Oh, Martha Stewart… You are lovely and well-spoken, funny and a little wicked (in a good way), but you missed out. You were given every opportunity to make progress, to flesh out your ideas, to collect the ideas of other SciFoo campers – all leaders in their respective fields (except for me). What did you do instead? You tried to sell your magazine (which needs no help in the selling department, as far as I can tell).
You pulled people into your talk with promises of a Paper Free Home (I turned down Science and Capitalism for you). This concept excited us, opened the potential of a computer to run our home-lives, to keep track of everything from bills to recipes, birthdays, phone numbers… and the best fertilizer for our windowsill basil. You were asked a number of incisive and probing questions about your idea, your magazine, your immense power to subtly introduce basic science to your readership, and how did you respond? You deflected. You mumbled about your 400 varieties of roses, about how you love vacuuming (seriously?), about how your magazine holds answers to all homeowners’ questions.
You missed out. You could have told us what your home manager computer, you paper-free home of the future is like. How is your manager different from the iPhone? Is it a screen on a fridge? Is it portable? Is it on a fridge with a portable satellite? How does one upload data onto the manager, from an insurance policy to the recipe for the very best chocolate chip cookies? You failed to take advantage of the bank of knowledge and expertise that gathered at the Googleplex from all over the world. What a shame.
Sincerely,
Anna Kushnir
P.S. Still love your chocolate chip cookie recipe though. It’s a good thing.
Anna
That was hilarious. If I might rub it in, Science and Capitalism was one of the best sessions I attended.
I tried to lead Martha with one of my questions to talk more about what we could do to help her vision of technology for the homemaker but she did not take the bait. I agree she spent way too much time talking about her magazines and other things and not providing enough detail of her vision of the paperless home. But, I was not as put off by her presentation. Remember, she is not a techno/science freak like most of the rest of us. Maybe we should view her more like a grad. student doing their first scientific presentation?
Spot on!
Deepak – Ouch. I was afraid of that. I wish I had been less timid about leaving sessions in progress – there are quite a few sessions I regret missing.
Jonathan – I agree, we were not her typical audience. As a grad student, I really hope my first presentation left a better impression than hers did.
Alex – Glad you agree!