Author: sshadmand

Why the color of your neck tie means more then all else

What I want to dive into and can’t wrap my head around yet are the 45% of people that elected the continuation of policies in the 2008 election. Hear me out. 45% of people voted in 2008 to preserve the state of affairs we were in *then*. If you can remember, we actually thought America was about to go under. It was the most scared I have been for an immanent collapse in my lifetime. It was not a Nostradamus prediction of collapse 4 years away, it was collapsing right under our feet. Not everyone can be an economist, but when we were confronted with a collapse in America, that ended up stretching over the western world, 45% of people in the US were like – yeah I can convince myself that it’s okay and can look past all of it – “4 more years!”

Where was all that passion I see now for the obvious change and disapproval needed then? Where was the wherewithal then in holding people accountable for bad policies and a brightless future? I would be far more content if the 2008 election we saw an 80/20 or 90/10 split among voters. But to have passion about creating a bright future, and arguing about the impact of the economy now at an almost equal % breakdown as then is — absolutely mind blowing. The arguments to vote for change then were dismissed by those 45% back then for a far more hopeless situation. If it didn’t matter enough in the last 10 years, why dose it matter so much now?

Is the whole country held hostage by something as simple as switching from a red neck tie to a blue one?

Have we turned politics into a sporting event where your team wins at all costs? Is it the person, the policies, and the state of affairs, or just a jersey and the opportunity to engage in heated arguments over a Poppa Johns pizza that drives us all? Sadly, the last 8 years point strongly to that fact that it is, and that is what has let me down the most. Which ever way you decide to vote now, my issue is with consistency and perspective. What would YOU say to YOURSELF if you went back in time to only 4 years ago? Would you have to change what you were passionate about now just to agree with your former self then? I don’t know how this election will turn out, but I do know that there is a far greater problem in America, the lack of objectivity, and a passion to *find* issues to leverage for the benefit of an election, and not the need to examine an issue for the sake of true, united, prosperity.

Here is one project that could help… Write down what you are so mad/passionate about in this election. Write what you expect and want, and where the failures are that you feel so strongly about. Put them in a box, and read them every 4 years before an election. If Mitt does well then honestly great – I want the *country* to succeed be it by a black, white, or green president. But if he does poorly will you have the objectivity to see it? Or will you make excuses and change your passions so your team, not your country, can win? Will you blame *bad* performance on the last president, would you blame the *great* performance on the last president just the same?

(And don’t be so cocky about how it would play out. 45% of you would have already been screwed if you stared this project only 4 years ago!)

Look, believe what you want, but a great america actually starts with you – not the president.

A great politician will become great at being elected, a great business man will be great at making allot of money for himself, and a great citizen will do what’s best for them and their neighbors. It is tough to trust that all three will work perfectly for one another with such different objectives driving each of them. The greatest side to have faith in and support is, and always will be, the citizen’s side. If you are picking a side, pick our side, the non elected, non-special interests side – the peoples side.

The greatest impact made is not from someone elected, but from those that elect.

Please, keep sports out of politics.

Worried about the future, or another bad decision from your past?

I hear quite a few people tell me that they are “voting on the economy” or that they are fearful of the future. The funny thing is we don’t need to be fearful or imagine the future  we have lived through some scary ups and downs in the past 10 years. The problem with voters that stick to one party or the other is they don’t realize that they are voting for the party, not the economy. How can I demonstrate this? Well instead of me assuming that *you* specifically have a certain type of economic voting track record, I will let you be the judge for yourself. Below is census data since 1993 in four year increments. Look through them and ask yourself how did you vote at the end of the shown term. Did you vote on the economy then? It is very possible that you got what you asked for.

1993-1997: A 200 billion dollar deficit became an almost break even budget.

Did you vote for more of the same, or for change?

 

1997-2001: If you voted for the same, you got it. A break even budget turned into a 100 billion dollar surplus with highs in the 200 billions.

Did you vote to change or more of the same?

 

 

2001-2005: If you voted for change you got it. A 100 billion dollar surplus turned into a sub 300 billion dollar deficit.

