Stormy's Corner

Should we make stuff instead of watching tv?

I just read an interesting article by Clay Shirky, Gin, Television and Social Surplus. He says that we have a social surplus right now. In the early industrial revolution, people had surplus time, so they drank gin. He says we eventually figured out how to use our time with more education, public libraries and museums. We had another social surplus around World War II and the 40 hour work week and we used the extra time to watch TV. Clay Shirky argues that we are just now beginning to use some of that time more productively in producing knowledge  As an example, he says if we used 1% of our TV watching time writing content, we'd produce the equivalent of Wikipedia ever year!

The Internet-connected population watches roughly a trillion hours of TV a year.  That's about five times the size of the annual U.S. consumption. One per cent of that  is 100 Wikipedia projects per year worth of participation.

He makes a call for every content producer (like tv) to have a mechanism for users to interact, produce and share knowledge. Here's his story to prove his point:

I was having dinner with a group of friends about a month ago, and one of them was talking about sitting with his four-year-old daughter watching a DVD.  And in the middle of the movie, apropos nothing, she jumps up off the couch and runs around behind the screen.  That seems like a cute moment.  Maybe she's going back there to see if Dora is really back there or whatever.  But that wasn't what she was doing. She started rooting around in the cables.  And her dad said, "What you doing?"  And she stuck her head out from behind the screen and said, "Looking for the mouse."

Here's something four-year-olds know:  A screen that ships without a mouse ships broken.  Here's something four-year-olds know: Media that's targeted at you but doesn't include you may not be worth sitting still for.

How much of your free time do you spend watching tv? How much do you spend producing something?

Book Review: The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need

I enjoyed Dan Pink's new book, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need. I was even more impressed with Garr Reynold's slide presentation of the concepts in the book. Garr is the author of Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter) - a style I'm trying to master. Here's Garr's presentation:

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The six tips in Dan Pink's comic style book are:

1. There is no plan.
2. Think strengths not weaknesses.
3. It's not about you.
4. Persistence trumps talent.
5. Make excellent mistakes.
6. Leave an imprint.

Doing business from a payphone

  IMG_2635 
  Originally uploaded by Storming

This is a picture of me negotiating a contract with a Global 2000 company and several attorneys over a pay phone.

Friday I had it all figured out. I had a five minute meeting in our home town at 8:00, then I'd drop the baby off at day care (20 minute drive), and then do my conference call in the car on my way to the 7 year old's school (another 20 minute drive) where I was helping out with the jogathon. The problem? I left my cell phone at home!

If you are ever looking for pay phones, try looking for liquor stores and convenience stores. And hope you are calling a 1-800 number because they cost 25 cents a minute!

Why $9.95 really works

From Scientific American, Why Things Cost $19.95:

if we see a $20 toaster, we might wonder whether it is worth $19 or $18 or $21; we are thinking in round numbers. But if the starting point is $19.95, the mental measuring stick would look different. We might still think it is wrongly priced, but in our minds we are thinking about nickels and dimes instead of dollars, so a fair comeback might be $19.75 or $19.50.

How to get rid of the hiccups ... in New Orleans

While at the French Quarter Festival in New Orleans, I got the hiccups. We happened to be passing a witchcraft/voodoo type shop and someone jokingly said, "You should see if they have something for hiccups!" So we went on in and met the rudest woman I've talked to in quite a long time. She said:

No, I don't have anything for hiccups. Lemon and bitters - everyone knows that!

So we went to the bar next door, asked for lemon and bitters. The bartender took a slice of lemon, added a few drops of bitters and some sugar and handed it to me. Five seconds later, the hiccups were gone!

Bitters are 45% alcohol so use with caution - it only took a splash on the lemon.

Eat breakfast, have boys

According to this study eating lots, eating varied foods and eating breakfast during pregnancy makes women more likely to have boys. No wonder I had a boy.