jaacob.com

I keep thinking I’m going to wake up and it’ll be 85° outside, nearly 90°+ in the car, even though it’s November. I remember walking down the street 10 days before Christmas in Austin, wearing a sweater even though I didn’t really need it, just wishing it would get colder.

Here in Portland, it’s shifted so drastically from autumn to winter that it still feels silly putting on the big heavy coat - until I get outside and feel the sharp sting of the wind against my face. The leaves on the trees outside our third floor window have transformed from green to gone within 4 weeks, but it feels like 5 minutes.

The snow gods appear to be blessing the local mountains with a great season - after everything I’ve heard about last season (which was supposedly awful), I’m just hoping that we have enough fun so the girl will love snowboarding (and snow in general) as much as I do. She hasn’t seen more than an inch on the ground in her life, and yet here we are discussing where to buy snow chains from. It’s all a bit surreal, but I think we’ve found a city where we really feel at home.

The girl and I just got back from the Portland Ski/Snowboard Expo, where we snapped up the remaining pieces of gear we needed and our season passes. I’ve been grinning like an idiot the whole day, stoked for the snow to fall and the season to start.

Hopefully it’s just like riding a bike…

I’ve been fascinated for years by people skilled enough to transform their surroundings into whatever they can imagine. Years ago, this type of information was so sporadically disseminated, but now thanks to Tim O’Reilly we can all enjoy MAKE Magazine.

Found through Digg, this article details converting the output of an iPod video into a pair of LCD glasses for some immersive viewing. While I’m not sure how this is actually “VR”, it would be a great way to watch those episodes of Lost (which I still haven’t seen!) on a plane flight. (Well, except for the extra briefcase of equipment the author needed to get it all running proper…)

The most inspirational part was the idea of utilizing the single-eye glasses for just-in-time instructional videos. So if you’re fixing a engine, the instructions are in front of you and can be repeated infinitely.

Some information is better learned through video, but I find that reading text is my preferred way, so I have been hunting for ways to utilize the Notes feature on my iPod photo. If you could incorporate a “stare equals click” function into those glasses, you could have all the textual information you can design into a stack, easy to read and hands-free. Having the CSSPodGuide or a PHP reference always accessible on a 42″ screen would be a dream come true.

I eschewed using a feed reader for the longest time (until a couple of months ago) because I enjoy experiencing content in the way its owner designed it. What I didn’t realize until recently was that I have been limiting my sources based solely on how the information looks and not what it contains. If a site looked unprofessionally designed, then that must mean (in my old way of thinking) that the content is equally unprofessional. I was too stubborn to accept the fact that everybody feels a different importance when creating a site - for some it’s a focus on the visual, others the content, and some the network. I always wanted the site to be as beautiful as possible for fear that others wouldn’t accept it the same way I wouldn’t.

Since deciding to adopt a feed reader (NetNewsWire) into my daily life (I’ve tried a few times before in the last couple of years, but just never enjoyed it) I’ve found that not only can I keep track of 10 times the sources (the inital reason for using one), I’m much more accepting of information because it’s without visual styling. This has helped me feel good about “spreading the love” in my own projects, working simultaneously on visual, content and networking and feeling positive and productive about my daily progress.

…although I can’t say I wasn’t warned…

In the most recent issue of Inc. magazine (the Inc 500 issue), Norm Brodsky writes (in Street Smarts) that time spent in the start-up phase deciding on a name is some of the most wasted time of all. Time lost brainstorming should’ve been spent creating your business since really, any name will do - as long as it’s not detrimental to your message, your customers don’t care!

Michael Pollock’s post Forget Creating A Brand. Build A Great Business. speaks from a similar vein, using Starbucks as an example. He quotes John Moore (and I’ll paraphrase) as saying that Starbucks gave no thought to creating a brand - they were too busy creating a business. By continuously striving to be the best they could be in every aspect of their business (as any business should), the brand created itself, automatically and unavoidably.

Both of these articles hit close to home as I have been spending (obviously way too much!) time brainstorming a name for a new business venture - and have felt much of it could have been put to better use. Coming from a visual background, I struggle with the amount of time I sink into developing the aesthetic and experience, trying to achieve absolute perfection, when instead a more revisory approach would help me achieve greater productivity in a shorter period of time. (Which is why this site is live instead of sitting on my hard drive as I develop.) As Jason Fried says (again, paraphrased) - you have to celebrate the small successes because they fuel your determination to achieve greater goals.

As my frustration has grown in trying to find an ideal moniker, I’ve been more and more reluctant to waste additional time, instead hoping that it will dawn on me in a random fit of inspiration. At least then I’m able to stay productive and work on building my business instead of just a brand.