Radical Transparency

Joe de Grazia, my dad, makes his internet debut...



And, Paul Hughes, since I know you're reading this, I mean it 100% lovingly when I call you a mad raver.

Note the Grateful Dead logo on the cabinet between our heads.  Parker drew that baby when he was like 11.  I love it.  We feature Led Zeppelin and Phish art in this kitchen too.

And note Pops's last comment about thinning our own herds.  Yikes.  He's not really that crazy.  Just a rookie video blogger looking to make a name for himself.

Loading mentions Retweet

We're thinking about using The Carrot Project to push a small-scale linguistic revolution. 

We don't like the clunkiness of asking our users what they think a company could do to become more socially and environmentally responsible.  Too many words.  Too dry.  Too meaninglessly professional.  Too little metaphor.

So we're wondering if people might take to calling the most responsible, most worldchanging, most sustainable, most humane, most transparent, most innovative, greenest companies crunchy.  And we're wondering if we can facilitate that with constant links to a crunchiness explanation page.

I just took my first stab at an explanation. 

Imagine you see the word crunchy somewhere on the site.  You're confused, but never fear: it's hyperlinked.  And you click.  And you get this...

Carl told me he didn't like "socially and environmentally responsible."  He said it was long or boring or something. 

I mean I don't even believe in boring.

But he's my lead developer, and I love him, and, without him, I might die, so I kept my statistically outlying beliefs to myself and listened.

He said he wanted me to come up with a brilliantly unboring alternative.  A word that communicates all the loveliness of "socially and environmentally responsible" but gives it a little spice.  Spice and flavor and crunch.

And there it was.

Crunchy.  Like a hippie.  Or a carrot.

And I'm pretty sure I wasn't the one that said it.  I think it was Eric, who was on the three way conf call and giggling in the background at the ridiculousness of our earnestness.  Little did he know.

And so what if we wish we were hippie poet geeks.  I think that's a totally reasonable life aspiration.

Loading mentions Retweet

They've been battling forever.  Angry reactionaries versus smug radicals.

According to John Steinbeck's memory and imagination circa 1950, here's how the conflict played out in California in the 1910s:

The postmaster looked out from behind the bars of his golden grill.  "I see you've got one of those damn things," he said.

"Have to keep up with the times," said Adam.

"I predict there'll come a time when you can't find a horse, Mr. Trask."

"Maybe so."

"They'll change the face of the countryside.  They get their clatter into everything," the postmaster went on.  "We even feel it here.  Man used to come for his mail once a week.  Now he comes every day, sometimes twice a day.  He just can't wait for his damn catalogue.  Running around.  Always running around."  He was so violent in his dislike that Adam knew he hadn't bought a Ford yet.  It was a kind of jealousy coming out.  "I wouldn't have one around," the postmaster said, and this meant that his wife was at him to buy one.  It was the women who put the pressure on.  Social status was involved.

The postmaster angrily shuffled through the letters from the T box and tossed out a long envelope.  "Well, I'll see you in the hospital," he said viciously.

Loading mentions Retweet

Three possibilities:

A. The Rays are lucky.

2. They really are the best team in the AL right now. 

d. David Price is a baseball geek extraordinaire.  He truly knows how to win.  And he's going to be one of the greatest pitchers of all time.

Loading mentions Retweet