Accomplishment without effort
Another snow storm in New Jersey.
As I was driving slowly to work this morning in my sedan (rear-wheel drive, stick-shift), a guy in a four-wheel drive was riding my bumper for miles, inches away. I recalled a recent status update of a Facebook friend: “4wd does NOT keep you from sliiiiiiding.” Well, duh! What really took me off guard in this status update was the surprise in its tone. The four-wheel-drive industry had convinced my friend that she wouldn’t have to learn how to drive in the snow – all she had to do was buy their product. Accomplishment without effort.
Or take the radio commercial for an online university which says (quoting from memory): “Sign up for our program and you will get a degree for what you already know!” In other words, we are not going to teach you anything. We know you hate that stuff anyway. We are just going to sell you a diploma. Accomplishment without effort.
Or take the software vendor who says: “Our new release, X+1, is more powerful yet easier to use than release X.” Isn’t that an oxymoron? How can that be? But think not, just buy the upgrade. Accomplishment without effort.
We live in a culture that celebrates accomplishment without effort.
A friend told me a Little Johnny joke in which the teacher rewards a correct answer by allowing the student to go home early. Makes sense, right? Not to me.
Posted by Atanas Entchev at 2/26/2010 3:14 PM 
Categories: Culture,blog,Opinion,Business,GIS,NJ,ENTCHEV,New Jersey,USA,US,Facebook
Tags: Culture blog Opinion Business GIS NJ ENTCHEV New Jersey USA US Facebook
Categories: Culture,blog,Opinion,Business,GIS,NJ,ENTCHEV,New Jersey,USA,US,Facebook
Tags: Culture blog Opinion Business GIS NJ ENTCHEV New Jersey USA US Facebook
A corollary: many years ago, we took our niece to Chuck E. Cheese's for her birthday. When I found out that the Skee Ball there spit out two tickets *before* game play begun, I knew that I'd never take my own children there.
Solely rewarding participation negates the effect of positive reinforcement for quality work or effort. We would not have modern society without a little competition.
Considering this is a GIS blog, take ESRI's lackadaisical approach to web mapping *cough*ArcIMS*cough* before Google debuted Maps and Earth. Without competition, why improve yourself or your products?
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In the original Olympics athletes would compete, and the winner would be celebrated. That's it -- there was the winner, and everyone else. No second place medal, no third, no honorable mention. No sob stories.
How far we have "evolved" since then.
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Considering this is a GIS blog, how about the promise of software marketers for more power with less effort? The decision-makers who attend the magical seminar eat up the promise, buy the solution, and throw it to their techs to implement. The techs are now facing the impossible task of delivering on the vendor's marketers' promise, while said marketers are off to the next town to weave their magic on another group of unsuspecting decision-makers?
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