Disqus - Latest Comments for shehab

Re: Some Initial Thoughts On iPhone6 and iOS8

shehab — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 23:51:01 -0000

sunrise is great, also https://www.acompli.com/ for email + calendar

Re: MongoDB: The Definitive Guide Giveaway - Mike Dirolf

shehab — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 02:47:23 -0000

Shehab
Ruby's in Nolita

Re: Mark Zuckerberg as Bill Gates

shehab — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 19:04:54 -0000

Very assured performance by Zuckerberg. (His talks at Stanford posted on Bryce's blog show that he always had it in him, nice to see that coming through on the big stage now).

One big difference with Google is that Schmidt has a real vision (commodotize data and throw big algorithms and data centers at it to provide and capture value) and though it may be less easily encapsulated than 'a pc on every desk' he continues to execute on it.

Re: Comparing “The Social Network” and “The Facebook Effect”

shehab — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 01:44:53 -0000

I loved The Social Network! No doubt at least a little biased by my appreciation for Fincher's Zodiac (and Seven and Fight Club of course).

I thought the Zuck character grew immensely over the film and I came away respecting him more having seen the film and would have done so even without the understanding this was a fictionalized account of the startup. He is obviously driven by something far greater than short-term, monetary and social gains, his first love is the product he is building. All else, best friends included, are at best secondary considerations if that.
The film is to my mind very much pro-geek (Fincher always treats his outsiders with great care, deference even) and pro-entrepreneur. I certainly walked out the theater wanting to start another company (or else join Facebook!). Fincher as usual films his characters with a cool, distant impartiality leaving us with lots of grey and no right or wrong (one of the reasons he is one of the most interesting Hollywood auteurs imho).

Bottom line: the film left me unsure what to make of the founders' ethics which lets be honest is truer to life (startup or otherwise) than most Hollywood flicks allow for. It also left me even more excited about the changes Facebook and others are bringing to the ways we communicate and interact. Most importantly it left me wanting to experience the entrepreneurial energy of startup land.

As David Denby so beautifully put it: Zuckerberg "reaches the aggrieved element in everyone, the human desire for response".

MPod recently bought me The Facebook Effect (thanks!) but I haven't got to it yet so I can't really speak to the book v film debate.

Re: Looking for Daily/Frequent Sources

shehab — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 13:39:58 -0000

The Economist and Financial Times for their depth of global analysis.
Browser and LongReads usually via Instapaper. NYTimes.
Brainpicker for creative inspiration.

And then of course my personalized editorial team on Twitter.

Re: letter.ly

shehab — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 14:11:04 -0000

I think the cool kids and nerds have come together before.

Internet bubble 1.0 was the period I lived through: WIRED, Josh Harris (see We Live In public docu), William Gibson, Boo.com etc are all artifacts.
Interestingly NY was again hotbed for the scene- birth of Silicon Alley.

Re: Why Media Companies Shouldn't Accept Apple's Subscription Plans

shehab — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 02:35:34 -0000

The FT seems to have no problem giving subscribers access to the iPad app.

Re: New Idea Society album is now for sale

shehab — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:07:17 -0000

Another approach would be for RIM to invest more efforts in approving apps that at least function properly without taking the whole OS down with them. Haven't played around with the BB app store but I assume they have a review / rating system which is would probably flag bad apples.
The BB advantage is efficacy (for communication), reliability and fact its a workplace standard so there's an argument for them taking a more selective high quality approach to vetting and approving apps to the marketplace.

Becoming one of the smartphone platforms that survives is a potentially lucrative opportunity that's worth gunning for though!

Re: Why I Look Up

shehab — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 01:38:20 -0000

love this.

Re: Thoughts on the iPad

shehab — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 07:34:01 -0000

I have been watching my parents and an uncle who has never owned a computer and can barely use a cell phone use the iPad over the past few days and the form factor, UI etc make a lot of sense for them.

What excites me about the device is finally seeing us move beyond file and window interface metaphors in a high-enough-profile product that should encourage the next iteration of UI innovation.

