I rarely reread books I enjoyed the first time, with a few exceptions. "Knots" by R. D. Laing is one of those simple texts I go back to every couple of years. If you ever want to see a fun, semi-mathematical approach to human reasoning, run your eyes across the pages of "Knots." It's like poetry or song lyrics but it's not. It is. KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid (a mantra from my Southwestern book sales days).
Last night, my wife and I ate at the opening night of The Melting Pot in the Bridge Street Town Centre in Huntsville, Alabama. Our server, who hails from Wichita, KS, named Tenille (and she'll tolerate joking about Captain and Tenille, having endured the jokes when she had a boyfriend of five years named Tony), delighted us with her new tableside fondue mixing skills. My wife and I plan to return to the restaurant, since Steve, the owner, was open and kind to us, showing us around the place, and sharing tidbits about the 20-month process he endured opening up a new restaurant. I know it's daunting but hang in there, Steve!
To those with a taste for history, you'll like to know that one of the founders of the original concept for The Melting Pot retired to Scottsboro, AL, from his business roots in Florida. He was kind enough to visit the Huntsville store and share the history of the restaurant with the young staff, including descriptions of the old wooden tables and the "European eye" style burner on which the fondue pots were placed. My wife and I can remember those days, too. Guess that makes us historic!
The president of The Melting Pot visited the store in the past week to recognize the top six performers with special gifts. It's that kind of dedication to one's employee base that makes leaders/coaches worth working for.
= = =
I wanted to tell a witty story about a couple of kids who wandered across the face of the planet where there are no daily newspapers but I have too much teacher preparation time ahead of me to give the story the brainwork and facetime it deserves. Hopefully, I can get to it soon. Basically, the kids will discover the world is different than the one described to them by their jetsetting parents, who traveled a world where everyone knew the hot stories and general headlines of world economies because of newspapers and magazines but carried with them the tasty treats of local stories that only they and not their friends or neighbors knew.
The kids develop an instant reporting tool that can broadcast on a worldwide channel/network, which gives flash (1-second), flush (5-second) and indepth (10-second) snippets of local information from around the world, broadcasting to TVs, portable Internet devices, radios, cell phones, automobiles, billboards, and virtually everywhere, taking the concept of facebook/twitter to the next ADHD level.
Subscribers will be able to filter what they see/hear/touch (tactile experience being a new addition to the kids' broadcast tool); however, the filter only adjusts what people see and will still randomly show them stuff they opted to filter out, including advertising, subversive messages, offensive stories and alternative views.
The kids make money by selling their instant reporting tool, a small box made solely of recycled material, using solar/battery power, with wired/wireless connections that:
- uses a microphone to pick up local audio signals and translates them into multiple languages, both written and verbal
- uses a webcam to capture still/video
- uses a network connection to capture local network traffic (part of the flash broadcast that shows random charts of Ethernet traffic patterns)
- uses a touch screen that accepts typed messages up to 80 characters long but also broadcasts the global channel
The kids set up a network of servers that takes in the messages from the small boxes and then randomly posts them to the global broadcast. They give away the software that filters what you see, allowing you to either access it by going to their World Wide Web address, installing it on your own device, and/or preinstalling it on devices you sell. Otherwise, if you watch it on TV or listen to it on radio, you get the random broadcast.
The kids sell their invention in Internet time, on the day of and five seconds after their planned massive global product release, letting a true global player take over the messy part of sorting out profits on random flash advertising.
They spend the rest of their lives winking at each other at their inside joke that turned quiet meditation on randomness into a world completely governed by randomness, following the advice of their uncle, who told them the best way to conquer the world is to keep it simple, a lesson he learned from a book he liked to read every so often, "The Art of War."
No comments:
Post a Comment