Losers
Δεκ/104
Η παρακάτω ομιλία είναι από τον Larry Ellison, CEO της Oracle στους αποφοίτους του Yale, το 2000:
"Graduates of Yale University, I apologize if you have endured this type of prologue before, but I want you to do something for me. Please, take a good look around you. Look at the classmate on your left. Look at the classmate on your right. Now, consider this: five years from now, 10 years from now, even 30 thirty years from now, odds are the person on your left is going to be a loser. The person on your right, meanwhile, will also be a loser. And you, in the middle? What can you expect? Loser. Loserhood. Loser Cum Laude.
In fact, as I look out before me today, I don't see a thousand hopes for a bright tomorrow. I don't see a thousand future leaders in a thousand industries. I see a thousand losers. You're upset. That's understandable.
After all, how can I, Lawrence "Larry" Ellison, college dropout, have the audacity to spout such heresy to the graduating class of one of the nation's most prestigious institutions? I'll tell you why. Because I, Lawrence "Larry" Ellison, second richest man on the planet, am a college dropout, and you are not. Because Bill Gates, richest man on the planet-for now anyway-is a college dropout, and you are not. Because Paul Allen, the third richest man on the planet, dropped out of college, and you did not. And for good measure, because Michael Dell, No. 9 on the list and moving up fast, is a college dropout, and you, yet again, are not.
Hmm ... you're very upset. That's understandable. So let me stroke your egos for a moment by pointing out, quite sincerely, that your diplomas were not attained in vain. Most of you, I imagine, have spent four to five years here, and in many ways what you've learned and endured will serve you well in the years ahead. You've established good work habits. You've established a network of people that will help you down the road. And you've established what will be lifelong relationships with the word "therapy." All that of is good. For in truth, you will need that network. You will need those strong work habits.
You will need that therapy. You will need them because you didn't drop out, and so you will never be among the richest people in the world. Oh sure, you may, perhaps, work your way up to #10 or #11, like Steve Ballmer. But then,I don't have to tell you who he really works for, do I?
And for the record, he dropped out of grad school. Bit of a late bloomer.
Finally, I realize that many of you, and hopefully by now most of you,are wondering, "Is there anything I can do? Is there any hope for me at all?" Actually, no. It's too late. You've absorbed too much, think you know too much. You're not 19 anymore. You have a built-in cap, and I'm not referring to the mortarboards on your heads.
Hmm ... you're really very upset. That's understandable.
So perhaps this would be a good time to bring up the silver lining. Not for you, Class of '00. You are a write-off, so I'll let you slink off to your pathetic $200,000-a-year jobs, where your checks will be signed by former classmates who dropped out two years ago.
Instead, I want to give hope to any underclassmen here today. I say to you, and I can't stress this enough:
LEAVE. Pack your things and your ideas and don't come back. Drop out. Start up. For I can tell you that a cap and gown will keep you down just as surely as these security guards dragging me off this stage are keeping me dow..."
(At this point The Oracle CEO was ushered off stage.)
Η ομιλία είναι φανταστική, αλλά αξίζει να την διαβάσει κανείς...
MyXolargos.gr
Αυγ/104
Ένας πολύ καλός μου φίλος, ξεκινάει μια καινούρια προσπάθεια, ένα δυναμικό portal για την περιοχή του Χολαργού. Διαβάστε παρακάτω αναλυτικότερα, όπως μας τα μεταφέρει ο ίδιος:
Το πρώτο τοπικό portal που ταράζει τα νερά της επικοινωνίας....
Το είναι το πρώτο τοπικό portal που κατάφερε μέσα σε ένα δίμηνο λειτουργίας του να αλλάξει τις συνθήκες ενημέρωσης και πληροφόρησης στο Χολαργό.
Η «επικοινωνιακή επανάσταση» οφείλεται στο γεγονός της αμεσότητας των ειδήσεων. Το Site ανανεώνεται κάθε 3 ώρες περίπου με ειδήσεις που πληροφορούν για το τί συμβαίνει την ίδια στιγμή στο Χολαργό,όχι μόνο με γραπτό κείμενο αλλά και με την χρήση φωτογραφίας και video.
Μέσω της χρήσης νέων μέσων όπως τo web Tv και Web Radio το myXolargos.gr έχει καταφέρει να μεταφέρει την ζωντάνια της εικόνας και του ήχου σε μια ηλεκτρονική ιστοσελίδα.
