BUSINESS&PLEASURE

Dear Brit friends. I feel you.

For reasons I still fail to comprehend, Yianis “the Modest” Varoufakis, still manages to surface in the media, either as a celebrity speaker or as a controversial author. But it is probably only in the UK, where his status has been recently elevated into that of an unlikely hero. More than a year after that horrendous decision of the British, and with no solid strategy in hand, it seems that many…

Welcome to the Ultras. Rodopi Challenge 50 miles

Τρέχοντας 50 μίλια στη Ροδόπη Λίγο πριν περάσεις τη γραμμή του τερματισμού στα ultra της Ροδόπης, σταματάς για να χτυπήσεις τις κουδούνες. Οφείλεις να σταμαήσεις, αυτός είναι ο ήχος της επιτυχίας σου. Ακούγεται για αρκετές μέρες μετά στ’ αυτιά σου μαζί με τα συγχαρητήρια και τα μπράβο των φίλων που σε περιμένουν εκεί. Ο Χρήστος και ο Ηλίας διογρανωτές και ψυχές του αγώνα, θα είναι εκεί. Θα σε…

Truth is under attack. We need to fight back

Why ruin a nice story with inconvenient truth? In the aftermath of BREXIT and USA elections, it has become more than obvious that one of the biggest dangers our liberal democracy faces, is the avalanche of “post-truths”, misinformation and straight-out lies.

Nobody cares for the facts or for any details for that matter. Much too often we are surrounded by people ready to believe anything…

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AI, Modern Gov and the power of Networks: Picks worth reading this weekend.

Amid the recent bombing mayhem in Ankara, an ever escalating refugee crisis, a stagnated global economy and the EU-Turkey Summit of 17-18th, I picked up a few reads that you might find interesting or even intriguing and will probably take your mind off disturbing  headlines (at least for a while).

If you are in a hurry start from the links in BOLD.

GoToVan, Science World, Flickr

Incredible…

So much to read, so little time!

The abundance of information and news is a fact. The difficulty we now face is how to pick up the ones that matter (for each one of us). Every day I get about 10 news bulletins from various sources including: The Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, TIME, DW, BBC (mainly through their excellent tech shows: Click & Tech Tent), TechCrunch and Crunchable and of course many Linkedin groups or twits from…

We were all Agile: Agile Greece Summit 2015

I spent last Friday in Athens in a conference taking place for the first time in Greece. Agile Greece Summit 2015 was the first of its kind and I do hope that more will come. Not only the speaker roaster sounded very promising on the announcement, but it proved an exciting one indeed. From Spotify to Swiss Postal services and from Vodafone to IBM, every session proved revealing.

Photo Courtesy of…

Summer. Just a few weeks ago, end of July and instead of being at a beach and listening to the waves, you drive for about 3,5 hours to be in Zagori. Along with you another 1000+ athletes waiting to climb Timfi as fast as they can and run it downhill even faster. Before that there was Olympus Marathon, and half a dozen other races on mountains all over Greece. (English and Greek versions available).

Summer. Just a few weeks ago, end of July and instead of being at a beach and listening to the waves, you drive for about 3,5 hours to be in Zagori. Along with you another 1000+ athletes waiting to climb Timfi as fast as they can and run it downhill even faster. Before that there was Olympus Marathon, and half a dozen other races on mountains all over Greece. Snow, mud and icy trails during…

One last hope: I'd like to urge my FB friends (especially non-Greeks) to read this and give it some thought.

Photo by Rania Hatzi @Flickr The Greek Parliament behind bars

Ι’ve recently read a great article in HBR by Michael G. Jacobides entitled “Greece’s Problem Is More Complicated than Austerity“. I’d like to urge my FB friends (especially non-Greek ones) to read it carefully and give it some serious thought if they want to really understand what is taking place in Greece.

After the latest Greek deal…

Greek Crisis & much needed reforms.

So, we now have a result. The Greek people have voted no to our recent referendum. I’m still not exactly sure what the question was in the first place, or even why it was necessary to go through such a process, at this particular moment in time. Regardless of all these, I follow the ubiquitous social media and I am convinced that we’ll need considerable time to heal and recover, from this…

Μια βδομάδα μετά το φετινό TedxThessaloniki, ξαναβλέπουμε φωτογραφίες και θυμόμαστε. Στον ίδιο χώρο με πέρυσι το φετινό tedx ξεκίνησε με μια μικρή καθυστέρηση η οποία δε νομίζω να πτόησε κανέναν. Η διαφορά σε σχέση με τις προηγούμενες χρονιές ήταν πως τα sessions ήταν 3 (ενισχυμένα) αντί για 4.

Μετά από 4 ζωντανά tedx που έχω παρακολουθήσει και αμέτρητες ώρες παρακολούθησης στο internet αλλά και…

There is no excuse! You can learn everything (ok, almost) online!

In my previous post “Time to study! Part 1: MOOCs & Certificates“, I covered MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). I presented just 3 major providers: EdX, Coursera and Udacity although there are many more out there, simply because in my humble (totally subjective opinion) these 3 provide an excellent user experience and offer a really massive course catalog from some of the best universities…

Time to study! Part 1: MOOCs & Certificates

Photo of Stockholm Public Library by Samantha Marx

You have no excuse. Start learning now!

There was a time (before the Internet) when learning new things was actually not easy. The dominating educational institutions, the universities, demanded your physical presence and your adherence to structured courses leading to recognised diplomas and professional degrees. This educational system…

Well this is probably my easiest and most beautiful designed post. It's an auto created report from The WordPress.com with stats on 2014 blogging. Very elegant.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 4,900 times in 2014. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the…

It was my first time in China. Many years ago, I had gone as far as Singapore for a business opportunity that never took off. Back then, I was impressed by the tall, shiny skyscrapers, the smells and the colour of a modern far east. I tasted food I had no idea what it was, I walked in exotic places and I saw things completely new to me. I also experienced the exhausting humidity of the tropicals…

Δεν έχουν περάσει περισσότερα από 2 χρόνια από τότε που άρχισα να τρέχω συστηματικά και να στέκομαι στην εκκίνηση διαφόρων αγώνων δρόμου. Θυμάμαι πολύ καλά τα έντονα συναισθήματα στον πρώτο μου τερματισμό μαραθωνίου, μετά από 5 ολόκληρες ώρες από Πέλλα, Θεσσαλονίκη. Τον πρώτο μου κλασσικό μαραθώνιο στην Αθήνα και την είσοδο στο Καλλιμάρμαρο. Τα τελευταία οδυνηρά χιλιόμετρα στον ορεινό μαραθώνιο…