My 2-year-old nephew was eating supper last night and had vegetables, awesome beef tenderloin some watermelon and cantaloupe. He pounced on the fruit devouring it before touching anything else. He them pointed to the place watermelon had been on his plate and informed his parents in no uncertain terms that he wanted more "cantemelon". He then pointed to the place that the cantaloupe had been and said "more cantemelon". He wasn't confused just simplifying. Everyone around the table new just what he wanted and when he wanted. (Although he did have to eat some veggies first).

As a side note: the cantemelon were both good and I had more than one serving myself. Welcome summer.

From time to time we all need to share our desktop with someone else. Sales call. Showing a feature of an application. Training. Whatever. There are several options out there that let you do this. Some you have to pay for. Yesterday I was introduced to Mikogo http://www.mikogo.com/ so I just thought I'd pass it along. It's free and easy to use. 

He called and told me to go to the Mikogo Web site. I did. Downloaded the .dmg for Mac. Ran the app and entered the conference code. Took all of 3 minutes and we were going. I just signed up for my account so I can use it next time I need it. 

(And no, I don't have the frequency of posts or the readership to get paid for promoting a product.)

 

Works really well. Manage multiple lists, projects, notes and task. Easily. Very Easily.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/taskpaper/id424281111?mt=12
Haven't tried it on the iPad yet. Didn't seem to sync well from what I read, but once that's resolved could see using it there as well.
Just thought I'd share.

Through a Twilert I had running I found Jenna Frye (@jenna_frye). I managed to make it to her blog where I read this:

"Due to recent self-reflection, I realize I'm learning a lesson: my job should not be how I measure my worth. I have so many skills and traits so I need to seek a job that compliments who I already am, not vice versa."

Who are you without your job @ jenna-frye.com

I think we'd all be better of if we all learned the lesson now that our job does not define us. I said that for years without actually meaning it. When I dug deep and took it for truth and started living it life got dramatically better. I still work. I still pay bills. And work and life are both still hard at times, but what defines me - what makes me - is outside any 8-5 work.

I still love doing what I do. Wearing, with pride, all my well-worn and varied hats. Getting comfortable in the new ones that I'm just breaking in. Looking forward to putting on that new hat for a while too. I don't just do one thing. I do many. I'm better at some than others. I enjoy some more than others. But I'm not defined by what I do to make money. I'm defined by what I choose to be defined by. I make money so that I can do those things.

By the way, if you're looking for someone to do PR, think about Jenna. She might be a good fit.

 

A few years ago it was really common for sites to open a new window (and later a new tab) for any page that was on a different web site. As a developer and designer I never really liked the idea but I did it too. Some clients specifically mandated it for legal reasons, but that's another topic.

As a site owner it’s normal to want to keep people on your site, just like a retail store wanting to keep shoppers in their store. That’s all well and good. But what you need to do is serve your customer—and serve them well. That may mean that you recommend they read an article on another site or—heaven forbid—actually buy something from another site.

I remember an experience I had at Advance Auto Parts. It was a Saturday morning and I needed a part to fix my car. They didn’t have it in stock but could have it in the store Monday. Well, that wasn’t going to work. I needed to fix the car. So instead of just throwing up his hands and saying, “Sorry, you’ll just have to wait,” he picked up the phone. He dialed a familiar number and said, “Hey Frank, this is John at Advance. I’ve got a guy here who needs an valve cover gasket. We’re out. Do you have one?” He then proceeded to give the details. Short pause. “Great. Thanks, I’ll send him over to you.” I got back in my car and drove literally across the street to their competitor O’Reilly Auto Parts. I went in the store and the part was waiting for me. I paid and went home and fixed the car. So now, whenever I need a part for my car I go to Advance Auto Parts first. Not O’Reilly. Why? Because Advance helped me out. O’Reilly just sold me the part. 

This was inspired in part by this article at Understanding Your Customers. Here’s a quote:

“Don’t be afraid to link off your site, as long as it’s relevant and rewarding. If you’re truly offering a great product, people will appreciate your link generosity and come back to your page even more excited to try out your product.” (empahsis added)

They use MailChimp (one of my favorite products) to prove their point. Enjoy!

