the most mundane details of my day

i realized that in my previous grandiose blog posts, i’ve failed to mention the everyday, mundane activities that take up most hours of my day. so here are the details that i’ve glazed over, and the things i’ll probably remember/miss the most.

waking up isn’t so much a chore as it is for my roommate. having freshened up, i hang a left out of the apartment, another left down levinski, a right onto har tsiyon to wait for the 51 Dan bus. there’s a corner store whose awning provides some shade to wait under. long gone are the days when mom & pop would wait at the bus stop with me; usually a few old men keep me company, sitting and drinking red tuborg, breathing slowly through a cigarette. i’m indifferent towards their presence.

my morning activities at the office consist of checking Assistly–the helpdesk software chosen to streamline and make our customer service process as efficient and manageable as possible. after responding to a somewhat large volume of confused customers, it’s usually about lunchtime. someone taps me on the shoulder, asks where we should go. my response is always hummus, though my stomach usually is saying no.

yotam is the person at onavo i converse with most frequently. i think this has something to do with our shared affinity for culture. whether he’s dropboxing me BBC documentaries, or i’m sending him a DM with an article, our interest in music, food, various intersections, design, brings us together.

after lunch, it’s always a cup of joe. at first i made quite a few cappuccinos, but lately i’ve switched to espresso only. with caffeine in hand, work resumes. dvir usually has some random task that supplements any support related issues–testing data use on different twitter clients or photo-sharing apps, aggregating all the operator-related issues, etc.. at about 6:30 or whenever dvir leaves, i put my headphones in (not the big Grado’s that friends from home are used to seeing, they broke finally broke–sad) and head for the bus stop.

sometimes the evening activities include exercise, with a run to the sea, or soccer in the field just south of our apartment. the former is independent, relaxing, and the latter is communal, exciting. a run is made beautiful by watching the sunset on the mediterranean, and a soccer match is made fun by playing with refugees from Africa. both activities have their merits.

and then the night begins, of which little needs to be said.

what about the devs?

last night, was chatting with evan millman’s (another TAMID fellow) roommate, Jeremy. Jeremy is an engineering student Bradley University in Illinois.

was giving him the TAMID pitch (almost second-nature by now, always with some of my own ‘salt seasonings’ thrown in for good measure). out of curiosity more than anything, i asked him if the program sounded like one he would want to start at Bradley or even just be a part of. given the way i had presented TAMID and his assumptions about our groups makeup (largely biz minded students), his response was a fair one—Jeremy expressed interest, but he’s an engineer. this begs the question of TAMID, what kind of space are we making for technically inclined students to connect with Israel?

it struck me, i work at a startup tech company where the developers (using the term loosely to describe computer programmers and engineers, web, mobile and cloud tech experts) outnumber the business roles. and this is largely the norm at startups across not just israel, but any major tech/startup scene.

TAMID is an organization not just led by and for business students–the vision for TAMID (as Mr. Zac Berlin eloquently stated) is to build an infrastructure for students of ALL academic backgrounds to connect to the Israeli economy. one example of achieving this vision is to recruit bright students with a passion for programming. the way Israeli’s structure and work within their dev teams is certainly different than how things work in Valley or NYC. if a young CS student could come work with devs in Israel, the variety of perspective (s)he would bring to the table would be invaluable anywhere.

i suppose business students aren’t the only ones who can learn a thing or two from the Startup Nation.

goals

i was at lunch today (eating a splendid salad topped with tuna, cucumbers, tomatoes, and tahini), and had the pleasure of sitting across from Nadav Wizemann–we call him ‘Wiz’ for short.  following a conversation about each of our respective romantic relationships (or lack thereof, in my case), Wiz asked me if i had any goals. i asked him if he meant for my next month here at Onavo, and he replied, “i mean over, like, the next decade”.

an interesting question. for someone who thinks about their future and what to do with the rest of his life, you might think i have several concrete goals written down in a specific journal with tangible action plans to achieve them over the next 15 years. of those things, i have several journals, many ideas, but few things written down i would stretch to call ‘goals’.

it’s not that there’s a lack of motivation or drive. on the contrary, i’m a very results driven, goal oriented person. but when it comes to long term goals, i’ve never quite come up with any that stick or actually motivate. the things i’m driven by in the long term are largely ideas and ideals, difficult to capture on paper or by some action plan. and therein lies the tension that characterizes this stage of my life—my struggle between being a goal-oriented person without a determined way to express it as it relates to my career and passions.