Did you vote for change or more of the same?

 

 

2005-2009:  If you voted for more of the same you got it. A 300 billion dollar deficit turned into a 1.4 trillion dollar one.

Did you vote for change or the same?

2009-2013:  Not much happened, but we went from 1.4 trillion dollar deficit to 1.3 (I agreed the dotted lines are fake, so I removed them)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The way I see it is all those years in the past you had a chance to vote for more of the same or change, and in the past it’s exactly what you got. Sticking to your “party” instead of voting on what is best for the country is very much what you get: a party in office, not necessarily a better country. So the main thing I want to do is put to sleep the concept of “I’m voting for the economy”. Based on your past it is very possible that you never really have.

What New Apps Are Sean Using These Days?


Someone asked me about new apps I find myself using these days. Figured it would be worth a blog post to post my answer.

So here is a list of newer apps I find my self using on a semi daily basis, that are also new. I have omitted apps I have been using for years now.

Fancy: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fancy/id407324335?mt=8

A new take on Pinterest where yo can buy what you fancy


Lyft: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lyft-on-demand-ridesharing/id529379082?mt=8

Car sharing rides by crowd source


Pocket: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pocket-formerly-read-it-later/id309601447?mt=8

Save your websites to a list on your phone for reading later

Digg: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/digg/id362872995?mt=8

After Digg got bought and revamped their App and content seems worth using again and has a second life forming.

LoseIt: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lose-it!/id297368629?mt=8

A calorie counter that does a great job with bar code scanning and daily and weekly budgets for your food tracking. Use it daiy.

Other notables:

InstaCart: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/instacart/id545599256?mt=8

A friend started this one very recently. They are doing food deliveries in under an hour based on food purchased through app.

Seamless: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/seamless-food-delivery-takeout/id381840917?mt=8

This is the only app I buy delivery though

TripIt: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tripit-travel-organizer-free/id311035142?mt=8

Love the updates and info on all my upcoming flights. It gets populated through email receipts of my flight purchases.

Of course this excludes many more apps I use allot like Taxi Magic, Uber, Evernote, Mint, E*trade, Spotify, Bank Of America, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, etc etc
Here are some screenshots of my homescreens. Figured sharing them would be cool. Post feedback or share your own below:

Not the Facts Just the Data: More Google Census Data

I am posting some updates to census stats since, as I said before, the data is there, it’s public and people should be exposed to it without ads or “interpretations” in the middle.

So, here you go:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feedback: The Greatest Movie Evert sold

I just saw Morgan Spurlocks “The Greatest Movie Ever  Sold”

The tight contracts, partner rejections, pitch meetings, cold calls, partnership management, moments of loss of control, brand push back, product placement challenges, and managing the selling of ones sole is depicted with more real reality in this movie than all reality shows on TV today.

I wanted to post this as a blog because I wanted to get your take on it. I feel that Morgan has yet again done a public service by exposing a hidden world in a creative and digestible way.

Here is a wiki on it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POM_Wonderful_Presents:_The_Greatest_Movie_Ever_Sold Check it out. For those that don’t know it actually is a pretty transparent view of what raising money, pitching ideas, and getting rejected really feels like. (As apposed to the faux “reality” TV shows trying to recreate reality)

Rotten tomatoes 73% fresh

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pom_wonderful_presents_the_greatest_movie_ever_sold/

IMDB

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1743720/

Efficiently Inefficient: Processes that can improve quality and quantity of life

For our latest project at Socialize Isaac and I are going to increase the release cycle even further and go from a few releases per group per week, to a few releases per day. I find moving more efficiently and quickly over the years always takes a few non-intuitive jarring mental steps. (If they didn’t we would have been way more efficient as a society way earlier on in history).

Here are a couple things that always seem to be the foundation of inching your way up the efficiency hill.

