marți, 25 octombrie 2016

Seth's Blog : On being irritated

Irritation is a privilege. It's the least useful emotion, one that we never seek out. People in true distress are never irritated. Someone who is hungry or drowning or fleeing doesn't become irritated. And of course, irritation rarely helps us...

On being irritated

Irritation is a privilege.

It's the least useful emotion, one that we never seek out.

People in true distress are never irritated. Someone who is hungry or drowning or fleeing doesn't become irritated.

And of course, irritation rarely helps us get what we need.

Irritation clouds our judgment, frustrates our relationships and gets our priorities all wrong.

Irritation tries to persuade us that it's justified, but it merely pushes us away from what we actually need.

In order to be irritated, we need to believe we're not getting something we deserve. But of course, that expectation is the cause of the irritation. We can choose the lose the expectation, embracing the fact that we're lucky enough to feel it, and then get back to work doing something generous instead.

It turns out that irritation is a privilege and irritation is a choice.

       

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luni, 24 octombrie 2016

Seth's Blog : Moral hazard and inhumanity

One bit of economic reasoning says, "If there are no consequences, people will make bad choices." Don't let big banks get bailouts, because if we do, bankers will take bigger risks. So, make sure that the dentist is expensive (and...

Moral hazard and inhumanity

One bit of economic reasoning says, "If there are no consequences, people will make bad choices."

Don't let big banks get bailouts, because if we do, bankers will take bigger risks.

So, make sure that the dentist is expensive (and painful) because that will encourage people to brush their teeth.

And don't make it too easy to collect on fire insurance, or people will be careless with matches.

Insurers call these behaviors 'moral hazards.' In specific instances, people will make choices that cause harm to themselves and to society because they don't fear the consequences.

Without a doubt, this makes sense for organizations.

But the instances are more specific than you might guess. For example, awareness of the certainty of lung cancer forty years later doesn't do much to keep teens from smoking. The long-term consequences didn't matter—it was a tax on cigarettes that made the biggest difference.

And telling a mentally ill homeless person that he 'deserves' to live on the street because of bad choices along the way isn't doing anything for him, or to those that might be forced into his situation down the road.

Waiting for an employee to screw up so we can fire her seems a convoluted way to set a standard for the rest of the team.

Too often, we get confused about what people deserve vs. what they get. We use our instinctual, Calvinist understanding of moral hazard as an excuse to teach people a lesson, to callously embrace an efficient market. But of course, the market isn't efficient at all. It unevenly distributes rewards to people based on luck, and allows those with an early head start to amplify that lead with less and less effort.

It turns out that building homes for homeless people is a great way to cut homelessness overall. Poverty doesn't usually respond to moral hazard approaches.

Life's risky and it's played for keeps. We all benefit from a safety net.

       

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duminică, 23 octombrie 2016

Seth's Blog : Hardware is sexy, but it's software that matters

You can make software if you choose to. Not just the expected version of software that runs on a computer, but the metaphorical idea of rules and algorithms designed to solve problems and connect people... Apple started as a hardware...

Hardware is sexy, but it's software that matters

You can make software if you choose to.

Not just the expected version of software that runs on a computer, but the metaphorical idea of rules and algorithms designed to solve problems and connect people...

Apple started as a hardware company with the Apple II. Soon in, they realized that while hardware is required, it's software that changes the world.

For years, the Mac was merely a container for Mac software. It was the software that enabled the work we created, it was software that shifted our relationship with computers and ultimately each other.

Over the last five years, Apple has lost the thread and chosen to become a hardware company again. Despite their huge profits and large staff, we're confronted with (a partial list):

  • Automator, a buggy piece of software with no support, and because it's free, no competitors.
  • Keynote, a presentation program that hasn't been improved in years.
  • IOS 10, which replaces useful with pretty.
  • iTunes, which is now years behind useful tools like Roon.
  • No significant steps forward in word processing, spreadsheets, video editing, file sharing, internet tools, conferencing, etc. Apple contributed mightily to a software revolution a decade ago, but they've stopped. Think about how many leaps forward Slack, Dropbox, Zapier and others have made in popular software over the last few decades. But it requires a significant commitment to keep it moving forward. It means upending the status quo and creating something new. 

Some simple principles:

  • Software can change faster than hardware, which means that in changing markets, bet on software.
  • It's tempting to treat the user interface as a piece of fashion, some bling, a sort of jewelry. It's not. It's the way your user controls the tool you build. Change it when it stops working, not when you're bored with it. Every time you change the interface, you better have a really good reason.
  • Hardware always gets cheaper. If you can't win that race, don't run it.
  • Getting users is far more expensive than keeping users, which means that investing in keeping users is the smartest way to maintain your position and then grow.
  • Software can create connection, and connection is the engine of our future economy. 

This is more than a rant about Apple. Any company that makes or uses software has a wide-open opportunity to dramatically change the way we engage. Hardware, on the other hand, often closes more doors than it opens.

If you can, make software. And create enough value (through efficiency, power and connection) to the marketplace of your choosing that it will have trouble being productive or happy without you.

       

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