Walking around Vienna, one is easily reminded of the current season: Summerbreak. The time when small and mid-sized shops hang a little sign in the window saying "Summerpause". They leave early in August and most return in September.

I'm glad to see how successful those shops must be. How else could their owners afford to close and take a month long vacation? I always misunderstood their past complains about international competition. An ironic joke it must have been.

It must be a fest, for the shop owners on vacation, to lay in the sun and laugh about their competitors working thru the summer heath. "Those poor bastards" they might think. "Who knows, if allowed, they would probably work on Sunday as well."

Labels: Incentives

I would like to run the Vienna Marathon on April 29th. After reading about marathon training and talking to Lutzi -my trainer- I came up with the following schedule:

Week	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa	So
8.-14.Jan		10km		8km	8km		14km
15.-21.Jan		10km		8km	8km		15km
22.-28.Jan		10km		9km	8km		16km
29.-4.Feb		10km		9km	9km		17km
5.-11.Feb		11km		9km	9km		18km
12.-18.Feb		11km		10km	9km		19km
19.-25.Feb		11km		10km	10km		20km
26.-4.Mar		11km		10km	10km		21km
5.-11.Mar		12km		10km	10km		22km
12.-18.Mar		12km		10km	10km		23km
19.-25.Mar		12km		10km	10km		24km
26.-1.Apr		12km		10km	10km		25km
2.-8.Apr		12km		10km	10km		15km
9.-15.Apr		10km		8km	8km		14km
16.-22.Apr	4km		4km		4km
23.-29.Apr	4km		4km		4km		42km

Additionally Lutzi recommends noodles, potatoes, fish, eggs, chocolate and bananas. Which sounds like my current diet anyway.

Labels: eat+drink, Incentives, Patrick

Mr. Bethe was a leading figure in quantum physics. He won the Nobel Prize in 1967. At the age of 93 he gave a lecture called Quantum Physics - Made Relatively Simple. I'm glad Cornell University brought it online. It's a joy to watch.

Watching his lecture, one can see he still enjoys quantum physics. 93 years and he still likes his job! To me, that's even more impressive than his Nobel Price.

Forget state pension. If your country signs you up automatically, opt-out. Get a job you like, and enjoy it till the your end. You may safe some money for latter. But stay away from state pension. This pension money will become hard to resist when you are 60. Forcing you to quite in the middle of your career. Don't take that risk. Act now. The less money in your pension fund the better.

Labels: Economics, Incentives

Writing down goals gives focus and motivation. Telling everyone about it, motivates even more, by inducing peer pressure.
Here is my take for 2007:

1. Finish Master of Science (MSc).
2. Find new customers for software projects.
3. Run a marathon in less than 5hours. First chance, April 29th in Vienna.
4. Improve derbaum.com so actual people care to read.
5. Enjoy doing so!

Yes, I changed my goals during the year. So what? Things happen, one needs to adapt.

Labels: Incentives, Patrick

As promised, here are my results from the last four weeks of running. I achieved two of three goals. 20 runs and 106km. But my average speed of 6.10min/km is higher than the aimed for 5.30min. Therefor, I will adjust my goals for the next four weeks.

• 20 runs
• 120km
• 6min/km

For a while, I felt pretty good about my running. But today I read about those monks who run 100km every day! Well, maybe next time :-)

Labels: Incentives, Patrick

Four weeks ago, Samuel and I started to run. Five times a week. 30minutes each. From the start we knew, motivation is key. We both want to run. Why not motivate each other? If Samuel runs, I pay him 10€. If I run, he pays me. If we both run, no one has to pay. A very simple schema, but surprisingly motivating. Each week we kept running. Attracted by our success, this week, Johannes joined and I hope more will follow.

Last week I bought additional motivation. It's called Nike+iPod and snaps on your iPod and in your running shoe (doesn't have to be a Nike). It measures your time, speed and distance. And it gives sexy voice feedback on the run. After running when you connect your iPod with your PC (doesn't have to be a Mac), you get stats which of course you have to beat next time.

With Nike+iPod I set myself three goals for the next four weeks:

• 20 runs
• with an average speed of less then 5min30sec/km
• and 100km in total

I will report back on how it went. read it

Labels: Apple, Economics, Incentives, Patrick

I used to complain about Starbucks. A lot. I worried competition from the wrong coffee culture could hurt wonderful old Viennese coffeehouses.

Today, I worry no more. Starbucks could turn out beneficial for coffee lovers like myself. Even if I never go to Starbucks.

Measuring by success, Starbucks must do something right. For one thing, they have great coffee. Something not always true with tradional coffeehouses.

But, coffee is not everything. I would not leave my favorite Wiener Cafe even if the coffee is better at Starbucks. But some consumers might. Putting pressure on Wiener Kaffeesieder to improve coffee quality.

Labels: eat+drink, Economics, Incentives