#30 Break a Bone

This is about things I’ve lived. Breaking a bone doesn’t sound exciting, and certainly isn’t, but I managed to do it 5 times. That’s enough to make it a vivid memory from my childhood. With three times my left arm, once the right one, and once the left leg, I’m an expert on casts, and their power to avoid homework. Basically, I would leave for vacations, and come back with one. Luckily, my uncle is an orthopedist (and a great one, by the way)!

#29 Write a Book

This one you won’t find in Amazon. During the 80s, I believed I could write (and the delusion persists, as I now blog from time to time). Back then, I wrote three [very] short stories, involving fantastic main characters such as a cute mini toaster. I was so proud of the stories, that I decided I would publish them. So, at my dad’s PC, we typed and printed the stories, leaving room for a hand-made drawing I added to each (colors and all, making sure each story was a page long!). After that, with my mom and grandpa, we bounded the stories in little books. The whole run was sold… I bought all of them, and gave them away to my cousins as Christmas presents. I wasn’t the only one proud. Years later, one of those copies came up. My grandpa had saved it as a little treasure of his, and handed it down to me, so there’s evidence I once wrote a book.

#28 Parachute from an Airplane

Fortunately, not in an emergency. However, it wasn’t a tandem jump either. After finding out I could skip it and do a solo skydive, I decided I wanted it that way. It was a little frustrating at first, as everyone in my group was jumping very rapidly, while I was taking a full course to avoid mistakes… and be prepared for malfunctions! These in particular, being what you cover the last couple hours from the course, makes you wonder if you’re doing the right thing by skipping the tandem. Once you’re up there ready to jump, you have practiced the procedure so much, that letting go is kind of mechanical. Nevertheless, once you’re speeding down, you can enjoy the added awareness of the whole deal, which you only get to know by taking the full course. I would say that if they allow you, skip the tandem… but that’s just me speaking.

#27 Represent Colombia in an International Event

Oh, nerdy me! It was the 39th International Mathematics Olympiad. It happened in the Republic of China (not the People’s one – this one’s better known as Taiwan). The continental Chinese, traditionally some of the best at these olympiads, refused to attend. I was able to witness then how intolerant people can be, while getting in contact with their amazing culture and historic accomplishments.

#26 Witness Dawn

I have done this one many times. Not by waking up early, but by going through the night. I will dare to say it this one time: you need to do it. Do it by going through the night. You’ll be tired. Your senses will be numb. This last fact increases the pleasure when they get overloaded by the magic in such a daily happening. An opportunity for contemplation, available every day of your life. Thank you, nature!

#25 Read a Book with 1,000 Pages

The first one you read this long, looks initially challenging. It was made easier for me, since it was Presidential Orders by Tom Clancy: a fast paced political thriller. It was erie to see it’s opening chapter come to life a couple of years later, when the tragedy of 9/11 occurred. It’s still frightening to think how we humans can learn the determination to destroy each other with what could just have been an imaginary scenario built to generate tension in fiction, but abominable otherwise. However, once that first brick-book was read, others came after it, like Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. These are perhaps some of the most interesting ones that have gone through my hands, regardless of -maybe because of- their still interesting portraits of human nature.

#24 See a Nobel Prize Laureate

Even after seeing a couple more afterwards, including the recent laureate from my dearest Haas School of Business, Oliver Williamson, the first one I met left me the fondest memory. One morning as I was living in Washington, DC, I was having breakfast while gazing at the newspaper, when I found a short note highlighting a talk by James Watson and Francis Crick for the 50th anniversary of their discovery of the molecular structure of the DNA. That’s when my high school’s emphasis in science paid off: I knew who they were! I called work, and got permission to attend the talk. Francis Crick, who is older, was ill, so he appeared via webcam. On the other hand, James Watson was there in person, old as well. Unlike a 1,000 page book, he showed the good in human nature. His talk was inspirational. You can achieve anything if you put enough passion into it. His book The Double Helix is highly recommendable. I hope the implications of his discovery are put into good use.

#23 Graduate Magna cum Laude

The real achievement here is being able to do it and still enjoy my time during college. Too much focus on grades has the potential to make college (or any other studies) burdensome. By focusing on enjoying the process, the grades were a side benefit. If I would have achieved it at the expense of the enjoyment, it would be meaningless; just a reminder of the time wasted on something I didn’t like. I was lucky to count with wonderful friends that nurtured that enjoyment. My achievement is as much theirs, as it is mine.

#22 Get an MBA from Berkeley

No latin for this one! The enjoyment was compounded by exploring classes in the larger university, reading related and unrelated stuff, and working for a great SF internet start-up called Brightstorm. And again, I was lucky to count with wonderful friends, with whom I celebrated my last birthday, and yet I already miss them as if I haven’t seen them for years. Of course, enjoyment was a given for all of us. After all, it was the Berkeley MBA: people claim we lack the attitude.

