Consumerism

I spent my Tuesday lunch break on the Trek Project One website building and pricing different bicycles. I have done that in the past, but this time I might actually buy something. As I consider buying a third bicycle, albeit far better than my other two, I feel a little evil. There are so many other things in the world I could spend my money on. Furthermore, I get excited by not spending money. I still don't have cable or Internet at my apartment. My preferred vehicle is a 1993 Toyota Previa with 270,000 miles on it.

It seems to me like a really nice bicycle is a waste while people around the world starve and die. I have a friend from college and he would say, "I never want to have any money." The meaning is that there are people in need who could use his money. It took me awhile to understand that, but it has made an impact on my life.

Related to the title, I overheard a conversation recently between two people complaining about the high price of insurance and taxes on "old" luxury cars, specifically the years 2002 and 2004. In some ways it was appalling and in more personal ways it was representative of my life and specifically buying a new bicycle.

Five months ago I was passing the year mark for unemployment. It is amazing how quickly the money seems to be changing me. Because now it is just a bicycle, that once I buy it I never have to pay more for it. Next year it's a car with gas, insurance, and taxes. Then it's a house. Then it's a pool in the backyard and a huge tv, a newer car, a second property, and an endless list of material junk.

On the other hand, my bicycle will contribute to dozens of peoples paycheck and employment, I will surely ride even more, and if regular use of my bicycles allows me to delay buying a car for a year or more, then it would be worth it. Plus Trek gives their frames a lifetime warranty, so basically this is a one time, until I either do Ironmans or am in my 40s, kind of purchase.

User Friendly?

Recently I had to show someone how to use a very simple piece of electronics. As I was demonstrating the two step process I realized it should not require two steps to do what that person wanted but only one step.

Often it seems that the people capable of developing things are not the people who really understand the end users. Case in point, traffic flow patterns decided by civil engineers because civil engineers know how to build roads. I know a lot of civil engineers and they are very good at what they engineer and build, but ultimately they think differently than the average driver. I don't know who would be better at designing traffic flow patterns but I am sure that some profession would be. Another example, computer programs are all written by computer programers. Again programers are great at making things work and getting software to do what I want, but sometimes it seems like the person using the software was an afterthought to the purpose of the software. The Janzen Gear ice axe was in many ways a lesson for me about the whole just-because-you-can-doesn't-mean-you-should aspect of industry.

If you are ever in the position to create a product that will be used by people, keep user friendliness in mind. After using dozens of software programs and driving tens of thousands of miles I feel we can do better. That of course starts with me since I try not to be a hippocrite all of the time. If I ever make something and you can not figure out how to use it, let me know and I shall change it. If we all make our products just a little more user friendly just imagine where we will go.

The Ideal [Apple] Computing System

In 2004 as I headed off to college I bought a laptop and a cell phone. It was my first personal computer and personal phone. When I was trying to make the decision of what phone I wanted, I took the phone that was free with the cheapest nationwide phone plan. Why buy something with an mp3 player or camera when I already had an iPod and a digital video camera? Buying a computer was still a somewhat geeky proposition. There was really only the choice between a desktop and a laptop. The details of processor speed, memory, graphics cards, and hard drives were the type of thing that we geeks discussed, because we were all geeky future engineers and scientists. The Internet was accessed on a computer. A small computer was a 4.6 pound laptop.

My how times have changed in seven years. Wednesday Apple introduced a 1.3 pound iPad 2 with a dual core 1 GHz processor. That is faster than my current computer. Something that doesn't even pretend to be a computer is better than a computer that is not even seven years old. Now the Internet is accessed on millions of phones, tablets, gaming consoles, and of course, wicked fast computers.

My six a half year old computer is getting ready to move to another owner. It still works fine. I create and edit documents, surf the internet, stream videos, and listen to music. Yet, it encodes video really slow, has all of an eight minute battery life, and is not capable of running some complex new programs due to a slow processor speed. On a similar note, I am on my third cell phone, an iPhone, whose contract ended a few months ago. The battery life is not as great as it once was, and I would like a better camera. So I am in the market for another piece of technology.

So as I examine the options, within the context that I am hopelessly sold on Apple products, I wonder what is my ideal system? Starting with a phone, I want to upgrade to the iPhone 5. Mostly because of the  video capability and higher resolution screen. Having a new battery will also be a plus. Apple has not released it yet so it might be called the iPhone 4G, but regardless I am sure it will be amazing.

So that covers an ultra portable device. What do I do on a computer or larger device that I do not or can not do on a phone? First, the things that I can do either on a phone or a computer. I typically blog, check my email, pay my bills (some I only pay using my computer), surf the Internet, listen to music, watch YouTube videos, and check the weather.

Things that I currently do strictly on my computer include creating and editing documents and presentations, edit videos, burn DVDs, dabble in computer programing, and using various engineering related programs. Wether or not I use those engineering programs on my personal computer in the future remains to be seen. For the most part of my time in the future (90%+ of the time) I will probably only need the capability to create and edit documents, including pdfs and spreadsheets, and edit video. Both of those are possible using the iPad. Although that does not give me the ability to burn DVDs which is a capability that I value.

So requiring the use an an optical drive, more I nearly always burn DVDs at home so a desktop computer with an optical drive would be nice. The capability of a desktop computer also give me the opportunity to use complex programs and enhanced video editing.

