Beta used to mean that a program was still in testing and wasn't really ready for use, unless you were prepared to have your computer randomly crash or all your data be deleted for no reason.
Google has nearly rendered the term meaningless. Over and over Google has come out with "beta" products, and kept them in "beta" stage for a very long time after they have millions of users.
I've been using Google Spreadsheets, and it's a neat spreadsheet, and is sharable, which is nice, but doesn't have all the bells and whistles. Google does that a lot. They do one thing and they do it well
before they move on to anything else. They do it so well, their "beta" version is as good as everyone else's "1.0" version.
Google.com search is rediculously simple. No bells, no whistles until recently with Google's customizable homepage. Then Gmail, years later. Now they're able to come out with more, but there is no awful, unfriendly, or unsuable Google program out there. They do it well before they move on.
I think this is a great principle for business. I work in a doctor's office, with a holistic doctor - he wants to do everything. But what if we started off doing one thing well, like... urgent office visits, then moved on to .... physicals, then moved to horemone balancing.. etc. Getting things down, making it perfect (or close), then moving on.
When I think about business and ministry ventures, I think we can very easily stretch ourselves too thin. After 5 years we might be able to do the same things, but maybe we should start with something small, make that "our thing," like Google had the search engine, then add to it from there.
Hey Jon. Great thoughts on the simplicity. I want this to be true in my life and our ministry together.
Fast Company ran a feature article on Google a couple months back detailing what you spoke of in this post!
Yeah, I've been thinking about how this applies to my small group and the 180 website.