Jack Lemmon’s portrayal of C.C. “Bud” Baxter in The Apartment (1960) is widely regarded as a quintessential and famously sympathetic “yes-man” character, embodying the desperate, cynical, and ultimately redemptive nature of the corporate ladder-climber. A “yes man” at work (widely, not just in the software world, but in every office, organization, or group) is someone …
If a problem is real, then why don’t people change? Good question, and quite annoying, especially when you’re convinced you have a better solution than your competitors. The answer is that change doesn’t depend solely on how strong your product is. It depends on four forces moving together. Two push forward, toward a new solution. …
MTV (originally an initialism of Music Television) was launched on August 1, 1981, at 12:01 a.m., under the ownership of Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment. The first video played on MTV was “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles. Until then, music was just a matter of radio, vinyl and audio tape. Videos associated with the …
Video Killed the Radio Star: undiscovered marketing Read More »
In 2015, Adam Kay released The Big Short, a movie, inspired by real events and characters, about a group of investors who had a clear understanding of what was about to happen in the market before the outbreak of the 2007-2008 subprime mortgage financial crisis. Foresight and risk (credit default swap) allowed them to win …
The term “jumping the shark” is often used by fans to denote a specific episode of a series that changed the focus or tone of the series for the worse (coined in response to an episode from the fifth season of the American sitcom Happy Days, in which the character of Fonzie – Henry Winkler …
Magical Mystery Tour is a 1967 British made-for-television musical film written, produced, directed by, and starring the Beatles. The movie, which has no real plot, tells a series of incidents, somewhere between the absurd and the grotesque, that happen to a group of characters (including Ringo, John, Paul and George themselves) during a bus journey …
For those of you who don’t know (shame on you!), “42” is the “Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything,” according to the must-read Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Calculated by the supercomputer Deep Thought after 7.5 million years, the number represents a joke about the search for …
The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything Read More »
Her is a 2013 American science fiction romantic drama film (Oscar awarded for Best Original Screenplay) written, co-produced, and directed by the visionary Spike Jonze. It follows Theodore Twombly, a man who develops a dangerous relationship with Samantha, an artificially intelligent operating system personified through a female voice. Like Samantha, your browser’s “I’m not …
Bruce Springsteen and Steven Van Zandt got fired for being too entertaining in 1975. Working at a club, they rocked the house to their own detriment. “Yes, the crowd was large and enthusiastic, but no one was drinking,” – the owner said – “They were too busy listening to the music. It’s a bar, you …
Assuming you are entitled for an opinion, keep it simple (and possibly short) Read More »
When I look at the software world, I often feel like I’m in a Mel Brooks movie. In 2027, it is scheduled to release Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money and no name is more appropriate as an analogy. The latest and the greatest “Keep an eye on the staircases, they like …
