Open and Closed

With the passing of Steve Jobs, Apple has been on the minds of many.  Apple has a unique development strategy: keep secrets closely guarded, prototype and test but don’t use focus groups, and directly control as many aspects of the design, hardware, and software as possible.  Apple’s incredibly closed process has produced extremely innovative products that have been huge successes.  Compare that to the open source development strategy pioneered by projects like Linux: keep everything out in the open with no secrets, let users drive the process by having access to early releases, and let anybody that is willing and capable contribute.  This has also led to extremely innovative products that are widely used.  So which is better: open or closed?  I say both are needed so that each continues to spur innovation in the other.  Opened and closed together open up the most possibilities.

Josh Grows Up

“Growing up” doesn’t have as much to do with your age as it does with learning from the hard lessons of life.  I’ve met kids that were mature beyond their years and adults that acted like kids.  In a book I recently read called TheCuckoo’s Egg, the author, Cliff Stoll, talks about his growing up experience as he spends two years tracking down a computer hacker.  When Cliff finds his personal privacy and the security and trust that form the foundation of computer networks threatened, he starts to shift his worldview.  Over the course of a two-year long hacker chase, Cliff gradually moves from being a hippy-anarchist-astronomer to becoming a respected authority on computer security.  Cliff writes, “I realize that I’ve become a grown-up (sob!)—A person who really has a stake” (393). 

My growing up story started 6 years ago.  At the time, I was trying to do too many things at once:  play music professionally, manage a motel and live music theater, be the next network marketing millionaire, run six minute miles, serve at church, and have a great family life.  I was too overcommitted; I couldn’t have excelled in any one of those areas, let alone all of them.  Then I started having health problems.  Instead of just getting tired when I pushed myself past my limits, my body started responding with pain.  I got so frustrated and discouraged when I couldn’t do half of what I used to do.  I felt like a failure.  Little did I know that my health problems would lead me to reshape my life into something much more rewarding. 

I used to compare myself to other people and think of myself as more capable.  What a joke!  I learned that everybody has his or her own problems, and mine finally put me in my place.  Because of more imposing physical limitations, I was forced to slow down.  Once I opened up my eyes to what slowing down meant for me, I stopped feeling like a failure, and I started to be happy again.  I could finally recognize the simple and most important things of life.  I found balance and that I too had a stake.  And while my plans may not seem as grand as they once were, they fit me much better.  I’m happy to say that I’m all grown up and right where I need to be.

Brain things going on inside my head

What if you could record your thoughts and dreams as movies?  Scientists from UC Berkeley have created new technology that may open up such possibilities.  Even though the technology is in its early stages, the demo is pretty impressive.  We’ve been seeing this sort of thing for quite some time in Sci-Fi movies and books, and it just amazes me to see it taking shape for real.  Check it out:

Patent Wars

Patent lawsuits are getting out of hand, and now Samsung is talking about getting the iPhone 5 banned in Korea.  The U.S. patent system is broken, and if the government doesn’t fix it soon, we will head down a long, hard path of mucky litigation where nobody wins and customers are the ultimate losers. Google bought Motorola for $12.5 billion just to beef up its patent arsenal for protection in court (Wall Street Journal).  That money could have been used to innovate; instead it’s going down the drain.  All the money spent on patents and litigation will eventually end up costing customers.  Check out this graphic published by Newsweek last spring that gives us an idea of how bad it is.  Each line represents a lawsuit:

Phone Fight!, Newsweek

Steve Jobs’s legacy

Now that Steve Jobs has stepped down as the CEO of Apple, I reflect on the one thing that he did better than anybody else: give us devices we love but never knew we wanted.  He didn’t just improve on existing technologies, giving into the demands of the masses.  He ignored the masses and gave us gadgets that were new and inventive.   Steve Jobs himself said, “It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them" (Wired).  With an eye for simplicity and a discipline of prototyping, throwing the prototype away, and then prototyping some more, Jobs mastered the art of innovation.  Let’s just hope his legacy lives on with even more innovations from his successors.  

Kids and video games: what's the right approach?

I think a lot about how much is too much when it comes to video games and my 8-year-old son.  Playing video games is one of his favorite things to do, and I worry that he may develop an addiction.  I can relate to him because I had a similar draw to the original Nintendo games when I was his age.  Even though I don't play very many video games now, I think it's important that my son know that I understand the desire to play all the time.  So, here is my plan so far: (1) talk to him a lot about the pros and cons of video games and why it's not a good idea to do any one thing too much, (2) set time limits on video games and computer usage, and (3) play video games with him on a regular basis.  I feel like as long as he is comfortable talking to me and playing with me, I'll always know enough about what's going on to make informed parenting decisions.

Watch "Parenting in Cyberspace"