Comments ensue:

Jim Renaud: “This is why I hate RSS. People don’t even go to my actual site anymore. I swear my next site will be PNG posts with flattened text. Suck it!”

Beerzie Grouch: “The web has become the Tower of Babel. A million speaking at once and no one listening.”

Greg: “Craft doesn’t come through filling out forms.”

Gillette has escalated the razor wars yet again, unveiling a new line of razors on Wednesday with five blades and a lubricating strip on both the front and back…

The move renews an ongoing blade battle with Schick, the shaving unit of Energerizer (Research), which launched a four-blade razor, the Quattro, last year. The move ate into Gillette sales and sparked a legal battle between the two companies…

“The Schick launch has nothing to do with this, it’s like comparing a Ferrari to a Volkswagen as far as we’re concerned,” Chairman, President and Chief Executive James Kilts, told Reuters.

The Fusion will also be available in a power version and features a micro-chip that regulates the voltage and blade action. Other high-tech features include a low battery indicator light and a safety switch that shuts the razor down after eight minutes of continuous operation.

Pfft. I won’t be satisfied until my razor comes with cup holders and plays MP3s!

Actually, we were discussing shaving and blades vs. electric razors the other day (Jason is the sole electric fan, the rest of us are bladers). Some tips from a sensitive bunch:

Jason uses the Braun 8595 Activator Self-Cleaning Shaving System and says the cleaning makes all the difference. It includes an LCD display and “20 different hair-capturing opportunities.”

Ryan hated shaving until he discovered shaving cream from Lush (for sensitive faces). He says, “I used to have problems with cutting or burning and Lush eliminated those.”

I’m a big fan of shaving in the shower using a fog-free mirror. Viva steam.

I’ve got a friend who swears by PFB Bump Fighter razors for his delicate skin. It’s marketed to black guys but works for sensitive types of all shades. (I’ve heard those battery powered razors actually make a difference too, but I remain skeptical.)

I also advocate getting an old-fashioned shave at a barber shop at some point. I got the lather and straight blade treatment once and it was definitely a neat experience. (Straight blade = less razor.)

The headblade razor is supposed to be the way to go if you want the Seth Godin/Michael Jordan look. Plus, it’s pretty neat from a design (and marketing) standpoint too.

Any other shaving advice to share?

Update: There actually is an Onion story called Fuck Everything, We’re Doing Five Blades. [tx Mark]

You know what happened next? Shut up, I’m telling you what happened — the bastards went to four blades. Now we’re standing around with our cocks in our hands, selling three blades and a strip. Moisture or no, suddenly we’re the chumps. Well, fuck it. We’re going to five blades.

Interactive emails
For one thing, Netflix emails are surprisingly effective. They actually get you to interact. Take this “when was it mailed?” email received from the site:

This is the sort of thing I normally wouldn’t respond to. But Netflix makes it so damn easy. One click and that’s it. No need to figure out anything in the browser window. No middle man. It’s just click and be done. Steve Krug would be proud.

Same thing goes for the company’s emails soliciting reviews. I never review things online. Except at Netflix. And that’s because it’s a no-brainer. An email shows up each time I return a movie. Just one click and it’s rated.

These empowered emails may seem like a small thing but it’s a sign of the way Netflix works.

$1 million prize
Recently, Netflix announced a $1 million prize to anyone who can come up with a new movie recommendation system that is at least 10 percent more accurate than its current one.

Netflix execs say the idea of outsourcing to the masses came up because in-house innovation had slowed down. “If we knew how to do it, we’d have already done it,” said CEO Reed Hastings. “And we’re pretty darn good at this now. We’ve been doing it a long time.”

Even if it is just a stunt — 10% would be a huge bump — it’s a smart move. If someone meets the challenge, then Netflix will reap the benefits. And if the prize goes unclaimed, the mountain of press it’s garnered makes it an effective PR move.

Rating movies
Neftlix has a history of trying innovative techniques. The site was a pioneer at bringing Ajax to the masses (via the site’s movie rating system).

In fact, someone mentioned to me the other day that “it’s actually kind of fun” to go through a batch of movies and zap them with ratings. No wonder the company now has over 345 million movie ratings. The site’s recommendation engine is crucial to the company’s successy so that collection of ratings is an extremely valuable resource. Plus, it gives them a nice leg up over competitors.

Add a movie flow
The flow of adding a movie is also well done. It’s one click to add a movie to your queue and that’s it. Then, if you want to move it to the top you can do that easily too. It’s a simple process that’s impossible to mess up.

