Tea Garden Wind Chimes

  • Ambiance App

This week I started using Ambiance App for Mac*.

Ambiance is an “environment enhancer” designed to help you create the perfect ambient atmosphere to relax, focus or reminisce.

If you walk into my office, you’ll likely hear a loop of Tea Garden Wind Chimes or the Gyuto Monks Tantric Choir. The library of 2500 ambient sounds has something for everyone.

* It’s actually an Adobe Air app. It’s SUPER buggy and is messing with my zen thing.

In a parallel universe, Lenovo actually tests the idea of a 27” tablet before they begin work on one. Product Manager: “Sir, 0% of our test families enjoyed carrying around a 27” monitor for two weeks. The idea of a fucking gigantic tablet doesn’t seem to work.” Boss: “Okay, we’ll figure out something else to work on.” I await your offer letter. High-res

In a parallel universe, Lenovo actually tests the idea of a 27” tablet before they begin work on one.

Product Manager: “Sir, 0% of our test families enjoyed carrying around a 27” monitor for two weeks. The idea of a fucking gigantic tablet doesn’t seem to work.”

Boss: “Okay, we’ll figure out something else to work on.”

I await your offer letter.

Slow Down to Speed Up

There’s a saying in racing: “You need to slow down to speed up.” It’s a way of saying that consistency and smoothness, not aggressiveness, are the keys to going fast. It’s better to go into a corner slow and be well positioned coming out then it is to go in fast drive erratically.  It’s not a conincidence that the fastest drivers are the smoothest.

The same is true of product development. It’s better to slow down and make sure you’re solving real customer needs with every feature than it is to ship more features. Accuracy beats effort every time. In the end, the winner is the product that consistently delivers a great experience, not the one with the most features.

Here’s Jenson Button, arguably F1’s smoothest driver. He brakes before each corner, accelerates out smoothly, and never misses an apex.