On productivity

February 18, 2011


At night, when all that’s heard is our whining dog and Kerrie’s tapping on the iPad, I am at my most productive. I sit at the dinner table and marvel at my mobile office, my laptop, my notebook, my cup of tea. It’s all right there, right? Like magic. Like magical magic. Sometimes, when I’m feeling masochistic, I still smile at the novelty of having work so important that it requires an extra hour of my time.

Wait. No.

In the morning, early, when all that’s heard is the hum of fans and the occasional vehicle moving over wet cement, I am at my most productive. I’m in the office, and I’m the only one there. It’s 5 am, sure. And 5 am is usually pretty stupid. But it’s also the one chance I get to pack in two or three hours I didn’t have before. I drink some coffee. I cancel out that fan hum with some radio. I hammer out some weird deliverable that, ten years ago, I never knew even existed.

Hold on.

For a few hours each day, after the clerical tidying up, but before the afternoon chat session, I throw in my headphones and listen to music. Just loud enough to drown everything out. Just quiet enough to still be able to think. Pushed to the limit of deadline, I am at my most productive. And, unfortunately, at my most hipster-ish. That’s when Animal Collective and LCD Soundsystem come out. When I want music I can still think with. Music that helps me grow my ironic moustache.

Well, this is weird.

Because, outside of those couple of hipster-fueled musical hours, I never once said “I am at my most productive during business hours.” And, if you’re disagreeing with that notion, you’re wrong.

Sorry. You’re dead wrong.

Wait, what? No. Stop. I never said “I don’t get work done during business hours.” It’s just that, well, the work is different.

I know we need the basic structure. We need the workday. There’s a necessity in having everyone in the same place at the same time, working on the same things. I don’t even really find it work, to tell you the truth, which is kind of a snotty way of saying “my job is better than yours.” A billion advances in technology haven’t replaced the effectiveness of face-to-face discussion.

But it’s funny how many things at work, during working hours, with working colleagues and working clients, prevent us from working at our most productive. Meetings and conference calls and emails and all of those things that Merlin Mann somehow made a career out of shunning. Which makes it difficult to determine whether it’s a case of being LESS productive at work or being MORE productive in off hours.

Who can I blame for this? Probably Obama, huh?

Tags: Career |

2 Comments

Adoration is not a commodity

February 10, 2011


Let’s talk for a second about what’s expected of us when something great happens to someone we know.

For background, I present Mike Greenberg, co-host of Mike and Mike in the Morning on ESPN Radio.

Greenberg, who tends to take offense at everything, wondered aloud why, after Green Bay’s Super Bowl win, Brett Favre hadn’t bothered to call and offer congratulations, specifically to Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

To which I wonder aloud, “Why should he?”

Why does a player need to call his former team to offer congratulations? He had nothing to do with this current incarnation. He has no connection other than a playing history. With that argument in mind, why didn’t Ron Jaworski call Aaron Rodgers? Or Mark Chmura? Sterling Sharpe?

When you win the Super Bowl, or the World Series, or the NBA Finals, or any individual sporting event, there are certain expectations when it comes to congratulations. You get a call from dignitaries, and from the commissioner, and from friends you haven’t talked to in years and will never talk to again.

The problem: when it becomes expected, it no longer means anything.

If I suddenly turn around and win the French Open, I expect a call from the President. If I don’t get it, I’ll be disappointed.

“Why didn’t he call me?”

Because he didn’t HAVE to. Support and joy don’t need to be VOICED to be TRUE. And relationships don’t need to be conjured in the name of success.

Brett Favre didn’t say “congrats” because he didn’t want to. He doesn’t have a relationship with Aaron Rodgers. He played for a division rival last season. He feels wronged. He is his own person. It doesn’t matter why.

Let’s stop pretending like adoration is a commodity.

Tags: Annoyances, Football, Sports |

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Where’s My Jetpack goes on hiatus. Damn it.

February 4, 2011


I don’t really read marketing and advertising blogs anymore because I don’t really like marketing and advertising blogs. They are filled with banal “commentary,” synergistically leveraging a choice brand package of marketing buzzwords, or they just suck. It’s the advertising industry, and NATURALLY most commentary-based advertising blogs are built to either secure jobs or promote agencies. Or both.

