J Cornelius

On Limits

Tue, 14 May 2013 14:05:32 -0400

On a given day, a given circumstance, you think you have a limit. And you then go for this limit and you touch this limit, and you think, ‘Okay, this is the limit’. As soon as you touch this limit, something happens and you can suddenly go a little bit further. With your mind power, your determination, your instinct, and the experience as well, you can fly very high.

And suddenly I realised that I was no longer driving the car consciously. I was driving it by a kind of instinct, only I was in a different dimension. It was like I was in a tunnel. Not only the tunnel under the hotel, but the whole circuit was a tunnel. I was just going and going, more and more and more and more. I was way over the limit, but still able to find even more.
— Ayrton Senna, who famously stretched that limit beyond comprehension while qualifying for the 1988 Monaco Grand Prix.

Whether it’s in business, fitness, love, or life, we all run into limits. Limits of knowledge, strength, mental ability, or emotion. Sometimes real, sometimes self-imposed, these limits exist in our minds. Acheivement is about finding those limits, and pushing beyond them. Success lies on the other side.

Acqui-hiring

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 13:26:25 -0400

Corporate behemoth buys innovative startup in a talent acquisition…

It’s happening more and more. A small team of people create something fantastic and a giant company dangles a carrot so large and enticing in front of them they decide to abandon their customers and join The Borg. The innovative product gets shelved, and the talent gets pointed at some large project where the likelihood of having an impact greater than the product they originally made is diminished with each passing day.

Can we blame them? No. They have every right to make the best decision for themselves, regardless of how it impacts the markets, their customers, or the long term goals they originally set out to achieve when that idea was just the spark in a conversation between friends. Good for them. They’ve succeeded. Both sides have accomplished something great. Or have they?

I can’t help but see the parallel between this takeover strategy and the anti-trust flavored way companies muscle their way into markets. Image if Microsoft had just purchased Netscape instead of leveraging their OS marketshare to release a competing product.

There’s a difference between buying a company for the talent on staff and buying it for the value of the product produced, and it’s a scary one.

Orwell's Rules for Writing

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 16:02:41 -0400

The great George Orwell knew how to write. He knew how to capture—and hold—your attention. In 1946 he penned “Politics and the English Language,” an essay about effective writing, among other things. You should read it.

In case you haven’t, here are his rules for better writing:

Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
Never use a long word where a short one will do.
If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
Never use the passive where you can use the active.
Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Great writing is more than fancy words. It’s lingustic craftsmanship.

No Specials

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 21:43:14 -0500

Last night, at a slightly upscale restaurant in Midtown Atlanta, six of us were seated at the booth in the photo above. We were enjoying light conversation about Web technologies, the future of service businesses, and how our various companies could work together.

We’d been there about 10 minutes, but had hardly glanced at the menus in front of us. Our waiter, a gracious mid-twenties chap with a toothpaste commercial smile, entered the scene and asked if we had any questions about the menu or were ready to order.

“Are there any specials we should know about?” Bridget asked.

“No. No specials.” said mid-twenties guy. Full stop.

His words lay floundering on the table just long enough for us to notice how awkward they were. But not to him. He just stood there. Smiling.

I was stunned. Not because he was rude. He wasn’t. In fact, he just answered the question honestly (as you might expect). And he did it with panache.

But still, I was stunned. This was such a missed opportunity to create an experience. An experience consistent with the surroundings. Regardless of whether specials were available, he missed an important point in the interaction. He could have said “everything is special tonight, ma’am”, “not tonight, but the scallops are very fresh and the lamb is delicious”, or almost anything other than what he said.

No amount of smiling can make up for a fumbled experience. Sorry, mid-twenties guy.

Ask them.

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 23:32:56 -0500

Ask about their favorite color. Find their favorite food. And the song that always makes them smile. Ask about their childhood. Listen to their stories. Discover what they wanted to be. Ask who their heroes are, what they admire most, and what brings them joy.

One day they won’t be here to tell you, and the hole it leaves inside you cannot be filled by anything else. Ask them. Know them. Love them. And make sure they know you do.

Nothing lasts forever.

