Program Your Sleep

I recently wanted to clear up space on my nightstand, so I moved my CPAP machine to one of the drawers in the nightstand. When it's not in use, I can curl the hose up in the drawer and close the drawer most of the way (only the power cord prevents full closure).  

I never really used the drawer, so it still has a fresh woodsy smell. So now so does the air that the CPAP machine brings in.   When I was replacing the air filter the other day, it hit me:

What if there were scented air filters or oils for CPAP machines?

Naturally, I threw a bag of coffee in the drawer.  But, what if there was a new opportunity here?

In the simplest form, you could have vanilla or lavender or any number of those scents they put in candles.

Most CPAPs have a compartment for distilled water, with a heater underneath to warm the water. I don't know if it would mess it up to have scented oils or Vicks Vaporub in the same compartment to deliver smells/medicine to you while you slept. Because if you could, a fancy CPAP machine could release different smells at different times, allowing you to program your sleep.  Maybe you start off with the smell of evergreens and after a few hours, the smell of the ocean and right before your alarm goes off, coffee or toast. This could launch a whole new line of premium CPAP machines.

Dystopener

I lie about my age. If people knew I was born on The Day, I'm positive I'd be banished from our community, to the wilderness to fend for myself.

Don't get me wrong, I could totally survive on my own, even within the community, I have been fending for myself for years. Well, if you don't count my older brother Ben, though I don't, I rarely see him these days and he pretends not to know me.

Things are livable now, but the early years were the hardest. Miss Maureen tries not to dwell on it, but some days when she's feeling particularly sad, she tells us about The Day. People have tried to give it other names, but it seems distasteful, so mostly we just call it The Day.

I still have some canned food, but I know at this point, everything is expired. The cans are rusty, the labels disintegrating and most worrisome of all, more and more are starting to bulge. Dad said to avoid bulging cans, that eating from them could bring pain worse than the feeling of starving, though that's hard to imagine.

So, I ration. Some days there isn't much to eat and I go to bed early with a strong headache and my arms wrapped tightly around my grumbling stomach, but there hasn't been a day yet where I haven't had anything at all to eat. I could open more of the cans, but I'm scared to find out what happens when they're all gone.

The saving grace is my vegetable garden. When people realized life as they knew it was over, they raided the grocery stores and restaurants first. During one of his foraging trips, my dad had encountered a group planning to break into a nearby hardware store. Eventually it would be looted for building materials, but their aim was the seeds, potting soil and plants.

So my garden guarantees I'll have food, as long as I have access to water. But, each summer, it gets harder and harder, the period without reliable access to water gets longer and longer. Soon the food will be gone and the water, too. Every summer, people die from the heat and lack of water.

I will not be one of them. I will have to leave. Eventually. Sooner than I'd like.

~~~
(How I'd open a dystopian novel.)

True Creativity

I've been looking for the authors for these two quotes for some time with no success:

"True Creativity does not come from a blank page, it comes from what you do with what's already on the page."

Rarely do we have the luxury of a true "blank page."  Rarely can we completely start over.  Often there are people, processes or tools to contend with.  This is meant to encourage one to be bold, to find ways to be creative within constraints that are not of your own making.

"True Creativity comes when you start slashing zeroes from the budget."

Someone trying to build a new park in their community was facing budget cuts. Instead of ordering everything from a catalog and paying a contractor to install everything, they ended up meeting with the community, learning what the community really needed, and then asking the community to pitch in with supplies, labor and materials.  In the end, the community had a labor of love that more uniquely fit their needs and in which they had pride of ownership.

~~~~~~~

Are there areas in your life where allowing circumstance (the items already on the page) to discourage you from being creative?  

Don't be a reactionary

Someone on LinkedIn posted a meme that said

Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.

 I think that statement is nice on the surface, but if you start to think, it's not good enough.

Don't live your life in a reactionary mode hostage to outside forces.

Give yourself time to dream, to think, to plan, to strategize and to execute based on what you believe, what you know, what you've learned.

Don't wait for an external catalyst - be your own motivation.

Yes, I must fully recognize two ironic caveats:

• This post is a reaction to something. 
• Now I've told you what to do.  Sorry.

Cross-posted to Linkedin.

