Scanning
I was walking through one of those "alternative" grocery stores that are so popular here in Southern California called Lazy Acres (basically, a Whole Foods clone) looking for Cilantro-flavored toothpaste. (Don't worry, I didn't actually find it.) I was wandering aimlessly through the aisles, and it struck me that I was having difficulty finding the toothpaste section. This is unusual for me. If I go into a mainstream retailer like CVS, Target, or Ralph's, I'm...
Where Do Good Ideas Come From?
Everyone seems to have an answer to this question. Here's mine: Good ideas come from the expansive meadows of the mind where multitudes of bad ideas have just as much freedom to run around as the good ones. Your brain is always trying its hardest. If you dismiss all bad ideas at the outset, then your brain learns its lesson and stops speaking up. You're biting the hand that's trying to feed you. Ideate now,...
You Should Write a Kindle Book
Nope, I'm not joking. Here's your chance. It's a relatively new medium that's slowly being adopted by a large group of people who decided they wanted to start reading books on an e-reader. Traditional publishers have long since discovered that they can make money by publishing their print books in the Kindle format and knocking off a few dollars. I'm not talking about doing that. If you have a full-length book, sure, I think you...
Starting Gun
There are several words used in dialects around the world that don't have a direct translation into English. I find these cases interesting, since they belie a cultural difference. There are concepts that exist in other parts of the world, to which they've dedicated a word, but we haven't acknowledged them to that extent in English. How, exactly, is that possible? The great thing about the German language is that it's permissible to form new...
Not Like Me
If there's one thing that terrifies a lot of managers, it's having employees that are smarter than they are. Or, even scarier, having employees that hold a dissenting viewpoint. This is absurd. I'm not sure who it was that thought the military's systematic style of getting people to fall in line could be applied to the world of business without serious repercussions--maybe Henry Ford contributed in a big way with his assembly line--but it's got...
Keeping Secrets
If you have an idea that you're going to spend a lot of time working on, do you tell people about it or keep it a secret? Like most of us, I have lots of ideas, a handful of which I make an effort to follow through on. I'm still undecided on the best approach. Secrecy has its merits. I'm usually not worried about someone stealing my ideas, because in my experience, most people don't...
What's in a Cup?
Starbucks is working to make a 100% recyclable cup. They've been working at this goal for several years now, and suffice it to say, it's not an easy challenge. Part of the problem is that, despite any innovation in the cup's materials, their needs to be recycling programs in place, people have to have access to them, and they have to be mindful enough to actually recycle their cups. We're creatures of habit. And I'm...
Back to the Drawing Board
In my apartment, I have a white board hanging up...in my living room. I live in a pretty small place, so it's arguable that, given a few more rooms or more space to dedicate to work-related activities, the white board would be sequestered away from general living space. Or, given better taste or interior design, maybe I'd have other things with which to decorate my walls. Maybe it's because I've spent too much time at...
Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow has a hierarchy for the needs of human beings. At the bottom of pyramid are our basic survival needs; at the top is self-actualization, which is our lifelong pursuit to (stealing a phrase from the US military) be all that we can be. Aarron Walter shares a different hierarchy with us...this one is the hierarchy of software interfaces. Most people reading this aren't software developers, but it's 2011, so just about everyone is forced...
Blood Simple
The Freakonomics guys are very good at pointing out that behavior in society is driven by small incentives. Set up a system in which people can donate blood for free, then you're going to get good Samaritans donating blood. Offer $5 for a pint, and you're going to get a slightly different mix of people. The good Samaritans will still be there, but there will be others doing it for the five dollars. (That's cigarette...