Archive for the 'Unthinkables' Category

Double Take that Fork in the Road

Published
by
Ehren
on July 4, 2008
in Interests, Ponderings, Unthinkables and philosophy
. 0 Comments

I generally hear people say, “every so often, we’ve come across a problem…” — that amuses me to no end because I’d say I run into at least one problem or obstacle per day.  Most definitely more than one.

The solution to the problem is easy because the key to solving any problem is built upon you, me or we.  Which one is it going to be today?  How will you learn from the decision you take?

photograph by ehren cheung

On another note:  Going to test the Tarn 3 this weekend from MEC while camping.  I’ve gotten big recommendations for this three-season tent from people so we’ll see how it fairs.  In the meanwhile, I’m getting ready for my big road trip in August.  One of my goals for this trip is to use and purchase as little as possible — not just for the sake of reducing consumption but also to see how much I can do without.

I was actually talking with a colleague today and unfortunately, I can’t remember who stated this, but it went something along the lines of “your actual freedom is determined by not what you can do, but what you can do without…”  Some people will include the who, but I think that’s a little extreme…

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Their Master Plan

Published
by
Ehren
on June 29, 2008
in Mentions, Ponderings, Unthinkables and philosophy
. 0 Comments

Funny. Friends, loved ones, family, and colleagues have consistently discussed our own so-called master plans.  Whether it may be for life, for our own companies, for the businesses we work for, or for the causes we fight for — I often wonder how everyone else fits into the master plan.  Similarly, parents, families, businesses, managers, and leaders have plans for us that we are not necessarily aware of. For Google, their plan involved us — people from around the world.  We don’t really know what their master plan is but watching this video about Google’s Master Plan reminded me of the film The Man Who Fell to Earth.

So despite the fact that we use Google and the many products or services they offer, the lack of transparency and accountability clouds the trust that people have for the company. Do we choose to endorse their master plan somewhat blindly or do we question the means with which they do things? When we create our own master plan that involves the people around us — do we expect them to jump on board unquestionably? Would we do the same for others?

The answer is likely not simple one, but the essence of that answer is: if you want me to become apart of your so-called master plan, then you will have to inform me of what that plan is.

Participation is not required.

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The Need for Thoughtful Vision

Published
by
Ehren
on June 25, 2008
in Interests, Mentions, Ponderings, Unthinkables, fun and video
. 0 Comments

How we do or respond to something is fascinating, don’t you think?  Whether it may be a casual glance, a dismissive wave, or an onerous glare — these are just a few of the many combinations of actions that can occur.

So far here’re a handful that I’ve come up with:

We first run into some random stimulus — something that triggers a response or reaction from us.

The Just Do It Attitude

Some Random Spontaneous Stimuli –> Roll Dice + Take Action

The Deer in Headlights Approach

Blank Look –> Hope for the best … and let’s cross our fingers in case

The Puzzle Piecing Fanaticism

Some Random Spontaneous Stimuli (i.e. random tidbit of information) –> Search and Acquire Mode is ON!

The Pondering Life Act

Stimuli triggers mental white noise –> Flashbacks occur in the mind faster than the average CSI episode

No.  Nothing else happens.

The AUGH! Syndrome

Perceived sudden stimuli –> Some ear-piercing or bass-heavy scream of sorts

The Swerve & Disintegrate Tactic

Bothersome Stimuli Occurs –> Avoid at all costs until stimuli fades from sight or mind

The Twitch Process

Stimuli triggers emotion –> Result: a form of habitual behaviour

The MudderFudder Grumble

Stimuli Here –> Some form of “pleasant language” spoken under one’s breath

The Rebel Without Even a Reason Effect

Some shape or form resembling stimuli –> A response that happens anyway … just because

The Backwards Logic Drive

A stimulus –> Rational thinking that is triggered but is ignored because it makes too much sense

Perhaps we can compile a list!

So the point — visualizing.  What do we do when we visualize something?  We seem to make better decisions.  We can see into the distance, the impact of our decisions. A simple example would be Amazon’s review chart.

More importantly — being able to visualize our behaviour or the behaviour others allows us the opportunity to change.  Check out Chris Jordan’s video on Picturing Excess.  Quite astonishing.

