Thursday, September 09, 2004

BBC: "Osama Bin Laden's deputy claims US troops are in a no-win situation in Iraq and Afghanistan." 

Steve Gillmor: "Jim Allchin, the toughest customer in the technology business, has just dropped in to Blog Central to fill developers in on the latest exciting news about the disemboweling of Bill Gates' 10-year dream for unification of the file and operating systems." 

Scoble does the math of the bandwidth cost of RSS. My experience has been similar to Microsoft's. In the last few months I've been paying steadily increasing bandwidth surcharges due to exploding use of my RSS feed. HTML access is also increasing at substantial rates. 

Korby Parnell: Redmond to Consider Providing Citywide Wi-Fi. 

Engadget: Song Airlines’ Linux-based distributed media system. 

I'm listening to the American RadioWorks special Witnesses to Terror which is fascinating.  

NY Times: "It seems safe to say that even if Mr Cheney did not mean to say it the way he did, this was precisely the message he intended to convey." 

Bill Clinton's heart 

On the news, they're saying Bill Clinton will be fully recovered in two-three months. Not true. My doctors told me that full recovery would actually never come, that you never get as good as new, but that's okay, because the bypass surgery saved my life, as it saved his.

The rule my doctors told me, which proved to be right in my case, is that after one month you're halfway back, then after two months, three-quarters, and so on. Every month you split the distance to the goal. A year after the surgery you're functioning pretty well, in fact probably better than you were before the surgery, because your heart wasn't working very well beforehand.

Another thing that seems to be true for all bypass survivors is that they put off seeing the heart doctor long after they know they have a problem. I explained this to a friend this way. Up to that point in your life you had worked through every physical problem through exercise, diet and rest, and it worked; esp muscle ills (the heart is a muscle). But this is the first time for many people (it was for me, and probably for Clinton too) that you couldn't exercise your way back to health. I think a lot of people die because of ths mistake. If you feel chest pain, go to the doctor, asap. It used to be a death sentence, a couple of generations ago, but now, it's a pretty normal procedure to fix the clogged coronary arteries.

That Clinton was striken with this, of course is not good news for him, but it is good news for everyone else (and maybe it will be good for him too). I didn't know that Henry Kissinger had bypass 20 years ago, as did Dick Cheney. They're still walking around. Now what my cardiologist said makes more sense. He said I should think of my lifespan in decades, not years. I didn't really believe it, but now I do. Knock wood, praise Murphy, I am not a lawyer, etc.

Anyway, getting a good look at your mortality, up close and personal, can make for great transformations. I was able to visualize my own death so clearly, I decided to accept it, and act as if I had died. I did what my heirs would have done with my belongings, I filled four dumpsters and sold the house, but I kept the money. I went to Harvard, a great move, and then after 1.5 years, went on the road. No regrets.

One thing you learn after visualizing your own death, is that if people cared a bit about what you think while you're alive, you can be absolutely sure they won't care what you thought (past tense) after you're dead. So why bother caring what you think while you're alive. So much time is wasted trying to prove you're right. You're not right, neither am I.

On my travels I met a couple struggling in their marriage. They told me their story. It was pretty personal. Afterwards, processing the conversation, I realized one thing. How much happier they would be if they stopped caring about being right. Having a lover who wants to be with you can be a totally joyous thing, but people make it so complicated. Do yourself a favor, write off the idea of being right, and just seek pleasure and helping other people, esp the person you love, and by all means help yourself. You may have decades, but they'll pass pretty quickly, might as well have some fun?

Now back to Bill Clinton. Having bypass unlocked all this energy for me, and look what I've done with the new chance I got. Now imagine the power that Bill Clinton has, one of a handfull of living ex-presidents, a rich man, with nothing but possibilities. He could really make a difference. I remember hearing him speak at Davos in 2000, he was an inspiration. Find a shared vision, he said. Indeed. A man of Clinton's power, freed of any idea that what he thinks means anything, could really make a difference, and I think he will. But give him a year to work through all the michegas, emotional and physical, before he's ready to resume his place in the world, fully.