I was going to write a review of this Alain de Botton book whose theme is why and when work is meaningful (answer: when it creates delight or reduces suffering in others), but obviously somebody else had made a better job of it.

Somehow I found this ode to how important and significant jobs which we wouldn’t otherwise notice such as power transmission engineering or fishing and food logistics strangely uplifting for a simple reason: I can fully identify with the drive to create delight in others through the results of my efforts.

We end up coming back to the same thing: maybe empathy is what makes us human?

Chances are if you were born after1980 like countless others (including yours truly) you are marveled, intrigued and annoyed by the way older people see you, your habits and your value systems.  You understand (but don’t always sympathize with) the way your elders understand technology and the web… or don’t. You are used to have the TV on at the same time as your music player while you read a book, browse the web and have friends coming over.  For you video games are as much a social experience as a way to relax and pass away time, and there is no way you would look at them as “The Big Satan”.  If you’re already working, you might have a hard time adjusting to hierarchies, but are a diligent team worker and require honesty from the company that employs you.

If you want to get a broader perspective of why these characteristics set you apart from your elder peers, or if on the other hand you are looking inside these brats’ fenced garden see how it all came to this   this is the book you want to read.

Oh, Maemo, the promises you bring to nerds like me…

Mobile programmable computers have a new meaning now.

When I was a student in Mexico, in order to help my parents pay for my education I also had a scholarship/financing deal with the school, which meant I would do some assistant work in one of the departments.  A friend of mine was working in school administration, and I joined in.  There I had was trained on a technique that has helped me throughout my career.

Instead of just thinking of managing a project solely through deliverables, reviews and milestones, this focuses on the human component and the conversations that you as the project owner have with your stakeholders and contributors.   Therefore, you focus bit by bit on closing (completing) those simultaneous conversations to get closer to your specified goals.

It probably sounds obvious and even a little bit simplistic, but turning its tables on the process to work through the people rather than focus on the task on its own is an approach that has proven time and again to be effective in the ocassions when I’ve used it.  It also helps us “touchy-feely Latin types” to use our strengths to deliver, and builds strong personal relationships with your team.

So my N86 got a software update, and Panorama mode works better with dramatic light changes as you can see above.  Even better, now the camera has face detection as well.

The 8 megapixel sensor with wide-angle lens was already there

Full disclaimer: this is related closely to my work.  Don’t expect me to be fully impartial.

It is still a beta and currently only works with N97, but I’ve been using it for the past week and it’s not only nice but useful.  I can’t wait to have this available for Twitter as well, but don’t expect me to divulge publicly where I or anybody else I care for exactly reside.

Even though I love my work, one of the things that makes it a little heavier is the need for interaction with different timezones.  When I wake up I already have e-mails from Singapore (Finland +6 hours), around noon I’ll be chatting with colleagues from the UK, in the afternoon it’s the turn for the guys in New York and before going to sleep every once in a while I have to have a chat with my colleagues from the west coast of the United States (Finland -10 hours).

No wonder I sometimes feel I only stop working during weekends .  At least the kind of workstyles and input are very diverse.

One of my colleagues posted online the model we’ve been using for planning our digital marketing.  If you are involved in this kind of activities and don’t know where to start, it is an excellent tool.

All of this of course relates to spreading the word, participating in & enabling  conversations. That’s one of the reasons why I love my job.  We are building the future one day at a time.