1) Get to a point at which you truly trust your results, not just feel good or secure about them, but quantitative based results that have a quantitative “I trust this” number. This is what I call the “don’t look over your shoulder moment”, because if you’re looking over your shoulder to make sure nothing has gone wrong, you are not looking forward to make sure new things go right. This accomplished with unit/itests tests, or in our everyday lives marking your calendar or adding a reminder. Even at managing people in the office, time and time again setting up employees to be trusted and autonomous, with a simple audit system to make you aware only if something is wrong, has proven time and time again to produce happier, more creative, more productive employees in a company that can scale. Basically every one wins big when you make sure you create process that handles things that are set to let you know if you need to take action, and quite %100 otherwise.

2) Really reconsider what you’re are willing to bare in mistakes. This is usually a major brain switch moment. Sometimes people can work 100x more efficiently and productively if they just allow themselves to be wrong for a totally fixable 1 minute per year. Yes your server may go down once a year, but instead of working hard to make sure that never happens (which is impossible), work hard to make sure systems are in place to recover super quickly. The funny thing is when you accomplish #1 above, mixed with this #2 item, you start performing better than you could have imagined.

3) Remove process that is there to support the more intuitive faux “warm and fuzzy” feelings that keep 1 and 2 from happening.

4) Always push yourself, and those around you, to test process that offer efficiency gains even if you don’t feel comfortable at first. Comfort is often the foundation of slowness, and trying new things even against your “better judgement” are the only ways to break free.

 

For you nerds out there, here is the article from github Isaac passed on to me that sparked our latest evolution in product releases. Although this post and its sentiment are, in my book, universal throughout life and business and not code.

http://scottchacon.com/2011/08/31/github-flow.html

There is no better quote to reference then your own, made from the source:Not the facts, just the data

Do not trust or love politics, love your people, peers, country, and family.

Politicians will use data for their agenda. If you get wrapped up in it, and start believing what you are *told*, through sound bites and ads, you will be misinformed 100% of the time. More information isn’t tantamount to a depth of information.

This is why I have learned not to trust politics, they bet on people not reading the full story (as wel only have so much time in the day) and try to create anger and conflict to make people mad enough to vote how they want. It feels like THAT is what has gotten worst over the years, not so much what is happening in the world, just the way its agenda is given to us. China does it by cutting off information, the US does it by overloading its people with one sided information.
 
The good news is that with the advent of the Internet it is now so easy to get the data and documents from the source, and fight back as a citizen saying “don’t use me for your agenda”. No need to go to the library and send letters requesting data that may take days or weeks; it is available now if you are willing to read it.
 
As my methods to get to the data evolve, I try and follow some procedures to navigate past the political propaganda.
First, If I find a “fact” that I am researching on any news site, I look for the citation for the “fact” so I know where it came from, and then look that fact up from it source to read it myself. If there is not citation, I start over. A citation does not make it data, it just helps you get a path to the source. Secondly, if I find the source I read it, if I cannot find the source I look for the source directly. At this stage in the evolution of my process I have deemed .gov sites and non-profit census bureaus as a final source. In some situation you can never be sure unless you count the numbers yourself, but I have found the most consistency at that level. Yes I know that even the government stats, non profits, and census bureaus can lie but if I can find some consitancy at that level I am pleased.
 
Lastly, how to spot a fact with skeletons in its closet that should trigger an investigation like the one above before having the debate.
Well, the main thing that triggers a fact check to me are statistics, and references to bill being voted on. Why? Well, over the years I have found that stats have a high potential to be screwed. Or example, what constitutes “1 year” – Fiscal year or calendar year etc. Another example is is the stats extrapolated from previous data or data that has already happened. Another read flag is the use of tag lines,  sound bits and general words like “taxes”, and “everyone”, and “higher” — higher then when and what for whom? Also, the reference to bills, are tough to believe from something like “he voted to….” After living in DC and working on capitol hill with you realize that both sides of the fence will quote the same document at different parts and come up with completely different conclusion. It is impossible for both are either to be entirely right, but both sides would never realize that they both *think* they are 100% right. As my readers and friends know by now, one of my big rules of thumb is: If experts disagree it is time to make your own decisions. A bill is written by many people with many agendas for their state. They are stiuffed, written and re-written over and over to try to get as much as they each want to get in it, and keep out as much as they don’t. They do this hours and hours everyday to come to a final document that is then voted on by all parties. It is very important to remember that time line, for no document has one message, and if it passed their is a big chance that both parties voted yes on it (unless there was a big split with few deciding votes). Point being, much could have gone into a document and so much more history to that document then any sound bite could articulate.
 