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Lay Down the Blame Arrow and Look in the Mirror

Published
by
Ehren
on June 19, 2008
in Aspirations, Mentions, Ponderings, Unthinkables, books, economics, marketing and work
. 0 Comments

I’ve been itching to talk about the recently revamped copyright law in Canada but I’ve held back for the most part.  I decided otherwise after I was reading Matthew Ingram’s article in the Globe and Mail about music sales being the lowest in 20 years and that — yet again — the blame is placed on the customers, not buying enough and downloading illegal copies of music.  This by the way is untrue as new reports have surfaced.  This is beside the actual point of this post.

What I find amusing about every media industry (and I work in one) is that we continue to direct the blame away from ourselves.  The Music industry blames the internet and file-sharing sites; the video game industry blames the internet for game piracy; the movie industry of course blames the internet and file-sharing sites as well as video games; and the book industry blames all other industries for its troubles and for overshadowing the importance of books (plus one another internally).  What’s next?  Are we going to blame lower sales on the lack of fuel cell-powered vehicles in North America?

We all know the internet and customers are not really to blame.  We can try to delegate the blame but it really does not make a whole lot of sense in the end.  Many businesses are built upon taking advantage of current events, emotions and impulses that every consumer may have — if that’s the case, why wouldn’t a consumer do exactly the same to a business if provided with the opportunity?  Especially when there is usually little or no reason for a consumer to display any sign of loyalty.  Oh right, the law.

This law protects the rights of the creator or developer of a product and ensures that the creator or developer receives due credit ($$$) for their work.  I quite respect that.  This is vital to ensuring that people who are creative and innovative and who take risks will ultimately survive.  But where does it say that this risk is guaranteed to provide a complete return?

I think it is important for artists, authors, creators, and developers to receive credit for their work but I also feel that entire industries should not be complaining about customers and blaming them for their losses (or so-called losses in some cases) if they don’t receive the credit or attention that they expect for their work.

Why should we as customers care? Because customers don’t deserve the blame.  Customers deserve more — we all deserve something greater than what currently exists.

Businesses and creators currently dictate what should and shouldn’t be produced, what can and can’t be improved, what is and isn’t possible.  I respect business owners, shareholders, and in particular entrepreneurs because of the risk they take but I disagree with approaches that are focused on putting business before the customer.  Any company’s success is linked directly to their customers, not to the company internally.  It is we the customer who:

1. Decides what to pay for and what not to pay for.

2. Decide a product’s level of usefulness.

3. Ultimately find out the hard way what’s easy to use and not so easy to use

4. Discover which book was worth the read, what song was great to listen to, and what art we actually enjoy.

5. Are hurt or injured by the errors and mistakes in judgment that businesses make in the process of developing their product.

It is we the customer who deserve the right to want and demand more from businesses and creators.  Creators deserve the respect for their achievement but they ultimately serve those who are willing to embrace what they have produced and/or selling.

Customers are ultimately part of the product creation and development process — not simply the recipients.  I think social media websites are on the cutting edge in this field because they are forced to identify what they are doing wrong for the customer on an extremely frequent and consistent basis — and then make the appropriate changes.

I’m not saying that we have to take this route for all media, but I believe that it is important for all businesses to step in this direction.

Books and the Cycle of Blame

I can elaborate on books as a medium since I work in the book industry. It’s somewhat sad.  People blame video games taking attention away from reading.  People blame movies for that too … and television … and the internet … and anything else we can pretty much put our finger on.

That’s just reason number one for why books don’t sell as well as they used to.  Let’s take a look at other reasons that frequently pop up in the discussion, shall we?

Publishers blame booksellers for not pushing their books enough.

Publishers blame booksellers for not carrying greater numbers of books on their limited shelf space.

Publishers blame authors for not being more active and promoting the book.

Publishers blame government grants for not providing more support.

Booksellers blame publishers for not helping them out and doing more.

Booksellers blame publishers for selling direct over the internet.

Booksellers blame publishers for focusing on selling bulk quantities of books to larger chains such as Chapters, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Costco, etc.

… and most recently, booksellers blame publishers for focusing on wholesalers and distributors.

Authors blame publishers for not pushing their books enough to booksellers.

Authors blame publishers for not helping them get more publicity.

This is all … wrong.

We complain about how people aren’t reading enough yet the opposite is true — there is more reading taking place than ever before.  Just not the way we think it SHOULD be.  Then again, when did we as the book industry earn the right to decide what SHOULD be?  The customer dictated what they wanted eons ago and now they are evolving.  The fact that we have tied ourselves so closely to what “should be” has ultimately hurt ourselves, damaged our credibility, while simultaneously forced us to ignore the customer.

Businesses and customers both have rights.  But the right to dictate what becomes successful and what doesn’t belongs to the customer.