Watching this TED video last night Diana Laufenberg: How to learn? From mistakes got me to thinking. I really like what she had to say and it makes sense. I hate bubble tests. Bet let me skew the point a different way.

Where I tend to get the most frustrated at failure isn't really at the failure though. I produce Web sites and write applications. I work in code. Most of the time my code works, but I can't stop there. The code has to be "right." Right as defined by the experts. Use the "right" code to do what I'm doing not just code that works. Sounds crazy and it is a little bit crazy. But I do like to feel that my code is "right" not just "it works."

And that isn't the big picture Diana talks about, but it is something that I pulled out. How do we teach ourselves, our kids and each other how to fail well? How do we give each other room to go out on the proverbial limb and take risks without holding them over the fire for it.

We're all going to fail. A lot. But instead of focusing on the failure learn from it. Let it teach you.

In programming there's a group that focuses on something called Test Driven Development or TDD. That means that we test our code with code before we write the code. Basically we write test cases first. Then write code to make those tests pass. We start with failure. Then do the least we can to get the test to pass and move on to the next failure.

I wish I could apply this principle to life. But I can't. Life isn't testable. You can't really test the water without getting in the water and experiencing the water. Most of the time we look at it as right or wrong, yes or no without anything in between. But most of the time it isn't that way. Motives outweigh actions. Why is more important than what. Other things have to be considered before we really decide if we failed or not.

We should expect to fail. To not be perfect all the time. Then, when we fail, we can learn from it and be better for it. And help others when they fail. Just remember that failure has levels and isn't always bad.

I was given a book Bad Dogs Have More Fun by John Grogan (author of Marly and Me and journalist for the Philadelphia Inquirer) for Christmas named. It's a collection of stories. The first is about Caitlin, an 11-year-old girl born deaf, performing her first violin recital. She played Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Mary had a Little Lamb. According to the article her timing and sound were perfect. Grogan says this:

A girl without hearing tackled an instrument that has everything to do with hearing, and she didn't give up. For the determined, she learned, even the steepest mountains can be scaled, one step at a time.

Caitlin went to a typical school that had classes for the deaf. She would see other hearing students with musical instruments. She decided she wanted to play. And she did.

There's something about being a kid. As kids we could all draw, paint, dance and sing. We grow older and learn—or maybe we're taught—that we can't. Kids also have an amazing ability to believe. To trust. To create. To forgive.

Christ once said that we are to come to him with faith like a child. As I tacked another year on yesterday may we all be reminded to believe like a child and in some ways think like a child. Not abandoning maturity but accepting ourselves and those around us and letting our imaginations run so that we not only create, but believe that what we create is amazing and beautiful.

Are you an analog or a digital person? Do you keep you todo list in your head? on paper? or with software? I fight between the options. Try to find what works best. But I think in reality I'm just trying to find the one that is the least effort and the easiest to ignore.

When I really want to focus on getting things done I resort to paper. Writing things down. Then when those things don't get done I manually have to rewrite them the next day. The process of writing the task again and again and again when I've failed to do it that day makes me feel the pain of not getting something done.

Digitally it just falls through to the next day or gets put on some form of a more urgent list. Easy to ignore.

I also prioritize better on paper. It doesn't get easier than drawing a arrow or using a number to reorder things on a written list.

Don't get me wrong, I love digital. It's what I do. I build those apps that help us accomplish tasks. But the perfect todo list just doesn't exist. At least not one that is as easy to use as a paper and a pen.

Of course what works for you is what you should do. Share. What does work for you?

Been on the New York Times Web site a bit more than usually lately reading through a few articles.

The first time I saw this feature I kinda missed it. The second time I used it and the third time I realized what a good idea it is.

Take a look at one of their articles. (Here's one that might amuse you a bit.) As you near the bottom of the article a box will slide in from the right side of your browser window. (see the image below)

This box has headlines and links in to related stories. If you scroll back up the article page the box will slide back out of view. 

Nice feature and unobtrusively guides the reader to related or featured content. And gets out of the way when the reader is looking to stay on this page longer.

Imagine what we can make together if we share relentlessly.

I've been working on a project and needed to look up some documentation for a code library I'm using. The above quote was on the creator's Web site. Rails developers may recognize it, but everyone can learn something from it. 

Think about it for a minute. A full minute. Now, share.