I had a crazy trip to Boston this weekend. Both ways, the driver got lost and actually asked the passengers for directions! Luckily, everyone had smartphones and could easily provide assistance. On the way into New Haven, the driver got lost multiple times and would have driven around for who knows how long if I hadn’t jumped into the seat behind him and given him turn-by-turn directions.

I was curious how the driver got his directions in the first place, so I asked. He handed me a sheet of paper that contained a giant paragraph of all-caps text explaining how to get from point A to point B. It didn’t even have line breaks between steps! If he made a single wrong turn (he made about twenty) he would be lost. Why wouldn’t Greyhound give their drivers a GPS? Is it so expensive?

How come every time Facebook makes some change, my news feed is full of people complaining? Is this a vocal minority or do most people dislike it when Facebook makes changes? They are about to offer people usernames (optional, I think) and I’ve already seen a bunch of people posting some kind of complaint about it on their status.

My personal opinion is that Facebook has gotten better and better over the years and I’m usually pretty happy when I see it evolving. Even when I do dislike a change (e.g. including comments inline with the feed) I eventually accept it and stop caring.

Facebook is such an emotional thing for people, it’s interesting to see how attached people get to it. How do you feel about Facebook’s evolution?

I figured I may as well declare it to the blogosphere: I’m finished with school!

I graduate this coming Monday. Starting on June 1st, I’ll begin a summer internship at the Yale Case Research Team where I’ll be contributing to Web-based business cases. This is a killer internship because I not only get paid and get experience working on business cases, but I also get to look around for a full-time job. I can take days off to interview and if I land something, I can give my notice and leave the internship. Since I’ll be in New Haven, I’ll be hanging out with some of my fellow classmates and playing as much golf as possible!

If anyone would like to play a round on the #1 college golf course in the country, please come and visit.

I was thrilled to read that Tropicana will be reverting to its old package design. Last year, Tropicana replaced one of the most effective package designs I’ve ever seen with a lame, generic, difficult-to-read design that nobody particularly liked. People all over the Internet were complaining about it and I never heard one positive comment regarding the new design. Amazingly, Tropicana listened and is reverting to their original design with the easy to read color coding. Bravo Tropicana for listening to your customers!

NYTimes article here.

I just got a spam mail today with some fake job opportunity and a sketchy link to a Chinese Web site. It made me think how the spam industry can benefit by staying current on people’s needs and insecurities. Shame on these people!

P.S. If anyone has a real job opportunity for me, I’m still looking! Former software developer looking to do strategy/consulting/marketing. Unlimited potential!

A lot of folks like to talk to me about their ideas for solving the US financial crisis after I tell them that I’m in business school. Since I’m not much of a “finance guy” I don’t really have any of my own brilliant ideas to solve the crisis, but I just read a great couple of articles in the NY Times which sounded pretty convincing to me.

One of the more interesting points that the authors suggest is that instead of bailing out the big banks, we try to rescue the homeowners who are unable to pay off their mortgages. This suggestion seems both liberal and conservative at the same time! I don’t know if I completely agree with the idea, since what good is owning a home if you don’t have a job? I am no expert, so draw your own conclusions from these excellent articles: Criticisms of the financial system and suggestions as to how to fix the system

I’ve always found the concept of smoking doctors to be very ironic, so I thought I’d share this article about a collection of cigarette ads featuring endorsements from medical professionals and other celebrities. I didn’t know Santa smoked Pall Malls!

I rarely have patience to read through a very long Times article, but I actually did read these two long and fascinating NYT Magazine articles in the last couple of weeks. I highly recommend them to anyone interested in sociology, politcs, psychology, or any mix of the three.

Is Obama the End of Black Politics? is about how the concept of “Black Politics” - that is, the relevance and meaning of blacks in politics - may change forever if Obama gets elected. Fascinating points of view in this article.

The Trolls Among Us is an anthropological study of Internet subculture and its evils. What is the effect of anonymity on morality? Very fascinating.

What the…? [bison grunting] You guys okay? We’re trapped, and there’s seven of us. There’s no way we’ll fit in there. There’s room for eight. Oh, forget it, we have too many beverages. There’s, like, 12 cup holders in here. But what about this bison? [bison grunts] That thing got my blood a-boilin’. It’s probably just the seat warmer. (male announcer) seating for eight. only from honda…

Read this out loud and try not to smile. How do they come up with this stuff???

Lots of people ask me what it’s like growing up in New York city. This NY Times article about billboards that use video cameras to see who is looking at them gave me a thought that adds some color to what it’s like in New York. People interviewed in the article characterized these cameras as an invasion of privacy. It’s odd, but walking on the street with thousands of people around you actually feels more “private” than walking around in your apartment building! It seems weird but I can definitely relate to the feeling of freedom and anonymity when I’m walking around the city.

Woo hoo! 1 year down, 1 to go. I truly feel like a different person than I was just 9 months ago. I’ll be back in NYC in mid-late May and I’ll be living in midtown west. I’m very excited for this summer.

I heard a story about this on the radio Saturday and it cracked me up. Talk about taking “fear in the media” to the extreme… I’ve heard about murders and robberies, floods, tornados, etc. But when was the last time you heard about the end of the universe? This NYT article does a great job of explaining the story from both sides, keeping a bit of tongue-in-cheek but also a bit of genuine concern. An excerpt:

…Walter L. Wagner and Luis Sancho contend that scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, have played down the chances that the collider could produce, among other horrors, a tiny black hole, which, they say, could eat the Earth. Or it could spit out something called a “strangelet” that would convert our planet to a shrunken dense dead lump of something called “strange matter.”

I pretty much went into hiding since January because I was devoting 99% of my free time to finding a summer internship. I applied to 18 companies, and I had seven interviews (some were two-part interviews). I decided this week to accept my offer from Unilever to assist their marketing efforts this summer in their Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey office.

If you aren’t familiar with the company, they are the firm behind personal care brands such as: All, Axe, Caress, Dove, Degree, Q-Tips, Slim-Fast, Snuggle, Suave, and Vaseline… and they are also behind food brands such as: Ben & Jerry’s, Bertolli, Breyer’s, Country Crock, Good Humor, Hellman’s, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, Klondike, Lipton, Popsicle, Skippy, and Wishbone. I do not yet know which brand I will be working on, but I’m excited just to have the chance.

Frankly, I’m amazed that they gave me the offer. As a former software developer, it is not easy to convince an interviewer that I want to go into consumer packaged goods (CPG) marketing. Thanks in part to the conversational format of the Unilever interview, I think I was able to get across my genuine interest in working for them, so I’m extremely glad it worked out. I will not disappoint them this summer!

Your view of what’s right or wrong is entirely based upon what you already believe. Therefore, changing your perspective requires a leap of faith or discovery of some unconscious belief.

I just read my alumni note in the newly-published Dalton Alumni magazine. If you came here after reading it… hi! Long time no see! How are you?

Also… I feel obligated to mention that I never actually wanted my Web address in the magazine but it’s not a big deal. Just don’t expect anything great!