masimuddy

From wired article : How Apple Got Everything Right By Doing Everything Wrong

“Apple’s successes in the years since Jobs’ return — iMac, iPod, iPhone — suggest an alternate vision to the worker-is-always-right school of management. In Cupertino, innovation doesn’t come from coddling employees and collecting whatever froth rises to the surface; it is the product of an intense, hard-fought process, where people’s feelings are irrelevant. Some management theorists are coming around to Apple’s way of thinking. “A certain type of forcefulness and perseverance is sometimes helpful when tackling large, intractable problems,” says Roderick Kramer, a social psychologist at Stanford who wrote an appreciation of “great intimidators” — including Jobs — for the February 2006Harvard Business Review.”

Innovation through intense, focused processes? Yup, that’s what school was like.

An article over at Wired about “The Brash Boys at 37signals” (makers of Backpack and Ruby on Rails) has prompted a bit of a debate in the blogosphere.

Donald Norman wrote an article asking “Why is 37signals so arrogant?” and 37Signals wrote a follow-up describing “Why we disagree with Don Norman“. Have a read, it’s an interesting debate on software design philosophy.

All articles bring up interesting discussion - is there a single and correct product design process? Probably not. I think the important take-away here is that there are multiple processes and philosophies of product development to consider. But I believe there are some processes better suited for certain situations. The choice of process is only one of the many choices any company has to make on their road to success or failure.

After a recommendation I got from a friend, I sought out a specific cheese. Humboldt Fog, named after a county in California, is a soft chevre with a little bit of vegetable ash. Well worth a try! I found some at Whole Foods.

“Our signature offering, Humboldt Fog is an elegant, soft, surface ripened cheese. The texture is creamy and luscious with a subtle tangy flavor. Each handcrafted wheel features a ribbon of edible vegetable ash along its center and a coating of ash under its exterior to give it a distinctive, cake-like appearance. An American Original!”

My friend Jenn was up this weekend and was able provide some input into a taste test. We tried chocolate chip cookies from Tartine Bakery and from Bi-Rite Creamery and Bakeshop and both agreed that the ones from Tartine were better.

On second thought, I’m not sure … I’ll go do the taste test again I think!

I can’t believe that in the year that I’ve been in the area, this past weeked was my first taste of Bi-Rite Creamery ice cream. We came to the city for an exhibit opening and dinner. Dinner was planned at the lovely Delfina’s, but we had to wait to be seated since it’s quite popular on a Friday night. So as we walked around, we pasted the Bi-Rite ice cream shop and I just had to try some. Even my friends who were cold (it IS still winter here) took one taste and had to go buy their own. I tried the Orange Cardamon and Chocolate flavours. Just divine.

Their ice cream is hand-made on premises with organic and seasonal ingredients.

It is well worth a side trip, but you will have difficulty deciding between ice cream at Bi-Rite, or a tart at Tartine Bakery, which is just at the other end of the block. Or just have both ; )