Geez, I've Been Busy... Still Am.

I've had a lot of things to blog about in the last couple weeks. I am swimming in work, and simultaniously doing a massive (but incremental) update of www.73ideas.com. Unfortunately working from 6am until somewhere in the night has gotten in the way of my posting anything at all (I do hope to play catchup soon). Today is no different, but I just came across something that needs to be read.

I subscribe to many, many marketing and branding and design and ____________ (fill in the blank), newsletters and ezines. There are lots of great things to read, but most of the time it's like weeding the garden. Actually, I don't know what that means. It's more like trying to find a rare Sinatra LP at a flea market. Anyway: here's a great one: Sourced from Seth Godin's blog (which he sourced from his upcoming book, Free Prize Inside).

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Henry Ford and the source of our fear

Henry Ford left us much more than cars and the highway system we built for them. He changed the world’s expectations for work. While Ford gets credit for “inventing the assembly line,” his great insight was that he understood the power of productivity.

Ford was a pioneer in highly leveraged, repetitive work, done by relatively untrained workers. A farmer, with little training, could walk into Ford’s factory and become extraordinarily productive in a day or two.

This is the cornerstone of our way of life. The backbone of our economy is not brain surgeons and master violinists. It’s in fairly average people doing fairly average work.

The focus on productivity wouldn’t be relevant to this discussion except for the second thing Ford did. He decided to pay his workers based on productivity, not replacement value. This was an astonishing breakthrough. When Ford announced the $5 day (more than double the typical salary paid for this level of skill), more than 10,000 people applied for work at Ford the very next day.

Instead of paying people the lowest amount he’d need to find enough competent workers to fill the plant, he paid them more than he needed to because his systems made them so productive. He challenged his workers to be more productive so that they’d get paid more.

It meant that nearly every factory worker at Ford was dramatically overpaid! When there’s a line out the door of people waiting to take your job, weird things happen to your head. The combination of repetitive factory work plus high pay for standardized performance led to a very obedient factory floor. People were conditioned to do as they were told, and traded autonomy and craftsmanship for high pay and stability.

All of a sudden, we got used to being paid based on our output . We came, over time, to expect to get paid more and more, regardless of how long the line of people eager to take our job was. If productivity went up, profits went up. And the productive workers expected (and got) higher pay, even if there were plenty of replacement workers, eager to work for less.

This is the central conceit of our economy. People in productive industries get paid a lot even though they could likely be replaced by someone else working for less money.

This is why we’re insecure.

Obedience works fine on the well-organized, standardized factory floor. But what happens when we start using our heads, not our hands, when our collars change from blue to white?

Global Warming is Y2k (times 100).

Go buy yourself a generator, baby. Y2K is a fact!

Two Faces.

The Joy's of Being in Business.

Working for Dwight Knowlton is a pretty good gig for the most part, but there are sometimes complications.

The last couple weeks have doled out their fair share of work humor, so long as one can manage their perspective well enough to take it lightly.

I have not been that one. I'm not saying that I have missed the humor in the situation.
I am simply saying that there have been a few times that I was looking for something to break.

Let's recap.

03/27: Client wants packaging designed for new product.
Client provides a spec file from vendor (purposeless .dat file).

03/27: I contact vendor directly requesting specs, templates, any relevant information.

03/27: Vendor does not respond.
03/28: Vendor does not respond.
03/31: Vendor does not respond.
04/01: Vendor does not respond (of course).
04/02: Vendor does not respond.

04/03: Vendor responds by sending same worthless .dat file.

04/03: I respond: "Thanks. Can you tell me what format the graphic capabilities file is supposed to be? It is coming through as a .dat which is unuseable. It it a PDF, maybe?"

04/03: Vendor does not respond.

04/04: Vendor responds by not writing a single word, but attaching "graphics capabilites.dat". Again.

04/04: I spend a few minutes replacing the file extention and find that the file is supposed to be a .doc. I am able to open it...and find that it is of absolutely no value.

04/04: I send the basically worthless file back to the client as a .doc, in case they ever need to supply it to someone who might want to be able to open it. And then close it.

