Planning to Fail

The project plan is the most pointless but required document any professional can write. Basically it's fortune telling, weather forecasting and prognostication all rolled up into one terribly illegible Gannt chart. Depending on how long the project runs, you have to note down to the exact date when somebody you don't know completes a task you haven't thought deeply about. It's like trying to hit an airplane mid-flight with a pea shooter in a hot air balloon.

And yet the plan is absolutely necessary, because us people tend to lose focus over a longer period of time. We forget stuff. Other things happen, that may be urgent and have to be accounted for. Planning is how we keep our feet grounded and our eyes on the prize.

Now people making the planning know they can never be 100 percent accurate, especially over a long period. There are several tactics to tackle this:

• add slack time
• descope

Either tactic is something that the people paying for the project won't like. In general people don't like to pay for somebody else's incompetence. Also people don't like to not get what they are promised.

So you have a clear tug of war here. On one side people who pay for projects, and therefore want an exact and actual planning up front. On the other, people who execute the projects, want to get paid, are only paid when they meet their planning, so the safe thing for them to do is to provide a vague, loosely coupled planning that maybe gets updated as time goes by.

Planning is hard. Planning isn't fair. It is an activity that invites discussion and controversy, and often not even about the actual contents.

Planning is pointless, and invariably absolutely necessary.

You Get What You Deserve

I firmly believe the group you are in, the way it behaves, is fully a result of the environment around it, the people within it with all their personalities and qualities. This goes for sports teams, office departments, voluntary organizations, families, governments and so on and so forth.

Actually I will go further: we get to be the way we are, the way we deserve to be. Observe: Our current government is apparently one that we deserve. We don't want, need or ask for a better one. Oh, we complain plenty, but really scoff at actually going another way. We don't revolt. We don't strike. When things really get down to it, we just move back to our homes and leave the working up to others "who have probably a little more time on their hands." In the end governments have to blow themselves up.

Sidebar: if your primary reaction to everything is to be on the defensive, if your secondary reaction is to rigidly stick to rules, if you see everyone else as lazy, hostile and incompetent, people will behave towards you accordingly. In the end you have a group of people that no one really wants to be a part of. The way you think about the outsiders, is the way you apparently deserve to be thought of as well.

It Is Inevitable

Games like Singstar, Guitar Hero, Rock Band gave us karaoke in the home, as well as air guitar and air drumming, but with props. And actual feedback if you are sucking badly.

Now the market is a tad saturated with music games. I mean, there's only a limited number of gameplay variations you can do (it's just hitting buttons in the correct order and with exact timing), and everything else is just content. And not everyone is going to buy a new plastic guitar the latest Guitar Hero Boyzone comes out...

But it is inevitable that a new wave of music games will invigorate the market once more. And it will be fueled by Project Natal.

Think "So You Think You Can Dance" in front of your own television. Let the Natal controller find out how close you can match the indicated dance routines. Upload your performances immediately to Youtube for fan feedback. See furniture sales soar to replace all the broken ones that you couldn't avoid while making that one high-speed turn.

It could be called Hip Hop Hero (yes you heard it here first). And at least Simon Cowell or Paula Abdul won't be around to hurt your feelings (though you do and horribly deserve it).

In fact, I fully expect this to become an April Fools game in few weeks time.

How to judge a man's decision making capability

Some people obviously have problems with devices that have buttons. Cameras, phones, computers, remotes, that sort of thing.

Buttons represent choices to make, and that's scary to them. Those are the people who can't make a decision.

So if you want to test someone's ability to make decisions, put them in front of an expensive coffee machine, and don't tell them how it works. Let them find out.

If nothing else, the easiest and shortest job interview you can have.

Everybody Loves A Winner

Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints on winning Super Bowl XLIV. Indianapolis was heavily favored, but ultimately lost out to a team that the rest of America wanted to win. Apart from the blowjob the media gave to Peyton Manning (how great he is, four-time MVP, record holder, blah, blah, blah...) every single pre-game story was about the city of New Orleans, the inhabitants, the longtime fans, the franchise, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina etcetera, etcetera... And of course against the Colts any team is an underdog, giving the neutral onlooker someone clear and justified to cheer for. New Orleans craved the championship more than Indy, needed it more than Indy...

And yet it was so blatant that America wanted the Saints to win, it was almost unfair to the Colts. The key was the challenge at the two-point conversion. It was clear Sean Payton had to go for two and throw the challenge flag, even my Dutch colleagues could see that. The call could have gone either way, though. It wasn't clear that the player had possession all the time, and whether he was across the goal line when he had possession... even commentators Theismann and Papa made clear reference that the conversion failed. And if it had, the score would have been 22-17, putting the game on edge, and giving the Colts a little more rope to pull themselves up with.

In the end even the officials decided in their own way that the world would be a better place with New Orleans as Super Bowl Champion. So the call was made, the Saints had a 7-point lead, and the Colts were stuck in a rut, knowing they could only reliably tie the game. And when Manning surrendered by throwing a pick-six, it was all over.

Are the Saints the justified and deserved winner of the game? Yes. They kept pace with Indianapolis and pulled some gutsy moves (on-side kick) to get to the position they were in. But they did have support and sympathy in all the right places.

HHG: Super Bowl XLIV prediction

The Head says: Colts win. For the entire season the only team that has looked impenetrable and unbeatable was Indianapolis. In fact they pulled some of their starters even just to give the other teams in the league a fair shot (and a pair of wins). Of course it does show the drop off in quality when the likes of Manning and Freeney don't play.

Peyton Manning... now that guy just pisses me off. Seemingly effortlessly beating every record and stat in the book. Winning with future Hall of Famers and rookies. Winning with nary a running game. It all doesn't matter. It's almost unfair how good this guy can play the game.

The Heart says: Saints win. It's the better story if the New Orleans Saints win the Super Bowl. The city needs it, craves it more than Indianapolis does. Of course we will all point to the lows of the disaster that struck New Orleans, and hope that a title win will bring a shine to the city's recovery.

Plus, there's still the chance that we're going to get tabloid heaven when Reggie Bush and Kim Kardashian play cat-and-mouse whether or not they will get married after a Saints win.

The Gut says: Indianapolis Colts win. I fully expect that the Colts ride the coat tails of Peyton Manning all the way to their second title in four years. His stats are this good for a reason, and apparently it doesn't matter if he's playing with legends of the game or undergrad college students. I'm hoping for a shoot-out with Drew Brees though, but I think Indy's defense is a little more solid than New Orleans' - even if Dwight Freeney ends up not playing.