Ego Libre

Going through hundreds of unread RSS feeds, there was one today that struck me. It was Kevin Kelly’s argument about evolution of “free” (via Seth Godin)
It really strikes a resonating note with my way of thinking. Especially when applied to music, Kelly writes:

Patronage — It is my belief that audiences WANT to pay creators. Fans like to reward artists, musicians, authors and the like with the tokens of their appreciation, because it allows them to connect. But they will only pay if it is very easy to do, a reasonable amount, and they feel certain the money will directly benefit the creators. Radiohead’s recent high-profile experiment in letting fans pay them whatever they wished for a free copy is an excellent illustration of the power of patronage. The elusive, intangible connection that flows between appreciative fans and the artist is worth something. In Radiohead’s case it was about $5 per download. There are many other examples of the audience paying simply because it feels good. [emphasis mine]

I paid also about 5$ for this album. I could have it for free. But I paid because I wanted to. Do the Radiohead guys NEED my money? Of course not. But I simply felt like paying them for their work and also to support this kind of distribution model.

I also needed to choose a price. I thought that album on iTunes is about 10$ so I would pay about half. 5$ is what I feel an optimal price for an album. Songs should go down to 50¢ each so their purchase would be absolutely no brainer.

I used to have tens of GB of illegal music. Now my library is as legal as licensed prostitution in Denmark. But still when I go shopping to iTunes, I put things in my cart and leave them there. Then couple of days later I remove a few until I limit my spending to about 20-30$….well more like 20$. That’s what I feel I can spend in one go. Believe it or now, if music would cost half, I would buy twice as much. If it would be free, I would spend money on music videos, on merchandise and access to subscription only materials. Why?

Because I want to have some kind of connection with my music and with the people who make, however virtual this connection is.
Why not with other media. This is where books wait for the big revolution (and another reason why I think Kindle is incapable of revolutionizing the industry, but let’s leave that for other time). I can’t wait until media will be free. Not free, but with ads, but simply free. The time is almost here and the market is almost ready…

Technology revolution does not always translate into better and more convenient products. Well it does, but sometimes the marketers are stupid enough to misuse technology to increase their already fat profits.

For example Wynn resorts in Las Vegas uses RFID tags in Snickers bars on top of the fridge to determine whether you have moved an item. (via Upgrade:Travel Better) Ok, so maybe it is not just Snickers, but you get the point.

So I assume they must either put a huge sign in all capitals saying: “DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING OR WE WILL CHARGE YOU FOR IT” or let it stay in small print on your booking and charge your card on checkout, probably pissing you off.

Which one is better? Neither. Both are perfect examples of terrible marketing and unfortunately it will only get worse.

But it’s not all bad. A hotel in Holland is charging customers rate by weight!
Now this ain’t too bad. I can say that maybe because I am not overweight, but I always thought that airlines should have a set weight per customer including luggage and pay extra for overweight stuff only then.
How fair is it that I have to pay extra 5kg of my luggage and the traveler next to me smuggles 50kg extra under hist shirt? Well, don’t let me start on that again…

I am flying to Gold Coast this weekend, so that’s maybe why I procrastinated on travel blogs today Have a great winter, I am off to 30 degrees of sun in Surfer’s paradise.

You might know my attitude towards SAS. Well my friend Christian obviously knows, so he sent me a press release that went under my radar since I am currently busy with new studies (5 weeks remaining of this term, bear with me and my complaints ;-).
SAS permanently grounds its Dash 8 Q400 fleet. Now that is interesting news. If you know SAS, you know how extensively they use them. Even though the release says it consists of only 5% of customers, it is still pretty serious blow. And if other carriers who had problems, such as ANA follow, it is going to hurt Bombardier quite a bit. I wonder what is SAS going to replace them with…
And despite I feel a bit sorry about this (I have a nostalgic feeling towards turbo-prop planes), I cannot pass this opportunity to take a jab at SAS. In the press releases, the current SAS director says: SAS’s flight operations have always enjoyed an excellent reputation and there is a risk that use of the Dash 8 Q400 could eventually damage the SAS brand.”Too late buddy, too late. It’s not just planes that make up a carrier. SAS people hurt the SAS brand the most. I wonder when was the last time this guy flew SAS economy.

Yesterday I managed. Seriously, I checked my RSS feeds only once. I was so proud of myself. Today the internet beat me. I had to check a second time. But Hopefully you will understand why (well you will if you are as geeky as I am

Today was an important day in regards to information. First, Apple OS Leopard was officially announces, so as a true believer I had to pre-order it

And then keeping true to my geeky nature, I simply HAD to see the layout of the Airbus A380 for Singapore Airlines. I am sure that ever since it was announced that Singapore Airlines ordered only roughly 450 seats for a plane that can house more than 700. You must have been wondering what did they use all that space for, right? I know I did

So check it out. SA redefined First class. Now it’s called Suit class!

This is the stuff I was talking about. It’s about time to redefine air travel and premium offerings and I am glad (however not surprised) that Singapore is the front-runner in this direction. New era of travel is starting.

If I had the money I would pay 10.000$ for the round trip quicker than you can say: “sex on a plane” Gotta keep stocking my miles And speaking of miles, now even the rich and less adventurous will be able to join the mile-high club Not that I have had the plesure….yet

Forget coke and e, there is a new substance in town.

