This is a piece o’ history document that rings so true to my personal experience that I have to say danah boyd[1] is both lucid and clairvoyant! Social Media is Here to Stay… Now What? [Read more…]
Google ruled by engineers, Apple ruled by designers
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Fundamentally different approaches to problem-solving, nope design, nope creating products, nope life! |
Yes, it’s true that a team at Google couldn’t decide between two blues, so they’re testing 41 shades between each blue to see which one performs better. — Doug Bowman, Goodbye Google
I love this farewell post by Google’s visual design lead because it confirms a theory I’ve long held: that Google is a company where engineers are the ruling class, while at Apple it’s designers. – Buzz Andersen, Sci-fi Hi-fi
This just blew me away because of my experiences with people from both Apple and Google.
Twitter made me (not) do it
It’s been a whole month since I wrote anything in my blog? What happened? (Or rather, what did not happen?)
Well, let’s just blame it on Twitter. Or on the new iPhone. Or on two clients wanting 70-hour weeks from me all month. Or on processing 4 hours of teacher training videos.
Nah, let’s just blame it on Twitter.
Twitter seems to have taken a big bite out of my blogging energy lately.
I primarily use Twitteriffic on my iPhone to both follow and to create new tweets, but I also love Twitterfox (a plug-in for the FIreFox browser) if I’m at a computer (it just pops up a little panel showing the most recents, and lets me quickly twipe a new tweet whenever I feel the need.
But why do I even bother with Twitter? – because I get stoked with a dozen new ideas every day! In the old days, “kids” used Twitter to vacuously and narcissistically communicate “I’m having breakfast” or “I’m on the bus” or “I’m at the coffee shop.” But somehow a large number of busy people realized that not only was this a waste of a good communication medium, but something better could actually be done with it – and now what we do is communicate concepts, places, activities and ideas of interest to our group. Someone might be experiencing writer’s block and need inspiration and put out a call for help that explains the concept she’s working on, and get back a half dozen interesting tangential ideas! Another might have returned from a trip and posted photos – and will put up a tweet pointing to the photos. Someone else will be at a conference and will tweet about each speaker’s primary concept.
You have to carefully pick who you “follow” (whose tweets you subscribe to) on Twitter, but once you have your list tuned well, you have constructed a channel that lets you really stay in touch with the ideas and activities that will surface as blog posts and news in the next 24 to 48 hours. And you get a real boost from knowing what your friends and colleagues are working on and thinking about.
George Patterson – rode across the Himalayas in 1949
In an article on MountEverest.net (“by climbers”), you can read about George Patterson, who rode in the Himalayas in 1949, and met the Dalai Lama, and continues at age 90 to be a prominent Tibet supporter.
Rather than try to excerpt here, I will simply direct you to the original article. He rode across the Himalayas in the winter of 1949: George Patterson’s final contribution to the people of Tibet. This is an extensive and interesting article. Read it!
Jane Bay’s day job
I don’t generally engage in hero-worship. But I do sometimes get wound up in interesting people and stories.
And speaking of such, George Lucas is one of the people I’ve only “gotten close to meeting.” So when a group of our Project Happiness students from Mount Madonna School were able to interview him last year (for the Project Happiness movie), I really enjoyed it.
Well, the “next best thing” to time with George was also really interesting. George’s assistant, Jane Bay, has been with him since just after the first Star Wars film was released. Almost every day she deals with guys like those in the picture to the left. She and I both waited in line to see the film at the Coronet Theater on Geary Blvd. in San Francisco – though a couple of weeks apart. She got a job with George shortly thereafter, and I did not – I remained an academic for a couple more years and then started DesignWare (an edutainment software company), which ended up being my eventual reason for a few visits to Skywalker Ranch. (Continue for the audio interview…) [Read more…]