JT Pedersen » General

4 Ways iBooks is One of iPad’s Best Apps

JT — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:23:54 +0000

Really, I think it is. Normally you hear people talk about ‘best apps’ in the vein of ‘other than those that came with the device.’ It’s as if, because Apple created them the apps are automatically disqualified from consideration.

For those of you having followed me a while, you know I do a fair number of book reviews. In the interest of continual self-improvement I am constantly reading new books. Shortly after I finish each (business) book I generally post a review. After all, why not share?

Some have commented that my reviews are almost always on the plus-side of neutral. That’s my parents’ fault. I don’t always succeed, but in general, if I have nothing good to say, I try not to say it. And so it is with my book reviews. I think I’ve only done one, practically speaking, negative review of a book.

My technique for doing book reviews looks something like this:

Read the book through, cover to cover.
Take notes, underline key text, jot down key segments (in the book or on separate paper)
After first (occasionally second) reading:
- Review Table of Contents
- Review notes
- Flip pages to capture key ideas highlighted.
Write the review
Find some cover art or suitable imagery

Generally I’m doing this every 3-4 weeks. You’ll note a lag sometimes; I do enjoy a good novel from time-to-time…

iBooks on the Apple iPad makes the entire process paperless!

Consider it a necessary evil, collating my notes is the least productive part of writing a review. Not to overblow the issue, but making sure you’ve got all your notes, flipping pages, and putting it together could be easier. Even with my first ereader, the process wasn’t that much different. It didn’t let me do anything more than create generic bookmarks.

Bookmarks

Bookmarks are easily created while reading. Just touch the upper corner to toggle placement of your bookmarks. Think of this working very much like folding the corner of your book. As you create your bookmarks, the TOC|Bookmarks section is populated with your bookmarks. Not only is the page section annotated (the current Header section), but the date the bookmark was created is also displayed.

I like the bookmark creation date being captured. There are times where knowing the date can help you recall other events that day that set the context for why you might have created a given bookmark. In some cases, its because the spot in the book dovetailed with a current event.

As with the traditional TOC page, click the bookmark, jump to the section. Still, seems trivial, but if you’ve been writing down page notes and thumbing to the pages in the book again, this little self-organized time saver is really appreciated.

Now, here is my favorite part.

Highlighting

Used to be, I treated books as pristine things never to be abused. I prided myself on reading paperbacks without ever creasing the binding. (Don’t ask why, I just did) This also meant never writing in a book.

Well, somewhere along the way that went by the wayside. Now, I feel free to use my mechanical pencil (preferably) to underline, call out, or otherwise annotate key passages as I go along.

While useful, it still requires you keep a separate index of notes on paper and go back to them. Or, thumb through the book, hoping not to miss any of significance.

With iBooks, as you read, you can directly highlight passages of interest. Simply select the passage of interest (as you would for cut/copy/paste in iPad/iPhone). You are then given the option (among other things) to highlight the text.

When highlighting, you can also choose from 5 different colors. Or, you can choose to underline. I like to use the different colors to color code my highlights: General note, Important, Action Item. Action items are often things like calling out other books I’d like to read that the author mentioned.

As I read, my collection of highlighted passages grows quickly. As each is created, they too, just like Bookmarks, are added to the Notes TOC automatically. One unexpected feature, even though I may highlight a sentence fragment, only that fragment is highlighted in the TOC, but the entire sentence is still displayed for context. Cool!

Notes – The 4th Dimension

If you weren’t already pleased with the preceding, you’ll really like Notes. When you go to highlight a passage, the same popup menu also gives you the chance to create a note.

Exactly like a Post-It™ or say a Sticky Note in Windows, you can go ahead and add your textual annotations.

When you’re done creating the note, the note window closes, and a simply Post-It™ like icon is placed in the margin. Tap it to open the note again.

The notes are then associated with the highlighted text in the Notes TOC.

Here, rather than an icon, you get the actual note text displayed immediately under the highlighted passage.

Tip: Don’t want a highlight/note any more, just do a Swipe|Delete in the TOC and it’s gone.

For me, iBooks really streamlines the process of collating notes, highlights, and bookmarks for later reference. If you have an iPad and haven’t tried using it to read books yet, or, you haven’t experimented with highlighting and notes, you really should.

