The life and times of Alec Detwiler

NYTimes: The New Sputnik

2009-09-28T00:46:00.001-07:00

From The New York Times:

OP-ED COLUMNIST: The New Sputnik

China is embarking on a new, parallel path of clean power deployment
and innovation. It is the Sputnik of our day. Unfortunately, we're
still not racing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/opinion/27friedman.html

Get The New York Times on your iPhone for free by visiting http://itunes.com/apps/nytimes

Alec

A little Apple inspiration

2009-08-17T11:55:00.000-07:00

On my first day of work at Apple one year ago, I received a little gift with a t-shirt (with my start date on the back) and a little cardboard card. Here's the text from the card:

There's work and there's your life's work.

The kind of work that has your fingerprints all over it. The kind of work that you'd never compromise on. The kind of work that you'd sacrifice a weekend for. You can do that kind of work at Apple. People don't come here to play it safe. They come here to swim in the deep end.

They want their work to add up to something.

Something big. Something that couldn't happen anywhere else.

Welcome to Apple.

Witty quotes

2009-08-03T11:06:00.000-07:00

"It's better to fail in originality, than succeed in imitation" - Herman Melville

"Success is going from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm" - Winston Churchill

"Those who lack courage will always find a philosophy to justify it" - Albert Camus

"Some people take no mental exercise apart from jumping to conclusions" - Harold Acton

"Happiness is a singular incentive to mediocrity" - Michel Montaigne

"If everything seems under control you're not going fast enough" - Mario Andretti

"We don't see things as they are. We see them as we are" - Anais Nin

"Awards are merely a badge of mediocrity" - Charles Ives

Day 1

2009-07-26T11:28:00.000-07:00

I drove by the SF Marathon this morning as I head out of SOMA to drop off a friend at SFO, and realized that I no longer have any legitimate excuses to not do something I've wanted to do for a while. So... I hereby publicly commit myself to running the SF Marathon in 2010. This will be my first marathon (hopefully of many), and I'm currently out-of-shape, so I'll need all 52 weeks to make this happen. My goal is to complete the race under 4 hours. I'm heading to the gym right now for Day 1.

2009-07-13T16:52:00.000-07:00

I was playing around with QR codes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_Code) today, and thought I would post the QR code for this website for future reference. You can make your own QR code for a URL/text here: http://qrcode.kaywa.com/

You can used the free iPhone app "Barcodes" to scan this barcode, which will direct you to this site.

Quotable Quotes (part 2)

2009-05-11T09:30:00.000-07:00

"Set the tired dogma of... small thoughts ablaze with the kerosene strength of your curiosity and creativity"

Michael Port

Quotable Quote

2009-03-19T13:20:00.000-07:00

"Our mind always tries to persuade us that we are nothing but acorns and that our greatest happiness will be to become bigger, fatter, shinier acorns; but…our faith gives us knowledge of something better: that we can become oak trees."

-- Ernst Schumacher

Who we are

2009-02-20T11:43:00.000-08:00

Check out this incredible presentation by a brain scientist on what it is like to go through a stroke.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

2009-01-30T10:17:00.000-08:00

There's been a lot of talk recently about Obama having "great temperament", particularly with how he is able to rise above emotionalism in the face of tremendous challenges. Separately, I've also been thinking about musical tuning, after watching one of the artist lessons in Garageband '09 (Ben Folds). How do these relate? Well, reaching way back to my musical days, I recalled a musical definition of "temperament".

Here's how wikipedia describes it: In musical tuning, a temperament is a system of tuning which slightly compromises the pure intervals of intonation in order to meet other requirements of the system."

This really speaks to me - because it encapsulates our constant struggle to build some beautiful, while compromising each step of the way. Compromising is precisely what makes something beautiful. In a musical chord, each note can only be considered "in tune" after considering all other notes that are being played at the same time - it's all relative! As with our myriad of personal projects and initiatives, we must constantly "tune up" or "tune down" the individual objectives, as we consider the grander scheme of life.

Christmas

2008-12-25T15:18:00.001-08:00

Niña takes a nap on my lap

The gang

2008-11-22T02:14:00.001-08:00

Still bar hopping in the Haight

2008-11-22T00:56:00.000-08:00

Hobson's Choice

2008-11-21T23:52:00.000-08:00

2008-11-21T22:49:00.000-08:00

Amex love

2008-11-21T22:29:00.000-08:00

Cha Cha Cha

2008-11-21T22:10:00.000-08:00

Cha Cha Cha, in the Haight

2008-11-21T22:06:00.000-08:00

Bridge School Benefit concert at Shoreline

2008-10-26T15:32:00.000-07:00

Apple London, Regent St

2008-10-23T02:42:00.000-07:00

Au revoir Paris!

2008-10-23T00:21:00.000-07:00

With four days of hard work, local sightseeing, and culinary bliss,
I'm sad to leave Paris. On the business side, we accomplished
everything we wanted and more. On the fun side, I had some of the
best meals in my life.

The highlight for me was dinner at Maison de la Truffe, my favorite
restaurant this side of the Atlantic. I first went there in July with
my classmates, and was instantly hooked. Thr second you walk in to the
restaurant, the rich aroma of truffles nearly knocks you off your
feet. The meal started with fresh baguette and white truffle-infused
olive oil. My starter was a beef carpaccio with greens and generous
shavings of Burgundy truffles. My main course was grilled lobster
with a truffle polenta. Dessert was a truffle cream creme brûlée.
And I was drinking champagne.

Alec was happy, Alec was very very happy.

I'm currently traveling through the French countryside aboard the
Eurostar, on route to London for more meetings, then back to the US
tomorrow!

View from Apple Paris office

2008-10-21T11:03:00.000-07:00

On the road again

2008-10-18T13:46:00.000-07:00

So, apparently my travel days aren't behind me. Through a bit of luck
and good fortune, Apple is sending me to Europe for a week, in style.
This is my first international business trip, so I am excited and a
little nervous, but I expect to have a great time.

Fiddler's Green

2008-09-27T22:39:00.000-07:00

Susie making friends...

Poker Night

2008-09-20T21:39:00.000-07:00

With the boys...

Night out

2008-09-13T02:36:00.000-07:00

Temple after XYZ after John Collins