Jason Black at SXSW from Diverge Communications on Vimeo.
I just would like to draw these two quotes from this edited lecture:
- (8:20) “you gotta overcommunicate, you gotta bring your team in and show them where they fit within the food chain”
- (11:35) “if you feel like you have to have a lot of people in a meeting it says there’s not a clear accountability and ownership”
And on a related note i would like to point you to W. E. Peterson’s (now online) book Almost Perfect about his time at WordPerfect. I think he closes with a very pinpoint accurate summary:
If you read this book hoping to learn more about running a business, then I hope you noted the parts about teaching correct principles and allowing employees to govern themselves. In spite of the problems I had understanding and implementing this philosophy, I am convinced it is the best way to run a business. In today’s competitive environment, businesses can no longer afford the overhead of one supervisor for every five or six employees. As organizations flatten and supervision decreases, employees will make more decisions on their own and govern themselves much more than they have in the past. If a company is to function effectively, its employees must have a good understanding of what is expected of them. Very small organizations may be able to find success without defining and teaching correct principles, but any business with more than 25 or 30 people must get organized.
George Fan, Lead Designer of Plants vs. Zombies in an interview:
… regarding the plant cards on the top border of the screen with respect to all WOW players who are used to have their skill buttons at the bottom …
To the extent that it’s actually quite surprising that you didn’t put them at the bottom of the screen just so it would drive it home that that’s the way that you interact with them.
Yeah… [pauses] I don’t know why. That’s a good point. I don’t know why they’re not at the bottom of the screen [laughs]. I think we just put them up top and no one complained. I never thought to rework that. We actually had a little bit of a problem with getting the sun to fall from the top behind or in front of the… Okay, well if there’s a sequel we’ll change it. Thanks for that suggestion!
It’s simple, really … Windows puts the taskbar at the bottom ever since ’95.
So putting essential buttons on the bottom of the screen may just be following a Microsoft standard the wrong way (the Windows taskbar contains non-essential elements) … or id Software’s for that matter – remember Doom?
I say topmost buttons work best if they’re essential and used often (such as a program’s menu for example) … it feels more natural if that’s the main way to interact or if they are elements you need to focus on. Most likely because humans (and possibly Zombies, too) “read” from top to bottom … so i like that they’ve put them at the top in Plants vs Zombies. World of Warcraft isn’t necessarily wrong though – consider that WoW is a 3D world game where most of the interesting game elements reside in the bottom half of the screen (on the floor). So it makes more sense for them to have the action buttons at the bottom.
Needless to say my Windows taskbar is at the top ever since ’95 … but that’s just me being non-conformist. 
I also keep a lot of essential elements up there … maybe too many for some. That’s just me not wanting to use the Start menu.
If something is broken, you might be inclined to fix it. Having the chance to do so (time, money, resources) may seem like a perfect opportunity to implement fixes and execute changes.
However, sometimes it’s easier just to switch horses where you don’t have to fix any of the things that need fixing. Some of which may not even be (easily) fixable. This is especially hard to assess when it involves people and processes. But it becomes easy when you think about how likely people change, which in turn need to change in order to change processes changing more people along the way. Meaning: change is slow and it fights back. I know that from my own experience. It’s an ongoing everlasting struggle.
So why go through an excrutiatingly painful change process in the first place? You need a certain momentum to overcome friction that keeps you in place. To get the literal ball rolling. This momentum can be a shocking event or an unexpected opportunity or simply looking beyond one’s own nose, to see what else is there.
But this is also why some people tend to ditch their partners all too easily while others hang on to a bad relationship for way too long. You’ll have to find the right balance. And life, after all, is a game of balance. Yeah, and sometimes life just sucks and you can’t turn her off. Let alone turn her on. Now balance that!
Changing technology, coding styles, how you approach work, improving meeting discipline – well that should be easy. But in fact, it’s not. People resist change at all levels and they would only agree to so much risk that it really doesn’t make a difference. Imagine, for example, how terrible would you feel about poking a needle into the tip of your finger to draw blood from it? Diabetics do this regularly, once a day or so. I tried … and i tried … and it hurt even thinking about doing it within the next fraction of a second so that i resisted to poke the needle into my finger. But when you get used to it, it becomes second nature and nothing to be afraid about. I know, i’ve had to needle-pinch my tummy once a day after an operation for weeks. It’s harmless, really.
It only hurts if you don’t do it at all which just helps to prolong your agony and anticipation of pain. And it even hurts a lot more if you do it but you’re doing it wrong. At which point you’ll resist it even more and come up with rationalizations. You know, the kind that kinda make sense except they don’t.
Change is inevitable.
But tell that to a human being and he’ll pinch you in da face.
It’s late and i really shouldn’t blabber on so incoherently. Somewhere there’s a good thought or two but i couldn’t make it a point.
Hi And Welcome!
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