Photograph by Jasoon

We have only ourselves to blame.  Just like the music industry, movie industry, and all other media industries.  We have not been listening to all of our customers.  We merely listened to the core group of people who refer to themselves as book readers/lovers.  Even when industry-wide sales started declining, we decided to point fingers at each other rather than look at ourselves or the way we actually do things — and instead of finding a way to adapt to the evolving customer, we continue to force the customer to adapt to us.  We argue amongst ourselves and tell each other this is simply how it is and that we need to keep publishing massive number of books in order to stay in business because the government grants favour specific types of books over others.  Is this the way we want to continue to operate into the future?

Now here is the true dilemma we face.  We keep thinking that ebooks are the future and are the solution to our problems — but they aren’t.  They are merely another medium that will converge with other media in time.  The key to solving our problems isn’t by looking for another way to push more books, it’s how we look at ourselves and what we sell.

Time to step in front of the mirror.

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Instruments of Mass Distribution

Published
by
Ehren
on June 9, 2008
in Mentions, Ponderings and Unthinkables
. 0 Comments

Okay so I’ve decided to run through instruments of mass distribution that I utilize on a daily basis both on a macro and micro level. You’re probably wondering why I am doing this — it’s rather simple — to analyze how I do things and find out how different facets of my life are influenced by these instruments of mass distribution. That is, tools that disseminate or facilitate the massive growth or movement of an idea, product, cause, belief, etc. in contrast to the number or size of the tool itself — not including ourselves or other human beings. Yes, we are neither tools nor instruments. This is out of the blue so forgive me if it doesn’t make much sense — because it just barely does to me.

First Comment - We the Robots by Chris Harding

Here’re mine on a pretty general basis on an average day:

The desk (yes…believe it or not)

Computer (go figure…)

Internet

Globe and Mail Newspaper

The Toronto Star Newspaper

The sidewalk (yep…don’t laugh it’s true!)

A Bridge

Toronto Transit Bus

Toronto Transit Subway

Escalator

Stairs

Laptop computer

Network

Blogs (so many many blogs)

Through RSS of course

del.icio.us bookmarks

twitter

Amazon

Email

Google Search

iPod/mp3 player

Grocery Store/Dominion

What about yourself? How many instruments of mass distribution have an impact on you? What happens when one fails to function? What happens when one instrument supersedes another? For the most part — we adapt as the instruments change and evolve but how often do we ask ourselves how dependent we are on this mesh of mass distributors whether it is an inanimate object or a system in place?

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Time to Reduce Consumption

Published
by
Ehren
on May 6, 2008
in Aspirations, Ponderings, Uncategorized, Unthinkables, fun and marketing
. 0 Comments

I’ve been thinking about how we spend our money. Especially after listening to the complaints from many friends about the lack of money they have to buy the things they want. My dad also pointed out long ago when I got my first pay cheque from delivering flyers door-to-door in the neighbourhood, that as soon as you receive your pay cheque, everyone including the government is after your hard-earned dollar. It’s all in the marketing you see — everyone is trying to tell you that their product is worth your dollar.

Photo Courtesy of Toni Verdú Carbó

The reasoning that often follows is to weigh the things that we want against the things that we need. Sometimes the two get mixed together. This may be followed by the reasoning that poses the question — how frequent will we make use of this thing that we purchase?

I propose that we look at things this way. How many hours of work do we put in, just so that we can afford to buy [insert product]?

The question becomes … if we do not use a dollar value, how can we determine the true value of a product? How do we define value? Value can be in this case (without referring back to the crazy economic theories) the net worth of how much we desire a product that we are willing to exchange the hours of work from which we earn a wage.

The reason why I remove the dollar value from this perspective because the dollar bill itself has a tendency to eliminate (or make us temporarily forget) our ability to reference in our mind how much work we really put in for those hours of labour (skilled or unskilled). Don’t get me wrong now — the dollar bill itself becomes a reference for how much of it we are willing to spend but many of us tend to let go of how many hours went into that dollar bill itself.

By using time as a reference, we can then truly extract value from products worth extracting from. And when we extract value from products worth extracting from — we as citizens, customers, and stakeholders — impose a new value on all the products out there — time.

Time is a finite value for all of us (unless you are immortal I guess…) and as I point out to many businesses, time can never be recovered, but you can recover money (or even earn more) over time.

To Summarize

1. When thinking of purchasing something, think of how many hours of work you must go through in order to afford purchasing that something. How many hours of pointless meetings did I have to go through?

