5 years on Twitter

Scroll down for the Tl;DR version.

It may look a bit silly. Why would you write about your anniversary that you’re 5 years on Twitter?

Well, for me it is a nice moment to look back and to see what I have accomplished so far. Thanks to Twitter I have done things that I wouldn’t imagine doing without.

Five years ago I signed up for Twitter. For more than 4 years my username was @simonvreeman. Last year I changed it to a sorter version. @vreeman.

5 years ago, I was in my first year of my study Business Information Technology at Windesheim. It wasn’t my thing. Too much about sustaining what is good and not so much about innovation. So I quit.

I had no idea what kind of study I would like to do next, so I went to the USA with two good friends to work, think and have a good time. Away from the daily routine back home. We had a great time and spend the last days in NYC. Regularly I talk with my buddies about our USA trip. We still have some good memories.

Then I started a study Technical Business Engineering at Hogeschool Utrecht. Great study, but didn’t finish it either. But thanks to Twitter I found two great internships.

First at Budeco. A young and small Business Development Company. I had a great time there and shortly after my internship I started working there part-time.

The second internship was at a big technical consultancy firm Movares. With loads of internal politics we manage to develop a brand new WordPress website. The internal politics is not my thing, but it was fascinating to see and deal with it. I learned a lot.

Besides just studying and other stuff that students do, I went on 2 study trips. To Dubai and Hong Kong. At both trips I met someone I already knew via Twitter. Both time I had a great conversation accompanied with a nice cup of coffee. Awesome stories and great insight about the city.

Although the study was interesting and had a great time there it still wasn’t my thing. My motivation and energy drained away. I quit. Again.

Together with Coen Jacobs I started a small company, how I knew via Twitter. Via Twitter I also got in touch with the GM of Van der Valk Internet. I started working there too.

What’s next?

To be honest. I don’t know. I really curious if Twitter still exist in the next five year. Or what else we can expect. Singularity? We will see. Today I really enjoy my work at Budeco and Van der Valk and when there is time left to work on WPspecialist.

I learned that I have to follow my heard, do the things that give you the energy to step out of your bed and stay curious.

Or to quote Steve Jobs…

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

TL;DR

Thanks to Twitter:

I quit 2 studies
Found 2 internship at Budeco and Movares
Started Diteza & WPspeciali.st with Coen Jacobs
Found 2 jobs at Budeco and Valk Exclusief Hotels & Restaurants
Met a ton of great people and friends all over the world

Better Than Human: Why Robots Will — And Must — Take Our Jobs

Better Than Human: Why Robots Will — And Must — Take Our Jobs. A great piece by Kevin Kelly.

How Robots will take over our jobs

This is not a race against the machines. If we race against them, we lose. This is a race with the machines. You’ll be paid in the future based on how well you work with robots. Ninety percent of your coworkers will be unseen machines. Most of what you do will not be possible without them. And there will be a blurry line between what you do and what they do. You might no longer think of it as a job, at least at first, because anything that seems like drudgery will be done by robots.

We need to let robots take over. They will do jobs we have been doing, and do them much better than we can. They will do jobs we can’t do at all. They will do jobs we never imagined even needed to be done. And they will help us discover new jobs for ourselves, new tasks that expand who we are. They will let us focus on becoming more human than we were.

Let the robots take the jobs, and let them help us dream up new work that matters.

Short trip to Rome

The thursday before Christmas I went on a small trip to Rome. After a 2 hour flight and about 45 minutes by bus and metro I arrived at my bed & breakfast, Cicerone 28. It was is a nice old building with a very small open square in the middle of the building. From the B&B it’s a 20 minute walk to Saint Peter’s Square or the Pantheon. A nice bed & breakfast and the people are very helpful.

I’ve visited Rome before, and seen the ‘usual’ stuff that you should see. But this time I also want to see, feel, hear, taste the more local Rome. The places, squares, coffee shops, restaurants that the residents of Rome would go to.

For that I used 2 iPhone apps. Foursquare and TripAdvisor City Guides.

Foursquare

Thanks to the great Explore function in the Foursquare app it’s easy to find good coffee places and find restaurants. Luckily most tips are in English, so that makes it easier for me to judge it. Because Foursquare is mainly used by citizens of Rome, it is an excellent way to find good spots.

Via Foursquare I found Castroni, an awesome deli and coffee spot, and Da Francesco, a great restaurant where I had a good lunch while surrounded by Romans and right next to the pizza oven. That’s what I wanted!

TripAdvisor City Guides

This is not the ‘standard’ iPhone app of TripAdvisor. With this app you can download a whole city to your fingertips. It includes the map of the city and the metro, a list all the restaurants, nightlife, shopping, hotels and attractions. Each list can be seen by best in your neighbourhood or best in Rome based on reviews on the TripAdvisor website. Just like Foursquare it has reviews and tips for each place. And because you download it first at home you simply don’t need any unsecured wireless internet. With the offline map and your GPS location you always know where you are, so you don’t need a paper map. Unless the batteries of your iPhone died.

Via TripAdvisor I found Giolitti, a great place for an espresso and ice cream, and Trattoria Palazzaccio (Dal 1971), a really traditional Roman restaurant where you can enjoy some pure Italian food. Try for dessert the Tiramisu.

Two app to find your way around the city and explore great places that you otherwise wouldn’t find. Both are available on iOS and Android.

Instagram

There was one other app that I loved to use. Instagram. It is just a lovely way to share my pictures of Rome. Here are a few of them.

Pantheon

View from St. Peter’s Basilica

Caprese at Trattoria Palazzaccio

Coffee at Giolitti

Coffee shop

Pizza at Da Francesco

Coffee at Castroni

Playing chess

Sunset

One of many scooters

Spaghetti with black truffle at Trattoria Palazzaccio

Saint Peter’s Square

And more on Instagram

So Rome was worth it. Again. Even at Christmas when I expected it to be a lot more busier.

PS. bring a big suitcase so you can take enough pasta’s & wine home.

My Favorite TEDxUtrecht talks

Two weeks a go I was invited at the first TEDxUtrecht. And I would like to share four great talks that I find worth watching.

TEDx

TEDx is one of the creations for TED’s mission, “ideas worth spreading,”, TED.com, where you can find dozens of jaw-dropping, persuasive, ingenious, inspiring and funny talks, is probably the best creation of TED. TEDx is a local , self-organized event that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.

In that spirit of TED’s mission I share 4 of my favorite talks at TEDxUtrecht.

Reint Jan Renes — Behavior Change – On TouchPoints And Crossroads

Stephen Anderson — From Information to Understanding: Solving the Small Data Problems

Todd Kashdan — Becoming a Mad Scientist with Your Life

Brendan Dawes — Data by itself is not enough, data needs poetry

Others that are also worth watching: Dolf Jansen, Andrei Herasimchuk, Ann Mehl and of course all other TEDxUtrecht speakers.

Simon Vreeman

Provinciale Hipster, Coffee Driven Datasexual & ‘Boer’gondiër.

Author Archives: Simon Vreeman

Better Than Human: Why Robots Will — And Must — Take Our Jobs