AnalogousTendencies

Don't Demand, don't threaten, Nudge!!! (every else is doing it)

2009-05-31T13:41:00.004-05:00

Ok everyone else isn't doing it, but if they were the world would work better and you'd probably be nudging too.

The Book Nudge covers the use of choice architecture to nudge people into doing the right thing while maintaining all of their right to choose the wrong thing. When you create a system you have goals that you'd like to achieve and behaviours that you'd like people to follow. We also design systems all the time, but we may not realize we do it. The system of bed time for the kids, bug tracking for your dev team or what to eat first with a meal. By altering how the choices are presented, we can guide people to make "better" choices while still giving them all right to choose badly. If the cookies and unhealthy foods are placed at the end of the cafeteria line there's less room for "crap" on the tray after running gauntlet of the healthy foods.

The arrangement of the choices in space and time matters. The choice of defaults matters. These can signal impacts that might not be apparent to the user. If light bulbs had the total cost of ownership for 5 years print on their packaging no one would be an incandescent. Make the impacts salient so people know what their choices mean.

This book has changed my outlook as to how and what I design and I think it has great merit as a technique for all of us as we strive to help others see the impacts of their actions. These techniques guide people to make better choices with out restrictive rules. Seems like a better way to me...

What do 7,000 Kevlar vests or 500,000 school lunches have in common

2007-08-16T18:09:00.000-05:00

The answer is that these will not be purchased by the US government because $10,000,000 of your money was misappropriated by Representative Don Young. In 2005, Rep. Young added a $10 million dollar construction project to a transportation bill after it had been passed by the House and Senate prior to it being signed by the President.

This seems pretty damn illegal to me and to the Courts as well (see Field v. Clark 1892). During the period between the approval by the Congress and the signing by the President, the legislation cannot be altered without another round of votes. Young added this project with no such vote. The project will be built by a contractor who donated $40,000 to the representative’s campaign. Rep. Young really belongs in jail, not in the House.

I called my Senators, my Rep and the Speaker of the House, explained what Mr. Young had done and asked that they issue formal complaints. I also called Mr. Young’s office and politely asked for his resignation prior to his arrest, which would be imminent were I the Attorney General. I do not expect the best out of Congress, but this kind of thing turns the institution into a joke and I don’t think we can let that stand.

Here are the phones numbers, the call is easy (just remember to breath, be polite and not to threaten with anything other than appropriate legal measures)

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House: 202-225-0100

Main House Number: 202-224-3121

Main Senate Number: 202-224-3121

Rep. Don Young’s Number: 202-225-5765

The Senators probably have no authority here but they can contact the Speaker of the House and complain seeing as the bill they voted on wasn't the one that became law. Were I a Senator, I’d be a pretty pissed about that.

Drinking the GTD Koolaid

2007-07-14T17:52:00.001-05:00

Update: I started using Remember the milk and it is great. RTM integrates with my iGoogle home page, gmail, my smartphone and has a great web application all on its own. You can create todos quickly using dates, days of the week or phrases like "two days before Rob's birthday" and the app does the right thing. It is a do-what-I-mean application.

A while back I started reading Zen Habits and Life Hacker. I heard about the Getting Things Done cult like productivity system and the Zen to Done simplification on it. I read a bunch of articles and downloaded the free[Jello Dashboard for outlook.

I'm totally hooked and am hopeful that I'll be more effective. What I've noticed so far is that my inbox is damn near empty, my outlook todos are now useful (shocking) and I'm feeling in control (hope its not just an illusion). Here are some links to better explain the system:

Beginners Guide to GTD
Why is GTD So Popular
GTD Faq

Weakness, Failures and Strength

2006-12-02T14:46:00.000-05:00

When I was a kid Mr. Rogers told me that when things don't go my way its a chance to improve and not a failure. I didn't listen to him then. Well, he is looking like the Buddha now beacuse he was right, really right. The idea isn't new and its easily forgotten. My failures are chances to rethink and explore how I do things. They are data and how I use them determines my effectiveness in my relationships and my job.

