More, More, More

We've all read about "the fear" or talked to someone who has it. It's that feeling that there's too much stuff out there, that some time in the near future that we're going to stop talking, that the kids are going to shit. I don't disagree with any of it really (well except that we're going to stop having human contact, that argument is stupid). George Packer had a good one last week where he wondered how it was all effecting us. I wonder that too sometimes. But in the end, instead of worrying about it, I just admit to myself that I really like it.

All of that is a long preamble to this quote from a piece titled "In Praise of High-Speed Overload over at The Awl:

A friend told me that there is a "Slow Media" movement brewing out there, somewhere or other. The Internet confirms. NO. I only want food to go slow! The growing advance of knowledge, the tantalizing proximity of answers to all our questions, the new ability to share and synthesize our knowledge, almost instantly--we're so lucky to be experiencing all this. If the price is more anxiety, then let me wind up like the Tasmanian Devil, just a blur of anxiety. Of unbelieveably knowledgeable, totally undeceived anxiety. So what if the Internet has turned each day into a panic-ridden informational hot-dog-eating contest? So what if with the incomparable gift of access to limitless knowledge comes also a little melancholy, and anxiety that waxes sometimes into an Ernest-Beckerish sense of impending doom?

Tags: culture, informationoverload, internet // COMMENTS OPEN (0)

Best Community on the Web

As far as communities on the web go, I think Metafilter takes the cake. So it was with great interest that I read this interview with the founder, Matt Haughey (via rc3.org). In it he says pretty much everything I'd expect him to say (but as those brands building "communities" never think of).

In my mind the most brilliant feature of the site is the five dollar signup fee. Haughey explains the rationale:

It's mostly just putting a huge hurdle in front of having to deal with new users. 'Cause it's such a pain. The last ten years have shown that any time there's press, like the New York Times writes something about us, 300 people sign up and then wreak havoc for a while, and then go away. [Without barriers to entry] it would just be a nightmare.

On size, growth and just how much work it is to maintain:

It grew naturally over first few years. I never sort of advertised the site anywhere. It just sort of grows all the time. Just sort of randomly. I'm not doing anything to goose that or anything. Because [the site] doesn't work if it's big. Metafilter is actually run by me and two moderaters and a programmer. It's really done by hand. We're constantly emailing people, contacting people personally. It's a ton of work and would never work if tens of thousands of more people joined. I'm not interested in it going to twitter proportions at all.

And finally, on just how un-sexy building a regular old profitable business can be:

A lot of people obsessed with venture capital see Metafilter as a lifestyle business, but in my mind, it's a mature business. It works really well and yet nobody aspires to do something like this and I don't know why. Nobody celebrates just simple businesses that work.

Seriously, I could pull about five more quotes, but just go read the whole thing.

via rc3.org // Tags: community, internet // COMMENTS OPEN (0)

Un-Representative Representatives

Over at Snarkmarket, Robin points a fun Washington Post article that imagines new ways to divide Senate seats. Here's the income plan:

Imagine a chamber in which senators were elected by different income brackets -- with two senators representing the poorest 2 percent of the electorate, two senators representing the richest 2 percent and so on.

Based on Census Bureau data, five senators would represent Americans earning between $100,000 and $1 million individually per year, with a single senator working on behalf of the millionaires (technically, it would be two-tenths of a senator). Eight senators would represent Americans with no income. Sixteen would represent Americans who make less than $10,000 a year, an amount well below the federal poverty line for families. The bulk of the senators would work on behalf of the middle class, with 34 representing Americans making $30,000 to $80,000 per year.

Obviously this won't be happening anytime soon, but it definitely puts into perspective just how un-representative our representatives are.

via Snarkmarket // Tags: politics // COMMENTS OPEN (1)

Seeing the Internet

I really loved this article about the many ways people visualize the internet. It brought me back to great scenes in movies like Hackers, where the internet is this totally ridiculous looking thing. The author attempts to explain the phenomena:

The problem isn't really that we don't know what the Internet looks like. It's that what it looks like is so horribly ugly: not a glistening Tootsie Roll pop, not an open freeway, not a shimmering clear pool of chlorinated water nor a siren-littered sea, not even a chiseled movie star, but giant, hulking factories dotting the landscape of the Pacific Northwest and the Eastern Seaboard, covering old landfills, sprawling, like dozens of Costcos smashed together, stacked with metal and diesel generators and powerful cooling systems, crossed by power lines that deliver 2 percent of the world's energy to the so-called cloud, where your tax returns and credit card statements cross paths with Medicare files and corporate budgets and your old love letters and the photos of Jennifer Aniston's newest boyfriend.

