Archives for September 2014

In my first post on the hating topic I discussed how we like to find black and white answers and black list and go after general memes vs. seeing any nuance (e.g. there can be a notion of ‘good’ rap music).

Next up is a rant in the opposite direction, on how we often love to pick a scape goat as the root cause of a complex problem.

Take the iOS 8.0.1 debacle this week (which affected me… and I find it hard to believe that me and my closest buddies who were all affected were in the 40k, but hey I will give them the benefit of the doubt!).

It was a screw up of large proportion. Yes, we may have lost some trust (I not want to wait for a number of people to upgrade before I do…. which is probably a smart practice anyway).

But now we get to the blame game:

The employee in question, who has worked at Apple since 2000, is in charge of a team of more than “100 people around the world” responsible for testing the software before it reaches consumers

What made us reach out to jump on the QA guy in charge of the group? Do we always jump on that guy? The kicker is that we do this because:

[The manager] was removed from the maps team after the software gave users unreliable directions and mislabeled landmarks

Two strikes! This poor chap is now responsible for the entire Apple Maps system being released too soon, as well as a QA glitch on a software update.

I am sure that Apple Maps was shipped poorly SOLELY because of this one guy. I am sure everyone else (including management higher up the chain) was shouting to NOT release it yet and he single-handedly pushed it through. I can picture him running up to Tim and Jony and Scott to shout “I know it doesn’t work well BUT WE MUST SHIP IT”.

Erm, no.

Sure, people take responsibility for failures in groups that report into them. This doesn’t mean that they are the sole people responsible, and I have often witnessed times where people in those positions are actually warning loudly that something isn’t ready yet upper management has a different context and they boldly take on the risk.

Calm down, haters.

Do you despise the term “gamification” as much as I do? There is something about it that feels so silicon valley pretentious in that “we have created a new TERM for something so NEW”.

Some products do a good job of using various mechanics to help push you, but a pet peeve of mine is when people run with points, widgets, foofles, and other tactics that get in the way more than they help.

The latest example for me is Basis. I was looking forward to giving the watch a try as it had health data that I wanted to capture. Their mission is a good one:

To help fit health into our busy lives. We want to help people become the best possible versions of themselves, every day.

I got it setup and wanted to configure my “habits” across sleep, walking, running etc, but quickly got hit by:

Notice the “Earn 100 points to unlock this Habit Slot”. Are you kidding me? I can’t setup another habit until I unlock a slot with points? How long is it going to take 1o0 points?

This isn’t a game. It is my health. If I want to add a habit LET ME ADD ONE.

I know that this shouldn’t piss me off this much, but man. If people want to use game mechanics to make themselves exercise more etc awesome, all for it, but don’t force it on me.

I was feeling smug. I walked over to Philz in downtown Palo Alto, which had a line that rivaled that of the one that I saw at the Apple Store today (ok, not quite that bad ;).

However, the line didn’t bother me. Just as the pre-order crew could walk past everyone and pick up their iPhone’s, I walked past the line up to the area that holds the pre-ordered coffees (thanks to Order Ahead). I found my name, grabbed my cup, and exited stage right.

I felt like a nobleman able to pass by the masses, but my “key” wasn’t a blood line, but a lil bit of knowledge. Order Ahead let me select exactly what I wanted (in this case: a philtered soul, black) and I never had to talk to a soul.

Then it hit me. Was it good for my soul to be in my own world? A ghost in the store? Isn’t one of the things that makes Philz great the baristas? Isn’t it nice to connect with another human in the morning? Is that 5 minutes really the make or break to my productivity? (or did it just have me on Facebook or Twitter or Bejewelled?)

I feel disconnected. I have a friend who is very outgoing, the kind of person who will talk to anyone. Over time it has started to feel that people perceive this as odd. We have lost the art of talking to strangers.

This isn’t totally new of course. I remember sitting on the Tube in London with a crowded group with their heads in their newspapers. God forbid we could have a chat. Now the newspapers have been replaced with phones, with new addictions to eat up those minutes.

In the case of the coffee grab and go, the trend is anecdotally there. When I go into Philz there is now a large number of cups compared to the old days where my order was rare.

I think I am also more sensitive to this phenominon having read “Go Wild”, and other books that highlight the importance of being connected to each other. It feels like an area where we haven’t gotten to the bottom of the true importance.

Selfie Disney Sticks

The growth of the “selfie” boggles the mind, as does the incorrect usage (a selfie isn’t just any old photo of you!). Then you see the “selfie sticks”.

Someone was talking about how many they saw at Disney, and once again the immediate thought was:

“Wait, in a place with millions of people all around you, you would rather carry around a stick than ask someone around you to just TAKE YOUR PHOTO”

Devolution

It feels like we are de-evolving at times. And not in the Scottish sense, which is another item to ponder wrt isolation. What does it mean to be a country these days in the global market? What rights are you looking for, at which level? It starts to feel a lil like a re-org to me at the moment. These things all have trade offs and false choices. From my distant position it feels like both campaigns in Scotland were incredibly poorly run, selling more false choices than they could ever give. I am curious to see how this all ends up…. but I do admit that I am hopeful that we can have a united group on Britain, with the right level of local autonomy. The hard work starts now. If anything comes out of this, I hope that it has the people coming together to work on their government holistically. 90% turn out is fantastic. Don’t stop there, get involved.

I hope for more united kingdoms in our future, and for community to grow and grow, especially as science continues to tell us how important it is for us to be together.

Now I am off to find a stranger to give a hug…