Likewise, businesses persuade customers, bosses persuade employees, men persuade woman, mothers persuade fathers, wives persuade husbands, children persuade parent and vice versa. In turn, corporation and government and colleagues and friends and sibling persuade each other. And sometimes, people just have to convince themselves, and sometime, people just getting difficulty to persuade themselves too.

At some level, every human is involved in the generation of ideas and then the solicitation of those ideas. Most of time, somewhere along the way, my idea gets changed before the concept transaction process is completed. Sometime my concept lives and evolves, but more often it dies. Once a concept is conceived, persuading someone else to buy into that concept usually causes any of the following circumtances to happen, which I called the ideas killer list: (and It keep growing)

1. The boss won’t go for that.
2. The client won’t go for that.
3. So and so won’t like it.
4. It’s not us.
5. It won’t fit into our system.
6. We are not ready for that yet.
7. I don’t think it will work.
8. I don’t understand
9. Do you understand?
10. Will anyone understand?
11. What will they think of next?
12. It’s too complicated.
13. It’s too late for that now.
14. It’s too expensive
15. We’ll lose money.
16. Why?
17. What?
18. Who says so?
19. Nobody will want that.
20. Where are you coming from?
21. It can’t be done.
22. Let’s do more research.
23. Let’s take a vote on it.
24. I never heard of such thing.
25. We’ve already tried that.
26. That’s been done before.
27. We never do anything like that.
28. It create more problem than it solves.
29. Sound like too many problems.
30. That only solves some of the problems.
31. That’s unique, but…
32. Very interesting, but…
33. I understand, but…
34. Great idea, but…
35. Sound simple, but…
36. It’s jjust not for us.
37. Try again.
38. Tha sucks.
39. I don’t like it.
40. It won’t sell.
41. Maybe next time.
42. What are people going to say?
43. Be realistic.
44. How about this instead?
45. That turn me off!
46. Get real, it’s not feasible.
47. Are you kidding me?
48. You can’t argue with success.
49. We don’t hav time to do it.
50. Let’s wait till we see the numbers.

What people really mean to say, but would never openly admit is they are afraid of anything is new, improved, unique, different or beter and things they are not familiar with or anything that disturb, threathens or harm their ego, status, power and living. The next thing I learn is that People does not change.

I don’t know about you but I always think these types of projects have the most potential.

The story goes that a professional was hired to steal the boat after it met with an accident and was at the shipyard undergoing repairs. The owner wanted all new parts for the repairs at all costs. So, workers at the yard literally bought another identical boat, strip parts from it and use it on the old one. At the same time, they wanted to have some fun, so they repaired the damaged parts and put them back into the replacement boat.

When the professional came in, he asked the foreman which was the real Theseus. When told of what the shipyard repairers did, the professional took off with both boats, leaving it to his hirer to decide what to do with them.

The story got me to think about how much a Company is like Theseus: over time, people come and go, new clients are signed up while others dropped, the industry changes fast as a bullet, and so on. The Company that I was in 2 years back is no longer the same company that it is now.

The bigger question that begs to be answered is this: what is the important thing that sticks with a Company that makes the company worth the effort?

I recall the many vision-and-mission statements. Most will define the company as a way of doing things, leveraging a certain technology and supported by dedicated people. Well, aren’t those the exact three things that change all the time? And once you strip out these transient parts, what’s left of a Company is it’s register of employees, accounts, payroll and administration. Right?

As I rebuild Spiragram, I think it is important that there’s something valuable in it that means something to its people and clients. Now, I just need to go for a few more swims to figure that ou.