Bring Me Problems, Not Solutions (A Work-Related Post)

Often we hear the mantra "Bring me solutions, not problems."  This is great when you feel adequately empowered by your boss, if they have a history of helping you refine your solution and then give you the runway to execute.

Of course, the flip side is the lazy supervisor. They can't be bothered, so if something's wrong, they expect you to have the solution.

But there's another yet option, one that can be completely refreshing at times.  Most often, it's the begging plea of your most technically minded colleagues, especially those in IT:

Bring me problems, not solutions.

In its worst form, this is the mandate from someone who doesn't trust you. You know how it goes.  The condescending look (and possibly an eyeroll), "You can't get your document to print?  Move!" they exclaim as they situate themselves in front of your computer, tapping away.  "Fixed," they proclaim minutes later, expecting you to be in awe of their skill.  Sadly, you're more annoyed at their bedside manner or bewildered at being left in the dark, not knowing what they did, worried that it'll break again and you'll still be clueless to fix and have to once again subject yourself to the abuse.

But, in its best form, this is the rallying cry of someone who wants to partner with you, who wants to come alongside you and contribute to the outcome. They recognize your skillset and they're honored that you asked them participate with them in making magic.

When this happen, it can be fun.  You're going to get more insight, you're going to be able to better stress-test your idea, you're going to be able to solve in the context of the larger picture and in coordination with other efforts going on in your organization.

It takes more time and some people are hesitant to cede control or admit they haven't gotten it all figured out, but when you have the opportunity, be the one who says "I want to help." You'll be amazed at how quickly word gets around that you're someone who should be consulted and who can help get things done.

Cross-posted to LinkedIn.

Amazing Animations

I came across an email in my inbox from a year ago.  I had been looking up some examples of animation in mobile UI for some project.  I was surprised at how well these have held up - how great some of these animations still look.  For these first three, I only had the URLs for the images, not the pages they came from, sorry.

Plus, here's a whole gallery of great animated mobile UI.  Even after over a year, these still feel fresh and relevant and in some cases, futuristic (and not just because some project out of the device).

Free Idea for @Amazon or @Walmart or @Target

Right up front: I offer this idea up to anyone who wants it with no strings attached. (Though credit or a gift card would be nice if you do this and it makes you a ton of money.)

How do you get shoppers to buy on-list (and from your store) when the Baby Registry, Wedding Registry or Wish List is full of higher-priced items?

From time to time, you might encounter a Wish List with items that are just too rich for you. You want to get them a gift you know they'll like, but everything on their list is outside of your price range.

And it's not like you think they're being unreasonable... after all, you have good tastes yourself. A gift card doesn't feel like you put a lot of effort into your gift giving, but looking at that China Gravy Boat that matches their place-settings, the elaborate Stroller that will protect their baby from hurricane-force winds or the Alexa-enabled Universal Remote with Hub for the techie who's just moved to a small house - buying any one of those alone just seems like an overgift.

If you knew who else was invited to the Wedding or Baby Shower, or if you wanted to connect with a bunch of family members before the Birthday, maybe you could do a group gift. But you might not know people - and it's a lot of work, coordinating, collecting and trying not to judge the miser who feels compelled to participate but only throws in a few bucks but writes three paragraphs in the card.

And this is where technology can help.  Presenting Go-In-On.  You specify the dollar amount that you want to put towards a gift and you enter in a note. Others can see what's been pledged and add their own gift. Now, suddenly anyone can help buy that special gift.

Once the first gift is pledged, the clock starts ticking. Other Wish List visitors then have 30 days to fulfill the rest of the cost.  Once the total is met, the item ships along with the well-wishes of everyone who chipped in for the gift.

At the end of 30 days, if the total isn't met, the recipient receives a gift card along with an explanation that everyone pitched in towards the item. The gift card, of course, can be used for anything in the store, but maybe there's a brief discount to encourage the purchaser to buy the original item.  

#upgraded @pandora_radio - Share Email

I love Pandora.  I've been a listener for years.  I'd probably pay for a membership if I weren't scared I'd doom them.  It wasn't too long after I finally subscribed to LAUNCHcast (aka Yahoo! Music) that they closed that offering.

