Fun post today. Not to be taken seriously. Although.
What is the dumbest thing you have ever heard in the office? What is the stupidest comment you have ever heard in a meeting? Or work discussion? Write it down and keep it. Cherish this moment, because it usually is a great minute of fun, even years later. Here is mine. A few years ago, I was discussing with my manager about creating a prototype of something. That’s a software application I am talking about. The idea was to build a quick and dirty application, as a proof of concept. On a mobile device. You know, the kind of thing that is not supposed to be sold but that the sales people will eventually try to sell.
Anyway, we are exchanging idea with my manager and talking about what do do.
Me: “We have to do it on the iPhone”.
My manager: “No, we’ll do it on Windows Mobile”.
At the time I must to say, iPhone was not as big as it is now. But that’s not the point.
Me: “Why Windows Mobile?”
My manager: “Because… because we have done it before, because we know how to do it. Because it is easier”.
This is the stupidest comment to date I have ever heard in an office. Do something because it is easy? Invest time in something we have already done? Redo what we have done before? Talk about wasting minutes. Did Kennedy kick-start the Apollo program because it was easy? Did Larry Page and Sergey Brin start Google trying to redo Yahoo? Did Mark Zuckerberg do a new Friendster? Please when creating a prototype, invest minutes in something that has never been done before.
I left the company. The manager is still there.
Like Facebook, it is a great technological idea. But sadly it is also a complete waste of time when used poorly. Here is my anecdote to illustrate this.
I was looking for a job last year and so I signed up for a networking event in Nantes. I did not check where the place was exactly so when I arrived on site, I was looking for the entrance. So were other people, lost like me, looking for “La Cantine numérique”, which is a place where Nantes startups gather.
I remember we were 5 or 6, wondering where the entrance was. Startups means young people all have smart phones right. Including me. GPS and what not. We were probably 100meters or less form the entrance but we could not find it. One of the girls was already starting to load Google maps when a guy interrupted her and said
“Hey Michel must be there already, he knows where it is”.
I was about to say something when the girl with the iphone (why is it always iphone?) said cheerfully and I quote
“I’ll send him a tweet and ask”.
The ironic me, said and I quote again:
“Or you could simply … call him”.
It made my day as Dirty Harry would say. I love tech, but sometimes, it is used by dumb people.
I was at lunch today with a friend. During the discussion around my blog and ideas, my friend asked me a very trivial yet fundamental question: “Why save minutes?”
Indeed. Why? Here a list to start thinking about the why. No particular order. And to misquote Nietzsche, once you found a why, you’ll find a how.
Why save minutes?
BLUF: Control your web surfing with leechblock & freedom
BLUF: Write Postcards & thank you notes
BLUF: Get rid of Facebook addiction