Η καινοτομία του αλλά και ο σκοπός του είναι η συμμετοχή των πολιτών στην δημοσίευση των ειδήσεων αφού ο καθένας μπορεί να αποστέιλει ειδήσεις και γεγονότα που τον αφορούν και τα οποία δημοσιεύονται άμεσα.
Το MyXolargos.gr είναι ένα πρωτοπόρο επικοινωνιακό εργαλείο, ένα site με κοινωνικό προφίλ από Χολαργιώτες για Χολαργιώτες.
Master Thesis: Writing Tips
Ιουν/106
Writing a thesis is not the most enjoying part of a student’s life. After all, you are most likely done with all your classes and exams, and what keeps you away from graduating is this goddamn document called “Thesis”(or dissertation)!!!
Inevitably, I had to write a Master Thesis too, in order to graduate from my Master’s in Strategic Management, after two years of studying in Rotterdam School of Management. Unlike most students, I think I worked quite efficiently and methodologically, and for this reason I am going share the wisdom and knowledge, which I gained during the past four months…
Tip 1: Topic Selection
Tip 2: Cooperate with your professors effectively
Tip 3: Plan your project in advance
Tip 4: Set goals
Tip 5: Study A LOT of academic articles related to your topic
Tip 6: THEORY
Tip 7: Keep notes for everything interesting
Tip 8: Save your thesis everyday with a different file name
Tip 9: Find a fellow student to give you feedback
Tip 10: Presentation
Extra Tip: Be positive
In more detail:
Tip 1: Topic Selection
First of all, find a topic you really like. I repeat A TOPIC WHICH YOU ENJOY. You’ll have to work for a quite big amount of time on your thesis, so you have to love what you are writing about. OK, you heard this tip before from your professors, but you never really took it seriously into consideration. Do you like Social Media? Write a thesis about them! Do you studying about M&As? That’s your topic!
You will become an expert on your topic, so it has to be interesting for you. If it can help you with your future career, that’s even better! BUT BE CAREFUL: Don’t select a topic which is understudied and there is no theoretical background or accepted methodology in that specific field! This is what happened on my first attempt to write a thesis, I picked an understudied topic, and so after a couple of months struggling hard, I had to give up…
And how you find a topic? By reading reading reading academic articles, old theses, books etc…
After you find your “topic category”, eg Strategic Alliances, then you have to find a “niche” topic that haven’t been studied, as a category is really very broad. For example, my thesis category is “Strategic Alliances”, and my topic is “the selection of governance structure of an alliance”. Even more specifically, I am studying how different types of uncertainty affect the selection of governance structure! Try to do the same for your thesis, and then it will be much more clear what you have to do…
Tip 2: Cooperate with your professors effectively
Your professor (or coach) is probably the most important person in your life, while writing a thesis, if you don’t have a girlfriend/ boyfriend 
! You have to gain as much as possible from your coach! I do not mean to take advantage of her/him, but rather to create a cooperative relationship that will be beneficial for both of you (yeah, professors don’t enjoy either reading your thesis, so you have to make it easy for her/him).
Here, you need to be particularly careful. Firstly, if you have the choice, ask a professor with similar research interests to yours to be your coach. If you don’t have that choice, simply ask if there is a possibility to switch to another coach (that’s what I did). Well, if you are stuck with a thesis coach, then you can ask about her/his research interests, maybe you share the same… If not, then probably you will not be able to help you as much…
BUT still, in order to create a good relationship you have to contact with your coach regularly and keep her/him up-to-date with what you are doing, arrange meetings every two-three weeks and discuss your progress and more importantly DO THE JOB THAT YOU HAVE TO DO. If a professor sees a lazy student, (s)he will not be either very keen on cooperating with you.
In case you need two professors, a coach and a co-reader, try to do the same. For me, the case is that my co-reader is like my coach, so I got help from 2 professors simultaneously! There are some of my fellow students that were close to finish their thesis, and met their co-reader only once, HUGE mistake…
Tip 3: Plan your project in advance
Plan your whole work in advance. Have a specific time frame, with final goal when you want to graduate, and set specific deadlines for yourself. Eg, you can say that I need 2 weeks to find a topic, 1 month to write the theoretical part etc…
Communicate your plan to your professors, so that they are informed on when you are planning to graduate and how intensively you are going work for your thesis.
Tip 4: Set goals
This is a tip very similar to the previous one… But it is worth mentioning it. Have a goal every day/ week/ month, depending on how you prefer to work. I had the goal of writing 1,5 pages per day. After my work was done, I could go home and relax or do whatever! In some cases I wrote 1,5 pages in 3 hours, so I had the opportunity to rest of the day, while in some days I had to stay at the library till late in the evening!
