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Archives / July 2009
How Ben Franklin started his day
From Benjamin Franklin's day planner, a question to start the morning: what good shall I do this day?
This from Maira Kalman's excellent profile of Franklin in her trademark graphic style.
By the way, note that "good" appears in both the question and the answer... not unlike a small, gentle question that could change your life.
Let's take back the beep from cell phone companies
I'm joining David Pogue's effort to organize users everywhere to tell cell phone companies to turn off their gratuitously long voice mail intro-messages ("At the tone, please record your message. When you have finished recording, you may hang up, or press 1 for more options.").
These messages are a complete waste of time for millions of users - a productivity drain and an absolute waste for everyone except the cell phone company that makes millions of dollars off of our time on the phone, waiting through the same stupid message again and again.
As Pogue writes in his column:
Right now, the carriers continue to enjoy their billion-dollar scam only because we're not organized enough to do anything about it. But it doesn't have to be this way. ... Let's push back, and hard. We want those time-wasting, money-leaking messages eliminated, or at least made optional.
Let's do it.
Send your complaint to the phone companies. I'm pasting in Pogue's instructions below:
• Verizon: Post a complaint here: http://bit.ly/FJncH
• AT&T: Send e-mail to Mark Siegel, executive director of media relations: MS8460@att.com
• Sprint: Post a complaint here:http://bit.ly/9CmrZ
• T-Mobile: Post a complaint here: http://bit.ly/2rKy0u
Share these instructions on Facebook, Twitter, Digg, your blog, wherever. As Pogue says, "If [the phone companies] ignore us, we'll shame them. If they respond, we'll celebrate them."
Go to it!
Gel is one of the "top places to watch great minds in action," says mashable.
You can watch those great minds right now in Gel Videos.
Photos of people using mobile devices while being distracted from work, play, and friends. (Someone buy them BL)
What Jeff Bezos knows
Here's great 8-minute introduction to customer experience from one of my favorite leaders in the business.
Jeff Bezos says, "The only reason Amazon exists today in any form: we always put customers first. We always obsess over customers."
And invent on customers' behalf. And think long-term. And it's always Day 1.
I often point to Amazon as proof-in-the-pudding of what happens when you commit to the customer experience. Anyone who's unconvinced should watch the video.
(P.S. The only thing the video was missing was Jeff's trademark laugh.)
Fun with verbal tics
Whenever I listen to talk radio or podcasts, I'm amused by the verbal tics that cultural commentators seem to share. In particular, I notice how often...
• Someone answers a question with "absolutely" rather than "yes"
• Someone uses the phrase "kind of" or "sort of" as filler
I really like the NYT Book Review podcast, and a couple of weeks ago I heard this little jackpot:
Absolutely ... that's sort of the elephant in the room ... is Apple going to produce a kind of category killer ... Apple as kind of being a competitor to amazon ... Apple became sort of the dominant player in music ... Apple wouldn't necessarily be kind of a shining white knight ...
That's 1 absolutely and 5 kind of/sort ofs, all in under 30 seconds.
(Still like the podcast - just having a bit of Friday fun!)
About letting go of digital distractions
A few years ago I wrote Bit Literacy to say "let the bits go." Now we're reaping what we sowed, with more people distracted, more of the time, in more places - notably, behind the wheel of a car. Here's the PDF of the National Highway Traffic Safety Admin folks, and here's a review of some of the research.
And this column summarizes it well:
Americans are so addicted to techno-surfing that they've gotten hubristic about how many machines they can juggle simultaneously. ... using digital devices gives you "a dopamine squirt" ... Americans woke up one day to find that they were don't-miss-a-moment addicts who feel compelled to respond to all messages immediately. The tech industry is our drug dealer, feeding the intense social and economic pressure to stay constantly in touch with employers, colleagues, friends and family.
Meantime, quoting from this profile of the Dalai Lama,...
True happiness doesn't mean trying to acquire things, so much as letting go of things.
In other words: Let the bits go.
A day at Acme Corp
I spent a day at Acme Corp recently... you know, the multinational company that makes all the supplies for Wile E. Coyote and other avid inventors. (Hey, I figure it's more interesting than "all names and details have been vastly changed" etc. :)
Anyway. Acme had a problem: research showed that their website was completely, unforgivably, disastrously hard to use for their customers. And ugly, on top of that, as if it was spat from a template circa 1996.
So I sat down with the executives, everyone with a stake in the online presence, to help them improve the business metrics by improving their website.
Here's an excerpt of the meeting transcript, more or less.
Me: One thing customers complained about was the home page navigation. To quote one customer we talked to, "I can't figure this thing out and I'm leaving right now." I think it had something to do with the flaming chainsaw animation that follows the mouse pointer around the screen. Is it possible we could remove that?
VP Marketing: Oh right, the flaming chainsaw animation. I'd love to take that off the site, really I would, but I just think it's so neat, and besides it aligns with our brand message of innovation here at Acme.
Me: But customers would shop more, and buy more, if it wasn't there. Wouldn't you like to reconsider that animation?
VP Marketing: Here in Marketing we have to adhere to our brand guidelines, and innovation is central to that, so I'm afraid the animation has to stay.
Me: OK - next up is the customer complaint about the 18-level-deep flying dynamic navigation sub-menus. Several customers said all the menus zipping around the screen made them dizzy.