Too bad the site killed the drag-and-drop mini-queue though. It was an easy way to reorder your top 10. (And from a UI perspective, it had a nice affordance clue that explained how to use it.)

Throttling
One curious exception to Netflix’ customer-centric approach: The throttling of customers who watch lots of movies. This policy seems out of whack with the general attitude of the company.

Netflix most likely punishes them by 1) slowing down their rental shipments, 2) reporting returned rentals as received days later than they actually were, and 3) giving them lowest priority for movies in high demand.

This may save money upfront, but giving your most loyal customers inferior service seems like a dubious long-term move.

Competition
Now Apple and Amazon are entering the movie market and, according to some, that makes Netflix “an obvious loser.” Sounds familiar — remember when Blockbuster and Walmart were going to take down Netflix? Check out Walmart’s DVD rental site these days.

Telecommuting
Mark noted the lack of offsite work possibilities on the job board and commented, “I’m continually surprised that more companies aren’t willing to consider telecommuters, especially on the job board. My feeling is that you can’t trust the person you’re hiring to get the job done without being under your thumb, you’re probably not hiring the right person.”

“The quality of a speaker is inversly proportional to the number of slides they have”
Marcel went to Edward Tufte’s one-day course…

Polaroid
At a recent photoshoot, Jason was impressed with the photographer’s Polaroid 690 which folds up flat. “So damn cool. Has SONAR auto focus. Takes razor sharp shots too. Really impressive. They don’t make them anymore, but you can find them on eBay sometimes for about $400 or so.”

New health care
We’re implementing a new health care program.

Jamis noted some weird terms in the documentation…

And check out this confusing information display used to show pricing:

Er, what?

Outcomes
Jason: “At the MIT thing one statement I heard really hit home. And I think it’s something we aim for: ‘People don’t want software, they want outcomes.’ Basically the sooner we can get people to outcomes, the better.”

New Campfire tour video
Jason posted a new Campfire tour video. Marcel liked the delivery of the narration: “Good natural talking flow. When someone’s talking is perfect i zone out because your brain shuts off when something isn’t a conversation.”

Along the way, Jason debated what title he should use to describe himself in the video.

Do not call list

Design evolution
Some funny pics of big old school cell phones had Marcel wondering if the original iPods will look as silly as these cell phones 15 years from now. David thinks so, “Just check the first iPod of 5 years ago. Compare it to the nano and the difference is almost as bad as the phones.”

And never the twain shall meet
The Idaho and NYC factions of 37signals have yet to meet.

In/out
Mark labelled this “the most disturbing comment on SvN ever” (from The ins and outs of 37signals):

Bennett: Mimi Speer on 52nd Street taught me popular music and taught me to imitate musicians rather than other singers so I wouldn’t sound like somebody else and be one of the chorus of some famous star. She said, “You listen to the musicians on 52nd Street and pick [it] out.” I liked Art Tatum on piano and then Stan Getz. He had a beautiful honey sound. And Lester Young. Those three artists really gave me my start.

Tavis: Your teacher taught you to imitate musicians and not artists.

Bennett: Right.

Tavis: What’s the distinction? What’s the difference?

Bennett: Well, the singers — you know, Frank Sinatra was the rage in those days and his big competition was a guy called Dick Haynes and then there was Billy Eckstine. They were so popular that she said, “If you just sing like they do and imitate their voices, you’re going to sound like one of the chorus because everybody’s doing that”. She said, “To be an individual, listen to musicians and listen to what they’re doing and imitate musicians rather than the singers.” It was a very creative teacher that told me what to do about just being myself.

It’s a great story and relevant to anyone who works (or plays) in a creative field. It’s always a challenge to sound like an individual instead of a member of the chorus.

Look at web design these days: Gradients, bursts, big type, rounded corners, pastel colors, and reflections rule the roost. This slavish adherence to Web 2.0 design trends by the “chorus” is resulting in a big snoozefest.

(Note: Web designers aren’t the only guilty ones here either. Print designers leaf through design annuals for ideas, bands copy the hot sound on the radio, writers parrot whatever’s charting on the bestseller list, etc. There are “lookalikes” everywhere.)

Now it’s not like all outside inspiration is evil. Everyone’s influenced. If you believe Oscar Wilde, “Talent borrows, genius steals.” The problem is that when everyone is turning to the same places for influence, things get stale. We wind up drowning in a sea of me-toos.

