If you haven’t read Tipping Point, read it. If you haven’t read Blink, read it. If you have know idea who wrote these books, you need to read something that Malcolm Gladwell has written. And what better than a story about cookies. Okay, maybe not exactly about cookies, but his deconstruction and descriptions of how we view everyday life will have you questioning everything around you in completely different ways.
Driving home with the rest of the Thanksgiving traffic today, fighting 30 MPH wind gusts and people driving slower than those gusts, I really wanted for a detachable toy world war II artilery gun that could clamp to the steering wheel. I think that might releive a lot of road rage…or at least my boredom.
Just noticed an interesting stat: Out of all of my categories for this blog, only two have no entries after roughly a year and a half of semi-regular nonposting.
The first is work. Now I understand all of the liabilities surrounding commenting online about your workplace, but I have been pretty fortunate that most of my coworkers and bosses would not have had any qualms with any musings or observations. And then again, sometimes what happens at work, stays at work. That’s really more for my sanity than anything else.
The second category uncommented on is audio which, when this blog started, was work. Now it’s a little more pleasure. Well, it pretty much always was pleasure, which is what happens when you can pursue a career that you are tuly passionate about. But now I’m getting to follow another passion of mine and audio is set to become a professional hobby for the time-being.
I’m not completely sure that the fact that both of these categories remained uncommented on was a coincedence. What I do know is that I’m now in a position to continue to enjoy both of the categories independently and maybe I’ll have a little to say about both audio and work.
I am currently in the middle of reading The World is Flat and, in the book, Thomas Friedman develops a list of forces that have been pivotal in connecting and shrinking the distance between people and cultures in our modern society. His 8th force is “insourcing”, where a 3rd party company develops and runs part of another company’s business.
UPS is a prime example of a company who has begun to embrace this change and put their expertise to use. In the past, Toshiba notebook computers had a less than stellar quality reputation and shipping overseas for service took just a little bit longer than an irate customer usually wanted. UPS suggested that Toshiba cut extra shipping time and after the customer dropped the laptop off for return that UPS repair the notebook. With technicians fully certified by Toshiba, UPS now repairs every Toshiba laptop in the United States and has reduced the turnaround time dramatically.
Where does your technology get sent to be repaired?
Ran out to Texas Motor Speedway with Branden yesterday because Chris had purchased a ticket as a Christmas present last year. I guess timely redemption only occurs due to expiration dates. The voucher allowed 4 laps as a passenger in a Nascar vehicle that got up to speeds of 160 mph. Branden suited up and jumped into the car and took off. At 160 mph, 4 laps doesn’t take very long and Branden was back to pit row before he knew it, but smiling just a bit more. I took contentment in saving my hard earned money and snapping some pics of the momentous occasion.
