bjoern.weidlich - bjoern.weidlich

Wednesday

27May

Summer Plans

Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 12:07AM

Things have been quiet around here but soon there will be more interesting things going on in my life. I am embarking on a one month long trip to Nyeri, Kenya where I will study the effects of deforestation which rapidly destroys local forests. Trees are cut down to make charcoal because alternative fuels are too expensive. One company that is already working on solutions and has received a big prize for their efforts is Kyoto Energy (CNN article) and I will buy some of their alternatives to take out into the field and introduce to locals. The point of my study is to understand the incentive structure behind the deforestation, collect enough data in the form of interviews and videos to help designers and engineers come up with better solutions. I will be living with our friend Petra on her farm and help grow her non-profit, which also aims to fight deforestation in the area.

I might have internet access and will try to post some stuff while I'm there but I can't imagine it will be much faster than dial-up. Picture uploads will be tough. I'm leaving July 1st and will be there for a month.

I'm getting some cool gear sponsored for my trip so there will be some posts reviewing that and of course thanks to Clark University for making this all possible with a fellowship :)

Can't wait!

Bjoern |

Tolerance 2.0

Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 2:23AM

Now that everything is more transparent we have to learn to be more tolerant. Back in the day without the internet it was easier to hide things you didn't want anyone to know about. These days a picture of you smoking a bong could be leaked and you will lose a lot of money (given you are a gold medalist and have sponsors).

Come on, do you really think he is the first Olympic athlete to smoke pot? Probably not. We have to take into account that others have done it in the past and that the only difference here is that he got caught on camera. People make mistakes. It is now harder to cover them up, so lets be a little bit more tolerant.

More and more mistakes made by public figures will surface in the future. We HAVE to be more tolerant and not single out negative details about a person to form our opinions.

Michael Phelps is a freaking legend, don't judge him based on one mistake he made.

Bjoern |

2 Comments |

tagged

Tolerance 2.0

Sunday

08Feb

Hiring Talent

Sunday, February 8, 2009 at 3:11AM

Last week I went to a summer internship fair here on campus. Now I have a question for recruiters. Do you really want all your applicants to look the same? Everyone at the event was dressed up and at least all the guys looked the same. People who usually express themselves through the clothes they wear conformed. Is that really who you want to see? Wouldn't you rather learn as much as you can about the applicants?

I felt awkward walking around in a Digg jacket but I feel like it says more about who I am than if I had conformed. One argument in favor of dressing up to the max is that it is more respectful to the recruiter/boss. To some degree I agree with that argument because there definitely are disrespectful outfits, but recruiters have to be aware there might be talent they are missing if they only consider the conformers. Especially with today's economy in mind are you looking for people who look around and do what everyone else is doing, or people who stand out and do things differently?

Convention makes a lot of things easier (measurement units, keyboard layouts, language, etc.) but when you are looking to hire talent it does not seem to make sense. Many standards will change as Generation Y moves into the workplace and employers need to realize that. Working in a suit has become less prestigious than it was for our parents. Nowadays we look up to companies like Google, Revision3, or Digg, which got away with these standards.

Let me know what you think.

Bjoern |

1 Comment |

1 Reference |

branding

Saturday

17Jan

Project - "Major in Everything"

Saturday, January 17, 2009 at 5:24PM

I apologize, I have not updated this blog for a while but I wanted to kick off the new year with an interesting project.

A couple of months ago I had an idea for a cool project that would help me to "major in everything". The liberal arts education we enjoy here in the U.S. is special and can't be found in many other countries around the world. In Germany the education system is very strict and focused. If you want to become a lawyer, you study law, and that's it. What, you find law boring after 2 years and want to become an economist? Too bad, now you have to start all over again. What this means is that you have to know by the time you leave high school what you want to do for the rest of your life. There is no peeking into other professions by taking all kinds of intro classes. Well, I didn't like that idea, which is why I am now studying in the U.S.

Back to the project I was talking about. I want to create a curriculum for people like me who love to learn anything and everything. To do that I am emailing at least two professors from every academic field here at Clark University and will ask them to send me the names of 5 books from their field that they think someone should have read in order to be considered an educated person. When the study is done I will post the results here with some reflections from either the professors or me. If it is popular I am planning to extend the sample sizes and ask academic professionals from other universities.

I am pretty excited about this and will keep you updated :)

Bjoern |

Pretend Every Customer Has a Twitter Account

Friday, October 31, 2008 at 2:39AM

Right now I have 70 followers on Twitter. Lets say 20 of them are people who follow many thousands and none of my tweets will be read by those 20. That leaves me with 50 people who will see and read my twitter updates and another 50 who see my Facebook status, which is linked to my twitter status.

A couple of months ago I went shopping at Trader Joe's for the first time. Somehow one of the employees there noticed that I was new to the store and started helping me pick things and gave me all kinds of free stuff (shopping bag, flowers, a balloon). I was so surprised by the nice treatment that I took a picture of the shopping cart with the gifts and put it on twitter.

100 people who chose to read my updates could have potentially seen that picture and my comment about my great experience there.

Twitter is so much more powerful that most people think. It is revolutionizing the way we recommend and endorse brands/products. Businesses cannot afford to upset us anymore otherwise they risk that we turn around and let our 100 followers know how bad our experience with that business was. There now is more pressure on businesses to hire the right customer service people and make sure that all their employees who interact with customers are as competent as possible.

I am convinced that this revolution offers enough benefits to businesses that more than outweigh the added costs of finding good caring employees and keeping them happy. Twitter lets you interact with your customers more than you ever could before. Use this opportunity and interact with your customers. Make sure they see you the way you want to be seen and if they don't, use their feedback to make corrections.

Bjoern |