#21 Gaze at a Meteor Shower

I went to Iguazú, Argentina, for one of my math competitions. One of my friends and I went at night for a walk around town; the 4 blocks of it. Quickly, we found ourselves at this spot where the Iguazú river meets the Paraná, at the same point where Argentina meets Paraguay and Brazil. On the horizon, you could see the glow from the closest municipality in Paraguay, while the rivers had a silver glow of their own, magnified by the reflection of the full moon above. Everything else was darkness, as the thick surrounding forest sucks all light. Full darkness; the perfect canvas for a starry night. In such a setting, not even the full moon dares to challenge the beams from the stars. As we gazed to the sky, we saw a shooting star. Then another one. And once again. We ran back, and called others. Some of them knew the stars and shared their knowledge. We all went through the night and witnessed dawn. It seems we were gazing at the Leonids. Unaware, we amazed at Earth.

#20 Get Mugged

In fair justice to my great country, I’ve never been mugged in Colombia. I had to go to Berkeley to get it done. With a gun. A shiny one. A beautiful, cold one, pressing against my chest. Surrounded by four guys. After they went through all this trouble of setting up such a wonderful mugging, why not beat me up as a bonus? Start it with a fist on my jaw. Get me a bleeding nose. Get me a black eye. Cut my lip. Don’t stop until I’m on the floor. You have a question. Yes, you. To answer it, yes, they were African Americans. As with darkness, I faced African Americans the days after it happened. Neither one was the reason for it happening. Not the darkness, nor African Americans. It was poverty, and intolerance, and maybe drugs. From these three, I’m still scared. I later moved to Oakland, and was neighbor to African Americans. Lovely ones. I also love to walk. Even in the dark. But I keep something in mind. We humans are vulnerable. Life is ready to sneak from us if we let our guard down. Embrace life. I was mugged. I am alive. Thankfully alive.

#19 Attend a Surgery

Although I’ve attended a bunch of my own surgeries, I’m talking about someone else’s. At some point, I wanted to be a medic, so I got myself invited to a surgery. I got squirted with blood after an incision was made on the patient, and it made me feel sick for a while. Then I came back to the surgery. Our bodies have a great ability to recover from trauma, and I’ve always been amazed by the workings of our bodies. A year later, I was discovering I had some talent with numbers, so I started searching for a career that would take advantage of such talent. I’ve loved all of my jobs, so I’m sure it was a great decision, but that’s how I ended up attending a surgery, and not being a medic.

#18 Don’t Watch TV… Anymore

I did watch TV. I watched Thundercats, Mission Impossible, Saved by the Bell, El Chavo, and many others. Some years ago, I stopped. I still watch TV shows, but I only watch them when they’re available on DVD. I don’t miss watching broadcast TV. I found many other things I enjoy doing that can replace it, and not watching TV opens time for all of them. I still own a TV, only because I love movies and video games, but those I can use at my pace, instead of depending on schedules imposed by others.

#17 Start a Philanthropic Organization

It’s name was Los Bonachones (the good ones, but in a way it gives me an association of chubby ones). I was still in elementary school, and its mission was helping other kids. Its biggest event was a movie night at my apartment, where we would charge for admission and food. It was a major success. Next day, other kids from the neighborhood started a for-profit organization to compete with Los Bonachones. We were kids, with little disposable income, so both organizations went under very soon. Our competition never realized that “a great success” in our event really meant that there were a lot of other kids, but costs were heavily subsidized by our parents. The main learning was that philanthropy needs to be sustainable. As a kid, as an adult, any time.

#16 Attend a Concert

Actually, I’ve been to a couple of them. My brother has been my concert partner in many. Music is an universal communication tool, as emotions conveyed by it seem to surpass the barriers common to language, expressions, or signs. However, it isn’t enough just to listen to it. You need to feel the waves coming at you; the energy as they reverberate in a large crowd, and you feel closer to those around you, but not the kind defined by the tiny space that you usually get between you during concerts. If music was ever meant to be lived, it was meant to be live, as the music player creates it, feels it, and communicates.

#15 Get a Position by Popular Election

On my last year of college I decided to run for the Superior Student Council. This is an undertaking usually done by law students, and we engineers were very rare. The university was divided into two student parties, each with a candidate, and I was the candidate for the “independents.” After a good performance on a public debate in which the other candidates wasted their efforts attacking each other, the leading one approached me with a proposal to split the votes. How? I don’t remember, as I didn’t even care about the details; I was disgusted by the whole thing. I turned him down, knowing that if I were to win, it should be by the merit of my proposal, and not because of some arrangement. But I made two mistakes. The first one was neglecting the other University campus. The second one was that I decided to run too late. I could find excuses, but they were mistakes. I still got elected as Vice-president of the council, but was short to avoid getting the student population represented by someone who failed to gain the respect of the council, and as a result, failed to represent the interests of his voters. It was a sour way to learn how politicians believe that their votes validate them, instead of learning what votes really are: a vote of confidence; trust that, once elected, they’ll continue to communicate with their voters, by listening and talking to them the same way as it was done while campaigning, and they’ll keep faithful to what they claim and claimed.

