Spike Jonze on making movies (and great products in general)

From an interview with Spike Jonze where he relates experiences from his first run-in with big hollywood movie-making: 


"It had slowly, day by day, moved away from what i was trying to do. I didn't realize how things get corrupted not all in one fell swoop, they get corrupted millimeter by millimeter by millimeter, and only when you look back and see where you were trying to go and where you game from, only then do you really realize how far adrift you've gone." 

TownMe (ex-Googler Local startup) launches API

Yipee - Elad and Othman's TownMe launched their API so get crackin' all you developers.

Too many people or too few: coffee shops and crowd density

Picture this: you're walking by a new coffee shop and pause to take a look. Hmm, how can you figure out whether they have good coffee - maybe the # of people inside? Too few customers and you might think "boy, this place probably sucks." Too many and you're no longer interested in fighting the crowds for just a cup of coffee. 

On the web we'd just multivariate test to find optimum page layout. But the darn physical world is so much more complicated. I threw together a short survey and farmed it out to 100 US consumers via mechanical turk (side note: using turk is addictive). All the usual disclaimers reply WRT survey bias and construction - i know my questions were a bit leading...

Imagine you were going to try a new coffee shop....


1. If the cafe was empty, would that make you more likely to enter, less likely or no change?

No Change: 52%

Less Likely: 26%

More Likely: 22%

2.  If this new cafe had good coffee, how many other customers would you expect to see?

Avg: 11.1 

> those who answered 'less likely' in Q1 avg'ed 14.5

> those who answered 'more likely' avg'ed 9.6

0 - 5: 30

6 - 10: 40

10 - 19: 12

20+: 18

3.  How many people would need to be in a cafe to make it "too crowded" for you? 

Avg 25.7

> those who answered 'less likely' in Q1 avg'ed 30.8

> those who answered 'more likely' avg'ed 22.9

0 - 10: 11

11 - 19: 23

20 - 29: 35

30+: 31

So it would suggest that the average cafe owner would want to have ~11 - 19 visible in their cafe to people on the street. Any more than that and you should conceal them in a back room or out of sight of the front windows and register :)

Obama's Nobel Prize: An attempt by the world to influence US behavior?

The mainstream read of Obama's Nobel Prize suggests it's a bit of a smackdown on the Bush presidency. Another alternative take could be that the world community isn't looking backwards on America's international policy but forward. Could Obama's Nobel Prize actually be seeking to influence his behavior over the course of his presidency?

In Cialdini's amazing book "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" the author notes how framing the way an individual sees themselves can change their actions. For example, ask someone if they're a "good person." They'll say yes. Then you say, "well, good people give to charity. Would you like to support ?" Apparently response rates increase markedly as opposed to just soliciting a contribution.

So in this case do you think the Nobel Peace Prize is the equivalent of asking Obama "are you a peaceful person?" and it will influence his future policy decisions? I mean, the Nobel Peace Prize winner shouldn't be belligerent and aggressive, right?

Obviously Obama is a bright and self-aware President, and US policy is often the product of politics, not any one individual, but at the margins maybe this impacts the expectations Obama sets for himself during the course of his Presidency.

[personally i'm an Obama fan so this post has less to do w/ a commentary on his politics and more to do with behavioral science]

If you don't care, why should I?

If you want to be a great leader, it's not enough to care on the inside, you need to show it. Broadcast it. Give off the enthusiasm any time you're around other people.

Why? Because no one cares about your shit more than you do. So if you don't seem to care, i'm certainly not going to either.

This doesn't mean you need to be ridiculously high energy, over the top, elevator pitch every minute. Rather it comes down to being passionate. Being convincing. And yes, sometimes being loud.

And it DEFINITELY does not mean always focusing on yourself. Think of someone like Billshrink CEO Peter Pham. The guy reps his company gear every day. He's always pumped about what they're working on. But never brags. Always wants to talk about what Billshrink can do for you, not for him. And it's authentic. And it works. Everyone comes away caring more about Billshrink than they did before.

Is that something you can say about your product? Your company? If not, step your game up.