Other people's creativity

I wish I would have been this creative.  Why are other people always doing things that are so much cooler than what I could come up with?  Even if I would have gotten this idea, I never would have been able to execute on it.  So sad.

Real Reviews

Image by pierre pouliquin via Flickr

The online social economy these days is very dependent on the reviews of others.  What do you think?  Would you stay there again?  Does the shoe make you feel well dressed?  These are all important opinions that can help a prospective buyer make a decision.  Are you getting real reviews from previous consumers?

On Amazon, I've tried to leave negative reviews a couple of times.  Once, I objected to paying almost $16 in shipping charges when the two items I purchased were combined and weighed less than 1lb.  I also mentioned in the review that one item was not as great as I'd expected.  Overall, the review wasn't terrible, but I tried to be honest.  After trying to reach the seller with no response, I posted my review.  At that point, the seller contacted me and was offering "anything" to get me to retract my review.  He was going to send me new items and refund all of my money.  It was unreasonable.  I removed the review and told the seller not to worry about it.

I also recently had a review opportunity for a b&b I stayed at in Paris.  The experience was really nice and the host was personable and provided a great experience.  However, there were some things about the stay that could have been better and because of how the overall review process is, some of my comments would have made the experience seem worse than I would like to specify.  I decided to not leave a review instead.

Am I the only one that does this?  Are there scores of untrue, or omitted reviews that could be helpful to us in our search for better products?  If someone walked into my house and asked me about this specific b&b in Paris, I would unashamedly tell them everything I think.  The prospect of putting those thoughts in writing and having those thoughts affect people I don't know is overwhelming.  Knowing the audience (my friend in my house) I tailor my comments for that person with the understanding of how they might use those comments.

How do you get around the fact that online reviews are too broad a stroke?  How do you also get around the fact that anything less than 5 stars is a harmful review?  How can consumers get the truth about experiences according to their own views and use of them?

Cheeting the clock

Seth Godin wrote an interesting article on cheating the clock:  


I have found this same thing to often be true.  If I know that I'm taking Thursday and Friday off, I can easily get my work done for the week in the first 3 days.  However, if I try to work that hard and get "Extra" things done in an entire week, I might end up burned out.  My solution is to show up to work 30-60 minutes early.  In that time, I get my intense work in, accomplishing the important tasks and setting up the rest of the day to accomplish what I want to accomplish.  What I end up with is a very successful morning, and in the afternoon I get to choose between going home early because I've done what I want, or sticking around to finish stuff up that isn't as important.  Either way, I end up feeling great about my job!

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Government Propaganda

Image via Wikipedia

As I was driving from Las Vegas to Colorado a few days ago, I passed a large road sign that talked about a project being completed along I-70 that was paid for by the Recovery act.  I have no idea how much the sign cost, but even if it was only a few dollars, the purpose of the sign seemed to be to make me appreciate how the current government was spending my money.  It seems to me like a complete waste of my money.  It's bad enough that we're throwing money into wasteful projects, but then spending more money to convince me that it was a good idea just makes me bitter.  Shouldn't this fall under campaign financing somehow?