Archives for July 2013

McDonalds blatant attempt to hijack your subconscious associations

“You want the very best for your kids, and so do we.”

McDonalds is a large corporation. They care about profits. That is the system we have created. I am sure there are plenty of employees at McDonalds who actually do care about health, but man it makes me sad to see their happy meal marketing.

You take a peak at the options and get to see:

“A delicious cheeseburger with kids sized world famous fries, apple slices and your choice of fat free chocolate milk, low fat white milk or apple juice.”

The irony is that this is meant to be healthy! This isn’t just the Super Size Me menu. If you believe in the notion that at least some of us are carbohydrate resistant then you look at that menu of options in disgust:

— Bun: carbs and wheat…. and not exactly ezekiel bread

— Fries: carbs, and how about all of the oil and preservatives etc?

— Apple slices: Ok….. apples are a fairly low carb fruit, and at least you get fibre with the sugar, but still more carbs and sugar added to the carbs

— Fat free milk == sugar sugar sugar (full fat milk is better!)

— Apple juice == sugar sugar sugar (without the fibre even)

— Meat: some protein…. but how processed is McDonalds meat? Are we talking organic grass fed here? Er….

— Cheese: keep dairy small, and I am sure this isn’t processed cheese :/

The billboard

I keep driving past the billboard that is at the top of this post, and it makes me sad. I happened to have recently read Predictably Irrational, Buddha’s Brain, Thinking, Fast and Slow among other texts that really show how the oldest parts of the brain do so much for us, and how they can be easily tricked.

The McDonalds trick of tying happiness sentiments to their food is the oldest in the book, and MY is it direct. The advertisement cleanly throws my brain a montage of:

– Their brand

– The happy meal box

– A smile

– I’m loving it (you can’t not read words, so you are saying that you love this in your mind!!!)

– Using the word “Be” and the smile to create a “Be happy” association. Even the word “Be” pisses me off. As I explore meditation I am trying hard to “be”, and I don’t want to “be” that! 🙂

I started to feel so pissed about it that I actively stare at the billboard, put a growl on my face, and think bad thoughts as I try to associate bad things with that world. This seems like I am going a little crazy, but I think I was extra sensitive due to the story that a friend told me about how he put on a slew of weight (after losing a ton):

“One friend told me his story, where he had lost 90 pounds and put 50 back on. I had to ask what caused the reversal, as I wanted to learn from that. He said that one day he moved house, and after a tiring day of moving boxes he stopped in at McDonalds. Fast forward a month later and he had gone there pretty much every day. It is that easy. I am so glad that he passed that on as it helps me be mindful of the long path ahead.”

The more I think about this, the more I wonder if we will ever regulate this type of information and hijacking of the brain. Where does the rabbit hole go.

Enterprise + Mobile App + Web Platform = ?

The Web platform has been huge for the entire planet, but I think that it has been incredibly empowering for the Enterprise. I think that some of the reasons for this are:

– The Web has a great learning curve, so IT departments can get up and running (quicker than some other technology)

– The power of the URL allows the decentralized world enables groups to do their thing, as well as unification through ugly portals 😉

– Securing data access is important, and Web access with the many tools out there can enable a lot of fantastic access control.

Fast forward to 2013, the era of mobile. Folks can put together mobile UIs (responsive or not), but the gap between the Enterprise and the Consumer is growing (feels like the wealth gap!) and the users who come with their BYOD expect mobile applications that make their live easier.

Ben and I have always enjoyed going for an ice cream with Abe Elias (since the old Ajaxian/YUI-Ext days!). We end up talking about all sorts of things, from tech to beyond… and the last time we had a chat Abe showed us an early prototype of Space.

I was excited to see what an “Enterprise Browser” (or integrated app launcher) could do. What would it look like to marry the flexibility of the Web with the centralization needs of the Enterprise and the find-ability of the app store model.

When you look at many of the current approaches (e.g. VPN tunneling ALL traffic and mixing the worlds) they seem bolt on and archaic.

I think that Sencha Space has the opportunity to show a new way that gets the abstractions right for the Enterprise and the end users.

Being mindful about your choices

In the space of two hours I had two conversations that felt very similar but were in very different contexts.

Conversation 1: Shall we use CoffeeScript or “naked” JavaScript

Conversation 2: Shall I run or bicycle?

I noticed two levels of abstraction in the discussions.

High Level: It Doesn’t Matter

When it comes to building a great experience for your user do you think that the deciding factor will be the technical choice between JavaScript or CoffeeScript? I hope not. Maybe it would be better to spend some of the mindshare on what user needs you are solving. We have all been there. Hell, The Internship even had a joke about vi vs. emacs. Religious wars are common.

The same can be said for the exercise discussion. The choice can create stop energy (famously noted by Barry Schwartz) so instead of run or cycle you come out the end with neither. When it comes to cardiovascular health, the most important factor will be choosing ONE of these (or something else of course).

Low Level: The Details Matter

It is easy to look at the high level and poo-poo the discussion. The details do matter though. A couple of factors that I tend to weigh are:

What will make me most excited?

If I am really excited to use CoffeeScript, that alone may be enough to push me over the edge. If I am jazzed about it I will work harder at the problem, and this passion will result in a better project. Beware of the ramifications though. You may feel like it will be more fun but in reality that may not become Truth. On the downside you may spend much time getting some bleeding edge thing working, and there may be the cost of learning something new, and then of course there is maintenance and leverage to think about. I try hard to take a step back and really look at the details before making the gut feel jump, and also have an chat about “can I instead feel more excited about what I am building over how”.

What are the social ramifications?

No one is an island. How does the entire team feel about the choice? I try to not be selfish and get excited about doing what makes sense for the team.

I have to admit that writing in CoffeeScript often makes me happier as it feels right. This is how I feel about Ruby too. It fits my brain. One of the reasons that I like CoffeeScript is that as well as fitting my way of thinking, it is close to the bone rather than a huge abstraction. For example, compare to something like GWT where in theory a Java developer can just write something but in practice you bump up against the leaky abstraction. It is wise to actually understand JavaScript even if you don’t write it all day long. When you sit on top of another platform you also run into ownership issues. For example, ES5 is learning from CoffeeScript and will have changes that conflict, so it will be interesting to see how that all comes out.

You can’t predict the future

The team changes. Context changes. I am trying to consider maintenance and the long term more and more. If I value building a solution that can be maintained and changed easily… and one that allows new members to join the team and get up and running, then I will be future proofing.

When it comes to the exercise question, your team mates can really matter too. Buddies on a running team that you want to hang with? Cycling to work? It has been shown time and time again that social pressure matters a lot, so consider that as part of your choice.

Many folks have told me I just don’t like running. I felt the same way, but gave myself a month to see if I could change that feeling. It did take about a month but I came out the other side. This is not to say that you should choose running when you would prefer to cycle though. Making a choice that you have the best chance of keeping up with is the most important factor. I was trying an experiment to see if I could use mind over matter. I really wanted it to work as I feel like I get more bang for the buc with running, in that anything from 30 minutes to an hour is a real work-out. I have friends who go on multi-hour rides which sounds fun… but I didn’t want to take that time.

Now I need to try mind over matter with technology too. What if I gave Clojure a month long chance? 🙂