Simone Brunozzi

In the last posts, I focused solely on work-related stuff.
I will keep doing this in the future, however one occasional, off-topic post doesn’t hurt.
In fact, it’s cross-pollination, and diverse topics, that stimulate creativity and interest.
(p.s. remember that there is a monthly newsletter, if you like love what I write)

Today I’m writing about “car ownership”, as a consequence of something that I’ve read a few minutes ago.
Look at this figure below.

The article concludes with “A new paper from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace argues that the number of cars per capita is a better way than income alone to track the size of the middle class.”

My humble, personal opinion is that this is a wrong conclusion.

Italy doesn’t have a bigger (in percentage) middle class than Germany.
I believe that there are other factors that determine this outcome: public transportation; quality and quantity of roads available; fuel costs; average size of cities. Examples? Italy has a public transport system that is usually considered not as good as the German one; has higher fuel costs, less roads, comparable quality; more numerous, but smaller cities compared to Germany.

What’s your view? Why do you think Italy is ranked #1?
Do you think it’s a good thing, or a bad thing?

I’m a fan of car sharing, being eco-friendly, and public transportation, whenever they make sense. I personally would like to see less cars on roads, and a better use of these cars.

I’ve just finished reading Why remote workers are more (yes, more) engaged, on the Harvard Business Review website.
Very interesting read.

I often write that “I feel lucky“. No, I don’t mean a random search result:

Instead, I mean that I really enjoy many aspects of my current job at Amazon Web Services.
In particular, one of these aspects is the fact that I can work from any place I want. Not from Argentina, a place that I’d love to visit, or from Rwanda, another place on my bucket list, but any place in California, at least.

For example, yesterday I was having coffee, and working, and meeting with a colleague, here at Ritual Coffee, on Valencia street.

Did you know that the owner/founder is a Harvard graduate lady that didn’t want to have a boring job, and decided to start it? Amazing!

Today I was having breakfast in my apartment, enjoying a great coffee, some strawberries, and flowers that I bought the other day from an incredible Polish guy, just below our offices in downtown San Francisco.

In this specific case, I woke up at 7:30am, spent a few minutes to understand who I really am, and reminded of something I’ve seen (and photographed) yesterday:

Be yourself!
And then I did some pushups, prepared breakfast, ate it (in front of those beautiful flowers), and then had a call with a colleague at 9:00am.
Isn’t this a simply AMAZING way to start the day?
Now I’m still at home, outside is sunny, and life is good.
No wonder that being a “Nomad” worker improves productivity and engagement. And yes, I feel more engaged than ever.
I had a “9 to 5″ job in the past. It’s not for me. I respect the fact that some people cannot avoid that type of schedule, but if it’s possible to have more flexibility… Why not?
Yes, I also have an office, and I can go whenever I want. Actually, sometimes I WANT to go, to see some colleagues or have some meetings and such. It doesn’t hurt when you decide IF it makes sense to go, or not.
I believe that flexibility is a great form of respect for people’s time and needs. I really appreciate that, and I’m thankful that I can benefit from it.

If you feel too lonely in your house, you still have the option to use coworking space.
I, for example, sometimes go to Coffee and Power and Hatchery SF here in SoMa, very close to where I currently live.
If you’d like to meet me, and you tell me to meet at one of those two places, you have a 100% chance I will say yes!

Ah, by the way: we’re hiring. And I’m not going to add any link. If you want it, you find it by yourself. You’re smart enough :)

p.s. Quick reminder: I created a Newsletter, if you like what I write… No, better: if you LOVE what I write, then sign up. I promise it’s going to be interesting, short, and only once a month.

If you’re bored, and don’t really know how to spend those five minutes of extra time that you have every month…
Well, sign up for my monthly newsletter!

Tough to focus on a single thing, when there are so many interesting things out there.

In this case, I just want to share some of them with you.
But before that, let me tell you why I think this is important: in our busy lives, it’s difficult to find enough time to read our feeds, or in general to get informed about cool things. The time I spent in finding those things is gone… But you can benefit from it, as long as you find those things interesting as well :)

First: Rand Fishkin, CEO and Co-founder of SEOMoz, writes about the principles that guide his company. TAGFEE, or Transparent, Authentic, Generous, Fun, Empathetic, Exceptional. What I really like about his post is that he doesn’t just enumerate those principle and beat his chest about how cool his company is, but instead he provides real world examples, criteria, etc.
After reading it, you not only think that those are supposed to be the guiding principles of SEOMoz; you actually believe that those principles are deeply ingrained in the way his employees live every day.
I admire that.

Mea culpa: I discovered Brad Feld’s blog only this morning, for the first time ever. If you’re interested in startups, incubators, accelerators, technology, you CAN’T miss this one. Related suggestion: check out the Startup Revolution, Brad is deeply involved in it, and also check out his upcoming book, Startup Communities. (when a book is cool, I always pre-order it, I don’t want to forget about it when time comes). You can also read this review if you’re not convinced.