#14 Get an Executive Position

I was Chief Planning Officer of Telebucaramanga for more than 3 years. I’m glad that maybe I was young enough not to have the power cravings I’ve seen in many people who have achieved such positions later in life. Perhaps it isn’t age. Whatever the reason, it isn’t enough to justify your own interests being the ends for getting the position. You get paid not for being powerful, but for getting the job done (which might require the exercise of power, probably through influence, but to fulfill a corporate strategy, not a personal benefit). I was lucky to receive the position from a person with a results oriented mindset, and a boss with the same motivations. Unfortunately, the company and its leadership faced unforeseen challenges that resulted in high leadership rotation. I’m glad most of those leaders came to do the job, and in my role, with their help and that of many talented people around me, we saw the company grow from a 10% market share, to over 60% by the time I left for my MBA, and right on track to close the year with Bucaramanga as the major colombian city with the most broadband Internet penetration in the country, surpassing even Bogotá. In telecommunications, that’s getting it done, and it makes me incredibly happy to have contributed in providing my city with a capability that will surely give it a competitive advantage in the years to come.

#13 Walk Under the Rain

Rain is unavoidable, so most of us have probably experienced this, unless you live in a desert. Colombia has deserts, but as the past months have shown, it also has far too much rain. So much it turns into disastrous proportions. I certainly wish it was a lot less. But still, I find beauty in rain. When rain comes, and it doesn’t catch you exposed, getting wet is suddenly something you can choose. If it does catch you, embracing getting wet is also a choice. The one time that makes it show up in this list, is maybe a little bit of both. I was at the office, with no car, when it started pouring. I could have just waited, and have someone pick me up, as I was 20 blocks from home. I didn’t even try calling. I just started walking, enjoying the mild temperature from the water, the tiny droplets running on my skin, the weight from the wet clothes. I loved having all the sidewalk to myself, and was even happy of not being in one of the cars that were stuck on the heavy traffic that always results from rain. We spend a lot of time, resources and effort avoiding rain. When it doesn’t turn into a destructive force, that which we avoid, turns out to be one of those life’s little hidden pleasures.

#12 Write a Play

I liked to write plays when I was a child. I wrote them for my school’s Role-Playing Contest, which my grade won a couple times. I wrote them for Christmas and the neighborhood novenas (Catholic ritual popular in Latin America, which consists of praying and singing the nine days leading to Christmas). Most of them were attempts at humorous plays. I would be afraid if I could have an accurate vision of them now, but at least I remember people laughing. I can also remember not all of the humor was my own. This leads me to the two things I learned from this early hobby of mine. The first one, was that you need to practice a lot to achieve great results. Happily, this was not something I had to learn through failure, as we never had major mistakes on our final presentations. And the truth was we had so much fun practicing, we never avoided it (it also helped that being in school, we also had plenty of time!). The second thing I learned is that allowing experimentation would improve the result a lot. Many times while rehearsing our plays, one of my friends would come up with something really funny and totally spontaneous. If I would have been more protective of my scripts, we could have missed the opportunity. But since we were doing it for the fun of it, we would always keep adding ideas to it, until it was no longer practical to keep adding (meaning we had the final presentation sometime soon). The laughter and fun I remember were collective achievements, but I still got to write a play (or a bunch of them!).

#11 Lose 45 Pounds (~ 20 Kg)

The first step to achieve this is earn the overweight. Obviously, if you haven’t, this is the one item in this list I will tell you not to try! The problem is it happens without trying. So, if it already happened, I tell you it can be lost. I did it without surgery or crazy diets, but it did take a lot of time (at least 6 months). The secrets? Lots of water, not too much salt. I used only healthier ingredients such as whole wheat pasta, brown rice, low fat cheese, low sugar marmalade, traditional peanut butter, among others. I mention these, as they are some of the stuff I rarely hear people dieting eat. I also ate whatever I craved, when the craving came. I never allowed it to become something unbearable, that might result on a binge of other stuff. Still, I was cooking a lot at home. I don’t know if there were other things I was doing right, except that I would weight myself everyday. I accepted the fact that some days it wouldn’t show progress, or sometimes it would show new weight, but this way I was never surprised. Today I don’t drink as much water, don’t mind the salt. I don’t cook as much, and seem to have more cravings. The only thing I keep from the old practice, is I still weight myself daily. And I know I’m not gaining weight.

#10 Live Abroad

I already mentioned many things that happened to me while abroad. However, just living abroad is meaningful enough to be part of this list by itself. I lived in Washington, DC, for a semester, and in the Bay Area of San Francisco for two years and a half. Both cities are very diverse on their own right: DC for its international community from multilateral and diplomatic organizations, and San Francisco for its open minded society. With a broad generalization, one could say that the first keeps them together through negotiation, and the second through tolerance. Both gave me the opportunity to come in contact with people from everywhere in the world, see a portion of the world through their eyes, and attempt to understand their backgrounds, needs, wishes, and motivations. Both gave me the means to accept difference. And both contributed to the hunger for exploration and the curiosity that drives continuous discovery. Traveling defines you by undefining and redefining you. Living abroad makes it a stronger process.

