How NOT to work in teams

This is a continuation of the previous post How to work in teams and I will give you some good examples of bad teamwork. Let's say that you already have a team, you formed it by yourself, you were taken as a team member or you just landed there. In university projects as in real life sometime you have to form a team or join a team knowing just a little about your team members. Many teams are build on skills or "politics", politics meaning personal likes or dislikes, or even worse just because they are the only ones who invited you to join, you don't really like them but whatever.

How to work in teams

During my 12 years of experience with teams and working in teams I have worked in many teams, good and bad. There are many theories, some are good just on paper some are good in practice, but each team is unique as its members and what works with one team fails with other. Each team member has a different personality, different aims, different views and different traits. If someone tells you that he will teach you how to have a perfect team and no conflicts is like telling you he will sell you a pink unicorn who poops rainbows.

Targeted advertising - evil surveillance or marketing tool?

Have you ever looked after a product on Amazon and later you see an ad for that product on your Facebook? Or searched online after some things and later you see those things again and again in form of advertising everywhere you go? Well that's targeted advertising, at least a form of it.

Targeted advertising comes in many flavors, some subtle, some annoying and some more obtrusive. I wouldn't go into the direction of conspiracy theory, even if this is the easiest way and the internet is full of that, but I would go more on an analytic view or approach.

(Media) Studies are teaching you just to solve first world luxury problems

I had studied civil engineering so I am a sort of engineer and afterwards I studied Interactive Digital Media followed by a Master in the same field.
During my many years of study I always wondered why we learn only things that solve luxury problems for the first world. Ok, maybe with civil engineering is not the case since you can build houses for the poor and infrastructure, even if in real life they build them by themselves since they can't afford to pay a company, so in the end even with engineering you still solve only rich people problems.

With Media studies is a different world. Since I made my studies at a university of applied sciences the whole study was focused on practice, each subject we studied had also a project attached. This is very well, nothing to complain, nothing is better than hands-on practical stuff. Now comes the part that makes me worry for all those years all the projects I have seen (from my semester, higher semesters and lower semesters) were only useless "first world rich hipster problem solvers".
Don't get me wrong, I didn't want to see save Bigfoot projects, or rain forest or other extreme social stuff. It is not my kind to believe that helping poor african kids by giving them a fish will solve their problem as long as you don't teach them to fish and as long as you interfere with their politics just to keep the money rolling into your NGO.
The thing that scares me is that my colleagues are the ones that will be at one point decision makers, trend setters and will flood the market with this kind of things. All the project I have seen or concepts are futuristic but in a wrong way, in the way that will break your contact with real world and immerse you in the digital world by purchasing gadgets, apps and useless luxury products just for fun or to be cool. I mean ... ambient intelligence for pubs and hotels, augmented reality sport apps, smart fridge, smart kitchen, intelligent car, smart dirty clothes bin, free parking places app, indoor navigation and the list can continue ... but can't we really live without them? Do I need a navigation device for shopping mall? Do I need my fridge to send me email that I need to buy milk? I can see with my own eyes! They are nice to have for fun gadgets but are not necessary, are luxury products that will help out world to become dumb and dependent on electronics.

I contributed at this thing too, was not my thing but you go with the flow, you don't want to be the biggest freak in the class. But all stopped at ambient intelligence where we wanted to combine nature with electronics and we used "real" water and was a big disappointment for everyone that our team didn't made it with digital water, it would have been cool. For my bachelor degree I was the only one to do something useless - a documentary for bikers with bikers. The other were only with augmented reality, intelligent play rooms, virtual reality games, smart elevator full with targeted advertising. This is what is expected to do, to serve the trendsetters, to dream Google glass integration, to dream virtual reality, all for the sake of money.

Why is wrong? You know you learn a lot of things from micro controllers to smartphone apps and you choose to create only things for rich people. Ok, you can't stop poverty or hunger but at least you can try to make more useful things than an app to help revolutions and riots, or a device to help you relax after one day of work that requires a separate room or at least half of it (you can relax at a lake with a book in hands).
A device maybe is never a solution for a poor man but can be for a person in need, for old people, for sick people, for blind people or for deaf people. I don't need a device to tell me how is the weather outside when I get out of bed since I have eyes to look outside and I can see if is sunny or is raining, a blind man for sure will need to know how is outside since the eyes are not helping. But which is the percentage of blind people? How many of them you can target? Maybe 5% of them? As business this is not wise, because if you can target 5% of the world you are rich, if you target 5% of the blind people you need a job.

The studies are preparing you to enter in the business world, to help big companies to go forward and earn more money ... so how can you do this if you are not learned from school to make things only for the rich, useless luxury products. Why they don't teach you about Tesla and to make you curious how to get free energy, or simple basic chemistry to make your own soap and own perfume and detergent? Because you need to produce money. And now if you say "oh, good that I studied social sciences and I help people" let me tell you that you are like me, you help people to remain in the system so you can have a job tomorrow. Social or not social studies are all making the same thing creating jobs and maintaining them by keeping other people dependent to the system and serving the rich by using the poor, and it has to stay like this, you need rich people to make the poor work more dreaming that they will get one day rich, and you need poor to have a working horse eager to spend money on useless stuff in their way of dreaming to be rich.