–

i told Wiz two things, as tangible as i could come up with on the spot:

1. move to nyc

2. start my own company, because i love the idea of forming my own culture

if he were to ask me again at lunch tomorrow, my answer would probably change. but the trick is, learning to be okay with that. i’m in the incredible land of Israel, working with bright and genuine people, supported by and on behalf of TAMID, learning more and more about myself everyday. the goals, i’m convinced, will come.

diving in

(Disclaimer: the nature of this blog is almost like a diary, which makes me more than slightly uncomfortable.)

arrival. Zac Berlin and i have been in tel aviv for a few days, the first of the 2011 TAMID fellows, beginning to hit our stride in the work places. before jumping into the incredible experience that’s been working at a fast-paced, just-launched startup like Onavo, a brief aside:

the other day was Israeli Independence Day–quite an experience, a day filled with national pride. following a wild night on rooftops and in the streets of Florentin, Zac and i found ourselves at an Aardvark Israel barbeque (Aardvark is a gap-year Israel immersion program, in its inaugural year). on a rooftop apartment in Florentin that overlooks west and south tel aviv, we had our first and rather surprising conversation about business in Israel with Keith, the founder of Aardvark. While his views certainly aren’t held by all Israeli’s, it was interesting to hear his perspective on Israel’s economic landscape and how it ought to evolve. From Target opening superstores in Tel Aviv, to improving service industries, to opening the power and control at the highest ranks of Israeli business, the conversation moved along with an air of intrigue that left me wanting more.

fortunate to be living here for two months. As my time here progresses, my hope is to forge and foster a clearer vision for what the TAMID fellowship can look like in the future. It’s an interesting position to be in, seeing as the fellowship is just two years young. We have an incredible opportunity, I do believe. Will try to come up for air every once in awhile to get a better picture.

on to Onavo.

the startup and work environment here at Onavo is incredible. couldn’t have asked to come at a more opportune/busy period. Onavo launched the alpha version of their iPhone application just under two weeks ago, and has since exploded–TechCrunch, Wired, Gizmodo, Scoble all with coverage. But these guys (did i mention there are only 8 of them?) truly live the idea to never buy into your own hype.

the problem, or ‘pain’, founders Guy Rosen and Roi Tiger initially set out to solve were the insanely high international data roaming charges ($19.99/MB –> downloading a photo? that’ll be $40). In a nutshell, Onavo developed numerous ‘shrinking’ techniques to reduce the size of data downloaded. Specifically, the application ingeniously makes use of the Profile function on an iPhone and routes all of a user’s downloaded HTTP traffic through a proxy (Amazon Web Servers, hosted in the US). This way, they can compress/optimize the data being sent to your phone, while providing valuable insights into your usage (ie which apps you use the most, how much you saved, etc.). it’s free for a limited time in the App Store (coming to Android soon, will save that discussion for later), certainly a no-brainer if you’re traveling; it flat out saves you money, doubling and even tripling a data plan.

while i’ve been in the office all of three days, the vision and mission of Onavo is taking over a lot of my ‘headspace’. the scope of what these guys are doing is much wider than i could picture from my side of the Atlantic. Onavo is certainly a disruptive technology, and maybe even revolutionary for mobile users to manage and control their data usage. i have my own views about the way things could go, but again, they are just three days young. we’ll see where things go and where my contribution is made..

to close out every work week, the team set’s aside time for Kabbalat Shabbat–bringing in the shabbat, but with a twist:

L’chaim, team.

the shuk

in hebrew, the ‘shuk’ is an outdoor marketplace. the idea of wandering through stalls, bartering a few shekels here or there for a good deal on a few pieces of fruit, and observing day-to-day israeli life is incredible romantic and attractive to me.

nestled in the neve tsedek neighborhood apparently lies the open-air market where i’ll do much of my grocery shopping for the next two months. when nate gilson informed the TAMID 2011 fellows that we would be living in the lively, young Florentin neighborhood, my excitement was certainly peaked.

the shuk represents to me a common ground, an environment where people arrive and collide to meet basic yet beautiful needs we all have. when i arrive in Tel Aviv, this will certainly be one of my first destinations (that is, if i can find my way there).