Google Docs to Get Things Done

In the next 3 weeks, I will be moving out of my cozy dormitory and into a house. Also, in the next three weeks, myself and 7 friends are going to Italy (for a week of Linguine!) Since both of these activities are happening at once with many different people involved, I have been having a hard time keeping things straight.

Just recently, my use of Google Docs (and Google Calendar) has reached critical mass - I have transitioned all of my personal notes to Google Docs, along with my other todo lists and information. I never thought it would happen, but I am using Google Docs everyday. I have finally been able to update notes fast enough for them to become living documents. Living documents is a phrase that I have used to describe documents (mostly software documentation) but have never actually seen them come alive.



I think that it is important to have a Getting Things Done (GTD) Strategy, and Google Docs serves as the end of the day resource to catalogue and organize the organizeable parts of my life. After I log a days worth of notes (why yes, I do use one), I decompress them at the end of the night. I can expand and organize project ideas that strike me during the day. Throughout the course of the day, I pick up alot of book recommedations (like Daivd Allen's book on GTD) and blog post ideas, so I can remember them when it is time to read/blog.

A great advantage of my nightly decompression is that it puts me back in front of past ideas. This allows me to keep other ideas current and cull out older, nonsensical ideas.

Much to the dismay of Nate, Paul and Matt, Google Docs are collaborative documents - so just call me Shawn Fanning because I'm sharing the love. I shared two spreadsheets about our Italy trip (adding to our growing library on Google Docs) and two more spreadsheets about the house we are all about to move into. Two of the sheets were shared within 10 minutes of each other.

This may seem excessive, but it gets the job done. One particular use of the shared documents will surely work out well - Sharing group expenses on a Google Spreadsheet is fast and easy - a perfect fit for any group that will have to settle up their finances at the end of their trip. I got this idea from a group of friends that were Spring breaking in Texas. They utilized a shared expense sheet to distribute gas, hotels, beer and other expenses across 8 people.



I am slowly becoming a fan of Google Docs, but I can't wait to see how Microsoft Office performs online. I'll post more about GTD, but until then, check out Lifehacker - you won't be disappointed.

Variable Pricing on Airlines

Recently, Paul convinced Brett, Nate, Matt, Erik, Kyle, Carrie, and myself to travel to Italy for a beginning of the summer vacation. The trip is shaping out to be a blast and I'll post more about the specifics of the trip in the future.

Our main motivation for this trip was not the sights or sounds of Italy, but the price of the plane ticket. We booked our round-trip flights from Chicago to Italy for $388 dollars a price. We might be flying over on the Wright brothers plane, but this was quite the accomplishment, considering that you cannot get to Phoenix for less than $300 dollars. Or can you?

Everyone has a story where they stuck it to the man, beat the system and booked air travel for a ridiculously low price. There is of course a logical explanation to these low rate flights - variable pricing. This is evident in airline pricing strategy (different classes of tickets). Some people can afford to pay $1000, some $800, $500, down to $100. This is done to meet the demand of the market while still trying to maximize revenue.



Maximizing revenue is a difficult subject, because once the fixed costs of keeping the plane in the air are covered, the marginal cost of adding another passenger to the plane is around $30 (meal, baggage, ticket handling, etc.) If the airlines' marginal cost to add another person to the plane is $30 dollars, why are there empty seats? An airline lowering its rates at the last minute to ensure that the plane is filled would make the most revenue off of that flight.

Airlines cannot conduct a last minute, everything must go fire sale for all of its flights. This practice would increase revenues for individual flights, but would hurt the brand image of the airlines in the long run. People would refuse to book their flights, hoping that they will book at the right time to get the cheap seats. Lack of early bookings would cause a reduction of flights because airlines cannot meet the fixed costs of keeping planes in the air. This would cause customer dissatisfaction, and eventually the airline would go under. Then the economy would collapse and we would revert back to primal tribes of nomads (maybe not that far, but who knows?)

Airlines can decrease rates slightly to get the final 2% of seats filled, but there are still empty seats.

Air travel is an interesting business because it is so broken. There are a multitude of problems with air travel - business and technical - that still have yet to be solved. This slide show was pretty interesting (but its from 2003).