The Simplicity Cycle, circa 1984

I continue to encounter examples that support the ideas behind my design book, The Simplicity Cycle. The latest is from the always fascinating Modern Mechanix blog, highlighting an interview from Feb 1984. In the article, Steve Jobs says:

“If you read the Apple’s first brochure, the headline was “Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication.” What we meant by that was that when you first attack a problem it seems really simple because you don’t understand it. Then when you start to really understand it, you come up with these very complicated solutions because it’s really hairy. Most people stop there.

But a few people keep burning the midnight oil and finally understand the underlying principles of the problem and come up with an elegantly simple solution for it. But very few people go the distance to get there”.

Yup, that's the core concept of The Simplicity Cycle, in just a few lines. Of course, there's a lot more nuance and other elements to the whole thing, but Jobs described the main concept pretty well right there.

I'm still giving away the PDF version for free, so swing on over and join the 727 other people who have downloaded it already.

It's easy...

Cut Grass

As I finished mowing the grass the other day, it hit me that something about a freshly mowed lawn strikes me as beautiful.

It's not the feeling of accomplishment - that's certainly present, but there's something different going on there too. Something like an appreciation of beauty. Something in a primitive, visceral part of my brain.

It probably hearkens back to humanity's origins on the savannah, when primitive man first created the lawnmower (aka a domesticated sheep?).

I don't know what or why. I just know I really like looking at the grass after I cut it.

One More Quarter Finished!

I wrapped up my last final exam this afternoon, and I am now officially finished with school for two weeks! Not that it was a terribly demanding quarter, but it's still nice to be finished. And next quarter, I'll just have two actual classes, plus my thesis to work on. I'm very, very excited about that thesis. It's going to be fun.

I'm not sure what being on break will do to my blogging. Probably diminish it quite a bit... but maybe not. Maybe I'll have more than ever to say. Who knows?

Man, What Was I Thinking?

Some data blatantly stolen from Dan Pink's blog:

Number of new books published last year: 276,649 (That’s 758 new books per day.)
Number of new business books published last year: 7,651 (That’s nearly one new biz book each hour.)
(Source: RR Bowker report, 5/28/08)

And I'm spending my time doing what?

Sigh. Good thing I enjoy writing and think it's fun, 'cause that's a whole lot of competition.

Metaphors We Live By

I'm reading Metaphors We Live By, by George Lakoff, and it's sort of blowing my mind. I liken it to watching The Matrix (or, more precisely, actually being in the movie The Matrix and discovering that reality isn't what I thought it was).

The basic concept in the book is that we understand the world through metaphor - and we're often unaware of the metaphors we use. These metaphors shape our understanding of the world around us, and guide our behavior by illuminating some aspects of reality, and obscuring others. One implication is that different metaphors would shape us differently (but it's hard to change metaphors).

For example, a common metaphor is MORE IS UP. That is, we equate the condition of having more with an increase in elevation. So, the stock market rises, we get a raise at work, our bank balance goes up, and generally, any number representing a larger quantity is said to be higher than a number representing a smaller quantity... you get the picture. This metaphor correlates with our physical experience of adding more of something and seeing the height of the pile physically increase - but our bank account balance doesn't really go up, does it? It just gets MORE - so our concept of MORE IS UP is metaphorical.

Interesting, we also have a metaphor of HAPPY IS UP. As in, I was feeling DOWN yesterday, but now I'm perked UP. It BOOSTED my spirits, etc. Combine those two (MORE IS UP and HAPPY IS UP) and we get (drum roll please...) MORE IS HAPPY. (I made that connection myself!). Thus, the roots of our consumer culture is at least partly due to our metaphors.

But MORE IS UP is not the only possible metaphor. It would be just as reasonable to use MORE IS HEAVY as a metaphor (we do use that sometimes). So, we could say the stock market gained weight, my bank account is hefty, 9 is weightier than 7, etc.

I wonder if our society would be less consumeristic if we used the MORE IS HEAVY metaphor instead of MORE IS UP. Certainly, many spiritual traditions (Christianity & Buddhism in particular) talk about wealth and possessions in a MORE IS HEAVY metaphor, in which we are burdened down by an excessive accumulation of stuff.

Just a thought...

