Presumptions are Dangerous Boomerangs

It would appear that the editor of Daily  DOOH  has taken umbrage at rAVe [Publications] methodology of show coverage.  I posted this to my Google Plus account but after looking around on the DOOH site I found even more sniping on the part of Mr. Adrian J Cotterill, this time about the apparent age and gender of rAVe's journalists.   Really AC?  

While this will not endear me to Mr. Cotterill I posted the below on the rAVe blog post:

An interesting bit of vitriol Mr. Cotterill spits out. I say interesting in that midway through reading his screed I kept thinking his real message is 'Get Off My Lawn You Whippersnappers!"

In my view, this is a classic example of new media vs old.  Industry professionals like myself gravitate to news sources such as Rave because of the timing and format it is presented in.  

Balanced is a funny word, what exactly do you mean by it sir? Balanced in that you decide which exhibitors I get to hear about or is there some preordained hierarchy of who gets coverage or what I should be interested in if I were but a learned AV professional such as yourself? 

I have had the opportunity to work professionally with the American rAVe staff as a manufacturers marketing person and as associates (rAVe publishes my blog and hosts the AV Nation podcasts I am producer for). I have found the individuals Gary hires to be professional, accurate and remarkably interested in the AV industry from all angles no matter how small or large.  The intensity they show translates into interest from the readers - What could possibly be wrong with that?!

I do not write for rAVe nor agreed as one of AV Nations advisory board members to partner with them just for business reason, I admire the sense of community and engagement they foster.  The online community of AV folks gather around them for the same reasons. 

As I read through the article and comments I was reminded of the infamous Bill Gundy episode on Thames Television circa 1976. Whatever happened to good times Bill anyway?

If you are unfamiliar with Bill Gundy you can see the moment he killed his own career ( and the staff at the Thames Television technical staff)  on YouTube.  *Warning the content is not for those who find expletives disturbing *   

 

 Bill Gundy typhooned his career because he engaged in Character Assassination with a group who were more fearless and smarter -(on the whole and despite appearances) then the learned and esteemed journalist.   The video shows an interview with the group 'The Sex Pistols' where the right honorable Bill Gundy proceeds to goad the band with devastating results.  Love him or hate him John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, is a horribly intelligent person  who channels the prolific anger of the situationist  into an artful confrontation.   Even in this interview you can see his eyes alight with the ghost of Guy Debord.  

Mr. Gundy did not know what hit him - presumptions are dangerous boomerangs 

Hoist Meet Petard.

Tinker, Tech’er, Solder, Sine via RAVE Pubs

This post orginally appeared on Gary Kayye's RavePub Site on August 2nd, 2011 

 

Are you useless?  I am and proudly so and I think you could do with being so too.

I’ll let that sink in for a moment before we proceed -- you should strive to be useless and leading by example, encourage your staff to be the same.

 Useless adjective       \'yüs-l?s\

              1.    Not fulfilling or not expected to achieve the intended purpose or desired outcome

In reality useless is usually based on a simple frame of reference, or in the colloquial -- one man’s  
garbage is another man’s treasure. For an install company, tinkering is a useless endeavor, a wasteful process of learning as you go and where results are not always what one expected. Having a staff of useless tinkerers is not just terrible for your business, much worse; it is the best thing that can happen to it.

Do you remember back to when you were six or seven years old and the concept of chemistry or at least the idea that a mad scientist could hold such power with a simple set of beakers and surgical tubing held so much sway? Back then, you mixed shampoo with wood chips, hair gel, milk and orange juice half waiting for the, mostly inert, mixture to start moving of its own volition. These experiments were mostly harmless but if you were like me the ‘failures’ never dulled the excitement of the possibilities -- ‘if I could just find the right ratios!’ <cue cute-evil laugh>. Then again you could have had a mom like mine who occasionally would provide me with bottles marked ‘ingredient X’ - <Vinegar> and ‘Mystery Powder Y’ - <Baking Soda>.  That particular experiment had me wide eyed and standing atop a three-legged stool as the resulting reaction covered the floor of my room. Did I mention that I also became really good with a mop?

I want to see your staff doing more of the above. No, not the mop - the wild-eyed fascination of deconstructivism. Wasteful, you might say. Absolutely devastating to project deadlines and company profits one might argue. Horse Hockey! I say. (With apologies to Sherman T. Potter)

The process of tinkering provides lessons in how stuff works, it is demonstrative and practical, and there is great value in opening a box and figuring out just how they did that. An even greater benefit can come from forceful misapplication-creating wondrous new functions or in letting the genie out.

I am a big fan of something called Circuit Bending which is the process of opening up consumer electronics - mostly kids’ toys - and modifying the circuit boards to create new sounds. The cult community of circuit bending is part heath kit hacker, part pyromaniac musician and part serious electronics debugger. Modifying a toy is not nearly as simple as it might appear -- these units’ electronics are often undocumented; the process of figuring out just where to connect jumpers requires patience and research. It also requires a willingness to fail.

Failure is constructive.

Are you allowing your staff to fail?  

If you still think that I am full of it just take a look at what 3M™ does. 3M has a long standing policy (since the 1920’s!) of allowing employees - regardless of project schedules - to dedicate up to 15 percent of their paid work hours on personal projects. What possible benefits could a policy which wreaks havoc on deadlines and product to market schedules have?  Not much really -- just the development of whole new markets in adhesives, recording mediums and of course the ubiquitous Post-it-Notes ®.

What untapped solution are you missing out of by holding your staff back?  Where would we be without the invention the iPad typewriter?  For me it would be a sad, sad world.