Hope everyone (all 7 of you) enjoys the new blog theme. It was designed by Marc, the most talented web designer I have ever had the pleasure of working with. Here’s his explanation of the design. Any differences between his design and my actual blog are all my fault, obviously.

If you can’t drive, don’t buy a Ferrari!

So, tonight I had an al pastor burrito from Como Esta. Como Esta is a burrito place by the Walgreens in mid-town Palo Alto. It’s never struck me as the cleanest burrito place, but the burritos are really good. I usually get the carnitas burrito, but I got there close to closing time and they were all out.

The only annoying thing about Como Esta is that you tend to run into spoiled, whiny residents of Palo Alto while you are there. For example, tonight there was a woman who requested that the overhead fans be turned off (because it was cold), that the non-existent A/C be turned off (she was still cold), that she get a salt shaker to put extra salt on her chips, and about a hundred other annoying demands. In general, though, the burritos are worth running the risk.

This is one of my favorites sayings, because it reminds me that however careful you are at hiring, you are going to make mistakes. Hiring is definitely the hardest thing you have to do as a manager. People try to deal with the difficulty by using grueling interview processes, and requiring unanimity before hiring anyone. In my opinion, too elaborate an interview process is counterproductive, because it tends to just reinforce prejudices. That leaves you with too homogeneous a team in approach and outlook. Take chances on people with different backgrounds, and the diversity of your team will make it stronger. But, you will still screw it up.

If you are ever inclined to ignore government corruption, just think about these poor parents in China. Their children were killed in shoddily constructed schools during the recent earthquake, and they have no chance of getting any justice.

If you are interested in personalization, then another great blog is Geeking with Greg. This blog is by Greg Linden, who did a lot of the personalization work at Amazon. Later, he founded Findory, a personalized news service. The only complaint I could possibly make about this blog is that he doesn’t post enough.

For dinner I had half of a veggie burrito from the taco truck. It was extremely spicy, and damn good.

According to my sources, they also have tripe burritos

If you really want to understand this year’s election, read this piece in the London Review of Books by David Runciman. As Runciman points out, the election has essentially broken down by demographics. This is no surprise, because that is how politics always works. The number of people who vote on reason is amazingly small. Moreover, everyone is suspicious of the few people who do so, because they appear to have no group loyalty. I’d get depressed, but there’s no point.

According to Feedburner, there are now eight people subscribed to this blog’s RSS feed.

UPDATE: Dissing your RSS readers, doesn’t pay. Now, I am down to five.

UPDATE: Apparently, it does pay to diss your RSS readers, I’m back up to ten.

I ate a Chipotle barbacoa burrito for lunch. It wasn’t that good. Way too salty (as were the accompanying chips). Moreover, they are incapable of wrapping a burrito.

I have had Chipotle burritos several times before, and they all fall apart and leak. Plus, they gave me lettuce after I said no lettuce. If I wasn’t such a burrito addict, I would never eat one again. But, you know I will.