27 posts tagged “customization”
The average life follows a linear path: a person goes to school, moves away for college, joins the workforce, lands a spouse, and ultimately shifts focus to the next generation. In the board-game Life, you can fit that all into one afternoon…and you get to skip puberty. But, unless you steal play-money from the bank when no one’s looking, which journey is more satisfying? No matter how many times you roll a “10”, the simulation will always pale in comparison to the real deal—with all of its variables, emotions, and surprises.
With the same logic, though, I would even say that the real linear life leaves something to be desired. Not to say that we should completely buck convention on the path to maturity (our war-time ancestors didn’t have a choice), but a few twists and turns never hurt. My internship this summer was one such diversion—I got a taste of office life before matriculating to college—and the experience was beneficial. My only concern is that I’ll be too much of a stiff when thrust back into the student life come mid-September.
Even the simple things, like living with a roommate, will require some adjustment. I’ve been able to concentrate all summer within the semi-privacy of a cubicle, but it’s doubtful that my dorm room will insulate desks in the same manner. Would it be rude, bizarre, both, or neither to place a plastic wall between my roommates workspace and my own? And if it creates tension, will our RA resolve the problem as effectively as a corporate HR rep? I need to forget these luxuries.
I also run the risk of entering a classroom with flawed expectations. Though most universities boast a student-oriented faculty that is prepared to spend time with pupils outside of lecture, I doubt that any would want to compare work-hours with my boss. Seriously, this is a media specialist that is willing to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and overtime! I guess people care most about your quality of work when they are paying for it. (The same reason our building managers insist that the indoor gardeners water the plants for five whole hours at a time).
Perhaps the best thing I picked up at DailyMe was the art of professional decorum, but even this will be a mixed blessing in my new environment. It’s been a season of well-articulated greetings and firm handshakes, two tools seldom used amongst my peers. They say that giving a hi-five is like riding a bike, but my form is mechanical and out-of-practice. I shudder at the thought of re-learning higher level street skills like the shake n’ snap, the pinky swear, and especially the roundhouse kick.
As you can see, my successful release back into the wild will require some effort. But do I regret taking a quick break from the straight-and-narrow life’s usual order of events? Not even for a second. It was like a non-committal opportunity to try out different career cards, which is better than choosing one arbitrarily on the 21st space of your proverbial game board. I only have a couple weeks left!
Peace, Love, and Personalized Media.
-John the Intern
All my life, I’ve lived in a family within a neighborhood within a larger neighborhood within a city that people refer to as a neighborhood to make it sound more tight-knit. Fortunately, though, too much “community” is never a bad thing.
I didn’t realize this until I began working at DailyMe. The company has put a continual emphasis on the term throughout product development, and social networking is now a major selling point of our service. Less obvious, though, is that the team is similarly passionate about stressing community harmony within the office environment. To see this, one must bring “community” back to its sandbox connotation—when “sharing” and “playing nice” were all that was necessary for group harmony. I’ll examine the little things that go on each day, because they are what set an office’s tone.
I first look to our lunch situation. On a given day, at least three of us will eat lunch together. It usually takes less than thirty seconds to pick a place, despite each person’s often-myriad dietary quirks. Sure, we may only agree because everyone shoots for the place with the best deal (Pizzarella on Tuesdays!), but there is no denying its effect on both harmony and efficiency.
There’s also a wealth of data in our citchen (kitchen + closet). Everyone in the office is entitled to a portion of any item in the mini-fridge, liquid or solid. It may sound more like communism than community, but this egalitarian policy has many advantages. As an intern especially, I had the opportunity to remove much more than I ever packed into the device. Plus, systematically trying all of your co-workers’ favorite drinks is a great office bonding experience.
Even our espresso machine reflects preparation of a warm office atmosphere. The boss realized early that everyone in the office drinks caffeinated coffee, and was therefore able to spend twice as much on only one machine. The result: everyone enjoys the same fancy, foreign brew as their cubicle neighbor, which serves as a comfort AND a conversation-piece. Oh, and we put up a “Decaf Need Not Apply” sign.
In sum, I guess the team does highlight community on the micro scale. The sometimes-conscious group effort may not benefit our office life in the same manner that it does our customers, but the two are related. I’ll get back to you when I figure out how.
Peace, Love, and Personalized Media.
