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Thanks vitovito, I knew I would get such response from somebody, sometime. Glad it happened in such elaborated way. Although I have explicitly expressed to ign

by dejan 17y ago

Thanks vitovito, I knew I would get such response from somebody, sometime. Glad it happened in such elaborated way. Although I have explicitly expressed to ignore prejudices, you started with one assuming you knew everything about this kid. Moreover, you compare yourself and your biases with me. We're not the same, and especially seems we grew up in different centuries. That makes a difference. The world is not the same, since this moment I write until you read it. I accept I am a kid. I am, and hopefully will stay forever as passionate and young minded =) - I am not bitter, especially regarding the job searching thing. It is a personal reflection on the process. A lot of my friends are going through even worse things, yet many of them ended up with jobs they hate. I am having much more luck than it seems in the text. - The website I've built is far from my first project, and I don't expect a stampede. - I've had full-time jobs in different countries, as well built a successful non-tech (finances) company. I have great social skills. Want a copy of my CV? :) There is a big difference between GetSatisfaction, UserVoice and Aleveo. If you find a real engineer's solution and not a complaint or feature request on those, I'll accept. If you show me that they are helping people get jobs, I'll send you a pack of beer wherever you are. If you show me that they are not Marketing/PR but Open Innovation tools... I'll send you a Chianti from here in Italy. 1. I am aware of this. However, your focus is on the wrong thing. I am talking about lead-user innovation and open innovation. The users >want< to contribute, but companies are not listening. Would you say a young kid needs to get a job to have a great idea? If you didn't at the time, that doesn't meant someone else doesn't: Facebook, Microsoft, ViaWeb, Apple, FedEx... The list is long. And of course these kids have to prove people like yourself that they are capable, as all they get is discouragement and "NO" from people. 2. Exactly. You don't seem to see a problem in that, how the company is losing? 3. Rant is a proof of passion and determination I hold. We need more of that in the world. Go read Tom Peters' "Re-Imagine." My post has not a single line of complaint. I am glad you responded, I wanted to make sure it didn't sound like that so I left the starting disclaimer. Truly, I haven't even read it yet. The points that are made are that: - everyone holds knowledge how to improve the world, companies and their offerings - everyone can be an inventor in the same way he can be a video producer, journalist and musician. The web allows that and the world should adapt to it. - external ideas are a proof of a need to rethink some stuff. - there is no clear channel for companies to reach external ideas that people >demand< to give. Websites are built by designers and IT people. There is no business strategy beyond presence and online sales. There is more that can be done through the web. Accept it or be crushed by it. - the way of recruiting is wrong, as people do not enter companies. Ideas do, so why not take a look at those a little bit for a change, you might find your gold fish, as Apple and Google did. If you don't care about people's ideas, you will lose the people, whether your customers or employees. - companies should not be "faceless" as you say, and should have same "people" skills you mention in their attitude. - companies need more "intrapreneurs" / entrepreneurial spirit as a way to establish an innovation culture that embraces agile methods of testing ideas against reality. I believe that a viable business opportunities can be found in the lines I've written. I have taken one, not out of bitterness, but passion to test against the world. If I do attack businesses, than every single business book (good one at least) does. Thank you for your sincere reply, you gave me space for a reflection on my thoughts. Your points are clear and valid, but that is exactly why I want to stand up to them. They shouldn't be. Not today. Not ever again.