04/04: Given that I am getting absolutely no information on requirements or process -- I decide to try a new method. Providing a draft file for critique.

04/04: "Dear vendor, I am working on the __________ packaging for _________. I am submitting this for review. Could you supply me with your file preferences/guidelines, and the appropriate template (if necessary). Please let me know if we are missing anything. File attach. Message send.

04/04: Vendor does not respond.

04/07: Vendor responds. But wait. Vendor does not answer questions. Vendor says, "I have sent your file to print, but prepress tells me that we are missing fonts. Please convert all type to outlines and resubmit file".

04/08: I respond with a revised file and a nice note. "This is a print file. The previous file was not.
All of my questions that have gone unanswered - I have gotten answers from other sources, so we should be set to go with this."

04/08: Vendor responds, "Here is the proof. Please note the die line. Your label is smaller than the die line. Is this supposed to have a white border? Also, I have not received the label spec form back from you so I am guessing on this label. Do you want white paper or is this supposed to have a metallic look?

04/09: I respond (cc-ing the client): "This is exactly the template I was asking for last week. I needed a final dimension on the label. I have revised the file to eliminate the white border and added some bleed. Given the additional room, I have also relocated some type. You will want to check with the client, ________ on the paper choice. I am not the client, so can't make the call on that, or submit the label spec form you mention."

04/09: Vendor: "Ok, I think now I understand the problem. I thought you were the client. Do you have any information about _________ (client) so I can ask them. Sorry but this is really confusing."

_______________________________

OK. It's still going to get better,
but let me analyze this last note for a second.

Conclusion 1: You thought I was the client...so you did not respond to my emails, and have never answered a single question that I asked? Interesting technique.
Conclusion 2: You wonder if I have any contact information for the individual/company that I work for?
Conclusion 3: "Do you have any information about..." is interrogative. Use a question mark.
Conclusion 4: You didn't notice that I just provided you with the clients email, did you?
Conclusion 5: This is confusing. Yes? Yes!

_______________________________


04/11: Client forwards email from vendor.
Proofs are attached. Plural. Proofs.
Two of the same file. The file from 04/08.
The one that was replaced by the file that I sent 04/09.
Vendor asks same questions that vendor asked on 04/08.

Is this supposed to have a white border?

Technology is Unbelievable.

I was using Google maps today, and to my amazement they have added yet another feature that takes my breath away. Google earth seems like it would be the most incredible thing, but hold on.

Google has added a feature called "street view" to their maps. It is limited to higher traffic locations, but we just happen to live in one of those kinds of places, so I thought I'd take a look around. It is just unbelievable!

I had just dropped the Porsche off for service this morning, and had looked around for a bit on the lot - so I had that location fresh in my mind. I thought I'd have a look there, but they have not yet made it that far out with their cameras yet. So, I looked up the other premium auto group in town on McDowell Rd, and "wala".

Here is what you do. Start at maps.google.com and enter this address: "6825 E. McDowell Road, Scottsdale, AZ 85257". Now click to "Street View" and have a look around the Maserati/Ferrari dealership. Resist any offers of test drives. Pop it up to full screen, and use the navigation arrows to head east and check out the Audi dealership (complete with picketing laborers out front). Click on the picture and drag to rotate your view. Look east, look north...unbelievable.

And to think, when I was in college we didn't even have the interweb.

A Little Bit of Our Phoenix

This is our Wax Begonia on the back patio. Tracy and I were watering one evening and I saw the sun shining through it. It lit up like a jewel. I couldn't help but take 20 pictures or so.


















This is a shot in our backyard - a view that Tracy loves. It's the contrast of soft roses with the hard prickly pear cactus and the queen palm in the background.

Here is one of our new Camillia's. We put three of these in along our back wall and they are taking off! They are beautiful and absolutely loaded with buds.












This is our metaphorical back yard. Not really our back yard, but sort of our back yard. This is on the way into Phoenix from the south (from Tucson). It has no relevance to the rest of the post, but it's a shot I had been planning to post - so here it is.

And in Other News...

9 Month Waiting Period Proposed for Abortions...

New Abortion Bill To Require Fetal Consent