Eric Mattes

Have reality TV ethics hit a new low?

Eric — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 04:07:52 +0000

and I’m not talking about Jersey Shore. NYTimes.com has a great article about how the upcoming show “Our Little Genius” may traumatize its contestants, who are young children!

This show seems like it could easily traumatize a kid who gets a wrong answer and loses several hundred thousand dollars for his family! Is it time for some kind of reality show ethics committee or is that going to far in itself by censoring free speech and limiting opportunity?

Blog Crossroads

Eric — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 17:28:33 +0000

I guess I should have written this post months ago. Maybe even years ago… but what the heck should I do with this blog? Facebook has entirely taken over for my blog and anything I would have posted here I post there instead.

I suppose I can pick a topic and try to share topical things on this blog… make it useful to a certain set of people. I could make it a journal of sorts, as I learn various aspects of my new role as a market research analyst (my internship has been extended twice already).

Does anyone even read this any more? I’m going to put Google Ads on the site in the hopes that it cuts some of my losses on Web hosting.

Personal update

Eric — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 02:42:18 +0000

I figured I’d let the blogosphere know: I’m almost three weeks into an internship at Pepsi and loving it. My coworkers - and the summer interns - are great. The work is interesting. I’m learning a lot. There is unlimited free Mountain Dew. What more could a guy want? I guess a shorter commute would be nice. The hour and a half is actually a pretty relaxing journey, though.

What would Jesus twitter?

Eric — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:30:03 +0000

Interesting NYT article about combining religion and social networking technology.

Smartphone-toting passengers save Greyhound bus - twice in one weekend!

Eric — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 03:13:04 +0000

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?

Growing anti-Facebook sentiment?

Eric — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:07:06 +0000

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?

School is over! Bring on the summer!

Eric — Thu, 21 May 2009 04:28:46 +0000

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.

Tropicana reverts to original package design

Eric — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 21:30:42 +0000

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.

Spam: sign of the times

Eric — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 20:09:05 +0000

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!

The financial crisis explained - and solved?

Eric — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:09:18 +0000

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