My lemon tree is blooming :-)
Updates from April, 2010 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Jakub Pawlowicz
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Jakub Pawlowicz
Making a bold move
As you may remember I was changing job exactly one year ago. I left big corporation in favor to a small company (Lunar Logic Polska) who do mainly startups. The whole “startup world” was new to me at the time but it quickly became a way more pleasurable environment than my previous job was.
So enjoyable that couple months ago I decided I want to taste it even more.So that’s the bold move I want to talk about. I’m leaving my current job in the coming weeks to focus entirely on startups and contracting business. I will be leaving some great folks @ LLP, but it’s all about moving forward, and I feel it’s the right moment to do so.
No more details at the moment, but waaay more is coming!!
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Jakub Pawlowicz
On the edge of 2009
You may have been wondering why there were not as much post as usual in the past 2 months. The case is that I’m busy these days. So it’s time to catch up.
So the 2009 is going to end really soon and the only thing I can say is it has been a truly wonderful year! Most notably I got married and I’m really happy about it! I also changed job to a more satisfying one which is good as well. Thankfully everybody around me are in good health which is the main ingredient of happiness. We all know this, right?
In technical matters I had to learn a lot and there is still much ahead. I’m not surprised anymore as I got used to the fact that a big part of my life will be about learning. And that’s great. I wish you all such a job! :-)
I also surprised myself couple of times – for example in November when I started using Twitter. Really. I’m not kidding… I found it really great in busy times. Feel free to read my tweets or follow my profile at @jakubpawlowicz.
The 2010 is coming and I already see some interesting challenges on the way. More about them in the new year!
I wish 2010 would be as good to you as 2009 has been to me!!!
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Jakub Pawlowicz
Flu hysteria in Poland
As you know I don’t like media, be it newspapers, television or any other medium which existence relies on attracting masses with catchy slogans, or dumb programs just to make even-more-money.
According to Polish media a couple of days ago there was a large outbreak of so-called swine flu epidemic on Ukraine. The reports from there were hysteric: showing the flu great progress, one service reporting higher death toll than another, showing people queueing to pharmacists seeking flu vaccine, anti-flu drugs, garlic, lemons, honey, and God-only-knows-what-else.
As we share border with Ukraine government instructed our border service to take a closer look at who enters the country and started considering giving a flu vaccine to all health/public service workers. Some of the opposition politicians started arguing that we need to act quickly to stop the pandemic, Polish media suggested some countries already vaccinated 40%, 60% or even all country population. Panic is emerging thanks to people’s foolishness and to mass media.The thing I want to point out is how much place are reserved for this hypothetical flu outbreak in Ukraine in western mass media. There is literally none. I checked BBC, CNN, and Reuters and the first two doesn’t even mention this fact on their health pages, Reuters being the only one referring to this outbreak in an article on flu season in northern hemisphere.
I can think of a few possible explanations of this fact but you are creative people and can figure it out on your own, don’t you?
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Mike Spark
A personal friend of mine just came back from Lviv, Ukraine. She says that she couldn’t spot a single man without a gauze bandage. Moreover, people there already avoid gathering into large groups, public transport such as buses is deserted etc.
http://www.president.gov.ua/news/15609.html – here the Ukrainian president Victor Yushchenko imposes a criminal responsibility for, quoting, ‘criminal caresslessness’ in fighting the epidemic.
And about the media reaction: contrary to the western ones, the ex-USSR media cover the events very closely. You can check it on the site of ‘Kommersant’: http://kommersant.ru/theme.aspx?ThemesID=422 – a well-known russian newspaper, which tracks back its history up to 1909.
Cheers.
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Jakub Pawlowicz
Waiting and getting
The best thing in waiting for something is the very first moment once you get it.
I have been waiting for the spring for the last 6 months. Today it has come :-)
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Psi
I know exactly what you feel :) I’ve been waiting for it too… Strange, but it seems I now appreciate spring, sun and good weather much more than I used to, when I didn’t have to go to work every day…
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Jakub Pawlowicz
Organic or not?
I had a spare hour yesterday evening and a Tesco store on my way so I decided to stop and wander through the store.
There a question suddenly bubbled up in my head: if there is a “organic food” section does it mean the food in other sections is not organic?
I know the answer but do the people do?
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Jakub Pawlowicz
This is the end (of corporate life)
As many of you already know I will be leaving Sabre on March 15th. It has been about 2,5 years of corporate life in the very best edition which taught me one thing: I’m not a corporate beast. Although I really liked the people I was working with (it’s past as I’ve already left Sabre taking the vacations for 2 weeks) the corporate reality with its distributed responsibility and deep-tree structure doesn’t work for me.
The time for retrospection will come soon, but for now I’m simply happy joining a small company! :-)
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Juergen
Hi Jakub, I wish you all the best. It was good to have you with Sabre. People like you make the difference in a global player.
