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Why I Made the "How We Did"
Productivity & Project Management App: Post-Development Reflections on Justice, Wisdom, Truth, & Peacemaking February 11, 2015 |
Hi.
Kris Freeberg here, Economist & owner of Making End$ Meet, a private Economics practice founded in 1996. I just made an app. It only took a few days to develop. It works both on computers and mobile devices. I call it "How We Did." It's for companies who retail time doing jobs and projects. It was inspired by the struggles and requests of some of my clients who needed something better than a conventional accounting system to manage their businesses. They needed something quick, simple, and easy that would give them & their teams immediate feedback about how their businesses were doing; something timely enough that they could see results while their memories of what they did to cause those results were still fresh. The process of creating it was engrossing and intense. Now that it's done, I feel as though I were coming up for air after swimming underwater or emerging from a cave. The creative process was a whirlwind of inspiration that has left me feeling a bit dazed and disoriented. To reorient myself, as I emerge from the cave of creativity, before I return to the daily grind, I feel the need to debrief. I have a few thoughts I'd like to share. Perhaps this is just for my own edification, to offload the myriad thoughts tumbling around in my head like clothes in a dryer, to tame my crazed monkey-brain and restore normal day-to-day functionality. I have a hunch, however, that this jumble of thoughts might be edifying to others, too. Let's see. I'd like to share what inspired the app and why it matters. Although it took only a few days to make once I found the right tool, (thanks to the rock-star database gods at Intuit), this app actually represents a combined total of seventy years of professional experience: thirty years of my own, and forty of the main client who asked me to help him solve a problem that, over the whole time, had frustrated him. It's amazing to me how, after decades of struggle, if we keep trying, solutions can suddenly come together or "click." For me, this has been one of those times. It doesn't happen very often. I think it's noteworthy. So for better or worse, here goes. Here's my attempt to make a worthy note about it. |
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The thoughts I have to share aren't just technical, geeky, or economic. They're about human struggle, justice, wisdom, Truth, and making peace.
As I wrote in the 2015 New Year message, last year I spent more time than I'd prefer vetting what turned out to be deceptions and scams. Elderly family members had become targets of predators; I had to take time out to react, help, investigate, and protect them. At the same time, I did some local business networking and was struck by how many people I met had gotten involved in "business opportunities" that turned out to be futile deceptions. It was perplexing and annoying.
Among the deceptions and scams I noticed, their common agenda was to devise a non-linear Income Function. Multi-Level Marketing ("MLM") or Network Marketing companies go for exponential growth. Venture capital backed online businesses go for recurring passive monthly revenue. Sellers of informational products want to monetize something they create once and can sell repeatedly with little or no linear production & delivery costs.
Despite the fact that it's the way the world usually works, it seems like nobody wants to earn a living the old-fashioned, linear, conventional way, by trading hours for dollars. What I've discovered is that because nobody really wants to earn a living that way, we've gotten really bad at it. We're not focused on doing it well. On the contrary, we see it not as a skill to master, but as a "trap" to escape. We chafe at it. We resent it.
Meanwhile, we still do it. Most of the time, like it or not, it's the way most legitimate businesses that are not scams, that do real work, delivering real results, operate. But in many cases, instead of appreciating it and tooling up to do it well, it seems to me that they're so busy resenting their income function's linear nature and yearning for a "better way." It seems to me that they're more focused on escaping it than appreciating and mastering it.
I write savings plans. I help people learn the income and assets necessary to afford the lives they want to live, and succeed. I help them define success in their own terms, and make it happen.
From this experience, I have learned that success for most people requires good, above-average incomes. They're not huge; they're just better than average. Average incomes only meet expenses. Above-average incomes are adequate both to meet expenses and save.
These findings are in stark contrast to the lofty incomes encouraged and promoted by non-linear schemes and scams. I find that for everyone whose plan I've ever written but one, the income necessary to afford success as they define it, when they take the time to sit down and clarify their goals, is entirely attainable in the usual, customary, linear way.
It is as though this fascination with non-linearity, this resentment of conventional work done in the conventional way, has become a sort of primrose path for many, many people. In our envy and ingratitude, we abandon the one way that works in pursuit of something that often doesn't.
Have we become more skilled at avoiding work than we are at doing it? Ouch.
As I wrote in the 2015 New Year message, last year I spent more time than I'd prefer vetting what turned out to be deceptions and scams. Elderly family members had become targets of predators; I had to take time out to react, help, investigate, and protect them. At the same time, I did some local business networking and was struck by how many people I met had gotten involved in "business opportunities" that turned out to be futile deceptions. It was perplexing and annoying.
Among the deceptions and scams I noticed, their common agenda was to devise a non-linear Income Function. Multi-Level Marketing ("MLM") or Network Marketing companies go for exponential growth. Venture capital backed online businesses go for recurring passive monthly revenue. Sellers of informational products want to monetize something they create once and can sell repeatedly with little or no linear production & delivery costs.
