Tosin Oyeniran

Truth about the "Paleo Diet"

Sat, 01 Jun 2013 10:00:23 -0700

”You really want to be paleo? Then don’t buy anything from a store. Gather and kill what you need to eat. Wild grasses and tubers, acorns, gophers, crickets- They all provide a lot of nutrition. You’ll spend a lot of energy gathering the stuff, of course, and you’re going to be hungry, but that’ll help you maintain that lean physique you’re after. And hunting down the neighbor’s cats for dinner because you’ve already eaten your way through the local squirrel population will probably give you all the exercise you’ll ever need.”

Got to love sarcastic Archaeologists.

Survivorship Bias

Fri, 31 May 2013 21:27:21 -0700

Survivorship Bias:

Great blog post from David McRaney

Lucky people tend to constantly change routines and seek out new experiences. Wiseman saw that the people who considered themselves lucky, and who then did actually demonstrate luck was on their side over the course of a decade, tended to place themselves into situations where anything could happen more often and thus exposed themselves to more random chance than did unlucky people. The lucky try more things, and fail more often, but when they fail they shrug it off and try something else. Occasionally, things work out.

Saudade

Fri, 03 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Saudade:

i miss you my queen. i still believe. i just want to make you so happy. happy birthday. O&U..

forever your P.I.C.

-ooo

What God’s love feels like

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 16:54:40 -0700

What God’s love feels like

Photo

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 13:33:57 -0700

“Anyone can be a cynic. Dare yourself to be an...

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 18:30:00 -0800

“Anyone can be a cynic. Dare yourself to be an optimist.”

much needed reminder to myself.

Hollywood needs help.

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 01:27:00 -0800

If I had a lot of money and some free time I would start a fund focused on the one goal of disrupting Hollywood. I can’t believe the lack of creativity and the absurdness that has been churned out of that place over the last decade or so. To make it worse, it’s not like they’re doing it at cheaper costs or more efficiently. The price tags of movies are at an all time high. Hollywood is long over due for a disruption…from the quality of the movies to the way they are produced to the medium of distribution. We need more companies like Netflix (who using technology has sent the TV networks into an existential crisis) ready to challenge the Hollywood industrial complex. Admittedly, this doesn’t rank high on the list of world problems to be solved but gosh darn it, I like movies and they’re sucking and way too expensive. Someone make it better.

Life expectancy, innovation, and unintended consequences.

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:00:00 -0800

I recently saw an ad stating that 1 in 3 children born today will live to 100 years of age. Although intended to be a somewhat inspiring ad, It turns out that the current world life expectancy is actually still just under 70 years of age with Japan having the highest at about 83. I can’t help but be disappointed to think that it’s 2013 and not only are there no flying cars but people are still considered lucky to live past 75. The life expectancy growth has slowed significantly since the late 19th century, and it seems that despite stem cells, artificial hearts, Higgs Bosons, and the $1.4 trillion a year spent on medical research there still isn’t a medical innovation as effective as the invention of the toilet and improved sanitation.

It is these types of observations that lead economists and technology enthusiasts to believe that innovation and new technology development is slackening or worst stagnant. However, I don’t believe this is the issue. In fact, I believe we are in an age of fundamentally ground breaking innovation where awe inspiring technologies are being developed at lightning speed and succession. The issue is that these disjointed development efforts only serve to increase the technological entropy of the world, creating an increased state of chaos and disorder due to what I like to call unintended consequences. The way I see it for every major medical breakthrough that increases life expectancy there are probably just as many technological developments that decrease it. For example, researchers may come up with life saving cancer treatments while companies and industry simultaneously develop new products that unknowingly result in new carcinogens and forms of cancer. Case in point: paper receipts now leading to cancer.

With all that said, all is not lost. Big data is the key companion technology to resolving the chaos. It will allow us to develop new technologies while simultaneously analyzing petabytes of seemingly unrelated data to provide clarity on any possible unintended consequences and distinguish between causation versus correlation. If utilized properly, I believe big data can turn the cacophony of individual, academic, national, and corporate pursuits of innovation into beautiful, synchronized, world changing music.

“Many of today’s big data companies are trying to tackle problems that just aren’t nearly big enough. Most are focused on marginally improving existing, digital businesses, but I believe the next big wave of opportunities exists in centralized processing of data gathered from primarily analog systems. -Max Levchin’s DLD13 Keynote

I wrote a hand written letter today and it was surprisingly enjoyable. Extremely enjoyable in fact....

