Zoroastrianism | Definition, Beliefs, Founder, Nature and significance The ancient Greeks saw in Zoroastrianism the archetype of the dualistic view of the world and of human destiny. Zarathustra was supposed to have instructed Pythagoras in Babylon and to have inspired the Chaldean doctrines of astrology and magic. Though Zoroastrianism was never, even in the thinking of its founder, as insistently monotheistic as, for instance, Judaism or Islam, it does represent an original attempt at unifying under the worship of one supreme god a polytheistic religion comparable to those of the ancient Greeks, Latins, Indians, and other early peoples. History Pre-Zoroastrian Iranian religion The religion of Iran before the time of Zarathustra is not directly accessible, for there are no reliable sources more ancient than those composed by or attributed to the prophet himself. The reformation of Zarathustra It has not yet been possible to place Zarathustra’s hymns, the Gāthās, in their historical context. The Arsacid period The Sāsānian period Sources
Post Mortem on a Failed Product Just over two years ago, at the beginning of 2008, we set out to build a web content management system with community functionality infused throughout — eCrowds. The idea was that companies would need a solution for facilitating product communities with the following functionality: Content managementForumsBlogsIdea exchangesWikis We were solving the traditional challenges brought on by disparate silos of data with separate user authentication systems and inconsistent interfaces/template designs. 2008 was spent building the product and we launched it for our own internal customer success communities after nine months of development. It was a failure. Here are some of our lessons learned: We spent way to much time building it for ourselves and not getting feedback from prospects — it’s easy to get tunnel vision. What else? Like this: Like Loading...
Aprende a crear tu empresa con Lean Startup La premisa básica de lean startup de Eric Ries es la de que una startup no es una empresa sino una organización temporal cuyo objetivo es encontrar un modelo de negocio viable y escalable mediante una serie de experimentos que sirven para aprender, y todo esto rodeado de una gran incertidumbre. Esta metodología perfeccionada por Eric Ries durante años y recogida en su libro El método Lean Startup, nace de la nueva realidad y las nuevas necesidades de las nuevas empresas en los últimos años. No obstante su origen se viene forjando hace ya bastante años gracias a otras figuras como Steve Blank y su libro The Four Steps to the Epiphany en el que definía la metodología Customer Development, con ideas similares a las de Ries. El método Lean Startup es compatible tanto con el Lean Canvas como el Business Model Canvas, dos fantásticas herramientas para diseñar modelos de negocio. Primera clave de Lean Startup: Ciclo de desarrollo vs ciclo de aprendizaje (construir-medir-aprender)
Project Initiation Documents - Project Management Tools from MindTools Getting Your Project Off to a Great Start © iStockphoto/kzenon Have you ever been part of a project where not everyone has the same view of where the project is heading? This lack of clarity can breed confusion: People start pulling in different directions, building up unrealistic expectations, and harboring unnecessary worries and fears. While it's normal as part of a project to put the detailed plans, controls and reporting mechanisms into place, how do you get everyone on the same page to start with? This is accomplished by creating a Project Initiation Document (PID) – the top-level project planning document. Your Project Initiation Document does the following: Defines your project and its scope.Justifies your project.Secures funding for the project, if necessary.Defines the roles and responsibilities of project participants.Gives people the information they need to be productive and effective right from the start. By creating a PID, you'll answer the questions: What? Tip: Note: Background
Military Style Civilian Boot Camp Training NORTHERN FIREARMS TRAININGCivilian Military Style Training (scroll down to view all information and see camp photos) WE ADDED NEW SPOTS. 2018 Camp registrations are now closed!We do 1 camp a month starting in May till November (7 camps)Pick your Camp date and register today. Class Dates Below Boot Camp Basic Training Have you ever wondered what it would be like to attend a Military Boot Camp? The Tactical Team we have assembled at Northern Firearms Training, with all their combined Experience, Training & Leadership Skills over all facets of advanced military and Law Enforcement instruction and training, ensure the proper Knowledge, Skills and Attitude necessary to make your training experience as real and life like as permitted in the allotted time. Our Advanced series of Tactical Classes are not basic firearms courses but are designed for the experienced shooter in good health. BOOT CAMPBOOT CAMP is open to citizens of all nations. ***Hell Night is part of the Course and begins on Sunday.
