Old blog, new blog, this blog

I've done some changes in my blogging. I've quit my blogging project Lost in UX, which was focusing on customer experience, user experience and software development. I didn't have the capacity to blog regularly enough, so it's better to call it off, than do it halfway. I'm going to still sometimes blog about those subjects (customer experience, user experience and software), but I'm going to do it under this blog.

Most probably most of you didn't ever visit that blog, so I'm going to re-post couple of my best and most popular posts from there to here. There's going to be clear mention which of those are re-posts.

Also I've had for long time a need to blog about stuff considering Finland. Most of those are things that don't interest any of non-Finns, so I started a new blog in Finnish for that. Blog is called Toisaalta (toisaalta.wordpress.com), which means "on the other hand". If you are Finnish speaker, please check it out.

Thanks for checking these out.
Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

Steve Jobs presenting Apple new headquarters plan

No one can argue that Apple is one of the most innovative companies in the world. Much of it personalizes to Steve Jobs. You've most probably seen videos he talking in Apple press conferences and events, but those are carefully planned events that doesn't reveal much about the personality of Mr Jobs. Here's on the other hand footage from Cupertino town hall meeting from yesterday (7.6.2011) where he is presenting their plan and vision for the new headquarters for Apple to Cupertino.

In this video it's refreshing to see him to reveal his thinking about well-being of his employees, his commitments to his home town and the whole thinking behind Apple's desire for calm and beautiful design. I think this thinking perfectly reveals the importance of the soft values, like having enough nature available for employees, in Apple's thinking of making it perfect.

I think I figured out, from this single 20 minute video, much more about Mr. Jobs way of thinking than tens of articles I've read about him. Watch it with careful thinking if you like:



Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

My love and hate for telesellers

I don't honestly like when they try to sell me something via phone. It's really annoying. Still I have to tell you about two calls I've got. They just come up with such a inviting offers, that I just admire the creativity.

Recently I got a call from salesgirl. She quickly introduced herself and said that they have decided to give me travel magazine for free for whole year! Wow that's an offer that sounded bit too good to be true for me. She right away asked how I felt about the magazine and offer. I didn't say much until she continues that I only would need to pay production and delivery costs of the magazine, 3,95€ per month. So I guess I would have got the "innovation and work" for the content free, I would have only need to pay for everything else. What an anticlimax, I hang up.

Second similar call I got some time ago. My cable TV operator called me and said that they had chosen me for private trial for 50 persons. I was selected to get to check out some renewed channel set and give feedback about that one. I would get it for two months for free, if I only would sign the contract for next 6 months for full price. That was just ridiculous. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to calculate the 25 percent discount offer from there, and nothing was really was free. The focus group talks most probably was just plain bullshit.

Afterwards those calls have been hilarious. How on earth they came up with those and most importantly does someone really buy after that massive bullshitting. It might be the worst selling strategy ever, over promise in the first two sentences and get caught after a minute.

I'll be waiting what ridiculous offer they come up next time.

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

Smile!

Inspiring TED speech about smiling and how it makes life better for so many. It would be so easy to start arguing if smile is a consequence or cause for better life, but I don't really care. Video is entertaining and definitely worth of watching. One thing is for sure, smiling is good for you.

Ron Gutman: The hidden power of smiling

 
Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

Learning goes in mysterious ways

I have to tell you about my daughter. I'm amazed about how fast and well 3 year old can learn. I got some hints how it can happen from book The genius in all of us, but still it amazes me. Here's the full story.

Image from http://lekmer.se

So this is all about a game, bingo game to be exact. Rules go so, that there's own board for each player with 5 rows and 5 columns filled with 6 different looking Hello Kitty creatures in random order. On top of each column there's a letter B,I,N,G and O. Then there's 2 dices with one having the letters (B,I,N,G,O) and a joker and other dice have those 6 creatures.

My daughter, 3 years and 7 months currently, is unbelievably fast on checking from rolled dices, whether she has the item on her board or not. When the dices stop rolling, she immediately tells if she has the item on her board or not. Also she takes in to account if the item was filled in previous rounds. She's so fast, that almost every time, I can't believe she could have checked it already and I always check if she was just guessing. But she's never been wrong.

This got me thinking about learning. We've never ever tried to teach her to be fast on this. She has learned that only by playing. I have got to a conclusion that she must have some kind of map of the board in her head that she wouldn't need to look the board to know if it the item is there or not. There's about 10 different board from which we randomly take our own ones, so remembering by heart is somewhat difficult. I've tried tens of times in my head to beat her, to be faster, but I haven't been able. She must use some other technique than I am.

It's so amazing how human beings have such capability to learn to process things in surprising ways. I'm really sure I could have not taught this skill to her, since teaching anything to 3 year old is really hard. Still somehow she has been able to discover this way to process this much faster than anyone else I've seen her play with. I find it fascinating that even such a young person has this capacity in brains to learn to be such a good in something. It's not rocket science by any means, but still it requires special skill to do it. I believe that we all have these hidden capabilities in our brains that we might not ever really learn to take in to use.

Book I mentioned in the beginning, The genius in all of us, tells also about this. With right stimulus's and right circumstances almost everyone can learn special skills. You are not "born with" some skills, but you really can learn. I think that's essential to understand to be able to enjoy learning. It has been proven that young people learn faster, but it doesn't mean that older wouldn't learn at all. This at least gives me hope and happiness while I'm getting older and also seeing my daughter growing and learning new things.
 
Written by +Henri Hämäläinen