Decision Velocity - Out of the Chaos with Speed and Direction

A Strange New Crop in Wisconsin

Matt — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 02:27:46 +0000

A strange new crop is being harvested in Wisconsin between Fond du lac and Milwaukee along Highway 41. Huge wind turbines are popping up in farmers’ fields with over 200 megawatts of installed base in the works. Wow!

Some people have a concern that the boundary of the 32,000 acre project area is too close to the Horicon Marsh Wildlife Refuge, a major stopping point along a key migratory bird flyway.

Decisions about new technologies and their effects on the natural environment usually include a lot of ambiguity and uncertainty. Perhaps the best approach is to proceed with caution? If you’re a migrating Canadian goose coming in for a landing at Horicon, proceeding with caution now goes without saying.

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Product Bundling - Would you like some scrap metal with your nuts?

Matt — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 02:42:08 +0000

We can find examples of product bundling everywhere, from coffee shops selling music to candidates choosing running mates. The potential effects range from fabulous to disastrous from a customer’s point of view and how they decide to react to the bundle. Do they run towards the bundle or flee?

Here’s an example of one which apparently wasn’t well thought through. The aged condition of the sign tells the story.

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Obama vs. Huckabee and the Winner Is…?

Matt — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 01:27:51 +0000

Since Iowan’s chose Obama and Huckabee I thought it would be interesting to run them off against each other with voters from Twitter and Reddit. Well…

The talley from the micro-survey is:

Obama - 93.5%
Huckabee - 6.5%

Obama wins.

Voter Confidence in Their Candidate

Of those voting for Obama, you gave him on average a 67% chance of getting the Democratic nomination.

Of those voting for Huckabee, you gave him a 40% chance of getting the Republican nomination.

Conclusions

Obama kicks Huckabee’s butt with an internet election.
Obama supporters feel more confident than Huckabee supporters with their respective candidates.
Not alot of Evangelicals on Twitter? (Speculation Only)

Your thoughts???

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You Decide between Obama and Huckabee

Matt — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 01:28:09 +0000

Iowa has “spoken”.

What if your choice was now limited to either Barack Obama or Mike Huckabee?

What would you decide?

Take this 2 question micro survey and “vote” for either Obama or Huckabee.
I’ll publish the results shortly

If you’ve already taken the survey, THANKS and check back for the results.

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Staying in a Hotel? You decide if you want to take a drink…

Matt — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 01:24:05 +0000

Ok. Ok. We all know the TV remote in hotel rooms could get classified a bio-hazard site because of all the…um, let’s just say unwashed hands which have pressed its buttons.

And the bedspreads (those hideously colored slick covers) still found in some hotels, well, let’s not even touch those.

But just when you thought it was safe to drink the water or your diet coke in your room, this comes to light. Please, for your own sake, watch this video!

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College Drop-out’s Advice for Success

Matt — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 15:35:43 +0000

The story now widely known, that Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard as an undergraduate to focus on starting his own business due to his curiosity about finding a better way to program computers.

His viewpoint, recently placed at the BBC News site, makes for interesting reading, regardless of whatever you might think about the Microsoft Corporation.

Bill Gates: The skills you need to succeed

“So if you look at how progress is made and where competitive advantage is created, there’s no doubt that the ability to use software tools effectively is critical to succeeding in today’s global knowledge economy.” - Bill Gates

This quote I find very appropriate in our Web 2.0 environment, an area which Microsoft struggles to penetrate, the collaborative and interactive space. Perhaps the throw-weight of his curiosity got dissipated and diluted within the giant MS corporation.

There are business organizations and which work to keep business units small enough to avoid such a dissipation of the “curiosity-energy”, the entrepreneurial spirit which, if you trace the organizational genealogy of a company you will arrive at the seed entrepreneur, the seed of curiosity and courage to take the risk to try new approaches.

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A Thought on Change

Matt — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 14:34:16 +0000

The original modern thinker on change and its effects:

“Future shock [is] the shattering stress and disorientation that we induce in individuals by subjecting them to too much change in too short a time.” - Alvin Toffler

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Bread, milk, shoes. Shoes! Huh?

Matt — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 21:09:54 +0000

When out in the LA area last week I picked up a new pair of shoes at the grocery store, and they’re great! I’ve been looking for them everywhere I travel but unfortunately my travels haven’t taken me near a Whole Foods Market.

Until now. What a place!

The shoes are “Simple - Green Toe” brand and, without doubt, the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever worn. The best part is they’re constructed from natural and sustainable materials.

And the nice part was being able to sample the raspberry:cabernet gelato before leaving the store.

What a great combination idea to fit sustainable footwear into the natural and organic foods brand of Whole Food Market.

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Make More Garbage to Produce More Energy?

Matt — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 17:43:46 +0000

Everyone please remember when reading, writing or talking about global warming, our oil dependency and population growth:

“Energy is not renewable. Only some earth-based sources give that appearance. “

An article on CNet regarding the use of garbage and waste to generate power made a statement regarding renewable energy.

“Solar energy isn’t the only renewable resource: there’s also garbage.”

Remember, all net energy additions to the planet come essentially from the sun. We do not “create” or renew energy.

“Energy is not renewable.”

I think we’d all agree that garbage is far from a resource we’d like to keep renewing. We should be looking to reduce or eliminate the waste from production.

The fuels we choose to use to convert to a form of energy more helpful to us, convert in a variety of efficiencies and with a variety of side-effects e.g. CO2 production from combustion, silted rivers from hydroelectric dams and food cropping sacrificed for fuel cropping.

The recent “Tortilla Crisis” is an example of an unintended side-effect of shunting more corn into the fuel cycle and out of the food cycle.

In the short-run over the next decade, our best approach to mitigate climate impact, reduce pollution and lessen our dependence on foreign sources of fuel:

Avoid excess use (conserve) and reduce waste.
Emphasize solar and localized wind generation.

Do you agree? What are your thoughts?

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“Want Fries with that Prescription?”

Matt — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 01:18:24 +0000

I just saw a TV advertisement with the rhetorical tagline “What if you could do everything without having to get out of your car?”

Examples from the ad included: Refereeing a soccer game; listening to chamber music; and shoe shopping. The ultimate product they want you to get without getting out of your car? Your prescription drugs.

Edward Abbey in his classic 1960’s book “Desert Solitaire” about his time as a park ranger in the desert southwest, railed against those who wouldn’t step out of their cars to experience the desert and its beauty.

So, we’ve had drive-up fast-food for quite some time.

Then I guess it’s only logical, since obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the U.S., we should be working ourselves towards a complete drive-up economy just like in the TV ad.

Including drive-up obesity treatment prescription drugs.

We need to make better decisions as individuals, businesses and a society to get ourselves out of our love affair with the automobile and back into a healthier life of moving around on our own.

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