Jesse Meijers

Getting Real – The smarter, faster, easier way to build a successful web application

A friend of mine recently recommended this book to me. The book discusses the down to earth methods that the people at 37signals used to build their massively popular web applications, used by hundres of thousands of users world wide. With only three people!

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How to perceive with your Mind’s Eye

"Wealth can only be perceived with the mind's eye" is a quote I read in a book recently. This is very true, it takes visualization to perceive a situation as an opportunity. This doesn't only apply to wealth, it actually applies to all opportunities. In order to create something, it first has to be perceived with the mind's eye (i.e. visualized). So how does one perceive with the mind's eye then?

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Test your thinking

Having a high IQ doesn't necessarily mean you're smart. Nothing new here, I mean, we have all witnessed George W. Bush and his blunders. A funny fact: Bush himself says that his thinking can hardly be described as rational. But this man has a high IQ; around 120. So what is the deal with being smart? Think of being smart as a flash light. The intensity of the beam is your IQ. But of course where you point it matters as much as the intensity of the beam...

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Everyone can be wealthy

Last week I had a discussion with two of my friends about being rich. They shared the opinion that it is impossible for everyone to be rich. But in my world, as I have experienced and see things, everyone can be wealthy. Distributing wealth is not competitive. There is enough wealth for the entire population of the world, and then ten times that. People just refuse to see how the world really works.

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Biggest entrepreneurial opportunity of the century

Fossil fuels are going to become increasingly expensive as less crude oil is easily available. Extracting crude oil will become ever more expensive, which ultimately means there has to be an alternative to using fossil fuels and oil. One of the big factors in the equation is of course our use of fossil fuels to power cars. Millions and soon billions of people are driving their cars to work every day. And we all agree that a new fuel must be found. Does this smell like the biggest entrepreneurial opportunity ever?

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Using your knowledge creatively

I felt like a caveman last week. A friend of mine, let's call him Jack (because well, that's his name), introduced me to this great website called Ted.com. I can't believe I have never seen that before, because they host some very interesting material. There was a specific video in particular, which caught my attention. It is a presentation by Robert Full, who talks about what he calls biomutualism. Knowledge mutualism is the blending together of two fields of science, in this case Biology and Robotics, hence the term Biomutulism. But you can use knowledge mutualism too, on a personal scale.

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Be more creative in 4 easy steps

Back in the days when Walt Disney started to make animated cartoons, there were a lot hurdles to overcome. Each animated second was made up of 24 hand-drawn images. Each image takes a long time to draw, which makes drawing a minute of animation into a multi-day project. If he wanted to change even the slightest thing, chances were he had to redo all the drawings. One day a reporter asked Disney how he managed to make so many good animations while the process took so much time. Disney explained to him that he used a simple 4 step process before he would even let his pencil touch the paper. This process is where Disney's creativity started and would take form.

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How to become the ultimate entrepreneur

Entrepreneurs are confronted with many different aspects of doing business. It is said that the ultimate entrepreneur has a mix of different personality traits, and lacks none. Most of us are not born with this mix of personality traits, I know I wasn't. We have to work and learn through experience how to handle each situation. The main distinction between the different personality traits is decided by the fact whether you are dominantly working with the right or the left hemisphere of your brain. The right hemisphere is the side of the brain concerned with visualizing. The left hemisphere is concerned with logic and analysis. There are many tests to see which is your dominant hemisphere. A very simple one which can be done in a matter of minutes can be found on Similar Minds (http://similarminds.com/brain.html). Complete the test first, then read on. Or if you're really anxious ... read on and then do the test.

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The Art of Question Asking

We all live in our own world. Whether you like it or not, the world as you perceive it is formed by your own paradigms. Easier said, the way you see the world is determined by your past and current experiences. Or, as I like to call it, we all look at the world through our own pair of glasses.

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The Ballbarrow

Probably everyone has used a wheelbarrow in their lives. Operating a wheelbarrow is not always as easy as it sounds. Sure, if it's empty it is a breeze. But load 'er up with bricks and it becomes a completely different story. The wheelbarrow can tip over to either side due to the high center of gravity it has. Furthermore, when used on a construction site, don't put it on any wet concrete. It will stick to it. Then there's the problem of the wheelbarrow being made of metal. Most wheelbarrows therefore tend to rust. And rusted wheelbarrows are prone of breaking...

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