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Disclaimer: I love Google as a company and I am excited about Android as a platform.
First off, I need to give props where they are due. I'm drawing heavily from a post I saw on my twitter stream and from my own experience working on a product that went through much of what is happening to Android . The title of this post may seem to be an oxymoron. How can Google exercise greater control on a Open Source platform? Well, they can if they wanted to and it won't need to go against they unofficial motto of "Don't be Evil".
In a short span of time, Android managed to get on a myriad devices and is serving various consumer markets. That is no mean feat. And it has been possible only because it was an Open Source platform. As much as I love Google for Open Sourcing such a beautiful OS, the current situation is not sitting well with me. But then again, I’m not an expert and Google might know better than me what they are getting into.
Here's the current Android scene as I see it. There are a bunch of devices on the market running Android and they are not essentially running the same OS. It might be the same at the core but not throughout. You want examples? How about Motorola Droid, Sony Ericsson's XPERIA X10, Barnes and Nobles' Nook, Archos 5 PMP, T-Mobile G1 and HTC Hero. Can you say they all run the same OS? I can't. They run their own version of an Open Source OS. And Google is not helping the current situation by being preferential. Yes, I'm talking about Google working closely with Motorola for Android 2.0. I understood why they did that with G1, they were just starting off an they need to market a product soon.
You might ask what’s particularly wrong with all this so, here are some questions: Can you pick an app from the Android market and have it run the same on all the devices that run Android? Can a developer make an easy choice as to which Android version he should build apps for? Can a consumer switching devices expect to find all the apps he had on his previous device? I didn’t think so. The problem is, each device manufacturer gets to make his own mind about what will run on his product and Google doesn’t have any say in it. It will be tough for Google to dictate manufacturers as to what they should run. Tough to dictate, not to influence. There’s a fine line. Developers and consumers are the key and not Google or any other company. For a platform to thrive, Developers and consumers need to be happy. That’s a tough mix though and that’s what Apple and Google are not able achieve. Developers are not happy on Apple’s platform and consumers won’t be happy on the Android platform (they are not yet unhappy).
Now that we know the problem space we can discuss a solution. In my opinion Google should work with all vendors on getting Android on their devices and should actively push updates to respective devices or at least get the vendors to do it. That’s easier said than done. The only other way out is for Google to turn into Apple and I don’t see that happening for many reasons, even if Google wanted to.
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For those of you out there who, like me, want to know what to do with their life.
“The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.” - Arnold Toynbee
Following your passion can be a tough thing. But figuring out what that passion is can be even more elusive.
I’m lucky — I’ve found my passion, and I’m living it. I can testify that it’s the most wonderful thing, to be able to make a living doing what you love.
And so, in this little guide, I’d like to help you get started figuring out what you’d love doing. This turns out to be one of the most common problems of many Zen Habits readers — including many who recently responded to me on Twitter.
This will be the thing that will get you motivated to get out of bed in the morning, to cry out, “I’m alive! I’m feeling this, baby!”. And to scare your family members or anyone who happens to be in yelling distance as you do this.
This guide won’t be comprehensive, and it won’t find your passion for you. But it will help you in your journey to find it.
Here’s how.
1. What are you good at? Unless you’re just starting out in life, you have some skills or talent, shown some kind of aptitude. Even if you are just starting out, you might have shown some talent when you were young, even as young as elementary school. Have you always been a good writer, speaker, drawer, organizer, builder, teacher, friend? Have you been good at ideas, connecting people, gardening, selling? Give this some thought. Take at least 30 minutes, going over this question — often we forget about things we’ve done well. Think back, as far as you can, to jobs, projects, hobbies. This could be your passion. Or you may have several things. Start a list of potential candidates.
2. What excites you? It may be something at work — a little part of your job that gets you excited. It could be something you do outside of work — a hobby, a side job, something you do as a volunteer or a parent or a spouse or a friend. It could be something you haven’t done in awhile. Again, think about this for 30 minutes, or 15 at the least. If you don’t, you’re probably shortchanging yourself. Add any answers to your list.
3. What do you read about? What have you spent hours reading about online? What magazines do you look forward to reading? What blogs do you follow? What section of the bookstore do you usually peruse? There may be many topics here — add them to the list.
