Friday, April 27, 2007
Mashups
You'll notice, if you aren't reading this in a reader, on the bottom right is a little play widget with a Gcast logo on it. If you click on "Posts" you'll see some options of titles you can click on and they will start playing. What's in the playlist? They are kind of like mashups of popular EFY songs with quotes from General Conference addresses that add meaning and value to the words of the song. I am the copyright culprit in some of them, but not all. I figure that since you can't download it from the widget, I was really only advertising for the song anyway. I think you'll like them and I would be happy to post any that you do in the playlist also. Especially with quotes from this last conference.
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Give me a break
I don't know what else to title this. Anyone near Provo probably knows that Dick Cheney spoke at BYU's Commencement address yesterday. I had heard that there was going to be a small group protesting this. My first thought was, "Of course there is. It's another group of Provo students getting offended at something dumb." I've never seen a group of people more easily offended than that small minority of BYU students that you always hear about. The group that probably exists on every campus that vocalizes the thoughts "We're free-thinkers and everyone else is following the herd." (Sorry for the negativity of this post, but this group is ridiculous.)
Just to point out a fallacy in the reasoning of some of these individuals I am including a photo. First of all, the sign you see is arguing that commencement should not be used for political reasons. Without a doubt, that is true. However, I don't know if the holder of the sign is aware that the President and Vice President are sought after in commencement addresses in schools of all kinds. There are schools with the majority of students knowingly opposed to everything conservative, but they would still be privileged to have someone of such stature show up at their commencement address. Since when does having a speaker imply endorsement? Because if that's the case, then BYU is definitely not a one-party school. Does anyone remember the incredible liberal speaker from about a year ago that served as the press secretary for the last five or six presidents? The majority of students on campus were clearly opposed to the standing of this individual to the point that she remarked in the middle of her forum address, "You didn't tell me I was entering enemy territory." But no one protested. Everyone welcomed her, listened politely, and applauded her speech. But instead of that, we actually get the Vice President of the United States to speak at our commencement address and we decide to show our appreciation by staging a protest on Church owned property. Yeah, that's the part that's even worse. These students decided to take a piece of the Church's land, even though BYU has a clear no protesting rule because it is Church property, and use it for political purposes. Can anyone say hypocrite? These is land that tithing dollars and church donations are paying for. And it's being used as a political protest. Great guys. Great way to stand up and represent everything good about it. It used to be fine because the illogical protests stayed within the Daily Universe and were either worked out there or the individual was able to express themselves and feel good about things. Now we're doing it on church property for the rest of the world to see the high-class individuals that we are. Yes, while going to a Church-paid for school, you actually do represent the Church with your action, especially while on their property. Great example guys, great example.
Just to point out a fallacy in the reasoning of some of these individuals I am including a photo. First of all, the sign you see is arguing that commencement should not be used for political reasons. Without a doubt, that is true. However, I don't know if the holder of the sign is aware that the President and Vice President are sought after in commencement addresses in schools of all kinds. There are schools with the majority of students knowingly opposed to everything conservative, but they would still be privileged to have someone of such stature show up at their commencement address. Since when does having a speaker imply endorsement? Because if that's the case, then BYU is definitely not a one-party school. Does anyone remember the incredible liberal speaker from about a year ago that served as the press secretary for the last five or six presidents? The majority of students on campus were clearly opposed to the standing of this individual to the point that she remarked in the middle of her forum address, "You didn't tell me I was entering enemy territory." But no one protested. Everyone welcomed her, listened politely, and applauded her speech. But instead of that, we actually get the Vice President of the United States to speak at our commencement address and we decide to show our appreciation by staging a protest on Church owned property. Yeah, that's the part that's even worse. These students decided to take a piece of the Church's land, even though BYU has a clear no protesting rule because it is Church property, and use it for political purposes. Can anyone say hypocrite? These is land that tithing dollars and church donations are paying for. And it's being used as a political protest. Great guys. Great way to stand up and represent everything good about it. It used to be fine because the illogical protests stayed within the Daily Universe and were either worked out there or the individual was able to express themselves and feel good about things. Now we're doing it on church property for the rest of the world to see the high-class individuals that we are. Yes, while going to a Church-paid for school, you actually do represent the Church with your action, especially while on their property. Great example guys, great example.Thursday, April 26, 2007
What makes people go wrong?
