Perhaps the best part of working in a space that changes so quickly is that all the “experts” can be constantly wrong about everything and it’s chalked down to “rapid innovation and market changes” rather than said experts being loud-mouth, opportunistic attention whores. It seems just a distant memory when Wired magazine claimed “The Web Is Dead” and thousands of people began jumping on the funeral march bandwagon of the Web browser. Then, a few months later the new rallying cry was “HTML 5 will save the Web.” and suddenly browsers were hot again. But perhaps the best example of moronic tech blogger schizophrenia is Daily Deals. And what a ride it’s been. Continue reading →

Just before the release of the iPad if you listened really hard – and the wind was blowing the right way – you could hear a faint sound that resembled a babbling waterfall. That sound was the result of hundreds of magazine and newspaper executives collectively dribbling on themselves in anticipation of this new device that was about to save their industry. But two years later very little seems to have changed. There are more traditional media apps than you can shake a stick at, but unless I’ve been living in a blissful bubble of ignorance the world of print media hasn’t been rescued by its touch-screen prince. So what happened? Well it comes down to an enduring love-affair with linear. Continue reading →

One of the biggest flaws of the human species is that we relentlessly over-estimate our ability. Being sure-of-yourself can be an admirable quality, but there’s a very fine line that separates confidence and delusion. Countless studies reveal that people think they’re better drivers, lovers, students, golfers and singers than they really are. Our ego does not take kindly to honest self-evaluation. But this presents a particular problem when it comes to developing a digital product that somebody has to use. Because the person creating it will think they’re cleverer than they really are, while the audience that has to use it will act more stupidly then they could imagine. Let me elaborate…. Continue reading →

Following the death of Steve Jobs and the subsequent outpouring of grief, tributes and favorite Jobs quotes – I’ve been giving some thought to the notion of role models. The idea that we should put somebody on a pedestal and look-up to them for inspiration and guidance might seem a little old fashioned to some. The kind of thing your granddad might tell you one Sunday afternoon about how it’s important to look-up to and respect people. But after working on a recent project that focused on Millennials – 18-34s – the realization dawned on me that our young people don’t seem to have any leaders that they identify with. And that’s why people like Steve Jobs were so important. Continue reading →