My grandfather Barney Liebman owned a drug store in Brooklyn. He went to pharmacy school and opened his own shop. He was always at the store, to make sure that everything was going well and also to make sure that all of the customers had a great experience when they ordered their malted milkshakes.
Category: Technology
In every industry, companies want to be tech companies. Citibank loves quoting John Reed, CEO from the 1990s who said, “Citibank is not a bank with technology. It’s a technology company with a banking license.” Even McDonald’s and Chipotle are now saying they’re technology companies. Technology companies are cool. Technology drives efficiency, innovation, and customer engagement. But there’s one person who doesn’t want his company to be a technology company: Howard Schultz, founder of Starbucks. It’s because he knows what it means for technology to take over a company.
I tried to build the iPhone twice. Everybody knows about the second time. The time we succeeded. Few people know about the first.
Tony Fadell (Creator of the iPhone)
Many people assume that the precursor to the iPhone was the Apple Newton, but there’s a much more direct predecessor: the General Magic Pocket Crystal. I recently watched a fascinating documentary about it called The General Magic Movie.
I really love David Pogue. He is a brilliant Renaissance man who talks about technology but from a very cultivated point of view. I don’t just say that because he went to Yale. I always enjoy the way he makes technology accessible and engaging, offering insights that resonate with both tech enthusiasts and everyday users.
In 2018, What Remains of Edith Finch won the BAFTA for Best Game. Here’s my thoughts on how the creator of the game, my friend Ian Dallas, built such an awesome game. The game is now available on many platforms including iOS.
Screenshot from the game
Why are the best and brightest so boring these days? That’s the question that William Deresiewicz asks in his book Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite. He writes about the sad state of the Ivy League student, specifically at Yale, where he taught. He decries the students’ inability to take risks, instead putting all their attention into getting into climbing onto the corporate ladder of management consulting or investment banking.
These days, I feel swamped by the internet. Sure, it’s great to have all this information at my fingertips, but I think we lose something in the process. Our brains aren’t meant to hold endless information. They get lazy when we can just Google everything. Why bother remembering? Yet, even though we don’t really need to remember anything anymore, I find real joy in doing it.
There’s something refreshing about living without tools. We think of tools as being central to everything we do. And I don’t mean just iPhone and computers. What about books? How could we acquire knowledge without books? In the ancient world, our ancestors were able to create long and complex thoughts well before writing. They used memory tricks called mnemonic techniques. But these techniques are not just tools from the past; they can be useful today. Using this still is not that hard but it is they’re keys to unlocking a more mindful and empowered way of living in the present. I want to explore the art of memorization with you, transforming it from a lost skill to an everyday superpower.
Categories
My Portable VR Arcade
I got a Quest 3 from my Bubby for Hanukkah. This is a bit odd because Bubby died in 2019. But before she died, in 2017, I told her about how much I wanted a Virtual Reality headset. At the time the Quest was only a prototype, called Santa Cruz. The top of the line device from Meta (then Oculus) was the Oculus Go, which was mainly for viewing media and couldn’t really interact. I told her I didn’t really want it because it wasn’t going to do a whole lot. She said, “I’ll get it for you. And don’t worry, I’ll get you a newer version when the good stuff comes out.”
They all want sharp knives, but I’m nervous about them running around with scissors.
I was having a conversation with my friend Lutz the other day about the differences between the US and Germany. He said, “I don’t understand Americans and driving. On parts of the autobahn we don’t have speed limits. Americans want the speed of the autobahn but don’t want any of the responsibility.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Driving in Germany is a responsibility. I feel like the only time Americans care about driving rules is when they are taking a driving test. For example, you have “guidance” to pass on the left and you do what you want. On the autobahn, passing on the right means a 450 euro fine. Also, there are non-autobahn roads, where speeding can mean 20 days of your salary.”
It made me think about how we view things in the US. We want to have the best and fastest of everything, but we don’t want the rules that come with them. It’s a weird form of American exceptionalism. We love the freedom, sure, but when it comes to following regulations? Not so much. We want to have the best and shiniest things but don’t take care of them. It’s like giving a kid a fancy new toy and finding it broken the next day. And this, my friends, is why we can’t have nice things.
Sharp Tools in Business: The Japanese Influence
In business, I call this sharp tools. I got the idea from Andy Jassy, Amazon’s CEO. When questioned about the nefarious uses of AWS, Jassy likes to say that AWS is just a tool. It’s like a knife. Knives can be used for good or bad depending on how you use them.