Sat, 02 Feb 2013 19:06:00 -0800

I wrote a hand written letter today and it was surprisingly enjoyable. Extremely enjoyable in fact. It wasn’t anything deep or romantic..just a simple thank you letter to a family friend for a gift, but it was probably the best part of my day. I’m not sure exactly what about writing a letter is refreshing, but I will have to invest in some custom stationary and do my part to keep the post office in business.

true story

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:26:17 -0800

true story

Comeback rising.

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 09:21:00 -0800

If you pay close attention to the news these days, you can’t help but be amazed at the turnaround some of the major stories over the past 3 years have taken

Within 3 years of a global recession, humiliating recalls, and a major tsunami and flood disrupting production..Toyota is back at #1 in car sales with a record setting 9.75 million vehicles sold. In fact loyalty and its brand has increased over the past 3 years.
BP, despite its plethora of law suits leading to discharging of money and sale of subsidiaries, is still the largest deepwater driller
The Dow is on the verge of breaking 14,000 for the first time since 2007
California has erased a $20 Billion deficit and now has a slight surplus
Greece is surprisingly still part of the EU and the worst seems to be over

Some of my key takeaways:

Don’t underestimate the value of a loyal customer base. They’ll stick with you through the hard times for the most part
Honesty and transparency is the best policy
People in general quickly forget
Boom and bust cycles allow for hard decisions (previously avoided) to be made, new strategies to be explored, new shareholders to be able to participate, and opportunities to refresh growth curves.

Moral of the story is no matter how bad things get, it doesn’t have to be the end. If you stay calm, get ahead of the problem, and focus on tangible and practical solutions your crisis can become the beginning of a remarkable comeback story.

Selfless love.

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 13:47:00 -0800

Kids are an amazing and yet kind of mysterious phenomena. Sometimes they provide heartfelt introspective moments like this recent one I had with my Godson’s mother:

..being an adult can be rough. It definitely helps running around with a 1 year old. I was watching Alex run around this atrium today spinning and laughing and I wondered when I last felt that way (in the absence of him). He has completely unfiltered emotion. The awesome thing is, for him that’s almost always joy, wonder, and love.

and other times they’re a soul sucking terror. Somehow kids are at the same time both parents’ biggest source of frustration and despair as well as their biggest source of happiness and fulfillment. Anyone who is friends with a new parent knows that they spend half their time complaining about the stress of their kids and the other half forcing any and everyone to watch them, full of pride and love, flip through pictures of their kids. Something about this dichotomy is extremely interesting to me. How is it possible to have such a beautiful and tender love amidst and despite the unrelenting chaos?

It turns out to be really simple. The love that a parent has for her child is the purest kind of love. It is a completely selfless love devoid of expectations or desires for something in return. It is not a barter or an exchange or any form of currency. It is freely given. It’s what the Greek called agape love and what I’ve found to be an important life lesson. Love focused on others versus the typical secular/romantic love focused on self (how do you make me feel?) is what leads to lasting relationships that are able to grow and deepen despite the turmoil of life. Agape or Godly love is the inexplicable life force that moves the world forward, and I believe the real motivation behind God’s commandment to be fruitful and multiply. How else but through having children could we not only truly understand God’s unconditional love for us but also experience what it is like to express real unconditional love to others. I can’t wait to have kids, but until then I’m going to try and live life expressing selfless love to the people that matter in my life.

"…A man and a woman cannot live together without having against each other a kind of..."

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 10:00:47 -0800

““…A man and a woman cannot live together without having against each other a kind of everlasting joke. Each has discovered that the other is a fool, but a great fool. This largeness, this grossness and gorgeousness of folly is the thing which we all find about those with whom we are in intimate contact; and it is the one enduring basis of affection, and even of respect.””

- G. K. Chesterton - as told and discussed in an interesting Op-Ed by David Brooks on “Suffering fools gladly”

love them. all the best. #4moreyears

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 13:49:00 -0800

love them. all the best. #4moreyears

A PICKPOCKET’S TALE

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 17:00:00 -0800

A PICKPOCKET’S TALE:

an unbelievably fascinating account of Apollo Robbins. A true testament to the human mind and the mastering of a trade. I’m particularly fascinated by the neuroscience behind it all. Don’t trust your brain. It’s easily fooled.

