Hey BG--I have been using lala.com on my "media" laptop (docking station with line out and tv hookup) for a couple of months and really like it. I am voting with you on the airTunes streaming. That's a great idea. It seems it could be a fairly straight forward plugin for FF. DrS

I understand us wanting to vent our frustrations, but when the poor performance of the network is commonly known (see, e.g., late show host Jimmy Fallon sawing away on the joke about iPhones being just like the iPod touch, but with a phone on the AT&T network--making them just like the iPod touch), why is someone from AT&T soliciting feedback? When the performance of your product is a national joke, you no longer need individual customer feedback. Anyone for starting a feedback list on Ford Pinto gas tank design?

Imagine instead that NOT fixing the network is the most rational decision in the context of the complexities of running and selling access to the phone network. As far as AT&T is concerned today, the iPhone is working. My family pays $180/month for phone service to AT&T only because of the iPhone. I am still paying it; I will still be paying it next month. Let's be frank: most of bought the phone, not the network. I think the iPhone is working. When there are ample real alternatives to the iPhone, the network may start working too.

A friend of mine likes to use the metaphor of the teeter-totter to explain how some people bring more to a relationship than others. If you have a heavyweight on one end and a lightweight on the other, the best you can hope for is that the heavyweight scoots way up to balance the lightweight. If both parties don’t bright it, the heavier party has to compensate or their will be no balance, no teeter-totter-ing.

Some level of self awareness is required to bring appropriate weight to the teeter-totter game. If the best either party can do is “it’s just business” then that can provide only a meager game with both parties very close to the center of the board. To get a good swinging game going, you need balance with both parties way out on the ends.

I suppose there is nothing wrong with a tiny game of teeter-totter—it’s just not very fun. And who has time for it?

Nice post.

We sometimes forget to do our homework before starting the conversation.

It is easy to know when you think something is wrong and to want to jump right in to try to fix it. But essential to getting the conversation started in a constructive direction is taking the time to understand the intersection of your view and your co-worker's. A great tool for starting out is a list of the events/facts you have in common as well as the values you believe you share. Test and affirm these early in the conversation.

A foundation of common ground under the habits of respect you list above would change a lot of petty arguments into engines for leveraging diversity to solve problems. Nice post, keep it up.