The Trouble With Check-Ins
Feature comparisons
All feature comparisons can be over-used for product management and consumer product selection. They are useful for comparing features but many products succeed or fail based on a lot of other factors. Focusing on feature grids can really blind you to the potential for your product and what you are trying to build. Some important things don’t usually show up in feature grids like support quality, reliability, user experience, and product ecosystem. A bad product can have a great grid and a great product can have a bad grid – don’t take your eyes off your strategy and the customer experiences. Some of these grids actually make that point without trying to. Below are some amusing grids that were created to compare features of the iPad to other products.
iPad vs Kindle vs Rock « Amnesia Blog.
Leonardo da Vinci's Resume
Most people don’t know that his day job was to design instruments of war.
stone: Leonardo da Vinci’s Resume.
“Most Illustrious Lord, Having now sufficiently considered the specimens of all those who proclaim themselves skilled contrivers of instruments of war, and that the invention and operation of the said instruments are nothing different from those in common use: I shall endeavor, without prejudice to any one else, to explain myself to your Excellency, showing your Lordship my secret, and then offering them to your best pleasure and approbation to work with effect at opportune moments on all those things which, in part, shall be briefly noted below.1. I have a sort of extremely light and strong bridges, adapted to be most easily carried, and with them you may pursue, and at any time flee from the enemy; and others, secure and indestructible by fire and battle, easy and convenient to lift and place. Also methods of burning and destroying those of the enemy.
2. I know how, when a place is besieged, to take the water out of the trenches, and make endless variety of bridges, and covered ways and ladders, and other machines pertaining to such expeditions.
3. If, by reason of the height of the banks, or the strength of the place and its position, it is impossible, when besieging a place, to avail oneself of the plan of bombardment, I have methods for destroying every rock or other fortress, even if it were founded on a rock, etc.
4. Again, I have kinds of mortars; most convenient and easy to carry; and with these I can fling small stones almost resembling a storm; and with the smoke of these cause great terror to the enemy, to his great detriment and confusion.
5. And if the fight should be at sea I have kinds of many machines most efficient for offense and defense; and vessels which will resist the attack of the largest guns and powder and fumes.
6. I have means by secret and tortuous mines and ways, made without noise, to reach a designated spot, even if it were needed to pass under a trench or a river.
7. I will make covered chariots, safe and unattackable, which, entering among the enemy with their artillery, there is no body of men so great but they would break them. And behind these, infantry could follow quite unhurt and without any hindrance.
8. In case of need I will make big guns, mortars, and light ordnance of fine and useful forms, out of the common type.
9. Where the operation of bombardment might fail, I would contrive catapults, mangonels, trabocchi, and other machines of marvellous efficacy and not in common use. And in short, according to the variety of cases, I can contrive various and endless means of offense and defense.
10. In times of peace I believe I can give perfect satisfaction and to the equal of any other in architecture and the composition of buildings public and private; and in guiding water from one place to another.
11. I can carry out sculpture in marble, bronze, or clay, and also I can do in painting whatever may be done, as well as any other, be he who he may.
Again, the bronze horse may be taken in hand, which is to be to the immortal glory and eternal honor of the prince your father of happy memory, and of the illustrious house of Sforza.
And if any of the above-named things seem to anyone to be impossible or not feasible, I am most ready to make the experiment in your park, or in whatever place may please your Excellency – to whom I comment myself with the utmost humility, etc.”
Quote of the day: Bureaucrats
Bureaucrats write memoranda both because they appear to be busy when they are writing and because the memos, once written, immediately become proof that they were busy.
– Charles Peters
Analog zooming: "zoomable" paper map
This company created a map that allows you to “zoom” in on areas by unfolding sections of the map. Interesting concept that could be build upon.
The brain on power
It appears that the old axiom is true – power corrupts. And, the more deserving the powerful person feels to be in their position – the more deserving they feel to live by different rules than everyone else.