So when one of the good ones decides to close up shop, well, I mean, that sucks.

From Where’s My Jetpack, “Post Number 2000:”

I’ve tried to make this blog more about quality than quantity. It has been for me, above all, a creative outlet, because we all know how hard it is to actually be creative, even in a supposedly creative industry. (As I tell every “creative,” keep a real creative passion on the side just to keep you sane, because you will never fully satisfy your need to create through your work.)

And with that, I’m putting this blog on indefinite hiatus.

I love Dave’s blog because I love it when people call advertising’s bluff. I love it EVEN MORE when that bluff-calling is both accurate and confident. It’s rare to find someone that’s part of the industry without being tied to it and seeking justification for some of advertising’s biggest problems.

Where’s My Jetpack is/was a smarter marketing/advertising blog than most, and he’s a smarter marketing/advertising guy than most I’ve ever met. That he isn’t getting job offers by the boatload proves a lot about how I feel about the advertising complex: namely, that it still doesn’t understand what it’s looking for. The notion of being safe rules the industry. Where’s My Jetpack is/was a beacon in that sea of safeness.

Good luck, Jetpacks. May you return to my RSS sooner than later.

Tags: Advertising and Marketing, Blogging, Random Links |

1 Comment

Web-based driveway moments

January 31, 2011


Let’s make this quick.

You know those times when you’re driving and listening to something SO GOOD that, when you arrive home, you pull up into the driveway and sit there. Waiting for it to finish. Waiting. Listening. Enjoying.

That’s called a “Driveway Moment.” NPR may have created the term, but even if they haven’t the term has become theirs, signifying a story or program that is so riveting it can’t be turned off.

We need more of them.

Specifically, we need them on our websites. And, ultimately, isn’t that what we as content strategists are asked to do? To create narratives and stories and communication that people can’t rip themselves away from?

Think of THAT the next time you’re presented with a mile of weasel words. Make them better. Write something worthwhile and readable and awesome. Create some driveway moments.

Tags: Content Strategy, Web |

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Over-security questions

January 28, 2011


Hey, let’s not get the idea that I only think about web passwords, because I don’t, despite this being the second consecutive blog post about web passwords.

But, you know, sometimes companies do it wrong.

Background: I sometimes forget passwords, especially those connected to sites I rarely visit. When that happens, I usually just click the “retrieve password” link. That’s what you do. That’s just how it’s done.

Often, password retrieval is a simple process. They send a message to the email associated with the account, and you click the link, and you reset the password, and then you get into your account, and hooray!

Perfect. Especially if you’re the only person with your email password. And ESPECIALLY if you’ve taken time to make a good email password, because that’s an ACTUAL account that deserves major protection, and one you should rarely forget because it’s YOUR EMAIL and there’s a good chance you have to enter the password every two days.

Other times, you’re required to answer a “security question” before getting your magic email. Such as “What is your dad’s middle name?” or “What is your waist size?” or “What did you drink the last time you threw up?” One question. Then, you get your password.

This is common with sites that need a lot of extra protection. Banks. Credit cards. Airline mile programs.

NO SERIOUSLY. Airline mile programs.

Enter Delta.

As with any airline-related web property, Delta’s site is bogged down with extraneous security and over-written drivel. It’s like one of those collections of legal books you see behind most personal injury lawyers has BLOWN UP and reanimated itself as a website.

I forgot my airline mile password, because I usually don’t care about my airline miles. I hopped in to reset my password and was greeted by a new step: selecting security questions.

Security questions are designed to offer security via a person’s history. The assumption is that the answers are known only by the person accessing the website, and are therefore more secure than an address or zip code or whatever. Also, they’re easier to REMEMBER, because they are a part of our personal history.

Delta, however, attempted to make this process as difficult as possible.

First, I had to select TWO security questions.

Security image number one

Answers must be AT LEAST 4 CHARACTERS LONG, for some reason. Also, let me remind you, I was logging in to check airline miles. Miles that I can only use as Corey Vilhauer. Miles that do not need to be double protected, because they are useless unless I have a hundred thousand of them. Which I don’t.

Whatever, though. I chose the first one (“What is your father’s middle name?”). Then, I tried to choose the second. And I couldn’t.