Old Vines

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 15:06:36 -0500

There are over 20 tech and startup events happening this week in and around Atlanta. That’s fantastic. There was also a nice article in USA Today which highlights why Atlanta is rapidly becoming a hotspot for fledgling technology companies. Also fantastic. Then there are Frozen Pints, Mellow Mushroom, and PodPonics; the three Atlanta companies highlighted in the February issue of Entrepreneur magazine. Again, fantastic to see local companies getting some national press.

Then there was the Business Leader Awards dinner I attended last Wednesday. A vastly different environment than the “startup scene”. The crowd was comprised of local old-school business elite. People like Jim Laney, former President of Emory University and former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea. Larry Gellerstedt, CEO of Cousins Properties. Or the Shepard family, long-time philanthropists and founders of the Shepard Center. Board members and executives from UPS, RockTenn, AT&T, Home Depot, and many other anchors of the Atlanta business community were there. I was honored to be in the room.

You know who wasn’t there? The startup people. You know who they are. The local high-profile founders and serial entrepreneurs who make up the walls of the local ~~echo chamber~~ ecosystem.

I had the pleasure of several great conversations at the Business Leader dinner. Execs from GE and RockTenn, board members of Emory and UPS, and an advisor to them all were in the mix. When I told them a little about what I did and what is happening here they were all excited and eager to help or learn more.

Now, this isn’t an indictment against local startup and tech leaders. Their efforts are greatly appreciated, and needed if Atlanta is to truly become an epicenter of startup and small business activity. Rather, this is a call for people of influence in these communities to reach out to established business leaders.

There is a communication gap between the startup community and the people who really make things happen in this town. We need to close that. If my experience at the dinner is any indicator, there are many great minds willing to help. We just need to go talk to them.

Nine is an Interesting Number

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 12:00:34 -0500

If you multiply nine by any natural number, and repeatedly add the digits of the answer until it is just one digit, you will end up with nine:

2 × 9 = 18 (1 + 8 = 9)
3 × 9 = 27 (2 + 7 = 9)
9 × 9 = 81 (8 + 1 = 9)
121 × 9 = 1089 (1 + 0 + 8 + 9 = 18; 1 + 8 = 9)
234 × 9 = 2106 (2 + 1 + 0 + 6 = 9)
578329 × 9 = 5204961 (5 + 2 + 0 + 4 + 9 + 6 + 1 = 27; 2 + 7 = 9)
482729235601 × 9 = 4344563120409 (4 + 3 + 4 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 3 + 1 + 2 + 0 + 4 + 0 + 9 = 45; 4 + 5 = 9)

There are other interesting patterns involving multiples of nine:

12345679 x 9 = 111111111
12345679 x 18 = 222222222
12345679 x 81 = 999999999

This works for all the multiples of 9. Interesting, eh? Now you have a little more insight into why I named my company Nine Labs.

/via Wikipedia

Diversity of Perspective

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 11:49:00 -0500

I’m not one to write a “bandwagon post” (jumping on a hot topic just for the sake of being in the conversation), but as a conference organizer I feel I have something to add to this one.

If you’re not already aware, Sara Wachter-Boettcher penned a good piece on diversity in conference speaker line-ups, and she has several valid points. Among them is the idea that an all white male speaker lineup is bad for business, primarily because it fails to present a diversity of perspective truly indicative of the collective population of people who make the Web what it is. And this is true.

Sidenote: The irony of this article being posted by the same organization that has a nearly all white, all male line up at the majority their own events isn’t lost on me.

Running a conference is damn hard work. Much like herding cats. And finding people who can eloquently speak on topics of relevance is the hardest part. However, choosing speakers based solely on gender, race, or cultural background does nothing more than perpetuate the underlying problem. Affirmative Action is nothing but reversed discrimination disguised as legislated equality.

We shouldn’t choose who to listen to based on their demographic. We should choose them based on the merit of their ideas.

Of course, there is a larger context to these decisions. What implied message are we sending when we choose a lineup of speakers? And considering confirmation bias, how can we be sure our implied messages are being accurately received by the audience? Would you rather have an organizer put effort into creating a lineup of diverse ideas, or diverse demographics just to be PC? I’d rather see great ideas. But sometimes people just want to bitch. Haters gonna hate.