While reading I got so inspired I decided to set up a little site to catalog all the great ways the web gets visualized. So, with no further ado, I present Gallery Interweb. If you'd like to add your favorite, you can do that to (thank you Tumblr submit functionality). Excellent. Let the fun begin.

Tags: internet, visualization // COMMENTS OPEN (1)

Apples and Oranges

Waxy points to a nice essay about the iPad. The whole thing is worth a read, as it highlights many of the reasons that so many people have been down on the device, but what really got me was this quote:

Is a stick shift better than an automatic? No. Is an automatic better than a stick? No. This misses the point. A better question: Is a road full of drivers not distracted by the arcane inner workings of their vehicle safer? It's likely. And that has a value. Possibly a value that outweighs the value offered by a stick shift if we aggregate it across everyone in the world who drives.

I often try to explain this same idea to people when it comes to different modes of communication. You can't say email is better than a face-to-face conversation because they're just so different. Sure, face-to-face is much higher fidelity, but flying to Japan for a two minute face-to-face conversation asking a friend to send back my copy of some book they borrowed hardly seems like the best use of anyone's time (not to mention environmental impact).

The saying "it's like comparing apples and oranges" didn't become a cliche because there was no truth. Comparing two things that are totally different doesn't really get anyone anywhere. (No pun intended by the apple thing, by the way.)

via Waxy.org // Tags: apple, culture, ipad, technology // COMMENTS OPEN (2)

Health Discounts

Whole Foods has an interesting new initiative to encourage healthy behavior amongst its employees:

The pricey grocery chain will give 30% discounts to those who don't smoke and have low blood pressure, cholesterol and body mass index (BMI) rates, says CEO John Mackey ... Employees will fall into four categories: bronze, silver, gold and platinum. Those showing "platinum" health will earn 30% discounts; "gold" gets 27% and silver 25%, while "bronze" wins 22% off.

Now there are certainly problems with a program like this, and the article goes on to outline them with lots of quotes from people who are outraged. I, for one, don't think this is such a bad idea. If it were purely based on weight it probably wouldn't be such a good program, however, it also includes blood pressure, cholesterol and smoking habits. By combining all these I imagine you get a pretty good picture of overall health (as a side note, I'm the first person to say that BMI is a far from perfect measure of health). This is an attempt to combat the biggest problem with health insurance as it currently exists: There is no incentive to be healthy. While it's not a perfect program, it's nice to see some high-profile examples of companies putting the idea into action.

[Just to be clear, it's my understanding the discount is off food at Whole Foods, not their health insurance.]

Update (1/29/09): For what it's worth, some people got real upset with this post over at Tumblr (partly, I think, because it wasn't clear that this discount was on stuff at Whole Foods). Anyway, I wrote up a pretty lengthy response if you're so inclined.

via House of Naked // Tags: economics, health, insurance // COMMENTS OPEN (2)

Zero Rupee Notes

I like good ideas, and this one qualifies. In India, where corruption (and the bribery that comes along with it) are a big problem, an organization called 5th Pillar has taken to printing zero rupee notes (so far it's printed over one million of them). The basic premise is that when someone is confronted by a corrupt official for a bribe they give them the zero rupee note, allowing them to make a statement without having to say anything at all. According to the article the notes have been effective:

[Vijay] Anand [president of 5th Pillar] explained that a number of factors contribute to the success of the zero rupee notes in fighting corruption in India. First, bribery is a crime in India punishable with jail time. Corrupt officials seldom encounter resistance by ordinary people that they become scared when people have the courage to show their zero rupee notes, effectively making a strong statement condemning bribery. In addition, officials want to keep their jobs and are fearful about setting off disciplinary proceedings, not to mention risking going to jail. More importantly, Anand believes that the success of the notes lies in the willingness of the people to use them. People are willing to stand up against the practice that has become so commonplace because they are no longer afraid: first, they have nothing to lose, and secondly, they know that this initiative is being backed up by an organization--that is, they are not alone in this fight.

via The Browser // Tags: corruption, economics, ideas, india // COMMENTS OPEN (4)

