January 31, 2013

Cheap Innovation, Open Innovation, Research by Proxy

Open Innovation is a famous book, deservedly so.

And here is the story of The Double Helix. It's about how a young American -- 23 I think -- and a fellow British researcher, decoded DNA ahead of their rivals.

The young American was James Watson and the Brit was the 35 years old Francis Crick.

They were barred from doing their own experiments somehow. Anyway, they were behind their rivals in terms of data.

But they had a lot of experience in interpreting other people's data.

For instance, someone did an experiment, got some results, and published or presented his/her findings. Crick and Watson understood, or could explain the results better than the researcher who really undertook the experiment.












When you're lazy or late, you can often rely on their modus operandi.

January 30, 2013

Product Strategy : Simple Research 1

Searching "user experience"  on Google gave this to us.


Searching "product strategy"  on Google gave this to us.


Searching "software product strategy"  on Google gave unsatisfactory results.

Searching "product strategy + software"  on Google also gave unsatisfactory results.

Searching "what new software to create"  on Google also gave unsatisfactory results. 

Searching "how to think up new software"  on Google also gave unsatisfactory results.

Our conclusion right now is --- such topics are unpopular.

January 29, 2013

Let Your Children Play Real Games

Conclusion

  1. You want your child to excel at something. Then you need him/her to practice a lot.
  2. But then, you want him/her to train on their own, not with you training them minute by minute, face to face, as in an animal training program designed by Skinner or Pavlov, or their modern-day proponents.
  3. Then you need to design the activities as a game.
  4. The 2 key appeals of games are

    1. There are a lot of accessible gains, prizes, rewards, providing "instant gratification"
    2. There are pains too but these pains are tolerable or very limited or easily terminable. That is, you can restart a pingpong/tennis/football/video game at minimal costs.

An Ancient Warning


"Do not force ..."
"Do not rush ..."
"Forceful progress is wrong."

versus

"Persevere"
"Persist"
"Perseverance"

Why have I Ching original texts and commentaries included such phrases?

A Writer's Ratio


When a writer read 3 million words and wrote down only 3 words, the input ratios is 1 million. When the writer thought 600 minutes and spent 60 minutes to write down her/his piece, the thinking ratio becomes 10.

The reader's comprehension/digestion/rumination ratio should be proportionate.

Thank you, and good luck.

January 28, 2013

Simplicity Despite of Technical Knowledge

Old Style Javascript


A web page is a simple concept to understand, and that is why it caught on so fast in the first place.

And our desires to interact with it are also simple.

Say, there are a number of thingies ("a", "b", "c", "d", and "e") on the page and I want to take some simple actions on them e.g. ( "touch", "drag", "mouse-enter", "mouse-move-away", "click", "focus" and so on ).

Thus, if I click "a" on the web page, I expect some reaction.
Thus, if I drag "b" on the web page, I expect some reaction, maybe the same or something different.

Very simple and very reasonable expectations.
But what did old javascript offer?

Your action: Click a submit button of a form
Your expected reaction: Check the value of a field/blank in the form

Then, you must code/write something long, verbose and ugly. You can verify this by reading any old javascript book.

My Style Javascript


I refuse to touch such smelly, messy stuffs. So, I did something like:


onClick="clicker('id1964')"     

onMouseOver="mover('id1')" 

onMouseOut="mouter('id1964')"  

onClick="displayText('id11', 'Khine 1980');"


/* KYAW TEST June 25, 2007 */

function loader() { alert("on load on body tag"); }

function unloader() { alert("on unload on body tag"); }

function blure() { alert("on blur on body tag"); }

function focuse() { alert("on focus on body tag"); }

function clicker(elemId) {
    var elem=document.getElementById(elemId)
    elem.style.color="red"
    alert("this box follow the link anyway!!!");  
}
function mover(textAreaName) {
    document.getElementById(textAreaName).style.visibility="hidden";
    alert("blah");  
}
function mouter(textAreaName) {
    document.getElementById(textAreaName).style.visibility="visible";    
}

function displayText(textId, mess) {    
    document.getElementById(textId).firstChild.nodeValue=mess; 
}

The function "loader" acts when something is loaded.
The function "focuse" acts when something is focused.
The function "mouter" acts when the mouse is outted.
And so on.

Does it take brains to write simply like that?

Let jQuery Beat Me But ...


As you can see in the comment lines, these were done in June 2007. At that time, I wasn't keen on javascript and so hadn't heard of jQuery and John Resig and his wonderful inventions and re-inventions.  Now with his marvellous library, to get similar effects, I write just 1 or 2 lines.

