Recent inspiration for my next move in life as I finish up my thesis, defending on Wednesday, and close our current client engagements...
I am not sure if I am enough of a nihilist to enjoy such a life but it would be fun to try. This guy also has some interesting posts on his blog.
More to come...
As you may know the new family business, Nankeen, is making huge strides as we get set to launch the new website and product line. I have been assisting in various capacities over the past year mostly on the business and technology side.
Currently, I am up in Rhode Island and have been spending my days at the new factory with our mascot (left). Mostly I have working to get the new business applications to work on the back end of the new site. Right now the trick is to get the shopping cart to talk with our order processing center in Rhode Island. In an ideal world, the order comes in, we process it through the web interface, print out the shipping label, invoices, and send it to the packaging group (right now my mother). These web application are both remarkedably smart but also very complex. You can do almost everything from the web control panel from changing product descriptions, to cross-selling, to tracking inventory. Now once this is all up and running it will be awesome and so efficient, getting there is another story.
I find this a lot when developing business processes and applications both at Booz Allen and in
this environment. The "bells and whistles" solution is only as good as the ease of use, training, and user capability. The ultimate solution may appear to solve every problem but if your employees cannot even figure out half the functions it can be a waste. That is why smooth and simple user interfaces are so important. I believe this is why Google has been so successful. They make it simple but also include advanced features hidden in shortcuts to allow the more advanced user to really dig in.
As I continue down this journey, helping get the family business off the ground, will report back. The new site will soon be up at www.nankeenstyle.com so start spreading the word.
I am clearly in thesis land as I just noticed that it has been exactly a month since I posted last. While I have been inspired by a number of subjects and articles lately that I wanted to post on, I have not had the time nor the energy. I did, however, come across a great tip from my buddy Ted on power napping.
The software, created by Pzizz, essentially generates MP3 files that you can listen to for either taking an energizing nap or putting yourself into a deep sleep. You can download a free sample but the benefits of purchasing the software enables youto create a new nap each time with different durations, sounds, etc.
Since I am currently getting about 4-5 hours of sleep per day trying to finish my first thesis draft, I have decided to give this a try. I took an "energizing nap" last night and definetly fell asleep. The track claims it will wake you up after 15 minutes but I only woke up when the next track, a Jurassic 5 tune, jolted me back into the real world. I must say for not using headphones the first time, which is highly recommended, it seemed to have some stimulating effects and I worked until 2 am.
Will continue to test this and keep you all updated. Check it out and report back.
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