Jennifer — my previous pick to win this season of Top Chef — was booted last night. Boo.
I don’t necessarily disagree with the choice. It was probably tough on the judges to pick someone to go home out of the final four. They all seemed to be strong contenders, with no obvious weak link (unlike previous seasons).
But now it’s time for new predictions. Here’s my take on the three finalists.
Kevin – Simple, but tasty, food. Seems to always be solid on taste. I would probably eat at his restaurant regularly if it was in LA. Maybe not enough creativity to win against the brothers.
Michael — Probably the most talented of the season. His food is always interesting and highly inventive. Eating at his restaurant would probably be an adventure (in a good way). High risk, high reward kinda guy. There’s a decent chance one of his creations won’t jive with the judges.
Bryan — Consistently solid. Has some of the creativity of his brother, though not as flashy. Smart and thoughtful, in that he cares about taste and seems to have an understanding of what each challenge is all about. I imagine his restaurant as a great fine dining experience. Just enough creativity to be interesting, but grounded enough to have great tasting and highly satisfying food.
If I was a betting man (and I am), my new prediction is that Bryan will take it this season. He seems to have the talent to wow the judges, and still present a really tasty meal. Plus he’s experienced and smart enough to not make a major mistake. I can’t wait for the finale.
I just read this article on OPEN Forum by the Behance team title Can Good Teamwork Involve Fighting? Great article!
I think fighting is an integral part of a strong team — with a few caveats, of course. Here’s some thoughts on how to encourage productive fighting for the betterment of the team or project.
1) Come to a resolution at the end.
At the end of the debate or meeting, it’s important that someone wraps up the points of the fight, and that the team comes to a resolution. Like that axiom for marriages (don’t go to bed angry), don’t leave a meeting angry.
It helps to have an uneven number of team members and/or a strong leader. With an uneven number of team members, you can put the conflict to a vote*. With a strong leader, they can weigh the options and pick a resolution.
* At KAM, we vote with percentages. What I mean by that is I might say, “I’m only 60/40 in favor of X, but you’re 90/10 for Y, so we should probably go with Y.” Or we may choose to not fight too hard for something. Eg., “I believe 90/10 that X is the right way to go, but I don’t care that much about it, so we’ll go with your idea.”
Even if there are still unresolved points of contention by the end of the meeting, someone should summarize where the team does have (near) consensus. Throw out the rejected ideas, embrace the stronger points. Basically, move the argument along so the team knows where it stands. It’s not helpful to rehash the same old arguments at tomorrow’s meeting. There’s probably new issues to fight over.
2) After the fight, everyone’s on the same page.
Once a resolution is reached by the team, it’s important for individual team members to not hold grudges or undermine the team’s decision.
If your idea is not what wins, you can’t keep reminding people (especially external people) that the team made a “bad decision” by not adopting your views. After the fight, after the meeting, everyone’s back on the same page supporting the same conclusion.
This reminds me of what my pastor used to say after a contentious church election. We may be divided during the debates and election process, but once someone wins, we are one unified congregation again.
3) Strong teams encourage dissenting opinions.
I want to hear all sides. Heck, the Supreme Court even publishes dissenting opinions — it makes their final judgements stronger, not weaker.
If your team is always harmonious and everyone seems to share the same opinions, that’s a bad sign. There’s two huge problems I see:
- Team members may not feel comfortable enough sharing their dissenting opinions. If the team can’t talk openly with each other behind closed doors, that points to a problem with the team dynamics and/or leadership.
- If dissenting opinions aren’t presented, the team doesn’t get the benefit of seeing the problem from all angles and may miss out on awesome solutions or opportunities.
4) Everyone’s on the same team, with the same goals.
It’s helpful that we all want the same thing — success of the company or project. That helps make fights productive. If fights are becoming especially heated, it’s helpful to remind everyone what the overarching goal is — ie., company/team success. Then if needed, refocus the fight on accomplishing that goal.
5) Pick your battles.
Fighting for the sake of fighting isn’t helpful. And if you’re the one who’s always playing devil’s advocate and starting an argument, people will want to stop talking to you. Save your “fight juice” for the battles that are important.
I miss the eraserhead mouse pointer on my old Thinkpad. It’s so convenient for switching between typing and quickly using the mouse.
