Lucas Rocha: How I enjoy music

Abstract #2

Yes, I’m an avid music fan. I’ve learnt to love music since I was a little kid seeing my Dad playing Brazilian music (Forró, Chorinho, Samba, Bossa, Jovem Guarda, and others) every week in a bar/restaurant in our neighbourhood in Salvador. Since then, I’ve been the singer of a garage rock band called Precários (during my teenage years), percussionist and drummer in a few bands until 2006, and listened to a quite diverse range of genres. Here are some quick facts about my music habits which roughly describe how I enjoy music nowadays.

I listen to Jazz most of the time. Neo-soul, Acid Jazz, and Brazilian music comes next in my daily playlist – intertwined with the new stuff I end up finding on the way. I’m not really a mainstream guy and usually like more niche stuff. But I can enjoy some mainstream things too. A side note: it’s really nice to not be in the mainstream wagon because your favourite albums tend to be much cheaper (especially the old jazz stuff).

I rarely buy CDs. I only do it in specific cases. i.e. when I find a nice record shop (see below). I buy albums in digital format (MP3) most of the time.

I prefer to listen to the whole album first. I don’t like to buy specific tracks only. In my opinion, an album is a cohesive piece that is better enjoyed as whole. It tells a lot about the musical phase of the artists and their influences. Listening to a track alone is like hearing only one part of a longer story. There are exceptions of course.

I’m ok to pay for music. May sound silly to say that but this is not necessarily true for a lot of people these days :-P So, yes, if the price is not abusive and it’s music I’m interested in, I’m ok to pay for it.

I focus on quality, not quantity. This is actually one of the reasons I pay for the albums I really care about. It’s a way to slow down a bit and take my time to enjoy the stuff I have in more depth. I see people downloading a huge amount of albums from internet (e.g. the whole discography of artist A and B) just for the sake “having” them. They rarely listen to everything they download. After an album passes my initial gut test (i.e. sounds interesting, causes some reaction, etc), I listen to it several times to dissect it into the smallest details. I have a lot of fun doing it! For instance, this is what I did with my favourite version of So What and other tunes.

I discover new stuff through the web. Duh, who doesn’t? I’ve used mp3 stores (7digital, Amazon, Ubuntu Music Store, and others), subscription-based stores (eMusic), and streaming services (Last.fm and Spotify Premium). To find new stuff to listen to, I usually follow a process of researching, sampling, and acquisition. Nowadays I use a combination of related artists listings from Last.fm, Wikipedia articles, and reviews from specialised websites (such as AllAboutJazz) for the research part; and Spotify for continuous sampling. If I decide that I really like the album or artist, I eventually buy the MP3 albums from Amazon. Nothing new here I guess.

I love independent record shops. I haven’t found my favourite/official one in London yet. Suggestions are welcome. Back in my Finnish days, I found a really nice record shop in Helsinki, where I would go every other week. Local music shops are really nice to meet other music fans, get good suggestions for your next album, etc.

Now, let me get back to this cool Myron Walden album I just found out about.

Lucas Rocha: On BS-free business

Abstract #3

I just read two books covering indirectly related topics which complement each other. Those books together make a strong point about how businesses and our jobs should be. The first book is Dan Pink’s Drive – which led me to write a bit about the intrinsic motivations and the future of F/OSS communities by the way. The second is Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson.

Drive is spot-on in clarifying the big mismatch between what science knows and what business does with regards to motivation. Pink’s TED talk summarizes very well the point of his book. It’s impressive, and even scary, how so many businesses just don’t get that when you settle on a culture of if-then rewards, treat your employees like irresponsible children, micromanage people all the time, you’ll quickly kill their motivation. That’s what research has shown. We all want to do meaningful stuff, things that allow us to get increasingly better on what we do. When people who are passionate about their work are hired, companies should just let them do their thing without many distractions. It works, trust me.

Rework is a fucking awesome book. The authors are two guys from 37signals, the company that created the famous Ruby on Rails and other nice web apps. This book is call for more down to earth, hands-on, simple, small, smart, flexible, efficient, realistic businesses. The format couldn’t be different: it’s a set of short and straight-to-the-point essays divided into sections like Progress, Hiring, Promotion, Productivity, Evolution, etc. You’ll see things like “Meetings are toxic”, “Underdo your competition”, “Resumés are ridiculous”, “Build half a product, not a half-assed product”, “Press releases are spam”, “Fire the workaholics”, and many other awesome ideas in this book. It was great to see many of the things I have always thought about and expected from companies summarized in a book! Thankfully, this is mostly what I’ve been experiencing at litl so far.

Drive diagnoses the problem of motivation and Rework brings powerful ideas on how to actually do BS-free, hands-on, smart, and agile business.

Vicente Aguiar: Como "usar" o conteúdo nos posts do meu blog? Mais uma vez, Nerdson explica.

Já que me fizeram essa pergunta  -  "Como posso divulgar o conteúdo do seu blog?", aproveito a sabedoria artística do Nerdson para  responder de forma lúdica... só ressalto que a licença desse blog aqui, diferente do exemplo do Nerdson abaixo,  libera até para fins comerciais , mas citando a fonte da mesma forma - é claro.  ;-)

Vicente Aguiar: Pedagogia da Migração

Quais os desafios e dificuldades ligadas ao processo de migração para software livre de uma organização?

Para compreender com mais profundidade essa questão, o pedagogo Anderson Alencar elaborou uma pesquisa em 2007,  que durou mais de um ano sobre o assunto. Mais especificamente, ele elaborou essa pesquisa ao longo do processo de implantação  do sistema operacional GNU/Linux (para servidores e desktop) em toda a ONG do Instituto Paulo Freire, em São Paulo. 

De acordo com Alencar, a experiência de migração do Instituto foi organizada em cinco fases. Cada  uma  delas com um período   pré­determinando  e  com ações  previstas. Todo o planejamento da experiência de migração esteve sistematizado em um  documento que foi chamado de "Plano de Migração". Este plano previu todas as fases,  ações,   atividades,   encontros   que   viriam   a   acontecer   durante   o   período   de migração   para   software   livre, dividido em cinco fases:  

I. A primeira fase: sensibilização e construção democrática.

II. A segunda fase: aprendizagem e avaliação.

III. A terceira fase: ruptura.

IV. A quarta fase: migração.

V. A quinta fase: avaliação e festa.

O relato mais detalhado de toda essa experiẽncia pode ser baixado aqui. Contudo, o mais importante desse caso é que, a partir de uma concepção que vá além do treinamento técnico, esta proposta  implantou um processo pedagógico que respeitou o usuário, baseado no diálogo e na construção democrática.

Em outras palavras, o Alencar nos mostra que, mais do que um desafio tecnológico e computacional, o processo de migração para software livre é um desafio pedagógico e cultural. Dessa forma, a participação de profissionais da área de educação é tão (ou mais) importante quanto o pessoal diretamente ligado a área de TI.

Vale então dar uma lida na dissertação de mestrado que ele fez com base nessa experiência para entendermos melhor essas questões. ;-)