Amazing

To your parents, you are amazing.

To your children, you are amazing.

To your significant other, you are amazing.

To your closest friends and some of your teachers, you are amazing (yes, even if they occasionally think you're an idiot).

To someone in whose life you've made a difference -- and continue to make a difference -- you are amazing.

In short: when you share a real connection with someone, you are amazing. And sometimes for no other reason than "just because".

Compare this to your workplace, neighborhood, the Internet, or any other space where it's all too easy to be just another face in the crowd or remain anonymous. Chances are, to your co-workers (if you work in a big organization), your neighbors (if you live in a large community) or on the Web (unless you've managed to go viral), you aren't amazing. Chances are, you're just another empty seat to fill, just another face in the crowd, just another username and password. But not amazing.

So why don't you try to be? And for no better reason than "just because"?

It's much easier to be amazing to a small group, and there's no smaller group than the next person. It doesn't take superhuman effort either. Smile more. Try to be helpful. Share. Or maybe just some random act of kindness such as [insert here].

Try. That itself would be amazing.

Bursts

It's fortunate that Albert-László Barabási writes elegantly. Were it not for that, I may not have made it through Bursts.

The book is inherently about unpredictability. There appears to be an element of randomness to life that confounds our ability to make accurate predictions despite the wealth of statistical distributions and models (e.g. Poisson or Gaussian) at our disposal. Consequently, we are constantly surprised by what people actually do, which more often than not seems lacking in noticeable patterns.

Yet Barabási contends that there is an underlying pattern to human activity. "What we do" is best described not by the usual statistical distributions but by "power laws": that is, that the incidence of an event varies by some power (or scale) of some characteristic it possesses. Ever notice that the emails we send tend to be concentrated at specific intervals during our day? Or that some people go many months without traveling long distances, only to have trip after trip after trip scheduled? Or isn't it a wonder that few conflicts in human history have brought about such massive loss of life as the two World Wars? It is in this regard that applying the notion of power laws to human behavior is most illuminating, for it would appear that people have long periods of inactivity or low activity followed by sudden "bursts" of activity.

In this regard, Bursts offers a glimpse into the field of human dynamics, an area of study that "seek[s] to develop models and theories to explain why, when, and where we do the things we do with some regularity." Yet it is an unorthodox window into the field, given how Barabási frames the discussion. Yes, Bursts is to some degree a technical exposition of the subject. At the same time, however, it is also: a brief history of how power laws came to figure in statistics from its native physics; a series of anecdotes following Barabási's enquiries into human dynamics; and a historical narrative of an aborted 16th Century Crusade in Barabási's native Transylvania.

It goes without saying that such an approach can be a bit...much (and it is). Indeed, Bursts tends to meander rather than keep to the point, and I fail to see the relevance of weaving the medieval history into the text, regardless of the reasons Barabási expresses for including it. Yet I will concede that it made the book much more interesting than it otherwise would have been, especially considering that the underlying point -- that power laws apply to human behavior, too -- hardly requires book-length treatment (personally, I would have taken the point at face value had I been told as much).

Overall, Bursts is informative and entertaining, if a little unusual. But it's easy to forgive the strangeness, unlike the idiosyncratic writing in some other books I know that should also appeal to the statistics inclined, precisely because Barabási has a knack for injecting clarity and drama into intelligent erudition.

Slideshare Says Sorry [The Internet Is Down]

While managing my Slideshare presentations, I found myself on the receiving end of a 500 error:

Frankly, I found the look on the mascot's face very amusing. He really looks like he's sweating it out over the error!

However, I must say that their 404 error page has better copy:

I think the emoticon at the end of the first line makes all the difference. But that's just me.

[Confused about The Internet Is Down? Then read the first in the series.]

Review: Macbook Air 2

As promised, some thoughts after using the MacBook Air for the past couple of weeks (in a somewhat awkward question and answer format, since I love talking to myself):

What is it?

It's the second-generation MacBook Air, the recently refreshed version of Apple's line of ultrathin and ultraportable laptop computers. For this hardware generation, the Air comes in 11- and 13-inch versions. Mine is the 11-inch one.

So...how do you like it so far?

I like it very much, thanks. The 11-incher is very compact, practically the size of a netbook but with most of a laptop's range of functionality (that is to say, with a full keyboard but without an optical disk drive). And when I say compact, it's impossible to exaggerate: at its thinnest, it measures 0.11 of an inch (that's 0.3 centimeters); at its thickest, it's 0.68 of an inch (1.7 centimeters).

