Apeboy's Musings

Consider a story told by Procter & Gamble Chairman A.G. Lafley about his own learning while working on the Tide brand in the 1980s:

“Every year consumers would rate the Tide powder cardboard package as excellent; excellent to shop; excellent for opening; excellent in use — on, on, on. So, I’m in basements in Tennessee, in Kentucky, doing loads of laundry with women, and after three or four or five of these one-on-one sessions, I’ve realized that not a single woman has opened a box of Tide with her hands.

Why not? How do you open a box of detergent? Why don’t you open the box of detergent with your hands? You’ll break your fingernails! You’re not going to subject those nails to a box of laundry detergent. So, how did they open the box? They had nail files; they had screw drivers; they had all kinds of things sitting down on the shelf over their washing machine, and they thought our package was excellent! And you know what? We thought our package was excellent because they were telling us our package was excellent.”

New year, new house. Construction will take about 4-5 months. For now, this is our little dirt lot!

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Indie and Trixie:

QuakeWorld TeamFortress History:

My inaugural post for my new ‘Like a boss’ category. Intended to keep track of fascinating quotes, tools, and techniques in the managing realm, so I can stop saying things like ‘synergy’ and ‘blue sky thinking’.

First up: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/11/praise_leads_to_cheating.html

Couple good quotes:

We all like to feel smart and talented. It turns out that whether we attribute it to natural ability or to hard work is a strong predictor of how successful we’ll be.

Huysse shared three of Twitter’s ten core values she believes underlie its success: Seek diverse perspectives; recognize that passion and personality matter; and innovate through experimentation.

At the core of a growth mindset on talent is neuroplasticity — the ability of the brain to reorganize itself with learning. It requires not just working at what you know, but pushing past into areas that stretch your knowledge and skills. A favorite quote of Dweck’s: “Anyone who’s never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”

An absolutely amazing day:

COMPLETE

a typical American male who works full time and still has a job is earning almost exactly the same now as his counterpart was back in 1972, when Richard Nixon was in the White House, O. J. Simpson rushed a thousand yards for the Buffalo Bills, and Don McLean topped the charts with “American Pie.”

The figures, which appear in Table A-5 at the back of the Census Bureau’s report (pdf), are these. Median earnings for full-time, year-round male workers: 2010—$47,715; 1972—$47,550. That’s not a typo. In thirty-eight years, the annual earnings of the typical male worker, adjusted to 2010 dollars, have risen by $165, or $3.17 a week.

Top comment:
“Should society let him die?”
“YEAAAH!!!”
The Tea Party, staunchly pro-life.