We can’t ignore demographics entirely. It must play some role in the process. But an over-emphasis on demographics for demographics sake just leads us down an entirely different, and more dangerous path.

At both the Web Jam Session and Web Afternoon, I put deliberate effort into finding speakers that represented varied opinions and perspective to the Web’s overarching discussions. People who could offer something interesting to the community. Yes, I was (and am) conscious of race and gender diversity, but that has never been a driving force. As a result of searching for different perspectives, I found people of varied color and composition. It was a byproduct, not a focus.

In the monthly events for AWDG, I always try to find people who have something fresh to say. Often times those people are white males (due to odds created by the demographics of our community). Sometimes they aren’t, and that’s a great thing.

When someone has something worth listening to, our job as community organizers is to give them a platform from which to say it, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or other cultural bias. Despite our best intentions, when we fall into the trap of giving more weight to what people look like than what they have to say, we do nothing to further the conversation.

We need less bickering. We need more fresh thinking. We need more tolerance. We need more celebration of those who are doing it right.

How to Tip

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 20:21:55 -0500

On several occasions now, people have commented on how I total receipts at restaurants. You see, I don’t fill in the tip line.

This is for a few reasons. First, it’s easier for me. Second, it means a nice whole dollar amount will be charged making accounting easier later on (I’m OCD like that). So how do I calculate the tip and decide what to write for the total? Easy.

Multiply the Tax

The standard tax in most states in between 7 and 8 percent. Tax is also calculated on the food and beverages, so it’s a more accurate multiplier than the actual total. Besides, it’s easier to multiply a small number (the tax) by three than to figure 15% of a much larger number (the pre-tax total). I rate the service received into three general categories. Great, Average, and Poor, then multiply accordingly.

Great: Multiply by 3
Average: Multiply by 2
Poor: No math needed, just round to the nearest dollar (more on rounding in a bit).

Typically, since sales tax is 7.5% on average this equates to 22.5%, 15%, and 7.5% tips based on service. This is right in line with generally accepted tip percentages, with a little heavier weight on good service.

About Rounding

Rounding gives me a chance to add a little nuance to the math. Excellent service? Roundup to the nearest dollar, or even to the nearest five dollar mark if it was truly exceptional. Pretty good, but not great? Multiply by two and round up. Almost great? Multiply by three and round down.

Always remember, servers are working hard for very little pay. When in doubt, round up. Be generous. You might just make their day.

Go forth and tip well

As you see, this provides some flexibility to tip an amount that feels right, all within a framework that’s fair for everyone, and you don’t need an app or calculator to figure it out.

Dear Rdio, Please add a play button next to the Top Songs...

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 13:08:12 -0500

Dear Rdio,

Please add a play button next to the Top Songs section on artist pages. It’ll be like a socially driven “greatest hits” playlist. Kinda makes sense for a social music service, eh?

Thanks.

Here’s the video of my talk on Digital Fluency and User...

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 09:34:14 -0400

Here’s the video of my talk on Digital Fluency and User Experience at Remix South 2012.

6 Steps to Success

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 10:37:08 -0400

Decide what you want to do.
Make a plan.
Do it.
Find out what didn’t work.
Fix those things.
Go back to Step 3.

R.I.P. Edward Vincent Cornelius

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 22:51:08 -0400

We buried my grandfather today. He lived 84 splendid years. His memorial was held in the sanctuary of the church where he spent each Sunday since before I was born. It was emotional, honorable, and filled with people who loved him dearly. That word memorial comes from the ancient latin memoriālis; from or containing memoranda; memories. He gave me many.

He taught me to fish, how to tie a lure, and how to cast a fly rod. He taught me the value of a rich and varied vocabulary. He taught me the pleasure that comes from a hard day’s work, and that a man isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.

He told stories. Many, many stories. Stories about eating fried crickets at a monastery in Tibet, flying into a remote valley outpost in Turkey and smuggling a scimitar out for friend in another division, driving a tank convoy up treacherous mountain roads in northern Italy, or about life as a kid in Pennsylvania. He spoke fondly about his adventures, and he did it all with grace and eloquence. You’d think him a master storyteller. And he was. His repertoire was endless and endlessly entertaining. I’d listen for hours. You would’ve, too.