I heard a song the other day that I liked.  Lazy that I am, I just shared it with myself instead of writing it down.  Here's the email I got:

click to enlarge

Yep, that's it. Just some text.  The second line was the text I wrote in.   It could be so much better.

So, unsolicited, I took it upon myself to redesign the email.  Call it free consulting, or just a chance to be creative.

click to enlarge

Features of my revised email:

• Stronger Pandora branding
   
• A chance to connect with the person who sent you the song in the first place (their name is a link to their profile - that also lets you see what Pandora's all about)
   
• A clearer delineation between what came from Pandora's servers and what is user-generated-content -- black text in a white box -- helpful if the "friend" spams you or is in some other way abusive
   
• More content about the song.  Unfortunately, Pandora's licenses prevent On-Demand streaming, so you can't actually listen to the exact song you've clicked in to, but you can create a station of similar music (and eventually hear it) as well as other activities related to the song. This part of the email is a screen-grab from their existing profile for the song (the other option for sharing is a station) and shows you some of the power in Pandora's genome project and gives you additonal song choices)
   
• A more complete footer - information about Pandora to make it more CAN-SPAM compliant as well as additional important options missing from the previous version (the ability to report someone for using Pandora to send spam as well as the ability to block all future sharing if you just really hate music)

To be honest, this is a pretty basic Photoshop edit.  I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about responsive design, but their website and their emails are already designed to look good no matter the screen size, so by leveraging their existing design language for my proposed redesign, it probably would work without too much trouble.  (It's definitely wider than I would do if I were building it from scratch.)

(I was inspired by the person who redesigned the Twitter emails a few years ago - Twitter adopted their designs or took note of their suggestions.  Sadly, I can't find the post now.)

Idea: Billboard Printer

Google Maps

The other day, both of these billboards were empty as I drove by. Not even a "this billboard for rent" but just plain empty.

I began to think about how even as so many other things have been democratized, automated and made more accessible, as far as I know, billboards are still a very manual, very expensive prospect. 

I can't (again, as far as I know), go online, pull out a credit card, type in my message, upload some graphics, and see my billboard in a few hours.  But I should be able to.

Here's my proposal: A billboard printer.

At the top of the billboard, a roll of recyclable fabric.  At the bottom, an empty reel.  A motor that can roll the fabric either way.

Along the top edge, a  very large ink jet printer. (Hello, HP?)  Connected, of course, to a cellular data connection.  And some solar powers or an electrical connection.

You pay a base price for your ad and then you pay for each hour that it appears.  (Most likely new ads would be printed in the middle of the night.  Or, you can buy open hours same day at rush rates.)

Certain hours would cost more depending on traffic potential.  The further in advance you buy, the cheaper it is and the more likely you are to secure the timeslots you want.  Likewise, it's pretty cheap if you've already got an ad printed and there's open spaces same day.  

Somewhere along the way a combination of human and automated processing determines if an ad is appropriate to a particular locale.  And the full-service model (design and placement) exists for those who don't want to DIY.

Every so often the rolls are swapped out and washed, or the ink is designed to fade on its own after a certain amount of time.  (That would then need a camera to make sure the quality is still good.)

Anyhow, I'd love to patent this (if no one has already), but on the other hand, it would be cool enough to hear that someone liked it well enough to create a proof of concept.

New Product Idea: Glitter and Confetti Cannon

Our daughter went to a party recently and when my wife dropped her off, she didn't spot a lot of decoration. In the past, there have been some amazing theme parties.  Lori wasn't sure if she hadn't ventured far enough in the house or maybe the child had outgrown themed parties.

Or, I thought, maybe they just hadn't done it yet. Immediately I imagined a device that you would walk around with shooting stuff onto the walls. The flaws with such a product were immediately apparent, but it was fun to imagine anyhow. The only way it would work is if it were one of those bastardy-products - you know the type - not actually designed to be used, but simply designed to be sold. Once they have your money, they don't care. Not something you'll ever buy again, not something you'll even admit to your friends you bought, let alone warn them off from. It'd have to be sold at discount stores or places where people only shop infrequently, like party supply stores.  And it would have to work just well enough to deter people from demanding refunds.

If anyone makes such a product in the future, I wish for no credit whatsoever for this horrible idea. I promise that at least one of my future product ideas will be decent. (It involves billboards.)