Here are some ideas for where to find fresh inspiration:

Look to the past
Looking to the past is a great way to get outside the current zeitgeist. Not sure where to start? Trace a path backwards. Find out who influences peers that you admire. If you like Jim Coudal’s designs, then check out Joseph Muller-Brockmann. If you admire Jonathan Ive, then check out Dieter Rams. Or, to give a musical example, if you like the way Jack White plays guitar then check out Jimmy Page. Then once you soak that up, check out Link Wray, a big influence on Page. The more you dig, the more likely you are to find fresh soil.

Look to nature
Nature is an endless source of inspirational ideas. Find a color palette in nature. Or draw inspiration from the shapes of nature (e.g. the nature drawings of Ernst Haeckel).

Look to a different medium
Bennett’s tale of getting inspiration from an instrument instead of a voice is a great example of this. Some others:

A design student once asked Michael Bierut for any advice he had for them. He answered, “To have other interests than design.”

Patrick Hughes creates amazing 3D landscapes (they really need to be seen in person). Recently, I got to chat with him and he told me he never goes to museums or galleries. He conscientiously makes a point to avoid looking at other paintings because he doesn’t want to see the work of people who are toiling in the same medium. He told me he’d much rather be influenced by books he reads.

Bob Dylan gets lyrical inspiration from classic movies, 19th century poems, and Japanese gangster novels.

Software developers picked up Christopher Alexander’s pattern language, originally intended for architects, and made it their own (web designers too). Now, Alexander may be having a greater impact on computer science than on architecture.

Bottom line
When everyone else is looking the same way for inspiration, look somewhere else. The result is a lot more likely to be something singular and fresh.

We felt about 100 listings at a time would be the sweet spot. Enough to provide choice to those looking for a job. Not too many to dilute the listings like so many huge job boards do. When your post is 1 of 100 you feel pretty good about having it seen by the target. When your post is 1 of 500 or 1 of 1000 you start to feel like you’re wasting your money. We don’t want anyone to feel like that.

Even though there’s more competition in the job board space as of late, traffic and postings to our Job Board have been increasing significantly. As of right now there are 142 jobs listed on our Job Board. We think that’s starting to push the limit of what we’re comfortable with. We want less jobs.

So, it’s time to raise the price and try and bring the number of listings back in line with our sweet spot of “the top 100.” Starting now, Job Board posts will be $300 for 30 days (it used to be $250). If we need to raise or lower the price again in the future we will.

We’d like to leave you with an email we received yesterday from a satisfied Job Board customer:

We advertised our latest job posting far and wide, then bought 4 paid listings; Fog Creek Software, 37signals Job Board, Craigslist and Techcrunch. We received over 120 applications, but in the end 2 out of the 3 finalists (and the person we ultimately hired) found us on the 37signals Job Board. Thanks guys, this thing really works!

That was from Aaron Dragushan of Wondermill Webworks Inc. Thanks Aaron! We wish everyone the same success.

Original Signal

“Original Signal aggregates the 15 most popular Web 2.0 sites. The main purpose of the site is to provide a quick glance on what’s happening without using your desktop/web RSS reader.”

Wize

“Wize Rank takes the collective wisdom of more than 750,000 reviews of nearly 20,000 products and distills them into a single, simple number that’s easy to understand.” Nice to see a shopping comparison site with big product shots instead of itty bitty thumbnails.

Got an interesting screenshot for Signal vs. Noise? Send the image and/or URL to svn [at] 37signals [dot] com.

We use the mailing list to send infrequent emails about what we’ve been up to, what we’ve just launched, and what’s coming up next. We also recap blog posts and share anything else we think is worth sharing. On average we may send just one email a month so you don’t have to worry about us filling up your inbox (or your trash).

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Ordering omakase can be a gamble, however the customer typically receives the highest quality fish the restaurant currently has in stock at a price cheaper than if it was ordered a la carte.

The customer puts faith in an expert to make the right decision — freedom of choice is traded for optimization. Ties in with our talk of avoiding preferences (see Getting Real). Sometimes by removing choices from customers you’re doing them a favor. You’re declaring yourself an expert who will serve them the right “fish.”

Omakase and simplicity
John Maeda also talks about Omakase in The Laws Of Simplicity:

Perhaps the omakase course is a form of subjection to culinary sadism — a gastronomic deviance that faces extinction in a progressively risk averse world. A sushi Master does not acknowledge risk; he has no fear. He has earned the trust of his customer, or else will fight literally with his bare hand to earn it when given the opportunity. Simplicity is achieved through the heroism of the trusted Master because in his sushi, we trust.

