The five jerks you meet at work.

Getting things done in a work environment can be difficult. We run into all sorts of roadblocks (process, hardware, legacy, scope, costs) even before we think about the most unpredictable of elements, people. Interestingly, people can be facilitators of getting things done and hindrances all in one day. They can shift within one conversation from helping to hurting. I've boiled down the five types of hindrances that we see at work. I'm confident in these archetypes because, at some point or another I've been all of them:

The "no" guy:
Everything with them starts with no and usually ends with no. Nothing will stop the no. He will pound you with no until you can't take no ‘Mo!

The "metrics/stats" guy:
New on the scene, the metrics man avoids making decisions or taking actions because there are no stats or metrics behind an idea. Here is the thing with metrics man... innovation or change has no metrics because you didn't do anything yet. Metrics guy is the ultimate cover your ass man.

The "we need X" guy:
With "we need" there is always a resource that is missing that prevents us from completing our task. We need another developer, chair, projector, hardware, coffee or sandwich. "We need" needs to accept that the need isn't coming and start finding answers to the need.

The "what about X or did you think about Y" guy:
The questioners and tackers on try to filibuster progress with increasing scope and finding issues before we even start handling the problem we're started with. Overthinkers are needed but not at the hindrance of shipping.

The "we thought of this already" guy: (This is my deadliest sin)
Saying out loud you thought of something already when you have no visible product shipped of that idea means nothing. All it does is slow down conversations and serves the blurters ego. The "already" guy wants everyone to know that they know things.

 

Have you meet a jerk or committed one of the five jerks moves?

Keep f*cking writing!

Just a quick note.  This week on two separate occasions friends have said in not so many words,  they are writing but I am just not publishing their posts.  Both gave me praise for continuing to post these tiny missives but (albeit, a bit more infrequently, I blame Twitter) lamented at their own inability to post.  

My thoughts were,  just post.  Just click the send button,  don't check the spelling and get it out into the world.  Once you've got your work, your words or your thoughts out there,  nothing can stop you.  You are free.  The post isn't sitting there staring at you,  the ideas are done, no words can be added.  You have been liberated from your own self-imposed rules of what a good post can be. My advice is be selfish.  Write for yourself, don't go for perfection and go for completion.  The wonder of the web is that its never finished.  You can always go back, edit add a link, a video or whatever.  But you have to post it FIRST.  If it's sitting hiding, no one will ever see it nor is the urgency to fix it.  

As many, many of my friends have pointed out,  my posts have errors,  there are grammatical errors and generally,  I am "doing it wrong" You know what?  My posts are out there.  The content is out there.  It's my problem to fix them and I do, or don't. (I don't have an editors eye for errors) 

So, I will just keep fucking writing because it makes me feel good.  (This blog was a New Years Resolution that I would post everyday, I've missed many, but I'm fighting the good fight)

What do you say?  Are you ready to start posting?

The Must Read New York City Book List

Aside from growing up in New York City,  I have an unhealthy obsession with it's history.  If I had to guess,  I've read five to seven books (looks like nine) just about New York City. The need to know stems from searching for identity.  Who exactly am I and what did it mean to be me.  I chose being a New Yorker as my definitive trait. For me,  without New York, I was nothing.  With that foundation in place, the more I could learn about New York City,  the more I learned about myself.  (See? Crazy!)   

Anyway,  the list is below:

Must Reads:

The Power Broker by Robert Caro.

Low Life by Luc Sante.

The Alienist by Caleb Carr (The only novel on the list)

Ladies and Gentlemen The Bronx is Burning by Jonathan Mahler (Covers only 1977 but is a snapshot into the post-Moses New York)

Gotham: A History of the City of New York to 1898 by E. Burrows and M. Wallace.

The Death and Life of American Cities by Jane Jacobs

Not necessary but you might find interesting:

New York: An Illustrated History (Companion book to the PBS Series 'New York' which is a must!)

The Epic of New York City: A Narrative History by Edward Ellis

The Gangs of New York by Herbert Ashbery

There are others,  but these are the ones that I have read (That I remember)  Not counted on these lists are the New York memoirs or baseball related books.

Did I miss any?  Please let me know if you'd like more detail on any of these books 

The Web Is Not Dead as a Games Platform.

Portals still have a huge shot in the high-tech, high-stakes world of games.  I just read an article in Entrepreneur Magazine profiling, Peter Relan (Crowdstar, OpenFeint) where he said as much.  Here is the money quote:

"Nobody has yet come up with a way to make large web portals a social game,"  "What kind of games can be played if you're in Hotmail or on Yahoo Messenger? How can that be wrapped up in one of our games?" 

There is huge value to be extracted in the breaking down of the silos between social, mobile and web.  Opportunities abound on the so called "dead" portals. 