While I wouldn’t pretend that I’m not personally attracted to having more time to idle by, I’ve considered hard and thorough before deciding to do this here:

1. We’re building sites with RubyOnRails now. And, some of us have experienced real substantial gains in productivity. Getting off work midday on Friday will be a testament to making a good move and a reward for everyone on board.
2. More alone time. Come to think of it, what would you do when you get off 5 hours earlier than everyone else you know? My bet is that there are just some many Friday matinees and afternoon shopping that one can do. Till then, our folks will have to think hard and decide what to do with that extra time. Maybe a new hobby? Reading? Learn to cook? Ponder about life? I believe these things develop one’s character, which is a good thing.
3. More interaction. You might not know it but social pressure on married people in Singapore are tremendous. Worse when they have kids. If you’ve friends here, you’d know what I mean when I say “it’s impossible to peel these chaps off their family-oriented routines.” The early timeout could mean I’d finally get to sit down with some of these guys over a beer. Already, some of them are telling me they’re not telling their spouses about this 4-day week thing.
4. The Coolness Factor. I’ve been told that when you tell people (including clients) about the 4-day week thing, their eyes will glow. Our government has recently moved from a 5.5-day to a 5-day week. How cool is having your company stay ahead of the government, eh?

Having explained the above to colleagues, some did bring up their concerns about work turnaround, client understanding that they cannot call us on Friday, etc. I’m glad to have people like this working for the company. To allay their fears and to start off slow, we’ve come to a decision to start with the 4.5-week for a couple of months first.

First and foremost, I had started Spiragram because I wanted to build a haven for programmers. This is the natural progression after reading Paul Graham’s Hackers And Painters. Once you’ve recognised the fact that programmers are artists in their own right, you come to realise that many companies out there just isn’t setup for programmers to flourish.

I’m quite sure you know what I mean: almost every programmer I’ve known have gone on a career path that veered them away from coding. I’ve always say this: a good programmer is not necessarily a good manager. In fact, I’ve come across a lot more people who aren’t. Good programmers should stay being programmers for as long as they have the verve for it.

Hence, the first rule of Spiragram: we’re a company where programmers can code for as long as they like.

You see, different people have different experiences. As a result, even if you and a client are on the exact page as far as the written word is concerned, I will bet my last dollar that your client will get a ‘shock’ when they see what you have made.

Hence, it is a practice in the web design industry to produce one or more ‘design mockups’. The hope is, of course, that the client sees a snapshot first and hence would not be shocked when you show them the end product.

But shocked they will still be. Why? Because unlike how a picture from your past can conjure up pleasant nostalgia, a single snapshot of a mockup simply leaves too much to the imagination when we’re talking about a whole website.

A better visualization technique is needed. For me, that technique is storyboards.

If you know how directors shoot movies, they use an entire wall to stick their storyboards. Every single continuous shot in the movie has a corresponding storyboard on that wall. And, movie people do this right after they have the script and before anything else. Once the storyboards are confirmed, it becomes the foundation for set designers, costume designers, location surveyors, planners, actors , cinematographers and directors.

The use of storyboards is a culmination of decades of experience and expertise in the movie industry. I believe there’s something web designers can learn from them.

In the last 2-3 years, I’ve been using storyboards extensively. Starting with simple stick-figure drawings on powerpoint, I’ve been continuously improving the ‘fidelity’ of my storyboards that now, they look almost like the finished product. And, I am happy to report that with storyboards, we are able to significantly lessen our client’s shock when they see in the final work.

In fact, with the advent of RubyOnRails and web standards, I’m even contemplating storyboarding ‘live’, i.e. using HTML & CSS. It’s something I’ve been thinking of but not tried out yet.

It seem to be people are just caught up with something: going home, hang out with friends, or playing mahjong. It’s not that I’m against these sort of activites. What I am against is that people do these things all the time.

I have a suspicion. That is, they simply don’t dream anymore.

Personally, I thought Guy’s 11 points of going about a startup are actually very relevant to Scholr. Here’s a quick summary:

1. Making Meaning and change the world
2. Make Mantra not mission statements
3. Get Going, just get going
4. Define a Buiness Model
5. Weave a Mat (milestones, assumptions, tasks)
6. Niche Thyself
7. Follow the 10/20/30 Rule
8. Hire Infected People
9. Lower Barriers to Adoption
10. Seed the Clouds
11. Don’t Let the Bozos Grind You Down

Btw, Guy’s presentation can be found in Google Videos.