He was more than a storyteller, though. He was a beacon of inspiration. You see, despite his ability to spin a spellbinding narrative, he didn’t teach me with words. He taught me with his actions. His example of how to live life with gusto and treat others with compassion guides me to this day.

One summer when I was not quite a teenager he took me fishing on a family friend’s farm. We were on the water 3 hours and only caught two fish. Disappointed, we paddled back to shore, he in the back of the tiny boat, me in the front. As we approached the shoreline, hot-headed me jumped out which upset the balance of the boat and sent him feet over shoulders backward into the water and dumped most of our tackle and rods into the water. He yelped and splashed about for a moment, then realized what happened. There he was, up to his armpits in murky lake water with a bit of moss on his face. He looked up at me from the cold lake water and just started laughing at the absurdity of it all. He laughed together, I helped him out of the water, we packed up and left. He’d added another story to his collection. He’d tell it often. And he’d laugh with the same hearty pleasure each time he did.

I remember driving from Athens, GA to the Ridaeu Canal in Canada for a family fishing trip while I only had my learner’s permit. I almost wrecked the truck on the twisty roads of the Virginia mountains. I was going too fast for the road and and the truck came to rest in the front lawn of a quaint country home. He sat in the passenger seat and laughed at my panic and exasperation while the dust settled around us. “That’s a fine example of how to miss a turn!” he said with a big grin. “Put it in reverse, kid. Let’s get outta here”.

That’s how he was. Always jovial and kind. It’s these examples of him that I’ll remember most. How he always called my grandmother “super” (because she is). His boisterous laugh. His giant smile. His warm embrace. Everyone who ever met him left with a smile and a brighter day.

He was a big man, both in stature and personality. The only thing that could eclipse the size of his presence was the size of his heart. His generosity of spirit and never-ending encouragement helped me become the man I am today. Without his influence I’d be a lesser me. Thankfully, I have these memories to fill the void left by his absence.

I love you grandad. I’ll miss you. We all will.

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where..."

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 16:02:03 -0400

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

- Source: theodore-roosevelt.com

It’s just a ride…

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 10:47:52 -0400

It’s just a ride…

Rear Ended

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 16:28:11 -0400

Yesterday I was driving to an appointment and was on the phone discussing an upcoming event when BAM!, I was rear-ended. Fortunately neither I or the other driver was injured, and our cars only had relatively minor damage. But this got me thinking. You never know what will change your life forever or when it will happen. Every waking moment is an opportunity for change, progress, and growth. Reminds me of this:

If you had one shot, one opportunity, to seize everything you ever wanted in one moment; would you capture it or just let it slip? — Eminem

Too often we’re caught doing menial tasks, personal administravia, or flat goofing off. Rather than allow ourselves to spend precious time (there’s a limited supply, you know) doing things that don’t matter, we should focus on things that actually make a difference for us or someone else. Every day presents us with that opportunity. Don’t let it slip.

Jugglers and Archers

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 13:58:09 -0400

“I’m so dreadfully bored. Fetch me the jugglers!” The king had spoken and they soon appeared, smiling, hoping to please their Majesty. And please their Majesty they did, with a myriad of flying balls, colored batons, and funny little hats. The king was so pleased. He watched quizzically while the jugglers twirled and danced, all the while neglecting what was happening just outside the castle walls. A rival army was preparing an attack on the castle. They were agile, ambitious, and motivated.

As the king relished his entertainment, the attack began. Silent at first while the enemy slid inside the walls. A few dull thuds echoed through the halls as the attack began to intensify. Easily ignored in the midst of the king’s party. Then the unmistakable crash of a trebuchet’s payload striking the spire captured the king’s ear.

“Fetch me the archers!” the king’s voice bellowed. And they came. The battle raged while the jugglers took cover. But it was too late. The rivals had stormed the castle while the people inside, King and all, were busy with the entertainment.

The king had become complacent. He allowed his success and riches to spoil him. Spending his days watching jugglers and jesters, and eating hearty meals. Meanwhile, his subjects looked elsewhere for inspiration and leadership. He was powerful, rich beyond measure, and handsome, too. Yet he’d forgotten the source of his wealth and happiness. His boredom had blinded him to reality, even as it unfolded at his doorstep.

