I spent an hour plus sitting at the orthodontist one morning last week while my son got started on his second round of braces. I was wearing my Netflix sweatshirt, so I chatted with the assistant about movies, search, Don, and streaming. I pointed out the Netflix support in the new LG Blu-ray player, and the kid in the neighboring chair said, “and the Roku box, we watch a lot of stuff on that”.
I love being in Silicon Valley. Even the middle-schoolers are on top of the tech trends.
Driving back to school yesterday, my son saw a Nissan Titan truck and pointed out that the Nissan car names are “epic”: Titan, Altima, Maxima. Smart guy.
On a search engine mailing list, the topic of simple A/B testing between search engines came up. This can be between different implementations, different tunings, or different UI presentations. The key thing is that users are offered two alternatives and asked which one they like better. One bit of information, this one or that one. If you’ve been to the Kitten War site, you’ll understand why I call it “kitten war testing”. Others may call it a “beauty contest”. They are wrong, of course.
I agree with Plain Jane Mom, this first story, She’s happily married, dreaming of divorce, is about the most depressing thing I’ve ever read about a “good” marriage.
There are so many things wrong about this. Leaving your shoes in the way isn’t even being a good roommate, let alone a good husband. Writing your complaints in O: The Oprah Magazine instead of going to counseling is a cheat. This is isn’t source material, it is your marriage.
Some of it hardly sounds real. Does she really believe that every wife thinks of divorce as a security blanket, that it is “the closely held contemplation of nearly every woman I know who has children who have been out of diapers for at least two years and a husband who won’t be in them for another 30.”?
Of course married people think seriously about divorce, as Ambrose Bierce said, “Who never doubted, never half believed.” But to treasure it? To call it a “secret reverie”? Dear Abby would tell you to get to a marriage counselor. Get some coaching in being human to each other, talking, living. It works, we’ve done it.
After that has thoroughly bummed you out, or perhaps, after you skip it, read John Scalzi on losing wedding rings and his tenth anniversary. It is full of the shared life, secret jokes, and surprises that only happen when you live together and love each other for that long.
Most Casual Observer 