I also think the larger form factors will allow for some really neat new apps.

Re: Own Your Online Brand

shehab — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 10:00:51 -0000

Thanks for sharing the NY Times article btw, interesting to see how all this transfers over to diplomacy.

Re: Own Your Online Brand

shehab — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 09:59:50 -0000

Borrowing a comment from another thread: don't let great be the enemy of good. There's something to be said for just getting on with building an online profile, it is after all something that takes time to develop and the sooner it is incorporated into one's daily / weekly routines the better the output tends to get.

Outside of 'personal branding' it's also an incredible communication and networking tool. I have built some very real relationships via blogging and twitter etc.

Re: Own Your Online Brand

shehab — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 09:55:52 -0000

There are in fact workshops at Columbia on using LinkedIn and social networks as part of the job hunt but one on 'Profile management' would probably be useful for many students. I imagine this is in part an age thing. In a few years, when it's the digital natives at grad schools workshops of this sort may be redundant.

The panel was interesting but I did leave the conference thinking there might be more effective formats. Having five panelists discuss a topic for an hour and a half makes for a good introduction to a topic but I would also enjoy a smaller panel or even just an interview format that allowed deeper discussions on how thought leaders view their industries.

Re: Own Your Online Brand

shehab — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 23:49:03 -0000

I was at the NYU Stern panel Fred (and am a proud bearer of a foursquare doucehbag badge!)

I successfully reclaimed my online presence a little while ago when shifting directions in my career and wanting to drag my online footprint along with me. The fire-hose strategy is effective, I think my first page or two of results is now links to various social networks profiles (though I have the advantage of a less common name). Owning your domain names, writing active blogs are also effective and the latter has been an unbelievable communication and networking tool.

I am struck by how much resistance there still is for this personal branding amongst MBAs. Perhaps it differs at other universities, I am thinking of the west coast in particular, nevertheless I had expected to see much more profile management at business schools when I moved to New York late last year.

Re: A Fall Summary. Columbia Business School MBA 2011.

shehab — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:04:11 -0000

Agree re: consulting, will be writing a recruiting post soon.

Disagree re: entrepreneurship. I am guessing CBS is similar to LBS, Harvard, Wharton and Chicago in terms of leaning towards the corporate world whereas Stanford, Berkeley and Sloan probably veer startup.

Will be interesting to see whether recent spike of interest in entrepreneurship inversely tracks the health of the job market moving forward.

When is your blog starting up?!

Re: A Fall Summary. Columbia Business School MBA 2011.

shehab — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:59:27 -0000

1) Surprised by this question in the sense elitism wasn't on my mind when I wrote the post. Not surprised in the sense you parsed through the post to ask some typically insightful q's. I agree with MBAStartupGirl that the Columbia Business is diverse, but only up to a degree in my mind. In general I am guessing leading B-School student bodies are skewed towards the privileged. This is maybe even more pronounced in the international circles as there's far fewer financial aid / fellowship options for non-US citizens.
As for CBS fostering a false sense of elitism, a qualified yes is my response. There's a sense of 'how great we are to have made it to CBS' indoctrination that takes place early on in the MBA experience. Though that's probably helpful before the inevitable ego-crushing forces descend when the full-force of keeping up with academics, clubs and recruiting hits (and that's before you throw rejections into the mix - more on that when I post on recruiting).

2) I do think you join a relatively exclusive club when you accept a place at CBS and that club works. The brand opens up doors that otherwise would not have been accessible to you. The alumni network is helpful and again gives you access to companies / industries etc you may not have had previously. If that's what you mean by your question, then my answer is yes, it works.

3) Absolutely NOT. Its primary function is to accelerate your career and / or help you re-orient your career trajectory.

4) Don't be fooled into thinking this is a new post-greed age. Greed is alive and powerful as it always will be.

5) Alcohol is one of the the world's greatest social lubricants! It's especially helpful in creating cohesion amongst such a huge and diverse student body. Having said that, it is obvious some life-long, deep relationships are formed alongside the more casual socializing. There is also plenty of other group activities that foster stronger relationship building (the various trips and industry focused competitions have been great in this respect for me).