In bullets by device:

• iPhone: surf the Internet, use email, listen to music, ultra portable, a camera and video editing, ebooks, weather, banking, games, directions
• iPad: all of the above, very portable instead of ultra portable, and not as capable to give directions. On the plus size, the screen is huge and thus more user friendly and the battery life is great. 
• Macbook Air: very portable, camera, a full opperating system so that advanced programs or programming can be done, a full keyboard, descent battery life
• Macbook/Macbook Pro: all of the above except it is less portable (a little heavier) and has much better battery life as well as an optical drive and phenomenal processors speed
• iMac: not practically portable on a daily basis, very advanced processors and an optical drive, needs to be plugged in

Use and probably best or two best device:

• Hiking, Bicycling, Directions, and short term travel (a few hours): iPhone
• Expedition to Asia: Macbook Air (7 Watts/hr) or iPad (2.5 Watts/hour) (must be able to be charged by my 20 Watt solar panel, necessitating using less than 20 Watts per hour. would typically be used to watch movies, play games, listen to music, and read)
• Coffee shop Internet use: Macbook Air or Macbook/Macbook Pro I really like the use of a key board
• Group homework: Macbook Air or Macbook/Macbook Pro
• Burning DVDs: iMac or Macbook Pro
• Editing and Encoding Video: iMac
• Programming and using complex programs: iMac
• Surfing the Internet on the couch: iPad
• Gaming: depends on what game you are playing. I am perfectly content with the Sudoku on my phone
• Bicycle commuting: Macbook Air
• Cutting food: Macbook Air or iPad 2

What does all of this mean? I will probably buy a new iPhone the week it is released and will probably get a Macbook Air this fall when they will likely release one with a faster processor. Although, I have not played with the new iPad yet and I am very excited about that. I mean, it has a better processor than my computer! I could easily get away with an iMac and iPad instead of a laptop. I want to get the best value and functionality for a system that will last me at least four more years, the phone excluded. I don't know. I'm just thinking out loud. If you have any comments let me know below. 

Quality Matters

My computer is an Apple 12.1 inch Powerbook G4 1.33 GHz, vintage 2004. In other words, it's old and not terribly fast. I bought it in the spring before I went to college and I have owned it ever since, nearly seven years.

As I gaze around my room and see how much junk I have, I also appreciate all of the valuable quality things that I have. Things that could very well last longer than I do. For example, I have a 1930s Royal typewriter that is in almost as good of condition now as when it rolled off the production line over 70 years ago.

I feel that quality stuff is totally the way to go when buying anything that will be used multiple times. For example, I bought and broke several $8-18 watches before I finally bought a $50 watch that does everything I need and it has lasted longer than any of those previous watches. My computer is a prime example. At $1,600 it was a huge expense when I bought it but provided it makes seven years that is an average of $20 per month. Considering that it helped me through two engineering degrees, thousands of hours of work, and that I pay way more than that per month for my cell phone, I can't imagine a much better deal.

Finally, buying quality is environmentally friendly because you buy less. Had I gone through three computers in the time that this one has lasted me how much of those computers would be sitting in a landfill? Similarly, using ceramic plates instead of paper or styrofoam plates entail a little bit of washing but nothing ends up in a landfill.

The same can be said for products as for time. Such as how I spend my time running. Running eight minute miles for 13 hours a week is great and I get into great slow aerobic shape, but seeing as how my goals involve running paces much closer to five minutes per mile, I need to run workouts close to those paces.

Just something to think about.

A Year After Publication

About 13 months ago my sister and I finished writing and editing What Gen Y Wants You to Know. Since then we have had 62 downloads and have given away at least eight books to people that do not really use the Internet or that would have liked a hard copy of our book. We have not sold any paperback copies of What Gen Y Wants You to Know. 

What have I learned?

Advertising, advertising, advertising, and then some advertising will get things propagated. This is one of the ways that anything sells. Lots of people hear about it and think it's cool. Word of mouth is a really strong way for things to propagate. It works because people trust their friends. I tried to follow Seth Godin's model or Dave's model of give it away free and then offer to sell it. The idea is that people don't actually want the information in the book as much as they want to own a book that has ideas they agree with. However, after the fact I realized that it probably takes six years of successful blogging to get to the point where that works. Or you have to start out famous.

I also learned that traditional publishing is a competitive playground. Millions of people around the world think they are great writers while precious few actually write well. (Yes, yes, I know I probably fall into that category as well, but you don't have to read my stuff and nothing I have written, with the exception of my thesis, is exclusive in any way. It's all free.) As far as understanding the publishing world and what it takes to get a book published by one of the nice big companies read Miss Snark's blog. Aside from all of the segues into her personal life it offers real sincere nuggets of publishing information. 

Some people have a hard time downloading things that take more than one click.

What will I DO differently next time?

That is a curious question because there are different avenues that I would like to take depending on the book that I am writing. I am working on a rope solo climbing book, and have been for two years. This would likely be self published print-on-demand because the market for this book would probably be less than a thousand people. It could be tens of thousands but based on the web traffic I measured in relation to key search terms, we're talking about a few hundred people so self publishing would be it. I would also not offer it free. Why not? I feel that the concepts are important enough that someone should have the whole book and feel that it has value because it costs money. If someone would download it free and print out only two pages he or she could easily get in a dangerous situation without knowing how to get out of it.

I am working on several other books and in fact have 130 pages of my autobiography covering ages 9 to 15 that I typed out on my grandma's typewriter. Traditional publishing is so enticing because the ability to say, "you can get my book in Barnes and Noble" is incredibly exciting! Having a book in a big chain book store means that the man approves of your idea and your writing enough to try and sell it. You may not make any money but you will have gotten a book published and in book stores.

EBooks are the future, hands down. Of course there will be paper books for a long long time to come and people will continue to acquire a few books every year. Yet the writing is on the screen, people sit in front of their computers and read from their screens. It's also kind of fun. Just write a book make a semi-classy PDF and share the link. It cuts out so many middle men, and inevitably people that cut into your profits or people that slow your ideas down. Similarly, news gets Tweeted by The People instead of investigated, written about, edited, printed, and delivered to your door step in the morning. It's fast.

