At places I’ve worked before, we’ve tried to do the same thing in a more official format — you know the drill: a printed document, a bastard project that that some poor soul was asked to put together in two weeks, “Because we’ve been trying to build this thing for years.” I’m anxious to see if the more informal, update-on-the-fly approach works better, or if it drifts off into a sea of forgotten bookmarks.

Below is a snippet from Andrew McAfee, my newest hero.

Within most organizations at present, the great majority of consultable digital information is either highly structured (customer order records stored in a database), a reflection of the viewpoints and priorities of the formal hierarchy (newsletters), and/or static (document repositories). As a result, this consultable information does not show the current state of the organization as perceived by its members, nor does it accurately represent their views, skills, judgments, experiences, activities, etc.

In fact, it is striking how few opportunities people have to generate, modify, and share information freely and widely on the Intranet, especially when compared with their abilities to do the same on the Internet. Since so many organizations describe people as their most important assets, it is puzzling why these opportunities are so constrained.

Imagine a donkey equally hungry and thirsty placed at exactly equal distances from sources of food & water. In such a framework, he would die of both thirst and hunger as he would be unable to decide which one to get to first. Now inject some randomness in the picture, by randomly nudging the donkey, causing him to get closer to one source, no matter which, and accordingly away from the other. The impasse would be instantly broken and our happy donkey will either be in turn well fed then well hydrated, or well hydrated then well fed.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Fooled by Randomness

Also, check out the origins of this concept.

There can’t be any more deep technology in Facebook than what dozens of people could write in a couple of years. That’s for sure.

He missed the point. You can throw bodies at a project for years and never create something simple. Facebook has done well because it managed to pull of simplicity, even in the face of “deep technology” which is so easy to create.

I went to Best Buy at 3am with Holly to get Katie a Wii for Christmas.

Katie and I went to Clarksdale to Ground Zero for the New Year. Happy belated 2008.

It’s official, Katie has a real job. This is her cube and everything. I think she used a level to hang that newspaper article.

Exceptin’ the fact that this one had a 289, this is what my first car looked like, color and all.

I am not sure what this was supposed to mean. Go into the bathroom to get your tickets? The boat show is for men only?

Katie went to San Antonio to visit some friends.

It snowed in early March.

Buddy liked the snow.

The table’s set. Family is making their ways towards Memphis. The calm before the storm. Merry Christmas everybody!

“…Start thinking of [designers as people who decide] what goes where, which form elements to use, how to split features between screens, what words to use (emphasis mine), and how everything fits together in a coherent experience.” — from Ask 37 Signal

What strikes me is that one of the leading user interface companies out there thinks design is about words. Rock on for tearing down the silos.

My wife is a quarter of a century old. Last night, we went to El Mezcal for her Birthday Eve Blast. Today, all sorts of surprises are in store. More to come. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Here are the flowers I gave Katie at work that day…

And then at dinner (photo taken at home)…

We ate at Buckley’s with her mom and Katie opened her gifts there. I bought her everything they had at Anne Taylor Loft and got her an iPod stereo dock with a remote for her new job! Aussie (her mom’s dog) got her the same birthday card as me!