Tip 5: Study A LOT of academic articles related to your topic
Before you start writing your thesis or your proposal, before you do anything, start by reading a lot of journal articles, which are related to your topic. A LOT OF THEM. Study more than 30-40 articles, and keep the ones who are more related to your topic. Be careful at this point, don’t over-read, because it will take you a lot of valuable time. You will understand that after a while, you have read all the important stuff so there is no added-value in reading 20 more articles!
How to find articles? There are various ways… Let’s see:
a) Google Scholar, type key-word that are related to your topic
b) Older theses. Find other people at your Uni who studied the same, and see what literature they used
c) References from the articles you already read. Eg if article A writes something about your topic, referring to article B, go download and read article B!
d) Citation. This is quite similar to references, but it can be found from Google Scholar, it’s quite the opposite way. From Scholar you can see who used an article, so pretty important stuff can be found there!
Tip 6: THEORY
If you are writing an academic Master Thesis, you need THEORY to support your arguments. Most people can’t understand this point, that’s why they don’t write well-structured theses. For example, if you are writing about Strategic Alliances like me, there are various theoretical frameworks than can be used to explain them, from Transaction Cost Economics and Real Options to Knowledge-based View and Competence perspective. You have to study a lot of articles on your topic, and find which specific theories are used (can’t give better advice on that )
Tip 7: Keep notes for everything interesting
Keep notes for everything interesting you find. Keep notes for every article! When you find something interesting, don’t just underline it, but have a note book and write on Page ## of that article I’ve found this.
Tip 8: Save your thesis everyday with a different file name
I got this advice from a PhD student, and it really works. Save your document everyday with a different name. Eg Thesis_25-4 for 25 of April etc… This is specific useful. In my case, I had one part written and my coach told me to delete. Well, now after 2 months, she asks for that part back, so it will be no problem from me adding it again!
Also, save it in various locations… Save it on your laptop, on a USB stick and on an external hard-drive. It’s not a few times that I heard people losing some documents, by deleting them accidentally or because their laptop broke down! The best location to keep your thesis doc
The best way is to create a Dropbox account, which is actually a 2GB online hard-disc. You can upload there all your articles and Thesis documents, so even if you don’t have your laptop with, you can just login on your Dropbox account and continue your work…
Tip 9: Find a fellow student to give you feedback
It is very important to have 1-2 friends that can you give feedback on your work. I did this, mostly for the grammatical corrections of my Master Thesis. Of course you should do the same for your fellow student! Well, if I have some mistakes on this article is because I am writing it really in a hurry, and… I didn’t give it to any fellow student to correct it
Tip 10: Presentation
If you have to give a presentation, you should make it really simple, but complete, so even if people haven’t read your thesis, they would still be able to understand what you are talking about. Also, don’t go so much in detail; keep it short, 15 minutes and 10-15 slides! Moreover, you should practice a couple of times your whole presentation, as you will feel much more confident when is time to do it in front of your professors.
This is a very important tip too… Before your professors go out of the class to discuss about your grade, finish with the phrase:
For a Master Thesis, very satisfactory it was I think…
Extra Tip: Be positive
I meet a lot of people who complain all the time about their Master Thesis. They complain about how difficult it is, how boring it is, how miserable their lives is… Of course it is, if you cry all day about your thesis, how do you expect to feel better? Avoid complaining so much, and be positive! Also, try to be surrounded by people with a positive mood… The more you complain, the more it’s getting worse. Try to enjoy it, after all it’s your last months as a student! (This tip is dedicated to a good friend of mine, be positive, girl!)
I hope my tips helped you...
a
May the Force be with you,
Master Tasos
Eurovision 2010
Μάι/100
Παραδοσιακά το άκυρο.net, κάθε χρόνο διάλεγε ΜΙΑ υποψήφιο που υποστήριζε στον διαγωνισμό τραγουδιού Eurovision. Φέτος, όμως, λίγο τα διαβάσματα, λίγο τα πιο σημαντικά γεγονότα που απασχολούν την χώρα μας, δεν ασχοληθήκαμε με τις υποψηφίους ώστε να επιλέξουμε τι υποστηρίζουμε και επίσημα...
Ζητάμε συγνώμη γι΄αυτό, ελπίζουμε του χρόνου ξανά... Αν και με μια γρήγορη ματιά φαβορί δείχνει να είναι η Eva Rivas από Αρμενία, παρόλα αυτά για να μην κρίνουμε βιαστικά, φέτος αφήνουμε ελεύθερη την επιλογή σε εσάς...
