Framtiden nu

Every time I work on computer code I wrote earlier I feel the urge to throw out the old ugly code and re-write it from scratch since I learnt so much since last time. At least that is what I thought until yesterday when I helped a friend take a look at some old code I had written.

I had an epiphany: the less old code I touched, the better. It’s been such a long time since I worked with computer code that even when the code didn’t seem to make any sense any attempt at trying to re-write it better than before would invariably lead to disaster. Letting me near Visual Studio these days should be viewed by the UN as a crime against mankind.

Not surprisingly really, since the only thing I have programmed in the past five years that even resembles code is MySQL and PHP for Fabset.com. And before that, the only programming I did was university courses and hobby programming.

Do I regret not becoming a programmer? No! I would have sucked more than a new-born baby. But I have a huge amount of respect for all you professional coders out there and I do recommend anyone in the tech industry to learn the basics of computer code . Computer code is revolutionary at best and beautiful at worst!

If you want to keep your phone bills at a reasonable level, travelling with an iPhone means turning off mobile data. And we all know what that means: your smartphone turns into a dumb piece of metal and glass.

Artists illustration of an iPhone without mobile data. Source: Gizmodo

Both the iPhone and Android phones are noisy, data-wise. Even if you don’t actively use mobile data, things like push notifications and playing games with game center consumes data.

But I’ve noticed that there are only two mobile data services I *really* need while travelling:
1) Google Maps
2) E-mail

So here’s what I want: a VPN solution that does the following:
1) Only allows IMAP data to/from Gmail
2) Blocks the download of any Gmail attachments
3) Compresses Google maps so that the tiles are just barely readable.

Sounds like a great idea for a Y Combibator startup, no?

I remember seeing the original Tron movie in 1992, ten years after it’s original release. I was amazed to see a movie where geeks were the cool people.

The original trailer is an amazing video that documents the early 80s perfectly in so many ways. But  most importantly it embodies the belief that computers will once rule the world. To be honest I kind of miss the broad belief of computers soon becoming evil and trying to take over the world. Now we just take computers for granted instead.

Now compare that with the trailer for the new movie coming out in December, Tron Legacy. No more focus on computers trying to take over the world (sadly).

Oh and did I mention that Jeff Bridges is Clu 2.0?

And that Daft Punk is making the soundtrack?

And it is being filmed in IMAX 3D?

And that that Disney is creating a theme park named “Electronica” just to celebrate the launch of Tron Legacy?

Did you hear that sound? That’s the sound of my head exploding.

I have to hand it to you Bob, I write my comments on your book, I mail you and you respond to some random person on the internet. Impressed.

Now, this leads me to an open question about discussions on the internet that I have been pondering. Do I respond? Bear with me while I explain my train of thoughts.

There is an old picture floating around on the net that sums up my thoughts on having arguments over the internet. I won’t include it here since I think it is a bit harsh, so I will just link to it. Go ahead, click the link, I’m waiting. (drums fingers against tabletop). There, back now?

So, what is this picture trying to tell us? Arguments are best made when you can see each other. Just look at how quickly the comments turn into nonsense on sites like Slashdot and TechCrunch. I have to admit that full-on flamewars are starting to become more and more uncommon. Maybe we are slowly starting to learn how to argue over the Internet?

But I digresss. My real concern is this: in many newspapers (except The Economist which I will get to in a minute) I often see this happening:

• Newspaper publishes an editorial on a controversial subject
• Person figuring in the editorial sends in a reply to the editorial
• The newspaper publishes the received reply together with their reply to the reply!

See the problem here? The newspaper always wins! They get the final say. I’ve even see this go on several cycles where the newspaper receives a reply to their reply which they then in turn reply to. The Economist’s staff, as the classy english gentlemen that they are,  handle it much more graciously:

• The Economist publishes an editorial
• Person figuring in the editorial sends in a reply
• The economist publishes the reply and trusts that the reader is intelligent enough to read the original article and the reply and make up their own mind on who is right.

How does this apply to the aforementioned comment on this blog? Well, if I reply I get the feeling that the discussion will go on until I get the final say. Note that I wont necessarily have won the argument, but since this is my blog I obviously have a lot more stamina in writing on it than anyone who comments.

Maybe it would be more gracious of me to let comments stand unanswered and thereby letting readers make up their minds themselves?

What do you think?

(thanks @Lena Bolin for inspiration to this post)

Games are fun. You get immediate feedback on what you do and you always know when you are doing the right thing. Even more fun than doing the right thing is letting others know how good you are, which is what Microsoft understood with XBox Live.

Achievements, badges and trophies were of course not invented by Microsoft and Sony. They have been used by the military, the scout movement and as informal prizes in sports tournaments. Certificates have also turned into a sort of virtual achievement among friends. I see lots of people getting more certificates than they have time to actually use. For example: certificates for hunting, scuba diving, sailing, climbing, driving mc, the list goes on.

I’m not saying there is anything wrong with that. Au contrarie! if you learnt scuba diving just to get the certificate – more power to you. The act of getting a certificate actually made you learn something that you hadn’t learned otherwise.

And more websites are starting to realize that you can turn your website into a game by making you collect virtual goods: Facebook friends, notifications, twitter mentions, blog readers, comments.. are they all part of a virtual game?

When you write something on Facebook is this the prize you hope to get?

This is a basic human emotion – we are drawn to things that we understand and that give us immediate feedback. What else that we do can be turned into a game to make it more fun and rewarding? Your work? Your studies?

Everyone knows that trust is something you earn, but sometimes we forget that. It took Apple 30 years to gain the trust from consumers that made them sell one million iPads in 28 days. Without even having tried the iPad people trusted Apple when they said they had created a magical new product. It took Google ten years to gain the trust of businesses to let Google manage their documents and e-mail.

You can only build trust in small incremental steps over time, and most of the time each step is simple: be there and do what is expected of you. Are you taking the right steps right now?

If you are building trust with a child, you do so by spending time with them every day, week and month. If you want to build trust among your colleagues you do so by delivering results day in and day out, particpating in discussions where you back down when you are wrong and hold on to your views when necessary. If you want to build trust with your customers you are honest about what you are going to deliver even when the truth hurts, you give reasonable timelines for when you can deliver and show how you will avoid further problems when you don’t deliver as promised. There are no shortcuts to trust.

And trust is important. It is what makes your colleagues back you when you suggest a re-organization at work. It is what makes your customers come back to you after your server room has broken down and they lost a week’s worth of work.

Are you trustworthy?

Do you give your customers a reason to trust you?

Who do you trust that you shouldn’t?

Who has lost your trust in the past but has changed and deserves to be trusted again?

Drawing maps is an underrated skill. For thousands of years we have had the luxury of having explorers and engineers creating  better and better maps of the world. Today we have near perfect maps of the whole physical world.

Source: Flickr

While the physical world is now mapped the business world is still largely unmapped. Can you draw a map of the road to success in your next project? A map that you can show to potential customers, new partners or old friends that explains how you expect to go from point a, to b to c?

Replace a,b and c with whatever is relevant for your current project. If you want to become a published writer then a is to write the book, b is to find a publisher and c is to promote your book.  Now you have done the easy part. The real question is, can you draw a map that shows how you get from a, to b and c?