My weaknesses are strengths (and sometimes my strengths are weaknesses). If I'm weak on documenting my source code it may force me to write more readable code or may tell me that I need to work on that area. If I'm skilled in using a debugger it may mask the fact that the programs I write are not robust. Fear of failure and the hiding of weaknesses will not help me, they will only make things worse. By embracing and studying all three I stand the best chance to improve and enjoy what I do.

Here are a few others who agree with this theorum:

Bootstrapping: Starting an Open Source Business With Almost No Money!

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Jason Fried on Embracing Constraints

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- Getting Real - The 37signals Book on their practices

Mindsets, what belief in the ability to grow can do

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If life gives you lemons, make a marketing campaign for lemonaide?

2006-08-18T22:41:00.000-05:00

Some very creative folks with a little too much time on their hands turned a Mentos diet coke reaction into art. The people at Mentos saw this as a marketing opportunity and jumped on it. The folks at the Coke just don't get it and don't mention it.

If no publicity is bad publicity, then Coke is missing the boat.

Larry Weber, Chairman and CEO of W2 Group, Inc on The Rise of Unpaid Media

The Art
Mentos: prominent display of the combo art

DietCoke: no mention of the combo art

Nooks, Crannies and Customers

2006-07-08T17:48:00.000-05:00

Where is the boundary between the company and the customer?
Traditionally, its a wall with marketing, sales and support reaching out to the customer. With blogs, wikis and other writable web tools the wall changes into a cloud where both people on the inside and those on the outside can add value to the product in the same virtual space. Using these technologies effectively allows companies build an environment around their product that can allow for the following:

Customers helping other customers solve problems
Customers discovering new ways to use the product
Marketing and sales reaping ideas and trend data for R&D from this cooperative space
Building excitement and tapping into the "wisdom of the crowd"
Feeding the customer's inate desire for a sense of tribe
Communicating with marketing resistant customers

Examples:

Star Trek fans revived the show and now support a multimedia ecosystem of product offerings
The Scion enthusiast community allows Toyota to monetize the after-market customization market and capture more dollars from car owners

The following are links to better information on how to achieve the goals of reaching marketing resistant customers and improving value:

Larry Webber on the Rise of Unpaid Media at the Syndicate Conference (quite good)

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an article on Community Documentation
Robert Scoble and Shel Israel: Corporation in a Blogging World

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Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers

Scott Anderson from HP on Corporate Blogging

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Thinking in Pictures

2006-07-06T14:18:00.000-05:00

There's too much data out there. Manuel Lima has looked at how people deal with it and created a very interesting site called visual complexity that is a visual catalog of solutions. Its eye candy and possibly useful in a usability kind of way.

Ben Fry, MIT, Anemone project

“Wo” (Keanu Reeves on the limitless possibilities of virtual worlds and collaboration)

2006-07-04T08:50:00.000-05:00

When Doug Engelbart started on the path of creating the graphical work environment that we all use today, his goal was to help solve the most important problems facing humanity. Since he couldn't determine which problems were the most important ones, he decided to help people work together better to face these challenges.

The mouse and window have been with us for several decades and we are about to jump to the next level of interaction. The following links highlight some of the mind bending aspects of these new worlds:

Second Life:
a 3-D environment where the residents (a.k.a users) build and own everything. It has an economy which links back to our world (first life?). When I last checked it claimed a population of over 300,000 people. Oreilly's make magazine, which covers interesting DIY technology projects (hacks), has an area in second life where the make projects are rendered in 3-D allowing folks to step through the projects and manipulate them. For more information on SecondLife and where its going, checkout the Second Life Future Salon

A Force More Powerful: a video game that allows social activists to simulate campaigns so they can pose what-if questions. It also allows various groups to share tactics and strategies.
- Ivan Marovic, the force behind the force , speaks at Pop!Tech
PodCasts from the Emerging Technologies and the Accelerating Change conferences:
- Intelligence Amplification Panel discussion of Second Life and Croquet
- Brave New Virtual Worlds
- Real Money in Virtual Economies

Edward Castronova: an economist who began looking at virtual worlds as a diversion and now spends much of his time on the topic.

