March 4, 2008

Back when I was Program Director of the radio station I insisted on having a whiteboard in my office. I think it was a hold-over from my days at the computer company, where the hallways were lined with whiteboards so that the übergeeky engineers could have a discussion in the hallway or jot down notes if an inspiration hit them on the way back from the bathroom. It was common to walk through the halls and see groups of incredibly smart engineers in the midst of designing a new processor chip or jotting down code for the latest enhancements to an operating system. I find it kind of neat.

The whiteboard at the radio station was used for many purposes. I kept track of new releases and the songs we were considering for the next week’s “adds”, I jotted down upcoming remote appearances and when I was interviewing potential air talent from competing radio stations, I’d write down a bunch of “promotional ideas” that were so far-fetched it was sure to throw the competitors off our scent.

I decided to re-embrace my need for whiteboard visualisation today and got up early, headed to Staples and got myself a whiteboard. I know this sounds odd to most (most of what I do sounds odd to most), but I have an easier time working out math and physics problems when it’s up on a whiteboard in front of me in glorious scented dry-erasable technicolor. Keeping track of due dates and working out the forces on a beam are much easier when I can see it larger than life.