Observe a little, learn a lot

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The fast-paced world you and I lived in has one unintended side effect – robbing you of your ability to stop and observe a little. Why? You are bombarded with a stream of information from so many different directions. You get a feeling that the “next thing” might be more interesting than the other. Since there is always that “next thing” right around the corner (may be in the next email, text or tweet available on your smartphone) you tend to skim through the current one.

Here are a few examples where you can observe a little and can learn a lot more

1. Waterproof iPhone cover

This is on the cover of SkyMall – something they thought as the best available item to be featured on the cover. How useful is this item really? Think about your own case? How many times have you dropped your phone in water or wanted to go for a swim keeping your iPhone close to your heart?

skymall-iphone-cover

If what’s featured on the cover is any indication, you can only guess the utility value of the remaining items within the catalog. It’s a good catalog for entertainment, though.

2. TSA Image Upgrade

You can see this notice in the wait line of many airports. The notice says that one out of four TSA agents are veterans.

tsa-veterans

What does this mean? Many things. On one end, this is an attempt by TSA to upgrade their image and on the other end it shows that options for veterans are very limited if one out of four TSA members have to join the TSA.

3. Even More by JetBlue

This is a pitch by JetBlue to upgrade to a select set of seats for a few more dollars. The reasons to upgrade:
a) more leg space
b) early boarding
c) priority access to overhead bins

jetblue-even-more

Think about it – if you board early, you WILL have priority access to overhead bins. So the third item is superfluous. Why did JetBlue choose to include that? Simply because there is not enough value to upgrade and they HAVE to find some fluff to add.

4. Dashboard fuel indicator

Senthil Nayagam from Rails Factory showed this to me first.

dashboard-fuel-indicator

It was always there and I never observed it. It is a fuel indicator that shows on which side of the car is your fuel tank located (at least in most cars). It’s a small arrow right next to the image of the fuel tank. It was there always but never looked it before.

What have you observed recently?