Should I Keep My Blockbuster Subscription?

I've decided to write down the thought process behind an example of questioning assumptions. I may do more, but since this is the first time, I figured I'd start with an easy one for the first. I have an account with Blockbuster Video for the mailed service, similar to NetFlix, where I pay a flat monthly rate and have up to three movies out for as long as I want.

Lately, as long as I want has been something along the line of "ages." I asked for "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" over a month ago and it's been sitting there ever since. I'd decided I wanted to have watched all the top 25 movies from IMDB's Top 250, so I have "Rear Window" and "Vertigo" sitting there now, too, both for almost two weeks.

I believe I pay $14.95/month for the service. If I rented movies only when I wanted to really watch one that night, that'd be about three per month, so the rate that I'm watching them seems to be about the same at best. I don't have to go to the store to get them, but that's only a small inconvenience as there's a Blockbuster store directly across from the Dunkin' Donuts where Olympia sometimes likes to get a donut and coffee. Picking a movie while she gets her stuff is no big deal. I've also noticed that there's a new Blockbuster that's opened up a little closer to my house, so even going to that one isn't necessary.

Getting the movies by mail has a down side in that the movies that have arrived may not be the ones I want to watch when they are there. Like right now, if I were to pick a movie to watch tonight and I didn't want it to be something I'll end up watching alone ("Fear and Loathing") or a Hitchcock thriller (the other two) then I'd probably just not bother or end up renting something at the store anyway. I know I've returned movies unwatched because of this.

I just remembered that the mail-order subscription does include two in-store rentals monthly to attack just that last problem. However, I think I've used that only twice in the last year or so I've had this service. It's kind of an extra barrier to a rental to remember to print out coupons before heading to the store. I could fix that by putting it on my calendar to print them on the 1st of each month and keeping the coupons in the car, but I'm generally loath to add additional recurring tasks to my calendar.

The biggest factor I can think of at the moment is that last year I bought quite a few TV show seasons on DVDs. Those are a great deal, I think, because they often work out to about $2/episode or so and if I don't want to keep the season after I've watched it, I could always sell it on eBay and get some or even most of my money back, especially since I picked up many of them with discounts. I have 3 seasons of "X-Files", two of "24", one of "Alias", and several others I still haven't watched. I could probably just stick to those (and maybe a few new ones I don't have yet) for months without ever renting anything.

Finally, I wonder if I don't spend too much time watching stuff like movies and TV DVDs anyway. There are many other things I could do with my time that I'm not doing and sometimes I'm not totally comfortable spending so much of my time in this way.

So, after laying all this out, it seems like a mail-order Blockbuster subscription is not the right idea for me at this time. I will cancel the account today. That's the first result of my questioning assumptions, and I feel confident in the decision. I'm glad I picked a relatively easy one, because now I'm much more excited about the next.

Some Childhood Pictures

I just scanned these old pictures of myself, so why not share them?


Baby Aaron


Baby Aaron


Child Aaron

Questioning Assumptions

A big part of my role at Columbia Books, especially during these early days (it's so hard to believe I only started 11 weeks ago!) has been to question assumptions. These have been big things, like whether or not we should continue elements of our existing product line or whether we really need to be located in DC, and little things, like whether we have the right phone service or need to have a stamp machine. It's exciting stuff and whether I look at the assumptions and decide that a particular one is good and leave things at the status quo or decide it's bad and initiate a change, the result produces confidence that we're doing the right thing.

An example: We have a Pitney Bowes stamp machine, but around the time I started, it had broken down. It was brought to my attention as something that we needed to fix, but by questioning the assumption as to whether we needed such a machine and the associated costs, I decided to let it sit for awhile. After a month of the machine sitting there broken and with not one complaint, it seemed likely we didn't really need it. We had a big mailing that we did for renewals on one of our products around then and prepared it with stamps and the help of my daughter, Katerina, and Debra's daughter, Natalie. We only do three or four of those a year. I've cancelled the contract and we're returning the machine, saving the company a small but significant amount of money.

This questioning of assumptions and the accompanying review of a given status quo is something I've always done regularly in my work. The decisions I make today will be questioned again, by me or whoever might be delegated responsibility for the subject matter, at appropriate intervals, whether months or years.

In my personal life, though, I'm not sure I've done enough of this. Obviously, I must have done some questioning, since I've moved from small business to big business and back again, as one of the larger examples. But when I think about other assumptions I have, I realize there are many that have gone unquestioned. For example:

• Do I care about whether I own or rent?
• What time should I go to sleep?
• When should I get up?
• Do I have the right hobbies, too many hobbies, too few?
• Should I really have a television or an Xbox?
• Is my car worth the payments?
• Should I plan my future more? How about less?

Those are just a few I've thought of off the top of my head, but I think the entire list is very, very long. As I write this, I'm considering doing a 30-day trial of questioning one personal assumption each day. It seems like a lot, but if it produces a bunch of worthwhile changes or even just confidence in the way I conduct my life, it would be worth it.

Visiting Other Countries

I visited a bunch of other countries today. It was remarkably easy. My office is in a building on Connecticut Avenue in northwest Washington, DC. The area is sometimes called "Embassy Row" because so many embassies are within a short distance of one another.

I went to lunch with Buck about ten blocks away, so we walked by a bunch of them. As we were doing so, I recalled that embassies are considered foreign soil, part of the countries they represent, so as we passed each I made a point of stepping onto the first step or driveway or whatever of a bunch of them, then quickly stepping back into the United States. That's right, sneaking back and forth across the border with no more documentation than my driver's license and not even showing that.

I visited Bulgaria, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, and Estonia. I would have visited more, but I didn't think of it until we were on our way back from lunch. Too bad I didn't even get stupid T-shirts.