This blog post on Lifehack.org was fairly interesting and I thought about posting it here FYI, but then I got to point 6. It defined a new term for me: Information addiction. It hit me right there and then: I am an addict. Seriously, I have to cut down. I spend up to 2 hours every day reading news, RSS feeds and designing bags. (Well, that might have been a one off thing But I am complaining that I am busy. I mean WTF?

I will try to limit my daily hit of RSS feeds and news to 1 whiff of information in the morning. That’s it.

And I will start tomorrow. Urghhh. I can feel the cold turkey already.

Can’t…..hit…..the….reload…..button. Should….not…..check….for……new…..mail. Arghhhh…..

And what about you? How many times a day do you indulge yourself in the sinful pleasure of information ecstasy? I would say that for some of you it’s time to think about it as well…

Have you heard of Freitag bags? No? You should have. I am absolutely amazed about this company and their concept. I am absolutely convinced, that this is the ultimate business concept of the future fashion and retail industry.

I started noticing these strange bags that young and trendy Japanese were carrying around Tokyo. I also noticed the tag Freitag on them, which made me wonder whether they are really Japanese. Well, as I found out they are not. When I was in Tokyo last time, I saw the bags in store and found out that they are made from old truck tarps, straps from seat-belts and edges toughened up by old inner-tubes. All recycled materials and the bags look great! What a fantastic idea!

Then I realized that every single bag is original. Wow.

And then I went online to Freitag.ch. And that’s when I finally understood the whole concept. This company is a true visionary. You can design your own bag on the website, they will cut it, sew it and ship it to you!

So let’s recapitulate. This is a company making bags from 100% recycled materials, thus making eco-minded customers feel good about the purchase. Each and every bag is unique, which of course caters to new generation of customers looking for uniqueness rather than mass production. Read the company history. Feel the tone? The personal feel? THIS is how companies ought to talk to customers. That is what we want to hear. Not impersonal press releases. These guys simply GET IT. And finally, you can even create your own bag. Customized, on demand, I mean mark my words, this is how we will be shopping for 50% of our clothes in 5-10 years. I know I will.

With possibilities to outsource actual production and with logistic solutions getting more integrated and cheaper, I think that the time when we will be designing our own t-shirts, custom made shoes and suits is not far away. Ready-to-wear mass production is so 20th century. Customized tailoring, welcome back!

And if you want to see my cubistic creation, you can check it out here

Today I found some free time to catch up with the 1000+ unread RSS feeds that were waiting for me in my reader and stumbled on three articles that are somehow struck my interest.

One is about recently discovered bug in Excel and its explanation. The reason why I list is twofold. One, I just purchased Apple iWork 08, so I am about to switch from Excel to Numbers and two, quite recently I witnessed a beautiful argument between two people (hello Christian about the user friendliness of Excel. And for the record, I think that Excel is the worst and most-unfriendly application ever created and people who say otherwise should never be allowed to get involved in any consumer product development. I am serious.

Another link is from one of my favorite bloggers and businessmen out there - Guy Kawasaki and his interview with Steven Smith about his egonomics book. Interesting interview, the book seems wort reading.

And finally there is an article that might not offer too many solution, but talks about a topic that is on my mind lately: Slavery of consumerism. When you move (especially to a new country so you have to pay exorbitant amounts of cash for shipping), you realize how much crap you own. I seriously want to cut down on that. But not just that, it reminds me how enslaved by the whole concept I am. So I shook my head, woke up and decided not to buy the new iMac. Ouch.

Hope some of them will interest you as well. And now I have to get back to my MBA readings. Double Ouch.

So I am done with my exams. Which unfortunately does not mean that I have graduated and received my diploma, which would allow me to accept the offer from my Australian school and get a visa. I will not bore you with the haunting tale of rigid bureaucracy driving me currently crazy.

Instead I wanted to share a link with you. I thought about career in airline industry, starting with fixing the damn SAS, but now I see a new niche, yes it is the religious airline industry segment.

I am not sure whether I would be confident flying an airline where stewardess and the pilots pray for a safe landing

I guess I should keep looking. Vatican does not seem like a place to be for me.

Since I have a Japanese language exam tomorrow, I am doing my best avoiding studying for it. Actually I really SHOULD be studying, but you know how it is when you are expected to perform well in something you do not currently care about… So instead I spent the whole morning surfing net and catching up on all those unread RSS feeds. And since posting this will kill five more minutes that I should spent studying instead, I will share some of these links with you.

First, there there is Merlin Mann and his War on Clutter. Since I am currently moving again, I am aware of how much useless junk I tend to carry around with me from country to country. It’s time to stop.

But just clearing out my closet is not going to be enough. I need to stop buying crap.

Reading Japanese news, I found out that Kirin is promoting their Whisky imports by providing bars with Alaskan ice. Wow, how incredibly eco-friendly. I wonder how burning all that oil to ship it to Japan is consistent with Japan’s cool biz idea?

And that’s it for my random rants today. Now I will seriously try to hit the books.

No excuses. I am still busy. Sometimes moving out of the country is even more complicated then getting in. Japan is surely the case. But during my last visit to Shinjuku town-hall (Shinjuku is central part of Tokyo), I saw a pamphlet and a link to an interesting video called “Would you survive?”. In the light of recent earthquake in Niigata that damaged the nuclear power-plant, the answer is probably no, but if you have nothing better to do, please go and see the video. Earthquakes will never be the same This goes especially to people who are about to visit Japan. The first earthquake freaks everyone out and frankly, this video is not helping

So I have to go back to packing (hoping that in my last five days in Japan no major earthquake will hit Shinjuku) and you can ask ourself: Would you survive?