Re: Columbia Business School Silicon Valley Tech Trek 2010 Recap.

shehab — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:40:10 -0000

Thanks Brannon.

Re: Burj to Burj to Burj. AlAbbar to Zayed. Dubai’s Decade.

shehab — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:08:26 -0000

The responsibility lies elsewhere in my opinion: The team or rivals approach that HH managed Dubai Inc was more important for instance; Macro financial and economic events also more important (US$ peg that led to negative real interest rates post dot-com bust, China's forex purchases keeping interest rates artificially low and giving us the global mad search for yield; Dubai policies that perpetually fueled the speculative fires against the advice of many; I could go on and on...

Interestingly Emaar's early projects were not successful by any measure. It was only when Nakheel launched the Palm that the property market took off. My unsubstantiated understanding of the island's launch are informative: Apparently the Palm launched at one of the property shows - Cityscape most likely - and sales were slow on the first day. On hearing this HH ordered priced to be reduced substantially (I have heard figures up to 50%). Sales then took off but from the onset it was speculators looking to take advantage of this artificially low prices and that set the tone for much of the Dubai real estate story that followed (everything sold out but buildings and homes were never actually full apart from perhaps the Greens). My understanding is that Nakheel was losing money on each sale and so took measures such as increasing villa density of the fronds to make up for it.

Alabbar saw the bubble earlier than most. That was one of the main reasons he took to geographic diversification.

An icon such as the Burj Khalifa was necessary for him to negotiate the land concessions from the Dubai government at that stage as his personal relationships with HH and other political leaders was a shadow of what it once was. Emaar's status as a public co and a profitable one also made it difficult for land concessions or handouts - why share the profits with shareholders when Dubai could reap them all solely?

Emaar also looked to diversify into other productive investments - education (schools), healthcare and even industry.

Re: I Love Cash Flow | Chicago Booth Dubai Event

shehab — Tue, 12 May 2009 06:42:43 -0000

It's open to prospective Booth applicants - so yes.

Re: Yes Grad School. No Grad School.

shehab — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 11:53:01 -0000

Hi Amr,

I think the usual rankings apply in the Middle East. I tend to look at the FT, Business Week and Economist rankings to get a feel for the quality of the schools.
Finding out the strength of the alumni network in the region is probably a good idea too.

Thanks for reading.

Re: Mohamed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation.

shehab — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 07:18:12 -0000

Hi Amal,

I don't think TOEFL scores are mandatory.
I don't think you need to mention your plans to apply for the scholarship. My experience has been that the partner schools will usually write to you about the Foundation on being accepted.
I am afraid I don't know what the monthly stipend is as I don't personally know anyone who accepted the scholarship.
I am not aware that the foundation favors certain nationalities or sexes over others.

Good luck with your applications.

Re: Mohamed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation.

shehab — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 08:08:47 -0000

Hi S,

They do send rejection emails as far as I know. The time it takes for them to respond seems to vary but was between 1-2 months for those I know who applied.

Best of luck.

Re: Mohamed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation.

shehab — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:56:24 -0000

Hello Nizar,

Thanks for reading.
I downloaded the application from the MBR website and sent it directly to the Foundation once I had been accepted to the business school. I believe that once the committee start meeting again, they attempt to convene on a monthly basis to review applicants (this was how it worked last year at least). Those I know who received scholarships were awarded them late in the Summer so the dates mentioned do seem plausible.
I was also told last year to apply regardless of whether the school was an official partner school or not (as long as it was a top rated school).

Make sure you call the Foundation to confirm they have received your application when you send it.

Hope this helps.

Re: Boxee Survey Results

shehab — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 05:18:08 -0000

would love an invite.

Re: alt.MiddleEast.

shehab — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 13:16:13 -0000

agreed about a site that really allows for proper deep digging into the vibrant arts scenes in the region with insight / commentary and relevant news on events etc. haven't heard of andraos but will check her out.
other sites worth checking include http://www.bidoun.com and http://brownbookmagazine.bl...