Let’s talk about tools in business. In the 1980s when American businesses were obsessed with Japan. No, not the tech gadgets or cars – I’m talking about leading edge business practices from Toyota. Post World War Two, these folks weren’t just rebuilding; they were redefining efficiency. These practices made it into the US with names like Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma.
Toyota’s tools? They were like the Ginzu knives of the business world. We’re talking about methodologies that cut through waste like butter. One of the key tools from Toyota was the Andon cord. This was a cord in the middle of the production line. If anyone sees a quality issue on the line, they yank that Andon Cord, and bam – the entire production line grinds to a halt.
This little cord was a game-changer. It wasn’t just about catching mistakes; it was about empowering everyone on that floor to be a guardian of quality. Pulling the cord could cost big bucks in the short term, but it led to greatly increased quality and efficiency.
Naturally, American companies saw the power of these Japanese processes and wanted to bring it to the US. They saw the Andon Cord and wanted to implement it. See something off? Pull a cord, stop the line. It was a clear process that would help them boost quality.
Misusing the Tools: The Dangers of Incomplete Adoption
But it’s not so easy. While companies like Netflix and Amazon have successfully implemented this process, the Andon Cord isn’t a cure all. The Andon Cord isn’t just a fancy break-the-glass-in-case-of-emergency tool. It’s a symbol, a philosophy, a whole new way of thinking about quality and responsibility.
Many people look at the Andon Cord as a shortcut to quality, a quick-fix solution. But it’s more than just a cord; it’s a commitment. It requires an environment where quality is king, where every employee, from the CEO to the floor worker, is aligned in a relentless pursuit of excellence.
Implementing the Andon Cord without changing the culture makes causes more problems than it selves. Imagine this: production lines stopping left and right, because there are large problems in quality beforehand. The Andon Cord is a final quality check before things go out to the market. There’s a huge got to pulling it but that’s the point. When used correctly, everyone is signing up for superior quality. When used incorrectly it’s just a big, giant “I told you so” that “someone else” messed up.
Conclusion
We need to be careful with sharp tools. Adopting tools without a deep understanding of their purpose and without laying the necessary groundwork is like handing over a Formula 1 car to someone who’s only ever driven in a school zone. It’s not just about the tool; it’s about the readiness to use it effectively and responsibly.
So, what have we learned? It boils down to this: with great power comes great responsibility. Whether it’s the freedom of a no-speed-limit road, the prowess of cutting-edge technology, or the precision of an Andon Cord, the underlying message is crystal clear – respect the tool, understand its power, and use it wisely.
This took about 40 minutes to edit. It’s hard to find the right tone that doesn’t sound too overconfident. The ideas tend to be pretty on point which is what’s fun. I had an interesting problem with this one because I told it that companies implemented the Andon Cord and failed so it created that fictional history and I needed to correct that. Also, for this one I spent another 20 minutes editing it. Here’s the chat.
I’m getting to this point where I want to just have an idea and write it out and get it to a point where the bones show well enough. Can people understand what I’m trying to say. Likely, I need to get ChatGPT to flesh out the idea without being too clever.
There’s something special about being an early adopter. There are obviously painful things like capacity limits and features that don’t work quite right. But the wonderful thing, if it’s done right, is that the community and the founders work together to build something magical.
That’s the feeling on Clubhouse now. I’ve been playing around with the platform for a week. I’ve been in these unfiltered rooms with Joe Rogan, Marc Andresson, and Guy Raz. The rooms are currently capped at 8,000 users because of platform constraints. Back when I started on the platform last week is was 5,000 users. Then 7,000 users. Then, on Friday night when I joined the Joe Rogan Room (which maxed out at 7,000 users on Joe’s first day), and Paul Davison, one of the founders of Clubhouse, said, “Oh, during this call it looks like we’ve raised the limit to 8,000 users.”
Categories
Disney and the New Digital Theme Parks
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These days I’m sitting at home thinking about jetting off to Florida and entering the fantasy land of Disney World. We could walk around meeting the characters in Toy Story, travel to the past, or visit countries from around the world. Of course, these experiences are not the real thing but theme park adaptions of them. While we can’t have the real-world experiences of Disney World, there’s a new, and in some ways better, version of theme parks that I can experience at home.
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