One year in, second attempt
yeah I promised this one a while ago.
I started bringing out the cart
on july 5th, 2003
-- which puts me now in the middle
of 16th month on the streets.
it appears i've bitten off more than I can
reasonably chew. best at this point to admit
my mistake, spit the (somewhat sodden) mass out,
cut it into smaller pieces, and go at it like
a civilized being. or, failing that, try to
tear some piece off the still-galloping meal
-- something I can bring back to the blog-cave
and spend some real time with.
so here's my plan: list the basic re-evaluations
the cart-process has forced on me,
explain briefly,
expand in later posts where necessary
i'm afraid the writing here is not going to be
very stylish
this is very much a work in progress
1) transportation
----moving stuff around by hand and foot
is very difficult.
the wheel-- a help, but pushing
the cart any great
distance is still hard
infrastructure (like, say, flat and
well-maintained sidewalks) is key
my original plan was to take the cart
shopping. I figured I could push the whole
thing around and pick up what I needed en route.
Well, that fantasy came to kind of a harsh
end. Moving around the cooking equipment and fuel
as well as the ingredients is not practical.
if that wasn't going to work, i was going to need
some kind of additional vehicle to take the food
around. over the year I honed my technology: a
folding handtruck, a plastic box called a "lug"
(used in catering), and a cooler.
transportation is still a big part of the job
--most restaurants get deliveries
made in huge trucks
My operation still isn't big enough
to make this practical.
i wish a car could be practical and affordable.
(or some other form of motorization
--- ha ha not likely in this world)
an elevator in my building would be nice
-- 5 flights of stairs is tough on the body.
[[for consideration: ground-floor space is at
a huge premium. part of this is inevitable,
but second-story infrastructure, and in
general more vertical-city infrastructure
might change the story....]]]
===================
2) presentation
the first day i went out with no signs,
(made no sales)
"people want something to interact with"
says molly (queen of shyness)
"without having to deal with a whole person"
this is more than a question of advertizing.
this is a question of presentation in general --
interacting with people
in a way they can relate to.
you have to present people with things they can
immediately understand.
no one wants to feel ignorant,
particularly in New York
================
3) regulars
predictable first question
anybody has about the cart:
"do you have regulars?"
i had regulars from the first day,
specifically, a photographer who never
bought anything,
but liked me. "I could be hanging out
over there with
them, but here I am with you" he said.
people want to feel included
===============
3) motivation
the cart is demanding, and
at a certain point,
immanent awareness of the
big picture value of the proceedings
becomes impossible,
and demands certain surrogates.
being pushed beyond your comfort zone
is not the same thing as being damaged.
(though the two are lined up
spectacularly well
in our current regime)
but they are not, practically, identical.
the need for "little treats" exists
under any foreseeable set-up
4) technology
there is a sometimes terrifying
specificity to technology
one technology produces one dish
in one amount of time
no wonder Andy pushed me to be so specific.
(((I have had numerous opportunities to
regret this or that aspect of the
design I made for the cart.))))
Constant evolution of the set-up has
been necessary
and at some point, a major
improvement is needed
most pressingly, to establish
a more effective system
of hot-holding (one that is
less succeptable to changes
in weather and season).
---------
5) schedule
is a technology of agreement.
On the personal level,
effective motivation is dependent
on predictability.
On a social level,
the ability to schedule
allows a lining up of
of motivations across people.
for obvious example:
the strength of conventional
eating hours and sleeping hours
((notice the demise of the
All-Night City, despite
its romance.))
5) evolution vs. innovation
Darwin actually didn't like the word "evolution"
used it only once in "origin"
didn't like the continuous feel it had
(word origin derives from the unrolling of
a scroll)
preferred "inheritance with modification"
an unwieldy phrase but you get the point...
In entering into the cart venture, I
assumed that mostly things would just "evolve"
and hone like skills...
that was my heretofore job experience
no such luck. when dealing with
technologies, innovation stands in stark
contrast to evolution. the results
are so specific, or responsive in such a specific
range, that waiting for "lucky accidents"
takes too long...
sure post-leap there is a fair amount of
honing necessary, taking off the rough edges
of the fresh-cut cogs, but the leap has
to be intentional 9 out of 10 times
Posted by Sam at October 19, 2004 11:43 AM
