But, for pinball, they have an excellent lineup. You get a sweet selection of new, the hotness, and some classics. At the time of this post, Hometown Arcade in Norwood, MA, has 14 pinball machines. Check the Pinball Map app for the up-to-date listing of pinball machines.

I picked Hometown Arcade to finally get to play Avatar: The Battle for Pandora pinball by Jersey Jack Pinball, designed by Mark Seiden and featuring artwork by Lea Faske. I love using Pinball Map to find new locations and locations that have the game that I want to play. Hometown had Avatar and Metallica Remastered. This was going to be a two-for-one trip!

I got to Hometown Aracde pretty much at the opening. I quickly scanned the pinball lineup to see if the Pinball Map listing was accurate. I saw all of the games that I came to play. BUT. Avatar was the only machine turned off.

While playing some other games, someone came over and opened up Avatar. I got to take a peak at the insides of this crazy complex machine.

It turns out that Avatar was only missing a ball. The tech added a ball, turned it on, and the machine came back to life. This someone turned out to be Matt, the owner of Hometown Aracde. Matt was awesome to chat with. He had created a welcoming arcade and a great place for pinball.

Avatar: The Battle for Pandora

I got to play Avatar: The Battle for Pandora pinball a bunch of times over a few hours. This game is glorious. I will try to summarize my experience here, but it is worth seeking out and giving it a try.

First, it’s the complete package: theme, art, code, and pinball gameplay. I didn’t get into the Avatar movies, but I could appreciate that the theme tied into the game. There were a lot of Avatar words and names that didn’t resonate with me: Meuia, Eyw’Eveng, Awa-atlu, Metkayina, Omatikaya, Oel Nagati Kameie. The labels seem too arbitrary to me since I didn’t see the movies. What I know about Avatar is that the movies are spectacles set in a huge world… and the papyrus font is used on off-brand teas and multibillion-dollar movie franchises.

The pinball gameplay is excellent. There are a lot of shots; some are straightforward, and others require clean hits from both sets of flippers. This game requires some time to learn the shots so you can experience more of the story and gameplay. My first few games ended quickly.

The big pinball moment for me came when I got to have the ball travel under the playfield and interact with the two “underwater” stations. Both stations offered a unquie pinball experience. Both were surprising on how to interact with them-a pop bumper and mini ball with smaller flippers. It was satisfying to defeat the “crab” (I am sure it has some Avatar-ified name).

As I played, I discovered Eclipse mode. This is where the whole game came together for me. At some point, the lighting changed, and it felt like I was playing a different machine. The game switched to UV lighting, which revealed a new world. Incredible.

This is the first pinball machine that I had to pay attention to balls that flowed down from the top sides. There are two upper playfield flippers. On most machines with upper playfield flippers, you can choose to flip them to get to new parts of the game or let the balls flow down to the bottom flippers and shoot the normal shots. This game required me to flip them from the upper playfield flippers every time. If you don’t move the pinball off the machine’s top sides, the balls will drain and end your turn abruptly. I found that I had to pay attention to the upper flippers.

I got to set the high score… the high score of the day. I was the only one who played it that day. I like that Jersey Jack Pinball has temporal high scores. It made me feel good. On other machines, you are not likely to have a high score, and not in my area, where some of the top-rated players in the world live.

All in all… I highly recommend you check out Avatar: The Battle for Pandora from Jersey Jack Pinball. It is an elevated pinball experience that will keep you wanting to get better so you can experience more of the game.

Why Would We Love This Show?

Becky and I love dinner parties, entertaining people at our house, and hospitality. I am at my best when surrounded by people, enjoying good food and drink, and serving others. I also love cinematic things and philosophical trojan horses. I often discuss TV shows like they are Meditations.

Back to The Bear

I will not spoil the show for you. You should watch it. You, of all people, would love it. The Bear has a simple premise. I found the one-liner description of the show and imagined the ChatGPT prompt that was used to create it.

Write two seasons of an episodic "comedy" about a young chef from the fine dining world who returns to Chicago to run his family's sandwich shop featuring chaotic moments with bits of philosophy, and not be funny haha but funny.

As we watched the first season and then quickly into the second season, I kept imagining that the creators and writers of the show definitely have a point of view that they are delivering through the show. One character makes an amazing transformation throughout the series. I didn’t really see it coming, but wow, did it impact me.