Guy Kawasaki asked author Phillip Zimbardo "What makes people go wrong?"
Part of his answer:
"They go wrong by doing nothing, by being guilty of the evil of inaction, doing what their mothers urged them—not to get involved, to “mind their own business,” and let bad [stuff] happen by looking the other way and holding their noses. Good people don’t rush in to do evil where angels fear to tread, instead they start by straying only a small way away from their moral center, and each successive step down is hardly different, barely noticeable, until it is too late and their behavior is shocking and may even be awesome of awful."
Dr. Zimbardo is the author of The Lucifer Effect, in which he describes in detail what happened in the famous Stanford Prison Experiment where seemingly good people ended up acting worse than anyone thought imaginable. Guy Kawasaki asked him ten questions and the entire interview is worth reading. There are a lot of interesting insights.
Part of his answer:
"They go wrong by doing nothing, by being guilty of the evil of inaction, doing what their mothers urged them—not to get involved, to “mind their own business,” and let bad [stuff] happen by looking the other way and holding their noses. Good people don’t rush in to do evil where angels fear to tread, instead they start by straying only a small way away from their moral center, and each successive step down is hardly different, barely noticeable, until it is too late and their behavior is shocking and may even be awesome of awful."
Dr. Zimbardo is the author of The Lucifer Effect, in which he describes in detail what happened in the famous Stanford Prison Experiment where seemingly good people ended up acting worse than anyone thought imaginable. Guy Kawasaki asked him ten questions and the entire interview is worth reading. There are a lot of interesting insights.
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Wednesday, April 25, 2007
If Google Ran My Life
Tim O'Reilly onced blogged on a conversation he had with a Google employee and called the post If Google Were a Restaurant. Basically, Google measures everything and so they would capture information about every plate that came back, that was picked up at the end of the meal, and learn what people ate, what they left. They'd probably learn what people ate in what order. This wouldn't increase the quality of the food, but it the efficiency with which it was dispensed. I've also read of a man named Seth Roberts who performs self-experimentation by trying new things in his life and recording a lot of data to measure the change that occurs. What he's learned is what he can eat and when, at what times watching TV makes him feel better and happier and when it makes him feel worse, and many other things about himself that most people would live with for 90 years and never discover. The point is, we all behave in patterns and never learn what those are. Google knows more about our viewing and searching habits than we do. They gather so much data on everything that I do online that there would be enough to analyze my personality. It would be interesting to connect that data with my journal entries and find out what kind of mood I was in that day. So, if "when performance is measured, performance improves [and] when performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates," (source) then maybe a part of our problem is that we aren't measuring our behavior enough. We don't know the effects that different stimuli have on us. We live with the same patterns day in and day out and should become acutely aware of them. Perhaps this is why journal writing is such a productive activity. If Google ran our lives, we would know and have data to tell us basically why we act a certain way in certain situations. Gathering data on yourself can help you learn more about yourself and your behavior patterns.
Here are some basic and easy ways to gather data on yourself that you might find useful.
1. Keep receipts so that you can track where your spending your money and why
2. Log when you go to sleep and when you wake up and the the activities that you perform the hour before going to sleep and the hour after waking up. Try mixing things up and see if it affects your mood/productivity throughout the day.
3. Keep a basic journal every day. If you don't have time to write a full journal entry of what you've learned and experienced that day, have a pocket calendar so you can at least write down the major activities of the day and then write a full journal entry once a week.
4. If you're trying to break a habit or addiction, write when tempted. Write what you're feeling and what you were doing when and before the temptation got strong. If you already slipped up, write what you were doing before. Try and see any patterns emerging in your actions that lead to increased temptation to fall back into the habit or addiction.
5. Try doing new things in your life and keep a log of what the apparent effects are. For example you could try going for a jog in the morning for a week and then document how you felt during that week. The next week, you could try exercising in the evening and see if the effects are different.
