I speak usability and developer to make amazing user experiences.
You can take a look at my archives, follow me on twitter, or check me out on forrst.
Let me know what you think of the new site. It still has a ways to go but I think it is certainly more entertaining that previous versions.
For those of you in IE6 or less please use a better browser ;) as it will significantly change the viewing experience.
Well I decided I would launch my new look and feel. It still has several small problems and I haven’t got a chance to go through it with Microsoft Internet Explorer (one of the perks of using Linux ;) ). Never the less let me know what you think. Also keep and eye on the site as I am going to be adding several subtle features.
Recently I recieved my first comment on a post (thank you Bill Brown it is nice to know that someone is interested) and some great questions where raised about my views on charisma. Because the questions raised such good points I felt it would be nice to explore the topic a little more in an attempt to overcome the objections and perhaps raise more questions.
The first objection was the idea of “effort” not being accounted for. In this case the point of the article is that charisma overcomes the need for effort. It is also important to note that effort is extremely valuable and for most people with out charisma, it is the only way to find success. But again, the post was to explore the idea that charisma can trump most hurtles with little effort.
The second objection is much more complex. I think Bills point about attributes in the Aristotlian sense when applied to a “human” are extremely accurate depending on how you define a human. In this post I was not discussing a human as a make up of chemicals and minerals but instead was referring to the concept of the metaphysical “person”. It is my believe that all “humans” have various attribute ranges. These ranges allow one person to become an expert at one thing while another person can never pass a novice level. How these ranges are utilized is greatly impacted by external forces such as socialization or experience. The result of these utilizations creates the “person.” In short we all have the same attributes but different levels. Where we end up in the range is determined largely by external forces and the level we achieve creates the “person.”
Again I want to thank Bill for raising such a strong question and taking the time to comment. I look forward to hearing if this makes any sense to anyone ;)
Right now as I write this I am watching an interesting fire storm occur on one of my favorite sites, Digg.com. It appears that the DRM protected HD-DVD has been cracked and users are generously sharing the key. These users are posting all over the internet, and in an attempt in hiding their coveted protection (which was supposed to be virtually unbreakable) they are being taken down at the request of the manufacturer.
One user who had a blog post with the numbers was dugg to the front page only to have digg.com permanently bury the post and the user. Others have sprouted up in an attempt to fight the system.
In a matter of a few seconds you can watch things come up only to vanish as they are buried by digg.com. It seems for everyone that gets buried three more show up. Perhaps this will be a key piece to ending DRM, perhaps not.
Either way I think that it is a strong demonstration of how the public is getting pretty sick of being told what they can and can’t do with things that they are supposed to own. I can only hope that it will be the start of the end for DRM. Unfortunately only time will tell.
On my home today I was contemplating a variety of random thoughts when one jumped out at me. People are made up of various attributes. These can be physical such as tall, short, bald, thin, large etc. or they can also be emotional/personality based such as caring, honest, jealous, mean, nice etc. Certain combinations of attributes can lead to more success while others may hamper ones ability to find success.
So out of all of the various attributes which ones lend themselves to success more than the others? After giving it some thought I think that charisma can directly impact success in a given situation more then all others attributes.
The power of charisma is that it is extremely passive. It is something that works unbeknown to those that it affects. In other words when charisma is being used to impact a situation, people often don’t directly see it working. This gives the user a large advantage of manipulating outcomes with out others interfering.
It simply boils down to people want to be around those that they enjoy and charisma can be an easy way of being enjoyment for others. For better or for worst, those who are likable get things that they might not deserve such as a job they where not qualified for or getting off easy when they make a mistake.
If you take it to the next level, those that possess “super” charisma will be able to do these things with others rarely complaining or noticing that they have done something wrong. More importantly when it comes to light that they have made a mistake, they will be less damaged by it then those that are not charismatic. The perfect case in point is Bill Clinton. He made several serious mistakes and got out of them relatively clean.
The down side of charisma is that it is like a super power, and with great power comes great responsibility. If you have a lot of charisma it is up to you to use it for good. The final piece of charisma is that because of its intangibility it is very hard to acquire. Many people believe it is either something you have or you don’t.
So do you have it?
Well I haven’t written anything in a while as I have been extremely busy with side project. I have decided to go in on a business idea with my brother. I know everyone always says not to do business with friends or family, but this was to good of an idea to pass up.
We are working on building a biodiesel production company up and running. This is no small task and I have been charged with heading up the website amongst other things. I have gotten a lot built but nothing published as of yet. Of course I will update this site once our site goes live. Hopefully this will be sooner rather than latter.
At lunch today one of my colleagues and I where discussing the prospects of making a living as an artist. I brought up a cost analysis of an artist I had recently seen that seemed to make some decent money. This particular artist was producing bronze sculptures of various south-western themes and when I viewed the artist selections the average prices was around $8,000. He had approximately 10 sculptures out and each sculpture had a list of buyers posted beneath it. On each list was 5-10 names of customers who had placed deposits. I am sure you are doing the math and starting to realize like I did that this guy seems to be making a fortune. 10 sculptures X 5 people X $8000 is $400,000. This is crazy huh? I decided to start discussing some of the cost that the artist perhaps incurred to produce these pieces. You must figure that he was paying for the gallery time, shall we say $2,000 per month (it was a very high end gallery). Of course he is paying for each piece to be produced and while bronze is not a precious metal to my knowledge it is still fairly expensive so lets call the materials fee for each statue $2,000….
Suddenly I was interrupted by my colleague who stated “You cannot cost justify the creative process!” I took back for a second and proceeded to explain that I am not cost justifying the creative process but instead the production of the items that had been created. It dawned on me that this is the biggest piece of why creative elements in business are always outsiders.
Everyone else in the organization has a finite value to cost ratio which is often figured out to the penny. But how do you put a price on something that creates a subjective value, and maybe more importantly why should you have to?
I cannot answer the first part of the question but I think I have an answer for the second. The creative process needs a price and value regardless if you are working on a project for a business or a project for yourself. If you cannot set a price on your creation then you will eventually sink. Furthermore the better you are at demonstrating your price to value ratio you are, the more likely you will find success in the given field. A writer must convince a publisher that his work is of value for the requested price or else the publisher will not purchase it, a sculpture must demonstrate that his price per piece will add the appropriate value and of course a Usability specialist must demonstrate that the improvements made to the application are adding value.