It should be clear from the beginning that one is paying a premium for this laptop's portability; such is the tradeoff. Certainly, for the same price one can easily buy a more powerful laptop running on an updated processor (while beautiful to behold on the outside, the MacBook Air boasts practically the same Intel Core Duo 2 processor as its predecessor inside). Yet when you're coming from a five-year old 15-inch PowerBook G4 like I am, the MacBook Air's processing power is already a huge leap forward and you immediately appreciate how you aren't lugging around a five-pound machine.

Also, with its solid-state (flash) memory in lieu of a traditional hard drive, it's ridiculously fast and quiet. Indeed, if Apple accomplishes anything with this laptop, it'll be to get other manufacturers to begin thinking very seriously about switching to solid state very soon. Gauntlet thrown!

The 11-incher also promises a five-hour battery life, although I haven't validated whether this is the case. I do note that it has no removable battery (which might be a dealbreaker for some), a problem I'm willing to confront when the time comes.

Don't you miss the optical drive and Ethernet port?

Not really. For one thing, the drive-sharing settings for the Air are rather simple to figure out (well, for Apple computers anyway), so much so that I feel a bit guilty using my PowerBook as an external DVD drive.

The Ethernet port would have been nice to have. Fortunately, I don't really need it much, but I can imagine situations where it would come in handy. I could buy a USB Ethernet adapter of course...but the more I think about it I can live without it.

Isn't the 11-inch screen a little small?

Yes, to be honest. Coming from a larger screen, it takes a lot of getting used to. As David Pogue notes, the pixels on the screen are also tinier, which makes anything you view look that much smaller.

Any other thoughts on the MacBook Air?

Because it's so small and light, I can't seem to open the lid without also holding it down; otherwise, the entire thing gets lifted off the table. Now that the keys aren't backlit, I appreciate the feature on my PowerBook -- not that I used that feature much before. I do wish Apple kept the alternative "Enter" key to the right of the spacebar, like that on the PowerBook's keyboard, instead of replacing it with another "Option".

The geek in me also wishes that the USB recovery drive that comes with the laptop were re-writeable. That would've been a definite plus.

Who should be interested in a MacBook Air then?

The MacBook Air lives up to its promise of being a useful ultraportable, but one whose tradeoffs probably won't appeal to everyone in the market for a new laptop. If you're looking for a utility laptop to complement your existing desktop computer or otherwise aren't at all interested in the limitations of a netbook, the MacBook Air will appeal to you.

Final Thoughts?

I'd like to think that this second generation MacBook Air is a window into the direction that Apple designers and engineers think laptop computers are headed, and in this they are way ahead of the competition. It's sleek, functional, and -- with flash storage, which I'm guessing will become industry standard fairly soon -- ridiculously fast. I'm sure some techies will decry its limited features, particularly in terms of processing power (Core Duo instead of i5), media versatility (no optical drive) and networking capability (no Ethernet port). But for my purposes, I've come to realize that I didn't really need these things as much as I thought, and am quite happy with a laptop that's nearly lighter than air.

Different

This much I'll say about Youngme Moon's Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd: if ever a book on business and marketing could be described as so beautiful to read it's almost painful, this must be it.

Oozing with candor, there's a certain poetic quality to the book, which I dare say is cut from the same cloth as Rob Walker's Buying In: intelligent, acutely observant, and so elegantly written. There is no multi-point agenda intended to make better marketers out of its readers, no indiscriminate use of business jargon to clothe her words in an air of legitimacy and intellectual appeal. No: what Different has to offer are salient points about all that is wrong with the meaningless product differentiation characteristic of mature product brand management, told in a straightforward manner that any human being can empathize with and understand.

As business books go, Different is honest, insightful, and -- surprise! -- itself meaningfully different. I can pay the book no bigger compliment than that.

About You

There's some irony in that, between infancy and adulthood, the world conspires to curtail our egoism.

Because we start out in life helpless and unable to communicate, "me" is the default condition. Every gesture we make or tantrum we throw is intended to tell others we need something. We cry (I'm hungry!). We wail (I've hurt myself). We have a fit (I don't want to do that!).