When Do We Get to the News?

Over at Timberlake's, where I was having my lunch, there are televisions tuned to CNN. Just as I was leaving, a headline that went something like, "High Gas Prices Cause Reductions in Usage."

This is news? Does CNN think this is the first time that the basic market forces of supply and demand have acted? Rising prices are supposed to lower demand to meet supply, by definition. I thought of a few other things CNN could report on in similar dog-bites-man manner:

• Sun Rises in East
• Katrina Photos Show Counter-clockwise Spin
• Howard Dean Declares Bush Bad for America
• Thrown Ball Follows Near Perfect Parabolic Arc As It Drops

I'm sure there are readers that could add more, and that's why there's a Post a Comment link.

On Cell Phones

I found myself wondering today, "How many minutes do people use on cell phones discussing possible reasons for their last call being dropped?"

Can you hear me now?

So Much for Clever

They seemed so clever. OK, the cleverness was only noticed because my stuff broke and that detracts from the clever part, but still, clever came through.

My Xbox 360 is apparently one of the "rare" ones that was in some way defective. I'm betting it has a bad cooling fan. Whatever it is, it stopped working and after following the suggested steps on the Microsoft support site, it became clear it was going to require repair. I called them, they confirmed it, and a box arrived in the mail so I could send it in.

The clever part is that inside the box was an insert designed just so to hold the Xbox, a UPS label that even has the correct weight pre-printed, and a piece of tape for sealing the box. This isn't the first time I've seen this kind of clever, but it's always kind of cool to me to see such things thought out in advance.

Unfortunately, it was blown by the instructions. I don't have them in front of me, but in essence they went like this:

1. Open the box
2. Remove the insert
3. Put your Xbox 360 in the enclosed bag
4. Put the Xbox 360 in the insert
5. Close the insert
6. Put the insert back in the box
7. Seal the box with the enclosed tape
8. Put the label on the outside of the box
9. Call UPS for pickup

Then, there were a bunch of pictures to illustrate the steps. Then, it all went to hell.

Below the pictures, it read something like, "To expedite processing your repair, please fill out the form below and enclose it with your Xbox 360." Then, there was a form with stuff like name, address, and serial number. Of course, I'd been following the directions from top to bottom and you'll notice that at step 7 above I'd sealed the stupid box already with the tape. I thought about slipping the form in folded, since there was room to do so that wasn't sealed, but the form wants the serial number that's on the back of the unit, inside a bag, inside an insert, inside a box sealed with tape.

They should have put a step 10 that read, "Notice the form below you should return, cut the tape, take everything back out, fill in the form, put it in the box, and do steps 1 through 7 again. You'll need to go find your own tape, because the tape provided should be ruined by now because you've either cut it or torn it back off the box. You should be grateful that where you put the label doesn't require that you somehow put that back on, too. Do this whole step before UPS arrives, since you've already called them."

So much for thinking it through and being clever.

FairTax, Continued

This evening, I received an update from the FairTax folks, addressing the exact point I mentioned on this blog and emailed to them just six days ago. A quick search of their website via Google shows not one incidence of the word "immigration." Here's the first bit of their update:

Hello FairTax supporters,

Given the current debate on immigration laws, we have been asked repeatedly how the FairTax relates to this issue. The answer is that the FairTax will for the first time tax undocumented workers who now evade U.S. taxes. That is just one more reason to support the FairTax. Under the FairTax all residents contribute to the tax base, whether they are living in the U.S. legally or illegally.

It certainly appears that someone over at FairTax.org actually read my message and was moved by it, although some attribution would have been nice.

Buck mentioned to me all of an hour ago that he woke up to a talk radio show the other morning where the subject was illegal immigration and a caller had mentioned FairTax in passing, but didn't make the connection. Instead, he went on about the economics of building a 700 mile wall. Buck and I agreed that's just a silly point to debate. Neither amnesty nor unenforceable rules are going to fix the problem. The incentives for coming here illegally are just too high.

The wider media doesn't read my blog, but I bet they get the FairTax updates. It'll be interesting to watch and see if something big gets rolling from this.

TV Interview

Today I was interviewed by Channel 1's Russian TV on the subject of print-on-demand. They came to the office, asked me a couple questions in the conference room, then filmed stuff like bookshelves and people working. My understanding is that it will be in a segment on POD tomorrow broadcast in Moscow. They've told me I'll get an emailed or DVD copy of the spot.

I guess there will be a Russian voice-over of what I say, but I'm not sure.

Thinking Hourly

One of the things I find the most frustrating in a work environment is when people are paid a salary, yet think hourly. "Thinking hourly" results in work schedules that have all kinds of contortions in them, like short lunches, early arrival, early departure, time out of the office, and the largely ineffective "work from home."

I personally prefer people take normal lunch hours, for example, and take at least some of their lunches with coworkers, especially coworkers that don't do the exact same job. That's the kind of thing that can spark new ideas, new enthusiasm, awareness of a bigger picture, and so on. People thinking hourly often shorten their lunch hour to a lunch half-hour or even less, then eat at their desk, all in an effort to thereafter leave early.

Of course, not everyone cares about their job enough to want to minimize their actual hours. Plenty of people only go to work to get the check and get out. I happen to not be one of those - I love my job and it's an important part of my life. I respect the point of view of those where it's not that way.

The real kicker, though, is when bonus time comes and the hourly thinker is surprised or angry that he doesn't get one. Hourly thinking also results in a clear exchange of labor for money. A person very careful to only give the exact amount of arranged labor should only receive the exact amount of arranged pay. Bonuses should be in recognition of something more from the employee.

I wonder how many people approach their jobs with hourly thinking and how many don't.