If the book I write next is a little thicker I'm going hardcover. It's just more classy.

Put some graphs, statistics and color pictures in there too. I like looking at the pictures and I think most people do as well. It would also be nice if a book I wrote was slightly longer. It does not have to be a novel but What Gen Y Wants You to Know was a scant 48 pages with large type. Most people read it in like 20-30 minutes. It probably takes that long to read a week of my normal blogging. 

By the way, if you are in Seattle and you see Dave (the photographer) tell him that he should make a coffee table photo book because you would buy it. I've seen some of his pictures and trust me it would be worth your money.

The Last Laptop You Will Ever Own

The recent release of the Macbook Air has a many technophiles ogling. Myself included. My current 12 inch Powerbook G4 is six and a half years old. My laptop has survived over six years, and chances are I will resell it and someone else will use it for a few years. This is not terribly surprising considering the most complicated programs I have ever run on my computer are Matlab, a Halo demo, remotely accessing a server, and video encoding. Now there are remote desktop applications, such as iTeleport, for iPhone and iPad so non-phone-based applications can be used. You can use your computer from your phone. There is also a sweeping range of applications for mobile platforms that enable creation of documents, spreadsheets, presentations, gaming, video editing, mathematical computing, reading books, and location (GPS) based services. That is to say, I do not need to have a mobile computer.

What does the future hold? Smaller, lighter, better battery life, and probably flexible or at least foldable. Imagine something the size of a magazine, just a flexible and heavy, with the capability of your current computer. Or something the size of your phone that folds to the size of a magazine, or even a laptop and is as capable as your computer.

Some are touting the Macbook Air as a possible computer for light-duty users. That is somewhat of a farce or 90% of computer users can be considered light-duty users. My six year old computer was strong enough to do 95% of what I wanted it to do the last five and a half years as an engineering student. For most of the people that use computers a fast processor, huge amounts of hard drive storage and a whole bunch of gigs of RAM is more than they need. I have 768 megabytes of RAM in my current computer and I have used my computer more than most.

Now programs do become more unwieldy over time. I have a program called TextEdit on my computer, which makes very basic documents, like 1992 era word processing. It is much smaller and takes less processing power than Microsoft Word, but it doesn't do nearly as much. So over time programs will require more memory and faster processors. That being said for 90% of users the ability to use the Internet, Microsoft Office, listen to music, watch videos, edit photos and video, and play a few games are all they want or need. I feel that buying a top-of-the-line or very capable laptop now that will last the next five years may be the last laptop many people will ever own.

Backpacking, Mountaineering, Camping, and Climbing Stoves

There is a huge demand for a small portable flame in the wilderness to heat water. There are three general categories of stoves which I  describe.

Solid Fuel Stoves:

• Stoves that burn wood, charcoal, fuel tabs
• Easy to transport fuel and easy to find fuel
• Hardly any control of flame size and heat
• Cheap
• Dirty
• Best uses: true unsupported long wilderness treks where wood is easy to find but carrying two gallons of white gas is not practical. These are for beginners who like fires or experienced people who like the simplicity. Simple backpacking or camping are their best uses.
• My favorite: soda can alcohol stove
• My least favorite: coffee can wood stove

Liquid Fuel Stoves:

• Stoves that burn white gas, kerosene, diesel, alcohol
• Easy to find fuel but difficult to transport fuel
• Very good flame size (heat) control
• Moderately expensive
• Somewhat clean
• Moderately heavy
• Best uses: general backpacking. In the US and abroad fuel is easy to find. They work well at higher elevations and in cold temperatures but are not the lightest option. They are too volatile to be used in tents and can not be hung.
• My favorite: MSR Whisperlite International
• My least favorite: They are all pretty similar I don't have a least favorite.

Canister Stoves:

• Stoves that burn propane, butane or a mix of the two
• Difficult to find fuel or fuel that is new and not in refilled cannisters
• Generally only on or off so no flame control
• Somewhat expensive, especially the fuel
• Very clean
• The lightest option
• Can usually be hung and still work
• Best uses: where weight is an issue and so is time. Ultralight backpackers who need to boil water faster than an alcohol stove. Climber and mountaineers who want to go lighter or hang their stove.
• My favorite: MSR Reactor. It's efficient, light, powerful, and hands down my favorite stove.
• My least favorite: I have a decade old Coleman with a huge burner and pot support. Nice for camping not for backpacking.

That's a general run down of stoves to be used in the hills.

How to Make Money from Space

This is kind of a vague area. Most people think space is cool and it's nice to hear about the most recent Mars rover but at the end of the day all we hear is how much it costs and not how much was made. So being a rocket scientist I will try to explain through several past examples and possible future scenarios. This post is inspired by the most recent state of the union address and some new goals the president gave to NASA.

First a story that was told to me in my aerospace avionics class by an 80+ year old retired guy. I forget the name of the company or the person but it was my professor's friend. Anyway for the Apollo program they had to use circuit boards and resistors and transistors. At the time the average useful life of the best stuff available was like three days. Apollo missions were up to 12 days. I believe my professor's friend owned a transistor factory. Anyway he was the head of the company and got the contract for the transistors and did those batches by hand. Apparently he had trouble sleeping during the missions because the chance that all of the parts he had cooked in the furnace worked for the whole mission was very low. Fortunately, there was never a problem. So the space program forced engineers to make more reliable components that benefit us today in every electronic device we use.

