Just Say Ommmmm…
by Kara Swisher
Posted on March 28, 2008 at 1:33 AM PT
For those heading into the weekend, don’t miss this post from tech blogger Om Malik (pictured here, but the cigar is now a thing of the past), assessing his life and work three months after he suffered a serious heart attack.
Titled “Off Topic: What the Past Three Months Have Taught Me,” it is actually quite on topic for anyone who works a bit too hard and is a bit too connected (that would be everyone reading this right now).
While Malik has changed the obvious things–no more smoking, less meat-eating and adding exercise into his daily life–he notes that it is more the “little things that have proved to be a challenge.”
Because he is a true geek, Malik reaches for tech metaphors when trying to describe the state of his new being, comparing himself to a MacBook Air.
Not the sleek and thin part, but because “the Macbook Air comes with [a] minuscule amount of storage space, so one needs to be careful about how to use it. The machine’s battery power limitations remind me of how much time I have to devote to work on a daily basis.”
Thus, gone from Malik’s hard drive: excessive public appearances, too much travel and too many RSS feeds.
In addition, he realized something my grandmother always used to tell me: There are no indispensable people. Even if your blog is called GigaOm.
Through his experience, Malik said he learned to rely on his team more and stopped micromanaging. “You empower people, and in turn they power you to do good things,” he wrote.
And perhaps most important of all for those who live in the pressure cooker of Silicon Valley: Get a cardiac heart check-up now.
Follow Kara on Twitter | Follow AllThingsD on Twitter
Comments
I guess everyone needs a wake-up call, sometimes.
Hope you’re feeling better, Om! 
Posted by rod sandcones at March 28th, 2008 at 11:22 am