The king is your business, whether yours in ownership or employment. The king represents what happens in too many companies. After some success, a certain level of complacency sets in, resulting in a loss of contact with reality, and a lack of understanding about what their customers want.

You, are a juggler or an archer. That’s for you to decide. You can be the one with the bag of tricks, juggling multiple skills, and putting on a show for the king. A jack of all trades in a funny hat. The one that keeps the business happy with anecdotal humor and impressive feats of otherwise trivial activity.

Or you can be the archer. Highly trained and skilled in a specialty. Able to respond quickly and act with confidence and deadly accuracy. Everyone likes the juggler, she’s fun to have around. But the archer is who the king relies on when the kingdom is on the line. Either in attack or defense, the archer is indispensable.

There are too many jugglers and not enough archers. Rather than focus on multi-tasking and being “good enough” in many things, we should focus on one skill (or a very small set of skills) and be excellent. Constantly refine and improve this skill and you will become indispensable.

Twitter and the API Pivot.

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 14:44:14 -0400

A long time ago companies began the practice of releasing bad news on Fridays. Originally this was used as a strategy by public companies to mitigate negative impact on their stock prices. But history has shown this really doesn’t work.

Regardless of that, Twitter tried to quietly announce upcoming changes to their API today. Set aside your surprise that a company built on the near-instant global spread of information would try to sneak this one past today’s always on Web culture, and have a look at what this could mean for the future of the service itself.

Twitter began as an SMS service. Tweets could — and still can — be posted by sending a SMS to 40404 from your registered device (this is where the 140 character limit came from, in case you didn’t know). Adoption was low. Then came the website where people could post and read tweets with a more visual interface. Adoption was still low, relatively. Twitter was all the buzz at SXSW in March 2007, and that helped growth a bit. But when they released the API early 2008 growth skyrocketed.

Source: Hubspot

We built this city

Once they allowed 3rd party developers to create apps on top of their platform the ecosystem grew exponentially. With the growth of that ecosystem came droves of users. Now Twitter is arguably the 2nd most popular social platform on the planet. Sure, the timing was helpful, but the influx of wonderful 3rd party apps allowed people to choose a nuanced experience that was right for them, accelerating adoption dramatically. Twitter recognized this when they purchased Tweetie as a shortcut for building their own app, and acquired Summize for search. Of course they couldn’t have sustained all that growth and made the acquisitions they did without capital, and that came from VC. Here’s where things get interesting.

VC always wants its money back

Now that they’ve achieved supremo status, it’s time to think about how to make revenue and repay the investors. Absolutely nothing wrong with that, they have every right to do so. The question is always how. They’ve been charging for access to the “firehose” for a while, but that’s not enough. We all know they’ve toyed with different advertising mechanisms, and several of them work reasonably well. The trouble is inserting sponsored or “Expanded Tweets” into the API timeline can be difficult to monetize without disrupting the ecosystem. So what are they doing? Exactly what startup pop-culture advocates. Pivoting.

Shut her down cap’n

You need to be able to see expanded Tweets and other features that make Twitter more engaging and easier to use.

This is how they’re spinning the API change. Expanded Tweets are more engaging (e.g. profitable) and therefore they need to force them into as many eyeballs as possible. Reasonable strategy, but it’s divergent from what made Twitter strong in the first place. Disruptive, in fact. They go on to say:

Back in March of 2011, my colleague Ryan Sarver said that developers should not “build client apps that mimic or reproduce the mainstream Twitter consumer client experience.” That guidance continues to apply as much as ever today. Related to that, we’ve already begun to more thoroughly enforce our Developer Rules of the Road with partners, for example with branding, and in the coming weeks, we will be introducing stricter guidelines around how the Twitter API is used.

Stricter guidelines. We can only interpret this to mean they will either force adoption of Expanded Tweets (and, one can assume, other revenue generating mechanisms) into the API timelines or terminate API access for violation of the Rules of the Road. I hear throngs of 3rd party developers squirming at the thought of it now.

