The Idea Blog

If it bores you for me to post 1-2 sentence statements about what I’m reading or have read and then give you the links, stop reading this post now. My read through nytimes.com today highlighted three pieces I found worthy of mention here.

1. The Unsung Heroes Who Move Products Forward captures the processes behind the innovations we usually read so much about. Several of our most important projects at the moment have more to do with the process - the rationale and means behind the result we seek - so this caught my eye and my imagination. “Processes are the stuff in the proverbial ‘black box, the alchemy unseen by consumers or the inelegantly termed ‘end users’ who buy computers, cellphones, cameras and all manner of digital devices and services.”

Google’s dominance in search, the article says, is a case in point. Sure, the algorithms are powerful, but more important is the way [Google] organizes vast clusters of computers around the globe to answer queries so quickly” that matters more. In other words, sure, it’s good information, but Google’s dominance may come as much from being fast. And “fast” is an infrastructure issue, not an innovation, per se.

“I believe that the physical network is Google’s ’secret sauce,’ its premier competitive advantage. While a brilliant lone wolf can conceive of a dazzling algorithm, only a superwealthy and well-managed organization can run what is arguably the most valuable computer network on the planet. Without the computer network, Google is nothing.”

Here’s what really made me sit up in my Aeron and re-read: “Eric E. Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, appears to agree. Last year he declared, ‘We believe we get tremendous competitive advantage by essentially building our own infrastructures.’”

Remember, I’m a consultant. Burris is largely an outside company that steps in to innovate, create and consult without being totally absorbed by the company it works for.

We may innovate or create, but in many cases our client’s need to supply the infrastructure … and as the Google example demonstrates, the infrastructure is just as, if not more, important.

Love it.

2. Balancing Bottom Lines and Headlines is one of the best pieces I’ve read on newspapering in a long time. I’m looking forward to watching the Murdoch era and what it brings to the Wall Street Journal, but, frankly, I’m more interested in how the local newspaper plays out. The St. Petersburg Times example is one intriguing and fascinating case. Go read the article by Clifford Krauss. It will capture your imagination and make your look differently at your local paper.

3. Lyn Rollins called me early Friday for a heads-up on the Today Show. Seems the Friday concerts the Matt and Meredith host this week featured Bruce Springsteen. The several segments and songs the program showed (find them here) were good if you could get past the crowd’s monotonous hamming for the cameras. (What is about so many that makes them wave to the camera, any camera?)

Seeing The Boss in such a setting was a little, uh, unsettling, but seeing him at all outweighed my discomfort. The new album, Magic, the first with the E Street Band since The Rising, is due this week, and by all accounts, it should be a good one. At least that’s what A.O. Scott promises in this article in today’s Times, In Love With Pop, Uneasy With The World. “I associate his work with the sorrows and satisfactions of adulthood; it’s music to grow up to, not out of.”

“Mr. Springsteen’s best songs, it seems to me, are about compromise and stoicism; disappointment and faith; work, patience and resignation. They are also, frequently — even the ones he wrote when he was still in his 20s — about nostalgia, about the desire to recapture those fleeting moments of intensity and possibility we associate with being young.”

Enjoy the article and the new music.

And your Sunday.