In order to be effective at this, you might consider going to an office supply store and picking up a pad of graph paper so that you can keep stats on your attempts at the same time. Try not to alter too much at one time because you won't be able to isolate the effects of one stimulus from another. For example, if you try and switch your exercising habits while changing your sleeping habits, you won't know which change produced what effect. So keep it simple with one change at a time. If you keep track for a few weeks, write back and let us know what patterns you've seen emerge. We'd love to gather some of these to help others that are looking to find similar patterns in their lives.
Here are some basic and easy ways to gather data on yourself that you might find useful.1. Keep receipts so that you can track where your spending your money and why
2. Log when you go to sleep and when you wake up and the the activities that you perform the hour before going to sleep and the hour after waking up. Try mixing things up and see if it affects your mood/productivity throughout the day.
3. Keep a basic journal every day. If you don't have time to write a full journal entry of what you've learned and experienced that day, have a pocket calendar so you can at least write down the major activities of the day and then write a full journal entry once a week.
4. If you're trying to break a habit or addiction, write when tempted. Write what you're feeling and what you were doing when and before the temptation got strong. If you already slipped up, write what you were doing before. Try and see any patterns emerging in your actions that lead to increased temptation to fall back into the habit or addiction.
5. Try doing new things in your life and keep a log of what the apparent effects are. For example you could try going for a jog in the morning for a week and then document how you felt during that week. The next week, you could try exercising in the evening and see if the effects are different.
In order to be effective at this, you might consider going to an office supply store and picking up a pad of graph paper so that you can keep stats on your attempts at the same time. Try not to alter too much at one time because you won't be able to isolate the effects of one stimulus from another. For example, if you try and switch your exercising habits while changing your sleeping habits, you won't know which change produced what effect. So keep it simple with one change at a time. If you keep track for a few weeks, write back and let us know what patterns you've seen emerge. We'd love to gather some of these to help others that are looking to find similar patterns in their lives.
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Tuesday, April 24, 2007
We're Back
Both LDSTeenHelp.com and HelpforGuys.com were down for almost 3 weeks. This has never happened before, but we're back up. What could have possibly taken us down for so long? Something having to do with a MySQL upgrade that we weren't aware of. I don't understand all of that stuff, but I know that it was slightly complicated and I couldn't do it. But we're back up and now we'll be able to implement some of the changes and updates we've been waiting for. Thank you for your patience.
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Thursday, April 19, 2007
Disappointed with NBC
I, with many others, am disappointed in the lack of responsibility we've seen from NBC with the video that they released yesterday of Cho Seung-Hui. I completely understand focusing on the tragedy and the effects on those that are hurt by this, but I don't believe that any good can come from creating a star out of a psycho or giving any credit to his message. He took time out of his shooting to send the video to NBC because he wanted his message to get out. And it did. If we broadcast that message all over the news we are simply training others to get their message out the same way. If that is the only way to be heard, then what is stopping them? The tragedy and news are not what he wanted viewed, it's what's going on in the lives of people in Virginia and across the country. I plan to no longer watch NBC News and plan to send them a letter telling them why. I will also send a letter to the news station that I will continue to frequent and explain to them my position in hopes that they will not rebroadcast or emphasize the same content. It's one thing to talk about it on a blog, it's another to write letters.
Anyone else interested, corporate info for NBC is:
NBCUNI.COM FEEDBACK
100 Universal City Plaza
Universal City, CA 91608
Anyone else interested, corporate info for NBC is:
NBCUNI.COM FEEDBACK
100 Universal City Plaza
Universal City, CA 91608
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Roller Coaster Real Estate
An incredibly interesting visualization of the real estate market from 1890 to present. Watch the bottom right to see the decade/year pass by. It's a roller coaster as if you were riding the graph of the data.
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Twitter, Dodgeball, and Social Networks
There are some core differences between twitter and dodgeball and they revolve around one's social network. When someone says social network, we think of myspace, facebook, and other sites that bring people together and help reconnect or establish new connections. Twitter can be worked into one of these social networks. It's a network that you can build up and then bring twitter in on later. Dodgeball, however, is based on a different kind of social network. It's based on the original social network. You know, the people you actually want to see in real life. The ones you hang out with on the weekends. Dodgeball is great for prebuilt close-knit networks. For example, if you could get a church group to sign up, they typically already have a network established. I wouldn't be surprised if dodgeball was popular in the gay community because that would be like signing up a giant, very socially active family. It's a prebuilt network that interacts in real life and can just be transferred to dodgeball. You see, the innate problem is that twitter can allow you to build your social network online first and them implement twitter into that existing network later. dodgeball doesn't let you do that. You can't build a network of just the friends that you hang out with in real life and exclude the others from your other online networks and then implement dodgeball after your network is built. You have to start with dodgeball. That means the first person in your network is going to sign up with absolutely zero friends. And then that friend is going to convince his/her other friends to join and then the social network gets transferred to dodgeball. It basically relies on word of mouth and the spreading can't go faster than the word can travel between people. Dodgeball requires network transfer, not network building.
