People want solutions

Long-term readers know I love ALDI. With a few rare misses, the German discount supermarket chain has stuff as good as the others, at better prices, and in a well-designed environment that doesn’t trigger anxiety like the blaring lights and music of Colesworth. I wrote more about the enduring appeal of Aldi back in June last year. But I hadn’t...

Yesterday I wrote how people generally don’t care how something works, they only want a solution to their IT problems. Jason of NotJustBikes was joined by Reece from RM Transit to discuss a similar idea. Edited for brevity: Jason: In the Netherlands, the planning seems to be a lot more high level and strategic. “This is the overarching goal that...

I judge the process of cancelling a service against how easy it was to register with the company in the first place. It’s amazing how many companies fail when judged against this! Okay, it’s not amazing at all, it’s entirely routine. Which is frustrating. If you can register online, you must be able to cancel online. If you can register without a...

Today’s Music Monday is on a Tuesday my time, but it’s still Monday in some parts of the world. I’m (ab)using this technicality to share something financially dangerous. My favourite watch company SEIKO are taking preorders for a piece themed for the legendary 2011 Hatsune Miku song Senbonzakura by Kurousa-P. The music and visuals have become so...

I’m out on the balcony upstairs this morning having coffee. I know, shocking. Just as I opened Thunderbird to consult the morning calendar, a helicopter came into our view. It’s well away from us, at least a kilometre I’d say, but it has a direct line-of-sight owing to there being nothing but trees between us. Helicopters are loud. I mean,...