As I was walking the other day I passed by two gentlemen that were having a conversation.  All I caught of their conversation was one of the men saying:  “Anyone can train a monkey to push a button.”  That’s it, that’s all I heard, no context, no response from the other gentleman, just that little tidbit.  As I continued walking, leaving the two to whatever it was they were discussing, I kept thinking about what the guy had said:  “Anyone can train a monkey to push a button.” It’s an expression that’s been heard before, nothing ground breaking or revolutionary, but I kept thinking about it.

Sure, anyone probably could train a monkey to push a button, but is it really that simple, that easy?  There has to be more to it.

First of all, if pushing the button serves a purpose, such as the monkey performing a specific job that requires the button to be pushed, it’s pushing is related to a cause/effect situation.  Let’s say that the purpose of the button being pushed is to open a particular vent to air out a specific area, but this is not just a random purpose because there are definite times when the button needs to be pushed.  So for us to get the monkey to know when to push the button, we need to train the monkey to respond to a particular stimuli that it recognizes as indicating that the button NEEDS to be pushed (i.e. “When the green light comes on, push the button.”); I’m sure a monkey could handle that kind of training (any animal behavioural scientists out there please correct me if I am wrong).

Would that be all there is to it though? I don’t think so. What if our monkey gets distracted easily? What if he chooses to not push the button? It is here where I feel the importance of consequence or reward comes in; the monkey needs to be trained either through reprisal for not pushing the green button when the green light comes on, or reward for pushing the green button only when the green light comes on. Either way, the monkey needs to recognize the importance of fulfilling the task to its specifics, anything else is not acceptable.

And that is that, I never really went much farther in my thought process regarding this matter. Nothing groundbreaking, nothing revolutionary, but I do think there is more to training a monkey to push a button than there seems to be.

Just thinking out loud again.

I had the pleasure of putting together a guest post for a great person on a great website. As this was my first foray into the world of guest posting I had put a lot of pressure on myself to come up with a top-notch topic that people would enjoy reading (and hopefully wanting to read more by me and come to my website or blog). But in the end I realized that the simplest approach was to stop complicating the issue, relax, focus and let whatever happen happen.

And so, my long and complicated original idea for a post was replaced by a moment of clarity which bore fruit to Color Scheming For Designers. The post is a discussion of the importance of colour in web design, as well as a list of my favourite colour resource websites.

I welcome everyone to head on over to http://styl.eti.me and read not only my post but all the other great ones that are there as well.

I just wanted to wish everyone out there all the best over the holidays as well as a very prosperous and joy filled 2009.

Take care,
Jonesy

They say “if you fail to plan, plan to fail” but by that statement’s own logic if I plan to fail then I am not failing to plan.

Just thinking out loud. =)