-John the Intern
I find it difficult to deny today’s man-made environmental problems, but it’s even tougher to remember all of the trendy, new ways to minimize my carbon footprint. Never before were eco-friendly suggestions so ubiquitous, and this leads me to fondly remember a youth when the truth was a bit more convenient. One ozone-saving precaution has been advertised since at least the 90’s, though, and to good effect: carpooling.
But in the urban sprawl of South Florida, do any of my co-workers actually live close enough to conserve-n’-swerve? Even if they did, it would be nearly impossible to agree upon radio pre-sets. Sure--the gang consolidates into one vehicle on the way to lunch, but this is usually thrown out when individual errands need running afterwards. Since I began working, there has been but one exception to this pattern: when one DailyMe staffer dropped his car off at the shop after lunch, we consolidated into my “whip” for the ride back to headquarters.
Admittedly, this was the first time a respectable, non-relative adult sat on my passenger side. And even though I had more than a fair warning, it didn’t strike me until the door opened that there might be a code of conduct for this sort of thing. Not that I hadn’t done the obvious housekeeping—I cleared trash from the floor, and even turned off my guilty-pleasure music (Devo, obviously)—but I figured that wasn’t enough. In an impromptu attempt to satisfy my co-worker, I blurted out those famous words:
“Is this an all right level for the air conditioning? Oh, and that seat reclines.”
As a long-time car passenger, I’d formerly wondered WHY people ask those two rapid-fire comfort questions. I mean: if human bodies are all comparably sensitive to temperature, can my notch-of-choice really damage the guy? Plus, the passenger seat in a sedan always reclines. The experience taught me that these quirky inquiries are necessary only for the driver’s peace-of-mind. Much like the restaurateur lavishes a food critic with a nice table, I had to offer comfort to the passenger before his time came to judge my driving skills. Because that is the real underlying fear.
My driving skills were well-honed, however, and my living cargo seconded that. I was left with only one concern. My “faux-lleague” (as an intern, I’m hardly an equal) was only given an estimated time to pick up his car, and we ran the risk of getting back to the store too early. I knew that waiting with him would only cut deeper into my daily break-time, but did my obligation to the man extend farther than a quick drop-off? After all, we’d already been through so much together (6 traffic lights, two times a-piece). I ultimately decided to stay with him until the job was done, but this verdict lacked moral foundation. His “car place”, it turns out, was attached to one of my favorite wholesale retail stores…you know, the type that gives away food samples.
So whether or not I made the right decision, the real winner was the environment (and driver/passenger conversation). When the environment gets the gold medal, we get valuable rain. Keep it up!
--John the Intern
Every child’s dream is to become a video game beta tester, and I think this is the closest I’ll ever come. The DailyMe team has—at long last—completed the new site, and the programmers selected me to participate in the “QA” process before it goes public. Though not quite a nomination for a Publisher’s Clearinghouse sweepstakes, you can still imagine how honored I was…and am.
My only worry is that I seemed under-whelmed when initially recruited by Mrs. Boss. This was mainly because I didn’t know what “QA” stood for (much like I don’t know how to end that sentence without a preposition). I first mused that I was being invited to a “Question & Answer” session about the site, but this theory was just as soon thrown out: I know nothing about the site to answer, and I doubt that phrase is ampersand-optional. The team quickly explained that it stood for Quality Assurance, which leads me to where I am now: a “practice” consumer, viewing our product with a critical eye before someone less forgiving does so. I’m not going to lie: it feels pretty cool to tell my friends that I’m “QAing” today, but the incurably pedantic ones need time to get past the “Q not following directly by U” thing.
My main area of focus on the site is in the keyword search field. Our server uses a set of precise algorithms to match up a user’s keyword preferences with later articles, and I want to assure that this process is accurate. You can imagine a customer’s dissatisfaction upon feeding the “word” baseball and receiving only obituaries (though I’d say the two topics are equally boring), and that’s what I want to avoid.
Other aspects of QAing are equally important, but far less exciting. I’ve made sure that DailyMe arrives where and when a customer’s preferences suggest, and the rest of my time has been spent searching for broken links. The latter is tough, because such links are never obviously messed-up to the naked eye. Fortunately enough, my eye usually wears undergarments…which explains why I was chosen for this task.
In due time, all users will be able to give our site the ole’ college try. And I hope it’s soon—because I’m getting lonely(grl15) on dailyme.com.