#9 Skying on Snow

Living in DC, I wasn’t eager of snow. I’ve never been eager of cold weather, to say the least! But taking the fun approach to it, helps its case, specially if you have it at reach when you want it, but don’t live covered by it, as is the case in the Bay Area. I’ve only been once, but on a great day, when it was slowly pouring, keeping it fluffy, as I learned to sky. I don’t know if those with better knowledge would say that those aren’t the best conditions to learn, but it certainly made it an scenery of great beauty. That was enough to make it worthwhile.

#8 Windsurfing at the Beach

In this case, I got a warm weather that I like. We tried it with my brother in Cartagena for a couple of days, and seizing the wind to move you forward is really fun. Above it all, the view is also outstanding, as you see the sun reflect on the waves, while enjoying the warm water on you. The only thing I don’t really enjoy is the sand, as it clings to my hairy body, but windsurfing makes it worthwhile to go through that.

#7 Go Diving in the Ocean

For most of us, daily experience occurs on land. We are also easily exposed to the sky, although we can live it in a different way if we go up a tall building, walk up a cliff, fly on an airplane, or go for a skydive (see #28). However, there’s a veil of mystery for life under water. If you get to live near the coast, or have had the luck to visit a beach, you seem to forget that there’s a lot of people that live very long without being able to see one. Even less people get to experience it from underneath. Salt water makes it hard to see without goggles, even if some movies tend to show it otherwise. At least I tried it, but it stings. However, once you get your mask, and an oxygen tank on your back, you discover a world that seems beyond our own, even as it is right within reach. I wish I had done it more often, but I still have many years to do it.

#6 Discover Spirituality

I have a friend who was kind of hypochondriac. She taught me about her fears from death, and in the process, I learned not to fear it. Not the lack of fear often associated with youth, but the one that comes from realizing that the consequences of an interrupted life have no relationship with the age when it happens, but only with the life you lead. Certainly, most are things beyond our control, like death itself, but life has been enjoyable to me to the extend that I’ve learnt to accept and make the most out of that which I can’t control, while working hard to gain those experiences that I may influence to happen. That’s all I can hope to get: the power to influence. There’s probably nothing in life one can control. Knowledge of God is one of those. I can’t say one exists, nor one doesn’t. I can choose to believe either alternative. I’ve never experienced an undeniable proof for any of them, and I haven’t met anyone who can provide me with one. Hence, I respect everyone’s choice, as long as they recognize it is an alternative of their choosing, instead of an absolute truth. We are all as limited, we all lack control. Believe what you like, and allow others to do the same, even if they decide different from you. Chances are, none will be able to prove right. Simply, live a life that provides you with no regrets, once it gets interrupted, and you are exposed to that bigger truth.

#5 Read a Novel Aloud

I don’t know where the idea came from, but I decided I wanted to read aloud for my girlfriend. One of those days I was reading it, my throat ended up sore, as I probably read a hundred pages in a single sitting. But as you approach the ending, there’s something I can’t describe about the experience. The usual feeling of plenitude one might feel when finishing a good book, gets multiplied by the feeling of giving that emerges from those hours reading for someone else; from reading for someone who doesn’t need to be read to, but doing it for the sake of it. The words you are reading gain additional power, claim a life of their own, breath through you. And I can assure you it wasn’t just the book, because this one I had read twice before for myself, but it only had that strength the third time.

#4 Start my Own Business

In this list, we just started it, but in the years to come it will surely play a major role. The name is Eosch, and we make games. Our first one was Firebreather, which is undergoing a major update that’s bringing its quality to new levels. And we also have a second game under wraps, but we are going slowly, as the company is our second job for my brother and I. Starting a company is a great and rewarding experience, but it is even more fulfilling when it is build around one of your greatest passions, as is the case for us. If you want to learn more about it, or would like to get involved, don’t stop yourself.

#3 Build a Bicycle

Starting to write this, I realize I need to get a bike. Biking was something I really enjoyed for many years. For this reason, one year, when I had the chance to pick a topic for an oral presentation, I chose biking. As I wanted to move away from the traditional poster as a visual aid (I’m 30 years old! Why would I say PowerPoint?), I decided to build a small bicycle to scale with my grandpa. We paid attention to many of the details, using cooper tubes for the frame, and rubber wires for the tires, modified buttons for the gears, thin chains around them. The teacher loved it, and I got the highest marks for my presentation. However, my real reward came from the several weeks I shared with my grandpa, working on this project. It could only be surpassed by the next item on this list.

#2 Live with Grandpa Horacio

The final years from college, I moved in to live with my grandpa. As we get older, we get kind of set on our ways, and I fondly remember all the issues this created, although with time we found ways to bridge the gaps created by so many years between us. More importantly, I wouldn’t trade for anything the opportunity to share with him his last years among us. He was just as active as any of the other single men in the apartment (my brother and I). He would come out for walks, buy wide varieties of fruits, fill crossword puzzles (only on sundays, but allowing us to share the challenge), read a lot (during these years he read about 80 books from a Literature Nobel Laureate collection, among many others), visited other family members from his generation and friends. He was a warm man, eager to shed a tear every time joy filled his great, but unfortunately weakening, heart. I would guess many in the family inherited his happy crying. He would always look for a positive word to those around him, even if his age would play tricks on him from time to time, dropping an occasional not so positive word. Even after the last of his health incidents drew much of his energy, he kept fighting to live a fulfilling life, regardless of how incomplete he was after grandma Nena died. Today, as I turn 30, saying goodbye to the younger years of my life, he is one of the main reasons I’m happy to welcome the more than 30 years of youth still ahead of me. He was old, but he never aged, and certainly, never left.