Security image number two

I couldn’t because I was unable to nail down definitive answers to any of the remaining questions.

Understanding that these are security questions, I needed to be fully sure that the answer I gave then was an answer that can be replicated later on. The problem is, I couldn’t guarantee I’d be able to do that.

None of the questions related to DEFINITIVE answers:

1. What was your first phone number? Do I enter with dashes or without? With or without area code? Will I remember which one I did six months from now?
2. What is your paternal grandmother’s given name? I couldn’t remember this at the time. I know it now, but that wouldn’t have helped much.
3. What was your favorite place to visit as a child? I had several. How will I remember which one?
4. What is the name of your first pet? We had a dog and two cats growing up. I don’t remember which was my first, and I sure won’t remember which one I chose six months from now.
5. Where did you meet your spouse/partner? We went to high school together. Will I remember if I say “high school” or will I assume it’s something more detailed, like “biology class?”
6. What is the name of your childhood best friend? I had three very close friends. Which one will I choose?
7. What is the phone number you remember most from your childhood? Is this even a real question?

I decided to choose the last one (“What is the name of the first school you attended?”) Even then, I knew I wouldn’t remember if I answered “Lincoln High” or “Lincoln High School” or “Lincoln.”

Security item number three.

Which brings us to the last issue. The only question I could definitively answer, I COULDN’T ACTUALLY USE.

My father’s middle name is “Lee.” Three letters.

Disqualified.

Why can’t this have been easier?

In issues of security, definitive answers are required. These wishy-washy security questions are unusable and frustrating, and the character limit for answers is misguided.

The solution is to allow a user to create BOTH the question and the answer. In my case, I could have said “Full Name of High School” and the answer would have been “Lincoln High School.” No ambiguity. I make the rules.

Instead, I fell back to a makeshift solution: I wrote the answers on a piece of paper.

Pretty safe, huh?

Tags: Annoyances, Content Strategy, Travel, Web |

3 Comments

The usability gap

January 27, 2011


If there’s one thing that last month’s Gawker password leak reminded us, it’s that no password is safe, regardless of how often you use it. The answer is to create stronger passwords. Cryptic passwords. And use different passwords for every site.

But, seriously, how many passwords can YOU remember at once?

There’s a difficult balance between creating passwords we can remember – as in, passwords we can remember in our heads without writing them down on a piece of paper – and being safe consumers.

The answer for expert users is a password manager like 1password or KeePass. But my grandmother doesn’t use password managers. She does one of two things: she allows the browser to save it, or she writes it down on a piece of paper.

Neither is optimal (browser caches clear, paper isn’t secure), but the art of creating and – more importantly – remembering passwords is not designed to be optimal.

And herein lies the problem with technology: the chasm between need and familiarity.

My grandmother uses sites that have passwords. So does my father-in-law. Neither can remember those passwords, so they both have scraps of paper with all of the passwords written down.

They both need a password solution, but neither has the time – or the desire – to learn not only the ins and outs of a password manager, but also the conventions that led to the password manager’s interface.

By writing down their passwords, both my grandmother and father-in-law are undoubtedly putting themselves MORE at risk than if they would use a password manager.

This is one of probably a billion and a half examples of the difficulty in developing usable sites, applications and programs, and it’s an example that will never go away. Because as the population adapts to new technology, that technology changes, assuring that there will always be a group that’s behind the curve.

That group – in need of a solution that they may never understand – will keep usability experts busy. Frustrated, but busy.

Job security, amirite?

Tags: Content Strategy, Web |

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P.O.S., “Why Go?” – 8.20.09

January 22, 2011


I was going to simply say this was COOL and that everyone should listen to it, which, in a way, I guess I’m doing right now.

But then I tried to open WordPress to create a post and Sierra yelled at me.

Because, apparently, SHE wasn’t done watching the video, and she desperately wanted to finish it, despite not having any idea who P.O.S. is, and despite being negative seventeen years old when Pearl Jam’s Ten was released.

So I let her finish watching it. And then, she wanted to watch it again. So we did. Three more times.

Sierra watching POS

Kid tested, parent approved.

(Hat-tip to Dave at When I Look at the World.)

Tags: Music, Music Video, Random YouTube |

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