Peace, Love, and Personalized Media.
-John the Intern
Every child’s dream is to become a video game beta tester, and I think this is the closest I’ll ever come. The DailyMe team has—at long last—completed the new site, and the programmers selected me to participate in the “QA” process before it goes public. Though not quite a nomination for a Publisher’s Clearinghouse sweepstakes, you can still imagine how honored I was…and am.
My only worry is that I seemed under-whelmed when initially recruited by Mrs. Boss. This was mainly because I didn’t know what “QA” stood for (much like I don’t know how to end that sentence without a preposition). I first mused that I was being invited to a “Question & Answer” session about the site, but this theory was just as soon thrown out: I know nothing about the site to answer, and I doubt that phrase is ampersand-optional. The team quickly explained that it stood for Quality Assurance, which leads me to where I am now: a “practice” consumer, viewing our product with a critical eye before someone less forgiving does so. I’m not going to lie: it feels pretty cool to tell my friends that I’m “QAing” today, but the incurably pedantic ones need time to get past the “Q not following directly by U” thing.
My main area of focus on the site is in the keyword search field. Our server uses a set of precise algorithms to match up a user’s keyword preferences with later articles, and I want to assure that this process is accurate. You can imagine a customer’s dissatisfaction upon feeding the “word” baseball and receiving only obituaries (though I’d say the two topics are equally boring), and that’s what I want to avoid.
Other aspects of QAing are equally important, but far less exciting. I’ve made sure that DailyMe arrives where and when a customer’s preferences suggest, and the rest of my time has been spent searching for broken links. The latter is tough, because such links are never obviously messed-up to the naked eye. Fortunately enough, my eye usually wears undergarments…which explains why I was chosen for this task.
In due time, all users will be able to give our site the ole’ college try. And I hope it’s soon—because I’m getting lonely(grl15) on dailyme.com.
Peace, Love, and Personalized Media.
-John the Intern
In the 1997 cult hit Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion, two ditzy heroines claim to have invented the Post-It Note in order to impress their former classmates. A good choice in office supply: just consider the ubiquity of the product, and the rarity with which its origin is questioned. But who’s to say that these little squares of “caution” yellow shouldn’t be given more thought? I’ve discussed the “parking spot” people—and generalized that everyone gets hung-up with some type of weekday minutiae—but I consider the Post-It to be more universal than previous examples. If you’ve never written a Post-It reminder, then you’ve at least received one from someone who has; and if you’ve never received a Post-It reminder, then you won’t appreciate what I’m about to describe.
That being said, I think we have to be a bit more cautious with the device. The habit of leaving Post-Its for oneself and others is obviously contagious, but communities have done little to encourage safe sticking. My boss pastes about 10 on my cubicle each day, and I come home to read a similar number of pasties from my mom. It’s difficult to digest such quantities. In the long-run, their bright color (now in several different hues) loses its edge, and the collective body of Post-Its sinks into a dull background. One hundred notes convey fewer messages than a distinct one.
I theorize, however, that accessibility is to blame for this over-use of Post-Its. Just decades ago, great physical labor stood between us and an adhesive piece of paper: if we wanted to seal an envelope, we had to lick it. But saliva is not a necessary component of the product in question, and so there is much less discretion involved. People will always be too trigger-happy with cheap, easy, sticky notes, and only an intentional price floor can change that.
There is a way to make high-frequency messages more effective through such a medium, though; Mrs. Boss put it into action just last week. She began taking advantage of a Post-It’s stainless glue, various sizes and colors, and started fixing them to creative, “contextually relevant” places. No longer bunched together on my least favorite cubicle wall (it’s pleasant and considerate, but sooo two-dimensional), the notes instead pop up at various, unexpected times of day in unexpected places: my chair, my monitor, my phone. I have since learned that the Post-It program was installed on my computer so the option exists to leave one on my desktop. (It’s actually one habit of the highly effective Post-It-er, and is perhaps the best solution I’ve heard.)
So I say this with affection for Mrs. Boss, who shares in a good laugh with me about her being my window to the working world. By the way, let us know if you find out who really did invent our beloved Post-It!
Peace, Love, and Personalized Media.
