Hopefully this will be a big month for me.  We're starting some really cool projects at Zane Benefits and we're expecting to see increased returns from some of our old ones.  It's hard not to get excited about the momentum building both at Zane and the healthcare system as a whole.

I've also got two weeks left to finish the freelance project I started last month.  Then I need to start full time on cbBlitz, the fantasy football site I started with my brother last year.  There's a lot going on.

Ok, so to avoid getting too emo with this post, I just want to mention something interesting I've noticed as my work load has gone from reasonable to OMG HOW WILL I FINISH IT ALL!!!!

Every time I take on a side project I worry that it might hurt my production at Zane.  Oddly enough, I think I get more productive at Zane the more work I have waiting for me at home.  I think I've boiled this down to two things:

1. Fast Pace - It's kind of hard to go back and forth from leisure to discipline.  It's easier to wake up early every day rather than just one day a week and I think the same thing applies to the rest of your life.  The past couple of weeks I've been doing things non-stop (a trip to St. Louis, a trip to Zion, work, side-project, blogging, mountain biking...) and it's a piece of cake to keep it going once I have momentum.
2. Cross Training - In sports, athletes train outside of their discipline to help keep themselves balanced.  I'm finding similar results by working on dramatically different projects all at the same time.  When I finish programming, I'm refreshed and ready to blog.  Then I'm ready to design.  By taking on extra work, I'm making my day job less monotonous.  I've also learned some really great things from side-projects that I've started incorporating at Zane.

My point is, I'd be less productive if I only focused on my full-time job.  I work slightly fewer hours than I would without the other projects, but I get a lot more done with the hours that I do spend at Zane.  I hope to start a company one day.  If that ever happens, I'm going to encourage every employee to take on projects outside of work.

What do you think?  Have you had similar experiences?

I just had dinner with some people that I used to work with at Zane Benefits.  They are closer to my parents' age than mine, and the topic of technology came up.  There was clearly a gap in knowledge between the younger people and the older people.  The question was asked, "At what age do people stop keeping up with new technology?"

I'm going to skip that question because it seems impossible to come up with an answer.  It got me wondering though, why do younger people generally stay on top of new tech better than older people?

I haven't really thought this through well enough, but there are two things that initially came to mind:

#1 - Keeping your mind flexible - When you're a kid, your life changes dramatically all the time.  Going from elementary school to middle school to high school to college over the span of 6 years keeps you used to change.  I would imagine that a familiarity with change in one area translates to a willingness to change in others.

I guess most people graduate college and then start working and end up doing basically the same thing week after week for the next 40 years.  I can understand why that might make you lose interest in playing around with new things.  If this is true, it must impact learning in general (not just related to technology).

#2 - Lack of exposure - Kids are exposed to technology both through school and social circles.  Most companies are very slow to adopt new systems (they're still using IE6 and Outlook 2003 at many companies).   This seems like a cop-out because I feel like a person should always be responsible for learning new things, but maybe there's something to it.

So what do you think?

There's something weird going on in the Gateway Center in Park City (the building where I work).  On the top floor, Zane Benefits has two offices, Hunter Capital (a venture capital firm) has one, and the HR department of the Sky Lodge (a hotel) has the fourth.  There are only these four offices.

Hunter and Zane Benefits have signs on all their doors identifying which company occupies that space.  The Sky Lodge doesn't have any sign and there's no receptionist.  When you look in their door there isn't anyone to speak to and there's no indication that the Sky Lodge is there.

Being the HR department for a hotel, there are constantly people coming in to interview for positions.  They know to go to the top floor of our building but then they're lost.  My desk is next to a window that looks out onto the entire public area of our floor so I see exactly what everyone goes through to figure out which office to go into.

The average Sky Lodge applicant gets off the elevator and immediately sees all four offices.  They see 3 doors that are clearly not what they're looking for and one unmarked door.  Despite the fact that the unmarked door has to be the Sky Lodge, everyone ends up coming into our office and asking where the Sky Lodge is.

Aside from the obvious question of why the Sky Lodge doesn't just put up a sign, I can't help but wonder why people prefer to go into an office that is clearly not what they're looking for rather than going into the office that is almost certainly what they're looking for.  

I think the answer is that people are afraid of uncertainty.  The Zane Benefits office looks friendly and professional.  It's obvious that if you walk in, someone will talk to you and help you out.  No one wants to go into an unmarked office and wander around until they find someone.

So as always, I'm going to force this weird anecdote into the context of web design.  I generally assume that I can build features into a website and advanced users will find them on their own.  The less sophisticated users don't generally need to see these features, so I figure there's no need to hold anyones hand.  Now I'm wondering if even advanced computer users might have a mental block preventing them from trying things that are uncertain.

For example, sometimes I'm on a website and I'm not sure what a button does.  Generally, I just click the button and see what happens.  What's the worst that could happen?

Well, Most people probably don't try things unless they know exactly what they're doing.  Maybe it's time to do a little more hand holding, even for power users.