Excellent Python Book: Python Cookbook, 2nd Edition

2006-06-22T11:34:00.000-05:00

Normally, I'm not a big fan of cookbooks, I find them full of little patterns and quick solutions, but I don't have any desire to read them cover to cover to improve my design and implementation skills. The book Python Cookbook, 2nd Edition is quite different.

After hearing one of the authors, Alex Martelli, talk about object oriented programming at pycon2005 I picked up an electronic copy of his cookbook, through safari, and it has been really helpful to me. I have found it does a very good job of providing both solution with the right level of detail behind so I can improve how I design and code.

So, if you have a slight grasp of python and a problem to solve, this can be quite helpful.

Excerpt from FeedBurner page can be found below. FYI, the audio quality is a little dodgy in the beginning
Design Patterns and Python OOP: Objects by Design Slides available as a pdf

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The Rise of The Vaccum Terminators

2006-06-19T18:53:00.000-05:00

Robots were invented back in the 1920s by the Capek brothers in their play "Rossum's Universal Robots." They have moved from fiction to fact in the world of industrial automation. Recently, we have seen them enter our every day lives in a meaningful way. Here are a few interesting robo-links (the majority end in a podcast):

They Will Kill Us All
iRobot Corporation, they invented the roomba and some other interesting bots
Pleo, a cute toy dinosaur (that's somewhat bright)
Beach Blanket Robot, Theo Jansen's evolving robots (Pop!Tech podcast)
"Social Robitcs, Smocial Robitics", changing our perception of the world through robots.

Feral Robotic Dogs, from toys to environmental sensors

OOZ Robotics, robotic geese allow us to interact with nature in new ways

Droids on the ISS, from Science@Nasa

Saving the Earth by increasing your profit margin

2006-06-12T18:42:00.000-05:00

"Reduce, Reuse and Recycle" they ain't just for the environment any more. I'd like to reduce my electrical bill and reuse the cash for gasoline for other things. I'll protect the environment because I'm tree hugging sandalista, but I know that economic incentives will trump good intentions any day of the week and don't really have a problem with that. Energy and resource use efficiency results in products which take less money to produce and that others are more likely to buy. Which is what the EPA's Energy Star and Green Lights Programs are all about.

Energy Consumption
If you reduce your energy consumption you reduce your bottom line.

Flat Panel Displays use less than half of what CRT displays do and perhaps make employees happier too.
- 150 watts per hour vs 50 watts

Energy Star Computer settings can be centralized and pushed out to all machines via login scripts.
- 7pm-7am would mean between 600 and 1800 watts per saved per display per day
- for a site with 2000 machines, its a savings of $21,900-$65,700 per year if you pay $0.05 per KWH

Lighting Systems and HVAC systems

Hydrogen fuel injection (HFI)
- Vehicle engines generate more electricity than is needed. The surplus can be used to split distilled water into hydrogen and oxygen which are injected into the engine to enhance combustion. This was reported to be saving trucking companies $700 per truck per month and has a $2000-$2500 installation charge (a return on investment of 3-4 months). Imagine how much could be saved if a company with 1000 vehicles saw a $500 per month reduction in fuel consumption ($6 million per year)

Resource Consumption
If a vendor sells you chemicals and his profit is based on the volume purchased, his incentive is that you consume a lot. Efficiency of your process isn't his goal. If a vendor manages the chemical lifecycle and gets a fixed amount of cash for each widget you produce, his incentive is that not a drop of the chemical is wasted because less chemicals used means more profit for him.

There is a new trend where resources are conceptually dematerialized from objects to services and incentive patterns modeled on maximizing the consumption of the service and not the object (its SOA for the real world). This yields better use of the resources and a more profitable vendor-consumer relationship. So far companies like Ratheon and GM have implemented these kinds of arrangements.

