When you plan to release something, anything, it will do either of 2 things.
a) Have people ignore it.
b) Have people rage in discussion over it.
Most products, companies, blogs and lives face the first choice. You make some ripples. Get your mom or family to read it, play with it and then it dies. The scary part is not that people don’t make a splash with their idea or dream, it’s that people don’t care enough about getting people to care about it.
This is exceedingly important in any society. You should care enough about something to identify with it. You should then get enough people to care about it. This is what Seth Godin calls a tribe. But mostly it’s about the only way you know you are doing something worth noticing. Also what the G calls the Purple Cow.
MG Siegler writes on this post in TechCrunch,
So why is such zealotry a good thing? Because passion is important. If people actually care about Android that much, Google is clearly doing something right. Windows Mobile has never instilled this type of passion in anyone. Nor has Symbian. For a while, it seemed like the Palm Pre might. But it never did.
That’s what Seth states here as well.
What have you done with your connection skills that has been worthy of criticism, that moved the dial and that changed the world?
Go, do that.
Remember, when you make something that makes a dent in the universe. People will care. You might be the Taliban. People will care. You might be Google, people will care.
Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works. The design of the Mac wasn’t what it looked like, although that was part of it. Primarily, it was how it worked. To design something really well, you have to get it. You have to really grok what it’s all about. It takes a passionate commitment to really thoroughly understand something, chew it up, not just quickly swallow it. Most people don’t take the time to do that.
Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.
Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.
Design is not limited to fancy new gadgets. Our family just bought a new washing machine and dryer. We didn’t have a very good one so we spent a little time looking at them. It turns out that the Americans make washers and dryers all wrong. The Europeans make them much better – but they take twice as long to do clothes! It turns out that they wash them with about a quarter as much water and your clothes end up with a lot less detergent on them. Most important, they don’t trash your clothes. They use a lot less soap, a lot less water, but they come out much cleaner, much softer, and they last a lot longer.
We spent some time in our family talking about what’s the trade-off we want to make. We ended up talking a lot about design, but also about the values of our family. Did we care most about getting our wash done in an hour versus an hour and a half? Or did we care most about our clothes feeling really soft and lasting longer? Did we care about using a quarter of the water? We spent about two weeks talking about this every night at the dinner table. We’d get around to that old washer-dryer discussion. And the talk was about design.
We ended up opting for these Miele appliances, made in Germany. They’re too expensive, but that’s just because nobody buys them in this country. They are really wonderfully made and one of the few products we’ve bought over the last few years that we’re all really happy about. These guys really thought the process through. They did such a great job designing these washers and dryers. I got more thrill out of them than I have out of any piece of high tech in years.
I have always admired (I still do) Steve Jobs’ clarity and deep insights into the way technology is changing the world today. In this interview in 1996, that he gave to Wired, he puts forward some fascinating insights. Remember this is a man ousted from his own company, building the next big thing.
On Technology
What’s the biggest surprise this technology will deliver? The problem is I’m older now, I’m 40 years old, and this stuff (web and technology) doesn’t change the world. It really doesn’t.
That’s going to break people’s hearts.
I’m sorry, it’s true. Having children really changes your view on these things. We’re born, we live for a brief instant, and we die. It’s been happening for a long time. Technology is not changing it much – if at all.
These technologies can make life easier, can let us touch people we might not otherwise. You may have a child with a birth defect and be able to get in touch with other parents and support groups, get medical information, the latest experimental drugs. These things can profoundly influence life. I’m not downplaying that. But it’s a disservice to constantly put things in this radical new light – that it’s going to change everything. Things don’t have to change the world to be important.
The Web is going to be very important. Is it going to be a life-changing event for millions of people? No. I mean, maybe. But it’s not an assured Yes at this point. And it’ll probably creep up on people. It’s certainly not going to be like the first time somebody saw a television. It’s certainly not going to be as profound as when someone in Nebraska first heard a radio broadcast. It’s not going to be that profound.
Then how will the Web impact our society?
We live in an information economy, but I don’t believe we live in an information society. People are thinking less than they used to. It’s primarily because of television. People are reading less and they’re certainly thinking less. So, I don’t see most people using the Web to get more information. We’re already in information overload. No matter how much information the Web can dish out, most people get far more information than they can assimilate anyway.
On Human Potential
But you seem very optimistic about the potential for change.
I’m an optimist in the sense that I believe humans are noble and honorable, and some of them are really smart. I have a very optimistic view of individuals. As individuals, people are inherently good. I have a somewhat more pessimistic view of people in groups. And I remain extremely concerned when I see what’s happening in our country, which is in many ways the luckiest place in the world. We don’t seem to be excited about making our country a better place for our kids.