2. If deciding to purchase a product, ask yourself how many hours of [insert value: emotional, secular, spiritual, etc.] would be associated with the outcome of purchasing that product. Will I thoroughly use and enjoy this new DVD player? How often do I even watch DVDs?

3. Demand greater value from products. Businesses should be providing or injecting more value into and around their products. Really, if a business cannot think of ways of (or is unwilling to) injecting greater value into their product, then I would suggest that the product be cancelled. Think of the transition from VHS to DVDs — all those bonus features!

4. Impose the value of time on everything. Associate the hours you put in with values [i.e. obstacles, bosses, etc.] Were my hours of slaving away at work worth the $20 dollars spent on lunch? or that book? or that CD? that DVD?

5. Calculate your annual time budget. See how much you time you put into material products vs. activities.

*****

I am of course really simplifying this process but the point behind this action is for both businesses and customers to strive for waste reduction. This not only benefits everyone but also customers and businesses alike because customers would have a better idea of what they want and businesses would have a better idea of what they should produce.

Just like marketers often like to summarize consumer actions within a formula, by measuring our consumption by the hour — we have an opportunity to hone in on our own equation and define what we want — not what the marketer suggests to us.

Let’s put it this way. Calculate the value of a book in hours and then calculate the value of an iPod in hours. I’m in no way implying that one is more valuable than another — merely that it is extremely subjective. In that case, the calculation of hours can be a much better determination of value to a customer as opposed to a dollar amount.

*****

It’s rather funny. The value of time is often used for commuting, employment, business productivity, weekends, vacations, and travel — yet we rarely make use of this measurement on the products we purchase.

More on the value of time (Wikipedia).

And generalised cost.

Feel free to debunk this idea — it’s still whirling around my head … but I think it is still worthwhile to think about.

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Top 5 Spots on a Subway: A Glance at How We Sit and Stand

Published
by
Ehren
on April 19, 2008
in Mentions, Ponderings, Unthinkables and fun
. 9 Comments

The timing of this has nothing to do with the upcoming TTC strike, I’ve been pondering about how people behave on the subway for some time and this was really good coincidental timing.

By MovingGraphics.ca

Interior of TTC Subway Car Graphic by MovingGraphics.ca

I’ve always been curious about how and why we sit where we do on the subway. So I decided to take the time to observe myself and others and see how we behave — perhaps even speculate on why. This is by no means academic or scientific (so don’t expect accuracy!), but rather an amusing look at our own habits as we commute.

TTC Seating PriorityI’ve analyzed how I sit and stand, determined my reasoning:

1. This is the top-of-the-line seat. This type of seat would be at the top of my list. Why? I like to sleep on the subway and there’s nothing worse than people bumping into you as they are moving past you while you are trying to get some shuteye. There’s plenty of leg space as well so your legs aren’t as cramped.

Pros: Sleep. Sleep. Uninterrupted Sleep. Maybe read on the rare occasion. Some allowance for personal space. Very good leg room! You can actually stretch!

Cons: Sitting next to you maybe… some inconsiderate bulky commuters. Commuters who like to knit and swing their elbows outwards. Commuters who like to dig into their bags and simultaneously maneuver arms into your sides causing you to jump — esp. if you’re ticklish. Commuters who like spreading apart their legs or pressing their leg up against your leg — sometimes even bouncing the leg (please just stop).

*****

2. When my top choice is out, I turn to corner seating where I can keep out of the way from the folks who like to stand really close and have their bags swing at me.

Pros: Potential for uninterrupted sleep of course. Possible reading time.

Cons: Similar case to number one. Only less leg room for stretching and increase chance of someone jabbing you with their elbow.

*****

3. If number two just ain’t happening, then I guess I’ll have to settle for the somewhat hazardous seat (especially when dozing off). It is pretty ideal for commuters who like to read. This is often the case when I am commuting home.

Pros: Some potential for sleep or reading. Good when exhausted after long day. Easier to exit subway car.

Cons: TTC seats tend to be small. To be considerate to neighbour, usually sitting on half to three-quarters of seat to leave some personal space. Commuters with free-swinging bags, large backpacks, or newspapers tend to like to stick really close to the pole where they hold on (also close to you). Be aware of the odd object bonking you on the head.

*****

4. If the middle-outside seats (#3) aren’t available then I may just settle for the end-of-the-car-outside seat. I prefer not to take these as people tend to like to lean against the door at the end of each car and your personal space is somewhat compromised.

Pros: It’s a seat. Enjoy it. Sleep, read, whatever. Decent leg room.

