What will happen with Sports?

Will the leagues and their salaries will be toast? . Maybe you will get one event per year like boxing that makes money, but that’s it. I wonder because you know who also pays for sports, that don’t watch it at all?? Not to stereotype but my two single female neighbors on either side. When I watch sports my wife literally leaves and they razz me she is a single woman on Sunday afternoons in the fall. Let’s just take the NBA. ESPN pays about $3B a year for the broadcast rights. That is about half the total revenue and 100% which goes to players. I.e. players make about $3B.https://www.si.com/extra-mu… There are about 60mm cable subscribers. Let’s start doing the math: ESPN charges about $9 per month per subscriber http://www.businessinsider…. Start working those numbers. I pay ESPN $50/year for the NBA. Hey I understand people love the NBA. My number? Zero. MLB Zero. NHL close to zero. Now I might pay for the NFL but not if they go to flag football. So now work those numbers. The last thing you want to do as a league is screw cable companies. The owners will go bankrupt. Then the players will be

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Having Overseas Development

There are many companies that now espouse having overseas development centers for cost reasons. I can see dedicated centers where you hire and manage the talent, but I have a serious question. Why does U.S. tax law promote this? Why if I have 1,000 people that I pay in the U.S. that pay Federal Taxes, State Taxes, Social Security, and I pay matching do I pay the same rate for somebody that has that 1,000 and makes the same amount in another country and makes the same amount I do. If we are willing to have no safety net, everybody out for themselves I suppose I get it, but that is not a place I want to live. It seems very simple to me.

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Outsourcing Development

I have never understood this. You are a technology company. You are going to outsource development. There is a saying: First I outsource development Then I learn your company Then I AM your company If you are dependent for the core of your business on another party how does that bode for your long term health when that skill is lost

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TV is not Smart it is Dumb

Stop trying to make it smart. People have always watched TV to be dumbed or as a content snacking distraction. People have been telling me since the 1980’s you will do smart things with the TV. No you don’t. I watch an hour of TV with my son just before bedtime, gets me ready to sleep. It’s always on in the kitchen in my house but it’s no different than the dog. Just a companion. No disrespect to dogs but the Amish who do work for me say what does the dog do??? How does it make you money or pay for itself??? People like the fact that TV has programs that are on. I am not debating the power of Netflix and Amazon Prime, but they are not the same use case as TV

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Testing and Documentation

What I have heard is developers should be good enough not to write in bugs. Well this is moronic. I tell people what is it like to have no clue? First and foremost they are writing on top of so many other things that are constantly shifting. The processor kernel software, operating system, data base, languages, routers, switches, and most importantly their fellow developers code. None of that is static. None of that is like a 2×4 which never changes. Then you have interpretation. What many people call a bug is not a bug. For instance on a page you can’t hit the browser back button and it tells you that when you do it. BUG!!!! Nope working exactly as designed. Then mis-interpreting features etc The support thing makes me laugh so hard. You don’t need support??? No your documentation should be so good. Ok so you are the only one that is going to be using…….well no actually I won’t be using, Susie, Jane, and Bob are going to actually do the work.

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The Power of Silence

In our culture it is taught, to try and say the answer immediately. Everybody knows sometimes I contemplate the question. Silence is a very powerful tool. It for some reason is uncomfortable here, but not in many other parts of the world. Sometimes I don’t say anything and the other person will start negotiating with themselves. I need to think about if that offer works for me. Sometimes at Mitsubishi we would sit for minutes and not say anything. Sometimes the COO would mutter under his breath in Japanese “idiot” with a smile on his face and his head cocked like he was talking to himself when somebody couldn’t stop instantly talking. You should have all of the obvious one’s thought out and be able to respond instantly. That’s a given. That’s called being prepared. I would say not knowing the market cap of your publicly traded competitor is not being prepared. But if you are talking to somebody good they are going to ask a question you are not prepared for. For instance what are your revenues going to look like in a year is an obvious question, and I don’t have a clue is not a prepared answer.

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The Customer is Always Right. OR They are not a Customer

Finish that sentence. We had a client. They announced a promotion for Saturday and decided to get around to implementing on Thursday. Well of course they just made it up without looking at the product. It was a crazy promotion. Your software has a bug!!! It won’t do our crazy promotion! Sorry, too bad. Well my business partner stayed up literally night and day to do their promotion. It broke. He fixed it that day. Then I got the call from the C level execs. You are incompetent. We are going to fire you. I want to make sure that you fire the business partner. Top of lungs, loud incessant. Finally in exasperation I said look what do you want me to do? Tattoo “BAD CODER” on his forehead. Pause…..well… Guys that was a joke!!! They are still a customer, I still work with the business partner, and the joke at the office still is when you screw up: Phil is going to tattoo bad coder on your forehead.

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Pessimists

A doubter would say: Are we sure we put in adequate safety devices? Give me example from similar products. The problem is it is always easier to come up with a scenario where things go very wrong, and it is impossible to disprove a negative hypothetical. Not unwarranted because if you take risks as one of those people things can go very bad. But the problem is to move things forward and not just maintain status quo you have to take risks. You do want to try and protect yourself against risks, but if you concentrate too hard you will never get out of bed. What if somebody disables all of the safety devices and puts their hand in a 3d printer? Well we have protective measures, signs, and terms. Prove to me it can’t be done. I can’t prove that. That’s not good enough!! We can’t sell it. What if it ships a day late? Our customers will understand, and we will be busting our ass to get it done. No we can’t give them a date until we have absolute proof we will just say they will get it when they get it (you’ll never sell it)

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Optimists/Pessimists

I was dealing with both yesterday so it’s on my mind. There are also two character traits that I have a really hard time with. A true pessimist will get on a point and not let it go. Keeping bringing it up over and over and over. You can say we have X risk we will accept that, here is the plan. They will never let it go. A true optimist will never acknowledge that we have X risk. Will not accept it. Both are maddening.

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