The people who built Silicon Valley were engineers. They learned business, they learned a lot of different things, but they had a real belief that humans, if they worked hard with other creative, smart people, could solve most of humankind’s problems. I believe that very much. I believe that people with an engineering point of view as a basic foundation are in a pretty good position to jump in and solve some of these problems. But in society, it’s not working. Those people are not attracted to the political process. And why would somebody be?
Lincoln did not have a Web site at the log cabin where his parents home-schooled him, and he turned out pretty interesting. Historical precedent shows that we can turn out amazing human beings without technology. Precedent also shows that we can turn out very uninteresting human beings with technology.
It’s not as simple as you think when you’re in your 20s – that technology’s going to change the world. In some ways it will, in some ways it won’t.
On the early days of any industry
The Web reminds me of the early days of the PC industry. No one really knows anything. There are no experts. All the experts have been wrong. There’s a tremendous open possibility to the whole thing. And it hasn’t been confined, or defined, in too many ways. That’s wonderful.
On the problem with embedding technology into our daily lives.
Today a dealer says, “We can’t get your car in a week. It takes three months.” And you say, “Now wait a minute, I want to order a pink Cadillac with purple leather seats. Why can’t I get that in a week?” And he says, “We gotta make it.” And you say, “Are you making Cadillacs today? Why can’t you paint a pink one today?” And he says, “We didn’t know you wanted a pink one.” And you say, “OK. I’m going to tell you I want a pink one now.” And he says, “We don’t have any pink paint. Our paint supplier needs some lead time on that paint.” And you say, “Is your paint supplier making paint today?” And he says, “Yeah, but by the time we tell him, it takes two weeks.” And you say, “What about leather seats?” And he says, “God, purple leather. It’ll take three months to get that.”
You follow this back, and you find that it’s not how long it takes to make stuff; it’s how long it takes the information to flow through the system. And yet electronics move at the speed of light – or very close to it. The key is in pushing information to the web. That is what the web is going to do and break out as.
On Equal Opportunities
It is a leveling of hierarchy. An individual can put up a Web site that, if they put enough work into it, looks just as impressive as the largest company in the world. I love things that level hierarchy, that bring the individual up to the same level as an organization, or a small group up to the same level as a large group with much greater resources. And the Web and the Internet do that. It’s a very profound thing, and a very good thing.
On Design
You have a reputation for making well-designed products. Why aren’t more products made with the aesthetics of great design?
Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works. The design of the Mac wasn’t what it looked like, although that was part of it. Primarily, it was how it worked. To design something really well, you have to get it. You have to really grok what it’s all about. It takes a passionate commitment to really thoroughly understand something, chew it up, not just quickly swallow it. Most people don’t take the time to do that.
Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.
Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.
Sir Ken Robinson is one of the best speakers at TED. In 2006 when he had taken the stage he had stated a very important case. Schools as we know are preparing people for the Industrial Revolution. We learn Math, Science and logic oriented subjects on an emphasis basis. This is especially true in a country like India where you have three careers:- Doctor, Engineer or Accountant.
Anything beyond that is preposterous. Musician? Are you kidding me?
What most people don’t realise and I hope our generation does better on that is to train kids by nurturing and recognising their talent. It is not shameful if a doctors son turns out to be a jazz guitarist. It is shameful if he dies unhappy and an educated doctor couldn’t do everything to make his son happy.
In this follow up talk by Sir Ken, he talks about shaping curriculum in schools to fit children and not fit children into the curriculum. He’s humourous as always but is emphasising a very important point.
We are at the turn of a new revolution in Education. One that I highly support and one that you would too after you see this video.
3 days back I signed up for the advanced copy of Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh. Who? What?
Tony Hsieh is the CEO of Zappos.com. This is an online shoe company that has set new standards on customer service. They were recently acquired by Amazon.com for 1.2 Billion dollars.
My interest piqued in them when I read about about Tony attending Ted India and giving a speech. I watched the speech intently and took notes. Becoming a CEO someday is part of the plan, but more importantly building a company that has great culture is the goal.
When I walked in today at work, I saw a copy of Delivering Happiness [Amazon Link] on the table. I was astounded. We have celebrity bloggers at work and while the main chief had left I asked around and found out that no one saw it or knew who had gotten it.
Carpe Diem.
I HAD to read it and I spent a day sifting through it. I think the last time I did it this religiously was a game guide to Starcraft. Not even my exams had seen such dedication. Noted here are my thoughts on the book.
The Review.
High average prices. High selling margins.
This was the first lesson Tony learns when he starts to sell newspapers and buttons. Tony’s book is a semi autobiographical account of his life. From the time he’s a toddler he has had interesting experiences to share. A good early part of the book devotes its time to Profits. The middle half is Passion and Profits and the finale is Profits, Passion and Purpose.
