{"id":11130,"date":"2011-08-02T06:45:31","date_gmt":"2011-08-02T13:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=11130"},"modified":"2012-02-05T11:15:59","modified_gmt":"2012-02-05T18:15:59","slug":"ipad-observation-8-the-death-of-mediocrity-and-along-with-it-the-death-of-contempt-for-the-consumer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/11130\/ipad-observation-8-the-death-of-mediocrity-and-along-with-it-the-death-of-contempt-for-the-consumer\/","title":{"rendered":"iPad observation #8: The death of mediocrity and, along with it, the death of contempt for the consumer"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m kicking this back to the top from February of 2010, when the iPad had just been announced. In another of the posts in this series, I wrote: “The implication of a computer that can train its end-users how to use it is that teaching as a profession is dead. All<\/u> teaching, at all levels. Just imagine what the iPad could do for you if you really wanted to learn a foreign language\u2026” Technology is giving us the power to disintermediate vast numbers of state employees. No telling if we will actually do it, but it is by now eminently doable. This essay addresses that kind of disruption in the Rotarian Socialist marketplace. –GSS<\/em><\/p>\n

 
I don’t know if I’m ready for this yet, but I need to get it out there where I can take a look at it. Discursive prose is thinking,<\/em> first, not communication, and this is a big idea. It’s possible I’ll have to return to it again and again to make it completely pellucid, but I promise to do my best today.<\/p>\n

So: One of the events the introduction of the iPad foretells is the death of mediocrity in the marketplace, and, along with it, the death of the kind of endemic contempt for the consumer that results<\/em> in mediocre products and services.<\/p>\n

Why would this be so? We’ll get to that, but indulge me long enough to discuss what is — the world as we live in it now — before we take up what is to come.<\/p>\n

Why doesn’t the caps-lock key work properly on any Windows keyboard? When you have the caps-lock key down and you then type the “a” key while holding the shift key down, why do you get an “a” instead of an “A”? Surely when you typed shift-“a”, what you wanted as an “A”, not an “a”. Why has this always been broken on all Windows machines, and on all DOS machines before that?<\/p>\n

The answer to those questions is quite simple. It’s because Microsoft has never once cared enough to get this right. It’s been wrong for decades in Windows, right for decades on Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m kicking this back to the top from February of 2010, when the iPad had just been announced. In another of the posts in this series, I wrote: “The implication of a computer that can train its end-users how to use it is that teaching as a profession is dead. All teaching, at all levels. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,212,379,6,19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11130","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-egoism-in-action","7":"category-flourishing","8":"category-innovation","9":"category-marketing","10":"category-technology","12":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11091,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/11091\/ipad-observation-2-find-a-bigger-dead-pool-the-ipad-eats-everything\/","url_meta":{"origin":11130,"position":0},"title":"iPad observation #2: Find a bigger dead-pool: The iPad eats everything.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"January 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Kicking this back to the top. This is me, writing just after the introduction of the iPad -- two very short years ago. At the time I wrote these essays, every so-called \"expert\" on the nets was insisting that the iPad was an unforced error. I was right, they were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flourishing"","block_context":{"text":"Flourishing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/flourishing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11680,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/11680\/ten-million-ipads-to-be-sold-in-2010-it-could-happen\/","url_meta":{"origin":11130,"position":1},"title":"Ten million iPads to be sold in 2010? It could happen…","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"You heard that right. Morgan Stanley is predicting that as many as ten million iPads could be sold in 2010. A boatload of them have already been sold, and the iPad doesn't even ship until April 3rd. iPad news abounds, of course, and no one needs to be reminded about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flourishing"","block_context":{"text":"Flourishing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/flourishing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12109,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/12109\/a-month-with-the-ipad\/","url_meta":{"origin":11130,"position":2},"title":"A Month With the iPad","author":"Damon Chetson","date":"May 31, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I got the iPad - 64gig 3G enabled - about a month ago. Unfortunately - or fortunately given how busy I've been - I haven't had enough time to truly explore the possibilities. Here's my set-up. My MacBook laptop has been retired to serve as my home computer. I got\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14565,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/14565\/me-and-my-ipad-slouching-toward-a-still-more-mobile-style-of-mobile-real-estate-representation\/","url_meta":{"origin":11130,"position":3},"title":"Me and my iPad: Slouching toward a still-more-mobile style of mobile real estate representation.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 9, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I got an iPad 2 Friday, my spiff for hitting my earnings goal ($1,000 per day, if you're keeping score at home) in April. The dogs have written a ton about the iPad since its introduction, and my plan is to write a ton more as I get used to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14328,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/14328\/turning-an-ipad-into-more-than-a-toy\/","url_meta":{"origin":11130,"position":4},"title":"Turning an iPad into more than a Toy","author":"Damon Chetson","date":"March 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I recently upgraded from a iPad 1 to iPad 2. Two reasons: I've found the iPad app to be so useful that I wanted my wife\/legal assistant\/colleague to be able to use one as well. With the iPad's Daylite Touch, she and I are able to update, add clients and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11767,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/11767\/ipad-observation-10-is-the-ipad-an-unforced-error-i-say-google-and-microsoft-cant-even-copy-genius\/","url_meta":{"origin":11130,"position":5},"title":"iPad observation #10: Is the iPad an unforced error? I say Google and MicroSoft can’t even copy genius.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Busy as anything, ever, as I'm sure you can guess from my absence hereabouts. How busy am I? I still have not lain my own hands on an iPad. Tried to make time a couple-three times, but I couldn't squeeze out the seconds. But I have been paying attention to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flourishing"","block_context":{"text":"Flourishing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/flourishing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11130"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15656,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11130\/revisions\/15656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}