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My friend lexx invited me to show my desktop and participate in another meme series.
My desktop is always as empty as possible. I can’t concentrate on tasks if I see it full of icons and folders. It looks like there are leftovers everywhere.
So here it is.
(Click on the image)
This bird is called mountain caracara (I have no idea what this means) and the photo is taken at Machu Picchu in Peru. You can find the original photo at Flickr in a pretty good resolution.
Now I’m really curious. What’s on your desktop sugarenia?
I changed my glasses after a long period. In fact I used to wear the same pair for 14 years. It seems I am a bad customer when it comes to glasses.
I go back when I realized I had to wear glasses for the rest of my life because of my myopia. I didn’t really cared much, the only thing I wanted was to see the world clean again. When I put on my first pair of glasses I was relieved. The world was clean at last.
I must have lost or destroyed at least 5 pairs before I buy the one which stood there, on my nose, for 14 years. I adored these glasses, I found them elegant and robust. One day I got bored of them so I started searching for new glasses.
It took me months, a lots of visits to optical stores and an almost nervous breakdown before I buy this pair. I ‘m very happy, I find it even more slick. Now, to come back to the early days, I only need to forget my glasses somewhere or sit on them and start looking from the very beginning.
Consider the term “working environments”. It includes many aspects among them the people you work with, the people for whom you work, an office, the time schedule, how much you earn etc. You get the idea.
Now add a parameter: working environments in the Web universe. Things change. They could change dramatically. It doesn’t have to do with requirements or the people (especially the people). It has to do with certain virtual aspects which join the game. For example such companies don’t provide real touchable products but services. They exist as long as an Internet connection is up. And the list goes on.
What makes the difference
In my humble opinion what makes the real difference is the plain fact that the Web brings a different culture which should be respected and adopted by the companies. But the term “culture” can’t be measured with numbers and it is difficult to be accurately defined as well. So I will try to be specific.
Some years ago people who worked in Apple, apart from having Jobs yelling at them, they were fed with the moto:
Think different
People in Apple were asked to create different products and most probably they had every single reason to do so, being reinforced the culture of the company among others. How many companies ask their employees to think a different way?
The development of the IT utterly changed the way people act and work. Recall people with funny t-shirts and goatees who are the best among their peers. Such people could never carry their culture to different working environments such a real estate corporation. I like this, to be specific, I love this approach. Being serious is a completely different thing than looking so.
Oh it’s about the people baby
Web culture is like a wave. You select to stand on it and let it take you ahead or go to the bottom.
You can be a CEO who feels proud when you see your name in your business card and the next thing you do is to install software which spies your employees. Even if you have no single reason to do so. Even if your employees are no more than 10. Even if you don’t provide them the basics.
No, I don’t hate CEOs, I hate narrow-minded people and especially narrow-minded CEOs. I agree that not all workers are fair, but who selected them to work for him? I could never accuse someone with less power when much of his fate is determined by people who own power.
You know it, I know it, terrible things happen everyday to workers and terrible things happen to IT companies as well. I could mumble and grumble but I don’t like it anymore. It makes you worst. However I do want to talk about the flip side of this coin.
The flip side
In 37signals, one of the most important companies in the Web industry, they choose to move on with different workplace experiments. They promote 4-day weeks, they fund their employees’ passions and they provide them credit cards.
In elephants & ants they finish their week with some beers. In Happy Cog they play Wii to relax. Do you think these people are idiots? I think they are smarter than us.
It takes knowledge and guts to act so. I am pretty sure such companies invest to their people and they want them to be happy there in order to bring better results and never lose them. It’s so simple that we tend to forget it all the time.
For those who live with a cat (or more than one cat) it is important to understand the behavior of their animal. It is true that by time people start learning things about their cat but is hardly enough.
Did you hear the news? Cats tend to change the way they think and act in order to fit their environment. (I ‘m thinking twice about this and I ‘m not really sure but it’s OK.)
For those who want to adopt a cat or be adopted by one or they are just curious here it is the mental model of cats which explains almost everything.
