Big Ugly Things – A Poem

I don’t know why I put this on facebook and not on my blog. I wrote this poem on November 27^th 2010. This is my first poem in more than 10 years,I'm not much of a poet but my muse seemed to insist on it tonight. Under the circumstances of the new revolution, I sure hope it’s out of place

It’s a big ugly world

With big ugly words

And big ugly creatures

Roaming this earth

Big ugly men

With big ugly egos

They make big decisions

That come down to two zeroes

Lessons Learned from: Rework (the book)

I usually like to write my own thing but I think there is nothing wrong with learning a couple of things from reading. I’m not a big reader of non-fiction, I’ve even listened to the audio version of this book, not exactly read it. But it is SO good that' I’ve listened to it twice, and I implore every project manager to READ it! Maybe it’ll change their mentality about life as much as it did to me. I also implore all you wannabe entrepreneurs to read it, maybe you’ll do more than me and actually achieve what you want in life


Rework is a book written by some people from a Software Company called 37signals, which seems to be pretty successful. It’s only relationship to software is that it is written by people who actually practice it, and because in my opinion, managing software projects is like 24/7 crisis management! so those are the tough guys (mel a5er keda)!
These are my favorite quotes from the book, I think some are reworded by yours truly but I hope the idea is there. Make reading this count

• Other people’s mistakes are OTHER people’s mistakes
  
• Learn from your successes not from your mistakes
  
• Plans are GUESSES
  
• Plans are inconsistent with improvisation
  
• Plan small; this week not this year
  
• Make decisions now when they’re needed, not 2 weeks in advance
  
• Expansion is not a goal!
  
• Workaholics make up for intellectual laziness with brute force!
  
• Scratch your own itch
  
• Write with the purpose of being read
  
• A brilliant idea is just an idea until you start implementing
  
• No time is no excuse
  
• Don’t let yourself make excuses
  
• The perfect time never arrives
  
• Keep in mind why you’re doing what you’re doing as you grow
  
• Inspiration = NOW!

Finally, my favorite:

• Make a dent in the universe!

Technorati Tags: Rework,37signals,quotes,management,plan,entrepreneur

A Tribute to My Best Friends (2)

Nehal – nounou
It’s funny how some people seem to have eternal souls, or maybe it’s eternal chemistry. I’ve known Nehal since 2^nd primary. We were sitting in adjacent desks and we both couldn’t stand the people next to us in the desks so we ended up switching. No that was not when we became best friends; we became best friends in 5^th primary mind you! I have to admit, I could not STAND her at first for some reason, really couldn’t, and all of a sudden we’re inseparable!

What to do with Mubarak’s Carpets

A friend of mine challenged me to write a blog post about what we’re going to do with all the carpets with Mubarak’s face on them, hanging all over the country in public enterprises. At first I didn’t think much of it: “Walk on them of course!” I thought. Then I thought why not do a diversity exercise of all the things we really CAN do with the valuable resources that are the carpets!

1- Walk on them

2- The people in Tahrir could use them as blankets in the cold nights (I’m sure they’ll be really warm), but they’re going to have to wear them with his face on the inside to avoid getting beat up

3- Burn them as fuel instead of coal (or in barbeques)

4- Give them to the apprentice carpet makers to learn practice on

The Boys have become Men!

The moment I got into college, I’ve learned that the types of people are not the ones I had always dealt with everyday. There were so many social classes and so many different ideologies about who is what. I spent the first couple of years being very picky about who I talk to and how I deal with people unfoundedly, which was of course a major mistake since everyone hated me and stereotyped me as a snob. That was probably true I guess. I spent the years that followed living life normally; no more snobs, and figured out how wrong I was about almost everyone I knew. But this is not what I am writing about, I think we’ve all gone through this (culture?) shock, and if you, dear reader, have not been to college and seen that yet, then trust me, someday you will!