College years are next and this part had it going on really well, it reminded me of all the reasonswe bunked college classes when in IIT. He was at Harvard, the equivalent in the States. Here’s a quote on his logic,
“On class days, my 8 am alarm was the most unwelcome sound in the world. I would hit the snooze button repeatedly. I would tell my self I could skip the first class of teh day and get the notes from someone else later. Then an hour later, I would convince myself that since that logic worked so well for the first class I could apply it to the second class, so I missed that class as well. By the time I was getting ready to go to my third class, I reasoned that I missed 2 classes so missing one more wasn’t that big a deal. And finally by the time I was supposed to be headed for my last class, I figured there was no point attending only one class when I skipped all others”.
Oh how I relate to this. The only difference, he had classes three days a week between 9 am and 1 pm.
It’s here that Tony’s life gets really interesting. It’s almost a mirror reflection of mine in the start. Which means I have an exciting future to look forward to. He starts in a deadbeat technical job (hi) and then goes on to web design (hi again) but finds out that he’s not really passionate about it even if the money trickles in.
He mentions an important point that I have been wrestling with, “We didn’t know what we wanted to do. We did however know what we didn’t want to do”. That’s not where the comparison stops. He’s a fan of RedBull! For 10 years!
It almost seems like he’s an Asian alter ego of mine. Sans the size probably. Oh and he plays poker. Score three.
The first half is an entertaining read. The second half talks about setting the company up, going almost broke, being a party playa and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. All fun stuff.
The real meat of the book lies in the third part where he talks about Passion, Purpose and what you want your life to mean and how to “find happiness”. He’s no Dalai Lama in this, but this book has more practical advice than most self help books out there. It is, however, nothing ground breaking if you have seen his talks (or 4 of his talks like I have).
Since this was a read only unedited copy, there’s weird formatting and indentation. There’s a nice chipping in by various employees and co founders on their view of things. This is a format that Sam Walton had made famous where people would talk about him in their own words. Here people talk about the company and it’s values. This book was an easy read and an enjoyable one. If you want to pick up tips on how to go about setting up a company and it’s culture and focusing on the most important thing: People and growth, then grab your copy when it comes out in June.
It will give you a good light hearted introduction into the world of business, culture, entrepreneurship and building up of a billion dollar company. It is however, not a cook book or not one that would have many reads (or dog tags) to understand.
Who should read this book?
Anyone who wants to know about Zappos, Tony and one of the greatest companies to work for.
Who should not read this book?
Anyone who wants to miss out on Zappos, Tony and one of the greatest companies to work for.
“The philosophy of minimalism, as I see it, is having exactly what you need, when you need it, for as long as you need it. It’s not about just less, it’s about just right.”
I love reading about mastery in any craft. What does it take to become masters at a craft. How do people learn? How do they adapt and what do they learn? Malcolm Gladwell had mentioned, in the overquoted book Outliers, that mastery at a craft takes 10,000 hours. This post looks at 2 ideas. Not needing to become a master. And what does one have to do to become one.
Steve Jobs’ has always fascinated people with the clarity of his thought. But more important if there’s one thing that most people have to notice about Steve it’s his ability to weave a story into whatever he’s saying and elucidate his points across very clearly.
That was clearly seen today when he decided to blog his thoughts on Flash. A great read if only for the clarity of his thinking. I took some notes on what I observed about his blogging and am sharing it here.
1. Every story starts with a “once upon a time”.
Writers call this laying the premise down. Joggers call it warming up. Essentially you start with what it was back then and then bring someone up to speed. You do this because you don’t want to throw in the facts right away because most people don’t get the “context” of what you say.
He begins with, ” Apple has a long relationship with Adobe. In fact, we met Adobe’s founders when they were in their proverbial garage. Apple was their first big customer, adopting their Postscript language for our new Laserwriter printer. Apple invested in Adobe and owned around 20% of the company for many years.”
That immediately softens the tone. Apple and Adobe were friends. Apple supported Adobe. But then…
2. Lay down the intent clearly.
Quickly after the intro he talks about what people are thinking and what the real thought is. “Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true. Let me explain.”
3. Clearly list out the items.
Lists are usually killers. This is how Steve does it. By laying them out in a new line so it’s clearly remembered.
To most people who don’t get the context of what he’s saying and why it’s important after you lay out 6 solid paragraphs. You might have lost the audience OR you might want to remind them on what exactly you started with. So you add in a conclusion paragraph.
5. Clearly state your point across.
If you read any paragraph of Steve’s posts, they aren’t cluttered with jargon, they use simple language and they come straight to the point. Here’s an example
“Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.”
A 6th Grader would understand the logic but perhaps not the context. That’s the real power in Steve’s talk. Mass appeal. Dosed with impeccable charima and clarity of thought.