“My goal isn’t to hurt them or to bewilder them with a puzzle but to challenge their maps of reality.”

Jack of All Trades, Master of One (or Two)

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 11:59:00 -0800

I came to the realization the other day that at the age of 27, I’ve yet to come to terms on what I’m going to be when I “grow up.”

My list still currently stands at heart surgeon, fighter jet pilot, history professor, MotoGP racer, pastry chef, Formula 1 driver, screenplay writer, foreign service officer (diplomat or clandestine services), and business tycoon. None of these are for the faint of heart and all probably require a lifetime to master, yet in my mind’s eye I still see them all as options for me. Not one..but ALL.

How is it possible to feel like you have so many life callings and at any moment to feel so passionately about them all? Or maybe the better question is why? Is it an evolutionary remnant or just an enlightened, ambitious form of ADHD? I think what it comes down to is that as we grow and develop, we have experiences and exposures that are impactful. The complex and archival nature of the brain processes these experiences into subconscious cognitive thought that progressively elaborates into eclectic passions. This, however, creates an escalating state of tension as we go through life because we have all these competing motivations but have been socialized to believe that each of us has one purpose, one calling, or one career and so we must choose just one. Maybe “one” is the right choice for most people, but I’m starting to explore the idea of multiple purposes and multiple careers achieved through “multiple lives.”

My wonderful mother used to always use a term to refer to people with no focus and no real skill of any consequence as “Jack of all trades, master of none.” Actually I think she might have sensed my wandering mind and used the term as a type of foreboding warning to me. Regardless, I believe society and history (even biblical) has shown that the great men (and women) that created major societal progress and achieved greatness, have been, in fact, jacks of all trades. What I’ve observed though is that the ability and opportunity to dabble in these “multiple trades” came first through their mastering and excelling in one initial endeavor. They all mastered something. This is the case from the Great Industrialists to Howard Hughes to the modern innovators and titans of industry. They were what I would call: Jack of All Trades, Master of One (or two). These were the people that found a way to resolve the inherent tension and pursued their various passions unencumbered. This I believe is a blue print to greatness and more importantly a way to resolve my angst and find balance between the day to day pursuit/grind of mastering and excelling in a particular trade and the dreams and desires of many alternate possibilities.

Onwards and Upwards.

To the Estellas of the World..

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 11:00:38 -0800

..who continually crush our hearts but motivate us to greatness.

The lady whom I had never seen before, lifted up her eyes and looked archly at me, and then I saw that the eyes were Estella’s eyes. But she was so much changed, was so much more beautiful, so much more womanly, in all things winning admiration had made such wonderful advance, that I seemed to have made none. I fancied, as I looked at her, that I slipped hopelessly back into the coarse and common boy again. O the sense of distance and disparity that came upon me, and the inaccessibility that came about her!

-Pip from Great Expectations

KANYI MAQUBELA: Working on the right problems.

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 23:46:00 -0800

KANYI MAQUBELA: Working on the right problems.:

kanyi:

I loved this New York Times article about the “busy” problem.

If you live in America in the 21st century you’ve probably had to listen to a lot of people tell you how busy they are. It’s become the default response when you ask anyone how they’re doing: “Busy!” “So busy.” “Crazy…

The Moral Animal

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 11:00:00 -0800

The Moral Animal:

In his Op-Ed Piece in the New York times, Jonathan Sacks gives a compelling and stunningly rational defense of religion.

Religion binds individuals into groups through habits of altruism, creating relationships of trust strong enough to defeat destructive emotions.

Religion is the best antidote to the individualism of the consumer age. The idea that society can do without it flies in the face of history and, now, evolutionary biology.

Cheers to that. Merry Christmas everyone

The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 10:00:00 -0800

The Disciplined Pursuit of Less:

If success is a catalyst for failure because it leads to the “undisciplined pursuit of more,” then one simple antidote is the disciplined pursuit of less. Not just haphazardly saying no, but purposefully, deliberately, and strategically eliminating the nonessentials. Not just once a year as part of a planning meeting, but constantly reducing, focusing and simplifying. Not just getting rid of the obvious time wasters, but being willing to cut out really terrific opportunities as well. Few appear to have the courage to live this principle, which may be why it differentiates successful people and organizations from the very successful ones.