My hometown: East Harlem, New York City. It has problems.

New York City is huge.  There are over 8 million residents and well over 20 million people come through NYC everyday.  New Yorkers are labeled with one tag, New Yorkers.  There is some borough  allegiance but that is fading (sorry Brooklyn, you lost your juice) What is forgotten is the neighborhood allegiances that we hold.  The city is really broken down into tiny fiefdoms, measured by blocks, housing projects and parks. East Harlem is my slice of New York.

El Barrio (its other name - translated from Spanish as "The Neighborhood") is bordered on the south by 96th street, with its northern border being 125th street.  On the east its bound by the East River and on the west, Madison Avenue.  Within this large swath of northeast Manhattan there are sub-divisions based on public housing projects.  Each project is its own fiefdom and community.  

Growing up, the kids I knew from El Barrio boasted about the toughness of their housing project. It wasn't uncommon to hear "Yo, fuck Wagner (houses), Carver will house your shit" That might not be exact but something along those lines.  I always felt left out of those debates because I lived in a tenement, we didn't have the size to boast so we resorted to simply boasting about our block, 102nd street.  It wasn't much but its what we had.  

Fast forward to today and El Barrio appears to have the same feel. Much of the physical structures are the same and asthetically, it hasn't changed in my 36 years. The same housing projects are there, the same nickle and dime stores are around, the same poverty is everywhere. Oh sure, there are some minor signs of the New York 90's - 2000's revival but not too much.  A few national chains, a few new condos (mostly on 1st avenue, decidedly not my turf) but mostly the same. 

The sameness hurts me.  I want to see progress! I want to see weath growing and new different types of stores, nightlife, anything that will show that El Barrio is moving forward.  Why can Williamsburg explode but not El Barrio? Why can the Meat Packing district explode but not El Barrio? Why is Hell's Kitchen slowly becoming Clinton Hill, with barely a sniff of its hellish reputation but not El Barrio? I have my thoughts and I'll list them out:

- The environment and architecture

Large swaths of public housing with there brown monolithic structure. The streets that they cut off from traffic and the setting of buildings off the corners.  What you live in matters.  What it looks like matters.  The look types of buildings in a neighborhood matter.  Without the bones to change,  a neighborhood can never recover.

- The derelict buildings

Walk down Third Avenue on the east side of the street and look across at the buildings on the west side - what do you notice? Store fronts, with boarded up apartments.  We have a single slum lord who prevents development of mixed use buildings. Mixed use is important.  What happens today is that when the stores close,  there is no life on the streets.  Having mixed or a living neighborhood is essential to change. People need to live, stores need to be open and a street should be alive as many hours as possible.

- Poor education

I don't have the numbers but just from looking around at the numbers of teen mothers and kids around during the day, that something is amiss with El Barrio's education. This is a city problem but it affects every neihborhood.

- Poor health

There are very few healthy food options. Which can contribute to getting sick. Sick people, lead to missed work, lead to missed school, lead to poverty. I know, it sounds insane but its a fact. 

- Filth and dilapidation.

This is not the fault of the residents or a an indictment on them. The neighborhood suffers from neglect by the city.  The subway stations are rotting. (specifically 103rd Street which floods). The street lights are dim or out, garbage is on the street which leads to rats running around, which lead to illness. Everything is connected. Not a place to feel awesome about.

- Apathy and defeat a.k.a. ghetto mentality

All of the above make it hard for the residents of El Barrio to feel there is a way out or a chance.  Their physical environment, health and general well-being is dragged down so their spirits naturally are dragged down.  Having grown up there, that feeling of helplessness seeped into my ethos. The feeling that you aren't good enough, that the world doesn't care about you and why should you give a fuck. I am not saying everyone feels this way, but the desperation is on peoples faces. The poor face a hurdle that is never discussed, the mental hurdle of feeling like anything you do matters in the greater scheme of things.

I understand I am not offering solutions just yet,  but I will.  Mark my words I will. Stay tuned.  What do you think we should do to help El Barrio?

 

Why televison wins. The web fails to deliver suspense.

Having just spent the better part of six weeks watching the thrilling NBA playoffs (Congratulations Dallas Mavericks, NBA Champions) I wondered what the hell it is about live sports or even good television that makes it so compelling.   With the NBA season ending I thought, "Good God, where will I get my thrills from?"  Mulling over what I can do for entertainment throughout the summer, the web never came up.

Why doesn’t the web deliver suspense?  I have tons of ideas but not a lot of answers.  All I know, is the web is missing that IT factor that makes you yell at it,  it’s missing that super feeling of spin-tingling action.  It just is, there is no doubt about it.

Why is that? 

