Big Ideas

Great YouTube video

From John Battelle:
Brilliant Video On The Difference Between Apple and MSFT

Very funny stuff.. I love that it's an internal MSFT video :)

Talent doesn't matter, it's all hard work!

Ok, well,  not exactly. But, what this piece by Dubner and Levitt (of Freakonomics fame) does say is that many skills that are believed to be genetic talents are really the result of hard work and deliberate practice.

For example, I've always believed that my strong memory had less to do with genetics and more to do with the fact that I wanted to have a good memory and worked at it. I've noticed that people make statements like, "Oh, you're so lucky. My memory sucks." But the research that Dubner and Levitt point to indicates that those are just excuses. Instead, applying "deliberate practice" can get you to the level of proficiency that you'd like to achieve. It involves, "setting specific goals, obtaining immediate feedback and concentrating as much on technique as on outcome."

Yup, that sounds about right to me.. Set goals. Measure. Solicit feedback. Improve.

Now, go fix yourselves :)

Tags: Dubner, Levitt, Freakonomics, Deliberate Practice, self-improvement

I don't do nearly enough fiction reading..

I read a lot. I always have. I think it's probably been the single most important contributor to my success (as large or small as it may be..) over time. I believe the ability to educate myself and to discover new areas of interest is hugely important to building a sustainable process of self-improvement and critique. That's not to say that reading is the only way to achieve that end, but for me, it's certainly been the most effective.

I also find that reading is one of the most fulfilling activities I can pursue. I rarely feel as centered, productive and healthy as when I'm reading regularly.

Having said that, I've noticed that over the past decade (makes me sound old doesn't it??), my consumption of fiction books has really diminished. Right now, of the 50-some books in my apartment that are part of my everpresent "to read" list, perhaps 5 of them are fiction. Which is why I came across this piece in the New York Times on the Best Works of American Fiction and felt a pang of regret. None of these books is even remotely close to my radar for books to read and browsing through the list, I wonder how much I'm missing out on.

It's a question of time, of course. But I wonder if reading more fiction might make me a more productive reader in general. What I mean is this: what if my propensity to choose non-fiction actually made it harder for me to digest the density of non-fiction content because I never give myself a "breather" from it?

I've found over the years that I'm less and less capable of reading just one book at a time. For the most part, I am usually reading 3 or 4 books at the same time, some of which might fall off the list. I have attributed this to the density of most non-fiction and simultaneously, the constant march towards faster, shorter, less dense media. The Internet is only the latest in a string of media delivery vehicles that has allowed us to break down content to bite size easily consumable pieces, to the detriment of our attention spans. BUT, what if mixing up the formats (digital text, video, printed text etc) and densities (non-fiction vs. fiction) actually meant that we could make the transition between the choices more easily and consume more. What if the simple act of introducing more fiction into my reading list meant that I could cut back to just reading one non-fiction book at a time and also consume bigger "bites" at a time, so to speak? What if that was not only true, but that implementing a balance between the Internet, television, radio, magazines, books, etc would make all of us more productive and capable of further media consumption? What if our brains got less tired as a result of strategically mixing up our media consumption?

Hmmm.. looks like I've got some books to go read :)

Tags: reading, media consumption, attention spans, fiction vs. nonfiction books, multitasking

This is very smart..

Viacom's got some pretty smart people working for it.. I've got another post in the offing about the genius of Comedy Central, but I had to blog very quickly about this: Best Week Ever Podcast XML.

That's right, Best Week Ever is being released as a full podcast every week. Not only that, it's got no rights restrictions on it and is available to mash up. They're hoping to have it gain more popularity by enabling people's creativity. Genius! I love it, I think this is a very strong step in the right direction and will surprise people in the ways in which the content gets put to use. Now, if I could just manage to learn how to edit video...

Bawls, the ultimate energy drink..

Bawls, the ultimate energy drink.., originally uploaded by rganguly47.

How big are yours?

Fugployee of the Month

You know, I don't read it often, but GoFugYourself gets high marks from several of my (female) friends. But, when Carrie said that today's was genius and really worth the time, I had to check it out. Let's just say that I'm slightly in awe of the creative genius at work here: Go Fug Yourself: Fugployee of the Month. 

I think I have a crush on these girls...smart, funny and bloggers. Awesome.

Where'd all the mallrats go??