How we survived until tech era?

Sometime I wonder how the heck did human civilization survived for thousands of years until the discovery of ABS, iPhone, iPad and Facebook.

If you look at any product review that is a bit outdated is obsolete, is a crap is the latest junk you can possibly buy or have. How did our parents survived without them?

I search now for a bike, tried on ebay but see here why I can't find things on ebay that worth the buck. Got over a Decathlon bike and trying to find out what people think about it I stumbled upon this question ... "how the heck we survived until now?" ... really, we have a problem "has no disk brakes" - no shit is half price of the cheapest merida bike that also has no disk brakes.
Do we need disk brakes? Really!?!? No shit! Think about Tour de France before carbon frames, aluminium frames and disk brakes, how the hell they even manage to ride 2 km? Maybe back then things were more harder to achieve but the satisfaction was maybe at least ten times bigger.

Why the satisfaction was bigger? Think about Mount Everest, really, now is full of old dudes full of money who can afford to pay the guys who carry their luxury (and yes, they are human too, not animals but are used like animals), latest outdoor equipment that cost more than a penthouse in London and other things to help them get on the roof of the world. But when was the first time someone on the top? 1953, that's right, 1953! They were not the first to attempt but was the first confirmed success.
Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953 - Image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hillary_and_tenzing.jpg
This was way before goretex and other tex and the other tex. Those were balls!

Let's return to the bikes, my grandfather had a bike with only one brake, no cables, just pure metal levers and the brake was not even V-Brake, was applied straight on the tire, and he made the country tour. Take one of today's so called sportsman to do this. 
Motorcycles, disk brake is a standard, you have an older model with rear drum-brake? Then you should sell it! I had one with drum brakes front and rear, according to the vast majority was a piece of junk but according to history was one of the models used on Paris Dakar race. Again, pun one of the current teams to ride a bike like that, no way.
Guitars, I had a guitar from 70's, junk compared to the current ones but those guys could make music with that "crap".
Other examples are: 
library - for idiots, you got wiki; 
books - what!?!? you got e-readers; 
cars - without assisted steering and traction, ABS and other sensors half of the population will die in an accident; 
nature - that's right, how many of you can pitch a tent (old school one) and start a fire just with two matches!?!?
having fun without the world of electronics - actually get a life and stop to see how is your neighbor;
play - analog, not digital, I see less children playing outside, on streets, in forest, they have a playstation;
spending quality time with your significant other - most young couples are very busy with their smartphones even when they are together.

The list can go endlessly and everyone knows that if is older than two years is a crap. Sorry dudes, I still live in my world where is fun to achieve something with a steel bike with v-brakes (btw I can do downhill too with a crap bike, not for competition but for fun!), read books on the porcelain pony, go out and jump in the mud, repair my motorcycle because is too old for the guys from service and they have no idea how to service it without a computer, spend days with my lady while the smartphone remains untouched, get in the forest and make my own gasoline free camp fire, make my own bone rings and other "crap stuff".
The question remains ... how the heck did we survive until iPhone?


How to buy cheap from ebay - and actually pay more

You would say that this is not possible, everyone knows that you can't get cheaper stuff anywhere else, and the best prices are on ebay.
Actually not!!! Who invented ebay had a good understanding of human behavior so it was used to keep people coming and living their dream to find cheap things and the sellers are returning because they earn more than expected. Today you go on ebay for cheap and end with overpriced old stuff. Don't trust me? Here are some of my experiences with ebay auctions.

Case studies:

Photo cameras - cheap point & shoot included.

Unfortunately I have lost a cheap point and shoot camera rented from my university, kind of old. I didn't need something better and I took the 100 Euro "soap" camera. I manage to forget the camera in tram, and no good people came after me so it was not at the lost and found.
The camera was old enough not to be found in shops, or Amazon not even as used so I proposed to buy the newer model that was around 135 Euro in store, brand new. From the rental service they said is too much paper work so I better go on ebay and buy the same model, they even showed me some auctions that were at that moment around 20 Euro. Said and done, went home, opened an ebay account, found 6 offers and waited for the end of auction so I can bid.
The starting price was around 10 - 20 Euro for each of the six cameras. I had a feeling that will go up but I wasn't expected what was to come. After all was a 4 years old cheap point and shoot camera, who wants to pay more than for a new one?!?!? Are you all nuts?
First camera was sold a little more than 200 Euro, I stopped at 100 because a better camera and new was 135 in shop, from the same manufacturer.
Second camera again 200, third one was around 180 and for the fourth one I was the lucky winner with no more or less than 150. WTF!?!?! How can you say you get cheap when you buy used and more expensive than a new and better one? In my case I was forced somehow but I really don't think that all the other bidders were forced to find a replacement camera in one week .... the same make and model.
Out of curiosity I checked the remaining two, were sold a bit higher than mine. I concluded that I was lucky because my auction ended around 4AM in the middle of the week so I had a small competition .... but still ...
WHICH PERSON IN THE RIGHT MIND WILL BUY USED MORE EXPENSIVE THAN NEW???? And still looks like are a lot of idiots on this planet, including me! If I would ask on the street how much will they pay for it ... would have been less than 50 Euros.