They argue, therefore, that people with power that they think is justified break rules not only because they can get away with it, but also because they feel at some intuitive level that they are entitled to take what they want. This sense of entitlement is crucial to understanding why people misbehave in high office. In its absence, abuses will be less likely. The word “privilege” translates as “private law”. If Dr Lammers and Dr Galinsky are right, the sense which some powerful people seem to have that different rules apply to them is not just a convenient smoke screen. They genuinely believe it.
via The psychology of power: Absolutely | The Economist.
This is a great article. I have an additional theory that people have a balance of good/ bad that their brains try to balance. In other words, when someone does something good (or, they they personally feel is good) – then they feel like they deserve to get away with extra benefits at someone else’s expense. For example, I think that a crooked politician often feels like they deserve extra benefits and power (even if it costs a lot of money, is immoral, or wasteful) if they feel like they passed some legislation that that “helped” a lot of people. In their minds, having an affair or a personal boondoggle benefitting them is not really bad because they passed a budget-busting multi-million dollar spending package that helped a million people. Our legislators at some point stop looking at themselves as representatives and start looking at themselves as valiant leaders who bend a few rules, but make lives better for their constituents. In their minds they deserve to be above the rules because on balance they created so much good in the world – and on balance – they are impacting the wold to the positive (in their minds).
Narcissism, charm, and popularity
Narcissists appear to be more charming and popular at first meeting them. Some research into proof of this bias – and possible reasons why…
On the basis of a realistic behavioral approach, the authors showed that narcissists are popular at zero acquaintance and aimed to explain why this is the case. In Study 1, a group of psychology freshmen (N = 73) judged each other on the basis of brief self-introductions using a large round-robin design (2,628 dyads). Three main findings were revealed:
First, narcissism leads to popularity at first sight.
Second, the aspects of narcissism that are most maladaptive in the long run (exploitativeness/entitlement) proved to be most attractive at zero acquaintance.
Third, an examination of observable verbal and nonverbal behaviors as well as aspects of physical appearance provided an explanation for why narcissists are more popular at first sight.
Results were confirmed using judgments of uninvolved perceivers under 3 different conditions for which the amount of available information was varied systematically: (a) full information (video and sound, Study 2), (b) nonverbal information only (video only, Study 3), or (c) physical information only (still photograph of clothing, Study 4). These findings have important implications for understanding the inter- and intrapersonal dynamics of narcissism.
(PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved) from Journal of Personality and Social Psychology – Vol 97, Iss 5 by Back, Mitja D.; Schmukle, Stefan C.; Egloff, Boris
via Are narcissists more charming?: – Barking up the wrong tree.
Can feeling like a victim increase selfishness?
Entitlement and victimization can increase selfishness…
Three experiments demonstrated that feeling wronged leads to a sense of entitlement and to selfish behavior. In Experiment 1, participants instructed to recall a time when their lives were unfair were more likely to refuse to help the experimenter with a supplementary task than were participants who recalled a time when they were bored. In Experiment 2, the same manipulation increased intentions to engage in a number of selfish behaviors, and this effect was mediated by self-reported entitlement to obtain positive (and avoid negative) outcomes. In Experiment 3, participants who lost at a computer game for an unfair reason (a glitch in the program) requested a more selfish money allocation for a future task than did participants who lost the game for a fair reason, and this effect was again mediated by entitlement.
via Journal of Personality and Social Psychology – Vol 97, Iss 5
via Does feeling like a victim make you selfish?: – Barking up the wrong tree.
Global inequality dramatically decreasing
Income is becoming more distributed around the world. A comparison on 1970 to 2006 shows vast improvements in income distribution. According to this report – the income distribution trend is great. (Note, this income not wealth, which may be a different matter – but income is a start.)
I would guess this would be caused by more countries becoming more free. In a free country, I would think that we would see a bell curve in income distribution. This is because intelligence is distributed “normally”- and I would expect other characteristics like interests, passion, and work ethic to be characteristics that are probably normally distributed as well. And, in a society that is free – income would probably more closely match these characteristics than in a more centrally planned economy.
Quote of the day from Conan O'Brien
Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.
willmurphy.wordpress.com 