Conclusion


Insist on simple, reasonable stuffs as a discerning buyer, on behalf of your own customers.
Refuse to use, reuse messy codes.


If you can find a John Resig, use his/her stuffs.

If you can't, at least make and keep things simple for yourself and, above all else, for your customers.

January 27, 2013

Future of Blogging : Our Methods and Madness

on November 6, 2011

Polonius(in Hamlet) says of the Prince : "Though this be madness, there is method in it".

Let's see how much that applies to our blogging style here. Is there a madness? Is there a method? Is there only one, none or both or something else altogether?

Some years back I read lots of how-to blog books. I still update my knowledge base in this area on a continual basis. But then, I use my finger-tip feels much more than those rational rules.

For instance:
  1. For the sake of search engine, a blog be at lest 250 words long. I just don't care.
  2. A blogger must establish a regular rhythm. I just don't care.
  3.  A blogger must know her/his target audience. I just don't care.
  4. No body reads blogs anymore. I just don't care.
  5. No body writes blogs anymore. I just don't care.
  6. A blogger must get incoming links somehow. I just don't care.
  7. A write should edit, re-edit. I just don't care.

I just don't care.

Eric E. Schmidt, Google Chairman, admits in a Businessweek eulogy that Steve Jobs often made his decisions based on hazy, foggy, flimsy data but Jobs did make assumptions that are "never crazy."

What crazy assumptions have I made here?

  1. People who never read sonnets, will never read sonnets. They should never be in my radar.
  2.  People who seldom write sonnets, will seldom write sonnets. I will outlive, outlast such fellow sonnets writers.
  3. Any of my posts must be and is helpful to my readers.
  4. Target audience, my sticking to my core, etc -- I need not concern. A person can do nothing but stay in his core, not matter how versatile or scattered. e.g. Can I be bird or a fish? No! Whatever I do will reflect/represent/smell/taste/sound/look me automatically.
  5. Blogging is useful to both writers and readers.
  6. If you have better things to promote, you should save your energy to promote those things, rather than promote your blogs all out.
  7. I can write 10 blog post per day easily. But I will publish about 1 post per month and do somethings else in the remaining time.
Is this useful? The time you lose in coming to my blog and the benefit you gain in reading this? Do they make a good balance/ratio in your favor?

I cannot abuse you, trick you, harm you in anyway. Beyond that, is there any other blogging or moral or trade rule?

I don't think so. Good luck!

January 26, 2013

Data-Driven Decision-Making

Great By Choice by Jim Collins is a terrific book. Wonderful, timely, and very readable and accessible!

It is also very entertaining for the numerous anecdotes in it.

The idea I find the most useful for me is being "empirical." By that, the author apparently means that your decision must have data to back it up, that you must have proof, reason other than and outside of your feelings, hunches, gut feels etc for any decision you make.

He points out that great leaders can afford to be bold and to take frightfully big risks because they base their decisions on their own personal observations, not on second-hand research or heresy etc. e.g. (My examples) Steve Jobs's decision to run their own Apple stores, and (again) his decisions to enter the lacklustre tablet market with iPad. If you want to be bold, daring, decisive (and at the same time, responsible and not suicidal,) you need solid proofs, concrete data, undeniable facts, repeatable experimental results etc.

Does it mean Data-Driven Decision-making?

The author doesn't say much about this. But I would like to point out that whatever data, whatever amount and type of data, in itself, won't give you a decision. Data in whatever form or amount will not decide for you. Given the same data, two different committees can reach two diametrically opposite decisions.

If certain data does give you a decision, then you are not making a decision, but following an order, a recommendation, or some other person's decision.

January 25, 2013

My Visions for Software


I'm referring to IT's Great Power to Spark Changes by Nayan Chanda. Because I have taken time, this post will be very short.
  1. Collaboration is getting better. Soon, we will be able to teleport ourselves to any part of the world for a few cents
  2. Distribution is getting better. You just write your content/app on your PC, phone, pad, watch, or shirt. Then, just press a button, and the world's population can see/use your stuff in a few seconds in their own devices.
  3. Even content may be getting better despite what Rupert Murdoch said here “Devices and platforms are proliferating but this clever technology is merely an empty vessel without any great content.” Since NewCorps alone does not have monopoly on content creation genius, content costs will come down.
Our Opportunities
Imagine you can teleport your son/daughter to any library anywhere in the world, swiftly, safely, and cheaply.

Imagine your kid can use all the library services/apps there for free.

Will that make him/her any wiser, any more employable?

What else is needed?

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