The quote of the week (at least in my world) was from one of the CEO’s I work with regarding Silicon Valley. After a short trip to the bay area, he told wrote me a quick email that said “I love coming out here. It’s like high school but with money instead of girls.” That reminded me of a line that a fellow bay area VC dropped on me at lunch last month “Just remember – Silicon Valley isn’t America and VC’s aren’t really people.”

I’m not a lover of military stories, but I think Tracy Kidder is one of the best writers currently living on this planet. I picked up My Detachment in one of the English language bookstores in Paris that Amy and I discovered (Village Voice Bookshop in the 6th was my favorite) and gobbled it down on the plane ride home. It was magnificent – once again Kidder delivered a beautifully written book – this time about his personal experience as a Lieutenant in the Vietnam War. When I went online this morning to look at some of the critical reviews, I found several of them negative – suggesting that Kidder didn’t really “get it” and that the book is “pointless.” I thought those reviewers were missing the “point” – maybe I think Kidder is being too subtle, but he really does get at the fundamental “pointlessness” of war without either slamming you in the face with it or getting under your skin about it. 

Ah – it’s so nice to be home. A run to town, lunch at The Rio, a massage, and maybe a movie in the late afternoon. What could be a better way to spend a Sunday?

This week was my quarterly “week off from email / telephone / work.” However, I didn’t really feel like I needed a complete break this time, so I kept up with email although I stayed off the phone. Amy and I finished up a great month in Paris with lots of reading, walking around, a trip to the Louvre, great runs on the Seine, some good meals, and more reading. But – no blogging – and it was really refreshing. I hope you missed me.

Dan Rua sent me a link to his new Florida Venture Blog, subtitled No-BS Venture Thoughts for No-BS Entrepreneurs. There’s plenty of good stuff there if you are interested in what’s going on in the Florida VC / entrepreneur scene (or if you just want to read another VC related blog.)

Amy and I had a delicious lunch with Pierre-Denis Autric at Ristorante Gallo Romano near Notre Dame. Pierre-Denis met me through my blog, dropped me an email inviting me out to lunch, and – well – there you have it. At lunch, I discovered that Capgemini just started a CTO blog which has an excellent entry on 24 that evolves into an explanation of user interfaces. It’s delightful to see 24 continuing to be used as a thematic launching point as well as make a new friend over a great lunch.

Senator Barack Obama spoke at the National Center for Women & Information Technology Town Hall last week. If you are an Obama fan, or just want to hear about what he has to say, NCWIT’s friends at Microsoft Research have put both Obama’s speech as well as much of the town hall conference on “IT Innovation and the Role of Diversity” up on the Research Channel web site.

Will Price at Hummer Winblad has a really nice blog post up on a speech he attended by Verne Harnish the other day. Verne is a long time friend, extremely captivating and insightful speaker, and a guy who has been around entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship forever. I first met Verne in 1990 at the first Inc. Magazine / MIT Entrepreneur Forum / YEO Birthing of Giants Conference. This was a conference that Verne created for founders of companies under the age of 40 with at least $1 million of annual revenue. My company was four years old, we’d just broken the $1m mark, had 12 employees, and I was struggling with all of the normal startup issues. In four days, I met 59 other people, many of whom became close friends, who were either struggling with or had struggled with similar stuff. This was also my introduction to a long standing involvement with YEO. I remember driving home from Endicott House thinking “Holy Shit, I Am Not Alone.” 

Fortunately, as Jack Bauer tries to find his way around China next season, he’ll have Telcontar’s maps to help him. And no – I really don’t think they are going to kill him – “he’s much too valuable.”