Did you notice the cute way they put this up on “hotnews”?
[update] – Some interesting links you can read on this.
If there is but one passionate evangelist of the Microsoft company, it’s GOT to be Steve Ballmer. Current CEO of perhaps the largest company in technology.
An interesting thing is Steve Ballmer was employee number 24 for Microsoft. And his birthdate? March 24th. Seems like an astrological connection there. In 2009 he took over the reigns as CEO from Bill Gates.
The most visible thing about Steve Ballmer is his spirited energy. He’s not a quiet guy. He’s not a small guy either at 6′ 4″. Thus makes for fascinating stuff. If you haven’t seen his developers talk or the interview with Guy Kawasaki I’d urge you to have a look.
This post however talks about the wisdom he imparts to the students of Stanford, a school which he dropped out of in the 2nd year, on the stages of Business a company goes through. He began with saying that Microsoft is a two trick pony. They have mastered Desktops and Servers. Google, on the other hand, is a one trick pony -Search and Advertising. What most companies do is to get that one trick right and then have development areas around that. Ballmer calls these “cute things” that businesses do.
1st is the Idea and its implementation Get an idea, implement and execute it. Get it to ship-it ready.
2nd is is the scaling of the idea (getting it to critical mass) Taking the business from 0 to 100 (million dollars). That’s the sort of idea you start with.
3rd is milking the idea for all it’s worth (cashing in on the idea). This is where you cash in on the idea which is at the stage Google is at according to Ballmer.
4th is fostering a culture to get new ideas (exploration) Build on other ideas. Which to Microsoft was Server Enterprise after Desktop.
I thought those were great insights. Watch the full talk here.
I’m really excited that I got myself the Kindle. I was this excited when I got the iPhone I believe. Sadly I had to sell the latter. I know the Kindle’s staying with me for a long long time.
So one of the first things I did, obviously, was to get myself a book. I got Seth Godin’s Linchpin, which is hailed as his best book yet. But being in India where the net is slow and the only way to connect to the amazon store is via GPRS/Edge, you know you are in for a lot of frustration. But I spoke to the Amazon customer service people (very nice people!) and they quickly brought me up to speed.
So to get a book to you in India you can run the Wireless and connect, but that didn’t work for me. So the next option is to go online to the amazon store and register your Kindle. You’ll have a 16 digit serial key at the back and that basically registers you to whatever your device is. Once you have that then the you can do a “1 click buy” option which usually comes on your right. Once you choose to do that (enter your credit card details etc) you’ll basically have it linked to your store. Now there are a couple of ways you can get the content on to your Kindle.
a) Go to Manage Kindle.
b) Scroll all the way down to the screen and you’ll see the books you purchased. The standard Kindle guide comes prepackaged so you don’t have to do anything there.
c) On the right where you bought your book you can choose couple of options. Download to your PC. Download to your Amazon for Kindle or Deliver to your Kindle.
d) I chose download to pc which downloads the book in an .azw format. You can alternatively download their Amazon for Kindle PC option and get the book thereto your store (or you can do both).
e) Once you have the book you then plug your kindle via USB and it opens up a folder which has three options, audible, documents and music. Just put the file (in this case linchpin.azw) into your folder, eject the Kindle and voila you have the Book with you!
What about PDFS and other files you want to read on the Kindle?
Well Amazon makes your life really easy here. When you register the kindle you get an accountname@kindle.com as a free email address, for all purposes this is your account name. You send an email to amazon by typing accountname@free.kindle.com with the PDF as an attachment and they’ll reply back with the file converted to the .azw format. Then you do the same steps mentioned above and you should have it in your Kindle. I think that’s pretty sweet!
Before I leave though, being a semi self fashioned geek, I wanted to know what all I could do with the Kindle. And boy there are many many things here’s a round up.
Keyboard shortcuts
Global keys
Alt-Shift-R reboot Kindle
Alt-Shift-. restart GUI
Alt-Shift-G make screenshot
due to an implementation bug, screenshots can only be stored on SD card, not the main storage. A gif file is saved in the card root.
Alt-Shift-M Minesweeper
Alt-Z rescan picture directories
Alt-T show time
Reader
Alt-B toggle bookmark
Alt-T spell out time
Alt-0 enable/disable slideshow
Alt-1 start slideshow (if enabled)
Alt-2 stop slidehow
Alt-PageForward/PageBackward go to next/prev annotation or one “chunk” (1/20th of a book) forward or backward
Settings
411 show diagnostics data
511 run loopback call test
611 diagnostic data service call
c/e/s
126 Lab126 team members
Font List
J show/hide justification options
Picture viewer (To view pictures you have to make a folder in the Kindle)
Alt-Shift-0 set current picture as screensaver
F toggle fullscreen mode.