Amazon’s Omakase Links
And Amazon is now offering Omakase Links — Dave Taylor review, FAQ at Amazon (associate login required) — which “automatically display the products and content that visitors to the page are most likely to buy.” Omakase is designed to compete with Google’s AdSense program by using the built-in advantage of Amazon purchasing and browsing history.

After a short learning period, the ads will be optimized based on what the Associate has been successful with in the past; what that user has been interested in; and what the site is about.

It’s a challenge to remember that what may be old and tired to you will actually be brand new to the outside world when you finally release your product.

One technique we’ve been using is to stay away from screens we’re really happy with. Just put them away. Check ‘em out again just a bit before launch. That way there’s no time to get sick of them. No time to change something that doesn’t need change.

Remember, there’s always time for change later. Premature change can be a problem. Once you’re really happy with something just stay away from it. Shift your focus to other things that need your attention.

1) There are no windows. Gamblers have no idea whether it’s light or dark or sunny or rainy outside.

2) There are no clocks. Dealers are forbidden from wearing watches. Time becomes meaningless.

3) There’s intentionally poor navigation. They are built like mazes meaning it’s usually tough to find a way out.

4) There’s a constant barrage of noises. Slot machines spin, games ding and dong, coins hit metal, there’s the pitter patter of the people running the games, etc. Many of these sounds, like the ringing of the slots, is there to give you a false sense of hope (“If all of those bells are ringing, somebody must be winning!”).

5) Loose slot machines — ones that pay out more often — are placed near highly trafficked areas (e.g. the aisles, change booth, restaurants, etc.) so more people witness winners.

6) There’s constant research on all aspects of the sensory experience: scents, colors, interior design, and the angles of lights (e.g. light that hits people’s foreheads is a no-no because it apparently drains gamblers of energy).

7) The attire (or lack thereof) of everyone who works there contributes to the atmosphere (e.g. dealers in uniforms, pit bosses in suits, servers in skimpy outfits, etc.)

8) Free booze is delivered to gamblers without them having to get up.

9) It’s not a passive experience. Gamblers are made to feel like they influence the process. And when a gambler feels they can affect the outcome — by throwing the die, choosing a roulette number, or deciding when to split at blackjack — a feeling of control develops that keeps them gambling longer.

10) There’s a constant rhythm. Everything happens at regular intervals. Dice are rolled. Cards are dealt. Wheels are spun. Bets are placed. And then it happens again. (Interesting note: Casinos have slowly phased out deck shuffling by installing automatic shufflers. Gamblers used to get a break while dealers reshuffled. Now it’s a constant flow of cards which increases the number of hands per hour — and that means more money for the house.)

11) There are players cards which get frequent gamblers free nights, food, and room upgrades.

12) There’s a palpable energy in the room. Money’s on the line. It’s a big night out. People are paying attention. Everyone’s engaged.

13) Some say casinos are pumped full of oxygen so gamblers feel more awake and energetic. (Others say this is just a myth that, if true, would result in a tremendous fire hazard.)

14) The funnel pours one way. There are thousands of places to hand over money to the casino. Every craps table, blackjack table, roulette wheel, and slot machine will take your cash. Yet there’s only one place to get paid out in bills: the cashier window. And to get there, you’ve got to pass all those other places that want to take your money.

The result: a completely immersive and compelling customer experience. It’s no wonder some people don’t know when to stop.

I don’t think committees ever make any sense at all, and I hate meetings. I have a belief that committees tend to get formed when you want to avoid responsibility, and particularly when you know what you want to get and you want to be able to say it was ‘consensus.’ I work over email, and I do so for a reason.

How Google runs meetings talks about the meeting timer Google uses:

To add a little pressure to keep meetings focused, Google gatherings often feature a giant timer on the wall, counting down the minutes left for a particular meeting or topic.

And Bill Ford tried to cut meetings at Ford before departing:

Ford stressed that meetings weren’t seen-and-be-seen affairs or a continuation of ‘that’s the way we’ve always done it;’ rather, meetings have to have a strong bearing on turning the company around and getting the job done. The goal is to get folks at lower levels within the organization to make decisions on their own.

(tx Nick, Spike, Eddie for pointers)

Related: Meetings are Toxic (PDF) from Getting Real

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