Shopping guru Paco Underhill: “The perception of ease is as important as the reality of ease”
“It is very important to be cognizant that while the connection between our eyes and our brains has never been better, our eyes themselves are tired. One of the challenges that the design profession has is that the overwhelming majority of people constructing designs in 2006 are generally under the age of 30. And one of the persistent problems that they have is that they are designing for themselves and not for the larger audience…We live in a world in which time is in a state of acceleration. And therefore the perception of ease is as important as the reality of ease.”
The formula for “a truly great life”
“[The] author of the book ‘On Death and Dying’ asked people on their deathbeds what they regret the most about their lives…The number one response was: I wish I would have taken more chances. I feel like I lived my life playing it too safe. The number two response was: I wish I would have taken more time to reflect. I never stopped and smelled the roses in life.”
Caterina Fake on getting high performance out of high potential people
“Figure out what work activities turn them on and off. Then for their job, downplay the stuff they hate, or that are their weaknesses, and figure out what they love doing. Make their job mostly about the things they love doing. And figure out what they are solving for not only in their jobs but in their personal lives as well.” John Gruber recently said, “My pick for Yahoo CEO would be Caterina Fake…Almost everything Yahoo does ought to be more like Flickr in some ways.”
Self-parking Lexus befuddles Automobile editors
“Shows three men first parking the Lexus LS460 on their own in the magazine’s parking lot, and then again with the Advanced Parking Guidance System. We’ll let you watch the video to see how the Three Stooges fair against the computer power of a Lexus, but one of the two almost manages to take out a minivan and a Ford Five-Hundred.” [tx MG]
Japanese Get A Mac ads
PC and Mac, Japanese style.
Jeff Nolan’s Digg buzz wears off
“Digg really is an innovative site but I’m finished with it…Digg just isn’t doing anything for me to make my day easier. I’m finding this with a number of ‘Web 2.0’ sites, after the initial enthusiasm wears dull I’m left with a big ‘so what’ feeling that I can’t escape.”
Interesting facts about the Blue Angels
“The Blue Angels don’t wear G-suits, because the air bladders inside them would repeatedly deflate and inflate. That would interfere with the control stick between a pilot’s legs. Instead, Blue Angel pilots tense their stomach muscles and legs to prevent blood from rushing from their heads and rendering them unconscious…The Blue Angels try to be in position exactly, every time, by ‘flying paint’ — looking over at the next jet and aligning to a position based on some letter or spot on that plane.”