VP Technology: I know what you're referring to. That menu system took our technology team six months to code up, and I have to say it's the most advanced implementation I've ever seen, really an awesome job.
Me: The technology is impressive, for sure... I mean, I've never seen 18 nested levels all flying in unison like that.
VP Technology: Thanks, man.
Me: Uhh - sure thing. But I'd just like to push back a little on this - the customers did say that the menus were confusing. How about a simpler menu, maybe just a few links to the top-level categories, and that's it?
VP Technology: Listen, I'm all for simplicity and ease-of-use and all that, I hear you. I really get it. But I have to tell you, Web technology is moving fast, and if we don't keep up, we're going to look like Google or something. A bunch of blue links. Borrring.
Me: Allllright. Now we've covered the flaming chainsaw and the flying menus, let's move on to the logo graphic. Some customers complained that they didn't want to scroll down a full page just to get past the logo, the large stock photos, and the slogan.
VP Branding: What did they say about the color scheme? I'm just wondering, because the green and fuscia palette is really supposed to, you know, bring forth assocations of innovation and holistic thinking, all while blending in with the flames from the chainsaw.
Me: I think I have a plane to catch. (Exit conference door right)
I'll be posting on my Twitter feed for the next few days.
A small, gentle question that could change your life
If you're lucky, sometime this summer you'll get a chance to step back and take stock of how you're doing.
In particular, I'd invite you to consider: are you creating a good experience in whatever you do, day-to-day? And more importantly, are you having a good experience? By "good" I mean truly, authentically good, in the long term, for you and the community and the world.
It was a radio interview that got me thinking.
Julian Koenig, one of the most accomplished ad men of the 20th century (he was even referenced on "Mad Men"), was featured in a recent episode of my favorite radio show, "This American Life." Now at an age when he's looking back on his life and career, he had this to say about his profession:
Advertising is built on puffery, on, at heart, deception. I don't think anyone can go proudly into the next world with a career built on deception, no matter how well they do it.
That's quite a statement about your business, after a career that spans decades. And it speaks volumes about the methods and intent of advertising, that all-American activity. But it also raises a more important question:
What can you say about the work you do?
When you're in your twilight years and looking back on what you poured out your life to create, what will you say?
Here's what Steve Jobs said when he addressed Stanford's graduating class a few years ago:
...for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
And Seth Godin wrote, around the same time, about the decision you make every day:
The thing is, we still live in a world that's filled with opportunity. In fact, we have more than an opportunity -- we have an obligation. An obligation to spend our time doing great things. To find ideas that matter and to share them. To push ourselves and the people around us to demonstrate gratitude, insight, and inspiration. To take risks and to make the world better by being amazing. ... You get to make a choice. You can remake that choice every day, in fact. It's never too late to choose optimism, to choose action, to choose excellence. The best thing is that it only takes a moment -- just one second -- to decide.
Now I understand that, especially in a recession, one especially good experience is being able to pay the rent, keep the lights on, and have health insurance. And if that means a job writing sorta-kinda deceptive ad copy, so be it.
With that said, I think there's an urgency to this question - perhaps even more so now, when we're naturally taking stock of our work. Whatever you do, is it a good experience? For you? For the people you create it for?
- - -
See also:
• Video interview of Julian Koenig
• For what it's worth, another thought on looking back - Do not go gentle into that good night.
Destroying the experience of place: torn down train stations
A cautionary tale for our times, given the current lust for flashy, ego-driven architecture: 11 beautiful train stations that fell to the wrecking ball, often at the behest of brutalist architects in the 1960s. These train stations were more than Beaux Arts masterpieces; they were often the heart of their communities. Ripping them out, and replacing them with trendy 1960s Soviet-style blocks, were the starchitects of their time, designing for short-term fashions rather than the actual usage of the building or its connection with the community. The long-term consequences have been disastrous.
The link above includes great before-and-after photos. This is my favorite, from Rochester, NY. Here's the train station built in 1914, before it was torn down in the 1960s:
And here's what got built on that site, in 1965:
How to write a novel from Google's autocomplete
Begin a Google search for "should i" and you'll see what looks like the high points of a pretty interesting novel:
Just like a good Russian novel, it doesn't have a happy ending.
But begin a search for "should i get" and you see the arc of a story with a more positive ending. It's practically "Bridget Jones's Diary."
Any other good "autocomplete novels" out there? Post 'em in the comments.
Nice summary of the Hollywood blockbuster business:
People complain about Hollywood's tendency to be unadventurous with its big-money titles, but the moviegoing masses clearly get the most excited when they are not being surprised. In other words, the multiplex really rocks when movies are served up the McDonalds way: predictably and comfortably. "Transformers" is definitely that.
A tip for leading members in the community
A thought on successful community. Atul Gawande reports how an "anchor tenant" (a leading member) can make or break the network:
The anchor tenants that set norms encouraging the free flow of ideas and collaboration, even with competitors, produced enduringly successful communities, while those that mainly sought to dominate did not.
Collaboration - even with competitors present - allows a community to thrive. If one member tries to dominate, though, the community withers.
This is much to the point of our Executive Councils, where members help each other, even in a context where competitors are present - and no one member owns the network.
Quote above is from The Cost Conundrum, from the New Yorker recently. I've listed it in the Gel Health recommended reading page, though I'd say it's required reading for anyone interested in health care.