Power, Part 3

We hear a lot of talk about reducing or eliminating our dependence on foreign oil. There's even some talk about moving away from fossil fuels entirely. But what happens to the Middle East (& Venezuela, etc) when we start building electric cars powered by solar generators, and the US is no longer importing 10 million barrels of oil a day? Sure, oil consumption in places like India and China is rising, but presumably India & China would use solar & wind too, right?

We'll always need some petroleum, but what happens if world consumption becomes a fraction of today's rate?

I think a large-scale move away from oil and towards solar, wind, hybrid vehicles, etc would seriously destabilize the Middle East... and it's not a really stable place to begin with. Their income would bottom out, and we in the West would be quite a bit less interested in what's happening over there. Unless of course people from over there come over here and do bad things. But maybe we figure they'll be too busy fighting each other for water to bother attacking us? I sort of doubt it.

So, while I think renewable, sustainable, non-polluting approaches to producing power are important and good... there is certainly a downside to that story. I still want to see more solar & wind power generation systems, but it's important to keep in mind that nothing happens in a vacuum. As Michael Pollan points out in his book The Omnivore's Dilemma, "you can never do just one thing."

Thanks, Tom

If you've read any business book in the last 20+ years, you've probably been influenced by Tom Peters, directly or indirectly. His 1982 "In Search of Excellence" basically created the popular business book genre. My own Radical Elements of Radical Success book was directly inspired by Tom, and that little project has opened up a lot of opportunities for me. Most of the big events in my career, therefore, trace back to Tom.

Anyway, I recently was introduced to a new Tom Peters Appreciation website (they're trying not to call it a fansite), where people can leave comments about their experiences with Tom. I left a note, and you can too!

Power, Part 2

I'm continuously amazed to hear people advocate for nuclear power generation. It strikes me as a singularly bad idea.

Even if we could do it safely - i.e., if we could guarantee no more Chernobyl's or Three Mile Island's - there's still this enormous unanswered question about waste disposal. As far as I can tell (and I spent nearly two minutes asking Google for information) there is frankly no good plan for effectively dealing with the waste products from nuclear power plants. Seriously, as far as I can tell, nobody has a good plan.

One website helpfully points out "There are many new waste disposal technologies which could prove to be somewhat of a solution to the problem of nuclear waste." Could? Somewhat? Um, maybe we should figure that out before we build any more reactors.

The best we can come up with is "Long Term Storage," (the US's preferred method) which is a bit insane given the multi-thousands-of-years timeline required. Can we really keep something secure for even two thousand years, let alone 20,000? Maybe we could resurrect some ancient Egyptians and have them build nuclear containment pyramids? I suspect "long term" really means "my kids and I will be dead before anything bad happens." For people thinking and talking about thousand-year timelines, they seem horribly short-sighted.

Maybe I'm missing something here - and if so, I'm sure someone will point it out. That's why I'm thinking solar & wind are the most logical alternatives, not nuclear.

This page from About.com has loads of additional information on this topic.

Power, Part 1

I've been thinking about what I want to do when I grow up - that is, when I've retired from the military (I'll be eligible to retire in 6 years, at the ripe old age of 41).

I think it would be fun to write full-time... and will probably try that for a while. But, I might get a little stir-crazy after a decade or so of writing. That's tough to predict (what will I be like when I'm 50?), but I can imagine wanting to do more than just write.

I'm good at leading small teams to develop innovative technologies, but I'm not interested in just building new gadgets and toys - I want to do stuff with real substance. The world doesn't need another color television set (no offense if that's what you make). And after serving in the military-industrial complex for 20 years, I think I'd like to go do something non-defense-related. I'm kicking around a lot of other ideas, and the latest possibility is - alternative energy development.

I think it would be fun to lead a small team of creative, talented people, developing viable sources of alternative energy for consumers. Stuff like backyard wind turbines, rooftop solar panels, and what ever else we can think of. There's something to be said for large-scale energy projects, creating green utility companies, but I think I prefer going straight to the masses (not that we couldn't do both). The idea of people producing their own energy aligns with my distributist approach to economics.

I think developing alternative sources of energy, particularly solar, is a moral, political, social, environmental, even theological, imperative. Fossil fuels are expensive, dirty and irresponsible - not to mention the supply is limited. And don't get me started on the political situation in countries where oil is found.

More on this tomorrow...