Author: Joseph Thibault

CA ditches bound books for their digital counterparts…hell freezes over.

Honestly?  I’m shocked.  I think this is fantastic, revolutionary, crazy, awesome…and sad.  But I didn’t see it happening this soon.  You can read about textbooks anywhere to find out how ridiculous the authoring process and business really is (this is one of my favorite articles “Textbook Example of What’s Wrong with Education“).

I think it’s great because digital textbooks are the future (I might have thought further in the future).  With ebook technology coming from major consumer electronic manufacturers at an increasing rate (just check out the Kindle DX) and the ability to store the books and ‘mark them up’ for extended periods of time is growing ever closer. Plus, they are cheap (no printing costs, immediate delivery, etc).  And Gov. Schwarzenegger likes them, “The governor of California wants state students to ditch bulky books in favour of up-to-the-minute digital texts on the internet” (DailyMail online).

What saddens and worries me though, is that this revolutionary change is brought on by a vast budget crisis.  According to the DailyMail article the CA State textbook budget is over 200 million a year.  This plan is to simply slash that and take advantage of the text books available at sites like

But in most cases you have to pay for quality, so there will still be an expense.  This is not to mention that students will HAVE to have some device (computer, ebook reading, netbook, ipod, or otherwise) to access the material.  This will cost MUCH more than the original textbook budget allocation (as these devices are 4-5 X the cost of a textbook, or more).

Sure there is some overlap with 1-1 computer policies (which CA has not opted for) so other states like Maine would be easily transitioned down the same road as California.  But the education budget is hurting in ALL ASPECTS in the golden state, which means less computers, fewer devices and MORE burden on students and their families to ensure that their students have the tools they need to do their school work.

Before students needed just a backpack to carry them home and a little more initiative just to open the books.  No need for a backpack anymore, but they will need something much more sophisticated just to crack the cover.

Brigid Schulte — The Case for Year-Round School – washingtonpost.com

WaPo: <Brigid Schulte — The Case for Year-Round School – washingtonpost.com

I think year round school is a great idea.  I did what I would consider year round school starting in fifth grade or so.  First it was working and participating in a summer hot lunch program that my mom organized, then I worked the kitchen there doing all sorts of services (I still love to cook).  Later, in high school it was a more organized and official program sponsored by the federal government.  The program was called Upward Bound (A TRIO organization, which is a federal program for 1st generation college students who are also low income).

I engaged advanced calc, SAT Prep, dissected a pig fetus (I did nothing of the sort at regular high school) and learned computer skills and other cool stuff (this is paired frequently with job training and placement, a residential program, college visits and other extracurricular activities).

I’m not convinced that summer break is all that helpful (it was for me ONLY when I needed to work through college…not that I loved construction that much).  Certainly I support the year-round schooling.  In fact, make the days longer too!  As long as the content and teachers are good, the difference will only be better prepared and enthusiastic students.

If school’s not a place to learn “CPR, calligraphy, Japanese, rollerblading and how to make art like Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock,” where is that place?

Computers cannot commit suicide

If you use Google’s Gmail like me and have your old AOL IM account linked through it you might have gotten some of the spam instant message bots in the past.

Well, here’s a new one: today, DeclarativeCoho, a IM Bot chatted me up and said that it was having suicidal ideations.

DeclarativeCoho: Hey, I know this is weird, but I don’t know who else to turn to. I’m thinking about. . .you know. . .ending it all. Can we talk?

Wow. Sorry Mr. Robot.  It’s not that I’m heartless.  I would take the time to “talk you down” but instead I felt like blogging what you just said to me was more important.

I wonder if IM Bots ever spam each other (that’s probably what caused the suicidal thoughts in the first place).

Am I terrible?

Don't Panic

Hitchhiker’s Guide is probably the best book I’ve read in a while.  It’s a light read, but I was laughing pretty much the entire time and always wonder how the hell Doug Adams came up with the content.  The fact that psychologists are out to prevent the universe’s biggest questions from being answered: priceless.  Sorry for the spoiler (I’m reading The Restaurant at the End of the Universe already).

An awesome quote:

“listen, three eyes…don’t you try to outweird me, I get stranger things than you free with my breakfast cereal” -Zaphod, page 39

I can’t put them down.

Go buy it and help Jeff Bezos take over the the world.

No risk bailouts, or How I Invented the SuperCar

I’m a bit perturbed.  You could see the US car companies struggling years ago, eating up their political capital and brandname until they had to (literally) compare their cars to Toyota in order to get noticed.  Remember those Malibu commercials?  I thought that was lame.

Here’s what else “grinds my gears”.  All of the US car companies were supposed to come back with a plan that would bring them back to the top.  In exchange, the gov’t would give them some money and everyone wins right?  Too bad their plans suck.

Generally, the recipe was:

  1. cut lines (no more Saturn or Pontiac?)
  2. reduce models
  3. give ownership stake to the union.

Yawn.

If I were GM, this is the curve ball I would have thrown.  It would have been bold, visionary…CRAZY.  And it would be all that people were talking about.  Toyota and Honda would be like, “wait, wtf?!”

Here’s the deal, I (GM) don’t lay down any plan for my current car lines, instead, I give the manufacturing rights to Chrysler or Ford or even directly to the UAW to handle the management of manufacturing and excise a little bit of licensing fee for them using my names (there, no more labor issue).

So now I have a lean company all focused on R&D and maintaining my brand.  I make a few profound statements:

  1. When we come back from our manufacturing hiatus, we’re going to introduce only 1 car per line (maybe even fewer).
  2. all of these cars will go above and beyond the US’s plans for alternative fuel.
  3. these cars will drive themselves.
  4. we may or may not ever want to manufacture again (I may just license and co-brand/collaborate)

Why would I do this?  Cause I hate being a follower.  If I’m GM, I’ve just flipped the bird to the status quo and exerted by own vision on EVERY car manufacturer in the world.  I’ve ditched my baggage, taken the highest ground and charted the course for a decade of R&D.

Now, you’re probably thinking, ‘impossible’.  You’d be right: but only because we didn’t let these companies fail.  Imagine if the US said ‘buh-bye’ to Chrysler.  It’d be easier to drum up a bold plan because failure was possible.  Instead, we all take the stance and mouth the words that these companies are “too big to fail”.  That’s just a sorry excuse.

I’m a bit selfish though, ’cause I think commuting is a huge drain on my schedule (mostly sleep).  Imagine if no one had to drive 2 hours to work (and they could work on the way to work).  Productivity is up!

http://www.nissan-global.com/EN/PIVO2/index.html

the obvious point of a business

…is to make money.  Otherwise I think it’s called a hobby.  Another great Seth Godin quote:

“There’s a great cartoon of a mathematician doing a complicated proof on the blackboard. The board is covered with all sorts of squiggles and symbols and then, at the bottom, it says, “And then a miracle happens,” followed by the end of the proof. Business models can’t depend on miracles any more than mathematics can. Every once in a while a business comes along that creates its own model. I can tell you that it’s infinitely better to have one before you start.”