talent

The philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer once said that, “talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.” Lots of people are smart, but true genius has always had an element of mystery to it.

I’m not a talented writer. In fact, in many ways I’m pretty lousy. I’m a miserable typist—capable of  little better than hunt and peck—only have a vague idea about where to put punctuation and no matter how much I proofread, I always end up with typos.

In the late 1960’s, minimills like Nucor started using a new process that could produce low grades of steel more efficiently than the big integrated steel makers. These, however, were the lowest margin products in the industry and didn’t seem much of a threat to the big guys.

Years ago, there was a popular cartoon with a caption that said, “To err is human, to really foul things up requires a computer.” Technology back then was very tightly engineered to do specific, rote operations and if you went outside that box, you were asking for trouble.

A strange thing happened this year. A number of highly talented people I know were made redundant from the (typically) large companies they were working for. Good people. Capable, bright, knowledgeable people. People skilled in digital and who were willing to challenge the conventional ways of doing things in order to find a better way.

I confess that I have a warm spot in my heart for customer service operations. It is probably because I met my wife of 29.5 years Eileen Marie when she and I were on the customer service phones at the Polaroid Corporation. As an old phone jockey, it is apparent to me that the world of customer service is transforming.

This article was written for Yanko Design (YD). As I know some Design Sojourn readers don’t really frequent YD, I have decided to republish and keep a record of the article here. Enjoy, and I’m looking forward to your comments if you have not left any before!

by: Karl Long

By: Guy Kawasaki  

Amanda Congdon was one of the first, if not the first, videoblog sensations. As a host of Rocketboom, she had approximately 300,000 viewers in the spring of 2006.