Despite the fact that it's the way the world usually works, it seems like nobody wants to earn a living the old-fashioned, linear, conventional way, by trading hours for dollars. What I've discovered is that because nobody really wants to earn a living that way, we've gotten really bad at it. We're not focused on doing it well. On the contrary, we see it not as a skill to master, but as a "trap" to escape. We chafe at it. We resent it.
Meanwhile, we still do it. Most of the time, like it or not, it's the way most legitimate businesses that are not scams, that do real work, delivering real results, operate. But in many cases, instead of appreciating it and tooling up to do it well, it seems to me that they're so busy resenting their income function's linear nature and yearning for a "better way." It seems to me that they're more focused on escaping it than appreciating and mastering it.
I write savings plans. I help people learn the income and assets necessary to afford the lives they want to live, and succeed. I help them define success in their own terms, and make it happen.
From this experience, I have learned that success for most people requires good, above-average incomes. They're not huge; they're just better than average. Average incomes only meet expenses. Above-average incomes are adequate both to meet expenses and save.
These findings are in stark contrast to the lofty incomes encouraged and promoted by non-linear schemes and scams. I find that for everyone whose plan I've ever written but one, the income necessary to afford success as they define it, when they take the time to sit down and clarify their goals, is entirely attainable in the usual, customary, linear way.
It is as though this fascination with non-linearity, this resentment of conventional work done in the conventional way, has become a sort of primrose path for many, many people. In our envy and ingratitude, we abandon the one way that works in pursuit of something that often doesn't.
Have we become more skilled at avoiding work than we are at doing it? Ouch.
So . . . futile deceptions & scams that exploit laziness . . . the opportunity costs of laziness and folly . . . that's one thing that's on my mind.
Another thing that is on my mind is how real work has historically been done: not so well. I suppose this is another reason why people explore options.
As I developed it, in the evenings to unwind, on Netflix I chanced across the History Channel's four-part series, "The Men Who Built America": Cornelius Vanderbuilt (shipping & railroads), Andrew Carnegie (steel), John Rockefeller (Oil), J. P. Morgan (banking & electricity), Thomas Edison (electricity), and Henry Ford (cars), among others.
One of the things that was striking to me about these men's achievements was that their income functions were entirely linear. Instead of resenting and trying to escape their linear income functions, they embraced them, worked with them, and mastered them.
Another thing that struck me was how hazardous these men's lives were. In many cases, their motives weren't healthy. For them it wasn't about affording goals or providing for their families . . . they were motivated by blind ambition, malice toward their competitors, guile, and sometimes fear.
To maximize profits (for no particular reason other than the vague notion that more is better), they abused their employees. Carnegie hired a thug to do his dirty work, the thug forced employees to work six twelve-hour days a week in hazardous steel mills, people died, and a kind of war ensued.
Toward the end of his life, looking back I suppose a lot of this saddened Carnegie and motivated him to make amends by giving most of his wealth to charity, founding libraries and so on.
I've benefited mightily from Carnegie's libraries. They're where I did the research that led to the formation of my practice. But I am sad that they're a sort of guilt offering, amends, or token restitution for Carnegie's earlier regrets. I'm sad for the people who were unnecessarily abused in the mills (as though abuse were ever necessary) and for the victims of the Johnstown Flood. I am sad for any employee who is underpaid because of an employer's blind ambition, greed, and delusion that more profits are always better.
And I am dismayed by what is ultimately done with these profits. Have you ever seen America's Castles? This is where a lot of the industrialists' wealth went - in tricking out their houses . . . another addition, another layer of gold, more exotic art, stairways and doors that lead nowhere . . . building something so big that nobody could afford to buy it, so it becomes a national park or monument . . . all on the backs of abused workers?
No wonder we have class conflict in our society. No wonder we're a divided house, the 99% and the 1% No wonder we have revolutions, protests, Occupy Movements, anarchists and nihilists, and so on. The linear income function works all right, but we haven't been working it very well at all. It seems to me that we either abuse it or avoid it.
Another thing that is on my mind is how real work has historically been done: not so well. I suppose this is another reason why people explore options.
As I developed it, in the evenings to unwind, on Netflix I chanced across the History Channel's four-part series, "The Men Who Built America": Cornelius Vanderbuilt (shipping & railroads), Andrew Carnegie (steel), John Rockefeller (Oil), J. P. Morgan (banking & electricity), Thomas Edison (electricity), and Henry Ford (cars), among others.
One of the things that was striking to me about these men's achievements was that their income functions were entirely linear. Instead of resenting and trying to escape their linear income functions, they embraced them, worked with them, and mastered them.
Another thing that struck me was how hazardous these men's lives were. In many cases, their motives weren't healthy. For them it wasn't about affording goals or providing for their families . . . they were motivated by blind ambition, malice toward their competitors, guile, and sometimes fear.