Such behavior is tolerated until we are expected to "grow up" and stand on our own two feet. "Stop it," we're admonished. "Suck it up," we're advised. "Think about others, too," we're told. No matter how it's phrased, the underlying point is the same: we cannot expect to be at the center of the universe forever. As we are succinctly reminded much too often: "It's not about you."

Except that's not always the case. Even as adults -- especially so -- sometimes the opposite is true.

It is about you.

It's about the company you keep, and the reputation you want to have.

It's about the work you want to do, and the legacy you want to leave behind.

It's about the person you are, and the person you want to be.

So remember: it's not about you. Except when it is.

You should be able to tell the difference.

Bureaucracy [Presentation Thursdays]

View this presentations on Slideshare.

Lecture slide deck on the concept of bureaucracy, circa my teaching days back around 2003-2005.

To start off the lecture on this topic, I'd usually announce a pop quiz and dictate the only item: "Spell bureaucracy!" The varied ways students can misspell that word never ceased to amuse me.

Cheap thrills, that.

Also, there's something quite fitting about the imagery of a cog and the notion of bureaucracy. Or maybe that's just me.

[Confused about Presentation Thursdays? Then read the first in the series].

Macbook Air 2 Unboxed

Upgraded to a Macbook Air after five years with my trusty (if failing) Powerbook G4. Some haphazardly-taken unboxing photos are below. I goofed up the camera settings on the last three photos (that's what happens when you've got a flight to catch in half an hour), but they're good enough.

Like before, I'll write up my impressions after a few scheduled posts.

Design Is How It Works

Design is a subject that's caught my interest of late. Hence, it was an easy decision to have a gander at Jay Greene's Design Is How It Works: How Companies Turn Products into Icons.

The book's title and rationale are derived from an interview between Steve Jobs and Consumed columnist Rob Walker, which Greene recounts thus:

"Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like," Apple CEO Steve Jobs told Walker. "People think it's this veneer -- that the designers are handed this box and told 'Make it look good!' That's not what we think design is. It's not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."

Hence, the book explores how companies can successfully use design as a means of winning over customers ever more concerned about the kind of experiences that what they consume have to offer. To his credit, Greene shies away from the obvious tack of writing at length about Apple. Instead, he opts to examine eight companies in different industries and of different sizes that leverage design to deliver exceptional customer experiences: Porsche, Nike, Lego, OXO, REI, Clif Bar, Ace Hotels and Virgin Atlantic.

An alumnus of BusinessWeek, Greene is no stranger to quality business journalism, which is perhaps how best to describe Design Is How It Works. With separate chapters dedicated to the abovementioned companies, the book reads like a savvy profile of their underlying corporate cultures and business philosophies, especially as these pertain to design.

Personally, I appreciated the storytelling approach Greene used in Design Is How It Works. Overall, I felt the book was effective at making the case for bringing design front and center into a company's consciousness. "Design is about creating something that customers crave," Greene writes. "Design isn't just for companies that make clothes, consumer electronics, or cars. No matter how mundane the business, design can help."

Businesses would do well to take note.

Inside the Box

We're wired to think that the box is evil.

There comes a point when rote or routine just can't get the job done anymore. As Einstein once intimated, there is no greater sign of insanity than to do the same thing over and over again and expect the result to be different. Hence, we soon learn that cookie-cutter approaches and one-size-fits-all solutions to problems work only up to a point.

And so we're told to think out of the box.

The assumption, of course, is that we tend to become comfortable with the status quo: with how things are usually done, with how people usually think, with what people usually say, and so on. In short, we abide by constraints that box us in and keep us from innovating. Hence, the simple conclusion: to be creative we have to break free.

Except that this way of thinking fails to appreciate that creativity thrives not just in spite of but because of limitations.

What makes something a work of art are the constraints that an artist deftly overcomes to showcase her skill: the size of the canvass, the hues of the paint, the coarseness of the brushes, etcetera. Consider: if the same artist had an unlimited amount of resources with which to work, her achievement would be nowhere near as noteworthy as what she was able to conceive and achieve in view of any and all limitations. It is precisely the existence of such constraints that force us to be creative and do things differently. And were it not for such obvious limitations, how else could we marvel at the truly remarkable?

Think about it: as the Bible recounts, what is majestic is not that an Omnipotent Deity created the world, but that He did so in six days.

Perhaps it's true that imagination may call for some pretty out of the box thinking. Or it may simply entail looking at limitations in entirely new ways.