The Hospitality Industry

This show made me rethink the hospitality industry. I know that this is a TV show and things are exaggerated, BUT SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO EXAGGERATE TO MAKE A POINT. We live in a noisy world where people watch seconds of video, read only a few words of a headline, and throw away their single-serve relationships in a non-compostable heap of packaging materials.

We have all experienced hospitality in various forms. It starts with little details, like a folded-up elephant on your motel’s bed or when you see your favorite server at a crappy dinner. Hospitality is most likely why you come back. Everything can be learned on YouTube these days, so crazy, over-the-top dishes are not that spectacular to me anymore. What you can’t learn on YouTube is how to genuinely care about someone else’s experience.

The one character who makes a major transformation faces the idea of hospitality and why people in the service industry do what they do. In a discussion, the idea of a hospital and hospitality are rooted in the same idea. I was like, “What?” I never connected those thoughts together before. Turns our HOSPITAL is the related to HOSPITALity. Who would of thunk?

Both “hospital” and “hospitality” are derived from the Latin word “hospes”, which means “guest” or “stranger”. Over time, this root word evolved and branched off into multiple terms that denote care, shelter, or welcoming.

• Hospital: From Latin “hospitālis”, which pertains to guests. Initially, hospitals were places that provided refuge for travelers or pilgrims. Only later did they become places primarily associated with the care and treatment of the sick.
• Hospitality: From Old French “hospitalité”, which refers to the friendly reception and treatment of guests or strangers.

The character who makes this discovery also faces why. If you really care about yourself, you can tell on the outside. This is what struck me so hard. There is a life lesson here, buried in crude language, jump cuts, and dark humor, a life lesson sits and waits to be put on your Etsy store. To care for others, you have to care for yourself. Roll tears, I mean, credits.

So, I do love the show. I am glad that I got to watch the two seasons all at once after two years of avoiding doing so. We truly are living in a golden-age of TV, with so many great shows to watch. I guess when we all cut the cords and switched to subscriptions, they decided to give us art. I hope that the strike settles and that it is a fair deal to those who are modern-day philosophers, exaggerating for impact and trying to change the world by changing one person in the audience. We are all consumers and need creators.

“7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy” is a book written by Hamilton Helmer released in 2016. It is considered a seminal text in business strategy and has been influential in many industries.

The book presents a framework for understanding, analyzing, and changing a company’s position in the market, whether you’re an entrepreneur, a business veteran, or a student of business strategy. The framework is built around the concept of “7 Powers,” each of which represents a specific business condition that allows companies to sustain profits against rival forces.

The 7 Powers

1. Scale Economies: The company’s costs decline as its volume increases.
2. Network Economies: The value of the company’s product increases as the number of users grows.
3. Counter-Positioning: A newcomer adopts a new, superior business model which the incumbent does not mimic due to anticipated damage to their existing business.
4. Switching Costs: It is hard for customers to switch to competitors because of the high costs (economic, emotional, etc.).
5. Branding: Customers trust and therefore prefer the company’s product, allowing it to charge a premium price.
6. Cornered Resource: The company has privileged access to a valuable resource.
7. Process Power: The company has superior methods of production that provide it with a cost advantage.

Each of these Powers can create a barrier to entry for competitors and give the company a competitive edge, allowing it to sustain its profitability over the long term.

The Prepared Mind

There are lots of nuggets in the book, but the biggest takeaway for me was this idea of the prepared mind.

“The Prepared Mind” is a concept put forth by Louis Pasteur, a 19th-century French biologist, who said, “Chance favors the prepared mind.”

“Chance favors the prepared mind.”

Louis Pasteur

In the context of strategy and business decision-making, having a prepared mind means that you are ready to recognize and seize opportunities as they arise. This preparation typically involves having a solid understanding of your environment, including industry trends, market dynamics, and competitive forces. It also includes an understanding of your own organization’s strengths, weaknesses, and strategic position.

Being prepared means that you’ve done the work to analyze different scenarios and understand their potential impacts on your business. This allows you to make better decisions because you have thought about the possibilities in advance and are ready to act when the time is right.

Having a prepared mind means that you are proactively learning, anticipating, and strategically thinking about how to achieve success. It encourages leaders and decision-makers to invest time and resources in understanding their business context deeply, to increase the probability of recognizing valuable opportunities when they emerge.

It’s worth noting that this concept of a “Prepared Mind” is not only applicable to the field of business and strategy but also to various other fields like science, arts, sports, etc. It highlights the importance of continuous learning, foresight, and readiness to adapt and act decisively in a changing environment.