Bonus Items

What I’ve described above, on the iPad, works on the iPhone as well. Here are three bonus items:

When your iOS devices sync, they update your place in the current book you’re reading, as well as all TOC entries (notes, bookmarks, highlights).

On iPhone, you only get one color (yellow) for creating highlights. The multi-color notes from your iPad efforts are preserved.

Finally, on both devices, there is a Night theme. If you like to read in bed, your partner will appreciate the fact you can dim the 40 watt light bulb in your hands.

Elegantly implemented, simple to use, iBooks is more than ‘just a reader’ application. In the right hands, it is a tool you can leverage to really make life easier.

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The Making of Squishy History

JT — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:23:23 +0000

As we move forward, history’s solidity will become increasingly squishy.

As digital books become increasingly popular, so does awareness that a medium we once considered immutable, no longer is.

Nicholas Carr penned an article for the Wall Street Journal, “Books That Are Never Done Being Written.” He highlighted how, having published his own book on Amazon, he decided a tweak was needed, and how easily he did it. No one but Amazon’s database and he knew that the book had changed.

The article points out, “Digital text is ushering in an era of perpetual revision and updating, for better and for worse.”

I agree, for better and for worse. My personal, primary concern with after-the-fact book updates is the potential for revisionist history. The potential has always existed but remained largely muted because its hard to overcome a million hardcopy books once in circulation.

Now, with the flick of the wrist, or tap of a button, entire paragraphs can be deleted, replaced, or flavorized. And you might not know it. The ability falls right into the hands of people like Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. What about your government?

There are certainly cases where book (i.e. ‘content’) updates are not only reasonable, they’re desired. Encyclopedias, research studies, technical journals, and other reference sources are simple examples. Course textbooks are a popular example.

However, updates to ‘history,’ revisionist history if you will, are cases demanding special consideration. We will fight this battle interminably. What we consider yesterday’s editorial piece, or today’s research study, is tomorrow’s history.

My strong view is that revision updates should be an opt-in scenario for the content’s purchaser. Update notifications should be mandatory, with an option to override. Fortunately we need not reinvent the wheel. Updating user-side content (e.g. something you downloaded) is no different than software. The software industry already has well-established best practices.

Clearly different types of content warrant updating over time. It may even be eagerly sought after. However in some cases, it is important that we reserve the ability to just say No to updates, enabling us to preserve original flavor, intent, and focus. Otherwise, we need to learn to live with squishy history.

Share your own thoughts. How do you feel about this? Is it a valid concern or no, or do you care?

image credits: We Can… Mike Licht, See…Holger Selover-Stephan

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Happy New Year!

JT — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 01:56:00 +0000

I’m tickled to have all of you with me as we venture into this new year. Thank you, to each of you, my readers and subscribers, for having been with me in 2011.

You have probably already noticed, JTPEDERSEN.NET’s seen significant change over the past week or so. It was time. Nearly 3 years since the last major refresh, it seems almost everything continued to evolve.

Most of you won’t be interested in gory details, so I’ll keep it light. The prior theme had issues. It served its purpose but, using an older architecture, it just couldn’t keep up with all the changes going on around it. Now, I’m using a new platform (Genesis Platform) that will let me keep infrastructure and cosmetic layers separate, allowing continual updates moving forward.

And, since I didn’t have enough fun for last week, this week, jtpedersen.net also moved to a new ISP.

If you have an opinion on the new site (looks, functionality, whatever), please leave a comment.

Over time, I have evolved through three different email subscription services. I plan to consolidate on just one for a while. For the next couple weeks I will be evaluating Feedburner. If you want to try it out with me, go ahead. Use the new Email Newsletter sign-up widget to the right. Let me know what you think.

If you are receiving my posts by email, via AWeber, I anticipate migrating you to the new service. More on this later. Just know I’ll do the heavy lifting for you.

So, now its time to get on with the Show! I’m eager to get back to writing, sharing my thoughts with you. New posts, on their way real soon.

Thanks!

JT…

(image credit: mokra)

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Social Media & Product Management (Pt. 4)

JT — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 18:47:37 +0000

(Part 1, 2, 3, 4 See also, supplement)

Continuing the discussion of employing social media as a component of the product management toolset…

Advertising

Product management is a role defined differently by almost every company. Product management tends to focus on the holistic view of a product: lifecycle, customer expectations, feature specifications, roadmaps, and so on. Product marketing tends to look at messaging, advertising, and promotion. Crude, but sufficient for our purposes.