-John the Intern
P.S. Don’t rebut that one larger Post-It, filled with ALL of a boss’s messages, would be superior to several separate little sheets. There is something alarmingly pleasurable about crumpling one of the squares into a closed fist and aiming for the trash can, because it symbolizes completion of a task. Nonetheless, I don’t condone the exclamation of basketball terms when a shot lands in the wastepaper basket (e.g. “For two!”, “And it’s good!”, or “Swish!”).
We recently began our first film project at the DailyMe HQ, and I can't stop saying "Lights, Camera, Action!”. An unnecessary utterance (in that I usually hold the handy-cam), but one that makes-up for the lack of expertise and studio resources involved in our visual media debut.
We embarked on this project with nothing but a few steady camera-hands and the pleats of our dress pants, but the intentionally low-budget clip is coming along nicely. It will be available wherever blogs are read (or videos are watched) sometime in coming weeks, most likely in a streaming video format (as opposed to what?). We are not releasing many details about the video yet, but it is designed to give viewers a look inside an intern’s head throughout his daily office doings. The film employs modern innovations like sound and color, but has few other special effects. We figured you’d manage, but are having our footage professionally edited to be safe.
The three-day shoot was an event of trial and error, and our vision evolved significantly as time passed. The nightly break in filming was what really set me off, though, as I soon forgot the importance of consistency. Consequently, several deleted second-day scenes featured me inexplicably decked out in a new shirt color with shorter finger nails. Realizing the mistake, I offered to come back later with a blue button-down and some acrylics…but they only cared about the former. In the end, we had no trouble re-creating the first day’s conditions (barring weather), keeping both my hands and blue dress-shirt dirty through Friday. Find me another intern/actor who stays clean after doing his own stunts!
I will alert you as to the film’s release in coming posts. When you finally see it, look out for some unannounced Daily Me staffer cameos (won’t name names yet). Until then, I suggest all student readers out there start purchasing their school supplies while the deals are hot. At this point, there are probably GIVING protractors away.
Peace, Love, and Personalized Media.
-John the Intern
Not much to blog about the office today, but I just had an interesting conversation with Mrs. Boss. It was one we’d come close to having before, as she initiated it each day on her way to the parking lot: “I couldn’t stop myself from parking all the way on the East side of the building today. But it was the only area where I could find a front-row spot.” I had previously held my tongue, but on that particular day I got resist no longer. The habit seemed unjustified by either time- or footstep-saving considerations, and I prodded for explanation: “I’m just a parking space person.” An unsatisfying response, but one that really got me thinking.
The suggestion that such a mild compulsion is commonplace, in my opinion, is absolutely valid. For her, it’s not a question of saving time; the sensation of “scoring” a good spot takes a front seat to pragmatism. A more efficient approach to parking may involve traveling directly to a spot that has guaranteed availability, while settling for a longer, more direct route from the third tier. But even if panning for the competitive spots doesn’t really pay off, it’s the way it feels that should count. My boss’s “thing” doesn’t alter her day by more than a minute, so I say let her inject some inefficiency into the day. Fine, she doesn’t have to do it intravenously.
That being said, I ask all of you to take a minute to share your various “things”. What counter-intuitive part of your routine do you keep around just because it makes you feel good?
Later on, Mrs. Boss asked if I had any similar habits. The first thing that came to mind was my movie theater's concession stand. I’m obsessed with the theory that there will always be a short/empty food line that people neglect because it doesn’t look active. I always approach the sheepish cashiers behind such questionable counters, but am generally disappointed to find that they are, in fact, closed. It usually takes them five or eight minutes to admit this—a bonus for my eagerness.
Otherwise, my life is pretty thing-free. My only priority in a parking lot is to find a car that matches my make, model, and color. I always park next to such automobiles, because it’s just so cute. Let that thought warm you throughout the already-hot weekend.
Peace, Love, and Personalized Media.
-John the Intern
A small business must be viewed from many angles, which makes the realm of entrepreneurship daunting. Though the founder of a company should treat his brainchild with the passion that he would a breathing organism, it is customary for outside investors to provide their support with less nurturing emotion (like when yielding crops); further still, a management team must ignore the larger picture in order to efficiently specialize and complete tasks; Oh, and there will be lawyers to make sure nobody has “beef”.
Which is why I ordered chicken throughout the two-day DailyMe board meeting this week. A modern-age Knights of the Round Table in some respects, the reunion marked the most power I’ve ever seen consolidated in our world of personalized media. It was a chance for my employers to flesh out the final product, as well as their launch plans, for all of those that care. The South Florida summit began with a bonding dinner on Monday night, and the final investor flew back out yesterday afternoon. The time within that interval was filled with presentations, demonstrations, commendations, computations, collaborations, and, ultimately, congratulations. No water sports were involved.
