Month: April 2010
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Can you have too much choice? [The Paradox of Choice Reconsidered]
You walk into your local burger joint and the menu says: “The Ultimate Customizable Burger – $5”, and that’s it. Since it’s the only thing on the menu, you ask for “The Burger” and the person behind the counter responds: “What kind of meat would you like? We can make it with beef, bison, lamb,…
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Crazy Tech Apps
All of us have encountered an insane application of technology at some point in our lives causing us to have the “what were they thinking” moment. The amazing thing is that they were thinking, and their thoughts were that this application of technology was perfectly normal. In fact, they usually were thinking it was the…
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Empathy and the Organic Startup
Paul Graham, an essayist and also entrepreneurial investor, wrote an article called “Organic Startup Ideas” that indicates two different types of startups: Organic (which build something for themselves and then find others that are interested), and Inorganic (which build something they think someone else would want). His essay is excellent and essentially states: Building something small for…
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Political Corruption and Cultural Inertia
One of the more common topics of discussion here in Mexico is government corruption. It is a widely held belief that those with power abuse it for their own ends. Complaints abound but with no solutions. I think that cultural inertia plays a role — other people’s perception of our behavior affects the way that…
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The Power of Fear
Yesterday, I overheard a conversation at the airport between a husband and wife of a young family. The husband asked his wife: “Should we board? We can board at any time since we have young kinds” The wife responded: “Yeah, but I thought we could board when it was our turn”. The husband quickly retorted: “There…
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What Pleases and Satisfies?
A question was asked of MBA students at Stanford: “How much pleasure did your car provide you this morning?” The result of this survey showed that regardless of the type of car each student drove, they all had about the same satisfaction with their car that morning. Another question was posed: “How much pleasure does…