On a related topic: startup accelerators are cool, I like the concept a lot. Here you can find a ranking of the top 15 in the US (warning: it’s an opinion, and it’s not even my opinion. I don’t mind if you disagree with the rankings). Nice to see Techstars there, I have a few friends that work there and I know they’re doing a good job.
I was recently part of the Global Accelerator Meeting held in Venice (Italy) by H-Farm Ventures (a few very good friends there). Actually, let’s call it Venice Venezia, its Italian name. I prefer it.
Check out the video of the event below. I love it. (you can find my super-handsome bearded face for half a second at 0:51 and later at 1:12).
I don’t want to fall into the “too proud to be” trap, but in this case I have to mention the phrase “Italians do it better“.
Riccardo, Maurizio, Franco, Tim and the others really did an amazing job, and they deserve praise for that.

Well, it’s enough for now. Stay tuned for more updates.
Time for me to focus again on my daily job :)

(update: I wrote “Dan Feld” (a former colleague of mine) instead of Brad Feld. Apologies to both, and to my readers!)

Today at Amazon Web Services (AWS) we’ve announced Glacier, a low cost, fully redundant data data archiving storage infrastructure for storing any amount of data.
What I really like is the starting page on the main AWS website. Simple and beautiful.
If you want to know more about Glacier, click the picture.
Also, remember that we have an upcoming global conference, called AWS Re:invent, happening in Las Vegas on Nov 27th-29th.

I’ve just read this excellent article on the New York Times (online), called The Busy Trap.
In essence, it says that life is short, we all like to say that we’re busy to feel important, but at the end we might be victims of the busy trap.
I don’t necessarily agree on everything, but I found the article fascinating, and stimulating.

I’m lucky. My job, despite being intense and sometimes very demanding, gives me a lot of rewards, not just in terms of money, but in a more general sense.
I am busy, yes, but not in a sick way.
For example, today I woke up early, did some push-ups, had a shower, checked my email, then breakfast with my Wife, then to work. After two intense and productive hours, I took a look at my twitter stream, found the blog of Engineer without a cause, and started reading. I spent prehaps twenty minutes reading about Jeff Hull, who recently moved from Boston to Rwanda, de facto following much of the principles outlined in The Busy Trap article.
And then, of course, Jeff mentioned the article itself, and I decided to go and read it.
After reading it, I decided to write about it, and share my ideas with my blog readers.
Is this work? Maybe, maybe not. But it’s a fantastic way to feel creative, feel free, and enjoy the day.
Now it’s time to get back to strictly work-related things, but this half an hour of I-am-doing-what-I-want feels amazing.
And I realize that some people might not have this luxury. As said, I am lucky.

What do you think? Want to share your experience?

I’ve met Ryan Carson in April 2009, in Dubai.
Unfortunately for me, it was the only physical encounter with him, and I say “unfortunately” because I think that it’s nice when Ryan is around.
Ryan now runs Treehouse, a startup that wants to teach you how to design software.
I won’t go into details of what we discussed in Dubai (also because I don’t remember ALL the details), but suffice to say that in just a few days, my opinion of Ryan,both as a person and as an entrepreneur, was very high.
I just saw a video of Ryan, at a recent conference, and I think it’s well worth sharing on this blog.
There are many, many useful blurbs that you might like; I want to highlight just this one, when he’s briefly talking about Carsonified, his previous company focused on tech events:
“The reason why we ended up doing events is because I love connecting people…
But the reason why I wasn’t passionate about doing events was that I realized that events are expensive to attend, not everybody can go, it wasn’t something that it would change the world in a way that when I die I would be glad about…” (bold is mine).

Feel free to watch him below. It takes about 80 minutes. Time well spent.
I just did, substituting watching a movie with this, and I’m not regretting it.

Ryan Carson’s talk at Creative Bath from Treehouse on Vimeo.

Ryan is particularly good as a speaker, it seems he does it in a natural way and he definitively knows how to smile when presenting.

Talking about events: you might want to check out Amazon Web Services’ first global conference: Re:invent, in Las Vegas from November 27th to 29th. I will be speaking there as well.

A few months ago, my friend and colleague Simon and I started a series of podcasts on Amazon Web Services.
Initially it was just an experiment, to see if people would like listening to it. After just a few weeks, though, it was clear that we were filling a need.
We can’t disclose numbers or stats, but suffice to say that the AWS Podcast has quickly become quite popular, I guess among AWS customers.

This is the short summary of the latest, Episode number 10:
“Simon & Simone are back again for this special episode where we will look at some of the key information resources available on the AWS website, on topics such as Architecture, Economics, and Security. Customers can take advantage of these resources when exploring the use of AWS in their business.”
You can download it, listen to it on the web, or subscribe to it and listen while you commute to work, etc.

