Bob Pritchett

Khoi Vinh writes about his reluctance to invest the time required to master a powerful new software product.

"I no longer find the kind of satisfaction that I used to in laying the groundwork for better productivity, in acquiring complex tools and spending copious amounts of time learning them and setting them up in preparation for the productivity gains they promise to yield for me. I just want to get stuff done with simple, reliable tools and methods that are easily comprehended straight out of the box, and then go about my business."

I'm finding this true for me, as well. In particular, I'm not investing time in learning the ever-more-powerful creative tools I used to use. (Adobe Illustrator and InDesign, Microsoft Visual Studio, etc.) So now I'm exercising my creativity through others -- whiteboarding, handwaving, and brainstorming with the tool-masters who can turn ideas into output.

I like the organizational productivity benefits of this "whiteboard elves" model, but I miss being able to dive in and get things done.

Better user interface, like Khoi suggests, may help. But I regret the loss of mastery I used to feel.

Posted by Bob Pritchett at 11:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This follow up to Microsoft's Photosynth is spectacular. This makes all the "Now enhance it, and let me look at it from another angle" nonsense in the movies seem not so far away.

Now all they need to do is integrate this technology with live video feeds, and we can be virtual tourists in real time. Or, the most perfectly surveilled police state ever!

Posted by Bob Pritchett at 6:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

First line of Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy

I first read this years ago. Since then I've observed its simple truth many times.

In a world where morality is relative, where rights trump responsibilities, where the aberrant is ordinary, and where shame is dead, it's instructive to see what simple rulers can take the measure of reality.

Posted by Bob Pritchett at 6:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Step 1. Believe you need saving.

When I worked at Microsoft back in 1990-92 we spent a lot of time laughing at big, lumbering IBM. Today Microsoft is IBM.

It's important to note that IBM isn't dead. They just aren't "it" anymore.

On the rare occasion I get to talk to someone well connected inside Microsoft, they're quick to point out that they're doing great. Revenue is up, profit is strong, and they've got enough cash to pave the parking lots with gold.

True. Enterprise customers, partnerships, and platform lock-in will keep Microsoft strong for years to come. Generous compensation, great benefits, and a reputation for stability will ensure enough dutiful wage slaves to keep the engines humming indefinitely.

It just won't be cool.

If you're willing to slow growth and concede leadership, you can be profitably uncool for a long time.

But when you're a platform company, you need everybody on your platform to make the numbers work. And while many of us are locked-in to Microsoft's platforms today, it's now because we have to be, not because we want to be.

Microsoft needs to get cool again. Fast. Before there's an iPhone/iPod dock built right into our brains.

Posted by Bob Pritchett at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I wanted a really cool Windows Mobile phone. I was hoping the HTC Touch Diamond or Sony Xperia could make it respectable, but I don't see any sign they'll be available to me soon.

I thought Google's Android might be a good excuse to avoid joining the iPhone cult (though I worry that Google may yet become the world's scariest corporation). But it's nowhere on the horizon either.

I can't go on waiting. I got my iPhone today.

I already miss right-clicking to modify a setting directly, and I'm disappointed that the Exchange integration and Bluetooth contacts support are a bit weak.

But it's just wonderful.

Posted by Bob Pritchett at 1:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Do you like those highly charismatic speakers who challenge the audience with outrageous statements and wild predictions of a radically different future?

Yep, me too. That's why I attend their keynotes. Those sweet, fluffy desserts for the mind often inspire me to think outside the box.

I wish I could convince people it's the end of the world as they know it. Until then, though, I try to deliver the meat and potatoes: ideas you can steal; reports on what did and didn't work; things you can put to use today, inside your box; ways to make money without having to wait for a demographic tidal wave to wipe out the existing industry.

I'll be serving it up on the topic of Business truths and the lies we tell ourselves at the Business of Software 2008, September 3-4 in Boston, Massachusetts. This is my first pecha kucha presentation, and I'm really looking forward to it. (I've got 20 seconds each for 20 slides, automatically projected. Seems like a good reason to rehearse.)

The following week, September 10-11, I'll be addressing Business models that guarantee profitability in publishing at the Social Media Conference NW, right here in Bellingham, Washington.

While both of these conferences have a great list of topics and speakers, the best part is always the people you meet. So join me, and come introduce yourself!

Posted by Bob Pritchett at 2:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I love this photo of the Longaberger Company home office.

It looks difficult to expand, and like it might suffer in the office building resale market, but it shows commitment and confidence in the future.

Back in 1992 I visited Microsoft's offices outside Paris. The office building had a really strange shape and some unusual wall angles. From the air it looked like the butterfly that adorned the Microsoft France logo.

It seemed to me at the time like a ridiculous extravagance (though it was apparently in line with an airport runway), and now it's no longer visible from satellite photos.

But in the age of Google Maps and Live Maps, maybe we should all be looking at our roof and building outline as marketing space.

Posted by Bob Pritchett at 11:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I read Stewart Brand's How Buildings Learn years ago and enjoyed it immensely. Since then, I've used anecdotes from it to illustrate business concepts, to argue points of software architecture, and to entertain (I hope!) family and friends.

I had no idea there was a 1997 BBC documentary based on it. But I'm glad to learn that it exists, and that it's online at Google Video.

(Thanks InfoDesign!)

Posted by Bob Pritchett at 9:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I just got a survey in the mail. There's a crisp $2 bill and the promise of $10 more if I fill it out and return it. It's only 108 pages long, and full of easy and interesting questions like "Is either adult head of household aware of variable annuities that include a Guaranteed Minimum Accumulation Benefit or a Guaranteed Minimum Withdrawal Benefit?"

It shouldn't take me long to look up my life insurance policy disclosures, so I can answer "Does the interest rate paid on the cash value of either adult head of household's policy change with the money market rate or with the performance of underlying investments that have been chosen?"

Does anyone fill this out? Accurately? And wouldn't this be a highly specialized, self-selecting group of obsessive-compulsive personal finance geeks guaranteed to not in any way be representative of the general population?

This has to be what happens when a company gets too big. You have a hundred departments each contributing their dozens of questions to an outside firm that promises to handle all the messy survey details. And nobody with any sense looks at the result to ask, "Will anyone actually answer this accurately? And if they did, would I want that person as a customer?"

Posted by Bob Pritchett at 5:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

London and New York are (for a little while) connected by a massive 'telescope' (thanks, Engadget!) that lets people see each other on the street, across the ocean.

I love this! And as bandwidth drops in price, I think we should see a lot more of it.

Years ago I was reading about our city's participation in the sister cities program, a cultural exchange that involves sending the occasional musician, high school student, politician, and soccer team back and forth. That's a nice way to exchange some culture, but wouldn't it be cooler if there was a coffee shop in each city that had a video-conferencing wall? (Demo) Where you could see and hear the whole shop, and then sit down at a table that let you talk to the person across from you?

What if every English corner was a portal to another country? (Well, there'd be a convenient place to make an angry, xenophobic rant without fear of getting beat up... but we can hope for some more positive exchanges, too.)

Posted by Bob Pritchett at 9:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)