DeLosFuegosBlog

Getting Things Done

Michael — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 22:40:56 +0000

I have ideas all the time. Most of them are bad, some are decent, a few are good and very very few are great. I guess this is normal and I also really don’t care about giving these ideas away (professionally or for free), because I have a feeling that my idea pool is bottomless (and also, most of them are bad anyways).

I love ideas; new, original, clever, yet obvious. That’s why I love my job and why I co-organize TEDxFlanders. Ideas are the most powerful things in the world. Yet, there is almost always something missing. In business, art or just in life. Execution. Great ideas are priceless, but they are meaningless without proper execution.

I’ve said this to I think about anybody who I work with or who is close to me personally. In fact you could say I am a supporter of execution of things. So when talking to my girlfriend the other day about what she wanted out of life and what I wanted out of it, she said something that really stuck with me. She said, and I’ll try to use the exact words: “You have all these ideas floating around and you talk about them enthusiastically, but you never do something with them”.

Wow.

Kind of rough when the person closest to you holds up a mirror highlighting your bad side and I had the feeling I was doing these things. I did get a degree in what I found interesting, I did get the job that I wanted and if I thought that something was a good idea, I’d do it. Well, she didn’t think so.

After a talk and a couple of days of thinking, I realized she was right. I was inactive. Yes, I worked, did things with friends and had hobbies, but that’s just going through the motions. So what was my problem? I had ideas, I had time, I had (some) money. Why wasn’t I doing all these exciting things?

Was it fear of failure? People (especially start-up people and creative people) tell you to fail and fail hard. Wasn’t I doing enough of that? Was I scared to do that? I don’t think so, I am not afraid of failing.

I tend to look for psychological or sociological reasons for things like this. But this one was different.

I just wasn’t doing it.

Why can sometimes be a stupid question. It’s not about the reason why, it’s about doing it.

So from the start of 2012 I promised myself and now the whole internet world (well the 6 people reading this blog) that I would do anything that crossed my mind to be a good or great idea. This blog post is one of my first actions and I hope there will be many more to follow. I will keep you guys updated and try to put some social pressure behind every project I will try or do.

GO!

PS: Upcoming projects: Joke Generator Website & T Shirt Design

More Blogging

Michael — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 08:55:07 +0000

Starting 2012. A few days left!

The Pie Maker

Michael — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 21:38:00 +0000

Today I had the exhausting pleasure of helping my girlfriend move the day after she threw her goodbye party where wine and beer were a-plenty. At 11, the alarm rang, I was still in an uncomfortable half sleep mode when I saw my girlfriend walk in with a vlaai. A vlaai is a sort of pie that is typically from Limburg (both the Dutch one and the Belgian one). Since my girlfriend studies in Maastricht (where I also studied), her mom asked her to bring some to her hometown (which is not in Limburg).

After a long (and I mean long) day of moving we order some pizza and, naturally, eat some of the pie. Over a delicious piece of strawberry & rhubarb vlaai she tells me that you can get a vlaai-kit at the pie baker. Not only that, a fully made pie (with the same ingredients) costs you about 12 euros, and the vlaai-kit costs you 18. At first thought this seems completely ridiculous, for many reasons. First, why would you pay more for the same? Second, you pay more for something that is not finished yet. Third, you pay more to do the work yourself! Fourth, the costs of the baker are less (no labor, oven and so on), so the higher price is just irrational. However, we are not rational (no example required here).

So what in Saint John’s name (Saint John was having some kind of celebration in Maastricht, making it very hard to move house) was the pie baker selling? A pie? No. Ingredients? Not really. Food? Not even. He was selling two things that do not have much to do with eating.

The first is experience. Not the food in your belly or the happy feeling you get when you give your grandma a pie as a present, but the experience of making your own vlaai. Anybody who has ever baked a pie or a cake will tell you that it is much more rewarding to make it from scratch than it is to buy it ready-made from the shop. That is why we have this, this and this. These options are somewhere between handpicking your own berries and buying flower at the local mill and getting some kind of blue plastic that can be eaten. The pie man gives you an option closer to the first kind; only he went out to choose the best ingredients. So what is the difference between his kit and the kits you buy at the supermarket?

Now we come to the second, his expertise. The vlaai maker doesn’t just give you ingredients to make a pie, he gives you the ingredients he himself, as a professional, uses to make his world-renowned desserts. He also gives you the right tools to do so, the right size and make of cake form and other vlaai-specific tools. And finally, and perhaps most importantly, he gives you the right step-by-step instructions on how he makes his version of the pie. This kind of expertise is priceless, and also simply not transferable on a piece of paper, but if you do get a good look through the eyes of the expert, you might be able to say “I made that” when your friends are stuffing their face with that delicious treat.

What can I say?

Michael — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 08:27:13 +0000

Klout is a tool to measure the influence you have across the most popular social media (Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn). Influence is a big deal these days. There are some that argue that your influence is your most important assets you have. You can compare it to the professional network you build up, but then in a digital world (meaning you did not have to have met these people in person). It has been advocated to put your Klout score on your resume to show your online reach. I think that if you have real influence, the people in your sector will probably already know you. But it might be good for those under the radar people.