#1 Love

A list like this one doesn’t come out easily. It requires some reflection around events of our life, and an attempt to discern from those things that seem ordinary, but are not. The most powerful thing about it, is that once it is done, you may come to realize, as I did, that none of it is worthwhile, unless you have who to share it with. If you came this far, I’m happy to count with you as one of those who care. Life is beautiful, as long as you get to feel loved, give love back, and find love. I’ve been able to do all three, and my life has been a happy one, through the best and the worst, because of love. As I said at the beginning, I don’t think I have the right to tell you what to do, or how to lead your time. But if in my 30th birthday I was granted a wish, it would be for all of us to fill, give, and find love. I’m deeply grateful for the way it has enlightened my life, and as part of my wish, I hope it will continue to fill the years to come.

What is the service? For less than $10 dollars (in the USA market), the user has the right to a DVD at home (1-8 DVDs in a month, depending on the frequency with which you return them), as well as an unlimited number of movies on demand (only seconds after pushing play). This price would not have additional charges, like the traditional one for late returns. For those users watching more than a couple movies per month, this may be more economical than any of the available alternatives.

On the other hand, you have the selection of the catalog. Traditional rental stores usually have a limited number of copies from each movie, while Netflix, with exclusive discs for the DVDs, can have as many copies as are being demanded. Even in the case of popular new arrivals, the shipping of movies usually won’t take more than a couple days. On the other end, the catalog includes old classics, as those pioneer movies from the 30s. Many of these movies are available on demand, culturally exposing Netflix users. This is rarely seen in traditional rental stores.

Then comes the servie. Netflix movies arrive to your mailbox, and are picked up from the same place. Netflix holds a list of movies the user wants to watch, and ships them in the list’s order, which can be changed at any moment. If this doesn’t sound extremely convenient, we still have recommendations. In my last rental store, I had the luck to have a knowledgeable store manager, who knew my taste, and used to give me good recommendations. Some times he would give a poor recommendation.

Netflix is virtually never wrong. This is perhaps the biggest strength for Netflix, which will take very long for local stores to imitate, unless they started soon after Netflix showed up. By taking each users preferences individually, and searching for correlations to users with similar tastes, Netflix’s predictions are usually very accurate. With years in the market, and the preferences from millions of users, this is a reliable element from Netflix’s experience, by allowing to find movies that each user is guaranteed to enjoy. If I ever said “I didn’t like this movie,” it’s because I didn’t obey their recommendations. If it wasn’t an automated algorithm, Netflix would tell me “I told you so!”

Finally, and perhaps more importantly, theres the potential for a behavioral change in the customer. In our digital world, Latin American countries are stigmatized for their lack of protection to intellectual property. In a talk with one of the CEOs of a major software company, he referred to our countries as “one disc countries.” He was talking about digital content producers’ fear with regards to the rampant piracy on our countries.

Such piracy also exists in countries with more regulation on the topic. In a way, such fearful treatment of Latin American countries, is part of the problem. By affecting distribution, access is limited and cost increased, for countries with lower purchasing power, creating the incentives for the illegal activity (without trying to justify it). Business models such as Netflix’s, may change the landscape. If suddenly in the region it is possible to find virtually every movie ever produced, with convenience and a fraction of the cost, even against the pirate version, why would a user promote such piracy?

Maybe, if Netflix negotiates a catalog with similar breath for the countries in the region, it could become the corner stone for a renewed trust from content producers. Based on the convenience of a lower cost digital distribution, this would allow them to access this huge market segment that is already consuming their products, but that in many cases find piracy as the only means to access them. This is particularly valuable, if regional countries want to move from exporting raw materials and basic products, to more evolved economies, basing their growth on services, experiences, IP, brands, and added value.

We can start by going over the positive attributes of getting relevant experience. If you already know the industry, or the functional area, you can use most of the time on the tasks that are demanded by your job. Those extra years on the work force would increase the odds that you have experienced enough situations to relate to, when facing a new one. From a learning point of view, experiencing stuff that happens in the real world can be for some people more powerful than reading about it, besides the fact that they’ll be able to witness first hand those things that were left out by the author.

On the other hand, a motivated worker will rapidly get the industry and functional knowledge to support most of the repeating tasks required by the job. Also, the worker can relate arising situations to those experiences that aren’t directly relevant but still occurred in the past. Moreover, if the worker does bring past experience from a different industry or functional area, this will bring thought diversity to the company teams, and a fresh set of eyes to look at issues that have already lost the novelty for those with years of relevant experience.

The last issue is perhaps the most challenging. That lack of novelty stales innovation, while promoting the status quo: I’ll keep doing it this way, because that’s the way it’s always been done. The experience trap comes from the fact that experience only gives you one discrete and particular turn of events, which for most business or practical issues are so complex, that many causal relationships are often missed.

