Author / Jim Cota

Posts by Jim Cota

Jim lives in Indianapolis with his wife and four kids and feels lucky to work with the fine folks at Rare Bird. An occasional writer, tweeter, and shooter. If you need to know anything else about me, this should do it...

Steve Jobs tells “how to live before you die”

In June 2005, Steve Jobs delivered the commencement address at Stanford. It was a talk where he promised to tell “only three stories about my life. No big deal. Just three stories…” In these three stories, he encompasses formative moments that helped make him what he is and he outlines several notions these recent graduates would do well to remember. They include:

Find what you love.

“You’ve got to find what you love. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”

Live each day as if it were your last.

“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: ‘If you live each day as if it was you’re last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.’ It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I’ve looked in the mirror every day and asked myself, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer is “no” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything, all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure, these things all fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

“No one wants to die. And yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It’s Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.”

“Right now, the new is you. But someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it’s quite true. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And, most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.”

It’s a very good speech, and I recommend you watch it:

    7 Lessons from the 4th of July

    A couple of days early, admittedly, but well worth the read. In this brief article, Edward Klink, senior editor of Horsesmouth, a company dedicated to helping financial advisors be more successful, looks at seven lessons to be learned from The American Revolution.

    Trying to summarize his thoughts would simply cheapen the experience. Instead, I encourage you to download and read it for yourself.

    Happy Birthday, America!

    [Read 7 Lessons from the 4th of July]

    Creativity Still Matters

    Video cameras have become totally ubiquitous (I think that’s redundant, but it does serve to make the point.) Not only are tiny video recorders like the Flip and Kodak zi8 the new norm, more and more smartphones have the ability to record video, most of them much better than you would imagine.

    So with all of this ability to record events literally at our fingertips, it should come as no surprise that we’re drowning in lots and lots of really bad recordings. Spend any five free minutes on YouTube and you’ll agree.

    In my opinion, all of this crap desensitizes us so much that it’s easy to become overwhelmed when you see something that is really, really good. And the difference, I think, is in the creative process. These two videos were sent to me recently by my sister. Both were great ideas. One is beautifully realized, the other is just so damn good that it doesn’t require any sophisticated production at all.

    Take a look. I’ll be interested to know what you think.

    Embrace Life:

    Embrace Life from Jim Cota on Vimeo.

    u@50:

    Fixing iPad Wi-Fi Connectivity Issues

    There have been some reports lately of people experiencing odd Wi-Fi connection issues with their iPads. These issues included intermittent loss of connection, frequent login requests, and just poor reception.

    Like many technical issues that become hard to diagnose, there seemed to be little rhyme or reason to why some were affected and others (including myself) had no troubles at all.

    Now Apple has updated their Knowledge Base article to point to a seemingly odd solution for this vexing issue: increase your screen brightness. As reported in a recent TidBITS article:

    “Apple has quietly updated a Knowledge Base article about issues that iPads have when connecting to Wi-Fi networks. Initially, the article offered only basic suggestions, like making sure your Wi-Fi router’s firmware was up to date, and using WPA or WPA2 instead of WEP. While I’m sure using current firmware and modern encryption approaches are a good idea, they really weren’t related to most of the problems.

    “In the updated article, Apple now suggests that having the screen brightness at its lowest setting could be related, which sounds truly weird. However, commenter Eugen notes that common methods of dimming LEDs could result in oscillations that could interfere with other radiation, such as Wi-Fi signals. And I’ve heard from a reader that raising the screen brightness on his iPad did indeed solve his particular Wi-Fi connection problem.”

    They do report that an upcoming software update will address the issue. In the meantime, if you’re experiencing intermittent connection loss with Wi-Fi on your iPad, try adjusting the brightness of your screen. It just might be the (unusual) fix you’re looking for.