PodCast: Clean Products Panel Discussion from the "Bridging the Gap Conference"
Article: Toward a Zero-Emissions Economy

Conclusion
All businesses make one thing, profit. All must use resources and energy (which constitute a cost). Let's maximize the revenue by minimizing the use of energy and resources. Its good for the earth, its good for PR and its good for profits.

Freedom To Grow

2006-06-08T00:22:00.000-05:00

Is intelligence fixed or is it changing? It could be either and its quite difficult to determine which is true or what limits exist. Holding a belief or a "mindset" that characteristics are fixed or mutable does have quite serious consequences. In her book Mindset : The New Psychology of Success psychologist Carol Dweck examines these with examples and case studies from education, sports and business. I was introduced to the book by an episode of Dr. Moira Gunn's TechNation that I got in my IT Conversations podcast feed.

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If I hold a fixed mindset then what I do in the world is a direct representation of my worth as a person. A failure is quite bad and I must deflect it or accept that I am flawed. If I hold a growth mindset, then my intellectual or emotional abilities can change. A failure is merely data or feedback that points to where I can work to improve. Failure still is a little crappy, but doesn't have the same sting. Problems suddenly become opportunities. Compassion towards myself and others becomes easier as the internal monologue of "Mr. X is an idiot" changes to be "Mr. X is an idiot at this point in time." Mr. X is free to grow to become a different person which is especially good when Mr. X is me.

If I am a parent (which I am) I can give my daughter confidence not by inflating minor events or outcomes, but instead by praising effort and strategies.
If I am an employee I can take risks with greater ease because the consequences are data not a blight upon my self worth.
If I am a manager (which I am thankfully not) my employees all can be groomed to be superstars. They may not all reach the same level at the same time, but they all can improve.

In the end, its just a belief. It is much like believing in free will. I can't tell if the belief is accurate, but if it is and I choose not to believe then I lose. Therefore, I choose to accept free will and growth mindsets as givens.

Stealing From Nature

2006-06-07T22:40:00.000-05:00

I heard an interesting podcast a while back about biomimicry (or how to plagiarise from nature to improve your designs). The Theory goes something like this:

The planet's had either 4.2 billion years (or 10,000 if you don't trust evolution, geology, astro-physics, quantum physics, genetics and host of other disciplines) to come up with some excellent processes that are highly robust. Nature's put a lot of work into encoding information, allocating resources and managing complexity reliably. No animals were harmed in the making of these designs (except for those that were prey and they were sort of asking for it). Why not be "inspired" by her designs (I believe nature uses a Creative Commons or a BSD license, so its safe to reuse)?

So, when thinking about a problem asking the question "where does something like this happen in nature" and then going out to see just how such a system works can be useful process for coming up with innovative designs.

WWND - What Would Nature Do?

I hope this is of some use to your future designs and to mine as well...

Biomimicry In Audio
Biomimicry In Print
Biomimicry Case Studies on the Web

Easy access to the right information

2006-06-04T21:04:00.000-05:00

Imagine a system that captured all company presentations, stored them, and let you know about the relevant ones... The folks at FX Palo Alto Laboratory are developing one and it looks pretty cool.

What this blog is all about

2006-06-04T21:02:00.000-05:00

A while back the Needham public school system wrote to say that they were going to chuck my permanent record (so much for permanence) and asked if I'd like to have it. I got it and saw the horror show that was my early academic career. Problems with math, problems with authority etc.. The one thing that stuck me funny was that they said I was quite good with analogies and metaphors. I choose to believe they were wrong about the rest and right about that one. This report made me realize that I've always been quite good at seeing how unlike things can be linked together.

This blog will be a bit of an annotated list of interesting things that I find and sometimes how they fit together. It will focus on software engineering and build automation as that's my day job.

FYI, the postings here do not represent the views of my past, present, or future employers*

* the information of future employers came from the physic Friends Network prior to their totally unexpected bankruptcy