Technology and Junk

That’s me.  As every store in town has started to decorate for “The Holidays” starting the day after Halloween, I find myself getting extremely turned off by the whole mess.  For that reason, I’ve coined the pseudonym Novembenezer, because I’m a November Scrooge and proud of it.  You may commence calling me that as long as you wrap it up in December.

As a software engineer, it’s easy to spend most of your mental energy thinking about coding.  But truthfully, anybody can slap together some code and get it to work… just keep pounding the keyboard and adding lines until it does.  The real skill in engineering is what you do before and after writing each line of code.

The great blessing of software is that it’s malleable (thus soft).  It’s also the biggest curse.  For example, if you are building a house, it’s important to design the whole house before pouring the foundation.  That’s obvious.  But since you can and should change code as you build it’s easy to fall into the trap of avoiding architectural forethought.  Every single development task, large or small, requires this level of thinking.  While I would NEVER argue for writing specifications for every project, taking the time to sketch things down on a scrap of paper and building a mental picture of the finished result is a must.

As long as the architectural thoughts are complete, it is safe to go ahead and “type it up.”  Code like the wind.  That’s the easy part.  If you are doing things well, it’s also the least time consuming portion of development.  And gear up for the fun part which is testing.  You visualized solution, you implemented it, and now you can enjoy the fruits of your labor.  Pound away on your new house and poke holes in your solution.  Nobody in the entire world is as capable as the inventor in finding flaws in the solution.

As you get good at this, it’ll all become a single process.  You’ll be doing architecture, coding, and testing almost simultaneously.  You’ll be an incredible engineer capable of taking big ideas and turning them into working solutions.

I’m an appreciative user of Pandora and hesitate to lodge this complaint, but I’m going to anyway.  Sometimes I really think their recommendation engine is just a bunch of high school kids grouping bands together.  Ever noticed that the Beatles find their way into every single station you create?  I’m constantly having to say I don’t like Beatles songs, which is rarely true, to get them off my stations.  A picture is worth a thousand words, so here you go…

Really?

37signals’ Jason Fried makes an interesting argument comparing software to shoes (and tennis rackets).  Essentially the idea is that most consumers buy what looks good to/on them.

Here’s how most people found a shoe and decided if it was right for them. They’d walk up to the pegboard wall where the shoes were lined up. They’d pick up a few, spin ‘em around, and put them back. Then they’d hone in on one of them because they liked the way it looked. They’d ask for their size, I’d bring it out, and they’d try it on. They’d jam their thumb between their big toe and the tip of the shoe to see if it fit. Then they’d maybe bounce around a bit or “hard walk” to see how the cushioning felt. Then they’d look in the mirror to see how it looked. They’d they’d buy it or repeat the process with another shoe.

I sold tennis rackets and shoes as an assistant tennis pro in high school.  I agree that most consumers buy technical products (like sporting equipment) for non-technical reasons.  But, that doesn’t leave any room for innovation which is what drives the ongoing profitability of the industry.  I can guarantee you that the Wilson Oversize Hammer didn’t take off because of it’s good looks.  Most people looked at that thing and laughed out loud.

If you are selling new technology, tennis rackets or software, you can’t rely on good aesthetics alone.  If you want to innovate, you have to get people to think differently and design alone can’t accomplish that task.  If it could, we’d still be rocking beautiful persimmon drivers on the golf course instead of Big Bula Bombers.  And the Wilson Hammer never ever ever would’ve sold 2 rackets.

And tennis shoes?

Need I say more about shoes?  You better have some Goodyear rubber if you want me to buy something besides these.

You need specs and endorsements to sell something truly new and innovative.  Design, while incredibly central, can’t evolve an industry on it’s own.

As long as we’re passing huge laws, can we make it illegal to glorify startups?  Yes I admit that I’ve been guilty of this from time to time, but I’m tired of it.  I was just reading this essay by Paul Graham called What Startups are Really Like and it sent me over the edge.  Here’s the deal, learning something new is always difficult.  And learning something new is what startups are all about.  You watch Mickelson play golf and it looks easy right?  It’s not.  If you want to get good, it takes a ton of practice, iterating, ups and downs, determination, coaching, so on.  And, of course, you’ll never be as good as Phil in the end.  That’s just how it is.  At some point you are going to get the opportunity to hire Phil’s old coach.  And he’ll give you the same advice that he gave Phil, but you still won’t be as good.

What if instead of trying to be the best golfer in the world, you were just trying to spend more time outdoors and learn a new game.  Your returns wouldn’t be millions of dollars in endorsements, they’d be better physical and mental health.  Maybe then your playing partners or coaches wouldn’t seem analogous to a marriage as Paul Graham seems to think.  I’ve spent almost all of my career working for and founding startups.  They can definitely be a bit dramatic, but that’s not a good thing.  It’s an unfortunate side-effect that I believe can absolutely be avoided and minimized.  When you set-off to build a business, maybe you shouldn’t be focused on how Google did it.  Just focus on building something of value.  Take a look at a product or service and improve it.  Sell.  Show up every day and put in the work.

Yes, Phil probably obsessed over golf and thought about it 24 hours a day.  But that’s because he loved it, not because some VC guy was telling him he should.  Focus on building something you believe in instead of buying an island or a jet.  That’s more than a waste of time, it’s a waste of your life and not something that you will ever achieve.  I used to play the lottery from time to time when the jackpots got to be over a certain threshold… say $100 million.  I stopped.  Not because I didn’t want to spend a buck, but because it always resulted in me daydreaming over what I’d do with all the money.  And daydreaming doesn’t add any value to the world or richness to my life.  At least a round of golf with a friend accomplishes the latter.

