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I believe we were apartment 11? Right next to us, we had the Eliyah family, of Lebanese origins. Lucy and Alber who had two (?) girls, and two boys - Mussa (being 4? years older than me) and Fredy (two years older than I was). There was also the Shenhav family, Naomi and (?), who had two children - Avigail, just-older than me, and Boaz - 2-3 years younger. But no doubt, my closest relationship was with the Tovi family, Sonya and Nahum. At the time, there were Yonatan z"l (a year older) and David - just 27 days older than me, who is now a Haredi Rosh Yeshiva... There were also Guy and Gabriela (a.k.a Lela). David was my best friend at the time, and our path crossed a number of times over the years. #reuven #life #TorHaZahav #תורהזהב

My first memory is Gan Devorah (was that the Kindergarten's name? Or was it only the Ganenet's name?), which was to the south-west of our home in Tor HaZahav 6 street, in Hertzliyah, Israel. When I reminisce about Tor HaZahav, I remember a group of buildings, with a large lawn in between, where all kids of the 3 buildings would play. My parents at the time had a Citroen (?) - and surely later a Fiat 128 (which will forever be remembered as a piece of junk, costing us much more than a much better car). The parking space was under the north-east part of the building. #life #reuven #TorHaZahav #תורהזהב

* Just as I thought my product philosophy was solid-rock, we had our Daily meeting. And in the meeting, we discussed a problem we found a couple of days earlier, and the status update was "the problem was solved. we don't know how, but it was solved". In return, we asked the person in charge to find out why the problem was solved, since Magic doesn't happen. If the problems was there, and then it wasn't - either something has changed (in which case we need to know what) or nothing has changed (and the problem is still lurking out there)... * The partner to Magic doesn't happen is that Sh-t happens... - since Murphy's Law stating Anything that can go wrong will go wrong is especially true for software. Leaving me with a new candidate for Surmera Assetov: Sh-t happens; Magic Doesn't #life #philosophy #product #surmeraassetov #סורמרעעשהטוב #reuven

Well, now that I've exhausted Surmera, Assetov... ...and I still need to write 100 words a day. I can tell you one thing: it ain't easy. And yesterday I skipped my appointment, and I'm behind schedule and "owe" 100 words to the 100-words-a-day gods. I think I'm learning that the hard part is not the actual writing, but instead - finding the subject. I think I'll finally start on writing about my memories. Not sure the Blog is the best location to store them, and I'll need to talk to our Blog team and see whether "Export" is an option :-) since it's an option I may really want. #life #reuven

Yesterday, we outlined the slide of rule #6... Today, lets talk about what it all means (though I hope it's quite self explanatory). My bullet-points mainly refer to how stupid it is to work in a committee, where everyone has an opinion, but no one has accountability or even responsibility. On the other hand, I more interested in the Team. Teams have Stakeholders while Committees have Placeholders. The team can support the individual members, and effectively achieve power-in-numbers (even if small numbers). And when all team members are committed to the team, the passion and the stakeholder-mentality is what can make the Team successful. * I write "can make the team successful" since there are still other factors... Like the previous 5 rules...But Rule #6 is an important building block. #philosophy #product #surmeraassetov #סורמרעעשהטוב #life #reuven

Teams are Good; Committees are Bad “A committee is a life form with six or more legs and no brain.” (Lazarus Long 1912-?) “An elephant: A mouse built to government specifications.” (Lazarus Long 1912-?) “Always listen to experts. They’ll tell you what can’t be done, and why. Then do it.” (Lazarus Long 1912-?) “You are either part of the solution or part of the problem” (Eldridge Cleaver 1935-1998) “Individuals play the game; Teams beat the odds.” (US Navy SEAL Team quote) Anyone can find a problem. The right attitude solves it. Don’t complain: Fix it; Or help doing so Tomorrow, Bli Neder, we'll walk through these bulletpoints.... #סורמרעעשהטוב #surmeraassetov #reuven #product #philosophy #life

Bad News are Good; Black Holes are Bad. Knowing the Cause can help us Improve Convert Gravity to Velocity Transparency “Secrecy is the beginning of Tyranny” (Lazarus Long 1912-?) As the team grows, whether internally or externally (more team members, or more customers), there's more and more information floating about. And sharing this information is valuable since information sharing creates relationships. And people have valuable conclusions to make of the information. Even Bad Information (a.k.a. as Bad News...) But unless the information is widely available, to all partners, then it's a Black Hole. And Black Holes are Bad. Since then, people waste time on trying to find out information or (worse) people don't find out information. Which means they can't process it and provide valuable insights. So spread the news! Any News! #philosophy #product #surmeraassetov #סורמרעעשהטוב #reuven #life

Failure is Good “Failure is Success if we learn from it.” (Malcolm Forbes 1919-1990) “Failure is Success iff we learn from it.” It's not that I believe that it's good to fail - I do believe that in an environment where you (aim to) recruit top-talent, and want the talent to be creative, it also means the talent must experiment, and experiments are bound to fail, at least sometimes. And the point is that - as a rule - it's fine to fail... As long as the talent learn from the mistakes and assumes responsibility for the mistakes and the failures. And that's my one improvement on the MF quote - that failure is success if - and only if - we learn from it... #life #philosophy #product #surmeraassetov #סורמרעעשהטוב #reuven

Claim Failure. Blame Success. “Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.” (King Solomon -965 - -928) “The more credit you give away, the more will come back to you. The more you help others, the more they will want to help you.” (Brian Tracy 1944 - ) Well, theory here is simple. First, you better be committed for what you're doing. That means responsible for what you're doing. That means responsible for what your team delivers. IMO, this evaluates to Claiming Failures. If something wrong, you're part of it. You're it.And when something goes wrong, blame someone else. Blame Success.That's true Ownership. True partnership. Leadership. #philosophy #reuven #life #surmeraassetov #product #סורמרעעשהטוב

My Home vs. Our Playground “Them” is Bad; “Us” is Good “…in a family argument, if it turns out you are right – apologize at once!” (Lazarus Long 1912-?) “Us and Them… And after all, we're only ordinary men” (Roger Waters 1943-, Rick Wright 1943-) When you are part of a team (even if a one-person show), you may tend to become protective when other projects come too close for comfort. You may start to think of them as "messing up my home, and in MY home, people MUST play by MY rules". I propose alternate way of looking at this - as a common Playground, where you own the ball. You want people to come and play with you. You should be willing to be very flexible... Just come and play! Just see what a shiny new Basketball I have... #philosophy #reuven #surmeraassetov #product #life #סורמרעעשהטוב

My Home vs. Our Playground Claim Failure. Blame Success. Minimalism: Can’t Do Without It (?) Failure is Good Bad News are Good; Black Holes are Bad Teams are Good; Committees are Bad In a nutshell, this is my Product/Team/Life philosophy. Over the next couple of days, I'll be posting/expanding the specific slides and some verbiage (fancy word for words) about what I actually mean by every one of these bullet points. Fair warning: it's not rocket science. It's not earth-shattering. It won't rock your world. But... if you embrace it, it will make you personal and work life better and more enjoyable. #product #philosophy #life #surmera_assetov #סור_מרע_עשה_טוב

So what are we doing here? What is our role in life? The principal I've been trying to hammer into our kids (and myself) is that we're here to make the world a better place. But, the way to do it is not by trying to fix other people - but instead work to improve ourselves, and as a result "induce" the world to improve. It's interesting that in Hebrew, the word "Hashra'a" is used for both "induce" and "inspire"... So inspire the world to improve, by improving yourself. To paraphrase Michael Jackson, Heal Yourself - Make the World a Better Place... #reuven #philosophy