I’ve read many comments to the latest “person of the year” chosen by the Time magazine - “YOU” - meaning the crowd, now empowered with web 2.0 means of self-expression, including blogs, myspace profiles, social networking, etc.

The Last Psychiatrist article, linked by Furious Seasons, uses the event to make a point about narcissism becoming the driving force of the society, and all the web 2.0 gadgets - tools for narcissistic validation:

Being on YouTube, having a blog, having an iPod, being on MySpace– all of these things are self-validating, they allow that illusion that is so important to narcissists: that we are the main characters in a movie. Not that we’re the best, or the good guys, but the main characters. That everyone around us is supporting cast; the funny friend, the crazy ex, the neurotic mother, the egotistical date, etc. That makes reminders of our insignificance even more infuriating.

And fragment below reminds me of trying to write “about me” page: what is really defining us as a person?

I’m not saying each of us as individuals is insignificant. We should, could, matter. But to protect ourselves from an existential implosion, we decide to define ourselves through images and signs, rather than behaviors; lacking an identity founded in anything real makes us vulnerable to anger, resentment. And no guilt, ever. The nearcissist never feels guilt. He feels shame.

As for Time’s choice. I don’t know if YOU is a positive character. But to be a person of the year, it doesn’t need to be positive, it needs to be significant. I feel it is significant. Actually the author seems to agree:

I’m not sure anyone in psychiatry sees this– they are too busy documenting Pharma excesses and Lamictal outcomes– but it is the problem of our times. The only ones who seem to notice are advertisers, marketers– they see it. They don’t judge it, they simply profit from it.

The choice was right, then, even if premises were wrong.

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The air is clear in Warsaw and there is a very strong wind. It’s not cold, as it should be in December, but feels more like a spring to me. Occasionally there is a hissing sound, as the wind pushes windows inside at the floor where I sit.

I love windy weather; maybe I shouldn’t say that because likely it will do some damage and someone may get hurt, but for me, my favorite weather makes a promising start of the new year.

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(it was supposed to be posted as a comment to Krzysztof Rybinski’s blog article, but it seems that his comments mechanism is in even worse shape than my gallery script:), so I just put it here)

The energy topic is fun to follow, but contains two branches that I find of equal interest, not just the one related to energy sources:

1. SUPPLY

..and most importantly human ability to innovate will soon (I define soon as < 20 years) eliminate our dependence on oil.

This is something I would expect as well, so the rest is a matter of details, i.e. whether wind, solar, bio-fuel, fusion, etc. Makes one reconsider engineering career, but it?s all too late:)

2. DEMAND

What?s interesting in demand is increasing amount of energy that we consume in order to fulfill our informational needs.

The energy requirements of the huge infrastructure that Google is building (and others following) are already quite publicized.

Looking a bit more into the future, there is Second Life and other virtual realities. Nick Carr suggested in an article (Avatars consume as much electricity as Brazilians) that virtual ids consume roughly comparable amount of energy as the real ones.

The sophistication of VR will only increase. The dependence on it may increase likewise. After all, since a significant (major?) share of value of the products we consume is already informational (design, software etc), their consumption can be successfully migrated to VR. Producers are already announcing that they will release new products first in Second Life.

If having second life becomes popular, the energy consumption will likely boom.

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Nothing against Technorati, but Google’s blog search is clean, fast, and usually works.

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There are firms, and there is the market. In firms, people are directed by managerial signals (you do what you are told to do). On the market, people are directed by prices (you do what pays out most).

Now, there is a certain amount of business done inside the firms, and the rest is done outside on the free market - but what determines the border line?

While writing my master thesis I got to know Coase’s theory regarding boundaries of firms. These are determined by the transactional costs, which make market transactions more expensive, and provide incentives to embed them within the firms - till the moment when the organizational cost is higher than transactional one (management has its cost, too).