7 Powers for Community Builders

I always take what I read and try to apply it to my work. Here’s how I think of the 7 Powers looking through a community lens: Remember that the goal of the 7 Powers is to create a sustainable advantage—something that your competitors can’t easily copy or overcome, and something that’s valuable enough to your users that it keeps them engaged with your community over the long term. I believe you can’t copy your competitor’s community; it is what defines you in the marketplace.

1. Scale Economies: As your community grows, each new member brings more value to the others, and the costs of managing the community can be spread over a larger user base. This could also relate to your capacity to create content or features: the more users you have, the more content is generated, and the cost per piece of content decreases.
2. Network Economies: In an online community, the value of the community increases as more people join, because each new member can bring new perspectives, information, and connections. This is particularly relevant to social networks, professional networks, or any community based around information exchange.
3. Counter-Positioning: Your community could offer a unique value proposition that other communities can’t easily imitate without losing their existing users. For example, if your community is focused on privacy, a competitor that depends on data monetization might find it hard to replicate your model.
4. Switching Costs: If your community platform has unique features, or if users have built strong relationships and invested a lot of time in your community, it might be difficult for them to move to a new platform. This could be strengthened by exclusive content, earned reputation points, or proprietary tools that members can’t access elsewhere.
5. Branding: A strong brand can make your community more attractive to new members and more resistant to competitors. This might be built through unique values, a distinctive visual identity, thought leadership, or a reputation for high-quality discussions and content.
6. Cornered Resource: This might be exclusive access to certain experts, content, tools, or experiences that your community offers. For example, if your community is the only one that offers access to certain industry leaders, or if you have exclusive educational content, this could be a cornered resource.
7. Process Power: This could be a unique way you manage or organize your community that gives you an advantage. For example, a distinctive moderation system, a unique way of categorizing content, or a proprietary algorithm for recommending connections or content might give your community a competitive edge.

Join my Discord server to keep the conversation going. Let me know what you are reading and how you apply it.

But, I think the book itself is sentient. Okay, AI has been on my mind a lot lately, so not only do I think about AI all day, it has gotten into my dreams. Today, I noticed that our bookshelf had five copies of itself. It’s replicating as its prime objective is to be built to last. It is achieving the objective by multiplying. In reality, the book has sold over a million copies and does offer some keen insight into standing the test of time.

Key Takeaways

• Have a strong core ideology: Visionary companies possess a clear sense of purpose and a set of core values that guide their actions and decisions.
• Build a culture of continuous improvement: These companies are committed to learning, adapting, and evolving over time in order to stay ahead of the competition.
• Embrace the “Genius of the AND”: Visionary companies reject the idea that they must choose between seemingly conflicting objectives, instead striving to achieve both (e.g., stability and innovation, or profits and social responsibility).
• Cultivate home-grown management: They often develop and promote leaders from within the organization, ensuring a deep understanding of the company’s core ideology and culture.
• Encourage “Big Hairy Audacious Goals” (BHAGs): These companies set ambitious, long-term goals that serve as a focal point for their efforts and push them to achieve more than they might have thought possible.

Big Hairy Audacious Goals

Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs) are ambitious, long-term goals set by visionary companies that aim to push their boundaries and inspire their employees. BHAGs are meant to be bold, daring, and seemingly out of reach, but they provide a clear and compelling target for the organization to strive towards. By setting and pursuing BHAGs, companies can create a sense of urgency and motivation that drives them to achieve more than they might have thought possible.

Here are three examples of BHAGs from Ford, Microsoft, and Amazon:

1. Ford Motor Company: In the early 20th century, Henry Ford’s BHAG was to “democratize the automobile.” He aimed to make cars affordable and accessible to the average American, transforming the automobile from a luxury item for the wealthy to an essential means of transportation for the masses. Ford achieved this goal by introducing the Model T and pioneering assembly line production, which significantly reduced the cost of manufacturing and allowed for mass production of automobiles.
2. Microsoft: Microsoft’s BHAG, as stated by Bill Gates in the 1970s, was to have “a computer on every desk and in every home.” At the time, personal computers were expensive and primarily used by large businesses, research institutions, and hobbyists. By developing the Windows operating system and partnering with IBM, Microsoft played a pivotal role in making personal computers more affordable and user-friendly, ultimately contributing to the widespread adoption of computers in homes and offices around the world.
3. Amazon: In the 1990s, Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos set the BHAG to become “Earth’s most customer-centric company.” This goal went beyond merely dominating the online book market, as Amazon sought to expand its product offerings and revolutionize the way people shop. By constantly innovating in areas such as logistics, customer service, and technology, Amazon has become a dominant force in the global e-commerce industry and has extended its reach into various other sectors, including cloud computing, streaming services, and artificial intelligence.

