Ahh, the Suburbs
I thought this was hilarious... From Paul Graham's Why Nerds are Unpopular essay
If I could go back and give my thirteen year old self some advice, the main thing I'd tell him would be to stick his head up and look around. I didn't really grasp it at the time, but the whole world we lived in was as fake as a Twinkie. Not just school, but the entire town. Why do people move to suburbia? To have kids! So no wonder it seemed boring and sterile. The whole place was a giant nursery, an artificial town created explicitly for the purpose of breeding children
Where I grew up, it felt as if there was nowhere to go, and nothing to do. This was no accident. Suburbs are deliberately designed to exclude the outside world, because it contains things that could endanger children.
And as for the schools, they were just holding pens within this fake world. Officially the purpose of schools is to teach kids. In fact their primary purpose is to keep kids locked up in one place for a big chunk of the day so adults can get things done. And I have no problem with this: in a specialized industrial society, it would be a disaster to have kids running around loose.
What bothers me is not that the kids are kept in prisons, but that (a) they aren't told about it, and (b) the prisons are run mostly by the inmates. Kids are sent off to spend six years memorizing meaningless facts in a world ruled by a caste of giants who run after an oblong brown ball, as if this were the most natural thing in the world. And if they balk at this surreal cocktail, they're called misfits.
Customer Service
I entitle this post "Customer Service" because I have learned a lot about how to treat your "customers" in the last few weeks. I've found that the best way to learn how to treat your customers is just by watching my grandparents. Yeah, who woulda thought? I spend the night at their house almost every week when I'm down in Mountain View, so I see them quite a bit. There have been a few things that I have learned:
#1) Cold Mornings
I was freezing one morning so I [jokingly] said I felt like I woke up on the top of a ski resort because it was so damn cold. The next time I was there, I woke up and apparently they had hired the guys that supply oil to heat hell or something; I was burning -- It was great!!
#2) Jalapeno Bagel
Every morning when I wake up, they make me breakfast. One morning I mentioned how much the Jalapeno bagels at Noah's Bagels RULE (they really do). So I woke up the other morning and a Jalapeno bagel from Noah's Bagels magically appeared on my plate. At first I didn't believe it, so I looked again. Yeah, it really was a Jalapeno bagel from Noah's. This is really great service... I think I'll stay at this place again! :D
#3) DSL
They were stuck in the stone ages for... ever... So they've finally gotten DSL after I suggested it would be easier to get work done if they paid an extra $5 a month for a connection that is 2,000,000,000,000 times faster. :p
So how does any of this apply to customer service? Well, your customers are your business; you are only as strong as your "weakest" customer (people tend to tell more people how much they hate a certain product rather than one they would recommend). For my grandparents, they want happy grandkids. Grandkids make a suggestion, grandparents figure out how to please them (too bad parents aren't like that).
This completely applies to founding a startup. For the past few months, I have been asking tons of people to give me suggestions on how to make *********** better (will announce this in the next few months). And guess what? It's paid off. I could have never built a product to where it is today, there have been tons of people that have helped me make it better. They say 1 can take an army of 10, and 2 an army of 100. What about 3? 4? 5? When you involve your end user (the customer) in the building/evolution of a product, you are almost sure to have a better product that will appeal to more people. Which means: sells more, sells faster, has more potential to be...
"the next big thing"
:)
This one time, at band camp
American Pie marathon!!!
We're watching American Pie through American Wedding right now; this is so chill. I haven't been this laid back in months... Anyways, this is my first time watching any of these movies, and so far American Pie is freakin GREAT :D.
I haven't written anything about Mark Cuban in a while cause he's been stuck on YouTube -- I'm actually kind of getting tired of it... But I don't care, he's still my idol.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!