Nobody launches a product quite like Apple. They don’t just launch products, they create events around them. The rumors pile up for months, the press waits for tickets to attend the big unveiling, and customers download hour-long presentations at home. The company has gained fame from announcing surprise items and ensuring that what they share is “magical”.
Of course, Apple is a business. In fact, they are a very profitable business. The employees may be driven to make great products, but shareholders are out to make profits. You can find plenty of news about impressive revenue these products have driven, but does just the announcement of a new product bring a boost to share prices?
This following data viz seeks to answer that very question. Dive in to analyze nearly three decades of product launches. In an attempt to isolate the impact of each event, a comparison is provided of the adjusted closing price before and after the event.
In addition, the second tab includes an event-focused view. This may help reveal which launch dates were the most impactful. It may also offer clues as to why certain products are connected with surprising gains (perhaps the newest Apple TV wasn’t the primary driver of the share price this Spring).
That’s it. That’s why I have this blog. I may have a few additional motives; but what interests me about having my own corner of the Internet is that it is my chance to create. What I often struggle with is just what to create.
It’s not that I have a complete lack of ideas. In fact, there seems to be multitudes of ideas in my mind just begging to be released. What gets in the way is that I often hold back. Instead of writing a post, I think to myself “somebody knows much more about this” or “nobody’s interested in that.”
Hogwash.
The more I share my thoughts and views with people, the more I realise that we are too hard on ourselves. Our interests drive us to learn about topics; and when what we learn clashes with our experiences, we develop our own points of view. This is not a groundbreaking revelation, but I don’t think we really understand that. I’m a science fiction geek who has studied about how to create better presentations. That leads me to insert Star Wars references in department meetings. It also might peak the interest of someone who didn’t realise that it was acceptable to stray from the bullet-pointed template. Not only am I interesting (or at least a bit strange), but by exposing what makes me interesting, I’m sparking a change in others.
You also have plenty to offer. You have your knowledge, your ideas, and your experiences. You are the expert of what interests you. You may not know as much as someone else on the web about traveling in Europe, but you probably know more than most of the people you eat lunch with. I feel like I struggle to put this blog together; but when I go home for Thanksgiving, I might as well call myself a web guru. To some extent, “expert” is a relative term.
Think about your expertise. What do you specialise in? What do you know more about than everyone you know? What complimentary topics do you have interests in? You may be surprised to see how much they can overlap. You may not be the best photographer in town, but you may be the best photographer who knows how to best capture a rugby match.
Only you can tell us what you really know. After all, you’re the expert.
We take plenty of things for granted. When our Fall allergies kick in, we get medication. If our smartphone breaks, we feel lost until it is replaced. Of course, most of our mothers have been telling us this for decades.We simply forget how fortunate we are to have the things we use every day.
The interactive data visualization below describes something we use every day: clean water. Think about how much water you use each day. How many glasses do you drink each day? Unfortunately, not everyone has access to clean water. You may have heard about places without access to clean water before, but some of the numbers may surprise you.
Take a look around. Dive into the map to see what countries are being left behind of their neighbors. Adjust the filter to see where less than 50% of the population has access to safe water. Then look at the list of countries to see just how bad things are in Ethiopia.
I know that this isn’t the most uplifting stuff, but you can do something about it. Visit charity: water to learn how you can help donate and raise money for those in need. Hopefully you’ve already heard of charity: water, as they do an excellent job. 100% of donations go to the people who need it.
If you can spare a few bucks, head over to charity: water and donate toward their special campaign to buy a drill for Ethiopia. You can also set up your own project and find ways to raise money. If times are tough for you, forward on a link to this page or to charity: water. Thanks for visiting and supporting a truly great cause.
This is your four month warning: Schedule your vacation! If you are the type of person who uses all of your vacation days by January, this post may not make sense to you. However, I think we’ve all seen the stats that show Americans don’t use all of their vacation time. More and more, you hear people reference vacation time as a luxury. I hear things like “One of these days I’ll find room for some time off.” or “Your trip sounds nice, I’m trying to get a vacation in.”
Why are you “trying” to get a vacation in? It’s never going to plan itself. Hopefully,its part of your compensation. $X an hour/year, Y hours of sick time, and Z hours of vacation. If you don’t use it, its your fault. If your work is keeping you from your vacation, then I suggest your make vacation a priority. If you are discouraged from leaving for time off, perhaps you should consider looking for a new job. Its just waiting for you, so take it. Now lets be clear, I’m talking about time away from work. Traveling is a great way to spend time out of the office, but it is not mandatory. If staying home makes more sense, there is plenty you can do to clear your mind and recharge.
