if you're going to do it, do it right...

A lot of you have probably seen Outback's ads lately touting their veteran's day special offering a free Bloomin' Onion to those serving or that have served in the military. While I completely respect their intentions, it strikes me as a bit half-hearted, especially while other establishments, such as Applebee's, are offering a whole meal free.

Thoughts on ideas

I've been mulling over ideas lately, how to bring them to life and how to tease them from groups of people and I recently stumbled upon some writing by Jonathan Harris (co-creator of WeFeelFine) entitled World Building in a Crazy World. It is comprised of 15 short vignette's centered around his thoughts on where we are, digitally speaking as a society and how best to move forward. A few things jumped out at me, the first being:

I believe in mystery and generally keep an open mind even to its wildest suggestions. Mystery can be a valuable tool for making work, especially if your work is less about how the world currently is, and more about how the world someday could be.

 And the second:

...my first principle—that each project should be based on a universally understandable idea.
The next two principles followed from there—that each project should be executed as simply as possible, and that each project should possess an element of play, nostalgia, or beauty to humanize it and bring it to life.
So—a universal idea executed simply, with an element of play, nostalgia or beauty.

I know a lot of this seems obvious and elementary, but I think it's that mindset that often shoves aside these simple principles (curiosity and simplicity), which almost always leaves ideas confusing and wrought in the mire of imitation and complexity.

Untitled

great nyt piece on what things restaurant staffers should never do. a lot of it applies to companies on the web too. http://bit.ly/2JMkCn

via Ping.fm

Posted via web from reegan's posterous

Hype and hoopla

My girlfriend's father recently pointed out the Time's article on Google Wave. This struck me, is it weird that Time is covering Google Wave, when I'd suspect the majority of its readers still need twitter explained to them? Not to mention the fact most people don't even have access to Google Wave yet?

I am not against it, this isn't a dig on demographics and who's ahead of the curve or not, but Time is not necessarily the first place I'd go to keep up on Technology. Seems older publications are rushing out to discuss a new platform determined not to be late again (a la Twitter, which depending on your audience, you still may not be too late to run those Twitter articles).

Anyway, what I'm more curious about is how this affects adoption rates and the hype cycle?

Apologies

It's been too long. I know, I haven't called, I haven't written. I shouldn't resort to over explaining excuses, below is one of the things I've been working on over the summer. Plan on seeing me back here very soon.

Also, kept myself busy with a few triathlons and fundraisers. What did you do this summer?