Under these conditions, generalizations are hard, if not ill advised to make them. Decisions and procedures aren’t easily transferred to a similar set of conditions. It is often not the result that can be reused, but the method used to search for the result. But methods are seldom industry, functional, or time specific. Therefore, there isn’t any reason to filter a candidate for a lack of relevant experience. In practice, this very fact can very well be its most valuable asset.

This is the reason why most disruptive competitors often come from companies that aren’t directly involved in the industry. For years, mobile phone makers had a way of creating devices. Today, the most revolutionary device, the iPhone, came from a computer company, Apple, not a phone maker. For even longer, Nescafe was synonym of instant coffee, only to be challenged by the introduction of personal single serving packs by a coffee shop chain, Starbucks (read my previous post on Nestle vs. Starbucks for more on this case).

When you seek to feed your decision making process with the outcomes of the same experiences over and over again, you reduce the variability of your outcomes. In this era of global and heavy competition, it makes sense to try to achieve change from within your organization, instead of following it from an outsider who challenges your business. Focus on methods, rather than outcomes; on wisdom, rather than knowledge, and perhaps, you may have a chance at it. How important do you really think it is to have direct relevant experience?

This will not be the usual Trailer to Credits. All of the marketing for this movie was so ambiguous, that I went to watch it without clear expectations, besides from the hope of watching another of Christopher Nolan’s brilliant films. I was wrong.

Inception Poster

It isn’t another of his brilliant films. It may perfectly be his masterpiece to date, and with all likelihood, the best movie I’ll watch this year. As usual, let’s start with the trailer:

I know, it isn’t clear what the movie is about, besides the whole dream… stealing… thingy. And I won’t tell you more than that. It’s exhilarating, massive, unprecedented, smart, jaw-dropping, courageous, awe-inspiring. Simply put: You MUST watch it. You HAVE TO watch it. Why are you still reading? Go… NOW!

I warned you this wouldn’t be the usual Trailer to Credits…

For some time now, gaming companies have gathered data to improve the design of their games. Digital distribution and online gaming have enabled them to get more information on the way we play. However, as we can learn from Sega, the value of their insights is as good as those interpreting them.

Super Monkey Ball: Love it, or hate it?

An article appearing today in Gamasutra and titled “Sega Shares ‘Insight’ From Customer Feedback On Super Monkey Ball” makes an interesting use of quotation marks (the ones surrounding the word insight). Of particular interest is the last ‘insight’ in the article:

We also learned that people tend to love or hate a game — most users will give you either 5 stars (highest score) or 1 star (lowest score)

Interesting conclusion: Nobody is in the middle. Where are the good days when there were people saying, “hey, I’m feeling indifferent about this product. Let me put in some minutes of my abundant idle time to let them know”? Answer: There’s never been such days.

What’s the first brand that comes to mind if you think about instant coffee? It’s very likely you might think of Nescafé. That might not be the case for long. When a category leader feels the need to advertise against a new entrant, it might be evidence that their business is starting to hurt. And if you base your differentiation on a product attribute against an experiential poster child, you just seem clueless about what’s hitting your sales. Evidence #1: the current ads found on many of the city bus stops, shown below.

Bus Stop Ad for Nescafé

In case you can’t tell from the picture, here’s the text:

Taste for yourself. Hype or Flavor? Nescafé Taster’s Choice Vanilla.

Obviously, the “hype” brand is Starbucks VIA Ready Brew, as many of the design elements in the cup and the packaging are distinctive of the brand. Is hype a bad thing? Only if it is just hype. But if people taking “the challenge” can’t differentiate between Starbucks freshly brewed coffee and their instant version, it would rarely qualify as just hype.

Nescafé counterattacks on the basis of “flavor”. Is taste something that Starbucks can’t claim to have? Ironically, Nescafé themselves say Starbucks tastes great as we will see later in this post. To make things more interesting, someone inside their organization came up with the idea to use an ambiguous term as “flavor”, and it made it to the final ads. If you have a vanilla flavored choice, is it taste, or the vanilla flavor that makes the difference?

Keeping up with missing the point, they decide to show the actual products spilling out of the packs. The “hype” brand shows a coffee powder that Starbucks has positioned as their proprietary micro-grinding process, while Nescafé shows the coarser grains that have been traditional in their instant coffee. The problem is that Starbucks already tackled the coarse grains as something to avoid. They are creating a disease. See it for yourself in their YouTube’s introduction video for Starbucks VIA.

Sounds bad? It’s worst. Evidence #2: Nescafé’s website, which is tied to the ads, but doesn’t appear in them. To find it, I had to run a Google search, which led me to an sponsored link (not the most cost effective way). I was surprised to find out that the main claim on the website is regarding price. As I said before, they even claim both taste great! Yet they have wallpapers comparing again the flavor. Could they make up their mind?

I recommend you visit the site, and take a look at the “See the light” section, where they talk about how everything is the same, but the price and the brand. The “Shameless plugs” section shows an assortment of wallpapers, similar to the bus stop ads. Finally, and my favorite one, is the “Viva variety” section. There they claim they are on the Dark Side. Perhaps they got that one right. May the force be with them!

