Occam's Razor

Remembering Gilles Kahn

This picture from Gilles Kahn was taken during the 2003 RVC conference than Jeff Clavier and myself organized that September in New York. 

It captures a lot of the incredible qualities of Gilles from it's sheer passion (which radiates here), to his great strength, to his incredible humor and gentleness.

I spend today's afternoon at his funeral, where a large, sadden group of family, colleagues, friends pay their last respect to him. Gilles was only 59, and had been an adviser of RVC and of Occam Capital.

We spend of lot of time taking about leadership, and what the quality of a leader in action are, and how to recognize them. Watch the short 3 min (in French) video of Gille's new year greating to the INRIA staff, and observe and remember what an incredible man he was. I will only quote here the last sentence from his speech :

We must focus on seeding new trees, and hope that one day, when we will no longer be around, they will have mature, and bear new fruits...

Gilles Kahn was educated at the Ecole Polytechnique (class of 1964), then at Stanford University in the United States (1968-71). During his career he would have the opportunity to take two long sabbaticals in renowned scientific institutions: University of Edinburgh, UK (1976-76) and the Isaac Newton Institute at Cambridge, UK (1995). Twenty years later, in 1997, he would become the first member of the Institute to be elected to the French Academy of Science as a researcher in information systems. On his return from Stanford, he entered the CEA (atomic energy commission), then joined IRIA in Rocquencourt in 1977, at the head of a project for the development of programming environments. In 1983, he was one of the founding members of the INRIA Sophia Antipolis Research Unit, where he continued to head a research project while simultaneously coordinating research activities alongside the Unit's director. In 1993, Gilles Kahn became part of the Institute’s General Management, where he took up duties as Vice-President for Research, and later, in May 2004, became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. As Vice-President for Research, then as Chairman, he had a major influence on the definition of INRIA’s last two strategic plans. The last strategic plan (2003-2007) paved the way for joint research in information systems and life sciences.

Running schedule

I have just registered for the forthcoming Paris half marathon (March 5 2006). 

If you want to join me during my Sunday's training, I run a 10K loop from Montorgeuil to Palais Royal to Tuilery to Seine river to Eiffel Tower and then back, or a 20K loop to the east starting in Montorgueil all the way to Vincennes horse track, or a 20K to the west starting in Montorgueil all the way to the bois de boulogne lakes.

Feel free to email/comment if you want to join (I usually run with my good friend Emmanuel who is gracious enough to slow down for me ;-))

BTW: i have missed the deadline for the April Paris marathon which is now sold-out at 35.000 participants, if you know anybody who is registered, and does not plan to participate, I'll gladly buy his/her ticket entry...

Happy new 2006

Back from a few days offline in sunny/cold Jura (also know as the french little Siberia...). Wishing you all a great/balanced/fruitful 2006.

E E Cummings

Re-reading EE Cummings today.

This is one of my favourite,  (read by Frederik, one of the character of Hanna's sisters) :

Somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence;
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

...

(I do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice or your eyes is deeper than all the roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands

Leadership

I watch "The Fog of War - Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2004)" during the week end. It's not only an interesting reflection on the past 50 years (2 WW, cuban crisis, vietnam war) but also a great source of insight on leadership. In a unexpected way, it was also a nice complement of the two Jim Stockdale book (Thoughts of a philosophical fighter pilot and A Vietnam experience) which i felt compled to read after finishing Collins "Good to Great".

• Collins take on leadership could be describe as

"get the right people on the bus, and they will figure out how and where to drive the bus"

• Stockdale's principles can be describe as as

1 - You are your bother keeper (the key to survival, self respect and happiness lies in submerging your individual instingts for self preservation in the greater common denominator of uniersal solidarity)

2 - Life is not fair

3 - Duty comes before defiance

4 - Compulsion and free will can coexist

5 - Every man can be more than he is.

6 - Freedom and absolute equality are a trade-off

7- People do ont like to be programmed

8- Living in harmonious and heaps is contrary to man's nature (life only makes sense when an element of freedom is included in the mix)

9- The self-discipline of stoicism has everyday applications.

10- Moral responsibility cannot be escaped

From this, Stockdales concludes that great leaders are :

A- Moralist who exhort men to be good abd thinker who elucidate what is good. This requires a clear idea of right and wrong and the integrity to stand behind your assessment of the situation.

B- Teacher able to give those around him a sense of perspective and to set the moral, social, and motivational climate among his followers.

C- Steward able to know character and heart to boots others and show them the way.

D- Philosopher able to understand and explain the lack of moral economy in this universe.

As an VC, investing in people driven tech businesses, and stuggling to identify and support technology leaders, those perspectives are very usefull, and will feed in all my discussions with CEOs and CxOs inside the various projects we are working on.

Marcel Duchamp

I got this quote from Marcel Duchamps as a present recently:

• There is no solution, because there is no problem.

(Il n'y a pas de solution parce qu'il n'y a pas de problème)

:)

Hooked on Hack Off

It is a blog, is it a novel, not it’s a blook…

Just finish reading instalment 2 of the Hack Off blog novel.

It’s very addictive, and turning into a 24like series which is tailors for the blog/RSS/Post/Comment format. I’m now a regular reader, and I’m looking forward episode No 3.

Wings of Desire

The Wings of Desire is one of my all time favorite movie.

I was delighted to fine this sign on the wall of a good friend of mine i was visiting in Berlin several weeks ago...

(Angels fly because they take them-self lightly...)

Als das Kind Kind war,
ging es mit hängenden Armen,
wollte der Bach sei ein Fluß,
der Fluß sei ein Strom,
und diese Pfütze das Meer.

Als das Kind Kind war,
wußte es nicht, daß es Kind war,
alles war ihm beseelt,
und alle Seelen waren eins.

When the child was a child
It walked with its arms swinging,
wanted the brook to be a river,
the river to be a torrent,
and this puddle to be the sea.

When the child was a child,
it didn’t know that it was a child,
everything was soulful,
and all souls were one.....

Lied Vom Kindsein
– Peter Handke

trying to re-surface...

Things have been VERY hectic in the recent weeks, and i'm trying to re-surface to get back to regular posting...

... We will see how it follow on with this!

Blogger Dinner in Paris

Jeff Clavier and myself will be hosting a dinner at l’Area (brazilian/lebanese fusion cuisine) on April 26 at 20:00.

Expected topics: vc financing, blogging, photosharing (buzznet users most welcome :-), and frankly anything we'll all feel like talking about.

Seating is unfortunately limited to 20, so please rsvp (by posting a comment below) to lock in your participation.

Address: L'Area, 10 r Tournelles 75004 PARIS (Metro: Bastille, Map)

Cost of the dinner: 30 EUR

Update :

We can seat 22 people, the table is now SOLD OUT (as long as people that indicated interest actually show up...)

We look forward to seeing you there.

Marc and Jeff