Nasa has required things that are smaller and lighter, mostly electronic things. They have not always come up with the innovation itself but required that some innovative piece be used. For example, the shuttle landing strip and shuttle tires. The landing strip is, I believe, the flattest landing strip in the world. It is also made of a very rough surface so that it can move water off of it faster than any other "road" in the world. This creates an issue when you have a spacecraft landing at very high speeds on only a handful of tires. The tires for the shuttle had to be very advanced. Things we take for granted in our tires in the teens (2010s) were not really existent 35 years ago when the shuttle was being designed. Now we have wires and many layers and tires that just keep going.

Other inventions they have at least helped create are water filters, cordless tools, and memory foam. NASA has contributed to over 6,300 patents, and you can bet most of them are the useful kind of patents.

We must also remember that communications and weather satellites bring in money directly because of the information that they transmit. Talking on a satellite phone costs around $1.00 per minute, yet tens of thousands of people use satellite phones every year.

Now the future is much more interesting. I can only imagine that the technology innovations will continue to keep coming (unless Apple and Google have a war for the world's technology). However the interesting postulate is about what the future holds. Space tourism? That's a really big question. There are only a few thousand people in the world that can currently afford to go into orbit. There are probably a million or so that can afford to take a flight into "space" at 100km above sea level and enjoy a few uninterrupted minutes of free fall (weightlessness). That is unless we can figure out some way to get to orbit without traditional liquid fuel rockets (yeah... that's not happening this decade) which are very very expensive.

Another possibility is mining. Almost every 90s space video game hinted at mining colonies, as well as Star Wars, Avatar, and other fantasy media content. They were somewhat right. If we can find something (paladium, platinum, uranium, lutetium, and other rare earth elements) on Mars that we run out of on Earth then it may become economical to mine on other celestial bodies.

One somewhat far fetched possibility, yet one that people like me sit around and talk about, is the possibility that Earth by itself is not enough. We have too much waste. What if we could dump it all on Mars for only three times the price of driving it to Michigan? What if all of our mining occurred in space? What if we could terraform Mars (think Dubai meets Army Corp of Engineers) so that it was a giant recycling center. Biodegrading waste and making oxygen, yet still harsh enough that we couldn't live there without spacesuits. How cool would that be to get a three year assignment to Mars? Kind of like the south pole, but it's Mars.

I can't quote a number and say if you pay X you will get Y. Unfortunately, I think that one of the most lucrative aspects of space is the exploration itself. I doubt Columbus, Cortez, Shackelton, Admundsen, or Armstrong will be forgotten soon. So there is always the speaking tours, the book deal, the movie, action figures, conferences and the like. To quote Pawn Stars, "the problem with one of a kind items is that you can't compare it to the last one you sold." I'll translate that to mean you just do not know the end result and the profitable tangents when you try something new.

Designer vs. Developer

The world of products has changed somewhat the past few decades. There is a group of people who get college degrees in design. Graphic design, fashion design, and other forms of design are becoming increasingly common. I only have a limited knowledge of this field so what I say may be wrong about it. It seems that this is not purely art. It is applying art to an otherwise "structural" situation.

For example, clothing companies come out with new product lines and updates every year. A large amount of the "new" is due to designers creating new lengths, seems, cuts, pockets, color schemes, and the like. Designers are to products what architects are to buildings. These seem to be the creative people that challenge the limits of what is possible.

Then there are developers. Developers are to products what civil engineers are to buildings. These are the people that make it work. They apply manufacturing constraints to the designs and come up with the best solution. Their creativity is figuring out how to make something. Welded seam gloves. It's the next big thing if anyone can figure out how to do it well. Many millions of dollars if you can make gloves with welded seams that last as long as sewn seams. Companies are starting to try it now, but it is not working yet.

Right now as a do-it-all-myself person it's hard to separate the different tasks. As I apply for mainstream jobs I have some difficulty most of the time even understanding what they are looking for. In my education, proof of concept and functionality have been stressed over looks. If it worked with duct tape, we used duct tape. The more I learn about marketing it seems that people care how things look. Now, my experience in industry is very limited. So when I apply for these jobs I wonder if I will be creating new products from scratch like I have done before or if they want someone to take a prototype and make it shinny and figure out how to make tens of thousands of them.

There are many other people in the product line chain such as the people that actually manufacture the stuff, the sales people, the marketing people, management, investors/owners, and the support people that keep all of those people running. However, when it comes to the creation and production the people that create items and solve production problems are designer and developers.

One Year of Blogging in Review

One year ago today, February 27th, I posted my first blog entry. I did not know where this blog would take me. I started Learning to DO with one idea in mind: replicate the sort of blog that CiloGear has so that I could update the world on the trials of starting a company. Well, over the weeks starting a company kind of went up and down and who knows where it's at today. I have an email address and contractors refer to me being from Janzen Gear, but what does that mean?

This blog has evolved into something of a melting pot of information both personal and business. Everything from stories and videos from Pakistan to personal relationships and more info about running than you probably want. I have learned that I really like writing. If my job for the next ten years was to pop out several pages every day I could live with that.

By the numbers I would say I'm off to a good start. This is my 234th blog post in 366 days. Over 7,000 visits and 11,000 page views with absolutely zero money spent advertising, hosting, or on development. While that does not compare to the millions per month that other sites get, it is a decently large number. Recently I started averaging over 45 visits per day. If there is one key to getting more visitors every day it is consistency. The more content you have available on the internet the more people will find you. I even get fan email! I also get angry emails sometimes too...

As far as monetizing my blog goes, well, it has paid off. I am currently coaching one person and have made several hundred dollars as a result of that. We knew each other from working together the summer of 2006 and through Facebook stayed mildly connected until he started reading my blog and we started talking more. The next thing I knew I was getting paid to coach him. So I am not directly making money from blogging but indirectly I am.

I have become one of the world's experts in bottom-up meshing in Abaqus and I get about 10% of my hits on that post alone. I'm happy that post is helpful to people because I probably spent two or three hours writing it.