In the context of product management it may seem strange then to discuss the advertising aspects of social media. After all, if you’re thinking about what features you’re going to put into your product or service, ‘advertising’ seems premature. Right?

Despite what zealots may profess, even now most people do not fully understand social media, tending to simply lump ‘social media’ offerings together without distinction. That is perhaps no more true than for product management professionals. Consider the 2009-2010 Pragmatic Marketing Survey, that asked: Do you use social media to listen to the market? 62% of respondents said No. Only 27% use social media personally and another 11% ‘as an individual or as the company.’

What Are the Options?

There are a number of online advertisers available. You are likely familiar with Google AdWords. Perhaps less familiar are relatively new offerings such as LinkedIn Ads, and Facebook Ads. The latter two are relatively new and growing in popularity.

Even though there is similar functionality (e.g. you can loosely, or tightly narrow your ad’s visibility), each has a distinctly different audience. Google AdWords lets you reach the largest audience. LinkedIn and Facebook focus on business professionals or social interests respectively. If your focus is a B2B customer, you may wish to leverage AdWords. If your focus are church youth program administrators, you will prefer Facebook.

Here is why considering social media advertising, as part of product management can be important:

AdWords is actually a cheap and highly reliable wind tunnel you can rent by the click to discover and validate your market… (Howie Jacobson, HBR Blog Network)

I am really happy I discovered Howie’s article because its well worth reading (link). he points out that most people simply think of site like AdWords (LinkedIn Ads, Facebook Ads, etc.) as, “…a [way] to generate leads and sales from online searchers.”

Some practical examples to show how ‘running an ad’ can be used to improve (your) product or service.

Book Title Selection (via Howie)
Timothy Ferriss and his publisher wanted to find a title for his upcoming book. They used AdWords to test several titles. Search feedback provided feedback they had not anticipated.
New Features, Pricing
When considering development of new features, one of the hardest things to determine is market pricing and acceptance. These are typically key components of any Market Requirements Document (MRD) or related ROI justification. Running a ‘micro’ advertisement gives you the ability to test the market.Run multiple tests. What price points capture the most attention? Which product feature packages gain the best reception? Best part: applies to online and ‘off’line products—anything people may search for.
Alternative Focus Groups
Tightly target advertisements to specific customers. I really like Alec Brownstein’s approach. Looking for work, he ran an AdWords campaign specifically targeting individual people he wanted to engage. Cost of his campaign, $6. Might you have a person, or group, that you’d like to query…for $10. What could you do with $100?

Between the Lines

A key product management skill is the ability to read between the lines. To see trends, connections, needs, and desires, where others have not. And then, you need to test your findings.

Consider this a unique opportunity to be innovative in your role as product manager. Who says the marketing folks are the only ones that can expense their AdWords efforts?

Image credit: Dominik Dwarek

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Social Media & Product Management (Pt. 3)

JT — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 23:33:29 +0000

(Part 1, 2, 3, 4 See also, supplement)

Continuing the discussion of employing social media as a component of the product management toolset…

Media

For fear of being long-winded, I had chosen to skim the top regarding Media. In hindsight, I’ve decided to step back a moment and expand on my comments in Part 2.

Yes, Media is the multi-faceted mechanism enabling interaction between participants. However, from the content creator’s perspective one might look at it this way:

Networking
Aggregators & Curators
Outposts/Websites

Networking…
or relationship building, is perhaps the ‘meat and potatoes’ of social media. All of it, ultimately boils down to two or more parties wanting to form a relationship with one another. In some cases, as in the case of companies, it can take the form of an individual giving a ‘face’ to the company they work for.

For instance, Ford Motor Company has received numerous kudos for its successful social media efforts. The person most singularly responsible is Ford’s won Scott Monty. Scott tweets, uses Google+, and other venues to build relationships with Ford’s customers.

Robert Scoble did much the same for Microsoft. As an evangelist working at Microsoft from 2003-2006, he regularly interacted with customers. They did well for each other. His relationship with Microsoft certainly gave me a credible platform to lean against. Yet, most importantly, by lending his ‘face’ to Microsoft, he lent a touch of humanity to a company frequently thought of as big, ugly, arrogant, and heartless. And his followers loved him for it.

