Market Research, Design, and Choices

I was writing a contact in the marketing world and I realized why I do not want to do market research for some types of companies, and why I prefer to work in the social media world.

I do not want to work at a research firm where I would have to do research for a fast food company, a tobacco company, or a soda company. I think one important aspect of good marketing, and good understanding of the market, is to make a good product that fits consumer need. This does not mean you make products that manipulate people's brains on a chemical level (fats, sugars, nicotine, empty calories) . Good design is important to me, products that harm people's health are defective by design and I do not tolerate treating people like that.

One reason I like social media is because it can make people's lives better, and it needs to be designed well to do that.

Good design makes life better. Some products are designed to enrich some at the cost of others, but are marketed in quite a different way. For more on fast food, read Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation.

Thai Food Blog

I am very tempted to title this "Food Porn" but I think some people don't know the phrase (no it does not typically mean anything to do with porn, it's just foodies have a similar reaction to it). But, the photos are beautiful. Makes me think I need to re-post all the food from my defunct UM blog.

Thai Food Blog

Architecture and Cooking

I recently realized how architecture and cooking are pretty much the same thing. Artistic and scientific (if you doubt that cooking good food has anything to do with science, watch Alton Brown). Different regions of the world have their own versions of both that are easily recognizable. Often made to reflect local materials. Both are good. Often, simpler is better.

5 Senses

The Internet, and games, don't do smell. Smell is an amazingly powerful sense for humans in terms of visceral response. The market (Pike Place) smells really good, too (besides the colors).

Yes They Do

Like chocolate and peanut butter almost. Seattle. Coffee. Go figure.

Morning

Cheese. Almost.

Bento! C/o Mimi Ito

I may have been introduced to bento back in high school (aka, "the eighties"), but I know we used to eat it when I was at Ziff-Davis out in the Bay area in 1992 (with font-man and Colin). Mimi Ito apparently makes a lot of bento -- every day for her kids! And she's posted a lot of beautiful bento photos at flickr. There's a large set of images and a smaller tagged group, they may overlap, not sure. 

Grand Army Farmers' Market

Hit up the farmer's market this morning. The smell of fresh produce is awesome! Hits the right spot in the brain (yes, evolution!).

Flowers:	More flowers:
Blueberries:	Eggplants:
Nectarines:	Currants:
Rhubarb:	Orchids:
Mushrooms:	Produce:

Pre-Internet Trolls

Given that technology changes but people don't, and given that we have Internet trolls, we probably had trolls before the Internets. We did. Tom Standage observes this in his A History of the World in Six Glasses, and this section will remind you of his The Victorian Internet.

News traveled fast across this coffee-powered network; according to one account published in the Spectator in 1712: "There was a fellow in town some years ago, who used to divert himself by telling a lye at Charing Cross in the morning at eight of the clock, and then following it through all parts of town until eight at night; at which time he came to a club of his friends, and diverted them with an account [of] what censure it had drawn at Will's in Covent Garden, how dangerous it was believed [to be?] at Child's and what inference they drew from it with relation to stocks at Jonathan's." (p. 154)

Awesome, except for the "they are trolls" part.

Meat is Murder!

(Starting off with a little reference to The Smiths, fyi.)

Last night I caught the end of Fast Food Nation. Horrifying! Today we have two articles in the NYT, one from The Minimalist (yes, food), "Putting Meat Back in Its Place," a sane look at the amount of meat we eat and how most people don't eat as much and how they do it. (Combine with recent books by Michael Pollan for even more knowledge.) 

But there is also a much more disturbing article about America's beef production, with the writing in part motivated by the recent and massive South Korean anti-US beef import protests. Two highlights are, one, keeping in mind you are what you eat:

And in early 2004, the Food and Drug Administration announced plans to ban feeding cow blood, waste from chicken coop floors and plate waste from restaurants to cattle. Blood had been in formula fed to calves as a substitute for milk, chicken feed could contain rendered beef protein, and restaurant waste, of course, included beef.

But some Agriculture Department decisions were not reassuring.

Under political pressure, the F.D.A. bans on cow blood, chicken dung and plate waste were never implemented.

And, two:

Then, in mid-2005, when the second case of mad cow disease was confirmed in the U.S., it was revealed that the Agriculture Department had concealed for seven months the fact that one of the tests it had performed on the sample had been positive. The test similar to one used in other countries had been ruled “experimental” and not reported.

Nice! Doing the job, but not doing the job. Highly reassuring.

Joi Ito and Bamboo

So I got around to viewing a BBtv episode from a while ago, with Japan's mythical Internet guru Joi Ito, where he cooks up some bamboo shoots. I will link to the episode so you can go and read the text, which is informative and interesting. I also think Ito looks like Sulu from Star Trek (George Takei), which only adds to his mystique. (Yes I know they are both Japanese, I am not saying all Japanese people look alike -- I've been to Japan, I know this isn't true. Judge for yourself.)

BK Poutine

Poutine

I was ordered to try poutine, then we went on a mission to find it (they have it at Burger King but we did not go there). Find it we did.

Coffee!

Wow. At a Texaco convenience store here in FL (yes I am in FL). 12!

Option #2: Email

Let's see how this works. 2:18pm. (That is of course an egg cream.)

France!

Freedom Fries? Nah, they were totally correct about Iraq! Apology Fries is more like it, but the republicans are full of hubris. Anyways, photos:

cafe en un cafe

These were a sample of colors available on ceramic by one manufacturer at the Musee des Arts et Metiers, a must-see Paris technology museum.

very cool: an Apple Lisa with French AZERTY keyboard

Sushi! Trevor Corson's The Zen of Fish

You should all read Corson's The Zen of Fish. Funny, moving, inspiring, and filled with history and science in an accessible and enjoyable manner (science is good, it is not scary).

Has a pretty cool website, too.