So, one of the bills that was brought as a point of contention was based on a sound bites saying “Obama voted on late term abortion”, and it was said that the bill was made to let mothers have the right to kill a baby after it is born alive. Well, personal, I did not know about that bill first hand, and that I promised to look it up. Speaking from my own perspectives I don’t like the sound of it, but I want the source and document first before my personal conclusions on that vote are spoken.
 
This is one of the actual bills voted on for Illinois referenced. It only took a few minutes to bring up. It was indeed named “Partial-birth Abortion Ban Act”, so that is a true data point.  As it turns out was voted on 44-7 (almost everyone agreed in both parties, that decided to attend). Also there were 5 present votes. What does a present vote mean?
 The “present” vote is in effect a “no” vote, but it is a “no” vote that sends a message. The “present” vote is used by lawmakers in situations where they agree with a bill in
spirit, however the current version of the bill is not good enough to vote “yes;”
The bill, in my first hand summary, would be this:  A bill for late term abortion *if* it will kill the mother to have the baby, but still says it is illegal otherwise. But please, do not take my word for it! Read it here:
So it is important for me to see just how complex a bill can be, in addition to how complex it is to create, finalize,vote on and pass, on it.
 
Another topic was immigration. Stats are the hardest data to really find concrete numbers. There isn’t a list of people that are counted ever. It is def not as easy to get to the bottom of as a document being references. Old census bureus that have been around and referenced over time by both parties is, to me, a better place to start than from a news site, network, or politician.
So here is census data from the Pew Foundation on immigration stats, highest in 2007, and leveled off down by a million the following years.
It is important to note that data usually doesn’t come with a “should”, “good”, “bad”, or “won’t” list of words around it. Why did it go up? That is as complex as why did it go down? And as you will see that once why is added to statistics rarely does a group of experts agree. There are so many variables, and that is where debates and politics I suppose have a place. But I would implore you all out there to start the debate after the data is presented, and be sure not to find yourself repeating an ad or politicians claim that a statistic is “up” or “down” until you read it for yourself from the source.
 
I think my new strategy will be to make sure that before I argue on big issues like this, especially in DC where the ads and politics are so ripe with contention, I will just say show me the document we are arguing over before getting involved. If we do, maybe the citizens of this country can take back their right to be informed, and to make decisions without political agenda being the force that drives them.

The summary of my rabbit hole conversation with big media company and how they see digital vs linear

Them: Linear does not easily show ROI, we are slaves to Neilson and the data isn’t even accurate. – Digital has a definite ROI we can track.

Me: Is getting digital traffic and market appeal your #1 focus then?

Them: No, we don’t drive search and discovery towards digital nearly as much as linear

Me: Why?

Them: Because digital doesn’t make good money

Me: Why?

Them: Digital doesn’t get good value on ads or have enough ad fill compared to linear so there is less money

Me: Why not?

Them: becuase advertiser don’t spend there money on digital

Me: Why not?

Them: because there isn’t enough traffic going there with the right type of viewers?

Me: Do you know why there is a difference in veiwer types or know exactly what types of veiwers are on each?

Them: No.

Me: Do you try to drive the users you do like or want to digital?

Them: No.

Me: Why not?

Them: because there isn’t money there

Me: Is there ad roll in streaming video on digital?

Them: Yes

Me: Can you track ROI and metric/conversions easily in digital?

Them: Yes

Me: What is the retention on digital for vistors to streaming and non streaming video?

Them: Very high

Me: Why don’t you push people toward digital that you have ROI metrics on that you can push?

Them: Becuase there isn’t as much money in digital…

—Start over from top

Funny thing is as I looked at them like they are on crazy pills, they looked at me the same way. I think the next big media company will be one with less to lose so they can open their eyes at taking the necessary risks needed to evolve into the new market. Maybe Yahoo studios?