If the laptop only has a trackpad, you have to move your whole hand to move the mouse. It’s annoying.
With the eraserhead, you don’t even have to lift up your palm. Your thumb (button clicking) and index finger (pointer moving) are already in position.
It’s unfortunate that few laptops are built with the eraserhead these days. They just don’t pass the muster of an in-store test because it’s hard to control the mouse pointer when you’re not used to the eraserhead. But after a couple of days of use, you’ll want it on every keyboard you use from then on.
Even desktop keyboards could use the eraserhead pointer. I hate having to pick up my hand and move it over to the mouse.
I’m sad that the eraserhead is probably going to die out.
It’s helpful for our daily motivation to keep in mind why we do the work we do. Maybe it’s to feed our families or to change the world or to be filthy rich. No matter what the reasons are, keeping the reasons we go in to work everyday front of mind helps us do a better job and makes us happier on a day-to-day basis.
Here are my three reasons for working on Killer Aces. (These were always floating around somewhere in my mind — maybe not quite articulated, but they were in there somewhere — and reading Philip’s post Dream Job or Day Job? this week pushed me to write them down.)
1. Financial independence.
This is the greed part of it. I want to be rich not for wealth’s sake, but to have the freedom to do what I want. One of my success visions of “financial freedom” is being able to book a flight to the other side of the world on a whim, and not having to worry about cost or scheduling.
2. Ownership of work.
This is the ego part of it. I was tired of doing work that benefited someone else. I wanted to own my work.
3. Contribute to humankind / human history.
This is the fulfilling part. Some ego plays into this too.
I want to do work that matters. I want to make people’s lives better and leave a mark on human history.
One of my pet peeves is when people say “I could care less” when they really mean “I couldn’t care less”.
What bothers me is that the two phrases are opposites, and the incorrect usage flips the meaning on its head. The speaker is saying the opposite of that they mean. They mean to say “I don’t care”, but when they use the phrase incorrectly, they’re actually saying “I do care”.
It’s a sign that the speaker is being careless with their words, and the listener is suppose to ignore what they’re saying and think the opposite. It’s like saying “I don’t love you” when I mean “I love you”. I don’t think society would be as forgiving for that mistake.
I’m especially peeved when I hear the incorrect usage from professional writers and journalists. They should know better.
And yes, I could care less about this. Really, I could. It’d be better for my mental health too.
Apple’s “There’s An App For That” campaign is so good that I expect apps for all kinds of things, and have actually been disappointed. I recently searched for these apps that don’t exist:
- IMDB — to add insult to injury, there isn’t a mobile version of the website.
- MSN/Bing Video — to watch The Guild.
- Netflix — though there are approved 3rd party apps.
- Google products like Gmail, Docs, and Reader — though their mobile browser versions are pretty good.
- Kayako — a very popular helpdesk application I’m evaluating for Killer Aces.
- Quantcast
- Compete
- ComScore
I’m not saying there aren’t plently of great apps on the iPhone. In fact, I recently contributed an article to Intel’s MyLifeScoop.com featuring the cool ways iPhone apps have made my life easier — 3 Ways Technology Makes Personal Finance Easier.
I’m saying that because Apple’s done such a good job with their app store (now with 100,000+ apps*), I now expect an app to exist for every web service or site I use.
* The link goes to a Wired article that says “But as the App Store continues to expand, an inevitable question arises: How many apps do you really need?” My answer is — more than what they have now!
This puts the pressure on developers. In addition to a Windows and Mac version, I now expect your service to have an iPhone version too. (And I suspect Android users feel the same way. If not today, then soon now that a bunch of second gen Android devices have rolled out.)
Fred Wilson talked about this a few weeks ago when Droid came out. He said the mobile web (meaning apps, not mobile versions of websites) was the next big thing in tech. He said:
I believe that mobile devices are bringing web services into our pockets and purses, onto restaurant tables and bars, and into schools and stadiums…
The “mobile web” is where “it” is at right now. And it is also where it is all going…
The mobile web sector is developing quickly and innovation is happening all over the place. It is very exciting to see.
I just finished reading William Gibson’s Neuromancer. I was in a scifi mood while looking to add a new novel to my Kindle for iPhone. Since it’s such a classic, I thought I’d give Neuromancer a try.
