks there will
there will be snacks, there will be snacks.

and we were tired of being mild,
we were so tired of being mild,
and we were (we were so) tired…

so don’t you,
don’t you worry
about the atmosphere.

[audio:http://naveenium.com/stream/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/13-tables-and-chairs.mp3]

I sat down with my friend Alli recently and talked about inspiration and a few of my recent hacks.

I’m helping organize MobileCampNYC3 this Saturday, November 15th. Like BarcampNYC2, Microsoft is our host this time around. We’ll be in their midtown offices from 9:15am-6:00pm in what will be a fun and packed day.

The theme of the event is ‘best practices & design patterns’. The focus will mainly lie on the design of mobile software. Some interesting sessions have already been revealed:

• Future of Wireless by Ian Spalter, Creative Director of Mobile/Emerging Platforms at R/GA
• Location-based mobile social networking + proximity-based marketing by Murat Aktihanoglu
• Web-based mobile games and social interaction within mobile by Nick Smolney & Karen Schrier.
• Getting started on iPhone by Nick Clarey.
• Android development – discussion of development process for VoteReport.
• Best practices derived from building MobileDead, a multiplayer location based game.

Registration filled up a few weeks ago — I’m afraid I can’t even give you a chance to register now. So…sorry :). Your best bet is to get on the waiting list.

The last two MobileCamps here in NYC had some great sessions about NFC, barcodes and games design. I met and got to hang out with interesting people at the after-party. I’m looking forward to a similar experience this time around.

Cross-posted at blog.socialight.

“One day I will sing the songs with no lyrics, and everyone can imagine for themselves if it’s about love, disappointment, banalities or about Plato.”

- Juana Molina

[audio:http://naveenium.com/stream/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/04-los-hongos-de-marosa.mp3]

I’ve been playing with Glue for the last two weeks. Fraser and I got to talking and he asked me to throw some of my thoughts here:

• Is there any way to see who’s been on my pages? That is, when I navigate to any pages I own, I don’t just want to see “this is naveen’s page; here are his favorites; etc”. Rather, I want to see who’s been to these pages recently – or perhaps who else is like me. In other words, it should link my page and my profile with the browsing patterns of others so that I can learn about similar things. I imagine the content this will link to will be something like the results in Google’s Sets or “Similar pages“. Again, this is only for pages i “own” and should only be shown when I’m logged in. If someone else goes to my page, then I agree with the layout that shows my favorites and what I’ve recently been looking at. Currently, because landing on my pages gives me no useful information, I hide my Glue bar on my pages.
• I think the popup Glue interface should provide a quick way to give site feedback. I think this could look something like a tiny GetSatisfaction-style feedback widget (or similar to “Add my 2¢”) that pops in from the left and allows you to enter a short tweet-style message. I think this could be an easy way to provide feedback on the site you’re visiting.
• I’ve noticed some people throwing up interesting 2¢ pieces. I like it because it gives me a good breakdown of what they are currently reading/watching/investing in. I think Glue should display an individual’s recent activity/things in a stream/list on the user’s profile page. I think it’s faster to scan/read – much like with FriendFeed or Twitter’s list view. Right now, I have to hover over each icon (both in toolbar mode as well as in profile mode) to see what’s up. That’s time-consuming.
• I love the “recently looked at from _____’s stream”. I’ve found myself clicking into other user’s profiles more due to this than by purely using friend lists (which can be quite meaningless unless their icon or name catches my eye).

Umair Haque at Harvard Business on Obama’s lessons for innovators:

Change the game? That’s 20th century thinking at its finest – and narrowest. The 21st century is about changing the world. What does “yes we can” really mean? Obama’s goal wasn’t simply to win an election, garner votes, or run a great campaign. It was larger and more urgent: to change the world.

Bigness of purpose is what separates 20th century and 21st century organizations: yesterday, we built huge corporations to do tiny, incremental things – tomorrow, we must build small organizations that can do tremendously massive things.

And to do that, you must strive to change the world radically for the better – and always believe that yes, you can. You must maximize, stretch, and utterly explode your sense of purpose.

I’d like to think I’ve always believed this. Every once in a while I need a small reminder to continue with this idea in mind. What good is something if there’s no purpose behind your chase? Where will passion come from?

J: who are you voting for

Me: i’ve been following this election closely for a few months now. and i’ve noticed something. i’ve noticed that only one man has really been running. you would think that in this most important of times, there would be more than a few stellar candidates gunning for the top job. but, for some reason, there isn’t. he stands alone. he represents the future we’ve all been waiting ever so long for. sometimes at night, you think: “what has the world come to? where have we been for the past few years? what a tough job it’s going to be to fix all this. who would want such a job? which one of is really is strong enough to take on such a difficult position?” this man wants that job. of all the people that’ve shown up to represent us, to represent the world, this man is most qualified and the most deserving. it will be one of the hardest jobs of the next four years (or eight) and only one man has shown that he’s strong enough. today, at the polls, i’m going to vote for this man. ps who you voting

J: i’m voting for madonna