Or maybe I’m just too busy with other topics.

But I’m right on track to start Chinese lessons, maybe next week.

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While consumers benefit from the slew of new, user friendly applications delivered by the Web 2.0 companies, business users are stuck in a world where ease of use and aesthetics is hardly considered. This at least in the view of the article by Will Sturgeon:

David Girourard, SVP of enterprise at Google, claimed a major difference is that business software has seldom been designed with an end user in mind, whereas consumer technologies are only as good as the demand they can create by being desirable to end users.

Then:

He added: “Innovation is happening in the consumer world. Enterprise software is entirely bereft of soul. It is designed for business not for humans.”

However, he added that there is no reason why business apps should not address issues such as simplicity, pleasure or even aesthetics.

Do business users need to enjoy the applications that they are, after all, obliged to use anyway? Would this add value? Answers aside, selling this idea to the system guys might be a different story.

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Take a look at snap:

http://www.snap.com/

Is it just an eye candy or the true innovation to the search experience?

As for myself, I’m not sure if the visuals of the returned results help a lot to judge their value, and the scroll seems way too slow. But the looks does impress, and the auto suggest while you type is nice.

Update: I forgot to mention that I failed to find my own webpage – an ultimate proof that they still have work to do.

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It was when I tried to complete my ‘About me’ page that I first ran into problem with selecting business books that I could call inspiring. After some thinking I was able to indicate one, a book on strategic scenarios by Kees van der Heijden. Now it seems my ambiguous feelings towards management science found a much better articulated foundation in the article by Matthew Stewart, quoted by Nick Carr:

As I plowed through tomes on competitive strategy, business process re-engineering, and the like, not once did I catch myself thinking, Damn! If only I had known this sooner! Instead, I found myself thinking things I never thought I?d think, like, I?d rather be reading Heidegger!

My grandpa, a technical university professor, used to say that the only things worth studying are the difficult ones, and consequently enticed me to explore mathematics, statistics, and IT related topics. Even if never fully bought into his total contempt for “soft stuff”, like psychology and marketing, I always felt there was so much truth to his view. Again M. Stewart:

(…) the impression I formed of the M.B.A. experience was that it involved taking two years out of your life and going deeply into debt, all for the sake of learning how to keep a straight face while using phrases like ?out-of-the-box thinking,? ?win-win situation,? and ?core competencies.? When it came to picking teammates, I generally held out higher hopes for those individuals who had used their university years to learn about something other than business administration.

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To start with something profound, the best thing about the trip to the US were not the buildings and the museums, but rather the people that I had the opportunity to meet. From the very start I was planning to meet -

Jacek

- right after I published the pictures I received complaint from him that he is nowhere to be seen. So I make up for this below.

I met Jacek when we were going to the same class in the high school – i.e. before I skipped the year and had a different class:) Jacek chose technical studies, then moved to the US to study some more, and then decided that he wants to work in business. It was long way, but now he works for Deloitte.

I was considering whether it would make sense at some point of time to work in the US. Jacek was pondering whether it made sense for him to go to the US, if guys working in Poland, like myself, seem to make out quite well and can even afford to come and hang around as tourists.

In the first hostel I was staying I met

Justyna

She works during the day, then in the evening she is a hostess, then she works some more during the weekend. All this to pay for the studies in Amsterdam.

I was impressed with Justyna, maybe we will have a chance to meet in Poland.

And then, everywhere you can meet some friendly people, like

The Chinese shopkeeper

Every morning in NY I visited a shop next to the subway station to buy my breakfeast, namely three bananas and a can of coke. Then I discussed with the Chinese lady the plan for the day. My days in NY always had a good start thanks to her.

Not to mention…

…guys from Israel, Paolo from Portugal, the Navy veteran, African lady in the subway…

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I managed to upload the pictures from the US – can be found HERE.

It shouldn’t take so much time but it does.

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Like Americans coming to Europe and finding themselves surprised by everything, so was I in the US, to some extent, so I prepared my own list of (selected) surprises:

• It turned out that youth hostels in the US are often used by seniors, rather than by ?youth?, vide my room mate, 79-year old Navy veteran arrived to NYC for a bike race
• Every guy I met claimed that he had or at least used to have a Polish girlfriend – including the Navy veteran
• As for unpleasant surprises, prices are quoted without tax; that is probably due to different taxes in different states and therefore understandable, but still hard to get used to
• Spanish is heard everywhere ? on the street, in fast foods, but also in advertisements ? as if it was a second official language
• Americans cope with terrible, from the European point of view, performance of their mobile networks ? ?Cingular, the fewest dropped calls? ? dropped calls, what you mean dropped calls? When I was texting my friend, messages arrived only after hours, or not at all
• For some reason that I would be interested to know, Americans love clamshells phones, which are not so popular in Europe, or at least in Poland
• People crossing on the red light right in front of the policemen. I was told by a friend: “Here it?s unimaginable that a pedestrian could get a ticket, tickets are for drivers!?

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I’m back from the training and vacation in the US.

I caught up with my email already, but I’m not sure when I will be able to read all those feeds accrued during the last two weeks.

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Because I forgot to prolong my reservation early enough, I had to move out of my first hostel in NYC, West End Studios, and get a second one – Hostelling International at 891 Amsterdam Avenue, i.e. just couple of blocks away.

The difference between both hostels is staggering – now I consider West End Studios to be probably the worst place to stay in NY! I will post pictures for comparison when I have some time. The guys may be cheating with online reviews, though, for they have so many positive ones at hostels.com, that I find it quite surprising. Even though some realistic ones can be found after some search elsewhere, e.g. here.

As a result, then, I’m staying in a decent hostel now, a reward for my carelessness, quite as usual.

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A day before, I booked online first three nights at West End Studios in upper Manhattan. Something over 30$ a night, a shared room. Felt uneasy, but on site everything turned out to be manageable, even if as rough as expected.

The location is very favorable from tourist point of view, as it is very close to the subway. I share room with two Israeli guys who just finished the military service.

And now that I got accustomed to this premises already, I learned that there might no free places for the rest of the week (I forgot to prolong earlier, of course). Maybe I will be compelled to find something new.

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I left St. Charles after my first training there, which took the whole last week.

I don?t know how the campuses of Microsoft, Google, etc. look like, but they must be somehow similar to Q Center in St Charles. Away from the city, environment created by spacy buildings and their green surroundings leave little to distract from work. I?m not sure if I would like it, but it seems productive.

In any case, I wouldn?t survive long on the diet they are serving here. I thought I could any amount without any adverse effect, but here I could feel how each bite is taking my slenderness out of me.

I met a nice Brazilian girl on the last day. She was going to visit New York as well, but got scared off by hotel prices. 150$ minimum, she said. How can you go to New York not even knowing where would you sleep? Hey, that’s exactly the way I was going to go there.

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