If you are like me and NOT currently subscribing to Netflix, then you might have come across redbox.  I decided to give it a try last week after our local Blockbuster raised their prices and re-instituted late fees.  Blockbuster now costs $4 for any movie, new or old, and you only get them for 4 days.  So, basically if you rent two per month you’d pay off your Netflix subscription.  redbox on the other hand is only a buck.  It’s a great value.  What struck me more than anything else is the simplicity of the redbox service.  It’s a winning recipe employed by a lot of the companies I respect most these days.  And last Saturday night simplicity had more people standing outside Walgreens renting movies from a box than were in the entire blockbuster store right down the block.

Here’s how it works for a first time customer.  While waiting you can browse the titles on a nice display next to the box.  When it’s your turn you touch the screen, hit the “rent movie” button, and start browsing for the movie you want.  When you find the one you want, throw it in your cart and check out.  At that point you scan your credit card, enter your email address, and grab the movie as it comes out of the slot.  That’s it.  The rules are simple.  Get it back the next night by 9pm for $1, or pay $1 for each extra night.  After 25 nights, the movie is yours.  So simple, a buck per day.  Come back again and they’ll remember your email address which cuts the process down another step.

redbox is going to destroy a seriously floundering Blockbuster.  No surprise that Blockbuster has been losing to Netflix, Apple, and Amazon but now they are actually losing the in-person rental business to a vending machine.  And picking up movies in person is going to be a viable business for a long time coming.  I think it shows that simplicity is the quickest way to disrupt a market.  Complicated pricing, no matter how smart, loses.  More steps to sign-up/check-out loses.  Too many rules definitely loses.

In my mind, this is the recipe for success at Zappos.  They don’t have any rules.  You want to buy 50 pairs of shoes and return all of them, fine.  Not satisfied with a pair of shoes that you purchased?  They’ll take them back.  They won’t hit you with a bunch of complicated rules and exceptions like most companies do.  Why do I have to hunt around for free shipping coupons every time I buy something online?  It’s a drag, makes things too complicated and leaves me way too much time rethink my purchase.

You want to disrupt a market?  Make things easier in earnest.  I know it seems easier to rent from iTunes than blockbuster, but for most people it’s really not.  Signing up, credit cards, usernames & passwords, downloading, goofy rules, watching on a computer.  Those things aren’t simple.  Blockbuster loses because late fees aren’t simple and of course it’s not simple to spend 4 times as much on a rental.  redbox is doing a great job and I’m happy to have one down the street.  The movie “2012″ on the other hand?  Not so hot.

Twitter & facebook, I’m saying good-bye.  Well, at least for two weeks.  Just made a pact with my colleague Jim to go two weeks without facebook and twitter.  Possible exception for our company twitter feed to promote blog posts, etc.  Anyway, I’ve been wanting to dump those services for a long time.  The list of reasons is long, but here are a few.

1.  Interruptions to my daily flow.
2.  Low hit rate.  Signal to Noise ratio is, well, horrible.
3.  Paranoid that the evil robots are going to get me.  PleaseRobMe.com is the least of my concerns.
4.  I own my personal information and don’t like having to agree to anything even remotely contrary to that.
5.  I’d rather be blogging.  Taking the time to really express yourself is such a great thing.  Twitter makes it too easy to short-change those expressions.

We’ll see how it goes.  As Jim and I were discussing this pact, he mentioned fearing missing the rare but golden tweets that really open you up to new ideas or information.  I’m definitely worried about that as well.  But hey, it’s only two weeks.

But I’m Ben! Honestly, I love the Less is More idea.   But you still have to build depth into your products if you want people to remain passionate over the long haul.  Another frustration and waste of time with basecamp today.

Been spending what little blogging time I have focusing just on legal technology.  Definitely check us out when you get the chance.  Here’s a link to my most recent post highlighting some of the accomplishments we had at Nextpoint in 2009 and promising even greater strides in 2010.  Ahhh yes 2010, the year I predict I’ll buy my first windows pc… okay first since I swore them off 4 years ago.  Media center (or whatever it’s called in windows 7) is calling me and while mac mini isn’t completely out of the running can I really justify the difference in cost for hardware and software?  All I want is some hulu on my tv and dvr without monthly fees.

Anyway, also been tweeting a good amount with @benjaminwolf and @nextpointlab.

Happy new year!

Are you currently NOT making millions of dollars in real estate? Then, you’ve got to hear this. You can become an instant millionaire working from home for only 20 hours per week. I did it and want to share my 10 easy steps with you!  It’s just four easy payments of $99.95 to get my 100% guaranteed, work from home, real estate millionaire maker DVD series.

Okay, we’ve all heard that too many times.  And if you are a good engineer with a logical engineering mind like mine, you see right through this BS.  You think… if this guy is so good at real estate, then why is he selling DVD’s?  Who falls for this nonsense?

But strangely, when it comes to development processes so many people want to take the bait.  They buy into the promises of agile this or whatever methodology is the news of the day.  I’m not saying it’s ALL a scam or a waste of time… just the vast majority of it (say 99%).  Again, if this guy is such a great engineer or entrepreneur… why the heck is he here, speaking to us, selling an O’Reilly book on Developing X using the Y process?

No software process is going to make you build better software.  I’m not saying you can’t find good practical ideas by reading that stuff, but I think you’d be better off just thinking.  No more processes… just good engineers that are allowed and encouraged to think.  That’s my Ben Wolf 100% no fail software guarantee.  Good engineers that think will help you make better software.  It won’t cost you a nickel more.