It's 6:15 p.m. on Friday afternoon and I'm hanging out at the mall (Bellevue Square, if you must know.. my old stomping grounds). Given that I'm wearing my Yahoo! backpack and I'm walking around in jeans and sneakers, I look like your typical high school kid, minus the 5 o'clock shadow. I should fit in. But I don't. Why? Because the high school kids don't hang out here anymore.

It used to be that when you were a teenager everyone hung out at places of commerce; the mall, the movie theater, your local Safeway, maybe the McDonald's. But that's not the case as much anymore. Danah Boyd's done a terrific job addressing this peripherally in her discussion of what kids are doing on MySpace. One of her main points is that kids these days are far more restricted in their ability to just "hang out" in physical places together. So, fewer of them meet up at the mall or at Starbucks. The restrictions, as a result, drive them to hang out virtually at a place like MySpace. While it'd be hyperbole to say that "nobody" hangs out at the mall anymore, the picture above certainly paints the situation clearly: the mall's popularity as a social meeting place has diminished noticeably. If you could get teenagers to sit down for 2 hours to watch a movie (a topic for another post) they probably wouldn't identify that well with Kevin Smith's "Mallrats".

You might ask yourself, "So, why does this matter? If there are fewer mallrats, my shopping experience is faster and that's a good thing." Well, assuming that you actually shop at malls regularly (do you?? I doubt it..) there is a reason to pause and worry about the fast lines...

We live in a consumption society.

You might abhor the thought, but stop and contemplate that for a moment. The fact of the matter is that the U.S. is driven by an overwhelming consumer passion. With very few exceptions, Americans look to shopping as a social salve. Feel down about your last relationship that went sour? Go shopping. Bored and have nothing to do? Call up a friend and head to Union Square. Haven't purchased something in a few hours? Head to Starbucks and treat yourself to that soy chai latte, and revel in the simple pleasure of warm milk, foam and espresso.

Avoiding the discussion of whether or not this is a good thing for us, I want to suggest that this socialization begins at a very early age. The fact that we hung out with our friends at malls, supermarkets, etc was very important to our development as lifetime professional consumers. The fundamental engine of our economy is a fire within each and every one of us that is built and stoked during our most formative years. That fire exists, it smolders within the teenagers of today, inadequately fed but already powerful. But they don't get to hang out around the commerce opportunities that we did. They're being forced to hang out online. And yes, there is general agreement that that's where we should advertise to them. But that's only half of the consumption equation (you know, X+Y+Z=I bought an iPod!), if that.

The overlooked opportunity is driving that shopping activity while people are hanging out. Say you're on MySpace with a friend, posting pictures, IM'ing back and forth, leaving messages all over the place. Where along that digital trek do you get to stop and check out a storefront? "Oh, this is so cute" your friend says, pointing out a Coach purse that you then examine and think about buying. Wait, you can't do that right now... Why the F not?!?!  Where are the innovative retailers that understand that shopping is a social activity? Consumption is driven not just by advertising, but by your peers. They give you feedback on purchases, they recommend purchases and they fundamentally give you permission to be a consumer. So, if friends are hanging out together online, why aren't we building the shopping experiences that tie in with their social activities? It's widely assumed that the "online shopping mall" is a done deal; that Amazon and others have sewn up this opportunity. I suggest that we remain confused about the concept and that we're still in search of the online equivalent of the shopping mall. I would even go so far as to say that Amazon believes this too - just watch all of the Web services they're enabling and the features they're implementing: HIT, Product Wikis, and their Associates program come to mind.

This began as an observation of the lack of teenagers at the mall and has evolved into a bit of a bigger diatribe about the massive opportunity that retailers are currently missing out on. Perhaps it's a lot to ask though. Can any one retailer build a mall? Maybe the question should be asked of the people aggregating the teenage consumers: MySpace, Facebook, Yahoo!, AOL, Google, MSN.. who among you is working on providing for a social shopping experience? Who among you has reached out to retailers and suggested that you can work with them to evolve the online experience and embrace the massive sales opportunities that exist in the new digital mediums. Those of us out there with the wherewithal to accomplish this should be asking ourselves, "How do we create the next generation of Mallrats?"

Tags: social commerce, culture of consumption, online retailing, next generation retail

where do you find it?

where do you find it?, originally uploaded by rganguly47.

Your alone time. How do you do it? Do you make the time? Do you find it? Can you steal it? I don't know the how, but i sure as hell know the why. Don't be part of the ones who get lost about it is all i can say.