Why doesn't the Internet have that thrilling feeling?
Is it because of the way that I use it?
Have I trained myself to use it for information gathering and not entertainment?

Is it because things that are "live" on the web tend to suck so bad they aren't worth it? (The most compelling live action online is an Apple product announcement by Steve Jobs.  Woo-fucking-hoo!)   Sure, YouTube has some thrilling elements to it in its’ five-minute way.  (Jeez, five-minutes is actually too long).

What is it about the web that will always have it behind TV?
Is it the bandwidth of the web simply not being there?
Is it the archaic nature of live event rights holders who hold on to all the good stuff? (There is still no NFL game that is watchable live online as far as I know). 

The Internet may get there eventually. But for now, I'm looking for my live sports thrills on that 1930's technology, of glass, wires and tubes - the trusty, reliable television.

Can the idea of Charter Cities be applied to Charter Anything?

I just watched a TED talk on the idea of Charter Cities. The basic premise being that cities are the ideal economic engine, people around the globe are moving to them, so why not set up new charter cities where new rules can be applied to foster economic growth.

I have my concerns about the whole premise but essentially Paul Romer is advocating we try what the Dutch East and West India Company in the 16th century all over again (of course, without the slaves, indentured servants and coercion) 

It's not that bad of an idea and one that forces us to think what is possible and how can we make the world better.  That's what the TED talks are about anyway, spreading ideas.  

I thought immediately about how else charters could be applied:

- Charter new businesses under rules that they MUST adhere to on environment, profit sharing, executive pay.

I know we do this today somewhat, but they are laws. You have to comply or work around them.  In the charter system, the company opt-in for the funding.

- Allow current successful cities to extend their current city charters to new countries.  i.e. Wouldn't it be cool if there were a New York City in Nigeria, Romania and China that ran under the cities rules with our expertise.  
Yes, it's my fantasy to see New York City rule as a city-state like Athens, Sparta, Rome or Singapore, but so what? It's called civic pride!

- Create bank charters that are contingent on ONLY investing locally.  Say a 5 miles zone around the bank. Communities can be built with ethical banking.

Again,  I keep going back the Bailey Savings and Loan from 'It's a Wonderful Life'.  If there were a bank like that where you live, wouldn't you use it?

Those are just the three off the top of my head,  what can you think of?  (Regardless of what you think of, you should watch the video.  It's fantastic.) 

One more time with the link:

Paul Romer's radical idea: Charter cities

The Riff - Thoughts on running, LeBron James, mega-trends, New York City culture and things my brother says

Responding to the quick hit/whats on my mind post that I wrote the other day,  I feel it's time to make it into a recurring post.  The Riff will be  quick thoughts on what I think is going on and what's important in my life at the moment.  Plus,  it's easier for me to riff on a few little things rather than try and make posts out of one thing.  I suppose it's sort of a mind dump but... so what.  It could be a good time and you will let me know what you think of it anyway.  That's what an audience is for (all 700+ of you!)

- I'm back running!
My surgery is healed, my foot can take the pain and I could not be happier.  Not only that,  I just finished 'Born to Run' and I'm all fired up believing that running is fundamental to life and happiness. Personally,  the book reinforced what I already believe.  Running of some sort, be it though playing sports, jogging or horsing around is fundamental to being human.  There is no way it could be as wonderful as it can be without it being part of our developmental history.  We're wired for running. Get out there. Run! Oh and read Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen 
p.s Thank you Tony for recommending the book.
p.p.s I. Ran. Barefoot. In Central Park. One of the coolest things I've ever done.

- LeBron James is going to be a tragic figure and not a transcendent one.  
He may win an NBA championship,  he may rack up stats, but I think fundamentally,  he is flawed as a basketball superhero.  There is something missing in him that stops him from becoming all he should be. (And he already is a LOT!)  Everything about going to Miami,  shunning the big markets of Chicago and New York tell us that he will never fulfill his potential.  As sports fan, that is tragic.  We all want him to be more and I think that is why we hold him to a higher standard.  He should be dominating basketball the way no one ever has and instead he is afraid. Maybe there is too much on him? Who knows.

