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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

So.... (Seems like "So...." will be my signature opening.) It's been almost a-day-without-100-words, but I caught myself in just about the last minute. Today, I'd like a word about the title of this site - Surmera, Assetov. Many of us have heard of the unofficial Google Motto: Don't Be Evil. Well, to quote Kind David in the Book of Psalms (and my own personal motto), It's not enough to "not be evil". One should also strive to do good... And so comes this title. Surmera connects together the two Hebrew words for move away from evil - distance yourself from evil - "Sur MeRa". Assetov connects the two Hebrew words for do good - "Asse Tov". #philosophy #reuven #surmeraassetov #סורמרעעשהטוב #life

...And then, I had a stroke of Genius! We're Guys! We drink (some more, some less - but we do). We're Guys! We don't mind dressing the same, we don't mind having all the same gift. We actually like it - Confidence in Numbers, right? So... I bought 8 "I love NYC" Whiskey Shot-Glasses. And as I was handing it out the Guys, I said - "whenever you travel, wherever you travel, you look for Whiskey Shot-Glasses - and you bring back 8...One for you - and one for the other guys". And today, we each have a very nice and varied collection. Below is the whiskey shot colletion, as of December 2014. #reuven #whiskeyshotscollection

Here I was, in New York City, walking the streets with my significant other, who was busily looking for gifts for her friends - the ladies of the couples (and we're 8 couples). Seems like the ladies have this unwritten agreement that whenever one of them travels, they buy token-gifts to all others. And then it hit me! Why shouldn't we guys start the same? But on the other hand, we're guys, right? We do guys things, and we don't have patience to think "what would Joe really want me to buy him? And would James want the same? Or be happy with it?" (To be continued...) #reuven #whiskeyshotscollection

So... I heard a podcast talking about repeating something a hundred times, and as a result getting sooo much better in doing it. Specifically, they talked about writing one hundred words, for 100 hundred days (or was it the other way round? or without trying to be funny, was it for less days?) - so I decided to try doing so. This will serve as an opportunity for me to try and hone my writing skills, and maybe - one day - eventually, write - and not only as part of my work? I can also take this as a chance to experiment with blogging, something I need to do for work. #philosophy #reuven #life

חלק ראשון חלק שני חלק שלישי ואחרון (המשך מיום ראשון, ומיום שני - יום הזיכרון לחללי צה״ל) ** עוד יש לומר את הברור מאליו - אין בהגדרה זו לטעון שלא-ציוני == לא-ערכי. יש בציבור החרדי מלא ערכים שלוואי ואלמד מהם - גמילות חסדים, עזרה הדדית, צניעות, מידות, יראת שמיים, כבוד תורה, אהבת תורה, כבוד תלמידי-חכמים, מסירות נפש - אבל לדעתי אסור לכל אילו לבוא על-חשבון - או במקום - הערכים הציוניים הבסיסיים... ואם אמשיך ואשתמש בהגדרה ״חרדי״==״לא-ציוני״==״לא רואה ערך בצה״ל ולא רואה נס הראוי להודיה במדינת ישראל״==״לא אומר תפילה לשלום חיילי צה״ל ולשלום המדינה״ - הרי שהישיבה אליה נחשפתי אתמול אינה ״ ישיבת ההסדר החרדית הראשונה ״ כי אם ״ ישיבת ההסדר הראשונה הפונה אל הציבור המגדיר עצמו חרדי ״. ולוואי ונלמד ללמוד זה מזה, ושתהיה בנו התבונה להעריך זה את זה, ולהפנים את הטוב שבאחר, בכדי להגיע מתוך אחדות לשלם שגדול מסך כל חלקיו. חלק ראשון חלק שני חלק שלישי ואחרון