About disruption and pivoting

We hear a lot about being disruptive to a market, and pivoting to correct course. These are words the startup culture likes to toss around alongside other buzz-terms like “fail fast”, and it’s all decent advice, in context. What I feel Twitter may be ignoring is that when they radically pivot away from the ecosystem that helped them grow, they’re essentially turning their backs on the very developers and loyalists they need to sustain the business. Worse, by eradicating 3rd party apps they take away the nuanced and customized experiences people love about using the service. As I quipped already, I would seriously question using Twitter if I couldn’t use Tweetbot or Echofon. Those apps enhance Twitter in a way that is meaningful to me. Take it away and you’ve taken much of the value with it.

Now I know the people in the boardroom at 795 Folsom are much smarter than I am, and they have more knowledge of the internals of the business. But I’ve also been around this block enough times to have seen companies ’pivot’ just enough to create space for a new kid to carve out a spot in the market.

When you sell out, people go home

If Twitter does decide to shoehorn monetized content into everyone’s experience they run the risk of pushing people away. Once that happens, they are ripe to be disrupted. Let’s hope they choose to fail fast on this one, and pivot back the other way.

Health care history

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 10:27:45 -0400

The Supreme Court of the United States just upheld President Obama’s health care reform act.

This is great news for innovation. Think about it. If everyone has individual health care, it relieves the pressure to stay in a job you don’t like. Healthcare (and retirement benefits) is one of the dominant reasons people work for large companies. I’ve talked to countless smart people who have great ideas, and enough ambition to make them happen, but they have families and can’t overcome the risk of not having group healthcare coverage.

If everyone has coverage regardless of who employs them, it helps free people to do the work they truly enjoy and potentially create much more individual wealth then could ever be created by everyone working for a handfull of large corporations.

It’s just a thought.

My Name is Jabberwocky

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 11:08:00 -0400

The name you entered doesn’t seem to meet our Names Policy.

This was the message given to me by Google+ when I tried to setup my account today. Apparently it doesn’t like single character first names, like mine, “J”.

You see, this all started when a friend sent a lunch invitation via Google+, which, unbeknownst to her, was sent to the G+ profile linked to my old Gmail address. That Gmail address doesn’t have a calendar associated with it, so I wanted to use my @jcornelius.com account (powered by Google Apps) to accept the invitation.

Denied.

Google informed me that the account I was using didn’t have access to that calendar, and that I would need to “complete my profile” (i.e. create a Google+ account) for my Google Apps hosted email address. Fine, I’d like to use that account for everything, anyway.

Denied.

Here I am, in Google limbo. The account I want to use needs to be “completed”, but I can’t do that because it won’t accept my name. Never mind the fact that I already have a Google+ account under my Gmail address that uses my name “J Cornelius”. Or that the first result in Google for “J Cornelius” is my Website, and the next four are links to me on other social networks.

Back to the Error

So I consult the Names Policy and find this gem.

“Your common name is the name your friends, family or coworkers usually call you.”

Guess what. That’s exactly what I’m using! Just Google it!

Obviously they are trying to mitigate fake names with some roundabout policy that requires names be a certain length. It will take a two character name, but not a single character one. They have an appeal process, but come on. Now I’ve been forced to use Jabberwocky Cornelius, a name that is clearly fake just to bypass their over-zealous policy and create the account.

Note: Facebook also has this stupid policy, so I’m now “Jabberwocky” there, too.

Oddly enough, I could choose ‘Other’ for my gender (if I wanted to), and that’s great for people who identify with their gender that way. But what about equality for those of us with single letter names? As Jared quipped on Twitter, maybe someday.

Here’s a Solution.

Just let me create the account. If your army of doctorate level linguists and mathematicians check things later and think my name is bogus, take action then drop a note in my account, not as a barrier to creating it in the first place. All you’ve managed to do is create frustration at — some would argue — the most critical point in the process, on-boarding a new user. Luke Wroblewski has penned several great articles about using gradual engagement and usability on sign up forms. This one, or this one would be good reads for the Google engineers (or you, if you’re into that kind of thing). My hopes for Google fixing this are low, but hey, you never know.

Don’t make it hard for people to use your service. Because they won’t.

UPDATE: Google have fixed the issue, so now I’m able to use my real name. Thank to the anonymous Googler who was paying attention.