Silicon Valley Monk

For over 2,000 years, the area of India that is today western Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh has served as the destination for devout Buddhist pilgrims from all over Asia. In 2010, James Kempf and his wife Renate undertook a pilgrimage to the Buddhist sacred sites together with 28 other Western pilgrims. Led by the renowned British meditation teacher Stephen Batchelor, the group visited the area where the Buddha walked and taught, an area untouched by the Indian high tech revolution yet rich in cultural treasures. In this frank memoir, Kempf tells the story of that pilgrimage, interwoven with the story of his 40 years of meditation training and his career as a software engineer in Silicon Valley. Follow Kempf as he ordains as a Zen priest and negotiates his way through the maze of the Silicon Valley reality distortion field, trying to find wisdom and compassion in the midst of greed, hatred, and confusion, and experiences the benefits and dangers of a hard core meditation practice. The path of pilgrimage and the path of practice unite in a realization that the Buddha’s teaching wasn’t about mysticism and meditation experiences, but rather about a rational, realistic blueprint for reducing suffering.

A book about how to make work pay and not just in cash, but in experience, satiafaction, and joy.

There's a lot you probably don't know about the Buddha. For one, the real Buddha was thin. And before he became the "Enlightened One," he was a pampered prince named Siddhartha. He tried dieting once and didn't like it any more than you do. Instead, he sought a "middle way" between unhealthy overindulgence and unrealistic abstinence. The instructions he gave his monks about eating, more than 2,500 years ago, were surprisingly simple. Fast forward to today, and modern science confirms what Buddha knew all along. It's not what you eat that's important, but when you eat. You don't need to follow the latest fads or give up your favorite foods. You just have to remember a few guidelines that Buddha provided-guidelines that, believe it or not, will help you lose weight, feel better, and stop obsessing about food. Sure, Buddha lived before the age of doughnuts and French fries, but his wisdom and teachings endure, providing us with a sane, mindful approach to achieving optimum health.

Sharp, dramatic, and full of insider dish, SOPHIA OF SILICON VALLEY is one woman’s story of a career storming the corridors of geek power and living in the shadow of its outrageous cast of maestros. During the heady years of the tech boom, incorrigibly frank Sophia Young lucks into a job that puts her directly in the path of Scott Kraft, the eccentric CEO of Treehouse, a studio whose animated films are transforming movies forever. Overnight, Sophia becomes an unlikely nerd whisperer. Whether her success is due to dumb luck, savage assertiveness, insightful finesse (learned by dealing with her irrational Chinese immigrant mother), or a combination of all three, in her rarified position she finds she can truly shine. As Scott Kraft’s right-hand woman, whip-smart Sophia is in the eye of the storm, sometimes floundering, sometimes nearly losing relationships and her health, but ultimately learning what it means to take charge of her own future the way the men around her do. But when engineer/inventor Andre Stark hires her to run his company’s investor relations, Sophia discovers that the big paycheck and high-status career she’s created for herself may not be worth living in the toxic environment of a boys-club gone bad.

A fun, yet factual guide to thrive not only in Silicon Valley, but in the emerging Global Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley has become synonymous with big ideas, start-ups, and inventing the future. But today, the magic of Silicon Valley has gone viral and global. From Austin to Boston, from Shanghai to Dubai, a Global Silicon Valley is emerging. In THE GLOBAL SILICON VALLEY HANDBOOK, bestselling author, venture capitalist, and global thought leader, Michael Moe, maps out an insider's guide to Silicon Valley and the hottest emerging markets from around the world. The book highlights need-to-knows, including who the top VCs and angel investors are, phrases to avoid in a pitch, or even where to close a deal over dinner or beers. Visually engaging, THE GLOBAL SILICON VALLEY HANDBOOK aspires to inspire the entrepreneur in all of us.

A Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness for the Modern Day In our never-ending search for happiness we often find ourselves looking to external things for fulfillment, thinking that happiness can be unlocked by buying a bigger house, getting the next promotion, or building a perfect family. In this profound and inspiring book, Gelong Thubten shares a practical and sustainable approach to happiness. Thubten, a Buddhist monk and meditation expert who has worked with everyone from school kids to Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and Benedict Cumberbatch, explains how meditation and mindfulness can create a direct path to happiness. A Monk’s Guide to Happiness explores the nature of happiness and helps bust the myth that our lives and minds are too busy for meditation. The book can show you how to: - Learn practical methods to help you choose happiness - Develop greater compassion for yourself and others - Learn to meditate in micro-moments during a busy day - Discover that you are naturally ‘hard-wired’ for happiness Reading A Monk’s Guide to Happiness could revolutionize your relationship with your thoughts and emotions, and help you create a life of true happiness and contentment.

Beware, citizens of Silicon Valley ... the bad Toonies are on their way. But never fear, Uncle Wom and the good Toonies are not far behind, and they will help Jeremy Kern, a young human newspaper cartoonist save the day.

How might we account for the effectiveness of Silicon Valley during our times? Both as a place and as a cultural icon, Silicon Valley has generated a mystique about its power to produce economic and cultural effects. It speaks loudly in our civilization today and there is an aura of mystery about it. How has Silicon Valley arrived at this point in its development? Companies such as Apple, Google, Hewlett Packard,, and Intel compose part of the legend that Silicon Valley has become but the roots of that legend extend further in time and geography. Others have approached the same questions and have noted its industrial roots but only reached so far back. My contention is the modern economic and cultural phenomenon of Silicon Valley crystallized because of its local geomorphology and the ensuing technological enthusiasm contributed to its historical and material conditions for such techno mediatic unfolding. This work will distinguish itself from others not just by connecting geography to technical developments, but also by exploring the epistemological disposition that Silicon Valley claimed and spilled over into upcoming milieus of technological development and civilizational progress. By addressing the research questions through methods and concepts derived from Media Archeology methodology, a methodology originating in the field of Media Studies, I argue that the manifold inter-involvements of geomorphology and technical enthusiasm account for the force of Silicon Valley in media history, and the book takes you through various intersections of concrete pillars to build you a sound frame of mind about this mysterious region and culture.