Bikes

As a poor student I made a "mistake" when moving to another country to study, I gave away for free my old bike, Was the fair thing, this is how I see it, I don't need it, is old, someone can use it and be happy.
Here I needed a bike like hot water. So I looked in the shops, no way to get closer to one of those, so I was "smart" enough to buy a cheap supermarket bike. BIG mistake! But still quarter price. After 2 years started to fall apart, couldn't find parts so now it goes into the trash.
Still student, still poor, I am searching for a used bike that can stand a trail in the forest, mainly a MTB. Now the new bikes are "no touchy", the cheapest one starting at 400. Shops don't get busy selling used ones because looks like they sell well and they sell bikes over one thousand so why bother with "garbage and peanuts".
At least in Europe is this French sports supermarket that offers good price - quality products, and they have their own brand of bikes called B'TWIN with a price range from 120 Eur to 4000 Eur. The basic model is 120 no suspension. A hardtail is 150 with a decent front suspension from SR Suntour XCT with 80mm travel, not so bad, lifetime warranty for the frame, again not bad at all. I don't see Cube or Merida offering this for an entry level. But being "fried" with another 250 Eur bike I don't want to spend again too much and I can't afford this luxury.
You need cheap? Go on ebay ... right! Now I look and wonder if the people on this planet have brain or not. I see some "good to go into the trash bin" bikes sold with 80 - 100 Euros, even a junk like mine is now in auction and is around 70. Old bikes with old suspension at the price of a new Merida or Cube, and no, were not some carbon frame or something special just good old MTBs from 2000. Are you all crazy or I am the only crazy person on this earth?  Dude, keep that money and add some extra in the next few months and buy a brand new one!!!
Bikes that in a flea market don't value more than 10 Euros are sold on ebay with 100 .... where is the cheap price in this? And don't get me wrong ... the starting price is 1 Euro.
Then you can see another kind of bidders which I wonder if they are real or not but the price is 1 Euro and instead of bidding 1.5 or 2, he or she or it or whatever it is, throws a bid of 50, then comes another one and puts 80. Are you willing to buy cheap or not? I am not sure, but then the crowd follows and you see a bike with a shelf price of 1400 (but 6 years ago) selling with 1200 .... and I repeat my question ... are you all idiots? Even the producer will sell it for peanuts since is a 6 years old model and used for 6 years as bonus. You could easily buy a new one at this price with disc brakes and all new technology or if you have already 1200 than means money are no problem for you and in two months of putting aside you could buy a brand new UFO compared with the old rusty you just bought.
Conclusion? Ebay is not for buying cheap and good used products. The only thing that you can get cheap is the garbage that otherwise you will get for free, this means that even garbage is expensive on ebay.

Camera lenses

Another hobby of mine and another "don't have" thousands of Euros to buy new lenses, which are overpriced anyways if you ask me. Because of all those DSLR hipsters the prices went crazy also on the second hand market. Used Canon lenses are very close with a new one, at least that's what I have seen on ebay. Why should I buy a used one just with few Euros less? Where is the thing that makes it worth ... ah ... right ... not spending those extra 20 bucks. But extra 20 bucks means new, means a warranty, means no scratch and all the things that come with a new product.
I have also a very old film camera so I said maybe old lenses can do and with a small adapter they fit on my DSLR but this comes with the hassle of all manual settings plus learning how the lens works on the body since all is manual and even the light metering is not reliable. But what doesn't do a poor student for a hard workaround to have two extra lenses. But then again are coming all those DSLR hipsters who are full of money and just want to be retro and you find a crap lens from the 60's at 70 Euros and you can go over 300. And really they are scratched, old, mainly 28, 35, 50, 52, 54 and 135mm lenses, they have some chromatic aberration on DSLR and other things, so they are not bought by professionals and yet they are sometimes very expensive.
The same lenses I found on ebay at more than 50 Euros I purchased at a photo flea market with 5 Euros each but even there it is a rising price from event to event because ... well ... on ebay are more expensive. One colleague of mine saw some old lenses at a photo dealer they were for free or to be thrown away, and then you see the same lenses selling at over 50 bucks. Where is the offer and which is the real price? Because in a store you will not buy a 40 years old 50mm f2 lens with 50+ bucks when you have the new Canon 50mm f1.8 at 98 Euros, with working focus, light metering and all things you need.

Did someone really purchased something cheap and good on ebay? I have the feeling that this auction thing is taking out the competitive trait and you want it and you will have it even if is more expensive than new but you won that fight! Way to go!
All products have a fair price but when comes over that fair ... how can you buy it? It is really a must have or it is a contest you need to win?