Three Rivers Institute » Blog Archive » Approaching a Minimum Viable Product The purpose of the MVP is to answer your most pressing question or validate your most pressing business assumption. Work backwards from question, not forwards from a feature list. For Tattlebird, my most critical assumption was that stuff was happening in browsers that site developers would care about. Your networking platform must have a twist, something no other professional networking platform currently does. Let’s say the twist is location–you have the professional network that shows where people are in real time (hey, not a bad idea!) That’s how I practice MVP, in any case. Eric Ries [update] is the latest product developer to promote “Minimum Viable Product” to describe a product created to elicit feedback. The purpose of the MVP is to answer your most pressing question, to validate your most pressing business assumption. For Tattlebird [my new product], my first critical assumption was that stuff was happening in browsers that site developers would care about. Conclusion
Why the Lean Start-Up Changes Everything Launching a new enterprise—whether it’s a tech start-up, a small business, or an initiative within a large corporation—has always been a hit-or-miss proposition. According to the decades-old formula, you write a business plan, pitch it to investors, assemble a team, introduce a product, and start selling as hard as you can. And somewhere in this sequence of events, you’ll probably suffer a fatal setback. The odds are not with you: As new research by Harvard Business School’s Shikhar Ghosh shows, 75% of all start-ups fail. But recently an important countervailing force has emerged, one that can make the process of starting a company less risky. It’s a methodology called the “lean start-up,” and it favors experimentation over elaborate planning, customer feedback over intuition, and iterative design over traditional “big design up front” development. The lean start-up movement hasn’t gone totally mainstream, however, and we have yet to feel its full impact. 1. 2. 3. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Organization Design - Project Management Tools from MindTools Aligning Organizational Structure With Business Goals Does your organization's design actually work? © iStockphoto/vm Is your organization well-designed? And how do you know? What does a well-designed organization look like, and how does it feel to work there? These are the types of questions we will explore in looking at organization design. Many people equate organization design with an organization's structure: The words "lean" and "flat" are used to describe organization design as well as it's structure. Good organizational design helps communications, productivity, and innovation. Many productivity and performance issues can be traced back to poor organization design. Take the example of a company whose sales department and production department both work well as separate units. How work is done, business processes, information sharing and how people are incentivized; all of these directly affects how well the organization performs. Types of Organization Structure
Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator – RyanHoliday.net The cult classic that predicted the rise of fake news—revised and updated for the post-Trump, post-Gawker age. Hailed as “astonishing and disturbing” by the Financial Times and “essential reading” by TechCrunch at its original publication, former American Apparel marketing director Ryan Holiday’s first book sounded a prescient alarm about the dangers of fake news. It’s all the more relevant today. Trust Me, I’m Lying was the first book to blow the lid off the speed and force at which rumors travel online—and get “traded up” the media ecosystem until they become real headlines and generate real responses in the real world. Whenever you see a malicious online rumor costs a company millions, politically motivated fake news driving elections, a product or celebrity zooming from total obscurity to viral sensation, or anonymously sourced articles becoming national conversation, someone is behind it. Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound | 800-CEO-READ
Ten Rules for Web Startups #1: Be NarrowFocus on the smallest possible problem you could solve that would potentially be useful. Most companies start out trying to do too many things, which makes life difficult and turns you into a me-too. Focusing on a small niche has so many advantages: With much less work, you can be the best at what you do. Small things, like a microscopic world, almost always turn out to be bigger than you think when you zoom in. #2: Be DifferentIdeas are in the air. #3: Be CasualWe're moving into what I call the era of the "Casual Web" (and casual content creation). #4: Be PickyAnother perennial business rule, and it applies to everything you do: features, employees, investors, partners, press opportunities. #5: Be User-CentricUser experience is everything. #6: Be Self-CenteredGreat products almost always come from someone scratching their own itch. #7: Be GreedyIt's always good to have options. #11 (bonus!)
La metodología Lean StartUp - Innokabi Hasta ahora, el 90% de los proyectos empresariales fracasaban y del 10% que sobrevivían, al menos el 66% lanzaban al mercado un producto o servicio que nada tenía que ver con el original. En la manera tradicional, los proyectos se concebían en la oficina, se hacía un plan de negocios, se pedía financiación y se lanzaba el producto al mercado. La metodología Lean StartUp rediseña el proceso haciéndolo mucho más eficiente, y reduciendo el riesgo asociado al lanzamiento de cualquier proyecto innovador. ¿Te imaginas ese porcentaje de fracaso con la manera tradicional de emprender, en cualquier otra faceta de la vida? Imagina que el 90% de los estudiantes fracasan, el 90% de los envíos postales no llegan a su destino, el 90% de los ordenadores se estropean a los 3 años… con esos porcentajes de fracaso el mundo sería un caos… La metodología Lean StartUp es un concepto acuñado por Eric Ries, aunque proviene de Japón de las teorías de Lean Manufacturing de Toyota. Yo lo tengo claro,… ¿y tú?
Project Dashboards - Project Management Tools from MindTools Quickly Communicating Project Progress © iStockphoto/jgroup In today's busy organizations, project and program managers need to know exactly how the projects they're responsible for are doing. But they also rarely have the time to read through detailed status reports covering all aspects of the project. Perhaps Project A is on time and on budget, but is it going to deliver all of the functionality that your sponsor needs? Or maybe engineers have been working overtime to ensure that every last bug has been ironed out. From this "time versus information" dilemma grew the concept of the Project Dashboard. With a Project Dashboard you no longer have to wade through 3 different reports to determine whether the production department received the widgets it needed, and got permission to hire its new employees. With the overall simplicity of a dashboard, you need to remember that dashboards are not, in and of themselves, a panacea. Tip 1: Tip 2: If you're a client, beware false positives.
OwlSpark | Rice University Startup Accelerator | Apply Preparing for the Application Process The application is divided into three sections: (1) the technology, (2) the startup team, and (3) the founder(s). You should be prepared to provide detailed, concise answers to questions surrounding each of these topics. Explain your technology or business idea in a simple, specific statement. Stick to the basics when drafting your answer—marketing lingo can lend excitement to your technology or business idea, but is essentially ineffective in conveying the necessary information. Demonstrate each founder’s relevant, but diverse, skill set, attributes, and contribution to the team. While entrepreneurial experience is helpful, it is neither critical nor required. Conduct and apply your research: think outside the box. Who is your customer or end user?