vitovito 17y ago
Oh, the poster really is you! haha! I would wager your story is very similar to mine, and to others here. It's why we're here, after all. Balsamiq uses Get Satisfaction to take in feature requests from users, and they go back and forth with wireframes and mockups right there on the site. That's part of their culture, that's not a function of the site. It sounds like you're trying to fix a sociological problem with technology. 1. If a company is not set up, top to bottom, culture to practice, to take in outside feedback, the effort will fail. The development culture and practice within a company that treats constructive criticism from their users/customers as first-rate along with their internal QA and engineers is completely different from one that doesn't. You see this in any company that releases an SDK, publishes an API or licenses technology. Some will rearchitect entire APIs because they realized they got in wrong once people started trying to use it. Some will pack up their ball and go home. Having spent years running support and developer relations teams, my cynicism tells me the companies you will attract will be the latter, trying to be the former. The former doesn't need you; they can do it themselves, because they believe in it already. The latter will use you, but will fail internally because they don't really want to listen. You can't change a business model and internal culture with a web site. Now, with management and process consultants... 2. No, I don't care how the company is losing. It's a company. It's not a person whose life I can materially improve by helping it. It's a bureaucracy that exists to extract profit at the expense of its customers and employees. Inventing something that improves a particular coffee maker doesn't help anyone but the shareholders of the coffee maker making company; everyone who bought that particular coffee maker isn't going to get a free replacement. You would better serve the people who have the same problem with the same coffee maker by publishing a fix and offering replacement widgets via mail for some token amount, or by making your own coffee maker that solves all those problems and more. 3. I'm not going to go back and re-read the post to highlight specific complaints, but the entire tone, I find, is one of bitterness. It's not wide-eyed idealism, it's "I'll show you all," which comes across quite differently. This is the lack of diplomacy I mean. Your "points that are made are that" paragraph here is better, but remember that your beliefs aren't everyone else's. I believe that most people don't want to be inventors, producers, journalists or musicians. Most people don't "demand" to give ideas. Most people don't think that hard about anything at all, but technology in particular, as the priesthood culture of technology has trained people to believe that if something is wrong with technology, it's really their own fault (I'd quote from DoET, but I can't find my copy). And, of those people that have ideas, most lack the subversiveness to do anything about them. Despite all of these things, I really hope you find both some success with this and in the future. I hope I'm wrong and you change the world. But, if I'm not, I hope you come to understand why at a level deeper than "no-one got it," because that greater comprehension of the system of the world is what will really help in your next venture.

by dejan 17y ago

vitovito 17y ago

Oh, the poster really is you! haha! I would wager your story is very similar to mine, and to others here. It's why we're here, after all. Balsamiq uses Get Satisfaction to take in feature requests from users, and they go back and forth with wireframes and mockups right there on the site. That's part of their culture, that's not a function of the site. It sounds like you're trying to fix a sociological problem with technology. 1. If a company is not set up, top to bottom, culture to practice, to take in outside feedback, the effort will fail. The development culture and practice within a company that treats constructive criticism from their users/customers as first-rate along with their internal QA and engineers is completely different from one that doesn't. You see this in any company that releases an SDK, publishes an API or licenses technology. Some will rearchitect entire APIs because they realized they got in wrong once people started trying to use it. Some will pack up their ball and go home. Having spent years running support and developer relations teams, my cynicism tells me the companies you will attract will be the latter, trying to be the former. The former doesn't need you; they can do it themselves, because they believe in it already. The latter will use you, but will fail internally because they don't really want to listen. You can't change a business model and internal culture with a web site. Now, with management and process consultants... 2. No, I don't care how the company is losing. It's a company. It's not a person whose life I can materially improve by helping it. It's a bureaucracy that exists to extract profit at the expense of its customers and employees. Inventing something that improves a particular coffee maker doesn't help anyone but the shareholders of the coffee maker making company; everyone who bought that particular coffee maker isn't going to get a free replacement. You would better serve the people who have the same problem with the same coffee maker by publishing a fix and offering replacement widgets via mail for some token amount, or by making your own coffee maker that solves all those problems and more. 3. I'm not going to go back and re-read the post to highlight specific complaints, but the entire tone, I find, is one of bitterness. It's not wide-eyed idealism, it's "I'll show you all," which comes across quite differently. This is the lack of diplomacy I mean. Your "points that are made are that" paragraph here is better, but remember that your beliefs aren't everyone else's. I believe that most people don't want to be inventors, producers, journalists or musicians. Most people don't "demand" to give ideas. Most people don't think that hard about anything at all, but technology in particular, as the priesthood culture of technology has trained people to believe that if something is wrong with technology, it's really their own fault (I'd quote from DoET, but I can't find my copy). And, of those people that have ideas, most lack the subversiveness to do anything about them. Despite all of these things, I really hope you find both some success with this and in the future. I hope I'm wrong and you change the world. But, if I'm not, I hope you come to understand why at a level deeper than "no-one got it," because that greater comprehension of the system of the world is what will really help in your next venture.