I think that I have been one of the driving factors to influence six of my friends to actually start blogging. For those of you who I helped inspired, yes I do read your blogs from time to time. This is significant for me. Everyone brings something different to their blog. Often times people are pretty revealing and tell things in writing that I would otherwise not hear about at all. This extends to instant messaging and texting as well. The difference with a blog is that the entire world can read it. I encourage more people to get into it. It is kind of like publishing your autobiography in small pieces. One piece of advice, if you do start blogging do it on your own terms. Do not let someone pressure you to reveal something you do not feel comfortable with.

Outside of the blog I spent seven weeks in Pakistan and made it to 23,050 feet and back in great condition. I have averaged more miles run in each of the last five months than any month before. I have run some nice races. I wrote my MS thesis and graduated with my masters. It was a good year.

With my sister I wrote an ebook and we produced it into an actual paperback. Although, I am the only person that has bought copies of it and the ebook has had only 52 downloads. In my mind it is worth it because I learned a lot about writing, publishing and advertising. When I release my next written work I am sure it will do at least five times better maybe ten times better. At this point in my life I am really just focused on getting the information out there and not making my first million. Like the title says "Learning to Do" that's exactly where I am in my life. By the way I am working on several written projects at the moment.

Life is good. Yeah it could be better (I could be paying more than the minimum on my bills), but I don't want to get demanding. Keep reading. I don't where were Learning to DO is headed except forward.

Successful Innovative Companies: Volume 18

The Successful Innovative Company of the week is: The Weather Channel.

What they do right: give weather information all day every day. You will be hard pressed to ever catch me watching The Weather Channel but I recognize something innovative and different when I see it.

Can you imagine what it must have been like when they were proposing this? Some younger guys standing in a room with some older guys and the question coming from the older guys, "So, you're just going to give weather forecasts... all the time." However, weather is kind of a big thing. Outdoor activities and travel all depend on the weather. Weather can destroy buildings and strand communities.

As far as the details, local on the 8s is pretty cool. Every ten minutes they give two minutes of the local weather forecast at :08, :18, :28...

I also like storm stories. They show short programs about historical weather events like hurricanes and blizzards. They also have an iPhone app which is better for weather than the weather app that came with my iPhone. It has nice semi-detailed weather forecasts and all of the weather information I ever need.

What they could improve: Their website is not my favorite for weather information. I prefer Weather Underground because it has more information when you type in a zip code or city. I like the fact that so much information is on the page. You can just scroll down instead of clicking on this link and that link. I like information that is available in one place without having to go down the rabbit hole to find everything. Perhaps some people like to click on links to find information but I click on enough links as it is.

However, when it comes to television The Weather Channel is number one. I can not think of a single thing that I would do to their station to make it better.

Profiles and Memberships

Tuesday I finally started a LinkedIn profile. All I could think about while I was filling out my information was about how many times I have done this. Facebook, Summitpost, American Alpine Club (you can't see that profile unless you're a member), my resume, my blog profile, RunningAhead, Youtube, Google (yes they have profiles too), Wikipedia, WPI Materials Science graduate student website, and Flotrack. That's 12 profiles that I have. Most are readily accessible and and the others you can get in one email.

Is this ridiculous!? I mean each one of these is it's own little social network. Each one asks for more or less the same stuff. Each one is a way to be in contact with people without actually seeing them face to face. Does all of this serve any purpose? Is it worth the time?

It gets even more frustrating when you think about all the bank accounts I have online. I did the math a few days ago and I have ten loans (including credit cards with a zero balance) and four checking accounts. Then there are those sites where you have to log in but you don't have a profile, like phone bills and online stores.

All together I have or have had at least nine different passwords. I know I did this to myself but I don't feel alone on this. In 2008 (way in the past) Americans consumed 3.6 zettabytes. That is 3.6 million million gigabytes. That is 34 gigabytes per person per day not including work. Browsing through this study there are some interesting trends. TV has always been a big source of information. When it grew after the 50s it took away information from print. With the growth of the internet both print and TV are waning as sources of information. Another interesting aspect of the study was how much of the information we receive is visual. That is TV, movies, and video games give us all sorts of information. Text and spoken words contrastingly contain very little information. For example think of the two megabyte picture you took compared to the 20 kilobyte email you wrote. 100 times more information in the picture than the email. Sometimes it just seems overwhelming.

All of these groups want my email address. They all want my time. They want my attention. They want money. They want to succeed, however that is defined.

I will leave you with a quote that Groucho Marx apparently rephrased from John Galsworthy, "Please accept my resignation. I don't want to belong to any club that will accept people like me as a member."

I'm not quitting anything, but it's food for thought. Where does it stop? I am only one person. I have only one personality. Why should I express myself on 12 different websites?

Pitons

For about 60 years from the turn of the century to the early 70s these little pieces of iron were most of the protection that was used rock climbing or any other sort of climbing. Eventually Chiounard Equipment kind of turned the tide and intruduced chocks (nuts) and hexs and then Wild Country introduced Friends (cams). Today very few climbers practice the art of piton placement.

There is a good reason so few use them. Pitons are usually solid iron, sometimes titantium. They are pounded into cracks in the rock, breaking the rock and changing the shape of the piton (also known as peg or pin). When they are removed there is a scar in the rock commonly called a "pin scar" where the crack has been slightly widened. As you can probably immagine climber often put protection in the same place and after 50 or 100 or 1000 climbers go part one particular spot the crack which used to be two milimeters thick is now a whopping 15 millimeter thick. Also with modern technology they are largely unnecessary on most free climbing routes.