I am first in line to say that this is not perfect, of course, for many reasons:
1) We’re not professional radio speakers (although I had some short experiences as a radio speaker in the past);
2) We don’t do it in the same room, but about 10,000 miles away (I’m in San Francisco, Simon is usually in Melbourne);
3) Smetimes we record it while traveling, so background noise, or connectivity, can be an issue.
4) We do it with very cheap equipment: a 100 US$ microphone, and our laptops.

However, despite all these limitations, we still see a significant traction, and we also receive nice comments about it.
It means, somehow, that people don’t care much about a super-polished, expensive-to-produce, Hollywood-quality podcast, but they instead just want the “beefy” part, the content, to listen to interesting stuff.

I believe that podcasts can be a very effective way to distribute content to your audience, as well as “connect” with them. I personally enjoy it a lot, and I also use it as an opportunity to learn a lot. The “black belt tip” session, envisioned by Simon, is a great example of this. Most of the time, when Simon is the one preparing the content for that session, I can’t wait to record the episode to learn more about it!

The one thing that, at least for now, I still miss a lot, is the ability to look at the other speaker in the face, and use that “sync” to time when we should talk, interrupt, or be quiet. Instead we cannot really do it while recording away from each other.

We plan to extend the podcasts to additional members of the AWS team.
Stay tuned for updates.

I want to leave you with a few good links to interesting resources for podcasts:
1) Five things I love about podcasting
2) One of my favorite podcasts, Mac power users (yes, I mostly use a Mac computer)

Sometimes people ask me: what do you do for a living?
My first reaction is always a smile.
I anticipate that, when that person will hear my title, they will think they got it wrong, and ask to repeat it again.
Then, I repeat my words and they still are “I’m a Technology Evangelist“.
They look at me with a weird face, and clearly want an explanation.

It’s a catchy title, one of those titles that almost “force” people to ask “Tell me more about it”. It’s almost as catchy as my all-time favorite, “Pizza consultant“, a guy that I’ve met in Singapore at a dinner. Literally EVERYBODY wanted to know more about it, and Pizza is one of the universal languages of love.
Actually, let me digress for a second.

(a very good pizza at Port Townsend, WA, USA, on a cold March day. Read more here)

Pizza, as we today know it, was invented in Naples, Italy. From Wikipedia:
“…In 1889, during a visit to Naples, Queen Margherita of Italy was served a pizza resembling the colors of the Italian flag, red (tomato), white (mozzarella) and green (basil). This kind of pizza has been named after the Queen as Pizza Margherita…”

I’ve lived in Singapore from early 2010 until July 2012, and of course I discovered a few great places to eat and have coffee.
Best Pizza in Singapore? My favorite is Operetta (“Napoli” style pizza, with San Marzano tomatoes), but here you can find some more.

I live in San Francisco now, but I don’t yet know any great place for pizza. I’ll update you in a few months, I promise.
Ok, end of digression. Back to my work.

What do I do for a living?
Read the rest of this entry »

My role of Technology Evangelist for Amazon Web Services (AWS) implies that I meet a TON of startups, on a daily basis.
I simply love it.
The interaction is simply wonderful and very stimulating… At least, for me! :D

You might also know that on November 27th-29th, 2012, we are going to have the first global conference for Amazon Web Services. It’s called Re: Invent, and takes place at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.

If you are a very cool startup, have a story to share with me, and would like a discounted code to register for AWS Re:Invent, I’m happy to help.
Please email me (simone at amazon dot com) with the subject line “AWS Re:invent startup”, and tell me who you are, what’s your startup about, and why you’re interested in attending the event. If everything plays right, I’ll give you a code. (if you need two, please specify it in your message).

What is a cool startup? Well, for example, one that has very nice plants in its own office downtown San Francisco. Lovely! See below :)

But now the question is: HOW MUCH does it cost to attend the conference?
The regular price (as of Aug 10th, 2012) is 1,099 US$.
If you can get one of my codes, you save 200 US$ (price goes down to 899 US$), plus you receive 300 US$ in AWS credits, effectively bringing the price down to 599 US$.
Please note that I have a very limited quantity of these codes, therefore I won’t be able to give them to everybody. First come, first serve. And I don’t automatically send codes: I select startups that have that “cool” factor I’m talking about.

Once you’ve received the code, register here and enter the code on the “event selection” section, just after entering your basic information (name, company, etc).
There are limited seats available at the conference, and also very limited rooms at the Venetian Hotel (which would be the best option for you), so if you plan to attend I suggest you to apply now.

So, to recap:
1. You are a cool startup.
2. Send me an email (simone@) and tell me why you’re cool, what you do, and why you want to attend.
3. Perhaps you’ll receive a code from me.
4. Use this code to register.
5. See you in Las Vegas.

Finally, if you know of any other cool startup that should read this… Please share this post with them.
You can also share it on Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Thanks. See you in Las Vegas :)