Question: What has Big Auto learned from Big Tobacco?

Answer: Nothing.

We now know that Big Tobacco knew of the addictive and harmful medical properties of cigarettes for years but kept that knowledge secret, while publicly denying the facts. That story didn’t have a happy ending for either the Tobacco Industry or their customers. The only group that came out a winner were the Trial Lawyers.

Cut to the present. We find the Auto Industry on the verge of introducing a range of new products that will no doubt cause serious injury and death to many of their customers. To say nothing of innocent bystanders (can you say ‘second hand smoke’). Meanwhile they are taking a public position claiming the exact opposite; improved safety.

This week at The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas the New York Times reports that

… to the dismay of safety advocates already worried about driver distraction, automakers and high-tech companies have found a new place to put sophisticated Internet-connected computers: the front seat …

Sir, Please Keep Your Hands On The Wheel, Where I Can See Them

Some people in the auto industry are publicly claiming that they can design complex interactive systems for the automobile so well that safety will actually be improved. While driving, you’ll be able to look up restaurants at your destination, get a stock quote, catch up on email, and even (so help me) tweet your latest thoughts. All without “taking your hands off the wheel”.

If you have some free time you can watch a video interview with Alan Mulally the CEO of Ford Motor Co. discussing these new systems. Before taking over the reins at Ford, Mr. Mullaly was CEO of the Boeing Company where he began his career as an engineer and helped design the avionics in virtually all of Boeing’s commercial jetliners.

Click to Watch Interview With Alan Mulally

Here are some Alan Mulally quotes from that interview:

I really believe that just like in the airplanes, by organizing the information and making it so intuitive and so simple … we are actually increasing the safety, and reducing the distractions.

[On the subject of Heads-Up Displays] … we’re finding out that if you put the information Heads-Down and really simple … that you get 90% of the benefit and it’s better than going Heads-Up and [then] Heads-Down.

The industry believes that the differences between a [highly trained] pilot/cockpit system and an [untrained] driver/dashboard system can be overcome with good engineering and lots of technology. It’s also clear that they are doing significant human factors research to support that assertion. But, inevitably they will have reams of data showing that much of the time that’s not good enough.  Even with both of your hands on the wheel.

And if you believe that just by keeping your hands on the wheel those activities are rendered safe, you must also believe that Pigs Can Fly while they talk on their iPhones.

There Really Is No App For That

To me this sounds like the Big Tobacco story all over again; so come back in 10 years or so after the class action suits have begun and the Attorney Generals are wading thru all that (subpoenaed) human factors data and doing statistical analysis on accident reports.

Where oh where can I buy stock in the Trial Lawyers?

This is part geek time-out, and part public service announcement.

We’ve add a neat feature to our blog, and want to explain how it works. It’s now appearing on thousands of other sites and blogs, so understanding it can save you a lot of time no matter where you are if you see that “Share” link.

And as we’ve said before, we are into time saving ideas.

The service is provided by a site called AddThis and if you look in the right column on this page you will see the button that accesses their features. Although the button is labeled “Share” it does much more than that, in fact there are so many functions it’s hard to capture with a simple label.

The button gives access to over 150 different services, and that list is growing. So for example you can use the button to:

• Create a Tweet linked to a blog post directly from your Twitter account,
• eMail a link to a blog post with your choice of email clients,
• Add a blog post to Facebook, Digg, LinkedIn, etc. etc.
• Create a new item in your Evernote account,
• Print the post on your printer,
• Creat a .pdf file of the post,
• And the list goes on and on…

After you click the button you will see this box which allows you to scroll thru all the available services and pick the one you want to use. (Tip: if you choose to eMail, you have the choice to use your own account at AOL, Yahoo, Google, or Hotmail which is an additional time-saver.)

That’s all there is to it, click away and give it a try.

Tip Note: If you have some time on your hands (anyone?), an excellent companion post to read is our Blog Tips on “Landing and Leaving“, which is particularly relevant when you are sharing information on any blog (not just ours).  At this point I  think an even better title for that lesson would have been “Wherever You Go, There You Are”, but what’s done is done.

Trust me, breakfast is not the most important meal of the day. That bromide was originally a PR stunt promoted by Big Cereal back when Postum was sold as perhaps the world’s first Nutraceutical. In my opinion anyway.

But I’m wandering. For most modern families relative importance isn’t the point. Today’s reality is that breakfast is really looking lots different from what it used to be…and this is how we are just starting our day.

As the scene opens we flash to the NY Times where Brad Stone describes today’s ODD substitute for family breakfast with a modern Nuclear Family.

• Instead of reading the Wheaties box while they slurp their ceral, our kids are checking their Facebook page and texting friends.
• Let’s not give their parents a pass though, they were up early to check their work e-mails and Twitter accounts.
• And the family uses phone texting as an in-house inter-com.

Talking to each other? Not.

BF = Before Facebook

There sure is a lot of activity, but it doesn’t sound like anyone is having much fun; even the kids. So what’s up? Well, remember that line about how the internet was better than TV because it was interactive.

Turns out this is what interactivity feels like; there’s just no such thing as a free breakfast.

On the other hand, at one time there was a free lunch!

The phrase free lunch, in U. S. literature from about 1870 to 1920, refers to a tradition once common in saloons in many places in the United States. These establishments included a “free” lunch, varying from rudimentary to quite elaborate, with the purchase of at least one drink. These free lunches were typically worth far more than the price of a single drink. The saloon-keeper relied on the expectation that most customers would buy more than one drink, and that the practice would build patronage for other times of day.

But I’ve wandered again.

Charlie Chaplin had it right almost 75 years ago in Modern Times. Take a look at this breakfast table. Multi-talking? Now THIS is multi-tasking before they invented a word for it.  (And yes, I said Chaplin made this 75 years ago; we will be discussing Modern Times again in a future post.)

