Went to the San Ramon Art & Wind Festival yesterday. I didn’t see much art but we loved the wind. Note to self: next year, bring a “real” kite instead of making the free one and bring allergy medication.
Month: May 2012
Maui For The Day
We landed on Maui around 9am and I got talked into getting a Jeep by the car rental agent. Normally you can’t talk me into anything that isn’t already in my mind too easily so I was either really wanting the Jeep anyway, the agent was good, or all of the above. Truth be told I think it was that it was only $10 more for the day. It was one of the best things I’ve done in some time, it was really fun to drive and I really enjoyed it. It was fun to know wherever we were I could get out of a sticky…or sandy situation. We put the Jeep to quick work by going up the north end of the island on a very windy and remote road which was really fun to drive. We took part of the top off so we could enjoy the weather and every few minutes I stopped to take some pictures.
We stopped at the very north end and took some pictures and then got some lunch and went swimming for a while. We stayed at a nice (but affordable) place and the concierge helped get us a champagne catamaran cruise that evening. Once we got off the ship we took a quick walk on the beach. The whole day was amazing, one of my favorites. I think at one point on the cruise as the sun was starting to set I said it was one of my top 10 favorite days which is really saying something. We’ll definitely be back to Maui again some day.
Coolest Job Ever
When I saw that we didn’t have to go through TSA, had to weight our bags on the same scale that weighed us, I knew I was in heaven. We waited about 30 minutes at the very small “airport terminal”. The co-pilot loaded all of the bags and about 10 minutes later the captain went down a ramp and yelled “going to Maui” and we all followed him (all seven of us). Christina and I were in the first row so we literally sat right behind the pilots which was amazing. The captain was a really nice guy who gave us a quick 2 minute tutorial on buckling up, what to do if anyone gets sick, and to turn off our cell phones. I turned off my cell phone but the person behind Christina had her phone out the entire time. I didn’t turn off my camera and waited for him to say something but he luckily didn’t seem to mind.
I took a video of the take-off and the landing so I may have that posted later if it turns out I think someone may find it half entertaining. When we landed I told the captain “you have the coolest job ever” and he said “I know”. He escorted us away from the aircraft and through a gate and we were in Maui. The only way to travel! It was amazing and I loved every minute.
Tyler’s 5th Birthday
From Beach to Airport Bum
Darn airport paparazzi, my wife Christina taking pictures of my geek out session before the flight to Oahu. Had to stay charged up for the flight!
Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory
Rainbow Falls
Kona Brewing Company
Motivation
Two studies that call into question the ideas that:
– If you reward something do you get more of the behavior you want?
– If you punish someone you get less of the behavior you want.
As long as the task involved used only a mechanical skill the bonuses worked as expected. Higher pay = better performance. That makes sense.
Once the task called for rudimentary cognitive skill the larger the reward led to poorer performance.
For simple, straightforward tasks reward mechanisms work great.
When a task gets more complicated, it requires some conceptual, creative thinking, those types of motivators don’t work.
Fact. Money is a motivator. If you don’t pay enough, people won’t be motivated.
Pay people enough to take the issue of money off the table. So pay people enough to take money off the table so they aren’t thinking about money, but rather the task/work at hand.
3 factors lead to better performance & personal satisfaction…
– Autonomy (the desire to be self directed).
– Mastery (mastery is the urge to get better at stuff).
– Purpose. More and more organizations want a transcendent purpose.
Traditional notions of management run foul of this. Management is great if you want compliance but if you want engagement, self-directed is better.
When the profit motive gets unmoored from the purpose motive, bad things happen.
Skype: Our goal is to be disruptive but in the cause of making the world a better place.
Steve Jobs: I want to put a ding in the universe.
We are purpose maximizers, not profit maximizers. We care about mastery very deeply and we want to be self-directed.
Flying Horse – Gatorrada (Cat-Toast)
The most oddly entertaining commercial I’ve seen for some time.
