Themezoom Radio

Theme Zoom Offices Near Ground Zero, Lake Delton, Wisconsin

Hi folks,

Theme Zoom offices are located in Lake Delton Wisconsin. Our office is located about 500-1000 feet from Lake Delton which is now empty. CNN has been replaying the story over and over again. We are OK! Thank you for those who have e-mailed and “text messaged” me with your concerns.

To answer your question- we were not flooded. If the Dam further upstream on the mirror lake side of our offices decided to break . . . then we would probably at least have some beach front property for awhile. Fortunately we are at the top of the hill near the Lake Delton post office and have been more fortunate than folks who build their vacation homes on the edge of Lake Delton. I have uploaded plenty of video footage to our Youtube page for those people who like to watch my job killers. (Videos unrelated to work or making money).

Thank you for all of your thoughtful concern.

http://www.youtube.com/themezoom

Tomorrow I fly off to the Theme Zoom’s Arizona offices to work with Sue Bell for a couple of weeks. During this time we will finalize several things that will be helpful to every Theme Zoom member.

I want to make a comment that addresses something that several of you have commented on.

Technology “appears” to behaving oddly to a higher degree than “seems” normal. It is almost as if there is a glitch in the matrix. I do not know if this seeming “oddity” is a statistical reality or if it is a cognitive illusion that is simply heightened by a sense of weird weather.

I do know that many of the weather affects we are experiencing in Wisconsin are absolutely a statistical anomaly. This means strange phenomenon like this has not occurred anytime in recent history. This is both interesting and exciting. But here is some advice from a computer addict:

Advice for when your technology is not acting properly:

1. Don’t try to FORCE technology to work. (I know you know what I am talking about!)

If you are sitting in front of the computer waiting for something to happen, and you have the gnawing feeling in your stomach that everything you are doing is an absolute waste of time . . . STEP AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER. Sometimes you need to “reboot” your perspective. When you return after taking a break (recommended that you take MORE than 30 minutes) you will often fine that several “next actions” will have become perfectly clear.

2. Ask For Help!

Don’t be a dopamine fool. The human brain is wired to keep us “glued” to a problem even if the problem ABSOLUTELY CANNOT be solved. This behavior is driven by a little trick that evolution has played on us. Dopamine makes it seem as if the carrot is always hanging from the stick almost within mental reach. Believe me when I say that this neurological substance is just as addictive as a classified drug. For more information on this please read the book called “Satisfaction” by Dr. Gregory Berns. The difference between “intelligent” people and WISE people is that wise people know the INSTANT they have been hooked by biological programming.

(This is why we become such lethal marketers).

So. When you catch yourself being hooked . . . stop what you are doing, step AWAY from the computer . . . and go get the yellow pages! Yeah. You heard me . . . the PRINT yellow pages.

3. Don’t Worship Technology.

Technology = From Greek. tekhnologia “systematic treatment of an art, craft, or technique,”

The key meaning is “art” or “craft” . . . not “self torture” and “humiliation”. Technology is a means to an end, not an end in itself. This same goes while using any software application or web service. Garbage in, garbage out.

4. Remember there is a Turk in the Machine.

There are PEOPLE behind technologies that we use every day. Success does not happen in a vacuum. I can’t tell you how many times I have spent hours trying to solve a simple problem on my server only to have the issue resolved by a 30 second phone call to someone else on my team. This is of course connected to my attempt to solve the problem by myself as warned about in number 2 above.

Ask yourself: who are the people behind this organization or software application. What sort of “people” were the people who programmed this darn thing. I have found that the usefulness or sillyness of a software application almost always reflects the mind of the creator- or the degree to which the programmer understood the problem that was needing to be solved.

The “turk” in the machine, also associated with the Mechanical Turk program at Amazon, was a hoax perpetuated in the late 18th century. An automated chess player was created by Wolfgang von Kempelen which, surprisingly, fooled a lot of people who enjoyed being tricked. This machine could play chess and even defeat human opponents. It was, of course, a hoax.

There was a little man sitting in the machine who was a dang good chess player. He defeated both Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. But . . . you already know how to read Wikipedia, so I wont expand on this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turk

5. People buy Solutions, they do NOT buy Software

I have spoken to several of you who are developing software applications. This appears to be a growing trend. I have shared my own personal growth process being involved in building the software application Krakken/Theme Zoom. Just because you spend a million dollars building something does not mean that people will buy it. Sales and marketing are EVERYTHING. You have to listen to your users, take the feedback, and revise when it is appropriate.

In the end the software developer had to remember that he is selling the solution to a problem that is actually occurring in the field, not in an Ivory Tower. There is a whole generation of software applications and intelligence gathering tools being developed that we never would have thought possible even 2 years ago. I am excited to be in an industry where almost ANYTHING is possible!

Have a great week. I will catch you in Arizona and update you on our developmental process with the Krakken application.

- Russell Wright