Amitabh Jotwani on following your dreams:
“I work for xyz company, but you know I always wanted to get into animation design and work for myself. It was my dream. I got stuck in the wrong industry”
“You ain’t dead yet, are you?”
The worst thing you can do with your career is to play it safe.
Famously bad predictions:
“The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty, a fad.“
The President of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Henry Ford’s lawyer not to invest in the Ford Motor Co., 1903.
The greatest ideas are often misunderstood because they don’t mesh with the ideals of the present. But that’s exactly the point — you can’t revolutionise without breaking the rules.
Hindsight is a beautiful thing.
It’s Comedy Festival time in Melbourne at the moment, which means everything’s slighter funnier than usual. So far Eleanor the Whore has shown me her happy box, and Vigilantelope have done something mildly humorous that I didn’t understand. Tomorrow Arj Barker will be overly ironic and later this week Frank Woodley will pretend to be an animal. I’d see every show if I could, but alas I have to be selective.
Some big names don’t seem bothered to make their way down to Melbourne, which sucks because I’d be more than willing to throw cash at them in return for an hour of laughs. Thankfully, there’s Youtube. Take your break now:
I love this – Volkswagen are changing behaviour for the better by making things fun. Punishment and reinforcement don’t work, so why not make it fun to do the right thing?
But my favourite thing? No advertising from Volkswagen. Nothing about Golf’s or Polo’s, just their support for the cause. Amazing!
The New Yorker’s James Surowiecki looks at whether ‘average’ products have a future:
While the high and low ends are thriving, the middle of the market is in trouble. … The products made by midrange companies are neither exceptional enough to justify premium prices nor cheap enough to win over value-conscious consumers.
It feels radical, but this is the same basic strategy they teach in first year business schools: either do it 10 times better, or 10 times cheaper. Some will interpret that to mean the middle is the best of both worlds, others that the middle is toxic. You can never have the best of both worlds.
How anybody could go into business to produce average products for average people is completely beyond me.
(Via. Daring Fireball, unoriginally…)
Craig Mod took the Panasonic Lumix GF1 on a 16 day field test in the Himalayas. He doesn’t end up writing a traditional review, but a story. It’s one of the most amazing tests of a product I’ve ever read (I’m on my sixth pass now).
If you’re a product manager, you should be asking how you can have your products reviewed like this. Craig’s wasn’t a paid advertisement. Rather, the product simply lends itself to such an amazing review. You build stories like this into your product — you don’t pay to have them added later.
Craig also has this little tidbit about the compact design of the GF1:
About halfway through the trip I realized something strange was happening — the people I photographed were looking me in the eyes. Indeed, they could see my eyes! I had spent so long traveling with a DSLR strapped to my face that I had forgotten about true eye contact.
What an amazing yet simple change. Just goes to show that you can’t separate form from function.
I’ve only studied economics briefly, but if there’s one concept that’s changed my view of the world it would be Sunk Costs:
After hours of brainstorming, arguing, and banana daiquiris, you’ve finally come up with a clever, fun, catchy marketing slogan. Problem is, it doesn’t quite fit the business. You don’t want to “waste” this great concept; surely you can use it somehow, somewhere? No. As with all writing, you have to learn how to throw things out.
I’m not brave enough to put this on my resume, but I strongly believe the ability to say “No” is an indispensable talent.
Despite the (frankly brilliant) shouting, swearing and Hollywood-style dramas, there’s still reason to love Gordon Ramsay:
“It doesn’t matter how amazing the steak is, if it’s served on a cold plate it’s crap. If it’s served with a dull knife it’s crap. If the gravy isn’t piping hot, it’s crap. If you’re eating it on an uncomfortable chair, it’s crap. If it’s served by an ugly waiter who just came in from a smoke break, it’s crap. Because I care about the steak, I have to care about everything around it. “
If only everybody was as passionate about their job…
(Via Neven Mrgan).