I was not that entertained. In fact, I was bored for most of it and it was a chore to get to the end.
I think if I read it in 1984 when it was first published, it would have been awesome. But reading it after his revolutionary ideas have become so commonplace (eg., The Matrix), it wasn’t that exciting.
This criticism of Neuromancer is unfair, I know. It was so ahead of its time that I can only imagine the thrill the reader would have felt reading it in the 80’s. But reading it for the first time 25 years after it was published, and expecting it to entertain me as a scifi/cyberpunk story, it didn’t live up to my (unrealistic) expectations.
I’m not saying that Gibson isn’t a talented storyteller. About a year ago, I read Pattern Recognition. It was my first Gibson book. I picked it up on a whim at an airport bookstore. It’s a novel about advertising/marketing with a scifi/action/adventure twist published this decade. That was a very entertaining read that I finished in two sittings.
I think I’ll give his latest, Spook Country, a read so my William Gibson experience doesn’t end on a down note. (BTW, the hardcover version of Spook Country is only $2.72 right now on Amazon.)
I wanted to add a “currently reading” list of books to this blog.
One of the better plugins I found was Aaron Forgue’s Amazon Showcase. It lets you create multiple showcases — lists of Amazon items you select using the ASIN or ISBN-10 number. Each showcase can then be used in the sidebar as a widget.
Pros:
- Relatively easy to add items to the list. Just paste in the ASIN or ISBN number.
- Multiple lists (showcases).
- Easy to pick thumbnail sizes and displayed information from the input page, on an item-by-item basis.
Cons:
- Can’t configure the template code universally, though it’s cool that you can tweak it on a per-item basis. Fortunately, I wasn’t too picky about this. I did add one line to my custom.css file to make the book thumbnails display inline.
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Another useful Amazon related plugin I found is Amazon Reloaded. It adds an easy way to search and insert Amazon links on the post editor page. I hated going to the affiliate dashboard just to get a link to
Tip: If you just want a quick way to link to an Amazon page with your affiliate ID inserted, without using this plugin, just add “?tag=gregorygo-20″ to the URI. Obviously, replace “gregorygo-20″ with your own affiliate ID.
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I started down this road because I added a book to my wishlist. Then I thought that it’d be cool to embed my wishlist on the sidebar here.
You’d think Amazon would have an easy way to embed your wishlist onto a site, but nope. No embed code that I could find.
This post makes me think they used to have an embed function, but I can’t find it anymore. It seems like the only way to share lists nowadays is to email them or post directly to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or Delicious.
I’ve since decided against embedding my wishlist here, and opted for putting in a “currently reading” list instead.
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Amazon is a genius company for so many things, but I’m still occassionally amazed at how clueless they are about certain things.
No RSS feed or embed code for wishlists? Ridiculously complicated affiliate text links just to link to a book page? Why??
Maybe they need a Chief Usability Officer for Power Users.
I’ve always wanted to learn how to fly. Ever since I was a kid, I dreamed of the sense of freedom I would have soaring through the air. Now that I’m in my thirties, I thought it was about time to start pursuing that dream, and I took the first step by reaching out to the one pilot I knew. And boy am I glad I did.
My friend Thanos gave me a great primer on learning how to fly. He graciously spent an hour on the phone giving me pointers on sites, organizations, and the general path to getting a pilot’s license.
Even though I had done some cursory Google searches on learning how to fly, the tips Thanos gave me in that hour long conversation were invaluable. Getting a pilot’s license is pretty confusing. There are different types, with their own restrictions and paths, and Google only provided a smattering of confusing advice.
Spending an hour on the phone with Thanos, he was able to give me a big picture idea of what it meant to learn how to fly. We talked about why I wanted to do it, what to expect of the 100+ hours and $10,000+ process, and what it was like at the end (when I have a license). We talked about how the general aviation world works and how he uses his private pilot’s license.
I love the one hour primer by experts. If you’re looking to learn something new and somewhat complex, do yourself a huge favor and find someone to give you a primer. Buy them a cup of coffee and just pick their brain. It’ll make the journey so much more productive and enjoyable.
Or you’re an expert in something a friend wants to learn, give the gift of a primer.
Thanks Thanos!
Hi, I'm Greg. I'm a cofounder of Killer Aces Media. We publish community blogs like 