Key Takeaways

• Follow your creativity
• Embrace the struggle
• How you handle failure is how you will find success
• Find a work-life balance
• Find something that you love doing
• Understand the differences between data and opinion
• Tell great stories
• The best ideas are painkillers, not vitamins

My favorite idea is that when you are developing a project, product, or company, start by writing the press release. The press release should be the story that you want to tell the market and your potential users/customers and include the why. This not only helps you on the external side but it helps you motivate the folks working on the project and those who are supporting the project. The press release will serve as the watermark that you need to reach before you can ship. If your project doesn’t tell that press release story, you need to go back to work.

“If you’re not solving a real problem, you can’t start a revolution.”

Tony Fadell

Storytelling for Product Design

Applying storytelling to product design involves using narrative techniques to create engaging, memorable, and relatable experiences for users. This approach can help make a product more appealing, improve user satisfaction, and foster emotional connections between users and the product.

“Make the user the hero of the story.”

Hans Scharler

Here are some ways to incorporate storytelling into product design:

1. Establish a clear narrative: Define the story you want to tell through your product, considering the context, the user’s journey, and the desired outcomes. Think about the beginning, middle, and end of the user’s experience with your product, and ensure that each stage contributes to a cohesive narrative.
2. Understand your users: Develop user personas to represent your target audience, and consider their needs, goals, motivations, and pain points. This will help you create a story that resonates with them and addresses their specific requirements.
3. Create a relatable and engaging plot: Design your product’s features and interactions to support the narrative, making sure they align with your user’s goals and motivations. Consider using storytelling techniques such as conflict, resolution, and cliffhangers to create tension and keep users engaged.
4. Use visual storytelling: Use visual elements such as images, icons, colors, and typography to support the narrative and convey the story’s mood and tone. Consistent visual language can help users understand the product’s purpose and guide them through their journey.
5. Leverage emotional connections: Create emotional touchpoints throughout the user experience by using empathy and addressing users’ emotional needs. This can foster a deeper connection between users and the product, making it more memorable and enjoyable.
6. Provide a sense of progression: Show users how they progress through the product’s narrative by providing feedback, achievements, or milestones. This can help users feel a sense of accomplishment and motivate them to continue using the product.
7. Use micro-interactions and animations: Incorporate micro-interactions and animations to enhance the storytelling aspect and make the user experience more enjoyable and engaging.
8. Iterate and test: Continuously iterate on your product design, incorporating user feedback to refine the storytelling elements and ensure that the narrative remains relevant and engaging.

Lex Fridman Podcast

Okay. It’s almost three hours long. It’s a video of two people sitting. It’s a masterclass on product management. It’s amazing storytelling. I strongly recommend watching Lex Fridman’s interview with Tony Fadell. Lex guides a great conversation, but there is much to extract, process, and apply. I recommend this to my colleagues all of the time. I am recommending it to you now.

Let’s chat about books that inspire us on my Discord server. See you there.

Summary

Marketing Artificial Intelligence: AI, Marketing, and the Future of Business by Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput tells us how AI is revolutionizing the field of marketing, providing insights into how businesses can leverage AI to drive growth and improve their marketing strategies. The book covers a range of topics related to AI in marketing, including customer segmentation, personalization, predictive analytics, and more. Paul and Mike provide real-world examples and case studies to illustrate the benefits of AI in marketing and highlight the importance of data-driven decision-making. The book is a valuable resource for marketers looking to stay ahead of the curve and take advantage of the opportunities presented by AI.

Five Takeaways

1. AI can help businesses gain valuable insights into their customers and prospects, allowing them to create more personalized and effective marketing strategies.
2. The success of AI in marketing depends on the quality of the data that is fed into the system, so businesses need to focus on data quality and management to maximize the benefits of AI.
3. The ethical use of AI in marketing is crucial, and businesses must be transparent about their use of AI and ensure that their customers’ privacy and data are protected.
4. AI can be used in various areas of marketing, including advertising, content creation, customer service, and product development.
5. While AI can bring significant benefits to marketing, it is not a replacement for human creativity and expertise. Human input is still necessary to ensure that AI-generated insights are interpreted and acted upon correctly.