4. What have you secretly dreamed of? You might have some ridiculous dream job you’ve always wanted to do — to be a novelist, an artist, a designer, an architect, a doctor, an entrepreneur, a programmer. But some fear, some self-doubt, has held you back, has led you to dismiss this idea. Maybe there are several. Add them to the list — no matter how unrealistic.
5. Learn, ask, take notes. OK, you have a list. Pick one thing from the list that excites you most. This is your first candidate. Now read up on it, talk to people who’ve been successful in the field (through their blogs, if they have them, or email). Make a list of notes of things you need to learn, need to improve on, skills you want to master, people to talk to. Study up on it, but don’t make yourself wait too long before diving into the next step.
6. Experiment, try. Here’s where the learning really takes place. If you haven’t been already, start to do the thing you’ve chosen. Maybe you already are, in which case you might be able to skip to the next step or choose a second candidate to try out. But if you haven’t been, start now — just do it. It can be in the privacy of your own home, but as quickly as possible, make it public however you can. This motivates you to improve, it gets you feedback, and your reputation will improve as you do. Pay attention to how you feel doing it — is it something you look forward to, that gets you excited, that you love to share?
7. Narrow things down. I recommend that you pick 3-5 things from your list, if it’s longer than that, and do steps 5 & 6 with them. This could take month, or perhaps you’ve already learned about and tried them all out. So now here’s what you need to ask yourself: which gets you the most excited? Which of these can produce something that people will pay for or get excited about? Which can you see yourself doing for years (even if it’s not a traditional career path)? Pick one, or two at the most, and focus on that. You’re going to do the next three steps with it: banish your fears, find the time, and make it into a career if possible. If it doesn’t work out, you can try the next thing on your list — there’s no shame in giving something a shot and failing, because it’ll teach you valuable lessons that will help you to be successful in the next attempt.
8. Banish your fears. This is the biggest obstacle for most people – self-doubt and fear of failure. You’re going to face it and banish it. First, acknowledge it rather than ignoring or denying it. Second, write it down, to externalize it. Third, feel it, and be OK with having it. Fourth, ask yourself, “What’s the worst that can happen?” Usually it’s not catastrophic. Fifth, prepare yourself for doing it anyway, and then do it. Take small steps, as tiny as possible, and forget about what might happen — focus on what actually is happening, right now. And then celebrate your success, no matter how small.
9. Find the time. Don’t have the time to pursue this passion? Make the time, dammit! If this is a priority, you’ll make the time — rearrange your life until you have the time. This might mean waking earlier, or doing it after work or during lunch, or on weekends. It will probably mean canceling some commitments, simplifying your work routing or doing a lot of work in advance (like you’re going on a vacation). Do what it takes.
10. How to make a living doing it. This doesn’t happen overnight. You need to do something, get good at it, be passionate about it. This could take months or years, but if you’re having fun, that’s what’s most important. When you get to the point where someone would pay you for it, then you’re golden — there are many ways to make a living at that point, including doing freelance or consulting work, making information products such as ebooks, writing a blog and selling advertising. In fact, I recommend you do a blog if you’re not already — it’ll help solidify your thinking, build a reputation, find people who are interested in what you do, demonstrate your knowledge and passion.
I told you this wouldn’t be easy. It’ll require a lot of reflection and soul-searching, at first, then a lot of courage and learning and experimentation, and finally a lot of commitment.
But it’s all worth it — every second, every ounce of courage and effort. Because in the end, you’ll have something that will transform your life in so many ways, will give you that reason to jump out of bed, will make you happy no matter how much you make.
I hope you follow this guide and find success, because I wish on you nothing less than finding your true passion.
“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” - Confucius
If you liked this guide, please bookmark it on Delicious or http://is.gd/4SSLg%20via%20@zen_habits">share on Twitter. Comments? @zen_habits me.
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On mnmlist: Learn to love less
Well, it’s not the mythical Google Drive, but it’s close. For a price. And assuming you only want to store pictures and emails.
Google tonight announced that it was drastically slashing prices while at the same time offering more storage pricing options for users of its services. Specifically, while Gmail users currently get about 7 gigabytes for free and Picasa users get about 1 gigabyte for free, both can now upgrade to 20 GB for just $5 a year. Previously, it cost $20 to get just 10 GB of additional service.