See that you keep your eyes open for the beauty in our universe. Don’t get attached to any company – be it small or big! -
Łukasz Milewski
B2 is not the same place anymore :-(
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Psi
you know, there is only one corporation I’d fancy working for
I wonder which one it is… :) I have a feeling it might be the one I would love to work for too…
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Jakub Pawlowicz
Is term ‘a legitimate bank’ an oxymoron?
I consider banks as the institutions who lie to us all the time. However these lies are not ones visible at the first sight but rather ones hidden deeply, like in the documents we are asked to sign, which are written in a very formal and not understandable manner.
I hate these situations when after signing the documents in a bank I check my bank account to find out I misread something and they “robbed” me out of my money. It is interesting to point out that I have never experienced a situation when bank gave me a bonus I didn’t expect. It is always the case they took as much as I have expected or more. The “more” being the more probable case.
Although I am used to banks not telling us the whole story about interest rates, mortgage costs, money transfer fees and so on, this time I found the polish Alior Bank TV ad to lie in a bit different way:
This ad tells us that with the Alior Bank card you can take your money from all the cashpoints in the world free of charge. First it shows Krakow’s main square and Floriańska street corner where someone takes money from a cashpoint. The problem is this cashpoint does not exist! I have never seen it there before so I deliberately took a walk to that place to find out a bare wall instead of a cashpoint. Computer generated scenes are popular these days to the extent they drive the reality…
In the subsequent scene there is another cashpoint presented near the Eiffel Tower in Paris. As I will be there this year I will take another walk to find out whether that one is real or fake!
I hope for a bank which doesn’t lie to me. I don’t know if I ever found one, but I will keep searching.
PS) Thanks goes to Hubert Gajewski who told me “post it on your blog” once he heard the story.
UPDATE) We were in Paris in September and didn’t find the cashpoint. Lame, Alior, very lame.
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Alan
Nice advert though (even if it’s all based on a lie). I like his bowler hat (or coke hat, if you’re old school) and all the people wearing their hats lining up at the bottom at the end of the ad. Is it normal for bankers to wear bowler hats in Poland too then? Such hats are what, classically, bankers would wear in the City of London (not that you’d see anyone wearing them today, sadly).
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Jakub Pawlowicz
Burning a flag
Yesterday one of the Polish biggest political parties came up with an idea that hanging the flag on May 1st, 3rd and November 11th (Polish national holidays) should be obligatory. What’s worse the politicians from other parties think that it is a good idea.
You know what? It is the worst idea I have ever heard of. Hanging the flag should be imposed by my internal will, by pride of my country not some silly regulations.
Give me a reason to be proud of Poland and I will hang a flag!
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Jakub Pawlowicz
Fighting global warming… idiocy
There are two hot “global” topics still present in the news: global crisis and global warming. Although we know what caused the former one, there are only clues about the latter one.
I intentionally used word “clues” because there is no more than that. I read a newspaper a few weeks ago and there were 2 articles claiming completely opposite view on the future. One said there will be a global warming and polar capes will melt, while the other was saying we should prepare for another ice age as due to polar caps melting the sea currents will change causing Europe and Asia to freeze.
I think there are probably as many theories as the environmental scientists and nobody knows who is right, but many claim finding the right answer.
But after all the answer is not meaningful but the way we live and interact with the environment really is. So living more ecologically would definitely help us, but eventually the Earth too. But I’m really worried about this approach as unfortunately we are pretty dumb species…
On the other hand, as I found the topic interesting I started to read a lot about it on Wikipedia. There are many interesting articles about past ice ages, sea level rises, human migrations, etc, which in general tells a message – global warming is nothing special. Since 20000 years ago the global sea level rose about 140 meters, global temperatures rose about 5 Celcius degrees, humans decided to leave Africa and settle all around the world, etc. As you can see – the current global warming is nothing special. It happened before, and it is meant to happen in the future.
As always life will find a way. But what about us?
solnic 12:20 am on March 5, 2010 Permalink |
Good luck mate! It was a pleasure working with you :)
Jakub Pawlowicz 12:27 am on March 5, 2010 Permalink |
Thanks Piotr! It’s still a pleasure! :)
psi 12:50 am on March 5, 2010 Permalink |
Good luck, we’re going to miss you… I wonder what bold move you will be making a year from now ;)
Jakub Pawlowicz 12:53 am on March 5, 2010 Permalink |
I don’t even want to think about it – let’s not make it a “March rule” ;-)
Mariusz 9:19 am on April 8, 2010 Permalink |
I’m pretty sure he’s gonna buy Google next year.
(oh, and btw: tabindexes in comments are a bit weird, it tabs out to “Notify on follow-up” instead of “Web site” after I type in my e-mail)
Jakub Pawlowicz 9:23 am on April 8, 2010 Permalink
Maybe not exactly next year ;-)
PS) I’ll need to spank WordPress for those tabindexes