Charlie Chaplin Foresees An ODD Breakfast in 1936

Don’t look now but ODD is playing at a theater very near to you.

I stay out of the kitchen, and she stays out of the cleaning supplies.

Here I am, in my cleaning-the-house outfit.

Keeping It Clean

There is once small problem however. When I’m dolled up, and the vacuum is screaming, I can’t hear the Podcasts on my MP3 player.

And I’m sure there are others of you out there in the same boat. Even though I know you won’t admit it.

The solution, which I’m about to share, is my first ever published Life Hack.

Noise Cancelling Headphones!

I have an ancient set of Sony Noise-Cancelling ear-buds purchased years ago for use on airplanes. They still work great.

Plug them in, turn me on and I can hear all my podcasts with crystal clarity. The drone of the vacuum cleaner disappears into the background!

So did you want the Chicken or Beef?

But there is always the hope that simplicity will find us. Take a look at this painting by Rene Maggritte. Simple.

It's Not A Pipe, It's A Painting Of A Pipe

Which brings me to the topics of Multi-Tasking, Mash-Ups and Life Hacks, all tools that we are told will simplify our lives.

Here are my Academy Award nominations for the Meme of My Simple Life.

• Multi-Tasking involves doing more than one thing at a time, where each activity invariably gets done less well than if we just did it alone.
• Mash-Ups consist of the combination of several activities into one single activity, where the result is better than the sum of its parts.
• Life-Hacks are anything that can help you be more productive or more efficient, or simply a way to get something done smarter.

I’ve been trying to think of a single good reason to Multi-Task; I can’t. On the other hand, I know there are lots of people who don’t know any other way to go about their daily lives. Scary.

• One thing we are learning about Multi-Tasking is that in addition to making the people around you nuts, it’s also dangerous to your health. We now have MADD, next will be MAMT which is fine with me.

Mash-Ups on the other hand feel comfortable to me, calming even. Lots of information in a small package. Intuitive, with very little learning curve. Cuddly.

• Mash-Ups have been mostly conceived so far as media or digital creations. But I’m suggesting they be used as a life visualization overlay. Remember YHIHF.

Life-Hacks are simple and specific. To know one is to love one. Loyal, dedicated.

• Like this for example: “Buy only gray colored socks.”

So having listed the nominees, I get to pick my favorite. Let’s have the envelope please.

And the winner is…Life Hacks!

So for now, it’s Life Hacks, one trick at a time. No Multi-Hacks or Mash-Hacks.

Before everything was either black or white.

Now, I’m all gray socks, all the time.

I still need his chin though, click here.

From His Chin To His Socks

But before we get to multi-tasking, my original purpose was to review an audible.com book. “Audible” books are a great way to spend your time when you are already spending your time. It’s like a Time Sale. If there were Op-Shops that sold old pieces of time Leslie and I could shop together.

Most readers will be familiar with ‘Books on Tape’ which was pre-multi-tasking. These were ok for their time, but you couldn’t download them (gulp) or listen on an MP3 player. In fact you needed a whole car to sit in and listen, OMG.

If you want to get aristocratic, the original multi-tasker was Pierre-Daniel Huet, who, in the 17th century had his servant read to him out loud while he was eating or otherwise busying himself. I guess we could call this “Books on Servant”. (Full disclosure, I did a post on Pierre way back before this blog became internationally famous.)

Back to our review. “The Billionaire’s Vinegar” by Benjamin Wallace is subtitled The Mystery of the World’s Most Expensive Bottle of Wine, but it’s reallya story about very rich people getting taken by the Bernie Madoffs of the wine world.

The First Of Many "Jefferson Bottles"

Here’s the blurb from Publisher’s Weekly:

The titular bottle, from a cache of allegedly fine, allegedly French wine, allegedly owned by Thomas Jefferson in the 1780s, set a record price when auctioned in 1985.

The bottle in question was auctioned by Christie’s in 1985. It was a 1787 Château Lafite Bordeaux, and purchased by Malcolm Forbes for the (at the time) record price of $156,000. But that was only the beginning. From there Wallace gets into the opaque world of pre-phylloxera wines with bidding and secret sales at $200,000 to $300,000 a bottle.

The book also sports Thomas Jefferson anecdotes from the years he spent in Paris. Jefferson was quite the wine collector, became extremely knowledgeable on the subject and later attempted to jump start viticulture in the USA at Monticello!

As a renowned oenophile myself, specializing in $5 to $10 per bottle “Reds“, I could identify with these Big Dogs of the wine world. Even though they really do not live like you and me, the common thread is that they can, and do, get conned just like the rest of us. Which is what the book is about.

After all, how many people know what a 200 year old wine tastes like? And when it turns out that a large percentage of them are counterfeit, the sellers and buyers hold hands, close their eyes, jump up and down; and try to pretend that everything is ok. I would too if I had a cellar full of $100,000+ vintage extraordinaries, wouldn’t you?

Just be careful and don’t open them.

So finally, in our continuing tradition of teaching moments:

• Do consider using audible books as an excellent addition to reading, and a great way to multi-task.
• Figure out what kind of audible books you like best. In my case I’ve determined I like non-fiction the best, but your mileage may vary.
• Billionaire’s Vinegar was a great read. Oops, make that listen, and Dennis Boutsikaris did an outstanding job as the reader.
• If you are a Wine Nutter like me then  go for Billionaire’s Vinegar, otherwise go for your own personal gusto and do try an audible book. Sans servant.

Here are your links to Amazon and Audible for The Billionaire’s Vinegar.

Oh yeah, multi-tasking. I guess I got sidetracked.

Make that MultiTracked. Multi-Tracked. Multi.Tracked.

I’ll be back.