Perhaps the best example, is @ComcastCares. Frank Eliason was Comcast’s Director of Digital Care. He came up with the idea to create the Twitter personality, ComcastCares. Customers could tweet their problems and ComcastCares quickly, actively, dove into solving their problem. I’ve interacted with @ComcastCares and can tell you it’s better than the 800#.

In each example, a single person built powerful relationships—with millions of others—through social media.

Aggregators & Curators…
are platforms letting consumers easily share their social networking experiences and discoveries. Stumbleupon is a perfect example. You can tell the service what things you find of interest, and it will make recommendations for you. These recommendations are found by people, like you, that ‘stumble upon’ things of interest, and tag them.

Another very good example of an aggregator, is Alltop. Think of Alltop as your very own newspaper. Alltop provides a broad range of categories populated with content from sites around the world. You can simply view their most popular stories for each segment. Or, you can build your own front page, or MyAlltop, by selecting those news sources you have found of interest.

A key benefit of these aggregators, or curators, is that they help consolidate the seemingly infinite amount of content on the internet. Further, they help sift the wheat from the chaff as it were, helping good content rise to the top. Much easier than wading through reams of search results, no one link better than the next.

Outposts & Websites

If you’re actively using social media, it is almost a certainty that you use more than one service. For instance, you may maintain a blog, promote your products via your website, tweet to those interested in what you offer, have friends on facebook, and be exploring Google+. (Note, I am only using the big, recognizable names. There are thousands of lesser-known, niche-oriented offerings.) Each of these can be thought of as ‘outposts.’

What is key in your social media efforts, is that you have—however simplistically—a basic strategy in mind. You need to have a primary outpost to which all your other ‘satellite’ outposts point back to. For instance, if you have a blog, it should take zero effort for a reader to get to you primary product site, if that’s what it is. If you use Twitter, your profile and comments should point toward your primary outpost.

Each outpost serves a specific function. You can use your blog to express the day’s thoughts; as product manager, what new directions is the team thinking of? You can use Twitter to call attention to your blog; Hey, Everybody: My day’s new thoughts are posted! You can develop very visible discussion using Google+, facebook, or even LinkedIn.

Chris Brogan is one of the world’s foremost bloggers and social media evangelists. His focus: Helping People. He’s written a good article, "What’s Your Communication and Media Plan?" offering yet another take for you.

image credit: Ayhan Yildiz

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5 Basics Business Hotels Still Need to Master

JT — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 17:45:09 +0000

Been traveling some…and find there’re still some basics that business hotels need to improve on. I’m sure you have your ‘favorites’ as well.

So here are ‘my’ 5 Basics Hotels Still Need to Master

Easy check-in
Available room service
Quick check-out
WiFi
Decent restaurant for breakfast meetings

Check-In:
Since many hotels are franchises, service varies even amongst well-known brands. At the end of the day, tired, having traveled, and often very late in the day, it’s not uncommon for me to wander in zombie-like. In this case, I want no-hassle, no grief, check-in then and straight to my room. I’m still befuddled at how (at 11:48p, I’m too tired to be amazed) I can be the only person checking in, and still have it be a :20 process sometimes.

Check-Out:
Is often even more important. There’s nothing like wrapping up a conference call (or what-have-you), rapidly closing up travel bags, and heading for the exit in timely fashion. Only to find a line of people also rushing to check out. Gridlock at the exit. Yes, all business travelers seem to want to empty the hotel between 7:30 and 8:30a. It’s not a surprise. So it should be planned for by hotel staff.

WiFi:
WiFi simply needs to be there, and work without grief. Even today, at least a decade after hotels started rolling it out broadly, I too-frequently have to call the service’s 800#, have my bandwidth dialed up, or the front-desk to do something. It’s like the lights now, it simply is expected to work. You don’t call to have your room’s lighting wattage dialed up, do you?

Restaurants:
Yes, its a function of picking the right hotel. You don’t go to Super-8s looking for a cloth sit-down breakfast setting. But it is interesting to go to a ‘major brand’ hotel, and find the restaurant is sub-par. Classics are one person serving 8 tables, dirty, or my favorite: used to be a full-service restaurant, only now it’s become a ‘continental breakfast.’ Not only dissatisfying, it doesn’t look good if you’ve arranged for others to meet you there as well.

