Mediocrity through “improvement” versus optimizing our strengths

Wasn’t sure how to title this post, but Kathy Sierra wrote a great piece earlier this week on how we spend too much energy focused on improving weaknesses, often at the expense of becoming greater at the things we already do well. She writes, “How many times in your life (school, career, relationships) have you been told about your “areas of improvement”? How much time and energy have you spent working on those areas? …Maybe instead of working on our weaknesses, we should be enhancing and exploiting our strengths? What if the price for working on weakness (and who even decides what is and isn’t a “weakness”?) is less chance to be f’n amazing?“

Amen.

I have news for HBO

HBO, I have news for you. If you succeed in making sure that we can’t record shows like the Sopranos on our DVRs, it will be at your peril. I’m not currently a subscriber to HBO, but I do subscribe when the Sopranos has new episodes. In other words, I was planning to subscribe again pretty soon. I enjoy the Sopranos, but I don’t want to make an appointment with my television every Sunday night to watch new episodes. I don’t want to wait until the show is on DVD or be forced to use any other solutions (that are less user-friendly) to record the shows.

HBO, you have a choice. Let us consume your content as we’d like to and be your customers or force us to go elsewhere for our entertainment. It is up to you.

UPDATE- I made a mistake here. HBO is focused on their on-demand content, not time-shifting scenarios. Thanks to Brad Wilson for pointing that out. Having said that, I’m still not sure I like their direction with respect to content restrictions.

Netflix “throttling”?

MSNBC: “The little-known practice, called “throttling” by critics, means Netflix customers who pay the same price for the same service are often treated differently, depending on their rental patterns.”

If I were a Netflix customer, I’d be re-thinking that decision. This seems like a bad way to treat your most loyal customers. I wonder if Netflix will consider changing this as the negative publicity continues to ramp up. Apparently this has been in their terms of use for a while but I had not heard about it.

MIX06- Will you be there?

Looks like I’m going to be at MIX. Jim says he’s going to be there too. I’ve seen some other Microsoft folks that will be there, but who else? If you’ll be there, please leave a comment. I’d love to meet some new people there.

Catching on, catching up, catching hell

Dare Obasanjo: Been There, Done That, Now Watcing Google Catch Up

Wow, something has really changed on the Internet. When Google used to release a new service or make a big announcement, there was awe. Over time, there was less awe and more general interest and buzz. People were excited, but they expected Google to do very big things. At times, people were disappointed (Google Talk, Google Analytics, etc.). Nowadays, the skeptics come out in force (count me in as a skeptic as well). It is a good change to see Google having to fight for respect and to earn praise through results, not just press releases and more “betas”.