What is Starbucks real advantage? They have always been recognized for their customer experience management, despite the road bumps that resulted from their fast and massive expansion. Their communications address taste not being enough, but giving a great experience being it all. They don’t even make promises they can’t keep, but offer the opportunity for a good time. For an example, see these ads found last year on some BART stations.

Last Year's Starbucks Ads at BART Stations

Can they still pull off to manage the customer experience, once outside of the controlled environment of their coffee shops and into the ordinary moments in people’s houses, offices and elsewhere? They might. Perhaps, judging by Nescafé’s reaction, Starbucks is already doing so. Starbucks never mentions them. Who leads the coffee drinking experience?

In either case, Starbucks have created yet another touch-point with customers of their brand, bringing them a great taste that is guaranteed by their proprietary micro-grinding process (even if it is just words). They are offering convenience with the individual package that Nescafé seems to have copied (I’m not a big instant coffee drinker, but I wasn’t aware of such packaging until the launch of VIA). If you visit the VIA website, you’ll notice they aren’t selling instant coffee. They are selling Ready Brew. They are selling the Starbucks VIA Experience.

Then they encourage customers to share their experiences and stories with text, photos and/or video, which are featured on the site. They don’t stop there, but also invite them to share recipes on which they are using VIA in unexpected ways. They promote the VIA Road Trip, which links to a YouTube Starbucks’ channel. In short, they are creating a community, while managing the customer experience. Just what they do best. Far, far away from the tasty, flavorful and cheap instant coffee from Nescafé.

Every once in a while, I come across a piece of communications that’s blatantly deceiving. The communicating company, in this case AT&T, may believe they are saying the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. But all communication requires of a receiver, and the value of what’s said has to be measured by that particular end, more than the emitting one. If I say something true, but it’s interpreted as something that’s not, the result is that I communicated a lie. We can examine the concrete example for this (personal information was erased):

Envelope received from AT&T

As you may see from the picture, they state on their envelope:

Cost of Living… UP.

AT&T Prices… LOW!

To start with, notice the use of ellipsis, instead of an actual verb. That’s an ultimate feat of non-commitment! The relationship between the word pairs is left completely open for reader interpretation. Even a negation of the statement would be allowed. If you ever tell them you don’t like what they imply, they can always tell you they were trying to imply the exact opposite of your interpretation.

However, the main problem lies in their choice of words. They are contrasting ‘Up’ and ‘Low.’ They may seem going in opposite directions, but they aren’t antonyms. It’s very likely they can’t claim their prices are going down. So they claim the prices are low. Just like the Lindt chocolate bars I can get from my school cafeteria. They are low in price, despite being on the high end relative to their product category.

By they, I mean Lindt and the chocolate bar category. Of course I would never imply that of AT&T and their services. Everybody knows their prices are low. We all also know the cost of living is going up. Costs like food… and rent… and gas… and the phone service. All going up.

I apologize if anything was left open to interpretation in this post. Seriously, it was unintended.

On Wednesday, as the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) at Las Vegas was about to start, there was a Microsoft keynote which included the date for Project Natal’s launch: Holiday season 2010. As the first obvious contender to the successful Nintendo Wii controllers, and bearing impressive technology, one can’t help but wonder if it is all we can expect.

Earlier today, Microsoft released a related video to users of their XBLA service. This will give you a good idea of what Project Natal is all about:

Very impressive technology. It certainly brings consumer visual recognition to a whole new level. But is it really the ultimate interface? We know that having something else track our movements, and doing so without any wearable devices, has been at the top of our expectations for the future. Lately, we see it in movies all the time, from the computer user interfaces in Minority Report, to the robot controls in the recent Avatar (see my review on Avatar). Let’s take this last one as an example.

Robot Interface in Avatar

In this scene, the Colonel points at Jake’s legs, and the rig he is wearing inside the robot makes it point as well. At the same time, the robot’s left hand rests on the hip, as he probably is doing inside the machine. If he were to start dancing, the robot would dance as well, even in a clunky way. Impressive right? Later in the movie, these robots appear holding guns, and their pilots hold their hands as if they were holding one themselves. The gun is obviously missing. The not so obvious thing missing is feedback.

Remember Newton’s third law of motion? Every action has a reaction. You lift a gun, you feel its weight on your hands. When I put my grip on the handle, the fingers fit right because I feel the integrity of it pushing back. I can use my left hand to grab the barrel without looking, because I feel it coming in. For the sake of discussion, lets say that in this case the rig provides this feedback by transferring an appropriate force to the driver’s hands. What happens when there are no rigs attached, such as in the case of Project Natal?

Lets stick to the gun example. One solution would be to have a mock gun device to provide the feedback, and tell the console when the player is squeezing the trigger. But that defeats the purpose of having no devices attached. The second one is through improved resolution. What if we could not only predict where your limbs are moving, but also every other finger in your hand? Then you move a finger in front of the screen, squeeze the trigger in the game. It would be the ultimate make believe experience.

