ValleyZen - At the Intersection of Zen, Modern Life and Technology

Do you have an iPod? We have somewhere between ten and fifteen in my family. About all of the versions are represented among the family’s iPods. From the initial version with all the controls contained in the little wheel in the middle to the version with no wheel but controlled by a touch screen.

In the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s I represented one of the creators of stereo hi-fi components for general consumers. Companies in that industry were pioneers in designing, building and creating demand for a hi-tech consumer product to be bought by consumers from retailers. For sure, there existed a small community of audiophiles who were heavily into hi-fi. Many were not considered to be well-adjusted citizens, although they made good salespeople for hi-fi components…

Unexpected angles and perspectives lead to invaluable insights.
What does watching a Jazz performance live from backstage have to do with giving your Palm Pilot to a Senior?

Jazz Backstage
Last week, Jazz legend Wynton Marsalis invited me backstage. It struck me—Watching a brilliant jazz performance from behind, where it is not meant to be watched, connects you with the spirit of Jazz like nothing else. Jazz by its nature is asymmetrical, dynamic, improvisational– (one can argue, like a start-up). From this vantage point…

“This is where I like to come to avoid the traffic,” said Guy Kawasaki—soon after launching into a discussion of the opposite (i.e. how to attract web traffic).

On the eve of the beta launch of Guy’s new site Alltop.com, Guy gave ValleyZen.com an exclusive interview about the site. See part 1 and 2 below.

Paglo is a search company named after the Italian explorer Francisco Paglo. There may be Italophiles in the company, I didn’t find them at today’s Lunch 2.0 event.

I did meet a brilliant engineering team with a deep appreciation of Japanese Zen aesthetics. “You’ve stumbled upon the company’s two Japanophiles,” Chris Waters, Co-Founder and CTO of Paglo, said of himself and Eric “Scanner” the online application architect.

Is the use of Information Technology by Government Bureaucracies Consistent with the Zen Concept of Simplicity?

Bureaucracies could learn from the Zen principle of simplicity. They have the incredible ability to add complexity to people’s lives: confusing them, cluttering their minds, and raising their anxieties. Simple, targeted, non-cluttered communication could greatly improve the quality of the interactions between citizens and bureaucracies. An extreme story of bureaucratic clutter illustrates this…

We are the country of “Winner Takes All.” There is only One National Champion, One Best Picture, One Album of the Year. If you happen to be #2, you might as well not exist.

But who is in a position to select a single winner? Who said that Michael Tilson Thomas’ Mahler is greater than Haitink’s Beethoven? And that the Dixie Chicks are even greater?

The old football saying goes “Offense wins games. Defense wins championships.” Great dynasties—like the Steelers, the 49ers and the Cowboys, won big games with outstanding defensive plays. I can’t wait to see what will happen today — the Patriots’ offense colliding with the Giants’ defense. Similarly, Aikido—arguably the most Zen among the martial arts, fights through defense, not offense. An interesting aspect of this Zen defense is that aikidokas, without losing their internal balance, redirect the energy of the attacking opponent to their advantage. In the words of Morihei Ueshiba, Founder of Aikido…

Yahoo: decidedly Non-Zen
Today MSN announced a bid to acquire Yahoo for $44.6B. This completes Yahoo’s slow slide downhill from the top of the search Mount Olympus.

One can argue that lack of focus on Zen features, particularly Simplicity, in Yahoo’s Search Advertising business was the major force behind this slide.

1. Complexity of opening an Advertiser Account in Yahoo: It has always been difficult, time-consuming and non-intuitive to open an account in Yahoo. Before, with the old Overture interface, the difference with Google in this respect was stunning. Now, under Panama, this problem is less pronounced but it is still more difficult.
Why does it matter?

Simplicity is a key Zen tenet. However, a common misperception about Zen is that it comes naturally without training and that it is simplistic. Being simple is far from being simplistic.

Simplicity in Zen disciplines like Sumi-e comes through years of training, says Zen authority Daisetz Suzuki. Quoting Georges Duthuit, Suzuki says:

“Draw bamboos for ten years, become a bamboo, then forget all about bamboos when you are drawing. In possession of an infallible technique, the individual places himself at the mercy of inspiration.”

I think that the same holds for learning how to be a great technologist…

What is a Valley Zen experience? Share yours!
Zen principles resonate with the spirit of Silicon Valley:

Simplicity, clarity, intuition, immediacy, harmony with nature, action over theory…

We’ve all had our Valley Zen experiences…

• When simplifying your product and removing features makes it more useful
• When intuition leads you to the right solution though away from the ”logical” solution
• When…