Yes, these are things you learn to deal with…pre-planning as the need may dictate…but these are still some of my ‘core’ issues when traveling.

Yours?

(photo credit: Gabriella Fabbri)

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Why So Negative? Can’t You Be Positive?

JT — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 21:28:16 +0000

This morning I gave a presentation related to product management. I enjoy giving this particular presentation as we explore topics like: product roadmaps; business plan; target markets, and managing scope (feature creep).

In discussing target markets, and knowing your customer, I use one slide in which I suggest they ask their customers, “What keeps you up at night?”

One of the reasons to ask this questions, is to help you (or your customer) really focus on the core issue(s). In general, the person you’re meeting with likely has 2, 3, maybe 4 items rolling around their head in the middle of the night.

Yes, it can feel like 64,000 things tearing at you around 3:32am, but likely boils down to just a couple core items.

One of the participants asked me a question. Paraphrasing, should put it something like this, “Everything you’re suggesting seems negative. What are their fears? What keeps them awake? Why can’t it be a positive?”

I had to pause for a moment. Why, indeed?

My response was (is) basically this: The reason there is value in your service or product offering, is that you are solving some sort of pain, inconvenience, or ‘problem,’ for the other party. If you’re a carpet cleaner, you’re called in to clean carpet the week before Thanksgiving (US Holiday), because that big spot is annoying. Or perhaps it’s going to be embarrassing when guests arrive. They’ve called you to solve their problem.

If they have no problems, they have no need of you.

FUD, Fear Uncertainty & Doubt, are perhaps the biggest marketing and sales tools ever invented. It’s hard to find an advertisement that doesn’t pull on one of those three, if not all three together. Consider some real common advertisements we encounter every day:

Financial Planning – Will you exhaust your savings during retirement?
Computing—Is there a virus on your computer? Will you survive is your hard drive dies?
Traveling—Are you using the right travelers’ cheques? What will you do if your passport’s lost?
Insurance—Are you prepared, in case of Mayhem? (love those ads)
Shock Absorbers—Can you stop your car in time?

Ok, so those are ads. But the crux of the issue remains, you’re calling upon someone, because as the customer you have a problem.

So, might there be ‘positives’ you’re trying to provide a solution for?

Afterward, I spent some time on the drive back really thinking about it. There was one possible solution that came to mind: travel/tourism. This is a finely balanced item. Many people go on vacation to escape work (the problem). Yet, many retirees simply travel because they can and want to. Other than possibly boredom, they’re not necessarily looking to escape.

There are also cases where individuals want to simply further themselves. As a motorcyclist, I seek out courses to improve my riding skills. Perhaps I want to go around the track faster; sweep through curves more smoothly; or, just not fall off. Are these ‘problems’ I seek out solutions for, in order to proactively avoid a negative (a crash)?

This question really can fuel some discussion. I’m very interested in your thoughts. Please share. Are there non-problems for which people seek solutions? If life is grand, problem-free, how do you sell someone something?

Thoughts?

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Surprised? Charging Stations Outpace Their Cars

JT — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:30:28 +0000

I’ve been attending Alternative Energy meetings, forums, and briefings for a couple years now. I also evaluate a number of business plans, such as for Ann Arbor SPARK’s Accelerate>>Michigan competition.

I’ve continued to shake my head over how many companies are building (or preparing to build) charging stations for PEVs (plug-in electric vehicles). One forecast selling >60,000 charging stations to municipalities within 3 years. That’s just one company.

And, GM plans building 45,000 of the units in ’12.

So it came as no surprise to read this article in today’s WSJ: Charging Stations Multiply But Electric Cars Are Few.

No surprise. As with all the green energy programs I’ve looked at thus far, they can only be ‘economically’ viable with the existence of massive government subsidy. Green seems to be defined by the color of (our) money more than anything else.

Some might wonder if I’m painting with an overly broad brush when I say ‘all.’ The answer, Nope. Here are just some of the ‘green’ programs I’ve looked at in the last 18-24 months, none of which are economically feasible (for business or the consumer) without dramatic government subsidy (e.g. some as high as 30% of overall costs):

Wind
Residential building retrofitting
Commercial building retrofitting
Plug-in Electric Vehicles
PEV charging stations
Solar
Ethanol
Home charging stations
Biomass

And, the list is just what I’ve attended presentations on. It is far from exhaustive yet begins to hint at the large amounts of taxpayers money the government is using; using to drive us toward something we do not yet want.