Whoever plays, or remembers playing make believes, should know its limitations. Great, I have a gun in my hands, and I’m shooting bad guys. There’s a box in front that can serve as a cover, so I duck behind it. Let’s climb the box! Oh, that’s not so fun as I pretend climbing movements, but end at the same level. There’s no box there to provide the feedback, and adding boxes on my leaving room doesn’t sound like a solution.

And then, there’s the big problem. Let’s pretend that once I’m past that box, I’ll run for cover on the next one. So we pretend we are running, but we must stay in front of the TV to see where we are running. Somehow we start missing the feedback from the moving ground and the sensation of moving forward. And many games, old and new, require a lot of walking. No wonder, the early demos are driving cars or waiting for balls to come at you.

Why does it work for the Wii? Well, for starters, they have a controller that provides feedback. You are actually holding something. For resolution, you have buttons, since moving the controller doesn’t have a clue what you’re doing with your fingers. And for walking and running, they kept the D-pad, and even a thumb-stick on the Nunchuk controller. Finally, Wii controllers are for hands, which most people are able to move freely to either direction. Not the same case with your legs. When it comes to the moment when you need to kick that monster on the jaw, or want to do that back flip, you may want to just push a button and let the console do it for you. There’s some magic on doing stuff you are not physically capable!

In conclusion, it seems we will still have devices on us, even after Project Natal comes out, with the exception of a bunch of games that don’t go under these constraints. Which is not that bad, as new constraints have the tendency to make us think in unexpected ways and spur innovation. Moreover, with a year left before its launch, we may expect some good launch titles, probably one from Lionhead Studios, which are the makers of the Fable games and have been involved with some of the current demos for Project Natal. Despite the limitations as an interface, I will anxiously wait to put my hands on one!

This movie has many interesting things. Also, an important warning to read at the end of this post, which as usual keeps my promise not to spoil the movie. It is a good one, but be careful. It isn’t for everyone! We can start as usual by the trailer:

There’s a longer trailer, but this does a good job at not giving too much away (You will have to go to YouTube to watch it). The only problem is that it doesn’t do a great job at setting the right tone for the movie. For that, we have the poster:

Poster for Daybreakers

Indeed, this is above all, a scary movie. Additionally, the first two scenes before the opening credits, make sure that you don’t have a doubt about it. However, it has also action, and a little of corporate intrigue. After all, a corporation runs the farming for the blood supply needed by the vampire populated world. I may add that the opening credits are amazingly composed against images which colors help to keep driving the mood of the movie.

The plot is entertaining and interesting, without being the most brilliant. The beginning of the movie goes planting many of the issues related to this vampire world, but it’s so straight forward about it that it would be overwhelming if we wouldn’t already know so many things about vampires. Some are just planted, but aren’t seen again! The music again is functional in supporting the mood, but not really exceptional. One scene in particular had me remember Psycho, but it was lacking the intensity of it’s clever strings. I’m not a music expert, but that was my take on it. Special effects are what you can expect of Weta Workshop, who’s work you’ve seen in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the first two installments of The Chronicles of Narnia. The casting is also remarkable with Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe

For me the most interesting part was how it portrayed a world were almost everyone is immortal. It had that power usually found in science fiction stories. To make it one, you would just need to change being a vampire with having a technology that makes everyone immortal. However, my particular thoughts on the immortality issue were already written in my previous post titled Fear and the Quest for Immortality, and I will keep them out of context as they are there, so that I don’t need to spoil anything as I promised.

In conclusion, it is a good horror movie to watch, with a lot of action and power struggles. But I did mention there would be a warning, and here it is. It is perhaps one of the most gory movies I’ve watched in a long time. Remember I said about District 9 having a lot of blood and gore? Well, this one has more. This isn’t just the type you come out soaked and dripping. It is a little ironic, as this movie comes from the Australian Film Finance Corporation, while Australians are well known for their stringent rating requirements.

For this reason, I would say you don’t watch this one if you can’t stand a lot of blood and gore. You will be closing your eyes a lot, and waiting for those credits to start rolling. However, if you do make it until they roll, you will get a fruit salad for your efforts. Watch it and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Recently, I have noticed some of the ads for the New York Times that have been displayed on the San Francisco BART. This one in particular caught my attention:

The New York Times & Alice

On the small script below the add, they claim that they have more coverage of the Bay Area, every Friday and Saturday. However, the interesting part is the main copy: “The New York Times and Alice.” If you’ve never been to the Bay Area, you may wonder who’s Alice. It isn’t Alice in Wonderland, even with an upcoming movie by Tim Burton. The banner in the picture may give you a clue, but you still need to know about the Bay Area to make the association, specially since the picture doesn’t display the full name on the board. It is about Alice Waters, executive chef, founder and owner of Chez Panisse, a well-known restaurant in Berkeley, attributed with the beginning of the movement for cooking with sustainably and locally grown ingredients.

It is interesting how they opt to just show her first name and a cropped picture of the entrance to her restaurant in the ad. It is as if we were living in a small town, and of course, everybody knows who Alice is. The truth is, most people here do know who Alice is. Hence, the town is still small enough so that one person that makes the right impact can go by her first name only.  Our communications have evolved enough so that your name and reputation can go around town with the speed of gossip in a small town. Are you one of the small town people?