b.cognosco
Where leaping to conclusions is my primary form of forward motion.
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Thursday, July 27, 2006
The Cranio-Rectal Decision-making of Sparta Commercial Services
Recently I purchased a new motorcycle. Today – approximately three weeks and 1,000 miles later – the lender has decided they can’t finance the bike. This doesn’t bother me particularly. I have the bike. But it does have the dealer in a bit of a bind.
The problem isn’t my credit score, my credit history, or my ability to pay. In fact, my credit score is well above the 640 posted on the lender’s home page as the minimum required for their “prime” rate. The problem isn’t the loan amount – it’s a piddly little loan. I paid 50% of the bike’s cost at purchase, and financed the rest over two years. The entire deal is a fully collateralized loan that is less than the amount an itinerant bum could put on an unsecured credit card. The problem is that I’m self-employed. And Sparta Commercial Services thinks that self-employed people are crooks.
The trouble began when Sparta called to verify my employment. All it would have taken was for someone besides me to tell Sparta I had a job. I answer my own phones. Have for years. If I’d put them on hold and had the receptionist across the hall talk to them, or even if I’d just lied to them and pretended to be someone else, they just wanted one person to tell them I had a job. Any kind of job. The employer could be on the brink of bankruptcy. Sparta wouldn’t know. The employer could be a tiny little business (or internet start-up) that isn’t going to make payroll next week. But that doesn’t matter. It’s a job.
Never mind that their credit report says I’m a good risk. Never mind that I have a good history and good references. Never mind that I’ve managed to pay all my bills on time, pay my rent for the past two years, and stay in business. Never mind that I put 50% down on the bike.
No, never mind any of that. It would be better if I worked for a guy who was up to his ass in debt, behind on all his bills, stiffing his creditors, and failing to make payroll. (How many of us work, or have worked, for companies like that) Yes, that’s the kind of reliable situation Sparta thinks makes for a good credit risk. These people are idiots. And they are completely disconnected from modern society.
In today’s world a job is the least secure form of employment you can have. I’ve done the corporate gig. I’ve done the internet start-up gig. I’ve done the small company gig. Never, ever was I less secure than when some other individual could deprive me of my livelihood with two little words – “You’re fired.” And I have never been as secure as I am right now, depending on my own resources for my survival.
Whatever goes wrong, I am responsible. Whatever needs to be fixed, I can fix. No bureaucracy, no politics, no bullshit. If I have a bad customer, I fire them. If I need more work I go looking. But I do not live in fear of losing my paycheck because of someone else’s bad mood, bad policy, or bad management.
Recently Steve Pavlina wrote 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job (hat tip to Euan.) There’s good food for thought in that essay. It’s a bit jaundiced, but also contains a lot of truth. Not everyone should work by themselves or for themselves. Small groups and entrepreneurial teams can usually do far more than an individual. But the point is that you should have some control. You should not be in fear of the words “You’re fired.”
Sparta needs to grow up. Their requirements for lending to entrepreneurs are outmoded, outdated, and counterproductive. What’s more, the “validation” they seek isn’t in any way a reliable indicator of income or ability to pay. The mortgage industry figured this out long ago. If any thinking person at Sparta had reviewed my case this whole situation would have been avoided. But that’s asking a lot, I guess – a thinking person at a bank. In the end I’m glad they won’t be getting any of my money. I hate giving money to morons. It just helps their stupidity survive a little longer.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
The Problem With Having Low Expectations...
Is that they are usually met. The problem with expecting the best from people is that you are usually disappointed.Will the Wiki Ever Win?
I think not.What is it about wikis? Many of us with moderate tech skills remain fascinated by wikis despite their relatively limited success (wikipedia notwithstanding.) I've had my share of wiki experiments, including running Instiki on a USB stick. I still find wikis much more accomodating for group editing of a document, provided the document is created in (or poured into) a wiki, that all editors are wiki-compliant, and that you have a plan for getting the document of the wiki and into something useful without a lot of pain.
But that sets a pretty high bar. That all, or even many, of the users are wiki-complaint is far from a given. Once you step outside of the tech-geek world that dominates online stuff wiki acceptance is barely above zero. Still, the basic wiki principle is so simple and compelling it just won't die.
Should Quantum Gardener be a blog or wiki?And so David, who needs to collaborate on any number of things, has returned to the idea of the wiki. Perhaps things have changed in the year since I tried my wiki experiment. I'm eager to see.
I'm trying to decide if Quantum Gardener should be a blog or a wiki? As a blog it has the advantage of the history that is already present (458 entries), trackback, comments (when not being spammed) and RSS feeds that make sense. Yet a wiki platform is intriguing, especially with the latest work that we're doing at Successus (not yet public). A single integrated wiki platform will let me integrate posts and build up a much stronger picture of what's important for me to share. I can do that with a blog, but a wiki makes it easier due to the use of WikiWords.
What I really need is a good example of someone who uses a wiki platform to write a blog? If you know of one, let me know in the comments section below.
I found almost no difference in ease of editing for unsophisticated users. Both technologies (wiki markup and/or HTML) were seen as overwhelmingly complex. Attempts at WYSIWYG editors have improved the situation, but I still found it problematic. Moving from one format to the other was also painful. That's why I ultimatley stopped using Instiki as a personal notepad - taking copy from there and making it useful elsewhere was a pain in the butt.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Mickey Goes to Mumbai
WSJ (subscription required):Walt Disney Co. announced that it will acquire Hungama, a popular Indian children's cable-TV channel, as it plays catch-up in the growing Indian entertainment market.What Mr Bird leaves unsaid is that exporting US intellectual property laws to India is at least as important, and probably moreso, than exporting content. Just wait 'til they get to Bollywood.
Disney will pay about $30 million to acquire Hungama from United Home Entertainment, a company owned by Indian media conglomerate UTV Software Communications Ltd. and its chairman and chief executive, Ronnie Screwvala. In addition, Disney will spend about $15 million to buy a 14.9% equity stake in UTV, which produces television programming, animation and Bollywood films.
"India is a long-term strategic priority," said Andy Bird, president of Walt Disney International. "It is very important that we grow our business locally as well as through exporting U.S.-originated content."
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