To maximize profits (for no particular reason other than the vague notion that more is better), they abused their employees. Carnegie hired a thug to do his dirty work, the thug forced employees to work six twelve-hour days a week in hazardous steel mills, people died, and a kind of war ensued.
Toward the end of his life, looking back I suppose a lot of this saddened Carnegie and motivated him to make amends by giving most of his wealth to charity, founding libraries and so on.
I've benefited mightily from Carnegie's libraries. They're where I did the research that led to the formation of my practice. But I am sad that they're a sort of guilt offering, amends, or token restitution for Carnegie's earlier regrets. I'm sad for the people who were unnecessarily abused in the mills (as though abuse were ever necessary) and for the victims of the Johnstown Flood. I am sad for any employee who is underpaid because of an employer's blind ambition, greed, and delusion that more profits are always better.
And I am dismayed by what is ultimately done with these profits. Have you ever seen America's Castles? This is where a lot of the industrialists' wealth went - in tricking out their houses . . . another addition, another layer of gold, more exotic art, stairways and doors that lead nowhere . . . building something so big that nobody could afford to buy it, so it becomes a national park or monument . . . all on the backs of abused workers?
No wonder we have class conflict in our society. No wonder we're a divided house, the 99% and the 1% No wonder we have revolutions, protests, Occupy Movements, anarchists and nihilists, and so on. The linear income function works all right, but we haven't been working it very well at all. It seems to me that we either abuse it or avoid it.
So here we are in 2015 and, much to my surprise, we're still not working with it very well. We have huge mega-businesses everybody loves to hate that seem to be doing the same things to their employees that the early industrialists did to theirs. We also have people entangling themselves in futile deceptions trying to escape it.
Isn't it about time we put a stop to this madness, and simply resolved to work well with what works?
Isn't it about time we figured out a way to thank employees for helping make our businesses profitable instead of abusing them?
Why have I only heard Contribution Margin mentioned in the academy?
Why has it been kept theoretical?
Why, over the course of three decades, have I never seen it mentioned or practiced in the marketplace?
Why, over the course of three decades, have I never seen it mentioned or built in to any business computer program or accounting system?
Shouldn't it be practiced, and used as a basis for thanking employees with bonuses and profit sharing?
Shouldn't it be used to motivate employees toward deeper engagement, enthusiasm, and interest in their jobs?
Shouldn't it be used to help them write their own paychecks?
Shouldn't it be used to end the fight between labor and management and help them work together?
Shouldn't it be used to relieve the madness, the irrational quest for wealth for its own sake, the ridiculous castles, the regrets like Carnegie's, the abused employees, the class conflict, the war?
Isn't life too short to tolerate such nonsense?
Shouldn't it be used to make peace?
I think so.
Can I get an Amen?
That's why I made the How We Did app.
What is a solution like this worth?
The more I ponder the deep historic issues at stake, the problems it can solve, the hazards it can prevent, the conflicts it can relieve, and the peace that it can make, in my own mind the number continues to grow.
In our negotiations about value, I hope you will consider the above, lay aside price concerns, and just get the app. I am firmly convinced that not using it will cost more than any price.
Please: just get it. Together, let's use it to help you thrive.
Thanks for reading.
Kind regards,
Kris Freeberg, Economist
Making End$ Meet
[email protected]
(360) 224-4322
Isn't it about time we put a stop to this madness, and simply resolved to work well with what works?
Isn't it about time we figured out a way to thank employees for helping make our businesses profitable instead of abusing them?
Why have I only heard Contribution Margin mentioned in the academy?
Why has it been kept theoretical?
Why, over the course of three decades, have I never seen it mentioned or practiced in the marketplace?
Why, over the course of three decades, have I never seen it mentioned or built in to any business computer program or accounting system?
Shouldn't it be practiced, and used as a basis for thanking employees with bonuses and profit sharing?
Shouldn't it be used to motivate employees toward deeper engagement, enthusiasm, and interest in their jobs?
Shouldn't it be used to help them write their own paychecks?
Shouldn't it be used to end the fight between labor and management and help them work together?
Shouldn't it be used to relieve the madness, the irrational quest for wealth for its own sake, the ridiculous castles, the regrets like Carnegie's, the abused employees, the class conflict, the war?
Isn't life too short to tolerate such nonsense?
Shouldn't it be used to make peace?
I think so.
Can I get an Amen?
That's why I made the How We Did app.
What is a solution like this worth?
The more I ponder the deep historic issues at stake, the problems it can solve, the hazards it can prevent, the conflicts it can relieve, and the peace that it can make, in my own mind the number continues to grow.
In our negotiations about value, I hope you will consider the above, lay aside price concerns, and just get the app. I am firmly convinced that not using it will cost more than any price.
Please: just get it. Together, let's use it to help you thrive.
Thanks for reading.
Kind regards,
Kris Freeberg, Economist
Making End$ Meet
[email protected]
(360) 224-4322