Ok, I wrote all this to introduce one paragraph of Hagel’s article, which is adding some new perspective to the theory:

At the most fundamental level, the rationale for the firm is shifting. As JSB and I have written, the rationale for the firm articulated by Ronald Coase back in the 1930s ? that firms exist to economize on transaction costs - is diminishing in importance as continued innovation in IT systematically drives down transaction costs. In its place, we are seeing a new rationale for the firm emerge ? firms exist to accelerate talent development. This is increasingly the reason why people choose to affiliate with firms. They believe they can get better faster by working with others within the firm, as well as with others across firms, through the privileged relationships built by the firm. If firms can?t find ways to deliver on this promise, talent will exit and Tom Malone?s e-lance economy will flourish.

Firms allow talent to develop faster, thus gain another advantage over the market.

On a first glance I can’t tell if this couldn’t be retained in the transactional costs framework. Take consultants. It’s true that in the company one can learn more than as a free lance consultant (at least in the beginning). That’s because of the experienced people that you have a chance to work with.

But the team could be assembled on the market basis, by contracting and sub-contracting (we sometimes do that to some extent, when we involve external experts). Usually it’s not… because of transactional costs.

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You could see it coming:)

S A I L I N G

Christmas is a time of year when new ideas abound (because I’m in Wroclaw and things that I usually do are not at hand, and as a result there is too much free time for visioning).

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Some Christmas technology news - return to wind power for moving ships. Introducing sky sail, which is actually a kite:

Not as beautiful as classic ships, but nevertheless elegant. Fully automated. Can save 30-50% fuel. They could add some solar power covering, for the kite to be truly 21st century.

The product is going commercial in 2008.

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Poetry by Jan Twardowski. Title: “Waking hope / Elementary of the 90 years old”

Hope she won’t take the title personally.

Update: nope, it was a big hit:)

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This week, it was time to go to the Ukraine. It’s been a year.

The purpose was to have a one hour meeting, however, the planes are a mess, and it could not be avoided to spend a night in the city. Also, there were no places on direct flights (I presume), so we had to make it through Vienna.

At least the flight to Vienna was nice.

This time we even manage to have a couple of hours trip through Kiev, thanks to kindness of our hosts.

I’m actually back already, but there is no time for anything. The period before Christmas is rather hectic.

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Descending into the station.

(read more…)

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“There is so many police, I feel safe”

(song by Happysad)

Not so in Moscow, where police can create lots of problems if you don’t have passport with you. You are supposed to carry it all the time. Otherwise, problems, or give $150 bribe.

On Saturday I didn’t visit as much as I wanted because there were communist and skinheads demonstrations on the same day, and all the squares in the city center were off the limits.

Thousands of the police to be sure that the communists, 15 or so as far as I saw, do not make any hurt to Putin.

But on the positive side I distinguished several kinds of the police. Police girls walking in couples were nice.

“There is so many police, I feel safe”

(Putin)

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It’s a pity that I didn’t have time to see much so far, but I’m counting on Saturday to make up for it.

I already made an opinion that people are very nice in Moscow, though. And the subway impresses. Compared to Warsaw is more like a mine than the metro.

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Today, I presented myself favorably against the background of the remaining Group 1 members, namely, two kids, and got promoted to Group 2. Not sure if the timing was good, but better late than never.

Anyway, welcome to the world of gallop. Today I tried it for the first time. It rocks.

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There had been bets whether or not PM Lyzwinski is a father of a child born after sexual harassment of his worker. Turns out he is not. A shocker. Money could have been easily made (people were clearly betting that he actually is the father).

Now it’s getting really interesting. I would say it’s even better that the Clinton-gate.

Lepper wants to close Gazeta Wyborcza for preparing this “coup”. And the woman wants to test Lepper for fatherhood.

Was she bluffing from the beginning?

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A major news shook our small world yesterday, one that might be seen as an end of an era. It’s all related to personal team issues, so I will spare the details.

I could compare my reaction with one of my friend’s, and there was quite a difference. One between “what will happen now” initial mindset (friend) and excitement (mine). There are now more options, not less, and I can’t see it as a downgrade.

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