However, for a select few crazy people they alone serve a purpose. Alpine climbers and aid climbers. Aid climbers often encounter very thin cracks where nothing else will hold them and a piton is really the only option. Alpine climbers often encounter cracks that are iced over and will not hold removable protection. They also deal with rotton rock. In both of these situations pounding in a piton, which is kind of like a big flat nail with an eye hole in it, is the safest option.

Remembering that removing a piton destroys the rock, climbers often leave pitons there so that future parties can use them. In fact this is such a common practice that most trade routes have fixed pitons or fixed pins at all the necessary places. So there is really no need to even have pitons unless you are trying a first ascent or obscure route or some crazy twist to a route like doing an unusual route in winter or something. So taking the responsibility to place pitons is like a right of passage. It is something that is earned. Anyone can buy pitons on the internet and go out and use them, but the sport of climbing has advanced so far that these pieces of metal are now used by very few people. It is an interesting and unspoken twist to the world of climbing. You should not be seen with pitons unless you are doing something hard enough to demand their use. It is like a cowboy hat among real cowboys. If you are a pretender do not wear one. The same with certain color shirts in certain cities. If you are not a part of the gang do not wear it.

So that is my spiel on pitons. I only own four. Just in case I try something ridiculous, well more ridiculous than usual, and have to repel a bunch this winter. I'm not planning on doing any routes obscure enough and hard enough to have to use them, but we shall see...

Forget Layering!

The wisdom of the ages says, "wear a whole bunch of different layers in the winter to keep you warm. If it gets too hot take one off, if it is cold put another one on." Well, I'm here to tell you forget that because it is inefficient. Oh it does work, sort of. I'll explain...

Layering as it is practiced by all of the people I know who use it consists of 1-3 layers of light long sleeve silk or polypropylene or capilene. Think Under Armor type of shirts, except a little bit more loose in general. Then these people wear 1-2 layers of heavy insulation like wool or fleece. They cover that up with 1-2 layers of wind/water resistant jackets or pull overs. That's a great combination if you plan on standing around all day. However, if you plan on doing something physical and generating heat you are going to sweat, even if the windchill is below zero.

How can I blast a time tested system? How can I say that it is not the best cold weather clothing system? Experience. Nearly every time I go on a winter hike or cold weather outing with less experienced people we have to stop in the first twenty minutes and they take off clothing.

I do not know the name of the person who coined the name "action suit" but I discovered it on my own in New Hampshire's mountains and with a little help from friendly corporate softshell advertising. It works like this: wear one combination of clothing that consists of relatively few layers and commit to wearing them all day long even if it gets hot. Those layers hopefully have venting zippers and hoods so that you can cool off while working hard. Then have one (just one) layer that you put on when you stop to rest or cook or belay. This is generally a belay parka and puff pants.

My preferred system which I have now used in three states, two countries, and three time zones, hiking, ice climbing, skiing, bicycling in the winter, and up to 23,000 feet is this:

• A full body softshell bib made by Ragged Mountain that I bought used that they don't make any more. Mine has two chest pockets, leg zippers to chinch it or loose it near your ankles, a half moon zipper for using "the loo", and a two way zipper in the front so I can zip the bottom part open if I have to go or zip the top part open if I am too hot. Here is a similar suit that is twice the price of what I paid.
• The Patagonia R1 Hoody! I think I average blogging about this once every two months. Anyway it is an extremely breathable yet insulated hoody with a half zipper and partial face mask. It also has hand extensions with thumb holes. The nice thing is that if it really warms up I can unzip the chest and take the hood off and vent a lot of heat. As some of my videos in Pakistan in the tents at camp two and three show. I even have a spare that still has the tags in case they quit making it. This and the bibs make up the core of my system.
• A pair of gloves. Always a pair of gloves they are light and do wonders to keep your hands a little warm and out of the wind. The actual gloves vary based on the temperature, wind and activity. I have four different pairs that I rotate through depending on the activity. Although I am not an expert on gloves and I can't wait to have $160 to drop on a pair of nice insulated leather ones...
• Depending on the temperature I will either wear running shorts, half tights, or thick full length 2008 Patagonia nordic skiing tights that they don't make any more under the bibs.
• If it is cold I will wear a long sleeve under the R1 Hoody. I have two Nike long sleeve shirts that are really light and fit very nicely. I also have some compression tops similar to Under Armor but I usually feel my motion is restricted when I wear those.
• Occasionally I wear my Mountain Hardware Alchemy jacket over the bibs when it is cold and windy. More often than not though it is too warm. This is a tried and true jacket that has been around for ten years and will probably be here another ten.
• When the temperature is too warm for my parka I carry a three ounce 2007 Marmot Ion jacket. It's mostly wind proof and water proof. I will start sweating when I wear it most of the time but it really keeps the wind off and is absolutely worth the three ounces of weight. I carry this in the summer rock climbing and cycling too. Basically it's the one thing that is guaranteed to be in my pack on any trip in any season.
• For a belay/rest/cooking parka I have a Mountain Hardware Sub Zero Hooded Jacket. It is not the warmest parka out on the market but has always been plenty warm up to 7000 meters. I like it because the waist cut is a little higher than many jackets so I can get to my harness. It also has a ton of pockets including an inside pocket big enough for a one liter Nalgene or thermos. It also has an insulated hood which is a must.
• I have a pair of Mountain Hardware Compressor pants which are synthetic and again not the warmest insulating pants on the market. They have full side zips so I can put them on while standing and wearing crampons without lifting my feet off the ground. One note on why I have so much Mountain Hardware stuff is that the stuff just fits me really well. The sleeves are the right length for me.
• A pair of thick mittens. I don't always carry these for skiing or short hikes but anything more than a few hours or in serious weather will see a pair of either Outdoor Research Alti Mitts or Valandre Oural (down) mittens in my pack because I like my fingers.
• When it is really cold I wear the Outdoor Research Gorilla balaclava. It is very warm and windproof and can be worn with my goggles or with my sun glasses.