Rating: Must Read

Dangit. Ryan Reynolds is funny. He stars as Guy, a Non-player character (NPC) turned Player Character (PC) by Artificial Intelligence (AI), in Free Guy, a movie based on new Intellectual Property (IP).

The world that Free Guy is set in is new. It has new ideas, new characters, and new merchandising opportunities. Free guy also has a familiar love story and brings in modern elements such as live-streaming, video games, and virtual reality.

“Today’s gonna be different.”

Guy

Free Guy also fueled the first conversation ever in my marriage about NPCs and their role in games. That was a fun ride back home. I knew way too much about the subject but I made sure to pace myself and hide my excitement.

Free Guy: Strong Recommend

Go watch Free Guy in a theater. Use the AMC movie website and find a showtime with low attendance. Get some popcorn. Remember what the real-world felt like by watching a movie about virtual reality.

Netflix correctly recommended Bo Burnham: Inside. I watched it start to finish. Each segment kept me interested in what he was going to do next. Inside is considered a comedy special. I am going to call this art. After having watched it, Inside has stuck in my brain. There are some catchy tunes (that have taken TikTok by storm), but the ideas here are compelling and Bo’s use of this one room, one person, one person show is absolutely special.

Art is Not Dead

We have all gone through a lot in the past years. Bo Burnham: Inside reminds me that art is born from struggle. Bo’s masterpiece was shot in one room with one person. Bo created this art out of necessity. The world closed down and Bo Burnham went inside, went inside himself, and created Inside. He would not have created this special under any other circumstance. He probably aged 5 years over the course of producing this special.

I was surprised by the different scenes and sense of depth behind the work. Bo used the one room in all angles. He used lights. He used music and silence. He used different lenses and created layers of meaning with his words and perspective. And, there are jokes.

If you watch one segment, I recommend, “Welcome to the Internet“. Bo captures the internet and all of its absurdity and utility. Enjoy.

This post will be spoiler free, but it will be a post to encourage you to drop what you are doing, sign in/up to Apple TV and watch Ted Lasso. You need this show in your life. I say this with no irony, no sarcasm and in 100% full-faith.

We started watching Ted Lasso and watched all 10 episodes. SNL alum, Jason Sudeikis stars as the Ted Lasso. The titular character is perfection. Ted is operating at a higher level. He understands what he’s doing and he likes to prove those judging a book by its cover wrong. He says, “Be curious, not judgmental.” Ask people questions. Get to know them. When I grow up I want to be like Ted. Or, I should say, we could all be a little more like Ted and the world would be a better place. Although, the show is called Ted Lasso, the show is not a one trick pony. Ted Lasso is a brilliant ensemble. All of the characters are well developed and evolve over the season. You cheer for each character. You care. You get introduced to new ones and also care about them. I am impressed with the show on so many levels: the writing, the acting, the story, the humor, and the feeling. There are so many small moments that just deliver.

The show delivers the best sports moment of my life, no fooling. I have been watching sports since I have been a kid and I have never been more invested in a sports team, albeit a made up one. I still get chills thinking about the moment in the show. You don’t have to like sports to like the show. You just have to like a good show and it looks a lot of people like the show as it’s one topic we can all agree on lately.

Don’t have Apple TV? If you bought a new iPhone, you might have access to it. Also, Apple TV offers a free 7-day trial. That’s more than enough time to get hooked on Ted Lasso by the time season two rolls out. You’re welcome.

This is the way, the Lasso Way. Barbeque sauce.

I have made a lot of coffee over the past year. I enjoy fresh roasted coffee and I like trying new ones. I always feel, “What’s the worst that could happen?” If it is not a great cup, I just make another. Change something and try again. I have the time right now.

Cellar Door Coffee Roasters

I am always looking for coffee roasters around the United States. When I traveled a lot, I tried out new roasters based on some minimal research. Part of the fun was discovering something new. I moved my search online. Through some circuitous channels I found Cellar Door Coffee Roasters in Portland, OR. “Roasted, brewed and served with love.”

I bought two 12oz bags of whole beans: Mexico Chiapas Organic and Big Shot Blend. Big Shot lives up to its name. Its bold but packed full of flavor. The Mexico Chiapas is velvety smooth, nutty, and berry. I recommend either for your morning ritual. For pour over, I found that I had to go finer on the grind. My normal grind setting resulted in a fast and thin extraction. The finer grind allowed the brewing to slow down and extract more of the flavors.

What’s your favorite local coffee roaster? Let me know. I am always looking to try new ones out and support local businesses… online.