5.29.06: A Picture is Worth a 1000 Words

Here is a photo from a NY Times article on a Northern California company that specializes in games and content for mobile phones. The CEO and founder of the company, Trip Hawkins (is that a movie name or what?), stands center. Looks like he spends time at the gym — and at personal grooming.

The guys slouched around him — overweight, balding slobs — are the guys who, I presume, do the grunt work in the company. If ever there was an image of animal social hierarchy this is it.

Leaving the social implications of the image aside, Mr. Hawkins is quoted in the article as saying “Content is just a means to an end, so there’s something to talk about”.

I presume this means that the stuff they are selling to have on your phone, for example, will function as a means of social interchange, interaction and conversation. Yes, certainly a software & site called The Hook Up sounds like it is a means to an end and that includes some sort of interchange — of fluids, I suspect. And one can imagine water cooler conversations about the latest episode of Lost, soon to be available to view on your phone. So yes, sometimes it’s very clear that content facilitates linking with others. Ummm. Do people really talk about their Super Mario scores with each other?

Does that mean everything we create — every book, painting, song — is simply (or complexly) an excuse for a chat up, some networking, or for establishing and sorting out a social hierarchy?

Hmmm. That’s a helluva lot of work to get laid, but it’s not that farfetched, I guess. I’m reading Miller’s (mentioned above) book “The Mating Mind” now and he proposes something similar — that much of our evolved brainpower and creativity is a refined part of the mating dance — though my nutshell version here might be kinda oversimplifying things…as might Mr. Hawkins.