Hack Your Culture

But can you SQL Injection your own culture too?
Reply · 5 ·  · Yesterday at 1:41pm

Nick Renold · Design and Prototyping Shop Assistant at Northwestern University
Sure, just change your name: http://xkcd.com/327/
Reply · 1 ·  · Yesterday at 2:07pm

Ravi Sheth ·  Top Commenter · Garfield High School, Garfield, NJ
cortezandre22530287 omg thank you
Reply · 2 ·  · 21 hours ago

Ravi Sheth ·  Top Commenter · Garfield High School, Garfield, NJ
jk
Reply · 1 ·  · 21 hours ago
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John Grohol · Nova Southeastern University
Respectfully, boiling down much of human behavior to simple modeling is a Psychology 101 understanding of human behavior. Psychologists haven't written and conducted hundreds of thousands of studies over the past 6 decades just to come to the conclusion that your primary influence is who you hang out with.

Viruses, as far as I know, only have a negative connotation. So behavior is most definitely not like a virus. We're not all human chameleons just waiting to watch others in order to mimic and replicate their behavior and activities.

It's great that someone found inspiration and motivation from their co-workers. That's an uplifting story. So stick to the story and leave the pop psychology at home, because it really doesn't help make your point any better (in fact, it detracts from it).
Reply · 2 ·  · 9 hours ago

Francesco Bertelli ·  Top Commenter · Associate Design Director at HUGE Inc.
you summarize in a beter english and better knowledge what i meant in my first comment, thanks.
Reply · 1 ·  · 5 hours ago

Hina Naz
Absolutely agree with Justin Kan and totally spirited to share my ideology to grab something from opportunity.. Specially during these days when recession intricating our lives... :-)) Good one..
Reply · 2 ·  · Yesterday at 2:19pm
skinnerhazel47244032 (signed in using Yahoo)
my best friend's mom makes $77 an hour on the computer. She has been out of job for 9 months but last month her check was $7487 just working on the computer for a few hours. Read about it here CashLazy.com
Reply ·  · 11 hours ago

Daniel Lucraft · London, United Kingdom
Your second paragraph needs some evidence. The causality could easily go the other way: if you are lean you are more likely to make friends with other lean people. Got anything to back up your version?
Reply ·  · 8 hours ago

Francesco Bertelli ·  Top Commenter · Associate Design Director at HUGE Inc.
I'm having hard time to understand the point of this article. Sounds just and agglomerate of some personal contingent experience seasoned with some naive assumptions ("if you stay with cripples you became a cripple" my grandma used to say).
Reply ·  · Yesterday at 1:21pm

Anthony Bullard · CEO and Co-Founder at Gamebox LLC
What an extremely unfriendly and frankly value-less comment to make. This young man is a successful entrepreneur and was imparting to readers of this site - many of whom are interested in start-ups obviously - a successful strategy to find success.

The heart of the advice may be well-known, but having it validated in story form by a man who has done it and lived it is valuable to many people. Apparently not to those at NYT. Justin is not a professional writer - neither am I - but he did communicate valuable insight.

Thanks to Justin for this article. Some of us who are out actually building companies that will hopefully bring lasting value to the economy sometimes need stories and anecdotes like this to keep our eyes fixed on the goal at hand.
Reply · 12 ·  · Yesterday at 2:04pm

Darren Higgins · UWE
Antony, I believe you are missing Francesco's point. Correlation and causation are two different things.

The point is, the article doesn't flow; Justin confuses causal links and it causes the article to be less evidence based than it should be; it just doesn't read well. In fact I came here (from my rss reader) to comment about the mistake about causal links, and really it was a struggle to read the rest of the article due to this misunderstanding. n.b. the article explicitly states correlation.

Also the author is not infallible just because he is successful (correlation and causation) - read black swans and fooled by randomness.

Finally, Justin, thanks for the article. Though it was lacking in some areas, the point still stands. Any thoughts on how a society can be hacked in such a way? If you are your surroundings then if the masses are lazy, does that mean you will be; is there a level of concentration, why do some people make it against the odds?
Reply · 3 ·  · Yesterday at 3:12pm

Josh McWealth
I think this article has a far more positive conotation than your understanding of it as examplified by your grandma's sayings ("if you stay with cripples you became a cripple"). The author here is simply saying that your association today can be a reflection of what you become in the future as a result of your exposure to the ideologies and philosophies of the people you hang around that could affect your day to day life, and in turn, your future.
Regardless of the seemingly less than perfect flow of the article, the writer's point is quite simple and clear - greatness is fostered amongst a like-minded association base. Justin's core point is that aligning one's self with a group of others pursuing a similar goal creates a mastermind aliance that supports and strengthens every member of the group as they pursue success.
Reply ·  · 16 hours ago
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Max Win · Davidson College
Very inspiring post. It reminds me of what my college professor used to say "Always try to stay with those who are smarter than you." Even though the idea is not new, it's great to be reminded again by someone like Justin.
Reply ·  · 19 hours ago

Wcs Workgroup · Computer Services at Workgroup Computer Solutions
I like this post. It also tells us that the "smarter people" dont really necessary to have better career than you. As long as can make a good team.
Reply ·  · 9 minutes ago

Farmer King Farmer King · Lahore, Pakistan
Don't you think its good.
Chk this for the more info.

http://techipk.blogspot.com/

regards
Reply ·  · 12 hours ago

Chris Broadway Romero ·  Top Commenter · Fort Washington, Maryland
inspirational as always Justin Kan! on another note, I love how facebook tags make it sound like we're all in class or at the DMV.
Reply ·  · 21 hours ago

Chensong Chen · The University of Hong Kong
I think it is not limited to "people", but also books, blogs, choice of words, tv shows that we read and watch every day.
Reply ·  · 15 hours ago

Achin Sharma ·  Top Commenter · Founder at Achshar
its posts like these, I believe, that are inspirig the next steve jobs somewhere in the world.
Reply ·  · 20 hours ago

Hongbo Zhang ·  Top Commenter · Virginia Tech
I simply agree, doing whatever you are best at is smart for those who want to start a business.
Reply ·  · Yesterday at 1:54pm

Devlin Dunsmore ·  Top Commenter · Calgary, Alberta
Really great observations and a very interesting story to boot.
Reply ·  · 20 hours ago

Ayaz Muhammed ·  Top Commenter · Priyadarshini Institute of Engineering and Technology
Maz Woolf I Was About to Say That!
Ok I'll Say It Can We Sql Inject Our Lives!
Reply ·  · 12 hours ago

Steven Jones ·  Top Commenter
Now you take my friends... please. I'm thinking my future depends on it.
Reply ·  · Yesterday at 2:20pm

Dan Goikhman · Founder / Biz Dev at Mojiva
Excellent piece Justin, fully agreed!
Reply ·  · Yesterday at 1:21pm
t_manifest (signed in using Yahoo)
Explains the goofy hats kids wear these days.
Reply ·  · Yesterday at 4:38pm

Mohit Agrawal · University of Florida
You just gave me one more reason to move to valley!
Reply ·  · 22 hours ago

Ngan Nguyen · Tutor at Edmonds Community College
he means If u wan something, go and get it.
Reply ·  · 21 hours ago

David Beyer · Brown
good points Justin!
Reply ·  · 21 hours ago

Jual Kaligrafi · Administrator at Jual Kaligrafi Online
interenting.....
i will try to hack my culture..