- Big changes are happening in our country and we're missing them.
The more I read the news and pay attention to the way things are covered the more I sense that we're in a constant state of missing the big picture.  Our news and society is so completely focused on the here and now that we miss the big things that are happening. (See Weiner-gate as opposed to to income disparity)  I am so fascinated by societal changes and the 'why' things become they way they do.  A quick hit on some of the changes and mega trends: we're doing less driving, no one wants to live in the suburbs anymore, the rise of cities, the rise of global capitalism, the United States hasn't declined everyone else is going up, the Internet is still very young and changing the world fundamentally, the complexity of things is understated, the disparity of wealth is staggering in the US and more.... (feel free to add)

- New York City is in a new Gilded Age.
You may think New York is great, but I think we're about to enter another big boom.  Culturally, we're becoming more significant in the United States.  For 20-30 years there was a slow shift to the West Coast and generally out of New York City. It felt like more of a dispersal than a single area growing.  But I think we're seeing another shift back east.  New York with finance, media and advertising industries are sucking talented people back to the City. We have great public transport and, jobs (remember, flat is the new up!) and smart talented people are arriving daily. Think about it?  If you meet a kid who was getting out of school? Where would you tell them to move? SF, NY or LA? The jobs, opportunity and physical set up of New York City put it in a unique position as a 21st Century city.  Cities grow for a reason and the way they are laid out is one of them. There is still an energy in New York City that is unmatched in any city in America.  Sure,  its loud, dirty and crowded but those problems are a sign of it's strengths. It's people, the human multitude that make New York City work. It's a living breathing entity that will be the economic engine of the next decade.

- My brother, Bernard is nuts, but not that nuts.
So my brother was in town from Seattle this week looking after my sister who has an illness. (Another post for another time)  Anyway,  he rants and raves about
- How much he doesn't like Seattle.
- How lucky New York City is to have what it has (Sensing a trend here? It runs in the family) 

He talks a lot, never listens and just talks louder if you are talking (I do the same thing)  He has a few things he wants you to know:
The New York City transit system is amazing.  You all have no idea how good it actually is. (He's a systems engineer for the SEATAC transit system in Seattle)  For $2.50 you can go ANYWHERE in New York City, ANYWHERE!

Public Utilities seem terrible but then you have to think about what they do.  They have no margin for error.  There is no beta system for having electricity in your building.  It has to work, all the time, always.  The fact that when it goes down people have breakdowns goes to show how reliable it actually is.  Water is always there.  You turn on the tap and the water flows.  You take it for granted.  So yes,  customer service may suck,  yes, they rip up the streets and make things a living hell,  yes, it takes for ever to get going but IT WORKS ALL DAY, ALL THE TIME, NEVER GOES DOWN.  Give the people some credit.

Please leave comments,  call me a dick and generally be a loud mouth.  That's what comments are for. Enjoy them!

A love letter to the poor of New York City. An ode to El Barrio

Being in poverty is a difficult existence. It can be brutal, painful and shameful. Decades of poverty can leave you with a feeling that you will never succeed and that the world is stacked against you, permanently. I see this type of poverty in my neighborhood in uptown Manhattan, El Barrio. I've lived here for twenty of my thirty six years and see what being poor does to people.
This is not a post about the plight of the underprivileged; this is about joy and what we do have! The poor of New York have a tremendous advantage. Things they never think of because they don't know how much worse it could be. This is my message to you:

- You are poor in the greatest job and idea engine in the United States.
New York is the hub of creative ideas and job creation in the country. Yes, there are small states with very low unemployment but they don't have the vibrant and dynamic economy of New York. It’s there for you if you see it and seize it.  If you need help,  I will help.

- You are poor in the city with the best public transit system in the United States.
You live uptown and can get a job on Wall Street without driving or living two hours away from work! Other cities don't have that. You have the advantage of being able to get to any job you want to for the low cost of $2.50 a ride. That's very, very cheap!  Ask someone what living in Patterson and working in New York City feels like.

- By virtue of growing up in New York you are automatically cooler, hipper, have more knowledge about the world than just about any American you meet.
There is a reason all those Europeans love hip-hop or come uptown to see what's going on. It’s you! You have that street knowledge, flair and understanding of how to live in a City. That's not nothing! (double negatives are in) It means something, it an advantage. Don't be afraid, talk to people, you really are fascinating.  People want to hear about your experiences.

- Yes, you live in public housing and it's crowded, did you know in other cities they would KILL to have that problem?
New York City is set up for you succeed. You live efficiently; you don't have a high carbon footprint. Just by living the way you do, you are saving the environment. We want more people like you around the country!  

- Where you live is the most valuable real estate in the world.
When you see the gentrifying white people show up in your hood what does it mean? It means you live where they want to live. You live (El Barrio) in Manhattan. 30 minutes from the coolest of the cool in downtown Manhattan, 15 minutes from Yankee Stadium and 10 minutes a huge shopping area (86th street,116 Street or 125 Street.) You live in a neighborhood with culture, history, which is near the greatest park in the world. (Central Park)

Remember poor New Yorkers, you have it all. You live where people are dying to live. You live were people risk their lives to come. You live where people abandon their families to live. Yes, you may not have monetary wealth but you are rich in natural resources and advantages just by being in New York City. Feel good about yourself. Be confident. You have everything, except money! I believe in you.