But what’s really pretty incredible is that Google has an option for you to buy up to 16 terabytes, yes, terabytes, of storage from them. As Google notes, that enough to store 8 million very high resolution photos. Considering that most consumers probably still have south of 500 gigabytes of storage in their home, that’s pretty massive.
Of course, you’ll pay for it: 16 TB will set you back $4,096 a year. But if you do something that requires you to store 16 TB of photos, you can probably afford that. And there are varying storage levels at different price points leading up to that. 8 TB is $2,048 a year, 4 TB is $1,024, and so forth.
These all represent significant price decreases from Google’s previous offerings, but it still would be cheaper to buy your own external drives. So why not do that? Well, Google offers the same levels of backup security that it ensures on all of its data currently. Plus, you won’t have to have dozens of drives sitting around. And since the data is all in the cloud, you’d be able to access it from anywhere, which Google highlights in its post.
But there’s something key to remember: Google is only officially offering this storage for use with Gmail and Picasa. It’s not a complete online backup/storage system, which is what Google Drive (or Gdrive) has long been rumored to be. Of course, there are programs and workarounds that will more or less let you use it for that purpose, but Google is not yet sanctioning the use of its storage as your official cloud drive.
Under Google’s system, 1 TB of storage will cost $256 a year and 400 GB is $100 a year. I don’t know about you, but if Apple offered something similar that would let me backup all my iTunes music and movies and allowed me to access them form anywhere, I would do it.
[photo: flickr/vsz]
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Why am I not surprised? Still, Windows 7 is the coolest OS I have used ever. I haven't tried a MAC ever so can't really vouch for Win7 here.
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Google Chrome OS is going to be another great piece of software from Google. It’s only natural for them to step into the OS arena, they have a lot of experience there: Google put a lot of code on the Linux kernel tree; they built their own file system on top Linux; they have built the fastest browser I have yet used(Which, in all fairness is a little OS). They are even involved with DirectFB. There’s one more thing, they do it just because they can. They can afford to take big steps to innovate, to revolutionize computing in general because they can monetize it all in the end. And that isn’t such a bad thing(will tell you why, later on).
What really bothers me is that, lot of people think Google is after Microsoft’s coffers. I beg to differ. Who says only one company should rule the OS market? Who says, a lightweight, web centric and a barebones OS is something Microsoft should lose sleep over? (Unless they want to)
Let me paint the background a little. Google took up initiatives in Africa and India to raise awareness about the advantages of Broadband Internet. Now, why should Google do that? Think. More people with access to the web means, more people hitting Google. That in turn means more people to target ads towards. This finally culminates in Ad revenues. Yes, it’s that simple. Why else would Google expose their indexes to people with Mobile phones? (One can do local searches via SMS.). I’m not saying they are just after money. Everyone’s in the business for money. But Google is doing good things for the community while they are at it.
Now, back towards to the point I was trying to make. When you are trying to make a purchase, what is it you first try to do? You find out what your options are. You look at a few products; you pick one that best fits your need. That’s what Google Chrome OS is about, choice. We have Windows, Mac OS X, Linux (a lot them actually) and Chrome OS to pick from. Some people might need more than one. Variety, as they say, is the spice of life. Today’s consumers are smart and rather regard variety as a necessity. Choice is a good thing. Good for the consumers; Good for the products; And good for the vendors involved. Competition in the market will ultimately benefit consumers.
The whole point is: Chrome OS is not a bad thing for Microsoft. Sure it will take a chunk out of Microsoft’s OS market share. Windows 7 is a strong contender and, the consumer space is growing in size by the day. People are already buying more than one laptop/computer for different needs. Heck, some people have different computers in their kitchen, living room and bed rooms. Even though they are contenders for the same market share, Microsoft and Google have their own consumer spaces to cater to. That’s because, Chrome OS is going to be Open-Sourced. This is why I think MS need not fret too much. Ask me why? Well, do you see any of the corporate biggies going for an OpenSource system for their enterprise? I think not. MS and Google have their own crowd to please and exploit before they go daggers at each other.
Finally here’s why Google Chrome OS is going to tick:
What do you think people?
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