Response

The Awl has the best comment yet on the iPad:

Still, I'm a little taken aback by the immediate and vocal lack of enthusiasm for the product. What does it lack? What was everyone hoping for that did not materialize? This is a very rough thought that I may or may not refine, so take it as such, but the iPad is a lot like Barack Obama: Everyone was able to project their own fantasies and aspirations on a product with which they were mostly unfamiliar, only to sour on it once they realized that it did not live up to their impossible expectations. Only with the iPad it took about seven minutes for the disappointment to set in. I don't know what that says about our accelerated culture or how we confuse hype and excitement for the tangible realities of life, but it says something. I mean, probably. Like I said, I'm still trying to work it all out.

The disappointment thing is pretty amazing. The specs are pretty much exactly what everyone expected (minus a camera maybe) and yet the response seems to be that this device isn't all that exciting (at least not yet). So what is it? Maybe we just don't get enough real mystery any more ...

Tags: apple, culture, politics, technology // COMMENTS OPEN (7)

Dangerous Friends

I swear I read more than the FT, but again I've got a link to a story from today with a little more info on the Google China hacking. This one sheds a little more light on just how the hackers mad it happen:

The most significant discovery is that the attackers had selected employees at the companies with access to proprietary data, then learnt who their friends were. The hackers compromised the social network accounts of those friends, hoping to enhance the probability that their final targets would click on the links they sent.

So it turns out it was a Internet Explorer vulnerability they exploited, which makes me ask two questions: First, why were Google folks using IE? Isn't that why they make Chrome? Second (and much more serious), if this turns out to be a coordinated attack by the Chinese government (now it's being reported oil companies were hit with something similar), what happens? I mean that's pretty serious stuff. Is there a scenario where we would go to war over information security? It's scary stuff.

Tags: china, google, internet, security // COMMENTS OPEN (3)

Chinese Internet Habits

The FT has a really interesting piece on how Chinese web users are different than European/American ones. It's full of nice nuggets, like this one about typing:

Foreign companies have taken a long time to figure out - then adapt to - one of the key features of Chinese consumers: they do not like to type. "Typing is a pain in Chinese," explains Zhang Honglin, demonstrating how he has to enter a search word in Latin transcription, then pick the right character scrolling through sometimes dozens of different choices in a pop-up window. This is because Mandarin has many thousands of characters. So when 35-year-old Mr Zhang sneaks away from his family's tobacco and liquor shop in Beijing to an upstairs internet café for hours on end, he navigates almost entirely using the mouse.

I've always wondered that.

via Marginal Revolution // Tags: china, internet // COMMENTS OPEN (1)

Old Guys on YouTube

The best part of this FT review of the upcoming book Game Change (a behind the scenes look at the 2008 campaign/candidates), is this description of McCain and his cronies on YouTube:

During the duller moments on the campaign bus, John McCain and his colleagues Joe Lieberman, the renegade Democratic senator, and Lindsey Graham, the Republican from North Carolina, would watch the legendary four-minute YouTube clip of John Edwards vainly fussing over his hair in a TV studio. "Let's look at it again," McCain would suggest then they would roll about clutching their sides.

If only they were watching dramatic chipmunk.

Tags: politics, youtube // COMMENTS OPEN (2)

Fauxnovation

I couldn't quite decide how to connect this to my post about innovations in crayons, so I decided to just split them into two.

This is a more negative take on the innovation that the market forces. Krugman on financial creativity:

At this point, there is no reason to take it on faith that cleverness in the financial industry is a net social good. Unless you can provide some clear evidence of productive innovations since regulation began to unravel -- and ATMs don't count -- the balance of the evidence suggests that smart people have been devising ingenious ways to concentrate risk and direct capital to the wrong uses.

So innovation and creativity certainly drive the markets, as everyone is into growth and if you can't find new things to sell folks it's hard to grow. But I often wonder whether in the end it's really "good" (though I guess that's not really a fair question, since I like living in a prosperous country ... and do work for companies that rely on just this sort of "creativity"). Is this sort of innovation really the best engine for growth? I mean I know there are other models (service pops to mind first), but this seems to be the dominant business strategy. I guess R&D-based companies would be another type, but so many of those get sucked in by this sort of fauxnovation (again, see: five blades).

Tags: business, creativity, innovation // COMMENTS OPEN (4)