If you're going to start with a highly active group and have it spread through word of mouth, then it's going to have to spread through an existing network. I just did a basic search on dodgeball for people with "d" in their first name that lived in Los Angeles. As you can see, it's most guys. If you're thinking that "d" is a guy's letter, then try any other letter. It's almost all guys. I would bet it's predominately homosexual. Simply because of the need for the network to already be established. The reason all of this matters is that the founders of dodgeball recently announced that they're leaving Google because their project wasn't getting the attention and funding that they'd hoped for. I'm sure Google purchased dodgeball and then realized that it wasn't growing like all of the other networks. It might still have been a good purchase simply because it connects the real life to new communication, which is what Google is trying to do with Local Search, GOOG-411, and SMS. I just don't see dodgeball going mainstream until it breaches other social networks or Google comes up with a way for the network to be built first without the need to add dodgeball until later.
Labels: dodgeball, google, social network, twitter
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Dieting and Compulsive Eating
I was watching a show yesterday on the psychology of dieting. Individuals were brought into a lab and told that they were there to taste test some new foods. They were first given a very large, high-calorie shake which should have filled them up. Then three plates of cookies were placed in front of them and they were told to try one of each. They could try more if they wanted, but they only needed to try one. The individuals that were supposedly dieting ate a lot more cookies than those that weren't. The reasoning given was what the psychologist on the show called the "What the hell" effect and what we call on our websites the "What the heck" effect. Basically, you've already messed up your goals, so why not mess them up big time and just write this day off as a failure. You'll start again tomorrow with a clean slate. After the dieters had already consumed a shake that broke their dieting goals and the cookies were placed in front of them, there was no motivation to stay on a diet. The non-dieters, who ate less cookies, simply said, "I didn't need any more cookies." Another reason a dieter might have binged was that they knew they were going back on the diet the next day and this was their one chance to fill up. However, I think that there is something the diet psychologists didn't take into consideration or at least mention in the program. There is a good chance that the type of person who eats until they are satisfied or the individual that binges causes them to need a diet or not and the reason that they binged on cookies is due to their personality and not the fact that they were dieting. Dieting may simply be another indicator of the type of personality they have. This has caused me to wonder if the users on our websites are not all of a similar personality. Are we attracting the users that binge and so require goal setting help? It would just be interesting to see the same individuals in the same program prior to their diets.
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Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Mindset/Setting Changes Expectations - Subway Stradivarius
There is a much reviewed article from the Washington Post on the world-class violinist Josh Bell who played his multi-million dollar violin in the subway station for change with a hidden cam capturing people's reactions. He made $32. Seven people stopped to listen. 27 gave money (obviously averaging pocket change), and 1,070 people walked by hardly noticing. 37Signals points out that the article mentions that every single child that passed by tried to stop and listen, but was always pulled away by a parent. Possibly the most interesting thing pointed out is that this violinist typically receives $1000/minute while playing. People pay a lot of money for the opportunity to hear him play. Some of those people walking by might even have been willing to purchase a ticket to his performance at some point in their life. In the music hall, the might have been listening anxiously, soaking it in. But in the subway, their mind is on something else and the violin ranges from a possible annoyance to nice background music. But the focus doesn't change, except for 7 out of about 1,100. It's amazing how the setting and mindset can so drastically alter our reactions to a stimulus.