I do seriously commend the many individuals working hard to compete in each of these areas. Unfortunately they’re also in industries that cannot exist without being propped up by the government.

So, in the end, what is my take on this? There are, very, select cases where government backing is necessary until mass market is able to carry the ball on its own. However, what we are seeing under the current administration is akin to throwing spaghetti at the wall—and seeing what sticks.

This is not a case of government taking decisive action and moving the nation forward. This is a case of a lot of money being freely dispensed under popular guise (e.g. ‘green energy,’ ‘renewable energy,’ ‘alternative…’); without any clear plan; without any clear expectations for outcome’ and, without notable accountability.

Further, given the lack of professional objective journalistic (i.e. media) review, one might wonder at that industry’s own complicity. Most of what we hear about ‘green’ is exceptionally positive. It takes only a short peek under the covers to realize the greenest thing about green energy, is the greenback supporting it.

(photo credit: Petr Kovar)

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T. Boone Pickens at the DEC

JT — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 01:06:09 +0000

Went to lunch at the Detroit Economic Club today. T. Boone Pickens was the guest speaker. My prior impressions of him were media driven; hadn’t had a desire to specifically go learn more about this ‘celebrity.’ This was a good chance to go see, first hand, what he was all about.

At 83 years old, he’s sharp, engaging, charismatic, and to the point. He’s very pro-American and unapologetic for it. One of his comments was, paraphrasing, "I’m for anything American. I hate OPEC." Another to-the-point comment, not a precise quote, "If we don’t start using our own energy, history will show we’re the dumbest crowd to ever come to town."

I was pleasantly surprised. He builds his case for America’s OPEC-independence, providing good examples, and based on first-hand knowledge. For instance, he’s been to Anwar and said, "…there’s a lot of ‘nothing’ there." He’s been to the White House, met with congressional members, members of the media, and invested time in promoting his beliefs.

Speaking of dedication, commitment, and focus: He’s spent $82,000,000 of his own money to drive awareness and promote adoption of natural gas. To be honest, the reasons to do so are reasonably compelling; certainly more than any other alternative solution for transportation-based consumption.

At the end, he’s pro-domestic energy consumption. Anything that gets the US away from OPEC dependence is a major positive in his eyes.

He was also perhaps only the second speaker at DEC I’ve seen get a standing ovation when he was done.

(on being asked about baseball, he had plenty to say, including support for the Texas Rangers. However he hasn’t been to a game in years…he said, “…too long, at my age (83)…” everyone enjoyed that one.)

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The Problem With the Truth

JT — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 11:51:00 +0000

The problem with the Truth is that it can change.

Not too long ago, a few of us were in a spirited discussion about Truth and Facts; the two sometimes used interchangeably or synonymously.

One group took the position that Truth was an absolute. Unchanging, unyielding, definitive, and unquestionable. If something is true, there is ‘nothing more (about that item) to be said. Quite often, we encounter this perspective in the work place. Some things are perceived as True, unquestioned, and gain strength with the passage of time.

From the opposing perspective, I argued the Truth is based on perception of ‘known facts’ at a given point in time. Of course, in a world where the sands continually swirl around us, and most seek stability wherever they can find it, accepting that the Truth is something less than solid is a very hard sale.

Yes, Truth is a perception. Consider how many ‘guilty’ criminals continue to be set free, because a new fact (e.g. DNA) comes to light that irrefutably change what had been thought of as true. For a millennia, we knew it to be true: the world is flat. Then some silly guy (no, not Thomas Friedman) came along and proved it was round. We even knew the universe revolved around us, until some other silly person refuted that truth.

After life in the U.S. Navy, I was accustomed to seeing life as absolutes. Things were black or white, true or false, yes Ma’am, no Ma’am. A few years later allowed that I could finally perceive the world, if not yet ‘in color,’ then at least in 256 shade grey scale.

Today, I can see color (perhaps not ‘True Color’), yet work to remember that ‘my’ definition of color may not map directly against yours. After all, we know a ‘red’ cup can easily be cast as ‘black’, depending on the light in which you view it.

Truth is a perception. It’s based on what we know at a point in time. Accept that new ideas, new realities, may make it necessary to change how you perceive a given truth.

(Image credit: Wikipedia Commons)