Archive for the 'Blog' Category



Additive development, instead of parallel spinning your wheels

I was finally listening to this Chris Anderson podcast over at EconTalk re: Makers Economy.

Chris talks to the fabric of the internet and the true web generation, whereby sharing is ingrained.

In the past, tinkerers would sweat their projects, all encountering the same problems.  You could go from city to city to see people tackling the same issues and hitting the same roadblocks.

With this interconnectedness of the internet you can see who else is working on it and work together and have additive innovation rather than parallel frustration.

For me this is natural and way more efficient, now imagine what it will be like once the 14 year olds of today are 24! Once they set their mind to something, a global community can work together to achieve it.

August 27th, 2013

Apple vs Googles approach to change

Both Google & Apple know that the limiting factor to technology development is adoption.  If consumers aren’t on board, adopting the product, it’s going to be short lived.  As great as the technology is if no ones using it there’s no point.

So they both take different paths,

Apple, prepare the masses for it, through small continual changes. Significant changes every two years and tweaks in between.  Apple 5, the 5S coming out soon – mirroring their past lifecycle of a significant change every other year.  This means continual momentum and time to think it through.  The argument can be, that you’re holding technology back but are you if you’re getting continual adoption? Surely at some point this pace of change will speed up.

Google, does the opposite, it pushes expectations, to ready us for the change. They don’t mind if someone else executes, it they want the future faster.  This approach means a  lot more thrashing people get uncomfortable with the change but a few get it.  They build on it early and help foster the eco-system.  The key here is to hold on during the initial change.

Both work (clearly) just interesting to see as entities the different approaches.

August 26th, 2013

A/B Testing Suburbs in NY

Last week I made the big move to New York, one that was decided a while back but came together pretty quick.

My wife Esther and I are here now – naturally moving to a new place, everything is new – especially coming from New Zealand to New York.

One of our first considerations, is places to live, so we’ve come up with this plan. We’ll test different neighbourhoods.  Lets stay there for a week, get a real feel, wander the streets, dine and meet the locals.  An experience you can’t if you just wander over for a half day.  Ideally it helps us settle in faster – and if we don’t like a place a weeks not too long before we’re off.

Using AirBNB we can stay in different neighbourhoods each week, first week is Chelsea, next week is Williamsburg. Then not sure week after that.

AirBNB allows people to rent out their apartments online, we’ve used it before as gives a nice local experience but also I’m not always up for hotels. You can often check in/out at odd times, we don’t have to tip and generally a bit more laid back.

Anyway, it ends up about 20-30% more expensive than renting straight away, but we think it’s worth it – in fact I’m surprised it’s not more expensive (but older rent controlled apartments real rental is probably way below market so the owners are killing it).

Just a wonder of using the internet to create a market by connecting travellers with locals.  To do the equivalent only three years ago would have been a nightmare. If you haven’t tried AirBNB give it a go, it’s a real experience.

August 21st, 2013

Managing Change

The key is taking small incremental steps, such that the end (large) result isn’t a surprise.

Windows 8 has found this, with the big step up from Windows 7. Trying to bring the touch screen interface across both platforms (mobile & desktop). Users have struggled, the start menu is gone, it’s been too big a leap.

Whilst yes it is overdue to update – people rely on their desktops each day. When you significantly change that it makes them uncomfortable.

It would have been better, to keep growing the desktop experience and changed consumers perceptions with it’s tablets. Then keep up the updates. I think Apples on a good track to doing this, each year they’re releasing small incremental changes – slowly but surely working towards a significant change.

August 6th, 2013

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