Chance Bliss

Depending upon which circle of friends you run with, the term “liberal” and “conservative” are thrown around a lot. If you are a conservative, “liberal” means bad. If you are a liberal, “conservative” means bad. These terms are so draped in emotion (mainly hate and anger) that their true definitions have been lost. Here are the actual definitions according to dictionary.com:

conservative (Adj.)

1. disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change.
2. cautiously moderate or purposefully low: a conservative estimate.
3. traditional in style or manner; avoiding novelty or showiness: conservative suit.
4. (often initial capital letter) of or pertaining to the Conservative party.
5. (initial capital letter) of, pertaining to, or characteristic of Conservative Jews or Conservative Judaism.
6. having the power or tendency to conserve; preservative.

liberal (Adj.)

1. favorable to progress or reform, as in political or religious affairs.
2. (often initial capital letter) noting or pertaining to a political party advocating measures of progressive political reform.
3. of, pertaining to, based on, or advocating liberalism.
4. favorable to or in accord with concepts of maximum individual freedom possible, esp. as guaranteed by law and secured by governmental protection of civil liberties.
5. favoring or permitting freedom of action, esp. with respect to matters of personal belief or expression: a liberal policy toward dissident artists and writers.
6. of or pertaining to representational forms of government rather than aristocracies and monarchies.
7. free from prejudice or bigotry; tolerant: a liberal attitude toward foreigners.
8. open-minded or tolerant, esp. free of or not bound by traditional or conventional ideas, values, etc.

I definitely lean towards liberal, but I noticed something in the conservative definition that was attractive; “having the power or tendency to conserve; preservative”. Given the financial, energy and environmental situation today, this is something that needs to be emphasized. It’s something that the McCain campaign could use as a central message to counter the Obama “Change” slogan. Unfortunately, conservation is a tough sell in America. First, because it requires a long term view (difficult for anyone in today’s society), and second, it demands sacrifice. As I recall, this used to be a central theme of the Republican party (think Teddy Roosevelt), but has been lost in recent administrations.

Both parties should take a clean slate approach and actually think about what liberal and conservative really mean – historically and literally. They might be in for a surprise.

Somebody mentioned that Digg.com has a section, called Digg Labs, that shows experiments using different ways to visualize data. So one of the guys on my team pulls up this web 2.0 chart in the middle of a meeting. I completely lost it when I saw the headline. You got to love Digg.com just for this kind of randomness.

This was written on a white board in my office after a “motivating” speech from our leader. Sorry for the picture quality. The sun was shining directly on the board and I just had to take it before someone erased it.

“The WALL OF SHAME SAYS…WE ARE CAUSING THIS COMPANY TO FAIL”

Holy Office Space Batman!

“Mobile Internet is today at a point of sufficient mass to sustain a chain reaction of rapid growth in consumer adoption and, in turn, mobile Internet marketing,” according to the report. “Mobile Internet adoption reached critical mass through a confluence of device availability, network speeds, content availability and, most importantly, consumer interest.”- Nielsen Company

In other words, people want it because it’s better now. That’s 7 words to their 48. I’m guessing Nielsen is getting paid by the word.

Like the rest of the idiots out there, I did braved the lines at the Short Hills Apple store on Friday. I waited about 2 hours (roughly 100 people in front of me). The Apple employees were very good, handing out Starbucks coffee, water bottles and even fruit smoothie shots. Everyone in line was excited and no one freaked out when the activation process failed.

I was able to activate from work around 2:30. No big deal.

Pros: The interface is beautiful and functionality incredible. I recently used my wife’s blackberry and was completely unimpressed.

Cons: The battery life is not good, but you can play around with the network settings to improve it. Still it’s a little disappointing, but so goes anything with mobile battery life.

My boss just sent me this answer to a question posted on LinkedIn. This response pretty much represents the role of product manager.

Product Managers: Where are you in you in your organization?

“My experience shows that most companies abuse the title of Product Manager and can’t figure out what we do. Are we copy writers for MarCom people who don’t understand the products they market? Are we quasi-developers who must provide requirements that border on design specifications? Are we the “Shell answer man” who answers the same questions every month from the same sales people who don’t understand the products that they sell? Are we the business leaders who must think of every possible result (good and bad) for every business opportunity that the CEO just thought about after reading the Wall Street Journal? Yes, my friends. We are all the above and more.”

See the other answers

Hat tip to Alan Mazzan for alerting me to the genius of Italian Spiderman. Rispetti le baffi.

More episodes

Can’t believe I’ve never came across this site before? I’m glad I found it. The first article on prototyping is great since this is pretty much my job.

Warning: Only for those who make web sites otherwise you’ll be bored to tears.

A List Apart