The awesome thing about Portugal is that, well, so much cool stuff happens.  When I leave on Friday I will have been here for ten days.  In that time, I have (in semi-order of awesome):

• Attended a Q&A in which Gary Kasparov (yes, THE Gary Kasparov) spoke about strategy and chess and business.  I wanted to buy his book but they only had Portugese versions.  This, for obvious chess reasons, was clearly the most awesome thing.

• Interviewed with Partners in Health for a possible job in Rwanda, which just happens to be the country that my former country director is now in.

• Seen an FC Porto game that started off with a great goal from a header.  I went there with Sam and Liz and some of their friend’s from the Magellan MBA program here in Porto.  One of them had a bunch of free tickets, so we settled down in the absurdly cold weather to watch a little futbol, and I bought a scarf proclaiming my allegiance.

• Been on two wine tours with Liz, in which I learned more about port wine and wine in general than I’ve ever known.  They were only about a half hour each, and at the end we got to task a couple of different flavors of port.  It was all around a good time.  And Liz and I got a chance to have a little heart to heart about life.

• Walked around a lot with Sam and talked about all kinds of things ranging from what readjustment is like to whether the pastries here are filled with egg yolk (they are).  We drank some amazing hot chocolate and ate cream pastries.  We looked down on the riverside from the metro bridge and I discovered I have a newfound fear of heights, which makes sense because I haven’t been higher than fifteen feet off the ground for over two years (if you don’t count plane flights), and a love of all things mediterranean, especially red tile roofs, stone streets, and cheap but good wine.  We ate franchisinhas.  (Which translate to “little French girls” and are composed of two pieces of toast in between which have been sandwiched cheese and four different kinds of meat, the whole of which is then smothered in beer sauce and covered with an egg.)

• Bought a wool coat, a scarf, a turtleneck, socks, and gloves.  In two weeks I have gone from semi-urban Niger style to full on urban Europe style.  Identity crisis may or may not be looming.

And that is that.  I have to give a great thanks to my hosts, who have provided a fantastic in-between place for me to spend a little time in my in-between state.  Really, I don’t think I could have asked for a better place to slowly detox from my second evacuation and get ready to return to America.

Here are my notes on Kasparov’s talk, if you are interested.  Mind you, it’s not a quote, more of a paraphrase:

• We should remember that it is not enough to learn from our mistakes.  Learning from our mistakes is easy.  More difficult but also important is to learn from our victories, because in every victory there will be things that you could have done better.

• Strategy is what you do when you have nothing to do, tactics is what you do when you have to do something.

• We have entered an economic phase in which we don’t innovate.  We only copy things that we have already innovated and make them smaller.  This generates much less new wealth.  We do this because we want the profits without having to take the risk.  As a result living standards are being maintained by using credit.  There is little investment in the future, little investment in a future capacity to produce (as in infrastructure and education).  As a result, we are seeing the death throes of this type of economic organization.  Capitalism will survive, but there will be a new venture, a global venture, that risks once again, and though often failing, also makes huge strides because of its willingness to risk.

• You can no longer meaningfully differentiate between different nationalities because the availability of information is leveling the playing field across geographies.

• 100 years ago chess was a jewish game, and that exemplifies a peoples’ desire to succeed in a facet that they have available.  Marginalized populations tend not to be able to become successful leaders of society, so they become extremely good at other things?

• The role of emotions in chess/strategy: emotions are not helpful in a game, but emotions are important to help us stay sharp.  It’s not about being unemotional, but rather splitting your emotions off from your personal decision-making system.  This is why it is important to know your own strengths and weaknesses, because it allows you to strategize so  that your character is operating from a position of strength when you are making your decisions.  For example, if you are introverted, you should strive to face decisions when you have the time alone to do so, as opposed to when you are surrounded by people.

• Why is Kacparov a household name?  Because the matches played between Kasparov and Karpov were political and they made front page of the newspapers, they took on the dynamics and hopes of society, so it became about more than just a chess match.  Beating Karpov was a signal to Russian society that something could change, that communism could be defeated, that there was potential for hope.

Pretty interesting no?