In hindsight, the event was very well-received. Everyone got along well, was satisfied with the product, and had no trouble with small-talk. I can verify only the latter observation first-hand, however, because I was just invited to the initial meal. Conversation topics ranged far and wide, with one portion of the group discussing Hillary Clinton’s recent cleavage-shot. Things were so comfortable, in fact, that one investor gave details about his recent wisdom tooth removal (the anesthetic left him knowing the lyrics to every John Fogerty song).
Yes, the kick-off meal was quite fun, but I admit feeling intimidated in the beginning. This was in part because I couldn’t decide where to sit at the table: I had to find a power-broking adult willing to forego the banquet’s networking potential by sitting next to a non-professional teenager. Fortunately, the tablemates did not find me burdensome, and graciously welcomed me into “big boy” conversations throughout the night. Only, like, two people I met asked what toys I was getting for my birthday.
The other concern came later, when I realized that I was in position to order my food before all others. The restaurant must have pre-empted my “how expensive should my food be” question days earlier, though, because every appetizer had the same price.
The real winner at the end of the evening was education, because I learned worlds about DailyMe’s many faces. And after hearing the next day’s meeting went off without a hitch, I say it’s time we launch, already.
Peace, Love, and Personalized Media.
-John the Intern
In our lifetimes we have been both consumers and producers, but never at the same time. That is, unless you shop for clothes online during work hours or——like most corporate types--- conduct business via Blackberry during family dinners.
On some levels, it is easy to reconcile the two roles: members of the workforce can produce from 9-to-5 on Monday-thru-Friday, and purchase their food/house/life supplies from shift-managed stores throughout the evenings and weekends. But what happens when this salaried, 5-day-a-weeker desires a product or service that is only sold during his business hours? He ditches work to take care of his schtuff…that’s what.
So where is the line drawn? To what extent should self-preservation come to mind during a paid grind? By now, like with all other aspects of office courtesy, an unwritten book of guidelines has been long unpublished on the subject. There are several types of during-work errands that an understanding boss would find acceptable, mine included, and the appropriate time off for each is directly related to the criteria it fulfills.
One important criterion should be of course, that the errand can ONLY be completed during work hours. This generally includes anything postal, medical, or financial; sometimes it’s all three.
Beyond this, the breadth of errands allowed depends entirely on a given work environment. If one is fortunate enough to leave an office where “every minute counts” for a more liberal group, they’ll see that “grooming” and “automobile”-related tasks are the first to become OK again. Approval of the former is perhaps influenced by a famously versatile quote fragment, “the clothes/hair/shoes/nails/toenails/moustache makes the man/woman”. When a boss is more concerned with the quality and appearance of employee time, he or she will know that Saturday is simply too late to hit the salon. Likewise, the de-clawing aspect of a manicure can be an asset to the work week, because it encourages good, painless handshakes (and we know how important handshakes are). At DailyMe, my boss actually gave me the name of a trendy hair-cuttery (the ensuing adventure is a whole ‘nother story).
On the other hand, I have not yet experienced car-maintenance errands …but I already know why they’re so effective. Do you really know what’s underneath the hood of your car? How about the cars of your employees? And are you willing to wager money on the length of time it takes to get the “free” carwash at the dealership? If the answer to all of these questions is no, then you should also see the light. Few people know enough about automobiles to question an employee getting one fixed, which makes this excuse an excellent “wild card”. No matter what the occasion, just tell your boss there is something wrong with the “carburetor-doodad-combobulator” for a get-out-of-jail-free card. Until abused excessively, this system is widely accepted in most offices across . Just don’t try it if your boss is an auto mechanic.
This is not to say that trips to Target and Office Depot cannot be taken periodically. DM does not mind day-trips to nearby retailers, presuming the employee says the secret password: “do any of you need something from there?”
The moral of the story is that everyone has to put their personal needs before their work sometimes. A sympathetic boss will always understand, especially when the time you do spend at your desk is valuable. A happy employee pays his dues, but also enjoys clean sideburns and a fine-sounding engine. Too bad I can’t grow sideburns yet.
Peace, Love, and Personalized Media.
-John the Intern
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