I disagree very much so that your online influence has a direct effect on your performance as an employee. I mean, I don’t know half of the people following me on twitter and judging by their description (“Funny, attractive,big twilight fan 3 3 ”) I’m pretty sure they don’t really contribute to whatever my employer wants to achieve except if we are selling Twilight merchandise (or hiring strippers). However, I think Klout is a fun tool with a game dimension to it, which makes me check in to see if I already caught up with some people. Well, I do know that my latest check-in on Klout.com has lifted my ego (even though it is probably based on my ego) by the sole topic I am influential about. That is actually what I can to post, but then started rambling on Klout.

Sharing The Industry

Michael — Tue, 24 May 2011 16:28:07 +0000

After a long absence, I return under the positive influence of my colleague, Stephanie, who does wonderful photography. Today I am sharing my profession with my friends via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Skype and mail. Not the work we do at the agency where I work, but creative ideas that represent the industry I work in and are related to them somehow. Also, my friends live all over the world, so it is also easier that I share things that are in English. These people are all very interesting so I included some interesting links as well.

I sent this to my ex-roommate from the time I lived in Zurich, Eva. She works at Tibits (the restaurant in the ad), but is actually an illustrator with heart and soul.

This I sent to Marcus, who is an entrepreneur and very ambitious. He’s currently chasing his first venture, connex.io, where I worked for 3 months.

My girlfriend, who is also an amazing person (she is going to Berkeley soon), I sent this to. She is originally from Den Bosch, a city in The Netherlands.

The Death of a Champion

Michael — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 19:21:47 +0000

“Rip Guitar Hero” is trending. Activision has decided to cancel the production of the newest release of the product due to little interest. The natural thing is to wonder about is why do they cancel a product that is so valued to customers that people are actually collectively mourning the decease of the product. Well this is what I think; the team in charge of the Guitar Hero (and DJ Hero) simply looked at hard numbers. They looked at decreasing sales numbers of their software and decided that their profit margin was not high enough or even already in the negatives. This caused the death of a champion.

Why did I choose to use the word ‘champion’? Well, Guitar Hero has a massive and loyal(!) fan base, shown again by thousands of people showing up to its Twitter funeral. What Activision failed to look at was the softer side of things. Instead of focusing on the hard numbers, they should have shifted focus to a more customer centric approach. What about letting the community decide what types of Guitar Controllers are out there, perhaps have some sort of customization website? Your own personal Guitar. What about letting people choose their own songs? Make a HeroStore where songs can be downloaded for a fair price (instead of forcing x amount of songs on people in each new package). Your own music preference. What about fueling the competitive nature in people and put up special prizes at Tournaments. Yes they have tried this, but follow through. Make a big deal out of being a World Champion Guitar Hero.

They just failed to listen to the customers and made their million dollar franchise go to waste because the profit wasn’t up to par. This is bad for Activision and sad for the fans of the product. RIP Guitar Hero

Some examples of the loyalty of fans.

- The Guitar Hero Forum has 200k members

- Kid Drops Out of High School to Focus on Guitar Hero

- Hack Guitar Hero to Play Custom Songs

- Guitar Hero Facebook Page has +2 million Fans

- 300k Guitar Hero Video Uploaded on Youtube

Outside the lines

Michael — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 14:05:06 +0000

Life is not a blank page (corny); life is a coloring book. From the moment you were born, is people are telling you to color within the lines. What few realize is that this does not mean that you have to do this. You can do whatever you like.

The problem with that is, it is the hard way. You are the kid that doesn’t listen to the teachers. You are the kid questioning why the class get taught math. You are the kid that entices others. You are the kid that gets punished, because you do not agree with the way stuff is being done.

Our society condemns people acting like this. This leads to having a lower self esteem and a feeling that “outside thinking” is wrong. But, as with anything, there are exceptions. Those who achieve something are not considered to be ‘wrong’, they are considered to be bar-raising and groundbreaking. Examples from diverse :

Albert Einstein constantly clashed with school systems
Vincent Van Gogh was never accepted as an artist at his time
Steve Jobs was fired from Apple computers

This seems like a straightforward equation right? It is about achieving something. This clashes inherently with people telling you what you are doing is wrong, but then finally accepting and applauding it when it is done.

It all comes down to a simple thing:

Do, even when everybody says it is wrong.

Do, when you think it is never going to work.

Do, when you think you will lose everything.

In other words: color inside the lines, outside the lines, on the back of the coloring book, continue to color on the table, color your classmate, color the teacher. Just keep coloring.

What Google Knows About Me

Michael — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 13:22:25 +0000

Some days have passed while I wrote my last post on the information economy. Since then, I have gotten a job in Zurich so some priorities had to be made. Now, I’m settled in quite well and have some time to continue on that train of thought.