Eva Rivas
Στην καρδιά μας όμως πάντα παραμένει η Sirusho από τον διαγωνισμό του '08...
Συνέντευξη στον Αδέσμευτο Τύπο
Μάι/105
Πριν περίπου 2 εβδομάδες, μου ζητήθηκε να δώσω μια συνέντευξη στην εφημερίδα ως Έλληνας φοιτητής του εξωτερικού για την γνώμη που έχουν σχηματίσει οι ξένοι για την χώρα μας, αλλά και για το πως αλλάζουν τα σχέδια των νέων που σπουδάζουν σε διεθνή πανεπιστήμια. Η συνέντευξη δημοσιεύθηκε χθες, οπότε την παραχωρώ παρακάτω:
1. Μετά τις τελευταίες εξελίξεις και τον δανεισμό της Ελλάδας για την κάλυψη του ελλείμματος, τι σχόλια ακούς από τους ξένους συμφοιτητές σου για την χώρα μας;
Οι ξένοι φοιτητές, και ειδικότερα όσοι σπουδάζουν οικονομικά ή διοίκηση επιχειρήσεων, είναι αρκετά ενημερωμένοι για τα δρώμενα στην χώρα μας. Ρωτούν συνέχεια για τις τελευταίες εξελίξεις και θα έλεγα ότι είναι αρκετά ανήσυχοι για το μέλλον της Ευρωζώνης.
2. Έχει αλλάξει ο τρόπος με τον οποίο σε αντιμετωπίζουν;
Δεν έχει αλλάξει ο τρόπος με τον οποίο με αντιμετωπίζουν προσωπικά, όσοι τουλάχιστον με γνωρίζουν. Έχει όμως αλλάξει ο τρόπος που βλέπουν την Ελλάδα, αφού νομίζουν ότι εκμεταλλευομασταν τόσα χρόνια τους πόρους της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης. Αυτό πιστεύω ότι θα έχει αντίκτυπο όχι μόνο στις επενδύσεις στην χώρα μας, αλλά και πιο άμεσα στον τουρισμό και την αγορά ελληνικών εξαγόμενων προϊόντων, αφού πλέον δεν έχουν εμπιστοσύνη στην χώρα, λόγω της αρνητικής εικόνας που προωθούν τα media στο εξωτερικό.
3. Έχει συμβεί κάποιο χαρακτηριστικό περιστατικό μεταξύ εσένα και των συμφοιτητών σου, που να σου κατακρίνουν ή χλευάζουν την Ελλάδα;
Το χειρότερο περιστατικό που θυμάμαι ότι έγινε πρόσφατα ήταν όταν ένας συμφοιτητής μου γνώρισε κάποιους Ολλανδούς. Μόλις έμαθαν ότι κατάγεται από την Ελλάδα, έβγαλαν κάποια κέρματα και του τα πρόσφεραν χλευάζοντας τον, λες και προσέφεραν ελεημοσύνη σε κάποιον άπορο. Παρόμοια περιστατικά, πιο ήπιας μορφής φυσικά, αντιμετωπίζουμε οι Έλληνες φοιτητές αρκετά σύχνα, και αναγκαστικά τα αντιμετωπίζουμε με χιούμορ για να μην κλιμακώνεται κατάσταση.
4. Η οικονομική κρίση θα επηρεάσει την απόφασή σου να επιστρέψεις στην πατρίδα σου μετά τις σπουδές σου; Σκέφτεσαι να βρεις δουλειά στο εξωτερικό;
Πριν την οικονομική κρίση, είχα σκοπό να εργαστώ 2-3 χρόνια στο εξωτερικό και στην συνέχεια να επιστρέψω στην Ελλάδα. Αλλά πλέον έχουν αλλάξει τα σχέδια μου και σκοπέυω να παραμείνω για μεγαλύτερο χρονικό διάστημα, αφού δεν προβλέπω ότι θα ανακάμψει η οικονομία της χώρας μας τόσο βραχυπρόθεσμα. Το ίδιο ισχύει, φυσικά και για τους περισσότερους Έλληνες συμφοιτητές μου. Είναι αξιοσημείωτο ότι πέρυσι ένα ποσοστό πάνω από 50% που φοιτούσαν στο Rotterdam επέστρεψαν στην Ελλάδα, ενώ φέτος υπολογίζω ότι το ποσοστό αυτό θα μειωθεί δραματικά.