Excel, Consumerism and Egoism: Links of the day
Today I found some free time to catch up with the 1000+ unread RSS feeds that were waiting for me in my reader and stumbled on three articles that are somehow struck my interest.
One is about recently discovered bug in Excel and its explanation. The reason why I list is twofold. One, I just purchased Apple iWork 08, so I am about to switch from Excel to Numbers and two, quite recently I witnessed a beautiful argument between two people (hello Christian 
about the user friendliness of Excel. And for the record, I think that Excel is the worst and most-unfriendly application ever created and people who say otherwise should never be allowed to get involved in any consumer product development. I am serious.
Another link is from one of my favorite bloggers and businessmen out there - Guy Kawasaki and his interview with Steven Smith about his egonomics book. Interesting interview, the book seems wort reading.
And finally there is an article that might not offer too many solution, but talks about a topic that is on my mind lately: Slavery of consumerism. When you move (especially to a new country so you have to pay exorbitant amounts of cash for shipping), you realize how much crap you own. I seriously want to cut down on that. But not just that, it reminds me how enslaved by the whole concept I am. So I shook my head, woke up and decided not to buy the new iMac. Ouch.
Hope some of them will interest you as well. And now I have to get back to my MBA readings. Double Ouch.
The other day I somehow ended up watching TV, and was quite impressed by an interview with Benjamin Barber, author of the recently published book Consumerism. The interview, in which Barber delivers an articulate criticism of American consumerism, is available online at http://www.dr.dk/DR2/2sektion/2007/09/26153523.htm
Christian (II)
11 Oct 07 at 8:02 am
Hmmm the guy worth Jihad vs. Macworld. Now that’s a catchy title for a guy like me, maybe I should give it a read
I guess I always had the feeling that the consuming patterns of me and other people are not healthy, but this feeling did not culminate until I moved to Japan. There, seeing it in its bizarre monstrosity, I started to realize what effect it has on people. Not just the environment, that is one element of it, but also on people and their thinking and life patterns.
When I got back, I have seen that it is the same in Europe, except that I have not noticed it before.
I am still a slave of it, but it feels better once you see the bars of your prison. Gives you a hope of escaping one day, doesn’t it?
ezekiel2517
11 Oct 07 at 8:23 am
of course I meant that the guy “wrote” the book. Dunno what was I sinking
ezekiel2517
11 Oct 07 at 8:24 am