I will skip the discussion on footwear because that could take up a whole post. So that is my action suit. You can see that in general there are not many layers, just several functional layers with hoods and chest zippers so that I can air condition myself or turn up the heat. Is there room for improvement? Yeah, any clothing system will vary based on the weather and more importantly in my case the budget. This system and these articles of clothing have served me very well so far so I do not expect any big changes to my system in the next few years.

One last comment I have is about hoods. When it comes to winter clothing hoods are a must. You can put it on or take it off in several seconds and you do not have to worry about putting it in a pocket or your backpack. You lose a lot of heat through your head. Protecting your neck and head from the wind and cold can keep in a lot of heat. This is again why the R1 Hoody is so amazing. When fully zipped up only my nose and eyes are exposed. When unzipped my chest, head and neck are all exposed and I cool off rather quickly.

Successful Innovative Companies: Volume 13

The Successful Innovative Company of the week is: GU Energy!

What they do right: they were the first company to produce an energy gel in 1991. This one single invention revolutionized endurance sports. In athletic competitions longer than an hour it is beneficial to consume some calories during the event. Competitions of a longer length use up about all of the glycogen in your muscles and to keep going without bonking you need more fuel.

Basically GU energy gel is a blend of maltodextrin and some other stuff. The sugars are more complex than simple and thus distributes the energy over a longer length of time than simple sugars. In essence they concentrated gatorade and put it in a 100 calorie package that you can carry almost anywhere. This one invention was so successful that something that started with triathletes progressed to marathoners, mountaineers, and probably sports I don't even know about.

Since 91 they have come up with other products as well. They now have a full range of energy and recovery products including more solid chomp pieces and drink mixes. They also sponsor a number of athletes in several sports.

For me personally, once I tried energy gels I was hooked. They give you a blast of energy and really help you keep going longer. In fact I buy energy gels in bulk.

What they could improve: their outreach (not necessarily marketing) could be better. Many of my friends never try GU until the night before their first marathon. Some also don't use GU in marathon. As a veteran of many runs over 2.5 hours and hikes and climbs in the 12 or more hour range I greatly appreciate GU. However, they don't always make it easy to get to GU. Often at races they are not at a convenient locations and they aren't promoted in training very often. Perhaps GU could partner with a shoe company to offer a free gel with the purchase of a new pair of shoes. That way people could try a gel before a race. Or perhaps with your marathon entry they would send you a packet with two gels a month or two before the race so that you could practice eating them, or decide if you need to buy more.

Successful Innovative Companies: Volume 10

The Successful Innovative Company of the Week is: Wikipedia.

What they do right: they give away free information. I first heard about Wikipedia in high school and at the time we were not allowed to source it. In serious publications people still don't but everyone takes a journey there to verify information. It is a starting step for a journey of a thousand miles. It is a pool of knowledge to swim in or dump your glass.

The strength of Wikipedia is in the millions of people that update it. I was reading a message board the day after Dathan Ritzenhein set the 5000 meter US record and one of the first comments was something like 'you know Wikipedia is great when it already has his record less than an hour after he set it'.

Wikipedia is also vastly underutilized by the advertising industry. I mean if you are doing something that you want to make your company look good, well go on Wikipedia and change it so that people know you are trying. I mean when it comes to companies first there is your website (propaganda) then there is Wikipedia (the truth). I'm not saying delete the negative information on Wikipedia I'm saying add more of the positive stuff. Add the history, the people stories, sales information, product information, details, add wikipedia pages for your products. It's free. People believe it. It's like a snowball effect, start a page for your new product and as people update it it will grow and become it's own thing. I mean it's just so obvious to me how any company, brand, famous person, whatever can help their image by using Wikipedia. It's like a minibiography that you have the chance to edit. Do you want to see how history will remember your company (or you), well, write history! For all the money spent on bandwidth, website templates, computer templates, just about anyone could add a paragraph to Wikipedia.

What they could improve: If people had to have an account to update Wikipedia that would make them more accountable. I mean you could still set up an account to falsely update one thing and then not worry when it was deleted, but it would slow down a lot of trolls.

I see accountability as the largest challenge to Wikipedia. For incorrect information there is no punishment to the person that posts it. I am not sure exactly how to get around this, maybe some sort of approval before something goes live by the page author.

Successful Innovative Companies: Volume 7

The Successful Innovative Company of the week is: Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI).

What they do right: they facilitate people to get out more. In middle school I started to take the outdoors more seriously and started thinking about camping more than 30 feet away from someone over 40 or a car. I do not remember if it was my dad who introduced me to REI or if I stumbled upon them on the internet. I do remember vividly the first time I went into one of the stores. I was 14 and our family was on vacation in California and we showed up ten minutes before it opened so we waited in the car. This was in middle to southern California. I remember pulling on the wooden handled ice axe door handles and thinking that this was really hardcore. I felt like a mountaineer just opening the door! As we looked around inside I remember seeing the huge assortment of climbing gear and marveling at how many different things there were. That was the first time I had ever seen a cam in real life. Now I own 15. They had tents and sleeping bags even warm down to -40F(C)!

When we walked out of there my life was changed. While it would be years before I would start buying rock climbing and ice climbing equipment, the seed had been planted. Maybe it's an engineering thing. I find it so interesting how to put a piece of metal into a slot in the rock so that if you fall it will hold you. Similarly I'm interested in the heat transfer involved in hiking up a mountain when the windchill is far below freezing.