The reason why I wrote the above mentioned blog post in the first place was that I was thinking about what information these giants have about me. Let’s take Google. Well first of all I have a google account, where I noted down my real name and alternate e-mail address. Since I am logged in most of the time, Google can record all of my searches and subsequent clicks. This means that my interests and current issues that I want to know are exposed. Then there’s Google docs, where I share some documents with some of my friends (which include my CV for example). Offcourse there is google contacts, so it is known to which people I am connected to. Which means the corporation could also map out the interests of my social circle. I use Google maps to find places I do not visit very often, so google also know my geographical locations where I hang out and off course where I sign in (my home, work and girlfriends place which are all in different countries). Google knows what language setting my computer is in. Google owns YouTube, so it knows what I like to watch.

These are all the basics, now we take it a step further. If I go to a website that has Google analytics installed on it (which is about half of the top 1 million sites), Google knows what I do there, how long I stay there, whether I return often and so on (even if I type the address in the browser). It can see from which sites I come to that site and even if I searched other search engines for that site. It can see what types of programs I download. It can check my OS version and see whether I viewed it on a normal PC, a Mac, a smartphone or an iPad.

That was the step further, now let us take another one shall we. Let’s assume I use Chrome (which I don’t), Google can find out everything about my webbrowsing actions. Or what if I use a Google phone or any phone with an Android OS on there? Google knows even more about which numbers I call and who is in my address book as well as what apps I downloaded and where I am exactly at every moment with GPS. The same thing can be said about Facebook to a lesser extent. They know a lot about you and your friends and your activties and your location…

Now I am not saying all of this is happening, and I haven’t read the updated privacy policy of Google and its products. But it could happen…

Google did come to all of these access points to information very cunningly, but it all boils down to the same thing. They gave it away for free. Free search (sites, maps and images), free documents, free mail with a lot of capacity, free web analytics (which was revolutionary), free videos, free books and so on. As I said in my previous post, it is not about the money.

The New Currency

Michael — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 17:09:23 +0000

The dollar is dead, the new most valuable currency is information. The best in the business in the collection and use of information: Google and Facebook. Information surpasses money on all angles. First of all, the simple fact that information is turned into money so easily (market research, corporate spies, competitor analyses and so on). Second, information does not only give a company financial power it also leverages its personal power. In the previous decades advertising was always seen as a way to influence people to buy products or services. That is only the partial truth, there lies a lot more behind this concept. Not only advertising, but other means of communication used by companies, organizations, governments or other institutions are not per se designed for people to buy things; it is designed for people to change their behavior. This is something most people overlook, “it is all about the money” is used frequently and quite stereotypically. It is not; it is, and has always been, about control.

This all sounds very evil in some sort of conspiracy-theory way. I believe it is not. Governments control our lives from birth till death, and I’ve seen people very pleased with the level of control a governments has put on them. I see it more like parents. When we are little children, our parents have control over us (usually). This power can be taken on with responsibility and guide us in the right way. Or they can be bad parents and beat us up everytime we don’t behave as they want us to. This is as far as the comparison goes, power can be good and bad. This is also the reasoning behind Google’s internal slogan: “Don’t Be Evil“.

Back to the issue at hand; information is the key to power in this world. The more you know about how people act the more you can change behavioral patterns according to your wishes (or charge money to people who want to control behavior). Examples: you can find the right customers, you can hire the best people, you know how to change your corporate identity to be more liked,… This is the almost direct effect of science. With its constant drive for more knowledge, it also implicitly promotes applying this knowledge as well. Simple right? Alfred reads: “People will like you better when you mirror their body language.” Alfred meets a girls and mirrors her body language to be liked better. Alfred gained power, the power to be liked more (by girls).

Thus it might be better not to rate companies like Google in dollars (even though that is still a good measure), maybe a metric about power might be more suitable. More on this in my next post. In the mean time, my advice: Start up a company that deals in information, even better; information that nobody else has. But, Don’t Be Evil.

Extraordinary Inventor

Michael — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 19:22:22 +0000

Alright, this time something different. A friend of mine was telling me about a eccentric inventor out of Japan; Yoshiro Nakamatsu A.K.A. Dr. NakaMats. Although he is not very known in the Western World, he has literally invented stuff on every side of the spectrum, matrix or parallellogram. Among the +3200 patents he has filed for, the most notable are: the technology used for the floppy disc, the digital watch, the taxicab meter and spring shoes.

His first invention was created when he was 5 (yes five), the Automatic Center of Gravity Stabilizer, which is still used in all planes and helicopters. He is awarded by the U.S. Science Academic Society as one of the top 5 scientists in history along with Archimedes, Michael Faraday, Marie Curie and Nikola Tesla. He tested his blood everyday for 34 years and counting to determine what is the best nutrition for his body under certain circumstances. He is convinced he will die around the age of 144.

He is most creative diving under water to have less oxygen in the brain and listening to music. He calls his underwater technique “creative swimming”. He only sleeps 4 hours a day and takes two 30 minute naps in his Cerebrex chair, which increases human performance by sound frequencies. He insists that food is key to the creativity process and has created his own Yummy Nutri Brain Food; “a special mixture of dried shrimp, seaweed, cheese, yogurt, eel, eggs, beef, and chicken livers-all fortified with vitamins”.

After seeing the video I was an instant fan and I truly believe that you will be one as well.