I love history and I love reading history books. I recall being 9 years old and finding a history book at school in the back of the class. It was all about Greek and Roman history, I was entranced and could not put that book down. This led to my…

“Creativity takes courage.” — Henri Matisse “Bansko’s growing digital nomad population is at its most visible during the festival, but that’s only half the story. According to online resource Nomad List, the town is the world’s “most-consistently growing remote work hub” of the last five years. Since 2018, it has…

It’s weird to be a relatively old guy in Silicon Valley. A place that is driven by youthful ideas and youthful ambition and energy. A place driven by fast and tremendous change. And it’s definitely age-ist. But there are benefits of being the older dude who has been through the…

For someone who prides himself on being intelligent, I tend to be dumb and talk too much. I think I’m smart and interesting but that’s probably my arrogance and ego talking. They say you have two ears and one mouth. Use them in the same ratio. I try to remember…

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” — Winston Churchill “We all hear it. All the time. “Make onboarding simpler! Get people into your product as fast as possible! Make it free! You’ll figure out how…

It’s so easy to be gloomy about the state of the world these days. War in Europe and the Middle East, economic recession, deglobalization, job loss, a breakdown of law and order. It’s a scary time. But there I saw this amazingly illustrative series of tweets by @leadspacer: “There have…

After a long hiatus due to the barbarian Russian invasion in 2022, I finally made it back in September 2023 for the excellent Lviv IT Arena tech conference. The event for tech startups in all of UKraine. It was excellent and full of positive energy and optimism. I’ve been coming…

“It is not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien “Everyone thinks they are being discriminated against and that the world is “unfair” to them. Instead of wasting your time complaining about reality, just recognize reality and play accordingly. At the…

When you hear about Kazakhstan everyone’s thoughts go to Borat, the fictional character who completely mischaracterized this country and region. But the joke is on all of us. Kazakhstan is one of the most interesting and important places in the world. Centered between the voracious giants of Russia and China…