Also, the similarities to Homer's make-up shotgun aren't lost on me.

Idea: Car Chase Channel

Back in college, we'd occasionally catch a car chase on TV, but they're pretty rare up here.  But my roommate was from California and he'd tell me the tales of the chases he'd seen.  When I moved to California after college, I got to see quite a few.  Eventually they made evasion a felony instead of a misdemeanor and it cut down on them.  That is a good thing, as thrilling as they are to watch, they're very dangerous.  Today, the car chases are broadcast over the internet and so Kevin will send me a Facebook message when there's one on so I can watch it, but after two decades, that's all we have? Internet? The chases are usually accompanied by the audio of a helicopter pilot talking to himself or to other pilots (so we only hear half the conversation) or by babbling news anchors who add almost nothing as they argue with each other and the pilot all the while asking repeatedly "where are they now?"

Way back in college my roommate and I imagined a cable network dedicated to car chases.  It would need to be a careful balance - provide entertainment to the viewers without glorifying the criminal. You want to make the most of the ones that occur but certainly not encourage people to do it for the fame.

For awhile there Fox had a dreadful show.  It was was scripted, full of fake sound effects and while the off-screen voiceovers did paint the runner in a negative light, it was so over the top that eventually all of the viewers of the show learned to watch it with the sound muted.

But I've never understood why no L.A. station bothered to differentiate itself by adding useful information that would make the broadcast more interesting and informative while taking advantage of modern advances in design, mapping, video games, etc.

To that end, I present a quick idea I hacked together.  (When did Photoshop get so complicated and counter intuitive?)

click to enlarge

The Sift (Aug. 1, 2014)

Happy Friday - here's 5 articles that I thought were cool.

ENGADGET -- A 1,000-foot high wall might be the key to saving the midwest from tornados - Darn it, I knew I should have copyrighted that idea when I had it years ago.

HOUZZ -- How to Add a Backyard Shed for Storage or Living - just so we're clear, internet, I still haven't forgiven you for not telling me about this site sooner

KITEBRICKS -- Kite Bricks - they call it a new way to build, but I was creating buildings and space ships and cars when I was a kid. In fact, wasn't there a movie about this kind of building process earlier this year? (Oh.. wait.. these are full size Legos? Well, then that's completely different.) Either way, this is interesting - very little waste and probably a very fast method of construction. Check out the video.


SETH GODIN -- When in doubt, re-read rule one - hint: rule 1 is the customer is always right. It's a little myopic (he probably doesn't read Not Always Right but it's still a good thought.

BAKER -- Case Study: Wrigley 5 Gum - as a fan of this gum, I thought this was a really cool read - how they took it from ideation to execution, complete with a progression of designs and themes.

Themed Party: Woodland Explorers

My wife enjoys hosting, planning parties and creating elaborate themes. She's really creative, often with some really tricky constraints, such as:

• It's a party for children who won't notice all the hard work and effort. 
• There's not a lot of time to plan. 
• There's no budget.

So... don't kill yourself going overboard. (Don't get Lori started on some of the "1st. Birthday" boards she found on Pinterest. Or do get her started, it could be an amusing post on her blog.)

Here's a recent party she put together for our daughter's birthday. By planning ahead, she was able to use the theme for both a family party and a friends party and we actually still have the 15+ foot tall tree in our dining room.

First, it started with a theme. Rachel and Lori have been reading through Red Wall. Rachel's been re-enacting scenes with her stuffed animals and beginning to write her own stories featuring the characters or characters of her own creation. To make the theme more approachable to children who didn't know Red Wall, they simplified to a more general "Woodland Explorer" theme.

An @Amazon Horror Story

Driving home from our date last night in Seattle, we looked at the Amazon building up on the hill and we joked as we always did about how someone needs to film a horror movie there.

from seattletimes.com

And I was struck with an idea... what if there was a horror film, but it took place at Amazon? What if there was a basement dark basement fulfillment warehouse with narrow, dusty shelves of creepy books, kitchen knives and the shelves themselves were robots that could move around and so the walls were constantly shifting.  At one point they think they've escape the building only to be chased by killer Amazon flying drones.

Someone want to write that?

