The Chris Motes Blog

Birthday Present

Vietnamese
Originally uploaded by Chris Motes

A gift to myself on my 3rd multiple of 12.

Nothing beats a bowl of bun!

A New Era Of Commuting At Yahoo!

Dovre
Originally uploaded by Chris Motes

The new Yahoo! Shuttle routes stop right in front of the Dovre Club at 26th and Valencia.

The After Work Beer has returned.

Wassup Obama?

Gas Prices Down... SUV here I come

Gas prices have really dropped a lot recently. Median price is $2.44 in Oklahoma, and around $3.27 in my own California.

So instead of grinding my teeth and wailing when I visit the pump... now I just whine a little.

And now my model rationalizing the purchase of a Honda Prius isn't looking so good.

Higher gas prices gave me strong incentives to be more clean/green. Lower gas prices may change my behavior... although the sting of those $4.50/gallon fill-ups will be hard to forget.

Product Management: The Dreaded Phase 2

Beware of Phase 2.

Phase 2 of a project often consists of all the stuff you didn't get to in Phase 1.

If a feature wasn't important enough to get into Phase 1... do you really need it?

If a feature was important enough for Phase 1... why didn't you get it into Phase 1?

PMs often charge ahead on Phase 2 while ignoring real user data and feedback on the Phase 1 product (assuming something got into the hands of users in Phase 1).

Stop. Take a deep breath. If you've got a Phase 1 product in user's hands... look at real data and get feedback. Talk to users. Build your next rev out of that.

If the product is good enough as is, and the product is not a differentiator for you... cancel Phase 2 and move on to something else.

Two Painful Closures

Mother's Cookies has closed down.

So did Noe Valley Video.

Buffet Buying Stocks

Great article by Warren Buffet in the NYT.

"A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. "

A Day Of Air Traffic Visualized

Worldwide commercial flights over a day.
Air Traffic Worldwide 24HR from kouko a on Vimeo.

Iceland Trading At A 52-Week Low

Focus in the U.S. markets is on the U.S. markets.

Take a look at Iceland though... that country is in deep economic trouble.

When I was in Iceland one feature stuck out to me: there are no trees. Didn't see anything more than a shrub.

I learned later in Jared Diamond's Collapse that there used to be lots of trees but the Norse deforested it. The whole society nearly failed. They went through some hard times to recover their environment. But they made it through, and turned themselves into one of the most wealthy countries in the world.

Hundreds of years later, the government just nationalized their banks. The Krona is tumbling. The country needs a big infusion of cash to avoid bankruptcy. Seems like Iceland is in a much worse financial position than the U.S.

They've seen themselves through worse adversity before though. Hopefully we'll learn more about Icelandic tenacity.

Interesting to note that Warren Buffet could probably bail out the entire country himself.

The Theme Of The 2008 Presidential Campaigns

Change. We need it. The big theme of the 2008 campaigns has been change. But recently the theme seems less about change... and more about ignorance. As in preying on ignorance, tolerating ignorance, and encouraging ignorance. I've heard some really dumb ass things recently. Here are a few:
1) Palin Can't Name A Newspaper

2) People think Obama is a Terrorist

Because Sarah Palin alluded that he was

3) "He's An Arab"

I've read enough to learn that the premises of these videos are completely ridiculous (and I know of many newspapers, like The Wall Street Times...OMG). But presidential campaigns seem to be built on the premise that a lot of voters are totally ignorant, and they'll believe a bunch of sound byte / emotional response crap like this. So while I wince at comments like "he associates with terrorists" or "he'll negotiate directly with Ahmadinejad at the presidential level without precondition"... other people are nodding their heads.

They nodded their heads in the 2004 election won by a campaign of sound bytes: terrorism, freedom, war, our enemies, threat level orange, etc. To that I want to say: Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice... well, just don't go foolin people, it's bad.

I want people to question their assumptions. I want them to read the NYT. I want them to not believe every email forward they get I want them to not believe every sound byte they hear on TV. But they (we) need a little help.

It could start with the candidates by not spewing out all this mindless BS at their people. Be real. Be specific. Answer the question (Obama that includes you - nice dodge on last question of debate 2). Teach people what a pre-condition is. Show them where Iran is on the map. Don't pick VP candidates based on how good looking they are. Act like leaders. Inform us. Teach us. Inspire us.

We need change. Campaigns should start it.