Cons: The occasional commuter who leans against the edge of the door at the end of the subway car sometimes decides to spread their newspaper on your head.

*****

Standing Density within a Subway Car

Looking at Standing Density in a Subway Car5. Ultimately when there are no seats available that I want, then I end up standing in around the middle section of the car away from the doors where people tend to crowd and get pushed by other commuters wanting to get on to the subway car. As you see from the next image, the middle is the least crowded is where people are least in a hurry to get in and out as it’s furthest away from the exits/entrances.

Pros: There is only one pole and limited space so at most you must share standing room with one other person.

Cons: More difficult to exit subway car. Occasional commuter with gigantic backpack or laptop bag decides to stand directly behind you (think staggered!).

*****

Behaviour on the Subway

Where do you sit? What kind of seating do you typically look for on public transit? Why do we act the way we do? I can’t answer all that but I’m sure if anyone can recall high school chemistry, we were frequently referred by the teacher to the term diffusion which is the movement of particles from an area of higher concentration to an area of lower concentration. Here are some observations:

A. Ironically despite the fact that humans are a social species, we tend to diffuse through out the subway car to seat as far apart as possible. As seats begin to fill up, our attitude towards sitting next to a stranger oddly enough seems to change. We begin to accept our neighbours. I guess we really want that seat … or perhaps we subconsciously value our newfound neighbour?

B. We also like to take the path of least resistance while eyeing a particular seat. That doesn’t necessarily mean the path is practical — be it running over people or pushing through a massive crowd in order to get to a seat, some people will do whatever it takes to rest their legs.

Why We Stand Where We Stand C. Once we get to a spot, we like to stick to it and not move. This happens quite frequently when we stand in the orange or red areas (refer to the third diagram). It also happens when we get stuck in a jam or when we are trying to talk with friends. It’s a little harder to be accommodating when we’re commuting as a group. This can be referred to as clumping — also a biological process.

D. We are very eager to board the subway car but as soon as we are inside, our mind is already focused on how we get out as fast as possible. This is the case for many people who stick to the red area. The result is a massive traffic jam within the red area, usually in the four corners where there are poles for holding on to dear life when the subway car starts moving.

We especially enjoy standing against something whether it may be a pole, a panel of glass, the edge around a door. Sometimes other people too become temporary inanimate objects.

E. Others who are more skilled in the ways of balancing (or simply have a better inner ear) are able to deal with the effects of inertia and thus do not require something to hold on to.

*****

What is interesting about this information is that we can take from it the fact that there are groups of behaviour. What will happen when the new trains arrive? It is said that the new trains will be open ended so passengers can walk from one end of the entire train to the other end. Will that have any impact?

For fun, take a look at the poll below and see which groups of behaviour you might consider yourself as belonging to. If you have ideas on additional groups of behaviour that you think that I should add, just say so!

Which behaviours do you feel most connected with? (Pick up to 2)

View Results

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Three Other Fun Non-related or Somewhat Related Sites

Tess from Tales from the Subway Rider has a hilarious post on the different type of sleepers.

Steve Munro has a brilliant blog on transit politics (TTC related)

For Transit Enthusiasts (also Toronto transit related)

Jarvis Jargon’s Humourous look at Subway Seating

Update (17/07/2008): The Daily Commuter’s look at the Summer Commute.

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What Drives Your Mind (or you)?

Published
by
Ehren
on April 17, 2008
in Aspirations, Ponderings and Unthinkables
. 1 Comment

Were we really able to do anything we wanted when we grew up? — Comic by Chris Harding

Question:  When you pick yourself up every morning and go to work or school or wherever — what is your key reason?  Is it to survive?  Is it to implement change?  Is it to interact with all kinds of people?

What is it that drives your mind (or you)?

I pose the question out there because that’s exactly the question that popped into my head when I was debating with someone about getting work done either by principle or by being objective-driven.  When you step into a new position, what is your goal in mind?  Is it monetary-driven, principle-driven, objective-driven or emotionally-driven.  Are you powered by a long-term vision or are you fueled by trends or new ideas?

I think by asking ourselves these questions on a daily basis we can determine what we consider to be success.  We’re able to see ourselves and the role we play within a larger picture and how we need different kinds of people to counter our own approaches so that we are able to see the multiple roads that are leading out in different directions — then we can decide which one to take.

This is important in any healthy organization whether it may be business or “other”, and just as important for the individual/employee.  Both need to acknowledge and understand this aspect of life in order to prosper from day to day.

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