This was a big problem for me when I was starting out. I put in all sort of hours in the name of “paying my dues”. I didn’t have a family to take anywhere, my close relatives lived nearby and I didn’t want to miss the chance to accomplish more. I used to only take bits and pieces around the end of the year, often after ignoring the issue until November. This was an acceptable way to use the vacation time, but ended up being a terrible way to recharge. I never truly disconnected and recharged my batteries. After a few years of this, I came to realize that if I didn’t take at least a few days off every once in a while, I lost track of what I was working for. Preferably, I look for at least one solid week out of the office.
It seems that those little distractions will always come up (that project form the big boss, a quarterly rollout,etc.). Hold your ground and anticipate what you can. In the meantime, take responsibility for your own time away from you work, and please, please, stop waving around your unused vacation as a badge of honor. After all, hours worked doesn’t really show how effective you are, its what you’ve produced.
The NFL lockout is over, and the season is fast approaching. That means that it is time to prepare for fantasy football. Part of the fun of such preparation is diving into the stats. Below is a visualization to help you select a quarterback. It includes player projections, as well as historical data to back it up.
Dig into the data and see if anybody stands out that you may not have thought of. Perhaps a little data can give you an edge over the rest of your league. Find an undervalued quarterback to pick up in a later round. Check out the historical data to see who has consistently performed each year. That said, don’t forget to read up on who has lost their star receivers, or may be injury prone.
Let me know what you think. Would you use this to help you? Would you bring this to draft day? I’d love to hear what you think.
We like things wrapped up. We like clean finishes. Who wants to leave any unanswered questions? I do.
Unanswered questions are interesting. Unanswered questions get people talking, specifically asking more questions. When you share your story, though a presentation, video, or otherwise, unanswered questions can be very useful. If your audience thinks they know everything at your conclusion, then they may not feel the need to think any longer.
I recently watched “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” for the first time. It’s a classic film starring the great Jimmy Stewart as a man appointed as a U.S. Senator for a few months. Long story short, he is good and honest man who takes on the powers of corruption. I won’t spoil the end for you, but I will tell you that as soon as a resolution emerges, the movie is over. There is no epilogue to explain what happened to the characters. There is no sweeping shot of the capitol while we are told what happened next. It just ends. This happened a lot in older films, not as often now.
A more recent example would be “The Matrix” films. At the end of the original movie, Neo flies to the sky, the credits come up, and the soundtrack blares. We all were then left speechless to try to guess at what happened next (heck, we still needed to settle out everything that happened in the movie). It was a great end. I imagined all the possibilities of what could happen. Then we got the sequels. Regardless of whether or not you enjoyed them (I did), I think we can agree that it sought to answer many of the remaining questions. Unfortunately, these detailed sequels were not as interesting as the original; as they expanded the world the characters lived in, but didn’t contain as compelling of a story.
When you tell your story, do just that. Tell the story. Stories end. If you present the results of your project, share the important facts and the key points you want to address. If someone wants to know additional details, let them ask later. In my opinion, it’s much better to end on a high note, leaving people wanting more. If you audience wants more from you, that means they are interested, and are likely to continue thinking about what you had to say. All the better.
I continue to be thoroughly impressed with friends and colleagues of mine who pursue side projects. Most of us don’t have one singular passion, so I’m always excited to see people following more than one path. Also, I’m really happy for friends who are pushing through daily work that they don’t quite love, while spending their “free time” on the work that truly makes them happy. From those who just help out a friend with their website, to those that research new investments, to those who create art and travel across the country to promote it, to those who have very successful local bands.
Maybe these peoples side projects will take off, maybe they’ll stay just where they are. The point is, these people are getting off their couches and making a way for themselves. Not only that, these are usually people that do a great job at everything they put their mind to. In many cases, I’m not sure what they classify as their “side project”.
The above illustration of parity in the NFL (posted on reddit) got plenty of attention this week. I think it is a pretty interesting way to show how things have turned out in the NFL this year. Our fantasy football league commissioner made a comment that we could do something similar for our league. The second image is the result of that challenge.
I’m not one for long reviews, so I will keep this simple.
A great deal has been said about REWORK. It is a collection of frank essays that may cause you to rethink how you work. I found many of the authors’ points to ring true. Key messages throughout the book include “keep it simple” and “get things done”. Like the topics of many books, these seem simple but are not always easy to put into practice. We often create a large group to work through a project through a long series of meetings, rather than let a small team work out a simpler solution. When workloads rise, we quickly move to expand teams, rather than prioritize. I know that issue all too well.
I really enjoyed REWORK. I like reading books that are broken down into small segments. Smaller segments give me the option to read for shorter periods of time, as well as allow myself to think about where insights can be applied in my daily work. This book may be focused on small businesses, but those of us in larger work environments have a lot to gain from these pages. Simply put, I wish I worked with more people who subscribed to the thoughts of this book.
