iteration Archives - Page 2 of 2

When technology makes you obsolete

Posted on March 12, 2010 by Steve Sammartino

I once heard an interview with drummer Rob Hirst from the rock band Midnight Oil. It was in reference to one of their most critically acclaimed and best selling song, Power and the passion. Rob was asked about the infamous drum solo in the middle of the song, which not only doesn’t sound indulgent, but fits the rhythm and meaning of the song. What I find most interesting from an entrepreneurial perspective is how it all came about, this is what Rob had to say:

“It was 1982 and drum machines were entering the music scene and replacing drummers very quickly. They were cheaper and more reliable. It was a time when drummers were throwing themselves off cliff tops. Rather than fear the technological advancement, I thought it might be better to embrace it. I wondered how I could use it to supplement what I was already doing to make it better. So for the Power and the Passion, I decided to have a drum machine playing in the background on the entire track. By doing this it freed up my arms and legs to add some color to the song, and ultimately allowed for the drum solo which is often sited as the catalyst that makes the song so great.”

The story above is one for all the Luddites out there. for the technology fear mongers, and those who worry about being replaced. The truth is, we should be happy when technology replaces labour for the simple reason that it opens the door to creativity. It opens the door to opportunity, for a better use of our time and resources.

You can watch / listen the drum solo at 2.35 minutes on the clip below. Be sure to listen for the drum machine track quietly providing the beat underneath.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKB60_vTIO0]

PS – the smashing sound at the end of the solo is a florescent light tube Rob brought into the studio for a dramatic industrial effect, not a pane of glass. Awesome.

Feature Creep

Posted on November 11, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

The art of adding features to any product or service is this:

Those who need or want the new features can find them easy.

Meanwhile those who don’t need or want the features don’t even notice them. They are invisible.

Sounds impossible to do, but I think the team at twitter are doing a pretty good job of it. The way I’d try and achieve this would be by making sure the visual structure doesn’t change, and the sequence of events to use it is not interrupted.

shhh – here comes the controversy.

Twitter Lists – inauthentic

Posted on October 30, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

If you’re on twitter you have probably noticed the new addition of lists to your feed. Which is the ability to create and follow lists of specific people. Cool idea, which many twitter clients like Tweetdeck had implemented a long time ago. What is not so cool, is the inference that it is purported to only be available to a limited group. If you look at the screen grab below (highlight in orange boxes) you’ll see such claims.

I understand why they’ve used such language; to make users feel exclusive, and to essentially make people tweet about it – the antithesis of what they claim to want. But I’m a bit disappointed that the crew at twitter would use such low ball, inauthentic tactics. I say this because everyone I know with 10 to 10,000 followers has been invited to lists.

Startup blog says – stay true.

Usability defined

Posted on September 2, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

If you want to know what a true consumer insight looks like. What it is to have the ‘user in mind’, then take a look at this picture below. It’s one of the simplest and best innovations I’ve seen in a while. The key question is this:

‘Why did it take the industry more than 100 years to think of it?’

electric plug

Startups: What simple user centric innovations are waiting to happen in your industry?

the power of doing

Posted on May 25, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

Tonight I went to see Christan Lander the super funny author of popular blog, now book ‘stuff white people like’ talk at local bookstore Readings in Melbourne. Firstly, he is a such a perceptive and funny guy, he deserves all the success his meteoric rise has given. Secondly, I was a little like a teenage school girl when I met him after the show (this will make sense when you watch the video below)

The power of doing

Tonight Christian spoke about how the whole thing happened. You may not know but the blog was launched in January 2008 and was a book only 6 months later, with a reported advance of $300,000 from publisher random house.

Luck?

No – doing.

He had the idea, and didn’t stew on it, tell friends and think about it. He did. He wrote and couldn’t stop putting all his ideas down for days on end. He said he wrote 24 entries in the first sitting and published them straight away. No editing, no moderating. Just doing. After that he shared it with all his friends (granted this thing was bound to go viral because it was remarkably funny and observant). Christian’s success happened because he did it. He seized the opportunity to make it happen. He went beyond idea.

Now for the star struck teenager (aka Steve Sammartino)

After the official stuff I had a chat with Christian and was so excited didn’t really let him speak. Instead I just went about proving how white I was…. sorry, I was very star struck and was feeling some ‘Bromance’ for him (I wonder if that is a blog entry yet on Stuff white people like?)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B07hqN6t6c]