REI succeeds where others fail because they span the entire range of outdoor committed enthusiasts. Walk into an REI and you can easily buy a $400-600 rain jacket, one of the most expensive on the market. You can also buy a $39 polyurethane rain jacket. It is the same with tents. You can spend $800 on a tent that could probably be used on Mars or $100 on a tent that is still way better than the one I slept in at 12,700 feet in Colorado on one trip. It is important to have a range of items because as consumers grow and their interests changes there is a real possibility that at some point years later the same person that bought a $39 rain jacket will be back for a $400 one.

My advisor old me that people are most disposed to pick medium if given three or five options. I think it is the same with prices. They don't want the cheapest but don't need the most expensive. Sounds like good marketing to me.

Also, several times a year REI stores have the garage sale. They sell the returned items that other people didn't want. Much of the merchandise is broken or in need of serious repair but there are very good deals if you are willing to look. My best finds were two pairs of rock climbing shoes for a total of $25 which is far better than the $220 they would have originally cost.

They also have this great program called the member dividend. It works by paying $20 when you sign up and as long as you buy $10 or more each year you get a percentage of all that you bought back to spend again. The reason it is so easy to keep buying year after year is that if you spend $100 and get the 10% back the next year you just have to buy something to use those $10. They also have a credit card where you earn even bigger dividends on REI purchases and small dividends on all purchases. I can not suggest getting a credit card as it encourages you to spend more money than you have but if you must have one this is a good one to have.

What they could improve: this is just my opinion and I am a special case but not many people at REI can help me any more. I know more about the gear and clothing they sell than they do. It can be frustrating to ask a question and get a totally bogus response.

Another things I think would be great is having sponsored athletes. I know they are a retailer as well as a manufacturer but they make a lot of good stuff and giving free gear and travel money to a few talented outdoors athletes would help promote their name among the dedicated outdoors professionals. What I mean is that I do not remember seeing the REI logo in Pakistan this summer but The North Face, Scarpa, and Mountain Hardware logos were everywhere, especially on their sponsored athletes.

Also, and again this is just my opinion, I would like to see REI delve into the niche aspects of outdoor recreation. Which is to say selling or producing cold weather gear, ultralight gear, and more running apparel. I think they have done very well with their product line as it is but they could expand into other segments of the market.

Successful Innovative Companies: Volume 4

The Successful Innovative Company of the week is: Alpinist Magazine.

What they do right: The give mountaineers, climbers, hard men, a sweet magazine. Everything about it is high quality. It has many full color full page pictures. It has high definition pictures of people suffering doing crazy stuff. The binding is perfect bound, basically the same as a paperback or National Geographic. The pages are thick and the magazine is meant to last. You can feel that this magazine is a notch above other just by the way it feels. It feels like a huge picture book.

Everything about Alpinist screams sincerity and quality. They get the best climbers to write. Just reading one of the articles you feel like you climb harder than you do. This is not a magazine for beginners. There is no "how to climb 5.10" or "ways to hold an ice axe" articles because they appeal to a different crowd. Many editions mention dead people, who died climbing.

They were founded about eight years ago and produce four editions per year. Each edition is something with lasting quality containing information that is not readily available on the internet. They profile a mountain or crag in every issue providing nice topographical climbing maps and histories about the people that first ventured into the unknown on those climbs and the people that pushed the limits. (By the way if anyone reading this would sell me, or even loan me, Alpinist #2, the Gasherbrum 4 edition I will pay a lot for it.)

What they could improve: The subscription costs are expensive, $46 per year. However it is really good quality and there are few ads. In fact, the adds are all full page ads so they flow a little better than traditional magazine ads. I could say that more issues would be nice but as it is I do not want them to pump out more quantity because the quality might suffer.

In fact they take the ethic of a quality magazine so seriously that in the fall of 2008 they went bankrupt and closed the doors. They were quickly bought up and are now back to making a great magazine, albeit with a few more ads.

Teaching Myself Business

I took the plunge yesterday. I asked Gina Betti (Associate Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at WPI) to help me write a business plan. When I thought I would be devoting all of my waking hours to the research for finishing my thesis I was mistaken. Honestly, it shows that I still overestimate my ability to focus on one thing and one thing alone. Which is bad because it means that it sometimes takes me longer to do things than a more focused person. It also shows that I must be doing more than one thing. I can not stick to only one thing. Which is good because it means I'll keep running and climbing mountains for a long time and it gives me a broad range of experience so I know what a mountain runner wants in a pair of pants as well as an ice climber, and I know how one pair might work for both of them.

One piece of wisdom I was imparted this summer went something like: "People want modular stuff. One ice tool that can do it all. Everything from 35 degree snow to vertical ice. That's the future." That's probably a terrible misquote but that's the message that I understood. The only way that I am going to be able to create something that does everything is by doing everything myself.

So much to learn. So much to do. So much time spent waiting. So much time with no perceived progress. Eventually, some day, far down the road... so much accomplished.

How people get money

So in my quest to decide if I should start a climbing gear company with my four ideas for radically  different new gear I've been talking to the other outdoor company people. Ice Holdz and the new Central Rock Gym in Worcester to find out how they got money before they had anything to sell. Ice Holdz was started by a couple who boot strapped it with their own money all the way to having a product and traveling to sell the things. Central Rock Gym was two brothers recently graduated from college who saw the need and said if we can't raise the money in three months to do this then we'll give up. Now it's working out really well they've raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and the gym is almost done and they even had 50 people apply to work there. Including a layer who has his own practice and thought it would be cool. 

So that might be an option go full bore on this until say November when I have to start paying back my student loans and I will definitely know after several months of product development and marketing and fund raising if this thing can work. 

In other news running the last two days has gone well and I went climbing with Jeff this morning and we messed around on a 5.10d at crow hill. Neither one of us got more than 10 feet off the ground. Finally, I'm going to go up the hill and work on simulations for a few hours after I eat and shower cause I haven't don't any research lately.