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Have you ever had the experience of working on a project or presentation, and you can’t really get any momentum until you get a draft of the document done first and can “shoot holes in it”? For me, this book has summed up what I’ve always felt but haven’t been able to express succinctly: “form follows failure”.

I’m about 3/4 through this interesting book, which as a history junkie, I initially picked up to satisfy my need to read something fairly dry before heading to bed. What I discovered is a rather entertaining essay on the evolution and science of design. Henry Petroski uses case studies on how common objects (the paper clip, zipper, fork, masking tape, etc.) have been developed over time as a background for his overall thesis, which is that form does not follow function, but rather failure.

What he means by this that rather than necessity being the “mother of invention,” failure of a product or service to perform in some way is what drives an innovator to develop a solution. In short, being annoyed with stuff that doesn’t work is what motivates us to create something new that fulfills our personal or collective expectations.

What’s exciting to me about this argument, although penned by Petroski in 1994, is that it absolutely supports the “always in beta” development model that is the current standard for progressive web sites and applications (such as Gmail, iStockphoto, etc.). You throw something out there, listen to people complain about what doesn’t work, and then you innovate, and repeat the cycle ad infinitum. What is fantastic about the internet age is that this cyclical development process can occur in real-time, and the benefits to clients and users are conveyed at the same lightning speed.

I can’t mention this topic without paying homage to David Armano and Critical Mass for their inspirational “always in beta” website and experience at the 2007 Forrester Consumer Forum (I had the privilege of being interviewed live by David at the event). The website is now evolving (who would have thought?) beyond it’s original intent of a “new idea” at the Forum into a real-time communications portal for Critical Mass.

To tie this all together, offline projects, and really all design challenges that an agency tackles, are subject to the rule of “form follows failure”. At an agency, we listen, we create, our internal reviews and client feedback tell us what’s wrong with our creation, and we continue to hone and refine until the final design accomplishes all that it can. I guess adding “routinely and adeptly fails on all initiatives” is a great line to my resume after all.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am almost always drinking water from a plastic Nalgene bottle. It’s good to stay hydrated at work, and in my opinion it’s really good to do so from a reusable container.

I read something on CNN.com this weekend that really excites me: the mayor of San Francisco has signed an executive order banning city deparments from buying bottled water. The mayor cited the overall financial costs and the subsequent environmental impact as major reasons for the ban…I think this is really a great initiative and should be applauded. In fact, in America and other developed countries, I hope that bottled water will one day go the route that smoking is today – banned in most places.

Does that seem a little extreme? Americans already have some of the cleanest water in the world. In fact, the water discharged from waste water treatment plants must meet stricter guidelines for potability than municipal water supplies in the developing world. I’ve read in several places (but can’t find them currently to cite them) that if the world spent on international aide what it spent on bottled water each year that we would be able to provide clean drinking water to everyone on the planet.

And then there’s the environmental impact. Just take me for example. I’ve been using the same bottle for the past 4+ years, and it’s still going strong. Let’s say I had instead used a throw-away bottle every day for the past 4 years. That would mean that I would have placed over 1,400 bottles of plastic into the landfill by myself! Americans buy enough bottled water in a year to give an 8-ounce serving to every man, woman, and child in the country. But that’s really nothing compared to all of the other costs. Check out this Wikipedia article (it’s properly cited and footnoted) for more information…it’ll blow your mind.

I’m glad that Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco is taking such a bold step forward. I hope other towns will see the cost benefits and follow suit.

Well, if I could use some of my own criticisms, it would be now. I was out all last week on vacation in Florida, and neglected to tell anyone that online. Let that be lesson to me. During my stay, I got some great comments with good thoughts from Nick Rice and from Oliver Blanchard. Because I was away and didn’t let anyone know, their comments sat in moderation for close to a week! Please forgive me, guys. Shame on me for not being “real” on the web.

My wife, son and I spent a week with my extended family at a resort south of Orlando and had a great, refreshing time. The highlight for me was a chance to go fishing for sharks with my brother and sister. After 3 hours of exhausting battle, we managed to reel in this 10 foot, 270+ lb. Lemon shark. The picture was blurry because I had to use manual focus on a moving object in the dark. What a rush!

Here’s something that’s been on my mind quite a bit recently as I’ve been reading marketing blogs and thinking about how to improve mine. The best advice a marketing or branding firm can give their client is this:

“You’ve got to differentiate. You’ve got to develop a unique selling proposition (or promise) that is different from everyone else, and is laser-focused so that your audience knows exactly what you’re offering.”

It’s great advice for any business or any blog that wants to be “successful,” and I will continue to relay that advice when appropriate. However, while I believe those maxims are sound and necessary for business, I don’t really think that they are appropriate for the rest of life. I’ve run into too many people that seem to think this is the case.

To put it simply, when I hire a consultant at work, she or he had better be specialized. But when I take them out for lunch, I should hope that their lives are less focused and more diversified. People who are all about work all of the time are boring, and I don’t think I could ever live that way. In some ways, the blogging community (even “professional” bloggers) has helped mitigate this trend because a genuine experience with someone else has gained some value. But I think that so many people, in the name of “marketing” themselves or of “maintaining their personal brand” create a fake experience for others in business and in life.

I think I might be guilty of this to some degree. I have a background in sales, and continue to function in a sales role at n-tara. As a salesperson I’m very conscious of what others are experiencing, and I like to be professional. But I also like to take every available opportunity to be real with a client. To share something about myself and to ask them something personal. It’s not a tactic to build rapport (although it does have that side effect), it’s a chance to connect with someone in a real way.

In my career, I’ve met so many people that are intensely uncomfortable with themselves. So uncomfortable that they have to play up their work persona into what they think they should look like rather than who they actually are. It’s the same reason that people lie on resumes, and it carries the same results. In the end, no one, not even you, benefits from falsifying experience on a resume. The employer is robbed of his/her ability to make a good decision about whom they are hiring, and you are robbed of the chance to truly find a match for your real skill sets and interest.

Where is all of this going? To this point, I think. It’s good for a blog to have a focus so it is valuable to others and is differentiated, etc. But right now in my life I don’t have that intense of a focus, and I’m telling the world (and myself) that it’s okay to be that way. Maybe the blogging community, like the rest of life, can be a good place to learn and distill what your passion really is, and to inform oneself about what you do and don’t know. I’m going to try it.

I hereby give this blog (and myself) permission to be unfocused for the time being. To largely stay within my areas of interest and experience, but to be genearlly absent of the typical top 10 list of improving your direct mail campaigns, small business brand, or whatever. What’s really of value to anyone who visits here is exactly what is truly of value to me when I visit anyone else’s site – my (and your) unique perspective on life. Everyone sees things differently, and we can all learn from each other. What I can’t learn from is someone who squashes their own personality in the name of creating a more “successful” blog.

Alright, good rant.