Let's say that you're trying to stop eating chocolate. You can walk into See's Candies with one mindset and have no problem walking past the free samples they are handing out to pick up a gift box for someone else. With another mindset, walking into the store at all is death to your goal. Your mindset completely changes the outcome even though the stimulus is the same. Sitting down at the computer or TV can either be highly productive or a complete waste of time, and the difference isn't what's on TV. You can always find something good and something that acts as a leech on creativity and motivation. It would have been interesting to find out why those seven stopped to listen. Did they do something different earlier that day that set them apart from everyone else? Do they have different personalities? Did they simply have an open schedule are were looking for something to do? I think it comes down to mindset. What a perfect opportunity to learn more about the why and how our focus can shift.
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Friday, April 06, 2007
"About Us"
This year, Farmers and Merchants Bank is celebrating 100 years in California and existence. I have no personal experience with the bank except for sitting behind a busboard advertising this fact. The way it was advertised is "Banking California for 100 years." I was sitting behind the bus long enough to thing about the grammar of that sentence. When I think of banking as a verb, I think of myself as a customer doing the banking. Sure, we all know what a banker does, but I don't know if I were to speak to a banker, he or she would tell me that, for a living, they bank. Instead, the verb would most commonly be used in the sentence "I bank with..." and an institutional name insertion occurs. Princeton University at WordNet offers one definition as "do business with a bank or keep an account at a bank; "Where do you bank in this town?"' I don't think of myself has having been banked by Bank of America or Wells Fargo. I bank with them. They don't bank me or my state. Maybe that took a long time to say, but what it comes down to is that the marketing focus is not on the customer. The busboard is saying, "Look at us." Apparently, it might be company wide culture, because the "About Us" section definitely tells "about them." Is there anything wrong with that? Not necessarily. 37Signals has an about us section that definitely focuses on themselves. But it's done in a different way. The entire "About Us" section reads:
"We’re a privately-held Chicago-based company committed to building the best web-based software products possible with the least number of features necessary. Our products do less than the competition — intentionally. We’ve been in business since 1999 and love what we do."
So, you can have an "About Us" section focusing on yourself and what you do, but have it still be done in a way that makes you want to join the group. As a contrast, take the time to read Pacific Premiere Bank's "About Us" section. It's only a paragraph also.
"Originally founded in 1983, Pacific Premier Bank is committed to the growth and vitality of the Southern California communities in which we do business. The Bank offers a wide range of business and consumer products and services through its retail branch network as well as it's highly interactive web site. At Pacific Premier Bank, you get exceptional service, with the personalized attention that can only come from a locally based dedicated community banker."
Even though the banner at F&M claims that the customer is the mainstay, which company do you think is actually more focused on the customer? Maybe it's only the "About Us" section and I'm extrapolating a little too much, or maybe it's company culture that has found it's way into the "About Us" section on each website. Based on personal experience with 37signals and Pacific Premiere, I would go with the latter.
According to Kathy Sierra, this is "The New Way."So, what's your company culture? Is it seeping through in unexpected places?
Secret Mind Power
I'm reading a page designed to sell a book that supposedly helps you to telepathically convey thoughts/emotions and attract others to you. Interestingly, if I buy the book before (wow) tomorrow, I get it for a better price. What are the chances that I would happen across a site that I typically would not visit on the last day of a sale? Well, with this site, apparently the chances are 100%. I just expected more than javascript from a site that claims to be able to control other's minds. A snippet from the code reads :var day = date.getDate(); var day=day+1. So, I wonder if mind control or influence is really just confidence and marketing? Albeit lower quality marketing, but marketing tactics none the less.
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Thursday, April 05, 2007
Great Links 04/05/07
I thought that I would post some of the great links that I've come across just today. I'm pulling these from all of my saved links at del.icio.us/dansage/
1. Bubble Guru - This free service allows you to video yourself and post the video in a floating bubble on your website. This way you can give instructions to those visiting the site. The user can turn the bubble off or start it again at any time.
2. Who's Among Us - See real-time how many people are on your site. Even better, add the firefox extension and see real-time how many people are on your site without even visiting your site.
3. Popuri.us - Check all major page rankings for any individual site.
Also, in my blog reading today, I learned that you can use Jott to call a number, leave a message for yourself, and have that message automatically transcribed and forwarded to your email account and (if using gmail) stored under a certain label. I already had an account with Jott, but hadn't consider this possibility. I tried it out and it worked. Took about 20 minutes to be transcribed.
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