Infinite Beta

My thoughts on craftsmanship, design, and the role of business in our society. I am a product in ∞β

[ryanthejenks]

What most major cities feel like right now. 

[ryanthejenks]

“Let Go”

On March 29th, I was "let go" from my favorite job ever. "Let go" as in, "we're allowing you to leave". Wow, thanks. Exactly one month later, on April 29th, I accepted an offer to join another awesome company as the head of marketing.

Fortunately, my wife and I had moved to a more aggressive budgeting strategy about 9 months before and were able to comfortably bridge the month of unemployment without ever even looking at our bank account balance. Everything took care of itself on auto pilot.

[ryanthejenks]

Do school pictures still matter?

It's picture day for my 5 year old, which reminds me of picture day when I was growing up. As I recall, school pictures were a really big deal. It was one way to reliably get a good photo of me every year. But now we take photos of our kids daily with high-resolution cameras and probably have more pictures than we'll ever know what to do with. Sure many of them are candid and certainly lack the professional polish of a studio shot, but a few of them are brilliant.

Now, I'm guessing my kids won't think that school pictures are all that special. What do you think?

[ryanthejenks]

Something about watching craftsmen make something makes we want to buy it. It's not just a door handle any more, it's something that people have labored over to ensure that it's just right. I really respect that.

[ryanthejenks]

Now more than ever?

What compels us to use phrases like, “…greater pressure on margins…”, “…busier than ever…”, or “…less free time nowadays…”?

Is there really a greater pressure on margins now than there was 20 years ago? Are we really busier than we were 50 years ago? Is everything really more amplified now than it was in the past? Or is it just that we’re personally busier than we were when we were kids and there’s more pressure on us individually than there was earlier in our careers?

We have a tendency to use our personal experiences and extrapolate them to apply to the rest of humanity. I’m pretty sure that my great grandfather had tremendous demands on his time. If he wasn’t working in his fields he was losing money. If he accepted a lower margin on his crops, there was one more thing his family had to do without.

Is it appropriate to use terms like these without clear evidence to back them up?

[ryanthejenks]

Meat Mountain

Have you heard about Arby's new "Meat Mountain" sandwich?

roast beef

angus steak

brisket

corned beef

3 strips of bacon

ham

turkey

chicken tenders

2 kinds of cheese

It's pretty much every single kind of meat they have on the menu held together with some cheese.

What do you think? Awesome or nasty?

[ryanthejenks]

Carpe diem!

Robin Williams

[ryanthejenks]

Those horrible people at Kellogg's murdered this poor Mini Wheat while she was expecting.

[ryanthejenks]

It's been a rough few days.

[ryanthejenks]

The Happiness Principle

Everyone has the same goal: to be happy. Every single thing you do, every product you purchase, every restaurant you visit, every song you listen to, every place you go is an attempt to increase your happiness.

That’s powerful knowledge. Once you recognize it, it gives you new insight into your own motivations. Now you can ask yourself, “Am trading long-term happiness for short-term happiness?”

[ryanthejenks]

Springtime and old brick.

[ryanthejenks]

You Don't Actually Care

Stop saying, "I really want to [lose weight, learn to program, take guitar lessons, whatever], but I just don't have time." That's not true at all.

Instead, be honest with yourself and say, "It'd be great to [lose weight, learn to program, take guitar lessons, whatever], but I just don't want it bad enough to actually do it."

h/t DHH

[ryanthejenks]

Turns out, I've had this blog for 5 years! Yeeouch!

[ryanthejenks]

Cord Cutting Pain

There’s no debate, we’re “cord cutters”. In fact, we haven’t had cable since 2007-ish and to be honest, we’ve never really missed it. We spend less time watching whatever junk pops up on the screen (I remember finding myself getting sucked in by The Food Network on a regular basis). We only watch specific shows that we’ve hand picked ourselves. Most of the shows worth watching are available on Hulu or Netflix and if we get really desperate we can always buy an episode here or there on Google Play or Amazon (*blech*). Also, we’re not really into watching sports, so that’s never been an issue. 

But every two years we wonder whether it might be worth getting cable for a month just so we can watch the Olympics. What do you think? Are there good places to watch online yet in 2014?

Update: it never occurred to us that the Olympics are simply broadcast on network television. Problem solved.

[ryanthejenks]

Puke

I just got thrown-up on at church. Good times.

[ryanthejenks]

Black Friday is Doomed

When you were a kid, had you ever heard of Black Friday? Somehow, Black Friday has become a cultural phenomenon of recent years (in the United States, I can't speak for other geographies). It's a bit disappointing to see such emphasis put on shopping rather than spending time with family, or other wholesome activities. 

I'm not concerned though. Within 5 years, Black Friday (as we know it) will be a distant memory. In fact, we've already killed it. This year (2013) most major retailers opened on the afternoon of Thanksgiving Day (Thursday) in the United States. Next year, they'll open at noon. Then 8am, then 12:01am. Then Wednesday. Add the fact that a huge amount of commerce is now happening online and via mobile devices (Target just announced that they sold twice via their website this year as they did last year). Before you know it, it's just another retail week. 

Or, I could be wrong. We'll see. (What do you think of all this?)

[ryanthejenks]

Whatever Happened to Open Source?

Open Source used to be a thing. A huge thing. Wikipedia. Wordpress. Linux. Firefox. etc. I'm not suggesting that it's run its course, but it just doesn't seem to have the momentum it once did. Tell a developer that you want to use Wordpress to build your website, and he just might roll his eyes. Ask a designer what browser to use and she'll probably suggest Chrome. Where's the love?

Am I mis-perceiving this? Is it just so common now that we don't need to talk about it as much? What happened?