The Place Where We are Right

The Place Where We are Right 

From the place where we are rightFlowers will never growIn the spring. 

The place where we are rightIs hard and trampledLike a yard. 

But doubts and lovesDig up the worldLike a mole, a plow.And a whisper will be heard in the placeWhere the ruinedHouse once stood 

Yehuda Amichai

I heard the first two lines of this the other day and went and searched it out. I like it. I just picture a guy standing on a concrete patio watching his neighbors digging in their dirt, their back to him. He's looking smug and proud of himself, condescending at them, a woman and her daughter, dirt-stained, backs bent, sweating in the sun, doing something in the dirt.

What he can't see is that they are planting flowers, that in time he will be able to enjoy even as he enjoys his ugly gray concrete slab.

I'm sure the poem is a lot more than that but I just like the notion that we have to be willing to be wrong, to be willing to be open to new ideas.

Fighting the Gray Cube Walls (A Work-Related Post)

One of my co-workers went on vacation right after Christmas so her decorations stayed up a little longer than most. Another co-worker looked at the wrapping paper, observed that it would be good for Valentine's Day and that she had an idea, could she use the space?

So she made a sign

A little envelope, a pen and some cut-out hearts and we're off...

And what do we think love is?

Our office is full of gray walls. And when something does go up on the wall, it had some meaning to someone at the time it was added, but sadly, stuff will stay there two or three years and never be updated.

This was timely, fun and I'm sure it'll be gone before too long. There wasn't as many as I would have expected, but serious kudos to my co-workers for making something fun and challenging us to be creative.

What kinds of ways could you liven up your office?

Missed Opportunity @Amazon: Authors and Artists

Over the past 14 years, I've purchased quite a few books and CDs from Amazon.  But I've never gotten an email from Jamie Oliver or Martha Stewart or Martina McBride (some of these were gifts).

That seems like a huge missed opportunity.  I don't mean a generic email from Amazon telling me that so-and-so has a new book or CD out, but right after I purchase, why not an email inviting me to join their fan club on Amazon and their mailing list through Amazon.  Does Amazon even have fan clubs on its site?  Even if it's just an enhanced author/artist page curated by the artist or their management, you'd think anything that gets people to come back to Amazon on a regular basis, even when they're not specifically intending to purchase, would be a good way to (let's face it) sell more.

Free Idea: Clothes Saver

Those security tags they put on clothes are getting smaller and smaller. To the point where you could wear one on a piece of clothing without noticing it.

And that got me thinking:

Lori has certain articles of clothing that aren't supposed to go in the dryer. And since I do the laundry, I often put them in the dryer. My system is about a constant repeatable process, it's not so good with exceptions and caveats.

So, what if:

Yay, it's that time of year again!

Grab some coffee, pull up a chair. It's time for the 2013 Bulwer-Lytton awards! Similar to the idea of "Don't Make Me Think" requiring lots of thought, here are some great examples of people who have worked really, really hard to produce some brilliant, albeit bad, writing. Much like this blog, but in a much more condensed and entertaining format.

This was a very easy mystery for me to solve, so I never considered putting it in a story until I was telling some friends about it, and I realized the average person, such as yourself, has trouble figuring it out, although it is really laughably simple. — Thor F. Carden, Madison, TN

On to the awards!

Review: Gamestorming

Gamestorming by Dave Grey, Sunni Brown and James Macanufo

Gamestorming is a handbook for icebreaking, brainstorming and strategizing. It describes a process that begins with an "open," one or more "exploration" phases and then a "close."

With an "open" you set the stage, you define what is, you start getting the creative juices flowing.  "Exploration" does just that - dig into concepts, look at them in a new way, prioritize. And then in the "close" phase you try to bring it back home - synthesize learnings, create action items, make conclusions.

And then the book is filled with games to you can use. There are ones I've participated in before and ones I hadn't seen before. Some I want to try and some I'm not so excited about. There's also a section on questions you can ask to focus or reframe when you get stuck, ways to see patterns and construct or deconstruct ideas and even a section on sketching because they say it's crucial to your success in leading these games, to be comfortable sketching in front of a group. (Or at the very least, sketching in light pencil ahead of time and then going back over it with a thicker Sharpie in front of the participants.)